First Looks category archive

Be polite to our feathered friends.

We are a failing state.

Empires of Stone, on Tubitv.com, particularly episode three about the Great Wall of China.

It reveals the secret ingredient.

Afterthought:

I’ve been having lots of fun (and learning) lately watching documentaries on Tubi and Netflix. Frankly, they beat the heck out of the more of the same “entertainment” shows.

Party politely.

While we’re on the topic, PoliticalProf shares a thought.

Just because you see it on a computer screen, it ain’t necessarily so.

(Indeed, these days, it probably ain’t so.)

Aside:

I note the phrase “content consumers” in the article at the link in this passage about halfway down the page:

Falling for a gag on the internet is a harmless occurrence while scrolling the endless feed; however, its impact implies how insidiously susceptible content consumers are to misinformation.

Methinks we should spend less time consuming content and more time digesting it.

Off to drink liberally.

And another one bites the dust . . . .

Egypt (originally Egypt Uncovered) on Tubitv.com. It’s a fascinating take on ancient Egypt.

(Tubitv is a free streaming “service” with surprisingly unannoying commercials. Unfortunately, it’s also affiliated with Fox TV, but I think I can use it without letting it use me.)

David’s caller gets it right and David gets it wrong (warning: short commercial at the end).

Permanent daylight savings time is a profoundly stupid idea that could only have been thought of by persons who don’t know how to think.

The stupid. It burns.

Aside:

One hopes that this fellow is not representative of those who voted him into office, but one fears that he is.

Josh Gohlke is somewhat taken aback at Americans’ susceptibility to the false claims of the right-wing medicine show. Here’s a bit of his article; follow the link for more evidence of stupid.

Meanwhile, the most extensive trial of the drug’s (Ivermectin–ed.) potential to treat COVID to date, recently detailed by the Wall Street Journal, found invermectin did not help rid patients of the coronavirus, resolve their symptoms, reduce hospitalization or prevent death. One expert said the study “should really help put to rest” the ivermectin craze. Good luck with that.

The disinformation-industrial complex is so devoted to this chimera that it’s accused Paxlovid, the drug that works, of being a repackaged version of the dewormer, coining the term “Pfizermectin.

The Window at the White Cat, by Mary Roberts Rinehart. It is a good mystery well written and well read.

The persons who read for Librivox.org are volunteers, and some of them do better than others. The person who recorded this is one of the best I’ve encountered.

Badtux sees into the future, when all have been assimilated by the Zuckerborg.

Afterthought:

In the olden days, when I was a young ‘un, I read a lot of science fiction; I particularly favored Asimov and Heinlein (Heinlein was rather a jerk, but he was a good writer). I drifted away from science fiction when it became dystopian realistic. I think the last contemporary science fiction book I read was Beyond the Blue Event Horizon.

I remember reading a story, written in the 1950s or 1960s, in which the writer envisioned a world like that described by Badtux, in which persons remained in their rooms glued to their television sets (it was long before personal computers were a thing, or even an idea).

But I can’t for the life of me remember who wrote it.

Isaac Bailey has had it with the Graham cracker.

Rebecca explores how repetition perpetuates truthiness.

Read the transcript.

Last night, the cable went out. No television. No inner webs.

Then the electricity went out. Then the electricity came back. Then the cable came back.

Then the cable went out again and stayed out almost all night.

(I’m guessing that it was the mild spring showers we were enduring. Also, stuff wears out.)

We were forced to amuse ourselves.

Gasp.

Via Job’s Anger.

A moment of truth.

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States says, in part,

Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech . . . .

It does not go on to say

. . . and such speech shall be immune from critique or criticism in perpetuity.

I’ve added a new site to the blogroll, over there —-> on the sidebar: Yellowdog Grannie.

It’s a hoot!