First Looks category archive

I seem to be experiencing some issues behind the scenes.

Several posts show in my dashboard as having been posted, but don’t appear on the front page. The odd thing is that the posts show up when I visit the site in a text browser, such as w3m, and there is nothing the posts’ syntax that is out of the ordinary.

I’ll deal with it tomorrow.

Not that, in the great scheme of things, they would be any great loss to humanity . . . .

At SFgate, Olivia Harden reports on a technique for making the less fiendly:

How to avoid Boeing planes

Along the same lines, Atrios links to a report on how they got so fiendly.

I don’t know where that is, but, as Gene Collier reports, it ain’t here. A snippet:

If you were too depressed to read the World Happiness Report, America came in 23rd, our first ever non-Top 20 showing, and there’s no recourse until 2025. Unlike with college hockey and presidential politics, there’s no new poll every time you turn around.

So that’s it; unhappily enough, we’re 23rd, 10 slots beneath Kuwait and nowhere near the perfectly chilled utopia that is Finland, which finished No. 1 for the seventh consecutive year. Generally, it again appears from the Top 10 that if you want to be happy, your chances spike dramatically in a smallish country that’s very cold.

Seth discusses why big money donors seem reluctant to donate to a man known for not paying his debts.

Cliff Schecter highlights Jamie Raskin’s comments on the House Repulbicans’ farcical impeachment hearings about Joe Biden.

Via C&L.

______________

*On second thought, that’s probably an insult to kangaroos.

We have all seen the speed with which lies, hatred, and nastiness go “viral” on the disinformation superhighway. Nigel Barber, writing at Psychology Today Blogs, looks at the dynamics of mob psychology in this age of “social” media. He starts by citing Gustave LeBon’s exploration of mob psychology, published in 1895. Here’s a tiny bit of his article.

Le Bon characterized the mental state of members of a mob as unanimous, emotional, and intellectually weak. He might have been describing the herd mentality of people on online platforms who are deeply emotional and lacking in skepticism or discipline as they amplify the opinions of others by “liking” or retweeting. The anonymity of the crowd can be enhanced by wearing masks, carrying emblems or flags, or donning an informal uniform such as the leather jackets worn by motorcycle gangs. Under a mask of anonymity, mob members experience a diminished sense of responsibility and accountability.

(snip)

These features are also apparent in social media groups. Yet online mobs have some organizational features that differentiate them from old-fashioned street mobs. To begin with, online mobs can be much larger because they stretch across national boundaries bringing the same themes to geographically dispersed actions. So, the same far-right anti-immigrant memes of territorial invasion and replacement of native-born residents are cropping up in street protests around the world.

I commend the entire article to your attention.

Walking through History,

Tony Robinson hikes through historical locations in Britain, narrating their history with the assistance of historians and archivists.

I’m watching it at Tubi.

Off to drink liberally.

If you are in the area, feel free to join us.

Does this remind you of the trump, trump, trump of anyone in the news?

Hamish Macbeth. The series starts off kind of slow, but quickly gains speed. The Lochdubh Assassin, season 3, episode 3, is an absolute hoot.

I saw it on Tubitv.com.

At Psychology Today Blogs, Stanley Coren looks at the recent kerfuffle over President Biden’s dog, Commander, and reminds us that

However, there seems to be a popular expectation that the dogs that occupy the White House, especially the family dogs of the president, should be civilized, decorous, calm, and well-behaved as befits the status held by their presidential owners. However, there is a long history of delinquent tendencies in the dogs kept by First Families in the U.S.

Follow the link to learn more about the history of delinquent doggies in the presidential domicile.

Yet another random act of politeness . . .

New Castle (Pa.–ed.) police are seeking the identity of a man whose gun accidentally discharged in the lobby of the U.S. Post Office on Cascade Street on Monday afternoon.

New Castle police Chief David Cumo reported an unknown man entered the post office lobby around 4 p.m. and had a gun in his pocket that fired by accident.

The bullet hit the floor and shrapnel fragments hit a woman in the leg, he said.

. . . and yet another reminder that “accident” and “negligence” are not synonyms.

PoliticalProf sums it up.

The Victorian Home.

This show examines dangers that persons invited into their homes without realizing that they were dangers.

It really is quite disconcerting.

I’m watching it on Tubi.

A finish with a blemish:

. . . after two days of rain, Max posted photos of tiny orangish marks on the Cybertruck, adding that the marks had survived a wash with dish soap.

Another forum member, listed as Will, wrote that he noticed corrosion forming across a few days of Los Angeles rain in February. His photo showed dozens of orange and black dots on his Cybertruck’s steel exterior. He later wrote that an application of the cleanser brand Bar Keepers Friend removed the spots easily.

Aside:

I will second the endorsement of Bar Keeper’s Friend. It’s the best brass and copper polish I’ve found.

The Story of G. I. Joe. We caught it on TCM.

The film follows Ernie Pyle, beloved World War II correspondent, as he accompanies an infantry detachment through the battle of Monte Cassino.

The focus of the film is not Pyle.

It’s the soldiers and what day-to-day life was like for them on the front lines. Per the trivia at imdb.com, Dwight Eisenhower considered it the best war movie he ever saw.

As I watched it, I could not help thinking of my father, who was in the Ardennes in WWII.

And I could not help thinking of those among us today who would undo what those soldiers accomplished.

Off to drink liberally.

The Heiress.

Olivia de Havilland’s performance was outstanding. Her character was real.

We saw it on TCM.

Just when you think they can’t get more fiendly, they go right ahead and prove you wrong.