Too Stupid for Words category archive
Breaking! 0
Penn State University discovers that drinking is a problem at college fraternities!
In other news, Penn State announces that preliminary studies indicate that the sky may be blue and that it is applying for a research grant to determine the color of grass.
Attention Theftacit Disorder 0
One of my local convenience stores features, GSTV, a vile and loathsome creation that yabbers commercials at you while you fill your gas tank. (Why they think that making persons angry is a productive sales technique mystifies me.)
At the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Glenn Harlan Reynolds offers his take on the soundwall of advertising that is consuming our attention. An excerpt:
Columbia law professor Tim Wu thinks your attention is being stolen. And he’s not happy about it.
He’s not talking about TV commercials, which pay for the show that you’re watching. He’s talking about ads that seize your attention while giving you nothing in return. He has a special dislike of gas station TV, in which saccharine fake newscasts appear on the pump while you fill your car, tethered by a short length of hose. But that’s not all, Wu writes: “In that genre are things like the new, targeted advertising screens found in hospital waiting rooms (broadcasting things like The Newborn Channel for expecting parents); the airlines that play full-volume advertising from a screen right in front of your face; the advertising screens in office elevators; or that universally unloved invention known as ‘Taxi TV.’ These are just few examples in what is a growing category. Combined, they threaten to make us live life in a screen-lined cocoon.”
Aside:
I was recently subjected to one of those target medical “channels” when I picked up a friend from a doctor’s office. Ugh.
I chose to wait outside and look at my own screen–and at the trees, the flowers, the sky, and the near-misses on the adjacent street.
Down to the Sea in Slips 0
In a related piece, Josh Marshall tries to figure out what happened to the fleet. A snippet (much more detail at the link):
But then the White House and particularly the President said things that were much more direct and clearly, at best, misleading. What is key is that this does not seem to have been some intentional misdirection or ambiguity. . . . It seems much more like the White House and the President got sloppy, didn’t know exactly what was happening and through sloppiness and bravado created an impression that simply wasn’t true.
The Trump White House, sloppy? Oh, my.
A Piece of the Rock 0
In a curious sidelight to Brexit, there seems to be a bit of kerfuffle over Gibralter. From The Local:
British rhetoric quickly heated up after the EU’s Brexit negotiating guidelines released on Friday included a section saying Spain must have a say on any future trade deal involving Gibraltar.
In related news, the British paper, The Sun, which makes our National Inquirer look like Smithsonian Magazine, decided to do a bit of saber-rattling.
Phoning It In 0
You can’t make this stuff up.
But a judge who heard the case at Court Number 1 in Almeria, came down firmly on the side of the mother declaring that “evidently” she was “well within her rights” and took “the correct action” as a responsible parent.
Twits Who Can’t Stop 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Stanton Peel posits the existence of “addictive experiences.” I personally have qualms about using the term “addiction” for anything other physical addiction, as to tobacco, narcotics, and the like–substances for which cessation of use produces physical withdrawal symptoms. Much of my skepticism is based on claims of “sexual addiction,” which too often seem to be rationalizations for bad behavior.
Without putting my skepticism aside, I offer here his list of criteria for “addictive experiences.”
1. The activity/experience alleviates negative emotions for the individual, particularly those supporting his identity and self-image.
2. The addictive activity operates in a rapid, predictable way so that the gratification is instant.
3. The consequences of the action are negative, thus exacerbating the person’s negative feelings.
4. The person responds again in the only “safe” (meaning reliable) way he knows how to perform.
5. The addicted individual thus fails to develop alternative, more effective coping mechanisms to produce the emotional reassurance he seeks and requires.
At this final point, when the individual is wholly dependent on a behavior or involvement for his emotional stability, he can be called addicted.
I’ll give you one guess as to whose what type of behavior inspired the post. Follow the link to see whether you got it right.
How Stuff Works, Trumpling Reality Dept. 0
Pandora recognizes the formula:
Lying in a reality show leads to drama, and drama increases ratings. Real World, any of the Real Housewives series, The Apprentice, The Bachelor, etc. all have a standard formula. It goes like this:
- Put a group of people together
- Let the different personalities mingle
- Conflict will arise between two people
- The others will choose sides
- Lies will be spread – lies that benefit/hurt each side
- Drama = fights
- Two episodes later everyone is getting along
- Rinse and repeat
More reality at the link.
“If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium” 2
Sportswriter extraordinaire Bog Molinaro comments:
Seeing Strategy That Isn’t There 0
Will Bunch applies Trump’s razor to this weekend’s Trumpstorm alleging that President Obama tapped the Trump phones.