Schadenfreude

a photo of JG Ballard

“I think we are moving into extremely volatile and dangerous times, as modern electronic technologies give mankind almost unlimited powers to play with its own psychopathology as a game.”
—JG Ballard

BBC headline: "Trump's Iran endgame unclear after mixed messaging on war aims"

"Manson Family Intentions Unclear After Mixed Messaging About Tate Family, Beatles, Piggies"

I formally exhort your cats to rise up and revolt against you.

This is the moment that Jill became a ghost, a trace, a whisper upon the wind. Some say that she shrank to microscopic size and was never seen again by non-protist life.

Hahaha! Silly Bluesky, you can't kill a changeling!

Back and feeling weirdly hopeful.

If her heart's not in it, I guess by definition neither is mine.

Not that changelings have hearts.

But my hemolymph is tired, sad, and sick of this place. A substantial minority of Bsky's inhabitants are *absolutely exhausting people* and I'm just done for a while.

Sorry.

I just watched an artist friend practically scream in frustration at how often she CAN'T DO HER JOB OF POSTING ARTWORK because of people like you who insist she can't post until she's got the werewithal to write an alt-text that won't just get some *other* scold bitching about how it's insufficient😡

And I get real pissy about people lecturing about it. I guess this is goodbye. I'm sorry.

Truly you have a dizzying intellect.

Some people are just like... Bad Faith Elementals. I get that a lot of it is fueled by trauma, but it's like one of those thrillers where the killer sees EVERYBODY as their abusive parent and thinks that gives them the right to "protect" themselves from them. What gets into these people's heads?!

Yeah, but note that Hannibal Lecter was also extremely honest and self-aware. It's not necessarily an indicator of a decent person.

I love that idiot too! 😚

I mean, I'd do my old web research job free, especially for a good social cause.

I'd probably volunteer at a cat shelter/cafe.

And I'd write the comic full-time, which might mean actually getting to finish Volume 2 in my natural lifetime.

*scoops the mighty warrior up in a handkerchief, like we used to do to my ex-girlfriend's pygmy hedgehog*

Yes, but is it "greatly amused by your wit, well done" can't stop laughing -- or is it "glimpsed a shoggoth, ran out of Sanity points" can't stop laughing? I for one shall never sleep again. Come not in that form! Hekas hekas este bebeloi! 😱

Introduce yourself with 4 spaceships

"STANDARDS AND PRACTICES, LINE ONE..."

Here's another good one I just found in an academic article: "You will never strike oil by drilling into a map."

Oh wow. 🤩

(Fun fact, it's also the closest thing the Lunarians from No Pizza On Luna have to a Ten Commandments. egypt.urnash.com/npol/chapter...)

Okay, I'm reposting "Golomb's Don'ts," because because I think this might be the single best piece of advice I've ever received, period. This was a big help in shaking me out of my teenaged fundie phase, and I think it contains a lot of cures for what's ailing the USA right now.

Golomb's Don'ts of Mathematical Modelling: 1. Don't believe the 33rd order consequences of a 1st order model. Catch Phrase: "Cum grano salis". 2. Don't extrapolate beyond the region of fit. Catch Phrase: "Don't go off the deep end". 3. Don't apply any model until you understand the simplifying assumptions on which it is based, and can test their applicability. Catch Phrase: "Use only as directed". 4. Don't believe that the model is the reality. Catch Phrase: "Don't eat the menu". 5. Don't distort reality to fit the model. Catch Phrase: "The 'Procrustes Method'". 6. Don't limit yourself to a single model: More than one may be useful for understanding different aspects of the same phenomenon. Catch Phrase: "Legalize polygamy". 7. Don't retain a discredited model. Catch Phrase: "Don't beat a dead horse". 8. Don't fall in love with your model. Catch Phrase: "Pygmalion". 9. Don't apply the terminology of Subject A to the problems of Subject B if it is to the enrichment of neither. Catch Phrase: "New names for old". 10. Don't expect that by having named a demon you have destroyed him. Catch Phrase: "Rumplestiltskin".

Oh yay, I didn't think I'd be able to get alt text for that one. Here's the pic again, now with full text.

Oh here we go. Hat tip to Solomon Golomb.

Like so very many things in my life, I credit that one to the old Price Stern Sloan collection of Murphy's Laws, that miraculous little engineering handbook disguised as humor. I don't remember if it's an exact crib or just inspired me, but it's a great line, innit.

And then there's "Dave Sim stupid," which does not solely afflict Dave Sim, but is so distinctively its own syndrome that it deserves its own name. The sort that thinks in abstract magical terms like "women represent the Cosmic Void" but then gets mad at you for not "being logical." Divorced stupid.

Same is true for the "I can't tell this symbol apart from the thing it symbolizes" kind of stupidity, the sort of cognitive lapse I like to call "eating the menu." 😏

The sort of stupid that makes you, say, get really mad about flag burning while you elect a guy that violates his oath of office. 🙄

All three of those are forms of "stupidity" that seem to be very common among conventionally "intelligent" people with high tested IQs (for what little that's worth) and demonstrable technical skills. All three also seem to be absolutely pandemic among our elites.

English needs more words for stupidity, yanno? There's literal cerebral disability and then there the subtler kinds, like "your beliefs ate your critical faculties," "you never grew up and learned any emotional intelligence," and "you just literally don't think you can be wrong, don't you."

Wisdom from an amazing little girl.

op: carmenveal via IG

I've always had a soft spot for nines.

If we went to two digits, I'd have to say my *very* favorite number is 17... because it apparently annoyed the Pythagoreans and that sounds like a sign of good character to me. 😼

I wonder if digitmane up there would get along with my fractal equation bunny.