Red_Dragon wrote: 
Did Trump resign!??

Oh right....he's not an official member of the Russian government, more like part of Putin's kitchen cabinet.

Russian government resigns after Putin sets out constitutional shake-up

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/03/us/austin-stabbing-incident/index.html

A fatal stabbing in downtown Austin. WTAF?
c.

 BillG wrote:
 

Great article. Reminds me of media analysis by Marshall McLuhan, although the article sticks with observations and only superficially gets into analyses of the observed. 

Marshall McLuhan stated that "the medium is the message", and "media are extensions of man". Thus, the message becomes secondary to the medium itself.

From his book, "Understanding Media" (excerpt, pdf-link):

In a culture like ours, long accustomed to splitting and dividing all things as a means of control, it is sometimes a bit of a shock to be reminded that, in operational and practical fact, the medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium—that is, of any extension of ourselves—result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology. Thus, with automation, for example, the new patterns of human association tend to eliminate jobs it is true. That is the negative result. Positively, automation creates roles for people, which is to say depth of involvement in their work and human association that our preceding mechanical technology had destroyed. Many people would be disposed to say that it was not the machine, but what one did with the machine, that was its meaning or message. In terms of the ways in which the machine altered our relations to one another and to ourselves, it mattered not in the least whether it turned out cornflakes or Cadillacs. The restructuring of human work and association was shaped by the technique of fragmentation that is the essence of machine technology. The essence of automation technology is the opposite. It is integral and decentralist in depth, just as the machine was fragmentary, centralist, and superficial in its patterning of human relationships.

The instance of the electric light may prove illuminating in this connection. The electric light is pure information. It is a medium without a message, as it were, unless it is used to spell out some verbal ad or name. This fact, characteristic of all media, means that the “content” of any medium is always another medium. The content of writing is speech, just as the written word is the content of print, and print is the content of the telegraph. If it is asked, “What is the content of speech?,” it is necessary to say, “It is an actual process of thought, which is in itself nonverbal.” An abstract painting represents direct manifestation of creative thought processes as they might appear in computer designs. What we are considering here, however, are the psychic and social consequences of the designs or patterns as they amplify or accelerate existing processes. For the “message” of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs.
...

He wrote this in 1964! 

 BillG wrote:
 
OK Boomer (JK).

Interesting perception of the behavioral impact, but what of the investments behind them all? Instagram, twitter…may seem like they are 'free' but we as a society are spending a tremendous amount of resources building these platforms. And then also consider the amounts spent to build online retail, and 'free' same day delivery, which remains largely unprofitable, or at best less profitable than brick & mortar. Sure there is some real value generated, but isn’t most of it ‘entertainment?’ Entertainment that diverts resources from more important issues; e.g. pollution, poverty, war…which we all tweet must be rectified?

 buddy wrote:
 

Fixed. Sorry about that. 

 BillG wrote:
 
Seems to be a bad link?

Not quite on topic, or maybe it is:

The 2010s Have Broken Our Sense Of Time

 miamizsun wrote: 
"a reference to someone in the training program, an agency spokesman said"

 Proclivities wrote: 
i thought so too, but didn't know for sure

but wouldn't it be heil byrd?

i'd have to investigate but this seems a bit out of character in this day and age

in light of the heavy connotation, this seems like a lot of risk to take (a picture that someone took and inserted the caption)

not only that but the misspelling and the entire class is in on it

doesn't seem to add up

i'd say put sherlock holmes on it

 miamizsun wrote:
 
I imagine they're referring to the long-time WV Senator, former KKK member, and later-apologist-bigot Robert Byrd.

 Red_Dragon wrote: 
what the heck is hail byrd?

West Virginia corrections employees suspended after Nazi salute photo

Greta Thunberg arrives by sail in Europe for climate talks

US court rules Kentucky man can get ‘IM GOD’ license plate

 miamizsun wrote:
 

I've often wondered whether Gary Hart could have beaten GHW Bush in '88. Hugh Jackman plays Hart in a movie coming out on the 21st, "The Front Runner." 

Just googled Donna Rice—wow, was she beautiful. Still is at 60.

 Proclivities wrote:
 
"suspended" means they don't have to give the money back right away. If ever.

 miamizsun wrote:
 
I think so far his campaign is officially "suspended", not ended.

 Proclivities wrote: 

 miamizsun wrote:
 
Gee - and his comeback was looking so promising too...