JohnShirley2023

JohnShirley2023, 11 months ago to random

[these WaPo headlines spawn two thoughts in me]

"Police agencies are desperate to hire. But they say few want the job."

"...departments...are getting fewer qualified applicants than in past years — leading some to make the risky move of lowering the bar for hiring to fill their ranks."

..Two opportunities for reform here. 1, sign up, infiltrate PDs, go for community policing, reform from within. 2: advocate for filling these positions with unarmed community police.

JohnShirley2023, 9 months ago to jazz

1. Some kind of restrictions have been imposed on me by Mastodon, but it doesn't tell me why, just that it happened and I can appeal. And I clicked their thing and put in my appeal, including "I have no comprehension as to what is going on here". The restrictions that I grasped were, if I follow someone, every time they must approve it before I'm following and also if I go to include hashtag this or that--like #jazz--it no longer works. If I look to see if it made it there, it didn't.

JohnShirley2023, 10 months ago to Paranormal

for those who know the work of ROBERT ANTON WILSON

Chapel Perilous
The Life and Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson

by Gabriel Kennedy

Foreword by Grant Morrison

Introduction by Douglas Rushkoff

https://mitpress.mit.edu/9781913689568/chapel-perilous/

#paranormal #scifi #bookstodon #books

JohnShirley2023, 9 months ago to random

Evangelicals Are Now Rejecting JESUS as TOO LIBERAL (not a joke! Not The Onion!)

"Multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount and...'Where did you get those liberal talking points?'"

"When the pastor would say, 'I'm literally quoting Jesus Christ' ... The response would be, 'Yes, but that doesn't work anymore.' "When we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, we're in a crisis."
https://www.newsweek.com/evangelicals-rejecting-jesus-teachings-liberal-talking-points-pastor-1818706

JohnShirley2023, 1 year ago to science

Instant Future presents

AN INTERVIEW WITH CHARLES STROSS, Hugo and Locus and Prometheus Award winning author and science-fiction visionary. We grill him about the future of our world! His perspective is very distinctive indeed. Don't miss out.

Instant Future is always FREE.

https://instantfuture.org/optimism-optimized-pessimism-parsed/

@cstross #scifi #fantasy #sff #sciencefiction #science #future

JohnShirley2023, 11 months ago to random

Nearly every paranormal story starts with, "I'm actually a very skeptical person, but..." Well they're NOT skeptical persons. I am. Really. BUT...when I was a boy, my dad "had the flu" and one night I had a dream of going to my bedroom window and seeing my father being taken out in a gurney, and a voice said, "You'll never see him again." ...The next morning I got out of bed, looked out the window, saw my father being taken out in a gurney--I never saw him again. Because he died soon after.

JohnShirley2023, 9 months ago to random

If Trump is convicted (and he probably will be on at least two of the crimes he's charged with) and IF it looks like he's going to jail, I think he'll leave the country, making some speech about returning when justice is restored or something. He has his own private jet, for one thing. Would he be so blatant as to flee to Russia? His handlers would surely take him in. He might well go there as being the most secure option. And of course Vlad will want to debrief him more thoroughly this time.

JohnShirley2023, 1 year ago to random

Trailer for INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DOOM

The Cinema Cynics are not allowed to like this. (I haven't seen the movie yet, so I don't know if I'll like it. I dug several Indiana Jones movies). #film

What do you think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQfMbSe7F2g

#scifi

JohnShirley2023, 9 months ago to climate

I promised an update today on the imperative to face MASS CLIMATE MIGRATION, possibly in the billions of people, and today I explain how we might actually all get the will to action needed to prepare. And here it is:

https://instantfuture.org/flash-forward-to-coping-with-climate-migration/

#climatechange #climatecrisis #climateemergency #climate #future @jackwilliambell

JohnShirley2023, 1 year ago to random

Researching hydraulic mining for novelistic purposes, surprised to read that the Romans used it: "Water was used on a large scale by Roman engineers in the first centuries BC and AD . Using a process later known as hushing, the Romans stored a large volume of water in a reservoir immediately above the area to be mined; the water was then quickly released. The resulting wave of water removed overburden and exposed bedrock. Gold veins in the bedrock were then worked"...a destructive process...

JohnShirley2023, 9 months ago to random

I'm finding the "not allowed to be able to use hashtags" thing too aggravating. I can type them in but they don't work, because I'm being punished for something that was never explained to me--I also cannot follow people easily now....So how does this migration thing work? You can take your followers and those you follow with you?

JohnShirley2023, 11 months ago to random

[Seems racists are slagging the live-action Little Mermaid --and it's a pattern]

Fans of “The Little Mermaid” suspect that those critical of having cast a Black woman as Ariel are to blame for the suspected "review bombing"

“The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power,” “Black Panther” and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” also faced a barrage of comments, seemingly tied to racially diverse casting.

“Captain Marvel” received negative reviews after actress Brie Larson asked for more diversity

--WaPo

JohnShirley2023, 11 months ago to random

[a surprising new book about life after death by the most winningest Jeopardy contestant and the show's current co-host. He seems to be wittily canvassing the various claims and art-based imagery about the afterlife...]

100 Places to See After You Die: A Travel Guide to the Afterlife

https://bookshop.org/p/books/100-places-to-see-after-you-die-a-travel-guide-to-the-afterlife/18850747?ean=9781501131585

#bookstodon

JohnShirley2023, 10 months ago to random

Once hailed for decriminalizing drugs, Portugal is now having doubts

A newly released national survey suggests the percent of adults who have used illicit drugs increased to 12.8 percent in 2022, up from 7.8 in 2001...Overdose rates have hit 12-year highs and almost doubled in Lisbon from 2019 to 2023. Sewage samples in Lisbon show cocaine and ketamine detection is now among the highest in Europe..

-https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/07/portugal-drugs-decriminalization-heroin-crack/

JohnShirley2023, 10 months ago to random

Okay here's some crazy shit. My granddaughter, a premie, was two pounds when born. They kept her in the hospital, closely attended by my son and daughter in law, and now she's six pounds and breathing just fine, all signs good, so her parents asked if she could go home with them. No decision was made but the next day they came to find that an anti-theft device had been attached to the baby's ankle. I have never heard of this. The hospital doesn't want you to steal your own baby... So bizarre...

JohnShirley2023, 1 year ago to random

This older live album of the Blue Oyster Cult has four songs I wrote the lyrics for, The Cold Gray Light of Dawn, Demon's Kiss, Power Underneath Despair, and an apocalyptic number, the Horsemen Arrive. It's a good live album altogether. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaZ90t0Txmc

#metal #rocknroll #rock #rockhistory #BOC

JohnShirley2023, 1 year ago to random

We saw Black Panther: WAKANDA FOREVER. Apart from the director's irritating penchant for "natural light night scenes" and darkish interior scenes--really not necessary to do that--it was a very good movie. The final epic fight scenes were rather sloppily edited I thought. So with those two negatives I give it 3 and a half stars. Enjoyed it a lot despite the "can't see what's going on dammit" scenes, and admired the courage it took to make Namor and his undersea people descendants of Mayans.

JohnShirley2023, 10 months ago to random

Nursing homes accused of mistreating residents, misusing $83 million in lawsuit from New York AG

https://apnews.com/article/new-york-attorney-general-nursing-homes-lawsuit-91aba61652ff287077169c4b80bd374e

JohnShirley2023, 11 months ago to random

[also I'm really tired of multiverse stuff, though Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was excellent. Multiverse stuff made a mess of the second Dr. Strange movie--I love Dr Strange, have since he was only in comics...also time traveling solutions are irritating, they're narrative cheating]

Superhero Fatigue Is Real. The Cure? Make Better Movies Than ‘The Flash’

You can feel it in the box office, and in the collective response to the same old, same old tropes.

https://variety.com/2023/film/columns/superhero-fatigue-the-flash-1235648428/ #DCU

JohnShirley2023, 10 months ago to random

Italian Study Shows How Espressos Keep Alzheimer's Protein Clumps In Check

[and the trouble with studies like this is it may well be funded by an espresso company. Notice the Italian researchers. Studies that find that, say, green beans have magical wonder effects are likely funded by the National Greenbean Growers Group or something...but since I LIKE espresso anyway I now am more likely to buy an espresso maker]

https://www.sciencealert.com/italian-study-shows-how-espressos-keep-alzheimers-protein-clumps-in-check

JohnShirley2023, 9 months ago to random

[and this is VERY odd ]

Bad behavior at ‘Barbenheimer’ reflects a worrying trend
Drunken outbursts, public nudity and nonstop cellphone use disrupt packed theaters.

“The guy was all confused and upset that he couldn’t be naked in the theater"

“Saw ‘Oppenheimer’ last night in one of the worst behaved crowds I’ve ever been in, multiple camera flashes throughout, people in front of us scrolling TikTok half way thru the film,”

https://wapo.st/43W8sUU

JohnShirley2023, 9 months ago to random

Fentanyl overdoses kill over 100,000 Americans each year.

JohnShirley2023, 11 months ago to random

CHECK out this alternative to "just call the cops"!

Holistic Emergency Alternative Response Team (HEART)

"We meet the immediate needs of people in conflict or crisis in Cambridge, MA, focusing on those who experience economic marginalization, sexual violence, anti-Blackness, and other forms of oppression.

"We do this by providing holistic, non-punitive, healing-centered and care-focused responses by trained responders, who are community members..."

https://www.cambridge-heart.org/about

JohnShirley2023, 1 year ago to random

Watched the Disney animated film STRANGE WORLD to see why a teacher got suspended in Florida for showing it. First, gay teenagers. That's the first point of MAGA outrage. Kid is also the product of a biracial marriage. And this film syncretizes progressive tropes & ideas into one movie. Sustainability vs manifest destiny, vast quantities of acceptance of difference in people, seeing the planet as one living organism. Gorgeous to look at, really cool twist at end...see it! THEY don't want you to!

JohnShirley2023, 10 months ago to random

Roko's Basilisk

Roko's basilisk is a thought experiment which states that an otherwise benevolent artificial superintelligence (AI) in the future would be incentivized to create a virtual reality simulation to torture anyone who knew of its potential existence but did not directly contribute to its advancement or development, in order to incentivise said advancement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roko%27s_basilisk