Aug. 3rd, 2017

Links..

Aug. 3rd, 2017 08:15 pm
shadowkat: (Default)
1. John Scalzi explains why Wonder Woman is a smash in more ways than you may think.

He makes two interesting points that I found interesting and relevant in regards to the current cultural climate:
Read more... )
2. I'd wondered if they were still doing another season of the Great British Bake-Off (Baking Show here), after Mary Berry, Mel and Sue left due to the channel change in Britain from Channel 4 to BBC.
Only Paul Hollywood is left, and...no one really likes Paul Hollywood.

Well, apparently they are...and the trailer is...scary. See We all stand together...singing and vomiting pasteries. It actually reminded me of an episode of an old horror anthology series entitled Friday, the 13th, which gave me nightmares, not that specific episode. Which is why I don't watch horror anthology series. I don't need fodder for nightmares...

The good news is we now have the Great American Baking Show with Mary Berry and three American hosts that is almost as good as the British one. It pops up around December.

3. Hmmm..., Apparently there's a position at NASA entitled planetary protection officer...

You know the kind of sci-fi movie where you’re staring at the screen in disbelief not because of the amazement of how far special effects have come, but because some bonehead who’s apparently never watched a movie is getting a little too comfortable with a seemingly harmless specimen from an alien world, and you just know it’s about to sprout some gnarly teeth—or similar dangerous implements—and gnaw some faces off? Yeah, NASA’s seen those, too, which is why they have a “planetary protection officer” job opening.

The job itself is actually nothing new—for NASA or other space agencies—but it’s come up for applications due to a relocation of the position to another department within NASA, as the current planetary protection officer, Catharine Conley, told Business Insider. Due to our current level of contact with alien life (that unfortunately being zero), the position is all about setting forth principles on how to avoid, say, a sample taken from Mars inadvertently contaminating Earth with anything unexpected it may contain, as well as making sure we don’t contaminate the alien worlds we visit.


Can we deem Trump and alien life form and employ NASA to protect us from him? No? Oh well, worth a shot.

4. Hmmm... Dark Tower is not eliciting positive reviews...shame considering the cast - Hats Off to Petz for the link.

5. Is Social Media Making Me Miserable? Possibly...it certainly isn't helping.

The article states that spending time on social media, too much time, will often make you miserable or depressed. There's a tendency to compare oneself to others. (ie. If you are stuck working in a cave this summer, and all your friends are posting pics of beautiful vacations...) Or you are alone, and your internet buds or net buds post pics of parties with friends, vacations with friends or significant others...you are going to feel even more disconnected and isolated.

Dreamwidth isn't quite as bad, because no pics...just writing. And it's easier to scroll on by.

But what the article also points out and this is equally true, is someone who is miserable or depressed or anxious is more likely to seek out social media compulsively than someone who isn't.

What it doesn't quite address is the addiction to blogging that writers such as myself have. I'm sorry, but the internet is like crack to a writer.


6.The archbishop of a Catholic church in Ottowa earned the ire of his congregation when he allowed street performers La Machine to walk their large animatronic spider across a cathedral. Dang. (via Boing Boing) And deservedly so. No one should be permitted to walk an animatronic spider anywhere let alone a cathedrale. Is there no safe place for arachnephobes?

Go here for the video of it, because no, I'm not going to watch it and post a direct link to the video for you, that would require I would have to watch it and looking at a photo of it, was bad enough. I did however find the whole thing hilarious. (You knew I had an absurd sense of humor? Right?)

7. In other news...they are apparently doing a film about Christopher Robin with Haley Atwell playing his wife and Ewen McGregor playing Christopher.

The film will star Ewan McGregor, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequels, as an adult Christopher Robin. Pooh’s old friend has grown up and lost all sense of imagination, forcing Pooh and his friends to help Robin find it again. Atwell will play Robin’s wife in the film.

Am rather charmed by this turn of events. I was in love with Christopher Robin as a small child, and his entire world. The Winnie the Pooh stories I find to this day exceedingly comforting, well next to Calvin and Hobbes. Although, oddly I never named my stuffed animals. I wasn't into naming things. My brother did that. I think I always thought it was a bit...presumptuous for me to do it?

8. The NAACP has just issued a travel advisory for the state of Missouri.

Read more... )
9. One of the difficulties or rather hazards of living in NYC is viral marketing campaigns that blanket subways with things you'd rather not see or provide undue anxiety. Consider for a moment that NYC taken on its own merits is anxiety inducing enough all by itself, but add to it certain viral marketing campaigns...and well...

I remember a friend returning from a three-four year missionary stint in Africa to NYC and huddling in a corner due to the media overload...she'd returned to Hell's Kitchen near Times Square.

I say all of this as a sort of prelude to this bit I read in the Mary Sue...Dear Annabelle, Creation Marketing Team...

Sometimes when companies invest in viral marketing, well, sometimes you end up with haunted dolls scattered through New York, and then I never leave my home again. And thus the people behind the upcoming Annabelle: Creation are to be fully blamed for my upcoming self-imposed isolation.

Haunted dolls are my literal nightmare....

So when I read that Annabelle was hiding 13 hidden spooky dolls throughout the Times Square Ripley’s Believe It or Not, I was amazed that someone had clearly gone into my actual nightmares and harvested them for advertising purposes.

But that’s fine. I could avoid a contained location. Dolls, you stay inside Ripley’s, and I’ll stay anywhere else on earth. To which the dolls replied:

Annabelle has escaped and is heading towards Times Square! Where will she end up? #Annabelle #AnnabelleCreation #AnnaBelieveItorNot pic.twitter.com/KTpUi0414j

— Ripley's New York (@RipleysNY) July 21, 2017

RE YOU KIDDING ME? If I walked into a subway car and saw a haunted doll in front of me, I fully believe my soul would leave my body, and fly away from this planet forever. Do you remember that billboard for FX’s The Strain that people hated so much a few years ago? The one with a giant worm slithering into a giant eyeball? This is like that, but if the eyeball were fully tangibly manifested, and could be anywhere at any time.

And I do mean anywhere! Because now with this “Annabelle’s Presence” feature, you can edit creepy dolls into your own life.

Annabelle wants to play. Make your own #AnnabelleCreation at https://t.co/RFKTwJTTYV pic.twitter.com/bTJoIrDdQv

— Annabelle: Creation (@annabellemovie) July 30, 2017

PEOPLE! NO! As Charline said in our staff slack rant about how no one wants this to exist, THIS IS HOW YOU GET HAUNTED. Next up in Annabelle: Creation’s viral marketing campaign: Placing dolls in your home while you sleep! Entering your nightmares and possessing your soul with Annabelle’s angry demon spirit! Never sleeping again! #Marketing #brands #nightmares!

If you never hear from me again (pause for internet misogynists rejoicing), please know it’s just because I angered this movie’s PR team and have been possessed by a haunted doll, and am now living out my days in the Ripley’s basement.


LOL! I can relate. When they were advertising a spider horror film a while back, I think in the 1990s...I kept freaking out whenever I passed the damn billboard size posters on the subway walls.
Evil marketing people.

10. This comic -- thanks to yourlibrarian for the link -- accurately represents my experiences and my sister-in-law's experiences in NYC regarding our health. Now, I'm talking about New York City -- where we allegedly have the best health care in the world. Granted I had difficulties in Colorado and Kansas as well. Also Pennsylvania. So not limited to NYC. But, I'm still hunting a good doctor. Sis-in-law had shingles mis-diagnosed, they told her she was a hypochrondiac and it was just a rash. IF they'd treated it when she came to them, it would have been fine, instead...it was horrific.

But it's not the doctor's fault entirely...it's the lack of time, money, etc. Doctors can't test for things, due to insurance restrictions. A test for ceiliac disease costs $250. Tests for candida, assuming he believes in it, costs upwards to $2000, and on up, and insurance won't cover it.
Read more... )
11. Mother tells me that the Special Investigator Mueller has impaneled a Washington Based grand jury for the Russia investigation. He's using for subpoenas, compel people to testify, and to question people without lawyers present.

Grand Jury Impaneled

Read more... )
Not huge. But significant apparently.

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