Face-to-face

b1-66er: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/debbie-harry-andy-warhol-1696761

Deadhead: Andy aNdy anDy andY

After Birth

b1-66er: "Expectant mother gives birth on American Airlines jetway; gives daughter appropriate name"

Overhead Bin?

Beverage Cart?

Special K: AirPop?

The stars all day are far away...

b1-66er: the instigator is being kicked out of his house 1/16-9 for his wife's knitting circle.  He offered to come to LV...

I said, "I'm going to be at the flyer's house in TX then.  You'd be welcome to join us (it's 3600sqft...she wouldn't even know you were there if you didn't feel like being announced)."

He said, "LOL, thanks for offering the flyer's space, but that's OK. Have fun!"

Former Flyer: Haha!! I'm going to assume he is rejecting Texas and not me! 

b1: I didn't want to pursue that line of reasoning.

I couldn't understand what "the best possible answer" was.

...and not Gilligan's Island, either

Special K: https://www.wired.com/story/google-shakes-up-its-tgif-and-ends-its-culture-of-openness

b1-66er: Yeah, i saw this.

What's your take?

K: Sad but inevitable. Growth kills intimacy. Companies and other ongoing projects usually become self-parodies.

b1: Yes.

Americans are particularly bad about not understanding the responsibilities of freedom.

K: I give G credit for preserving the big meeting for as long as it did. But then the company grew too fast, hiring standards dropped, and much has gone to shit.

b1: Yessir.

Of all the people i know, YOU live Animal Farm.

K: Momma K and I were discussing recently, which dystopia would you choose to live in? Brave New World, Rollerball, Logan's Run, Hunger Games, other? Presumably not 1984.

Jinping pong

b1-66er (some guy): 

What's your take on this shake, counselor?

I think it's super interesting. https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/19/asia/china-hong-kong-npc-mask-ban-intl-hnk/index.html

...and i wonder if spy stuff isn't downat the very root of it all.

D4rw1n (international trade lawyer): 

I agree - super interesting. My thoughts:

1. I'm 100% certain that a major reason the Chinese want a mask ban is so they can track protesters with facial recognition tech. I'm also certain that the protesters' use of masks is 50% tear gas protection (an npr reporter filed a muffled report Saturday - she was introduced by the anchor as "reporting through a gas mask" because of so much tear gas on the scene) and 50% facial recognition countermeasure

 Aside: I heard a long-form interview of one protester on This American Life where she said umbrellas are rain protection, facial recognition countermeasure, and rubber bullet defense. "we don't know why, but they just bounce off" - or words to that effect. I found that super interesting.

b1: Yeah.  

It's a surface tension thing, like skipping a rock on water. You don't wanna catch that reflection, though, because then that bastard is tumbling...

...you also don't want a partially collapsed umbrella.

D4: Right 

 Break your jaw or put out an eye 

 3. I don't think anybody knows what the hell is constitutional or not in Hong Kong. I'm pretty sure the mainland legislature will overturn the court decision because nobody in Hong Kong has any authority to say otherwise 

b1: THE big thing of that article is the constitutionality concept...

They've got a weird problem.  Because...

A) they know HK makes them look cooler on the world stage (it does).  And it also provides a cultural translator to the W.

It provides something like 10% of the GDP to the entire country.

So it seems like you gotta hang on.

But if you get a Draconian, you kill the golden egg layer.

D4: Right. But you can't let it undermine your absolute rule on the mainland

b1: And B) people on the mainland HAVE to be hearing, at least distorted, things about what's going on through rumor and friends of relatives of friends...

There's gonna be some crazy hacker underground too.

D4: Yes. Super sophisticated programmer community from what you read 

b1: I think the underlying problem is you've got a country moving in what they want to be a lock step...

But the society doesn't encourage individual thought...

So you don't have the raw politboro tools to figure out how to crack it. 

D4: I see where you're going. It's a risk to train people to be sheep when some of your biggest problems will require some seriously creative thinking 

b1: Exactly.

Because that, right here, right now, is what they need.

And the people who have that?  For goddamn sure they're not going to raise their heads.

To me this all feels like Berlin on about November 6, 1991.

D4: There's a counterargument though.  Kai-Fu Lee in AI Superpowers.

Says the West's (admittedly comforting, to me) characterization of China as conformist is off.

He thinks they are highly creative and flexible 

And thinks that is what could propel them to global economic dominance 

I don't recall the book applying this argument to constitutional politics 

But there's a compelling anecdote about the central government adjusting on the fly when a big entrepreneur demonstrated good results in a dedicated tech

economist zone he created 

Govt adopted it right away and created conditions for it to take off in like 100 additional cities 

b1: I personally know Kai Fu.  He's not right in this case.

D4: Huh - want to talk further about his book then

b1: I haven't read it.  Sounds like i should first.

He was the voice recognition guy at AAPL and i was the evangelist.  He was working on a competitive program that the company bought (i think) and then incorporated...

...we'd bounce ideas off each other.

I don't know his background.

And i don't, for a second, think that we in the W -or the U.S. specifically- have some sort of unblinkered view of an absolute truth...

...everything WE think/believe/view is colored by high capitalism.

D4: No, but I definitely am prone to wishful thinking when it comes to China - hoping they'll implode 

(Before we do)

b1: But what's the result? 

 People don't get that everything changes, always.  That we're not one block away from finishing the pyramid...

No.  

We're another step around the track.  

No lap limit.

D4: Right 

b1: Like let's look at a different problem. 

The environment.

Let's say you fix EVERYTHING.  Air.  Plastics.  Water.  Animals.  Plants.  Everything...

...Okay.  You fixed it.  Good job.  Hard.  Good good job...

Now what?

Well, I've got a brand new pair of rollerball skates...

D4rw1n: So my secretary was assigned to identify a venue for a conference we're putting on. Once word gets out that we're bringing lots of people to town, the hotels all start trying to bribe her with swag. This is what the Watergate sent. Thought you would appreciate it.

Depends on what you mean by "slip"

<Former Flyer sends pic>

b1-66er: Great.

What's it feel like out there?

FF: Fucking Antarctica 

b1:OH!  

Doesn't look like Antarctica.  Looks like sweater weather.  Or is that your margarita expressing saltrage?

FF: It's 40 degrees right now. And it was 32 last night. Ice on the stairs to the back yard.

It reminds me of being in Yosemite. Something like that.

b1: "Ice on the stairs to the backyard" might be the best short story title I've ever heard.

Time to get on the Plano

Former Flyer: Jan 31st we are traveling for a gymnastics meet

b1-66er: Where's the meet?  (Not LV i presume)

FF: I think that one is in Plano. I need to double check though.

b1: God and 16 Year Old Former Flyer.  A play in one act.  

===

Setting: a machine shop.  An Intel logo can be seen through an exterior window.  Aha! "Take on me" is blaring through a distorted FM radio with a pencil hole stuck through a speaker...

Disembodied voice: "In the future you will take your twins to acrobatic competition in Plano, Texas."

Former Flyer <with peach flavored lip gloss in a red satin blouse>: "WHAT THE FUCK?"

<FIN>

===

The prize inside

Z: The two greatest gifts from almost dying: presence and gratitude.

Give me liberty, or give me an iPhone!

The former flyer: Sorry, derailed by children's liberty. Talk soon.

b1-66er: Children's GODDAMN LIBERTY.

ff: Fucking autocorrect changed it twice. Puberty!

One of those daze

b1-66er: "The heliosphere can be thought of as a cosmic weather front – a distinct boundary where charged particles rushing outward from the sun at supersonic speed meet a cooler, interstellar wind blowing in from supernovae that exploded millions of years ago..."

"This then gives way to emotions such as disgust, regret, guilt, anger, and always shame."

"It put itself up for sale, brought Shaq on board, and unveiled a calzone that no one cared about. "

'Papa John's corporate looked deep within itself, turned to a mirror, and asked: "What is Papa John's?" The answer, of course, is garlic dipping sauce.'

Archaeologists in Peru have found domesticated avocado seeds buried with Incan mummies dating back to 750 BC. But it was the Aztecs in 500 BC who named it āhuacatl, which translates to "testicle."

"In Michoacán, where 80% of Mexico's avocados originate, cartels run a so-called "blood avocado" trade, violently enforcing a nonnegotiable extortion fee from farmers based on the size of their land and the weight of their crop."

ONE MILLION CANNIBAL ANTS TRAPPED IN SOVIET NUCLEAR BUNKER HAVE ESCAPED

Special K: Thank god they're cannibals. 

b1: Exactly.

Do my random TXTs drive you insane?

K: I'm sane. 

So, no. 

I feel a warmth from them. 

b1:Quite a string:

Heliosphere

Binge eating

Papa John's (x2)

Avocados

Nuclear cannibal ants

AND THAT'S JUST TODAY!

There IS a warmth from them.

It's essentially 

Infinity of the Internet

As opposed to

24 Hours of TV