Thursday: Hili dialogue

17 thoughts on “Thursday: Hili dialogue”

1. I’m going to Italy next week. I’m actually coming home on the 12th April, but it occurred to me that, if I had decided to spend the following weekend there, it’s possible I might have been there illegally.

2. Amazon is just testing its proprietary flight machinery for the coming Corporate Wars. When the wars come, those drones and blimps will be fitted with missiles and machine guns. They’re just getting a head start on their competition. Once the SCOTUS rules that corporations have the right to bear arms*, they’ll officially form their armies and the great Corporate Wars will begin.

   I actually thought about writing a science fiction story to this effect, but I figure someone else has already beat me to it, though I haven’t bothered to check.

   *Yes, I’m joking, I know SCOTUS never actually came close to ruling that corporations are people (if you think they did, read the actual opinion)

   1. and the great Corporate Wars will begin.
      I actually thought about writing a science fiction story to this effect, but I figure someone else has already beat me to it, though I haven’t bothered to check.

      A SF author resident in Auld Reekie has been struggling for the last couple of years to write the latest in his series of crossover Bond-Bureaucracy-Cthulhu novels, about how the Tentacled One’s minions are taking over the country. But he can’t keep up – every time he thinks of some insane political storyline, the reality overtakes him.
      Between reality and a cat who sleeps on his keyboard, he’s struggling a bit.
      Just write it – if it turns out to be history not a novel, change the Dewey code.

      1. “Between reality and a cat who sleeps on his keyboard, he’s struggling a bit.”

         Cat on the keyboard, a struggle I know all too well. Even more difficult to overcome than writer’s block.

      2. change the Dewey code.

         That’s droll.

      3. “every time he thinks of some insane political storyline, the reality overtakes him.”

         A bit like that spoof Financial Times headline of a few days ago – “April Fools Day cancelled due to current state of reality” ?

         cr

         1. Indeed. I’ve lived through quite a few presidencies and they all had periods of confusion. But none of them felt like the Twilight Zone like this one definitely does.

         2. I hadn’t heard that one, but I don’t for a second doubt it’s reality.

3. I pitied the robot in the mall. Like an abused animal. It is good that they taught him when to run for his life.

   1. “It is good that they taught him when to run for his life.”

      Teaching it that is just robot victim-blaming. They should be holding robot discrimination sessions in kindergarten to teach kids not to abuse robots. Yay, we’ve opened up a new kind of seminar for people with certain degrees to teach and start consulting firms around.

      1. There’s an Asimov-style Fourth Rule of Robotics in there somewhere, BJ. 🙂

4. I was in Prague last October (to celebrate my 10th anniversary with my beloved). We watched those guys for some time. At first we thought they were European Beavers at a distance, when they were swimming. But a closer look shows otherwise: the tails being rat-like rather than flat rudders (the beavers are bigger too).

   They’re Coypu (Myocastor coypus). A South American semiaquatic rodent brought to Europe for fur farming, and now invasive.

   Myself and the beloved, being rodent lovers (we used to keep pet rats), found them pretty endearing. Also, there were babies at the time – who were very cute.

   1. Coypu are also known as Nutria. They have also invaded California and can be found in the San Joaquin Delta. They are being hunted down as destructive invasive species, in part because their burrowing weakens flood-control levees. They also eat 25% of their body weight per day and are a threat to agriculture.

   2. I’m pleased someone identified that. I couldn’t figure it out. Beaver – no, tail’s wrong. Otter – definitely not. Not a rat – not pointy enough. Not a small capybara – not blunt enough, and it has a tail.

      Coypu. It’s kinda cute.

      cr

5. 1/ World rat Day!!!

   2/ Coypu in Vltava – invasive species… 🙁

6. Don’t forget Muddy Waters’s birthday, 1913

7. Although that Venn diagram of the Brexit options is highly informative (it really shows what is going on), I miss the ‘just repeal Article 50’ option.

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