…Intelligent design is not an argument of the same character as these controversies. It is not a scientific argument at all, but a religious one. It might be worth discussing in a class on the history of ideas, in a philosophy class on popular logical fallacies, or in a comparative religion class on origin myths from around the world. But it no more belongs in a biology class than alchemy belongs in a chemistry class, phlogiston in a physics class or the stork theory in a sex education class. In those cases, the demand for equal time for “both theories” would be ludicrous. Similarly, in a class on 20th-century European history, who would demand equal time for the theory that the Holocaust never happened?
— Richard Dawkins & Jerry Coyne, in The GuardianDear Amazon,
Once upon a time, there was an actual “things you’ve marked ‘not interested’” list that could be added to, and even edited (unless, like me, yours had more than 20,000 items on it).
Now, however, your recommendation system has no memory at all. How else can I explain being offered the exact same items that I select “I’m not interested in this item” for every damn day? No, I do not want a Funko figure of Nearly-Headless Nick, and I won’t change my mind when you ask me again tomorrow. No, I do not want to read book 6 of an isekai series about a slime. No, I don’t want a Funko figure of Inigo Montoya, because I already bought the damn thing last week!
Seriously, of the 50 items in the “New Releases” you just offered me, I’ve already rejected 42 of them, some of them half a dozen times. If the buttons don’t do anything any more, just remove them and stop pretending you’re paying attention to my preferences. And understand that you’re selling less stuff to me because you’re not showing me products I might actually want.
3D Cheesecake 6
By now some of my regulars shouldn’t need introductions, but I’ll fill in the names anyway when I get a chance.
Clickbait jailbait
Clickbait spammy ad network Taboola keeps showing this to me (the Mill Valley bit is poor geolocation), and every time I see it, I think the rule they’re referring to is: kidnapped teens must be securely handcuffed while vehicle is in motion.
I thought everyone knew that, but maybe they don’t teach it in Drivers Ed any more?
Mount Fuji at home
I’ve spent 18 years trying to figure out what sort of picture to hang above the mantel. Then I stumbled across this on Sunday, and it arrived today.
Seems kind of fitting to put a volcano on top of a fireplace.
Mash and the Senpai-Killing Clothes
I’ve never played/watched/read any Fate/whatever games/anime/manga, but Grand Order’s Mash/Mashu/Matthew Kyrielight/Kyrielite in a blue gingham dress with sweater and glasses pushes all of my buttons. The ensemble even has its own tag on Pixiv: 先輩を殺す私服 (senpai wo korosu shifuku), “clothes which kill senpai” (aka the player). A few people have tried to expand the theme to other characters, but it hasn’t taken off.
Amusingly, I typed the above at work, then went over to the break room to nuke my dinner, and three attractive asian women walked in wearing flirty little sundresses with sweaters, and they all had glasses, too.
In related news, I’ve got Pixivpy working well enough that I can extract metadata for an image based on the ID in its filename, store them in a SQLite DB along with my work-in-progress tag translations, generate HTML to post the selected images, and update my Pixiv bookmarks with whatever I just blogged. That last bit helps improve their recommendation system, another way of weeding out the chaff.
Update
Senpai-killing body pillow (NSFW, of course)
Word of the day: paisura
The tagging experience on Pixiv is… interesting. Images can only have a limited number of tags, so you’d think people would tend to consolidate, but no, there are thousands of tags, many of them slight variations that impair search results, and a lot that are just graffiti.
One useful descriptive term that turned up today was パイスラ (“paisura”), which at first glance looks like it might be related to paizuri (tit job), but in fact is an abbreviation for パイスラッシュ (“pai-slash”), and refers to the volume-enhancing effect of cross-body straps on clothed breasts. This also appears on Pixiv as π/.
Example images are left as an exercise for the reader.
(yes, someone in Tokyo owns paislash.com, and someone in Yokohama owns paisura.com)
OMC: Ikumi Hisamatsu
Trying to find work-safe pictures of Ikumi Hisamatsu anywhere is pretty much a lost cause. Wearing very little very well is her job, after all.
My Anime Things
With apologies to Rodgers and Hammerstein…
🎶 🎶 🎶 🎶
Mech pilot teams filled with busty young lasses,
Tsundere maids wearing under-rim glasses,
Alien catgirls all tied up with strings,
These are a few of my anime things.White cotton panties exposed in the sunlight,
Magical girls fighting monsters by moonlight,
Angel and demon girls spreading their wings,
These are a few of my anime things.Robot girls, wrench wenches, girls-next-door, witches,
Monster girls, pirate girls, stuck-up rich bitches,
Elves, fox girls, goddesses, co-ed hot springs,
These are a few of my anime things.When real life bites,
Rejection stings,
And I’m feeling sad,
I download a torrent of anime things,
And then I don’t feel so bad.
🎶 🎶 🎶 🎶
