Notices by Flick ?? (flick@spinster.xyz), page 2

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/its-time-to-let-ukraine-join-nato

What more have these people got to do to show the rest of us their fighting spirit and their ability to win? Look at what they have achieved in the Kursk region, the audacity of their lunge on to Russian land, taking more than 500 square miles and 100 villages, creating a strategic dilemma for Putin that will only intensify as the autumn rains begin and the fighting season draws to a close.

Then think what more they could have done, and faster, to turn the tables on Putin, if only we had not been dilatory with our help. Then ask yourself the corollary question: how many Ukrainian lives and limbs could have been spared if we had done the right thing, or at least done it earlier. When you look at the maimed bodies of these soldiers, you are looking at a ghastly reproach to our delay.

So why are we doing it again? What’s the hold-up with Storm Shadow and the permissions to use them against Putin’s bases within Russia? Can we please all stop babbling this tired old rubbish about ‘escalation’ and the so-called fear of provoking Putin. That argument has been mounted at every stage in the past three years, and at every stage it has been disproved by events.

https://archive.ph/forE6

@Vox @p @cliffwade @amerika @Forestofenchantment @arcana @Bernard @Jdogg247 @wjmaggos @h4890 @PNS @magicalthinking @syzygy @waltercool @asa @jeffcliff @noyoushutthefuckupdad @sim @sun @thatguyoverthere @eemmaa @thendrix @LostInCalifornia @meso @teratology I was just saying the same thing the other day. I bought new trousers over the summer, and even after going down a size they are larger than pairs from the same brand that are three years old.

I have “good” coats that are twenty years old, the labels say they’re four sizes bigger than I currently wear but they fit me perfectly.

@thatguyoverthere A slur on whom, exactly?

Is “spooksexual” the latest thing? Oh, no, that wouldn’t work. “Spysexual”?

"If someone says, 'Did you get spooked?' and there are no black people there, then, OK, you mean 'Did you get scared or frightened?' That's fine, I get it."

But once you insert black people into the situation, Blake says, it's important to be more tactful. "We know that the word 'niggardly' doesn't mean a black person, but let's be sensitive. Are you going to use the word niggardly in front of a group of young students in a classroom? No."

Oh, fuck off. What tosh.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/09/10/is-it-offensive-to-call-someone-middle-aged/

According to these style guides, unearthed by the Sun, ‘middle-aged’ is basically the n-word for men greying around the temples and decked out in Superdry. ‘Language is a powerful tool. It can empower and be a force for change, but it can also offend, marginalise, trivialise, and perpetuate harmful attitudes and stereotypes’, proclaims York St John, before sternly instructing readers to say ‘Gareth is 49’ rather than ‘Gareth is middle-aged’. Apparently, OAP is out-of-order, too. ‘People of pensionable age’ is much better, says the guide. (Personally, I prefer the more elegant People of Age.)

Not to be outdone, Bristol’s guide suggests we should also ‘avoid using euphemisms or patronising language to describe older people’, including ‘silver surfer’ or ‘of a certain age’. In fact, we should forgo generational labels entirely, because ‘Generation X’, ‘Baby Boomers’, ‘Millennials’, etc, ‘can reinforce negative stereotypes’ – presumably about those snowflake Millennials, rich, racist Boomers and insufferably cynical Gen Xers.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/151998056

@ninapaley NGL, if it had a bit more land….

@sun It’s an absolutely awful story. How could he do that to his wife and daughters?

It’s really scary that so many men, such a wide variety of men were up for a casual bit of rape, as well.

I know some of the Spinsters go a bit far at times, but really: can you blame them when things like this come out?

(And this only came out because he was caught taking upskirting photos. What if the police had brushed off the woman who made that complaint?)

https://newsletter.carolinecriadoperez.com/p/invisible-women-not-all-menbut-how

The second thing we just can’t stop talking about is how many of them there were. In just this one small area of France. What does that mean about how many other men would do this if they had a chance? How many men in our lives? Men who are married. With children, and grandchildren. Who seem like devoted husbands and fathers?

This is the question we women have been asking ourselves in the wake of this story as we look at the men around us. The men we love. The men we know and trust. The men who, unlike us, are not talking about this story unless we bring it up with them.

And to these men, I have a question: why are you not talking about it? Does this story not disturb you as much as it disturbs us? Are you not as horrified as we are to be faced, yet again, with just how many men we’re talking about here? With how they live among us, so well-hidden in plain sight, behind happy suburban marriages? Why are you not talking about this to your male friends? Why are you not talking about this in public?

Are you scared about what you might find out?

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/08/tv-industrys-ads-tracking-obsession-is-turning-your-living-room-into-a-store/

Some things TVs already track would have sounded extreme before 2011, when ACR started taking off. For example, using ACR, TVs can reveal to OS providers—and therefore advertisers—the shows watched on the set and whether that content was streamed or watched via an antenna or cable. ACR can even identify DVDs watched on a TV. Per Ad Exchanger: “ACR ingests pixels on-screen to assign a value to each frame," which is like an "unknown fingerprint." The OS sends these fingerprints “to a database that logs content available on TV to find a known match and identify the content. Once ACR identifies the show, it can tie that viewing data to a specific household, such as a given household watching The Big Bang Theory at 9 pm." Advertisers can combine this information with other tactics, like advertisement identification, which assigns a unique ID to ads, to further track TV usage.

But there are plenty who don’t know the extent to which their TVs are monitoring them. Complexity in understanding and controlling TV tracking is especially relevant as more sets incorporate microphones and cameras. Terms of service are often complex, wordy agreements buried in elusive TV settings or online, and companies have ways of strong-arming TV owners into accepting such agreements. Further complicating matters, it's possible for consumers to disable tracking from the TV OS provider, such as Google, but still be tracked by the TV OEM, like TCL.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/mark-rowleys-mic-grab-sets-a-dreadful-example-to-police-officers/

Yes, he did. And it was beyond inappropriate. For the most powerful cop in the country to manhandle an instrument of journalism, to try to physically prevent a reporter from recording something, sends a terrible message. Will Sir Mark’s lower-downs now behave likewise? Will they take their cue from the big man and grab and discard the kit of any journalist who asks them a pesky question?

It felt like a mask-off moment. It seemed to reveal a haughty disregard on the part of Sir Mark, and perhaps the Met more broadly, for the right of reporters to interrogate people in power. Rowley didn’t say anything, but he didn’t need to. His lunging for the mic and his puffed-up demeanour said it all: ‘I’m not speaking to a lowlife like you.’

https://archive.ph/55U1b

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/07/23/elon-musk-has-revealed-the-pain-of-losing-a-child-to-the-trans-cult/

It’s hard to think of anything more unethical, or indeed outright wicked, than the cynical dangling of the spectre of suicide to try to cajole people into conforming to an ideological worldview; than this marshalling of a fantasy army of dead children in an effort to shame and silence one’s critics. Not content with experimenting on kids, trans activists and their allies also darkly promise piles of dead kids unless everyone in society, from government ministers to everyday mums and dads, goes along with their lunacy. So, good on Musk for speaking out. For exposing these sinister methods of trans ideologues. For discussing the grief felt by parents of ‘trans kids’. For being honest. Let’s now normalise every parent of a ‘trans kid’ having the right to express their distress, without persecution, and certainly without prosecution.

@djsumdog @jeff @marine @mitchconner @PNS To be serious for a moment, injecting excess testosterone does seem to have a very bad effect on women. Even those on low doses report reduced impulse control, violent tendencies, etc.

(Whether it is objectively more likely to cause antisocial behaviour in women than naturally occurring testosterone is in men is an interesting question. Does it affect women more, or are men better adapted / socialised / trained to deal with the side effects having gone through gradually increasing amounts during puberty, etc.)

@Economic_Hitman @shitpisscum @Styx @plague @0 @pwm @dielan I can’t decide if I’m more relieved or disappointed that I can’t see more of this thread.

@Economic_Hitman @Styx @plague @0 @pwm @shitpisscum @dielan Looks like it’s 0 I can’t see, maybe more :(

I know, it’s Germany, but WTF?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/07/protesters-durham-university-students-debate-chamber/

Ms Hausdorff told The Telegraph: “Around a dozen students were preparing the chamber for the debate then a mob formed a human chain blocking them inside.

“They were stuck inside the debate chamber for more than two and a half hours. The police took no action because the university refused to give them a mandate to take action.”

She said students were “devastated” that the debate was cancelled and that it appeared the university had taken the side of the protesters.

Ms Hausdorff said: “Students were in tears because they expected university to have their back, but they sided with the mob.

https://archive.ph/MIGrQ

@sun @sim @beliy_linolleum @wugalia Yes. Very useful!

@beliy_linolleum Did anyone say that they couldn’t? (Other than Putin / the church.)

They try to play down the significance of the populist revolt, claiming for example that the protesting farmers are peasant dupes who are being exploited by the ‘far right’. One alleged expert has even suggested that farmers should fly LGBT rainbow flags from their tractors, presumably to ward off far-right bloodsuckers, just as garlic was supposed to keep vampires at bay.