Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

đŸŽ¶ Those boots were made for mockin’ đŸŽ”

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Second rate reporter says what?

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

You are here: Home / Popular Culture / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Snippets

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Snippets

by | 94 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

… “Doodle Champion Island Games,” which was not officially commissioned by the International Olympic Committee, features seven sports, including skateboarding, archery, the marathon, rock climbing and more. You play a calico cat athlete, or “cathlete,” in the game’s parlance. Google lets players pick a team, either red, blue, yellow or green, and submit high scores by competing in these virtual sports to raise the team’s standing on the global leader boards.

Controls for the game are limited to the space bar and arrow keys. Despite the simplicity, the “Doodle Champion Island Games” still manages to hit a diverse range of minigames, from a Dance Dance Revolution-style game where pressing arrow keys is part of the artistic swimming challenge to a rugby event where pressing space bar will toss the ball to a teammate.

Google faced technical challenges in bringing the doodle to life, which included needing the game to run on lower-end mobile phones, tablets and PCs. The game also had to remember a player’s progress (which the team achieved by saving data to local storage).

The gameplay, which has a look inspired by older, pixel art JRPGs, is interspersed with anime cutscenes that bring to mind Studio Ghibli films. Google worked with animation company Studio 4°C to develop those anime scenes and work on broader concept development…

Google engineers built tools to allow Swinehart and fellow doodler Sophie Diao to write and program side quests, such as helping deliver a letter from a ghost, while the engineers focused on getting the feel of the sports events right. Throughout the process, the engineers would express surprise at how many quests had been added to the game, said Swinehart…

The doodle will return to Google.com when the 2020 Paralympics start on Aug. 24.

Reader Interactions

94Comments

  1. 1.

    mali muso

    Good morning! Love the Biden childcare video. I think people underestimate what a shift it is to see this messaging coming not just from a father but from the President.

  3. 3.

    Nancy

    And the Muppet Princess Bride. I don’t have to see the movie if it ever were to be made, I just have to look at the pictures and giggle.

    But seriously, Biden on childcare, it’s all about the children, made me tear up.

  8. 8.

    rikyrah

     

    ?????

     

    Roy Wood Jr- Ex Jedi (@roywoodjr) tweeted at 9:11 PM on Fri, Aug 13, 2021:
    How does this company still control the market on baby blankets? All this money we pay for healthcare & they ain’t dropped a new model?

    Then the doctors turn around and tell you, “eczema is common in newborns.” I guess so, you got my boy wrapped in this rough ass Motel 6 towel. https://t.co/Tg4FLDGk9m
    (https://twitter.com/roywoodjr/status/1426365855907160070?s=03)

  9. 9.

    NotMax

    The colorful display is caused by strong solar wind hitting Earth’s magnetic shield.

    Government hiding it’s exhaust from space unicorns.

    The truth is out there.

    //

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax: Gooseberry, Pink Daisies, and Snowflake. All in my mother’s kitchen. My maternal grandmother didn’t cook, that’s what the help was for, and my paternal grandmother was dead before I was born, but not before she taught my mother how to cook.

  15. 15.

    Brachiator

    From recent news.

    The U.S. Department of Treasury says the second monthly child tax credit payment has begun to be disbursed.

    More than $15 billion will be paid out to families of about 61 million children.

    This is a wonderful exercise in trying to help families. And it is certainly happening when most needed.

    The expanded child tax credit is only for 2021. There should be a strong push to make this permanent. We should also continue the expansion of the earned income tax credit. This should be expanded to provide more help for single people and for childless married couples.

  17. 17.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    My cardiologist’s office is giving me pause. They refused to renew a prescription and told  me it was because I hadn’t been to see him in a long time. I was there on April 25. He said to come back in 6 months. I told them that and they said they’d check. Then they called and said the same thing–I hadn’t been there in a long time. I called back and they said really, I needed a blood test. I had one in March and when I saw the doc in April, he said everything was normal. I finally agreed to get a blood test because I need the prescription. Then instead of sending the prescription to the pharmacy I always use, they called it to a different one that’s actually closer to where I live and arranged for it to be mailed. That’s convenient, as it happens, but I didn’t ask for that.

    Mr DAW wants me to change doctors on the grounds that his office is disorganized, which is potentially dangerous. I don’t really want to.

  20. 20.

    Brachiator

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Mr DAW wants me to change doctors on the grounds that his office is disorganized, which is potentially dangerous. I don’t really want to.

    Problem is, your doctor doesn’t really want to get organized. This does patients a disservice, even if they are nice people.

  22. 22.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: My wife is having similar problems with her doctor’s office. She also doesn’t want to change Doc’s. She spent a lot of time building a relationship with the one she has. I understand. I recently lost my long time Nurse/Practitioner (to a stroke, she’s the same age as I) and while the new gal is nice and seems competent, she’s not Robyn.

  25. 25.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @rikyrah:

    I remember thinking similar thoughts when my kids were littles – “couldn’t you make this more comfortable?”

  26. 26.

    debbie

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Could there be two Dorothy Winsors on the practice’s patient list? I’ve been in that situation and quickly learned to add some additional bit of information. “I’m the one who
”

  27. 27.

    debbie

    @germy:

    Yes! I’ve calculated the dew point will dip under 60% by 11 a.m. and have set an alarm to turn off the AC and throw open the windows.

  28. 28.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @debbie: “Wrong file” was my first guess, but they usually confirm with my birth date. The last time I called, I asked if she was sure she had the right file and she said yes.

    I’m feeling the need to verify everything.

  29. 29.

    raven

    Anyone had experience with FLUOROURACIL 5% CREAM? My dermatologist prescribed it but the YouTube’s  about have me really thinking about doing it.

  35. 35.

    Nicole

    Our dog developed a case of diarrhea this week, and while she’s a GOOD GIRL and whined incessantly until we took her outside (as opposed to making a mess in the apartment) she needed to go outside every two hours.  It was like having a newborn again.  Switching to a bland diet didn’t fix it, so we went to the vet yesterday (just looks like a bad case of colitis; no parasites).  Oh my god, medication is such an amazing thing.  One day on the pills and probiotics so far and she slept through the night last night, and thus, so did we. I’m so happy this morning (even though I’m still dragging pretty hard from three nights of frequently interrupted sleep).

    We switched vets in late 2019 and I’m so glad we did it in time for her senior years.

  40. 40.

    Barbara

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Did they switch or upgrade systems recently? I went through something similar and switching systems can make it harder to “call up” legacy files. But it would give me pause to know that if something serious happened they apparently are unable to access a complete medical record. This is an underappreciated problem with EMR technology, much of which isn’t interoperable.

  41. 41.

    Ohio Mom

    @NotMax:

    Amish pattern turquoise and white mixing bowls set in my kitchen cupboard as I type. I think they were Ohio Dad’s grandmother’s, they came with him.

    I don’t particularly like using them, though, much prefer my metal mixing bowls. They are much lighter, which makes picking up a full bowl to empty it a lot easier.

  42. 42.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @NotMax: I don’t really notice things like dish patterns, so I’m scrolling through thinking “maybe?… maybe?…” and suddenly on Gooseberry (#6) “HOLY CRAP!”

    Had a million casseroles from those as a kid in the 60s-early 70s. We lived maybe an hour or so from the Corning Glass Works and did the tour occasionally so it’s likely my parents bought this stuff direct from the factory.

  43. 43.

    WereBear

    @Nicole: I keep a can of pumpkin (not mix, just pumpkin) in the cupboard for such pet digestive emergencies. The beauty of it is that it works with vomiting, diarrhea, or constipation equally well.

  44. 44.

    Bluegirlfromwyo

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: We got a similar letter over a biopsy done on a mole on my husband’s nose in 2019. It was benign and they’re telling us to come back for follow up now. No prescriptions hanging in the balance luckily. IMO, the offices are trying to claw back lost covid money. Or further confirmation of what OzarkHillbilly and others have said.

  48. 48.

    PST

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I used to do a lot of work for medical malpractice reinsurers, and one of my tasks was to monitor what companies that insure physicians were doing to improve patient safety and reduce risk. These insurers have long had tools like seminars, audits, and checklists to help doctors and nurses, but in the last few years there has been a new appreciation for how many malpractice claims arise because of mistakes by office staff, so the companies started working up programs to help the practices they insure reduce these errors as well.

  49. 49.

    Ohio Mom

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:
    Have there been any changes in the front office staff? At my internist, everything hangs on Michelle, the others don’t have a clue. When she retires, that office is going to be a mess.

    Maybe see if you can contact the doctor directly? How he reacts — apologetic or shoulder-shrugging — would be what I made my decision on. He may not know how much his staff is screwing up.

  51. 51.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @PST: It sure feels like a staff error to me.

    Ohio Mom: Yeah, that seems possible. I’m seeing the doc in October and plan to talk to him about it then. I at least want clarification on where my prescriptions are going.

  52. 52.

    patrick Il

    I I used to used to think that things like an adequate childcare And poor educational opportunities were we’re just a byproduct of people wanting to keep all of the money.. but now I realize that it is proactive and meant for long term  suppression and ignorance of  working people.

  53. 53.

    OzarkHillbilly

    From NASA’s New Telescope Will Show Us the Infancy of the Universe at the New Yorker:

    The question now was where to point Hubble, and for how long. Thousands of scientists wrote competing proposals, hoping to be awarded even an hour of Hubble’s time. But ten per cent of the time was to be used at the discretion of the director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, which had taken over the operation of Hubble once it was in orbit. The director of the institute was Bob Williams, a quietly decisive figure, who thought that the telescope should spend more than a hundred hours staring at a blank and unremarkable patch of sky. He decided on a dark area near the Big Dipper’s handle, a spot no larger than that occluded by a sesame seed held out at arm’s length.

    Many reasonable people believed this plan to be an absurd waste of a precious resource. “It seemed like every time NASA was on TV it was a disaster,” Williams said. “I remember watching Johnny Carson making jokes about Hubble.” Williams, who is eighty years old, is retired, though he remains active as a lecturer and a consultant. He recalled, “I said that if the inquiry failed to be scientifically useful I would resign. It had to be done.”

    Between December 18 and 28, 1995, Hubble took several hundred shots of the blank patch of sky, with exposure times of up to forty-five minutes, allowing for the very faintest traces of light to show up. The photos revealed some three thousand galaxies. And the galaxies were unusual. Coming from so many light-years away meant that they were from a much earlier moment in the history of the universe. “The galaxies were younger and stranger—more uneven,” Williams said. They gave hints as to how galaxies were formed, and how they have evolved. In 1924, Edwin Hubble had discovered that there was at least one galaxy other than our own; the Hubble telescope revealed that there were billions of them.

    Those photos, known as the Hubble Deep Field images, are among the most important and broadly recognized images in modern astronomy. “Discussions for what the next telescope would do started up,” Williams explained. A larger mirror would be able to capture more distant light. And a telescope that was cold—shielded from light and heat—and that had finer infrared capacity would see and learn more. “I also thought it was essential that the data would be available to everyone,” Williams said. “I’m very proud of having pushed for that.”

    I did not know that one individual was largely responsible for the Deep Field images.

  54. 54.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I would venture staffing changes and or short staffing. This is what I am dealing with at work. I’m calling and dealing with brand new staff that has no clue. ( in my case its insurance companies )

  55. 55.

    Drdavechemist

    @raven: I assume this is for basal cell skin cancer? I used it for a small patch on my jawline sometime in the late ‘90s (my age then was late thirties) and it cleared up for a long time but then reappeared a couple years ago and the new dermatologist referred me to a plastic surgeon for Mohs surgery.
    The concept is that the compound is taken up primarily by cells that are reproducing rapidly, i.e. cancer cells, and is less invasive (and less expensive) than surgery. If it is a small patch, it makes sense to start there and watch to see if the cancer comes back.

  56. 56.

    NeenerNeener

    @NotMax:  I have one of the Amish Butterprint bowls soaking in my kitchen sink right now; it belonged to my mother. I don’t know if any of the rest of the set still exists. There may be another one or two packed up down in the basement.

  58. 58.

    Ohio Mom

    @rikyrah:

    Yeah, Republican leadership may have gulped extra hard for a moment at the census results, then they remembered how swimmingly their voter suppression and gerrymandering efforts are going, and they immediately relaxed.

    One aspect of being Jewish is that I’ve been a minority and white at the same time my whole life. I’m used to it.

  59. 59.

    Spanky

    @raven: Wassup? I ran 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off through the spring for precancerous flaking on my scalp. Knocked that down, but a bit is coming back. No side effects. The cream is certainly not the same as the infused.

  61. 61.

    Nicole

    @WereBear:  You’re right; I love pumpkin for dogs. In this case, I put her on pumpkin, boiled chicken and rice, but it didn’t make any difference to her innards (ergo the trip to the vet).  That said, our pooch is VERY enthusiastic about a diet of pumpkin, boiled chicken and rice (even in the throes of discomfort she stood next to me in the kitchen, tail awag, waiting for the chicken to finish boiling), so she’s going to have a great week as I’ve been instructed to keep her on it until she’s done with the pills.   Not to mention, the pumpkin is a great thing to hide the pill in.

  62. 62.

    Barbara

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: ​I mean, it could be as simple as a new staff member not knowing that the default search setting is for 90 days and you need to put in a longer time frame to find older records.

  63. 63.

    WereBear

    @Nicole: I’m glad they found SOMETHING that works!

    We went through a lot with a cat rescue who had almost starved to death, and struggled with cat IBS. In the end, our vet couldn’t find anything diagnosable, and advised us to stop looking, since the extra expense wouldn’t get us anywhere.

    The two humans put together a program that worked! We got him to his early teens in good health :)

    Rebooting Reverend Jim

  66. 66.

    Bluegirlfromwyo

    @rikyrah: Should’ve learned to get along with people then. They didn’t and now they’re scared of people they deliberately mistreated and pissed off. Voter suppression puts off that inevitability but doesn’t change it. Fuck their feelings.

  67. 67.

    Kristine

    Took Gaby to the vet yesterday for her 6 month and some vaccinations. Discussed some issues that had been developing for a while—nighttime restlessness and pacing, serious anxiety with no apparent trigger. We’re likely looking at Canine Cognitive Dysfunction. We discussed some treatments for me to try.

    I’m not surprised, tbh. Gaby is 14.5, which is around 80 for a dog her size. She had a rough start in life, including serious malnutrition and dietary issues, which I’m guessing may have had an effect on her development. But I am shaken. I watch her bounce around the yard in the morning or trot ahead of me on her leash tail-up, and think no, she’s not that old. Except that she is.

  68. 68.

    Percysowner

    @debbie: ​
    I start every conversation with my Doctor, pharmacist, testing site with This is Percy’s Owner and give my birth date 01/01/1901 (nope not that old, but never give out info on the Intertubes). Half the time I give my birth date before they even ask. It saves time, they always ask no matter what.

  69. 69.

    Percysowner

    @Nicole: My last house had a fenced yard and I put in a dog door. Best choice EVER. I moved to a yard without a fence and it will be harder to put in a dog door, but once I spring for the fence, I’m getting one, if only for when my dog gets the runs.

  70. 70.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @WaterGirl: As I said when their president got assassinated, a new addendum to the Book of Job is coming, They’ll call it the Book of Haiti.

  71. 71.

    delk

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: is it Advocate Aurora? They just had a massive data breach. They sent me a letter and a year of Experian monitoring. I just saw my cardiologist Thursday.
    Maybe discuss it with your primary care physician.

  73. 73.

    Nicole

    @WereBear: That was a really interesting read; thanks for the link.

    Ripley (our dog) had a bout of digestive problems when we first adopted her, but that was likely my getting sucked in by the internet and putting her on a grain-free diet (not good for my particular dog, I learned, via her having the runs and farts that would peel paint).  This time, I think it’s just that she’s 10 or 11 (we don’t know exactly) and body parts start to get finicky.

  74. 74.

    PST

    @rikyrah:

    White people are about 57% of the US population. Roughly 60% of white people vote Republican (Trump got 58% in 2020). Even if you supercharge that to 65%, 65% of 57% is still only 37%. You can’t win a national election with that.

    Perhaps it would be better to say that you can’t win a majority of the national popular vote with that. Republicans are hard at work on ways to nevertheless “win” national elections.

  75. 75.

    Nicole

    @Percysowner: God, what I wouldn’t have given for a yard this week.  We live in NYC, in an apartment, so it wasn’t just me getting up all night it was me getting the spousal unit up too, so we could go down together at 2AM and 4AM.  I’ve never had a problem on our block, but that late at night it just can feel creepy.  Plus, we currently have a horrible rat problem (there are several restaurants nearby) and so one of us would steer the dog while the other would look out for areas with the fewest rats (the dog is a terrier, so she’s waaaay into the idea of catching a rat or seven, which is a bad idea with the city using poison to try to control them).

  76. 76.

    MagdaInBlack

    @rikyrah:  THIS is why they’re losing their minds on the right. They knew.  Hell, I knew, and I’m just a dumb working class stiff.

  81. 81.

    Ohio Mom

    @delk:

    The one time (so far, that we know of, knock on wood) Ohio Dad had his identity stolen, it was traced to a data breach at a health insurer he had last been a customer of six years prior.

    A few others in his office were similarly  affected. Everyone got letters from the corporate HR department with offers of free credit history reports, for whatever that was worth (not much to us, our theif only used the info to try to get a tax return).

  82. 82.

    dexwood

    @raven: Yes, I’ve been using it for two years. First year, twice a week on my face and scalp very successfully. The second year, at my dermatologist’s suggestion, I’ve gone to a once per week application. It’s been very effective and I’ve not had any issues with it outside of mild itchiness and redness the first year. Some of the photos I saw of daily users when I first looked into it had me a bit worried since so many looked like burn victims. When I mentioned my concerns to the doc he said my limited use would not give me those results and that he uses it weekly, too. I say give it a try.

  83. 83.

    raven

    @dexwood: Great, thanks to all. I saw those vids and they were nasty. Like all things medical the internet seems to always have the worts case.

  86. 86.

    Another Scott

    @Barbara: That’s my thought as well.  Our GP was in a single office for years, but needed/felt he needed to join a larger group’s systems when Obamacare was rolling out.  Now he’s got a “portal” on the web and other stuff.  He hates it, but is slowly adjusting.

    Changing recordkeeping systems is really hard and very disruptive and often has teething issues.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  91. 91.

    J R in WV

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: 

    Also a new cardiologist is likely to rerun a bunch of tests that I’ve already had..

    I think when you change doctors, you can get your records from the original Dr for use by the new Dr. Which should mean all those older tests won’t need to be duplicated. Maybe a test that is regularly scheduled to reoccur.

    If your original Dr isn’t willing and able to cooperate with a move — all the more reason to move quickly!

    I think my charts at our family doc is probably the size of an encyclopedia set now…. Eventually they’re so big they archive the older material, just keep the past couple of years handy and current, though they are all there if needed, since 1978 or so…

  92. 92.

    J R in WV

    @raven:

    Anyone had experience with FLUOROURACIL 5% CREAM? My dermatologist prescribed it but the YouTube’s about have me really thinking about doing it.

    My family doc prescribed a tube not long ago when I had a little bump on my bald head. Dabbed a little bit on every night for a month, then off for a month. Bump is gone now, after maybe 3 or 4 cycles, half a tube left. I didn’t look it up, external goo isn’t that scary to me.

    What did the innertubes say that made you reluctant?

  94. 94.

    J R in WV

    @J R in WV:

    Mine was prescribed 06/03/2020, half or so left when the bump was gone.

    Some kind of not very aggressive skin cancer, not basal, can’t remember what he told me it was. As I said above, maybe 3 or 4 months nightly with a month off between. No red blotches, no itch or other perceptible side effects.

    Seeing him next week for quarterly appointment, will try to remember to ask him to look at my scalp. Hope it isn’t for the annual physical, those take longer, more aggravating. So probably is.

Comments are closed.