I’m with the King family. It looks like somebody hauling a giant kielbasa sausage.

So obviously it should stay up.

I'll chime in. 

If it's a sculpture, it should make sense from any angle, not just the right one, in my ever–so humble but very firm opinion. Most sculptures I've ever seen, either in life or in pictures, demonstrate the understanding of this. This sculpture is truly beautiful from one angle and looks terrible from any other. That doesn't cut it for me. A portrait only needs to be good from one angle, but a statue or sculpture? I don't think it's too much to ask.    

The first photo I saw was from behind, and before I even saw the description. So I didn't know what I was seeing. TBH I expected you were gonna give it a thumbs–down, JJ. My first thought was that it looked like a well–formed turd being held aloft, but assumed it was just one more piece of municipally–funded bad art. I suppose I get how someone might see a massive BBC getting a double–hand job. Or a massive bent carrot. But an ass? What kind of ass? 

The second photo I saw looked to me like someone shielding their head, or someone else's head, for example from falling debris... or from billy clubs, which of course isn't too far from the mark. So maybe a monument to The Struggle.

Finally I saw it from the intended angle, and saw the photo, and then yeah, it's beautiful and a nice choice. But was it the best they could do? This man stood at the front of peaceful marches facing attack dogs, fire hoses, clubs, and constant threats to his and his family's life, just for starters. Maybe the Kings deserved a little more effort. Or maybe that money could have gone into something more substantial that actually honored his legacy, like alleviating poverty inequity and hatred. 

My final impression: nice try, but try harder next time. Much harder. Or let me just shrug and accept that any publicly–funded art project, especially any that address difficult, emotionally–charged issues, prompting us to face a past we're not proud of, and challenging the American mythology of always being the hero, and even more especially at a time of growing divisions, racism and intolerance, is going to pass through so many hands, so many PR tests, so many political agendas, etc etc, that whatever comes out the other end will most likely be a sausage, and possibly a turd. 

So,
a beautiful concept, 
passes through so many hands,
that it becomes a colossal sausage–making process,
resulting in a big, fully–digested turd coming out the other end,
albeit one that looks nice when viewed from a certain perspective. 

Seems we're ironically all on the same page with this one.  

Rampop II wrote:

I suppose I get how someone might see a massive BBC getting a double–hand job.

Deeply moved by this display of racial unity.

Rock wrote:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna69389

What a time to be alive.

This made me laugh a lot.

But then again, I laughed for about twenty minutes yesterday over a video of a panda falling into a ditch, so the bar might be low.

Keywords: feral fart knockers...









😬

Personally I'm amazed my algorithms haven't got me making bathtub meth by now. It's almost like my computer doesn't even know me.
 

The most unnerving thing I ever found with the notion of your computers listening was a few years ago I had a friend over to my place, and she was talking about some obscure philosopher I'd never heard of. Just talking. Then the next day while at work, my work computer began recommending me articles on that exact same philosopher.

So....was my computer listening to that conversation, and then cognizant enough to know I also logged onto a completely different computer, which it then sent this information to?

Like, maybe coincidence... but I still didn't like it.
 

Perhaps a new candidate for the annals of contemporary "outsider art", this is a neat little scoop of ditties from some poor soul named Justin Mohn.




Mohn has been in the news this week after he uploaded a video to Youtube where he displayed the severed head of his father in a plastic bag and launched into a tirade against immigrants and minorities, the globalist bankers and the US government (his father was a federal employee).  Apparently previous videos involved his attempts at forming a local militia to combat these culprits.

35:05 is a particular delight.
 

Wait a second, how the hell did a rocking chair get into that shark's mouth in the first place?

Jinnistan wrote:

Rampop II wrote:

Welp, I guess we got confirmation on this phenomenon, and it's not just me and my feed.

YouTube's algorithm more likely to recommend users right-wing and religious content, research finds

YouTube has a pattern of recommending right-leaning and Christian videos, even to users who haven’t previously interacted with that kind of content, according to a recent study of the platform’s suggestions to users.

In one investigation, the most frequently recommended news channel for both child and adult accounts interested in “male lifestyle guru” content was Fox News, even though neither account had watched Fox News during the persona-building stage. Instead, the accounts watched Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson and searched for the term “alpha male.”

“This suggests that YouTube associated male lifestyle videos and creators with conservative topics,” the study said.

In another experiment, researchers created two accounts interested in mommy vloggers — mothers who make video diaries about parenting — that they trained to have different political biases. One of the accounts watched Fox News, and the other watched MSNBC. Despite having watched their respective channels for equal amounts of time, the right-leaning account was later more frequently recommended Fox News than the left-leaning account was recommended MSNBC.

“These results suggest that right-leaning news content is more frequently recommended than left-leaning,” the study said. Both accounts were also recommended videos by an anti-vaccine influencer.

Videos with religious themes — primarily Christianity — were also recommended to all the accounts, even though none of them had watched religious content during the persona-building stage. The accounts interested in mommy vloggers, for example, were shown videos with Bible verses.

The researchers also found that YouTube recommended videos including sexually explicit content to the child account and videos featuring influencer Andrew Tate, who has been charged with human trafficking and rape (allegations that he has denied) in Romania, even though he is banned from the platform.

Although my browser is set to wipe my browser history, including Youtube, after every session, I use a Youtube app on my TV which I decided to use as a guinea pig for studying the algorithm and it's provided a number of interesting and alarming results, including that creepy religious ad placed right at the top of my "recommended" feed.  In addition to getting a whole lot of religious ads, I get recommends constantly for the likes of Tucker Carlson and Jordan Peterson and other alt-right videas, despite the fact that my political viewing is overwhelmingly progressive.  I would think that since I watch every new episode of Bernie Sanders' podcast, that might be a helpful clue.  Also, the ads shown before and during clips are also overwhelmingly conservative, with stuff like Prager U, Judicial Watch, Daily Wire and practically exclusive ads for Republican political candidates.  I also get weird stuff like ads for discrete pistol holsters and at least one brand of coffee tied to a white supremacists.




 

That coffee must have zest appeal.