Some questions for those who are cheering Gawker's demise / Boing Boing
Monday, August 29, 2016
All at sea - The Conspiracy
I strongly recommend this recently published account in Popular Mechanics of a reporter (and her photographer) going on a cruise with a bunch of conspiracy nutters. It turns into a real problem when they become the victims of paranoia.
Most surprisingly - Andrew Wakefield (he of the discredited autism/vaccine link) was one of the speakers, and while he is only a bit player in the article, he really does not come out looking good.
Reading this reminded me of something I perhaps didn't say here before - the absolute worst aspect of the new series of X Files was its incorporation of a secret government vaccine conspiracy (not Scully's unflattering hairstyle.) Yes, even worse that its having a conspiracy broadcaster who actually was onto something, I reckon it's a disgrace to give any encouragement at all, even in fiction, to any dimwit watching (and they are out there) to the belief that vaccines are evil and to be avoided.
Most surprisingly - Andrew Wakefield (he of the discredited autism/vaccine link) was one of the speakers, and while he is only a bit player in the article, he really does not come out looking good.
Reading this reminded me of something I perhaps didn't say here before - the absolute worst aspect of the new series of X Files was its incorporation of a secret government vaccine conspiracy (not Scully's unflattering hairstyle.) Yes, even worse that its having a conspiracy broadcaster who actually was onto something, I reckon it's a disgrace to give any encouragement at all, even in fiction, to any dimwit watching (and they are out there) to the belief that vaccines are evil and to be avoided.
"What - me worry?" Ridley
The prominent lukewarmer Matt Ridley is given a run in The Australian today (reprinting an article from The Times) in which he argues that a completely melted Arctic ice cap each summer wouldn't matter much anyway. Quite benign, in fact.
The article quotes some research I haven't read about, so I'll wait for actual scientists to address that. But clearly, the article relies heavily on reasoning that goes over well with the silly and gullible: that a large climatic change like (relatively?) ice free summers in the Arctic in previous millennia were not bad for the wildlife (and humanity) then, so why would it be so bad for them now? I feel the flaws in such reasoning are so obvious, it is hardly worthwhile putting them down on paper. But someone will, I have no doubt, and I'll link to them instead when I notice it...
The article quotes some research I haven't read about, so I'll wait for actual scientists to address that. But clearly, the article relies heavily on reasoning that goes over well with the silly and gullible: that a large climatic change like (relatively?) ice free summers in the Arctic in previous millennia were not bad for the wildlife (and humanity) then, so why would it be so bad for them now? I feel the flaws in such reasoning are so obvious, it is hardly worthwhile putting them down on paper. But someone will, I have no doubt, and I'll link to them instead when I notice it...
Trump and the Catholics
I always thought that US Catholics would have trouble with Trump, and I'm pleased to see that they emphatically do:
Back in 2012, GOP nominee Mitt Romney lost the Catholic vote by just 2 points, 50 percent to 48 percent. And the GOP has actually won the Catholic vote as recently as 2004 and in 5 of the lastIt's only conservative Catholics who like to engage in the culture wars they've already, by and large, lost who would vote for him for tribal, anti-Clinton reasons alone. (See the conservative Catholics of Catallaxy, for example.) There is nothing Catholic friendly, in terms of consistency with Catholic social teaching, in Trump's threats-which-pass-for-half-baked policy.1011 presidential elections.
But Trump trails among Catholics by a huge margin. A new poll from the Public Religion Research Institute released this week shows him down 23 points, 55-32.
A Washington Post-ABC News poll released earlier this month painted an even worse picture for Trump’s Catholic support. He was down by 27 points, 61-34.
About as evil as you can get
Father identifies British boy 'killer' seen executing a captured prisoner in Syria � | Daily Mail Online
Of all the atrocities of Islamic State, I think I find myself most appalled by the ones like this - where they get boys to do executions of what the rest of the world would call prisoners of war. Absolutely shocking and appalling. The links shows photos, but of course, I would not watch the video.
Of all the atrocities of Islamic State, I think I find myself most appalled by the ones like this - where they get boys to do executions of what the rest of the world would call prisoners of war. Absolutely shocking and appalling. The links shows photos, but of course, I would not watch the video.
The Vox alt-right explainer
The alt-right is more than warmed-over white supremacy. It’s that, but way way weirder. - Vox
One thing I have wanted to say about Milo Y: I've only read a couple of things apparently written by him on Breitbart, and I thought they were, from a stylistic point of view, very poorly written. (I see it is claimed that he has minions who do much of his writing for him, and perhaps that explains it.)
I didn't watch his Andrew Bolt interviews, but why anyone would be impressed by him is beyond me...
One thing I have wanted to say about Milo Y: I've only read a couple of things apparently written by him on Breitbart, and I thought they were, from a stylistic point of view, very poorly written. (I see it is claimed that he has minions who do much of his writing for him, and perhaps that explains it.)
I didn't watch his Andrew Bolt interviews, but why anyone would be impressed by him is beyond me...
Monday disease
41 cases of locally transmitted Zika confirmed in Aljunied Crescent cluster, 34 fully recovered, Health News & Top Stories - The Straits Times
I wonder if Singaporeans themselves are surprised, given its general super clean image, that the island state has reported scores of cases of locally transmitted zika disease. It can't be great news for their tourism sector.
See the story above from the local paper, showing great clouds of insecticide being deployed. I would bet there is a lot of that going on over the next few weeks.
I wonder if Singaporeans themselves are surprised, given its general super clean image, that the island state has reported scores of cases of locally transmitted zika disease. It can't be great news for their tourism sector.
See the story above from the local paper, showing great clouds of insecticide being deployed. I would bet there is a lot of that going on over the next few weeks.
Sunday, August 28, 2016
A trilogy of diseases
Time for 3 stories of unpleasant diseases I noticed this week:
* a terribly depressing situation with tuberculosis in Papua New Guinea. Drug resistant TB there continues to spread, and a quarter of cases are in children who, if they survive (it kills one in 10, apparently) may well have life long disabilities in a country with next to no services for them.
* The Guardian reports that doctors are starting to worry about treatment resistant fungal infections. And the resistance may be coming from a surprising source:
* And for this final round of unpleasant thoughts: I guess I had heard before that people can get a gonorrhoea infection in their throat or mouth, but I'm not sure I had realised that it could be carried there, without symptom, for weeks or months, and be transmitted on via that common bedroom activity that's not intercourse. A doctor thinks, based on some early tests, that gargling with ordinary commercial mouthwash might be helpful in preventing its spread, although I don't think he thinks it will kill off entirely.
Gee, I wonder how the Listerine company might cope with that information in advertisements.
* a terribly depressing situation with tuberculosis in Papua New Guinea. Drug resistant TB there continues to spread, and a quarter of cases are in children who, if they survive (it kills one in 10, apparently) may well have life long disabilities in a country with next to no services for them.
* The Guardian reports that doctors are starting to worry about treatment resistant fungal infections. And the resistance may be coming from a surprising source:
More than a million people die of fungal infections every year, including about 7,000 in the UK, and deaths are likely to increase as resistance continues to rise.As for medicines available: there aren't many:
Researchers say the widespread use of fungicides on crops is one of the main causes of the rise in fungal resistance, which mirrors the rise of resistance to antibiotics used to treat bacterial infections in humans.
“There are more than 20 different classes of antibacterial agents. By contrast, there are only four classes of anti-fungal agents. Our armoury for dealing with deadly fungi is much smaller than the one we have for dealing with bacteria.The article also mentions the case of an apparently fungal lung infection that killed a bagpipe player.
“We cannot afford to lose the few drugs we have – particularly as very little funding is being made available for research into fungi and fungal infections.”
* And for this final round of unpleasant thoughts: I guess I had heard before that people can get a gonorrhoea infection in their throat or mouth, but I'm not sure I had realised that it could be carried there, without symptom, for weeks or months, and be transmitted on via that common bedroom activity that's not intercourse. A doctor thinks, based on some early tests, that gargling with ordinary commercial mouthwash might be helpful in preventing its spread, although I don't think he thinks it will kill off entirely.
Gee, I wonder how the Listerine company might cope with that information in advertisements.
The French and toast
My wife made French toast for a Sunday morning treat today (and she makes it very well - using a French stick cut thickly, and the bread soaked in the milk and eggs overnight.)
We eat it with maple syrup, which led to the question - do the French eat French toast, 'cos the syrup makes it seem more like an American meal.
So off to Wikipedia it is, where the French toast entry is not as detailed as I feel it deserves, but it at least tells us the recipe pre-dates France quite considerably. (Basically, it goes back to Roman days, and has been seen in many countries as a good way to make stale bread palatable.)
This entry on the history of the dish at "Today I Found Out" (a site which has a very appealing name for someone like me) is much more readable. The site says this:
We eat it with maple syrup, which led to the question - do the French eat French toast, 'cos the syrup makes it seem more like an American meal.
So off to Wikipedia it is, where the French toast entry is not as detailed as I feel it deserves, but it at least tells us the recipe pre-dates France quite considerably. (Basically, it goes back to Roman days, and has been seen in many countries as a good way to make stale bread palatable.)
This entry on the history of the dish at "Today I Found Out" (a site which has a very appealing name for someone like me) is much more readable. The site says this:
Indeed, the name for French toast in France itself is “pain perdu”, which literally means “lost bread” (it is also called this in Belgium, New Orleans, Acadiana, Newfoundland, and the Congo, among other places). It’s interesting to note, for the naysayers who like to cling to the belief that it came from France, that before the French called it pain perdu, they called it “pain a la Romaine” (Roman bread).And this:
In France itself, French toast is highly sweetened and is served as a dessert item, rather than served for breakfast, as in America and many other places.So, now we know.
The French and swimwear
I can't be bothered working out a position to take on the French attempting to enforce smaller swimwear on women, except to remind people that the country has a history of being very prescriptive about swimwear in a way that leads to foreign men, at least in public pools, also being forced to wear less than they otherwise might in their own country. And, as I noted not so long ago, up until about the 1960's, many boys and teenage guys in many parts of the US were forced by their State school system -or if they were learning at a YMCA - to take swimming lessons nude. Go back further, and England had to ban men bathing nude - at the beach - in the 1860's, and this coincided with bans on mixed bathing, as well.
Yes, I know, both of the first two examples are about alleged hygiene concerns in pools, not the ocean. But just wanted to note that the history of regulation of bathing suits has taken many peculiar turns, in many countries, one way or the other over the years...
Yes, I know, both of the first two examples are about alleged hygiene concerns in pools, not the ocean. But just wanted to note that the history of regulation of bathing suits has taken many peculiar turns, in many countries, one way or the other over the years...
Paging Dr Nick
One of the more amusing things to come out of the Trump/alt right conspiracy mongering about Hillary's health is a re-examination of the Trumpian sounding letter from Trump's doctor.
As I said in comments recently, the letter put me in mind of Dr Nick from the Simpsons (and I bet I'm not the first to think that), and as it turns out, the doctor does at least look a little unconventional. (See story at the link.) The funniest suggestion in the WAPO story is that a "positive" medical test often means something bad..was Trump's doctor trying to tell us something? It's logic worthy of the alt right itself, but pretty funny.
As I said in comments recently, the letter put me in mind of Dr Nick from the Simpsons (and I bet I'm not the first to think that), and as it turns out, the doctor does at least look a little unconventional. (See story at the link.) The funniest suggestion in the WAPO story is that a "positive" medical test often means something bad..was Trump's doctor trying to tell us something? It's logic worthy of the alt right itself, but pretty funny.
Friday, August 26, 2016
Sensitive Tim and gay marriage
Oh, so newly elected walking selfie Tim "Send in the water cannon" Wilson is now taking to re-tweeting rude tweets from lefties? To show up the intolerant Left? Seems a bit rich...
As to the whole same sex marriage plebiscite - what a mess this issue is. While I think a plebiscite is actually not a bad idea for everyone for a major social and legal change, I would expect it to be conducted conveniently (and economically) with an election day vote. But this seemed to have been beyond Turnbull's ken to get going in time for the last election. Do we blame deals with his conservative Coalition base for that? I'm not sure.
Now with the Greens going all "principled" again (they manage to delay a lot of useful things to their side of politics by doing this) it seems there won't be one for years. Actually, I wonder if it's more likely now that we won't have one at all, and gay marriage will just come in via a new Labor government. But I could be wrong.
It's one of those issues where everyone's annoying - gay activists by carrying on too much about how dire it will be for gay teens to hear rhetoric against it; conservatives for going on about how it will be a cultural disaster that will see people locked up for refusing to marry same sex couples. And Tim Wilson for criticising the Greens, when members of his own party are interested in delaying the inevitable, including undertaking not to be bound by the result anyway.
And for the record, again: I would favour civil unions over gay marriage. If the plebiscite had been held at the last election, I would have likely have voted "no", but with the expectation that the "yes" vote would win, and without any great concern that it would end Western civilisation. (Or perhaps, I would just have voted informal on this - that's probably the better line for someone like me to take, given my preferred option is not on the table.) Give it another couple of years of listening to argument about it, though, I might be persuaded to vote "yes" for gay marriage, just so I can stop hearing about it....
As to the whole same sex marriage plebiscite - what a mess this issue is. While I think a plebiscite is actually not a bad idea for everyone for a major social and legal change, I would expect it to be conducted conveniently (and economically) with an election day vote. But this seemed to have been beyond Turnbull's ken to get going in time for the last election. Do we blame deals with his conservative Coalition base for that? I'm not sure.
Now with the Greens going all "principled" again (they manage to delay a lot of useful things to their side of politics by doing this) it seems there won't be one for years. Actually, I wonder if it's more likely now that we won't have one at all, and gay marriage will just come in via a new Labor government. But I could be wrong.
It's one of those issues where everyone's annoying - gay activists by carrying on too much about how dire it will be for gay teens to hear rhetoric against it; conservatives for going on about how it will be a cultural disaster that will see people locked up for refusing to marry same sex couples. And Tim Wilson for criticising the Greens, when members of his own party are interested in delaying the inevitable, including undertaking not to be bound by the result anyway.
And for the record, again: I would favour civil unions over gay marriage. If the plebiscite had been held at the last election, I would have likely have voted "no", but with the expectation that the "yes" vote would win, and without any great concern that it would end Western civilisation. (Or perhaps, I would just have voted informal on this - that's probably the better line for someone like me to take, given my preferred option is not on the table.) Give it another couple of years of listening to argument about it, though, I might be persuaded to vote "yes" for gay marriage, just so I can stop hearing about it....
A funny line about Coulter
The Great Ann Coulter Immigration Bamboozle
From The Federalist, of all places:
From The Federalist, of all places:
“I don’t care if @realDonaldTrump wants to perform abortions in the White House after this immigration policy paper,” Coulter tweeted last August, calling Trump’s immigration plan “the greatest political document since the Magna Carta.” At the time, due to my longtime understanding that Coulter is 85 percent ratings-and-book-sales-related shtick and 15
percent the amalgamated ghosts of old cigarettes, I shrugged and rolled my eyes.
Robot babies
I see that an evaluation of one of those "here, look after this demanding, crying, robot baby and see what a pain baby care is, so you'll know not to get pregnant" programs with teenagers in WA actually ended up with more of the robot carers getting pregnant.
I'm a little puzzled by this. Haven't these programs been tried in the US for many, many years? They've featured in some sitcoms for a long time, I'm sure. Were those programs properly evaluated? Or does it depend on the location of the teenage population (with, for example, teenagers in remote towns with little to do finding that even caring for a robot or real baby is better than being bored?)
I'm a little puzzled by this. Haven't these programs been tried in the US for many, many years? They've featured in some sitcoms for a long time, I'm sure. Were those programs properly evaluated? Or does it depend on the location of the teenage population (with, for example, teenagers in remote towns with little to do finding that even caring for a robot or real baby is better than being bored?)
The Hillary health campaign
The Trump/Guiliani/nutty Right wing conspiracist reliance on ridiculously concocted "evidence" of Hillary Clinton being seriously frail just goes to show what intense gullibility has swallowed up significant sections of the Right in the US, as well as the dearth of genuine good policy they have on which to run. Just as they would prefer to believe that climate change is a self serving fabrication of money hungry scientists and/or socialists of the UN, rather than believe the hundreds of professional science bodies and the evidence of record temperatures before their eyes, they show little in the way of common sense, let alone good policy judgement, and swallow the silliest suggestions whole. I am still inclined to blame the internet for this - I just don't think conspiracies used to get the hold on as large a part of the Western public in the pre-internet decades as they do now.
And it seems to me that the Trump campaign is probably facing a backlash for this - with one poll now showing a 10 point lead for Clinton, and ridicule of the health conspiracy finally making news. Or maybe it's the Trump flip flopping on his populist immigration policy. Who knows.
And why haven't those in the GOP who want their party to have a skerrick of credibility been calling out Trump on this health conspiracy issue? Are they just figuring that the only way the party can rise again is to see it first burn to the ground when the nutty element takes control?
And it seems to me that the Trump campaign is probably facing a backlash for this - with one poll now showing a 10 point lead for Clinton, and ridicule of the health conspiracy finally making news. Or maybe it's the Trump flip flopping on his populist immigration policy. Who knows.
And why haven't those in the GOP who want their party to have a skerrick of credibility been calling out Trump on this health conspiracy issue? Are they just figuring that the only way the party can rise again is to see it first burn to the ground when the nutty element takes control?
Thursday, August 25, 2016
More comedy stylings from the escapee from 1950
Spotted at Catallaxy, from someone who has become the walking definition of hysteria about homosexuality and the matter of gay marriage:
The video, incidentally, shows the weakest "firestorm" of violence since, well, I dunno, readers can up with their own comparison for wannabe violent confrontations that weren't anything to write home about.
The video, incidentally, shows the weakest "firestorm" of violence since, well, I dunno, readers can up with their own comparison for wannabe violent confrontations that weren't anything to write home about.
Providing for the dead
China's ghost weddings and why they can be deadly - BBC News: Police in north-west China have charged a man with murdering two women with mental disabilities, alleging that he wanted to sell their corpses to be used in so-called "ghost weddings".Read the whole thing - it's fascinating.
It has put a spotlight on the ancient shadowy ritual, still practised in certain parts of China, which aims to provide spouses for people who die unmarried.
Yet more on (very odd) Japanese management ideas
The ‘handsome weeping boys’ paid to wipe away your tears - BBC News
This will, no doubt, be the oddest story about Japan you will read today.
This will, no doubt, be the oddest story about Japan you will read today.
Putin and the Noosphere
What is the Mysterious “Nooscope”? Let’s Ask Putin’s New Chief of Staff | Mysterious Universe
Russia has long been the home of crank-ish spirituality; although, as it happens, I'm quite fond of the idea of the Noosphere myself. The possibility of an orbiting nooscope, though? Sounds like something out of Philip K Dick.
What it means for Putin to be elevating someone who seems to take these ideas very seriously is anyone's guess.
Russia has long been the home of crank-ish spirituality; although, as it happens, I'm quite fond of the idea of the Noosphere myself. The possibility of an orbiting nooscope, though? Sounds like something out of Philip K Dick.
What it means for Putin to be elevating someone who seems to take these ideas very seriously is anyone's guess.
More about "Japanese Schindler"
Documentary sheds light on Japanese who helped Jews escape Holocaust | The Japan Times
I've mentioned him before on this blog, way back in 2008.
I've mentioned him before on this blog, way back in 2008.
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