Potential cheaper workers for manicure shops

This otter behaviour - nibbling down her owner's fingernail, without biting her finger - is pretty unexpected and remarkable.  Not to mention close to peak animal kingdom kawaii. (OK, if the fingernail biting doesn't strike you as cute, the second part of the video of the otter seemingly feigning lack of interest in a stick surely is.)

Time for the Reverse Great Leap Forward/Cultural Revolution (which needs a better title)

I was thinking about this article from the Brookings Institute over the weekend:

Biden-voting counties equal 70% of America’s economy. What does this mean for the nation’s political-economic divide? 

Here's an extract:

...the stark economic rift that Brookings Metro documented after Donald Trump’s shocking 2016 victory has grown even wider. In 2016, we wrote that the 2,584 counties that Trump won generated just 36% of the country’s economic output, whereas the 472 counties Hillary Clinton carried equated to almost two-thirds of the nation’s aggregate economy.

A similar analysis for last week’s election shows these trends continuing, albeit with a different political outcome. This time, Biden’s winning base in 477 counties encompasses fully 70% of America’s economic activity, while Trump’s losing base of 2,497 counties represents just 29% of the economy. (Votes are still outstanding in 110 mostly low-output counties, and this piece will be updated as new data is reported.)...

So, while the election’s winner may have changed, the nation’s economic geography remains rigidly divided. Biden captured virtually all of the counties with the biggest economies in the country (depicted by the largest blue tiles in the nearby graphic), including flipping the few that Clinton did not win in 2016.

By contrast, Trump won thousands of counties in small-town and rural communities with correspondingly tiny economies (depicted by the red tiles). Biden’s counties tended to be far more diverse, educated, and white-collar professional, with their aggregate nonwhite and college-educated shares of the economy running to 35% and 36%, respectively, compared to 16% and 25% in counties that voted for Trump.

Trump's appeal to the less well educated was well documented.    And his appeal to less economically important regions seems to be shown as well.

Trump/Republican belief in conspiracy theory is not just dangerous to democracy, it's dangerous to the globe, given they treat climate change as a fraud conducted by socialist scientists.

In Australia, you see a similar dynamic - climate change denialism is biggest in National Party members, isn't it, and they come from rural electorates.

The irony in all of this is that the actual socialist revolution disaster of the Khmer Rouge was all about depopulating cities to get everyone farming.  (The Chinese attempts at farming collectivisation in the Great Leap Forward and subsequent Cultural Revolution being the inspiration, also with terrible results.)  

But now, all the bad ideas come from the rural and less educated areas and have undue influence over how us reality based, city sophisticates, need to run the place. 

I like a drive through the countryside as much as the next city slicker, but if I were trying to organise a better world now, I think there's a good case for depopulating the countryside and rural towns.    

With automation we probably need far fewer people on farms anyway. And cities are supposed to be much more efficient for energy use.   And they vote for fewer numbnuts. 

So, here's the plan:  minimum city size of 1 million.   Round up people from the smaller, non-viable towns and make them live at least 50 km from the nearest city.   Those who must stay on the land for the good of the nation (vineyard growers, for example!) must agree to send their children to university.

The countryside to be reserved for day trippers.   (OK, I'll allow weekends.)

Farming to be more automated than ever before.  (If mines, mining trains, and container shipping ports can be as automated as they now are, there's room for a lot more automation in the fields.)

We have to give up on it being a good idea for people to live in the country.  It's clearly dangerous and a breeding ground for bad ideas.  

OK, and before you say that the failed communist plans were due to city elites sitting around and having bad ideas about how they could control rural populations and activities that they didn't understand at all :   yes true - but my Revolution is about not leaving a rural population there in the first place.   And all I am saying about farming is not that we need more, or less of it, or that it needs anything radical - just that it can be done with a lot fewer people given modern technology.

Of course, those who oppose such a plan - such as the IPA - I make a special exemption for them living in the city.   In fact, they are the only ones who should be forced onto the land.   Sinclair Davidson, John Roskam and the smarmy kids waiting for Liberal pre-selection who work there would do well trying to run a sheep station near Longreach, on quasi-libertarian principles, I'm sure...

You know it makes sense. 

Now for a better name.

Update:   this post was also inspired by my sympathy to takes like this on the American election;

The chapter about schooling is over

I'm feeling a bit...um...not exactly melancholic, but a touch of sadness about time passing.  Perhaps it's a twinge of foreboding of empty nest syndrome approaching, too.

You see, my daughter finished Year 12 today.  She didn't get emotional, but it reminded me of the mixed feelings I had when I finished high school.   On the weekend she will head off to a Noosa "schoolies" stay with her friends - which is not going to help with that "she'll be leaving home soon" feeling.

I think a lot of Year 12 students this year might not be feeling as emotional as in other years, due to the considerably smaller amount of time they spent together at school due to the COVID-19 shut down. So they probably already felt the start of distancing from each other at the start of the year.  It's a theory... 

Also, my son has finally got his licence and went driving alone for the first time today.   That's another change to briefly occupy the mind with imagined disasters, before squashing them into the corner of the brain reserved for thoughts you really shouldn't spend time thinking.

Anyway, such is life.   Maybe I deserve a drink tonight.  Oh yeah, I am cooking.  I had better go... 

 

 

The conspiracy theory problem, again

This article at Vox about the terrible state of conspiracy theory belief in America is pretty good.   I'm not sure, however, that I agree with it's apparent conclusion that there is not much you can do to stop it, other than wait for people to grow out of it.

In other vegetarian news

I see that McDonalds, which has badly fallen out of favour with me and my family, is bringing in a "McPlant" burger - presumably similar to the "Rebel Whopper" which I actually quite like from Hungry Jacks.   (Speaking of HJ - I only ever go to my local one, which is pretty cheap and basic in design and seems to be run by really unhappy teenagers.   I may like one of their burgers now, but the chain still has a negative feeling about it, if you ask me.  At least McDonalds tried to make their outlets look more stylish.)   

I'm not at all sure how the fancier quality imitation meat market is going.  If my local supermarkets are anything to go by, sure, there are lots of start ups trying to sell vegetarian burgers, mince, and imitation chicken meat, but it often seems to be being sold at a discount because the expiry date is about to run out.  And there is something of a price issue - they are more expensive than real meat patties that involved raising a cow, trucking it, killing it, grinding it up, making it into patties and transporting it.   I guess economies of scale have something to do with it, but you would have thought that something resembling a meat patty made from vegetable protein should be able to be made at the same price as a real meat one.  

I don't even know that HJ Rebel Whopper is a success - it was heavily promoted at the start, and was high in prominence at the drive-thru sign, but the last time I went there, it had gone to a hard to spot corner of the signage.  This does not augur well.

I should really try more of the frozen, Asian imitation meats.  But one I really liked a few years ago - a sort of fake chicken but made from mushrooms and with a pleasingly firmer texture than you usually get from such products - I have not been able to find again, last time I looked.

Anyway, I still feel I should be making more of an effort to increase the vegetarian meals at home.  I still say I am never going to feel too guilty about eating a prawn or mussel, though.

Nut roasts noted

I don't know why - perhaps it's just my general fondness for nuts as a very filling form of vegetarian snack/food - but these recipes for "nut roasts" mostly sound pretty appealing.

Vegetarians rejoice: 10 nut roast recipes that won’t let you down

Exactly

Yes. Given the state of scientific knowledge on global warming, and how they ("skeptics") have for years now clearly lost all of their last gasp arguments ("the pause", "hide the decline", "it's all urban heat island effects" etc), there's really no point in trying to convince people who are absorbed in ridiculous conspiracy belief systems - which climate change denial now is - to move out of the way.  Governments just have to move around them.    

That's not to say that they shouldn't be forthright about telling people they need to come to their senses.  It's just that it need not be done in any polite "I respect your opinion, but it's wrong" sort of way.   

Stupid watch

Some people who comment at Catallaxy are still betting on Trump:

Actually, the fact that the betting markets are still taking money on a Trump win is really strange - unethical, I would have thought.    Nate Silver complained about it the other day.  

Here's a Left wing conspiracy theory for you:  some key Right wing figures (politicians or media) who all "on board" with election fraud conspiracy theories are shareholders in the big betting houses.

Time for something more optimistic

I don't know much about Dave Borlace, who makes educational videos on climate change and energy on his Youtube channel Just Have a Think, but he seems pretty good, and reliable. 

I particularly liked this one, because I had previously read a bit about flow batteries and thought that they may have a major role in the transition to mostly renewable energy.  It seems there may be grounds for optimism:

Just asking questions, Lindsay will say

Allahpundit at Hot Air talks about the ridiculous corrupt stink around Lindsay Graham ringing his fellow Republican to chat about what he do with the Georgia re-count:

Raffensperger told WaPo this afternoon that he and his wife are getting death threats from some of Trump’s more fanatic followers because he insists on claiming that this was a fair election. He also dropped a bombshell, claiming that Lindsey Graham dialed him up and … inquired about excluding some perfectly valid ballots:

In their conversation, Graham questioned Raffensperger about the state’s signature-matching law and whether political bias could have prompted poll workers to accept ballots with nonmatching signatures, according to Raffensperger. Graham also asked whether Raffensperger had the power to toss all mail ballots in counties found to have higher rates of nonmatching signatures, Raffensperger said.

Raffspenger said he was stunned that Graham appeared to suggest that he find a way to toss legally cast ballots. Absent court intervention, Raffensperger doesn’t have the power to do what Graham suggested, as counties administer elections in Georgia.

“It sure looked like he was wanting to go down that road,” he said.

Graham has also publicly entertained the idea of state legislatures declaring their elections void and awarding their electors to Trump. This cretin really does seem willing to condone a coup against the elected incoming government on the thinnest possible pretenses, from excluding legal ballots to just ignoring the result of a state election on the theory that fraud must have occurred to taint it. There’d be nothing left of the country’s civic culture if he succeeded, but so long as Lindsey Graham gets to remain a senator and his party remains in power, that’s a detail. A question to ask yourself: Why did he call up Raffensperger in first place, especially now instead of waiting until the recount is over and speaking to him then? If he was speaking in his role as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, because the committee is investigating election procedures, there’s no reason why that can’t wait until the more important work of counting the votes is finished. The obvious suspicion is that Graham called Raffensperger this week because he really was trying to lean on him on Trump’s behalf to start throwing out ballots in hopes of changing the outcome illicitly, before the result is certified. In a better world, the DOJ would open a corruption case on him tonight.

In normal times, this would be an incredible scandal.  Now, given the bottom of the barrel standards Trump has caused the GOP to sink to, it will just be a shoulder shrug.

Oh, now that I see your jihad against ABC is based on a reasonable critique of the organisation, I see your point [sarcasm]

Sinclair Davidson, having a tantrum about the ABC for the millionth time at his blog for fools today:

We need to get away from this notion of judging the ABC by small-l liberal values. The ABC does not practice small-l liberalism. The ABC is infested by extremist left-wing progressives who use small-l liberalism as camouflage to destroy our way of life and civilisation.

Of course, allowing ageing twits like Steve Kates and Rafe Champion, and conservatives like CL, to use his blog promote all of the Right Wingnut conspiracy theorising about the Trump election is just fine, though.  No harming democracy in the US at all, those beliefs.  Not to mention his blog's promotion of climate change denialism and inaction.  That won't hurt "our way of life" at all. 

 

This seems correct

 

How's the "let's humour him, and he'll go quietly" strategy of some of the GOP politicians going?

Appallingly:

Just what a country needs:  a President yelling to his (often religiously fundamentalist) cult-like base that the side which won an election by a substantially larger popular vote is genuinely evil.

The chances that there will be a shooting by one of delusional followers, to defeat "evil", seems to be increasing daily.

Update:   the latest -

The biggest Trump suck up tries to convince Trump he can leave and come back

So, even Hugh Hewitt thinks Trump should leave "gracefully".  Fat chance.

The final volume of his memoirs can only be imagined now. When Trump leaves D.C. for Mar-a-Lago, he will launch a super PAC, build his presidential library and, yes, begin planning campaigns 2022 and 2024. Trump doesn’t need to own a cable-news network, but he should control a block of prime-time programming. He could effortlessly host his own show, probably with one or more of the Trump children, so he doesn’t have to be on set five days a week. This would allow him time for maintaining and expanding his coalition of at least 72 million.

Trump will likely oversee not just a shadow government but also a robust, ongoing campaign.

Trump and Trump loyalists will work to maintain a hold on the GOP, which is best accomplished by his proceeding smoothly toward a peaceful, graceful transition of power. Then for Trump, a period of consolidation and celebration of his achievements. Then ...

I can't help but giggle at the idea of what is going to be inside a Trump Presidential Library.  Comic books?  Remainders of all the self promotion books to come from his kids?  

I don't think Trump actually has any chance of retaining power over the Republican Party.   His cult members seem to continually project their assessment of Trump onto the GOP politicians who have had to actually deal with him.   I reckon the great majority treat him as a useful idiot.

Update: I agree with this: 

 

While we're speaking physics...

...I also liked this video from a French Youtube channel ScienceClic (of which there is also an English version), which has a different way of visualising General Relativity:

Also - this article at The Guardian last year recommends a variety of science and math Youtube channels, some of which I have already checked out.  The PBS ones are certainly all pretty good.

Update:  actually, that was the wrong video.  I meant to post this one:

Back to Maxwell's equations

A few days ago, I was musing about the complexity of Maxwell's equations, and the lack of historical context in most attempts at explaining them.

Behold, via stumbling around Youtube, I have found the Science Asylum channel and if you don't mind his cheesey sense of humour (it's harmless, and a little charming in the way it's adolescent friendly), his videos are really good.

Here is the one having a go at explaining electromagnetism:

He's like a poster child for government warnings against marijuana use

Actually, I still reckon his hyped up comments read more (what I think) cocaine users are like, but he only admits to marijuana.

And you might recall that he bet $45,000 on a Trump win.

So how is this Catallaxy tradie, who I wouldn't let do so much as change a lightbulb, dealing with the election result? These are from yesterday: 

And the cherry on top: 

She was smiling about how big of an idiot he was. 

On the upside, at least COVID 19 has killed libertarianism

This question... 

was about this... 

and out of the many tweeted suggestions that follow, this: 

Heh. 

What?

Hey, have a read of this abstract for this recent arXiv paper entitled Kant & Hegel in Physics, which has a very surprising last line:

Kant and Hegel are among the philosophers who are guiding the way in which we reason these days. It is thus of interest to see how physical theories have been developed along the line of Kant and Hegel. Einstein became interested in how things appear to moving observers. Quantum mechanics is also an observer-dependent science. The question then is whether quantum mechanics and relativity can be synthesized into one science. The present form of quantum field theory is a case in point. This theory however is based on the algorithm of the scattering matrix where all participating particles are free in the remote past and in the remote future. We thus need, in addition, a Lorentz-covariant theory of bound state which will address the question of how the hydrogen atom would look to moving observers. The question is then whether this Lorentz-covariant theory of bound states can be synthesized with the field theory into a Lorentz-covariant quantum mechanics. This article reviews the progress made along this line. This integrated Kant-Hegel process is illustrated in terms of the way in which Americans practice their democracy.

I haven't read it yet, but it seems to be by a rather old former professor.   (Got  his PhD in 1961.) 

 

Wannabe dictator and his cult base working each other into a conspiracy frenzy

Members of cults are - pretty much by definition, I guess - incredibly gullible.   And cult leaders, if not from the start, but eventually, live in a fantasy world whereby they have convinced themselves of their greatness.

And hence we have the Orange One in the White House encouraging his disturbingly large number of cult followers to believe he has been the victim of a massive conspiracy with this tweet, which I reckon has a good chance of going down in history as the most insanely damaging thing Trump has done to his country:

Of course, Steve Kates is all on board - as are the great majority of people who comment at Catallaxy.   It's hard to credit how incredibly gullible they are - and the extent to which they Dunning-Kruger their way into thinking they understand everything from voting laws in any State in the US, or arcane statistical tests, all by relying solely on what a rabidly pro-Trump numbnut has postulated.

Anyway, Allahpundit at Hot Air has a good post about this pushback:

Joint statement from DHS agency, local officials: There’s no evidence that any voting system was in any way compromised

As he writes:

Here’s the statement from the “Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council (GCC) Executive Committee,” which includes an alphabet soup of agencies at the federal and local level. The most noteworthy is the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, an arm of DHS created by Trump in 2018 and charged with protecting critical infrastructure like elections from cyberattacks. CISA has been debunking voter fraud claims on its official webpage and on social media for the past week; its director, Chris Krebs, has amplified those debunkings on social media as well, sometimes with his own comments. Earlier today, Reuters reported that the White House was pressuring CISA to remove a critique it posted of the Dominion “Hammer and Scorecard” conspiracy theory that Trump screamed about in a tweet this morning. Krebs refused, and told people around him that he expected to be fired because of it....

And what is it all for?   Just for the Orange Oaf to be able to pretend to himself and his cult base that he has to leave the White House, but it's not his fault:

The Washington Examiner is reporting that Trump’s advisors “believe he has accepted that he is unlikely to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory and will begin to plot life after the White House, including a 2024 run, once his campaign had exhausted all its lawsuits.” According to one, “I suspect that once those cases are heard and adjudicated, and once we get through the Georgia recount, that the president will begin the public off-ramp.” Okay, but I’m not sure how he takes that off-ramp after he tweeted to 80 million people this morning that “Dominion deleted 2.7 million Trump votes nationwide.” His fans are going to cling to that. What’s he supposed to say, “It totally happened but literally no one can prove it but somehow I know it’s true”? For cripes sake.

Anyway, I hope Biden hires Krebs back. We need more people with integrity in government. A lot, lot, lot more.

Just incredible - as is the lack of Republican big hitters who are refusing to call him out.