A Sense of Doubt blog post #1971 - - Changed Priorities Ahead - Weekly Hodge Podge for 2007.11
Hello reader, Welcome to the weekly Hodge Podge, the Gallimaufry, the myriad and sundry, the stew, the panoply, formerly the Throwback Thursday. I just added all the Throwback Thursdays to the Weekly Hodge Podge category.
And so, here's my week. There's a mixture of things that interest me with plenty of pandemic news, COVID-19, plenty on Black Lives Matter, and just general what I call THE STATE OF THE HATE NATION, hateful shit that's always been here but seems more publicly displayed since the 2016 election.
It all begins with a message from a former student that made my day.
I like this blog entry from last year:
Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1178 (SoD #1617) - 50 years ago - On the Moon - Throwback Thursday for 1907.25
And here's a children's book recommended by a current student.
I am not vetting the whole thing this week but will insert comments from time to time.
The arrangement is somewhat random. Do not be disturbed by the juxtaposition.
And so then I had a Facebook post on Monday ...
The rest of it...
Imagine that this is a post that has circulated around Facebook before. You've seen it. You know all about it. You're so wise and worldly. Imagine that the post claims to come from an authority, such as a lawyer or a public official; imagine that it warns users about potential abuses of their social media presence in regards to privacy issues, fair use policy, and/or ownership of intellectual property. The user posting it may suggest sharing it on your social media stream as a sign of solidarity, as a precaution, as a statement of belief and unity with a certain belief system, or simply as a harmless "just in case" call to the wilderness of social media posts, like the detritus of the old-growth, forest floor. The post also serves as a social experiment revealing how many people on social media like to show how smart they are by demonstrating their ability to copy and paste Snopes links or other material of dubious credibility and potential bias, to stake out apparent moral high ground, to warn about the spread of misinformation to someone so unfortunately duped, or in general to show the assumptions we all make based on very little information, especially when someone shares something that he or she neither wrote in the first place nor chose to comment on. The set of reactions, all of which exhibit the same theme, demonstrate the need for another reaction icon - the "sense of doubt," to cast doubt on a post and its merit. Reactions in this vein are much like the "outrage" that drives most clicks. Your outrage is a commodity, and actually, the best commodity you have to sell in the online world. Beware of making assumptions about why anyone posts anything, what they know, what they understand, and to what world view they ascribe themselves, even doubt whether the post actually originates with the person whose name appears above it. Embrace the SENSE OF DOUBT.
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I had one friend apologize.
I had another ask if I was okay because of what prompted me to write this.
This post came about because I posted a "chain" status. I was going to share it but it's gone. I deleted it off Facebook, so it's gone, long gone. It was a chain status in which those re-posting declare that we do not give our permission to Facebook for our intellectual property that we share on Facebook in case of future litigation or what we feel may be privacy violations.
People I know jumped all over the post accusing me of spreading Fake News, debunking the status with Snopes page, just writing "dude," expressing disapproval, or as one friend wrote, "encouraging me to be smarter."
Encouraging me to be smarter???
As I received more and more comments, it seemed more and more absurd.
At first, I simply replied with "I don't see the harm" because I know full well that I had accepted the use and privacy policies Facebook asks us to agree to when we chose to use its platform. I understand that. But a friend posted that status, he claimed, at the urging of a lawyer, and I figured "what harm is there in this?" If there's some legal issue in the future, and if posting this status can be taken as my refusal to consent, then great, and as is more likely the case, it will not matter.
My first issue is why people seem so hellbent on "correcting" my apparent stupidity. Why is that so important to them? I post blog entries on white silence is white consent and no one says a fucking word, not even a like. BUT I re-post some stupid status from my work colleague and people feel compelled to share Snopes links and "correct" my wrong thinking?
That seems so pointless, and I am unsure I understand the motivations. Also, see what I did? I was going to just write "fuck you all" and then I changed my mind because of the second issue.
I know the second issue is with me. I want to be humble. I want to acknowledge that I do not know everything and be open to learning from others, especially my friends. And yet, this is not an easy humility to own all the time. After all, I am the one looked to all the time as the one who knows things. I can say that I am open to learning, but sometimes, my own ego gets in the way.
At first, I enjoyed engaging with my friends. But there was more and more, and I was being argued with, and after all, I knew they were right. I usually do not promulgate chain statuses. I hate them. And so, I said, fuck it and deleted the entire thread.
It could have and maybe should have ended there. But then I got this idea. I would post a "status" about the incident and ultimately the need for a simple question mark response. Along with like, love, crying, anger, maybe we could have an uncertainty reaction.
Because I had a little uncertainty about the original post, and I wanted others to have that same uncertainty. And they didn't. And in fact, they wanted to "correct" the little part of me that believed the original status might have some validity.
Too many LOLZ online. Let's face the grit of the nits.
WEEKLY PANDEMIC REPORT
Anyway, as usual, here's the weekly links to the data about cases (lower than reality) and deaths (lower than reality, also) due to COVID-19.
Data can be found here, as always:
This is also a good data site:
WHO To Review Evidence of Airborne Transmission of Coronavirus (nytimes.com)
After hundreds of experts urged the World Health Organization to review mounting scientific research, the agency acknowledged on Tuesday that airborne transmission of the coronavirus may be a threat in indoor spaces. The New York Times reports:W.H.O. expert committees are going over evidence on transmission of the virus and plan to release updated recommendations in a few days, agency scientists said in a news briefing. The possibility of airborne transmission, especially in "crowded, closed, poorly ventilated settings, cannot be ruled out," said Dr. Benedetta Allegranzi, who leads the W.H.O.'s committee on infection prevention and control. She said the agency recommends "appropriate and optimal ventilation" of indoor environments, as well as physical distancing.
Agency staff fielded several questions from reporters about transmission of the virus by air, prompted by an open letter from 239 experts calling on the agency to review its guidance. Many of the letter's signatories have collaborated with the W.H.O. and served on its committees. [...] W.H.O. scientists said that for the past few months, the infection prevention committee has been weighing the evidence on all the ways in which the coronavirus spreads, including by tiny droplets or aerosols. "We acknowledge that there is emerging evidence in this field, as in all other fields," Dr. Allegranzi said. "And therefore, we believe that we have to be open to this evidence and understand its implications regarding the modes of transmission and also regarding the precautions that need to be taken." It will also be important to understand the importance of transmission by aerosols compared with larger droplets, and the dose of the virus needed for infection from aerosols, she said. "These are fields that are really growing and for which there is evidence emerging, but it is not definitive," she said. "However, the evidence needs to be gathered and interpreted, and we continue to support this."
Agency staff fielded several questions from reporters about transmission of the virus by air, prompted by an open letter from 239 experts calling on the agency to review its guidance. Many of the letter's signatories have collaborated with the W.H.O. and served on its committees. [...] W.H.O. scientists said that for the past few months, the infection prevention committee has been weighing the evidence on all the ways in which the coronavirus spreads, including by tiny droplets or aerosols. "We acknowledge that there is emerging evidence in this field, as in all other fields," Dr. Allegranzi said. "And therefore, we believe that we have to be open to this evidence and understand its implications regarding the modes of transmission and also regarding the precautions that need to be taken." It will also be important to understand the importance of transmission by aerosols compared with larger droplets, and the dose of the virus needed for infection from aerosols, she said. "These are fields that are really growing and for which there is evidence emerging, but it is not definitive," she said. "However, the evidence needs to be gathered and interpreted, and we continue to support this."
https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/07/10/2211209/broken-heart-syndrome-has-increased-during-covid-19-pandemic-small-study-suggests
'Broken Heart Syndrome' Has Increased During COVID-19 Pandemic, Small Study Suggests (cnn.com)
Rick Schumann writes:Researchers at a Cleveland clinic performed a study with 1,914 patients into a phenomenon called "Broken Heart Syndrome," where someone can be experiencing heart attack-like symptoms, but it's not a heart attack or anything related to blocked blood flow to the heart. Turns out that it seems likely that the aggregate stresses of the pandemic (so-called "social distancing," lack of contact with fellow humans, enforced isolation, and so on) appear to create emotional stresses that manifest with physical symptoms that mimic a heart attack.
"The pandemic has created a parallel environment which is not healthy," said Dr. Ankur Kalra, the cardiologist who led the study. "Emotional distancing is not healthy. The economic impact is not healthy. We've seen that as an increase in non-coronavirus deaths, and our study says that stress cardiomyopathy has gone up because of the stress that the pandemic has created." The study didn't examine whether or not there could be a medical link between this phenomenon and the coronavirus, but all the participants in the study were tested for infection and were found to be free of the virus.The study has been published in the journal JAMA Network Open.
"The pandemic has created a parallel environment which is not healthy," said Dr. Ankur Kalra, the cardiologist who led the study. "Emotional distancing is not healthy. The economic impact is not healthy. We've seen that as an increase in non-coronavirus deaths, and our study says that stress cardiomyopathy has gone up because of the stress that the pandemic has created." The study didn't examine whether or not there could be a medical link between this phenomenon and the coronavirus, but all the participants in the study were tested for infection and were found to be free of the virus.The study has been published in the journal JAMA Network Open.
https://whatever.scalzi.com/2020/07/05/back-into-quarantine/
Covid infection numbers are up in Ohio, as they are in a whole lot of places, and in the US in general; I’m particularly looking at the infection numbers for Georgia, where I am meant to be at the beginning of September, and they are higher there now than they have ever been before, and by a considerable margin. The deaths that are being reported relating to Covid are not spiking, but those have tended to trail the infection rate (i.e., we’ll likely see more of those soon), and in any event we have discovered that surviving a Covid infection very often doesn’t mean you just bounce back as if from a cold or flu — it often damages lungs and hearts and other organs and takes months (or longer — we’re in the process of finding out) to fully recover.
Nearly every other Western country in the world has seen their infection rates drop down from the March/April time frame, but we haven’t, and now our leaders want to suggest that this is just the way it is and we’ll have to “live with it.” In fact, it’s not the way it is, or at least, wasn’t what it had to be. The reason we’re in this mess is that the GOP followed Trump’s lead in deciding this was a political issue instead of a health and science issue, and radicalized its base against dead simple measures like wearing masks and other such practices, and against waiting until infection rates dropped sufficiently to try to open up businesses again, because apparently they thought capitalism was magic and would work without reasonably fit humans.
The GOP is getting it now, purely out of necessity — Texas now has a mask requirement, as an example — but it’s probably too late in terms of not torpedoing the economy for the rest of the year, and possibly too late for an entire demographic of people who are now convinced that wearing a mask is an admission of weakness and/or fealty to George Soros. It also means that all that time we spent in quarantine in March, April and May was effectively for nothing, and that if we want to actually get hold of this thing we’ll have to go back in quarantine again, at least through September and possibly for all of the rest of 2020.
Which, honestly, really pisses me off. We could have managed this thing — like nearly every other country has — if we had political leadership that wasn’t inept and happy to use the greatest public health crisis in decades as political leverage for… well, who knows? Most of the areas being hit hardest now — places like Florida, Arizona, and Texas — are deep red states; there is no political advantage to be had by having them hit by infection and death and economic uncertainty four months before a national election. The fact that Joe Biden is currently in a statistical tie with Trump in Texas voter polls should terrify the GOP. I don’t expect Biden to get Texas’ electoral votes in November, but honestly it shouldn’t even be this close now. And the thing is, things are almost certainly going to get worse in Texas before they get better.
In April and May I had held out some hope that the second half of 2020 might be salvageable, and that it would be safe, or at least safer, to do the things we normally might have done with the year. Now that we’re in the second half of the year, it’s pretty clear that 2020 is going to be unsafe all the way through. It didn’t have to be this way. If we are going to have to live with it (and hopefully not precisely in the “fuck it, I guess some of you are just gonna have to die” way that the GOP wants us to), we should admit to precisely whose fault it is. The GOP needs to be punished in November for a number of reasons, and this is certainly qualifies as a major reason. I will leave my house to vote, if I need to.
In the meantime: wear your masks, practice social distancing, and stay home if you can. As my friend Ashley Clements put it:
She’s right. Alas.
Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science
Hey look, a cool new Twitter account I just found!Promoting scientific literacy, fighting the influence of religion in science education and policy, and ending the stigma of atheism. Part of the
richarddawkins.net
I am a fan of this bloke, not just because he coined the word "meme" -- though that's part of it -- but because he has written so many awesome books. My first by him (and only one so far) was The Blind Watchmaker.
I plan to read more.
"Cities in Marin could soon end up looking like seedy, inebriated Bourbon Street in New Orleans, under the guise of reviving patronage for a few struggling licensees" https://t.co/bOtoxd33jE— reason (@reason) July 11, 2020
In 2020, however, we're just not willing to stay on the scandal treadmill. The scandals keep coming, but they aren't throwing us for a loop, because Jesus Christ on a ventilator, we have two far bigger things to think about now, and Donald Trump's utter inability to fix either one, or even to say anything meaningful about them, leaves us disgusted. Trump demanded that the nation deal with the pandemic without him, and while state governments and doctors and hospitals and ordinary Americans have all pitched in, we all can see that the Emperor has no PPE, and nobody but the most faithful toadies are fooled by the constant insistence that Donald Trump is doing a great job. Trump abdicated the federal government's duty to actually protect Americans in a crisis, and we can all see it hasn't been working.
https://www.wonkette.com/the-467-923-stupidest-things-fox-news-said-about-trumps-taxes-yesterday
The 467,923 Stupidest Things Fox News Said About Trump's Taxes Yesterday
https://www.wonkette.com/scotus-issues-rulings-for-future-trumps
https://www.wonkette.com/once-hidden-secret-revealed-from-the-bible-elites-dont-want-this-released-tabs-fri-july-10-2020
https://reason.com/2020/07/10/trump-commutes-ally-roger-stones-prison-sentence/
Trump Commutes Ally Roger Stone's Prison Sentence
Stone was set to report to federal prison to serve 40 months for lying to Congress and witness tampering.
President Donald Trump issued a commutation today for his former campaign consultant Roger Stone, a notorious conservative political operative who was convicted last year of lying to Congress and witness tampering.
When Trump announced the commutation, Stone was days away from reporting to a federal prison in Jessup, Georgia, to serve 40 months behind bars. Stone's allies had been lobbying Trump as Stone's prison sentence approached, and Trump had hinted at the pardon in radio and TV interviews this week.
"Well, I'll be looking at it," Trump told reporters outside the White House Friday. "I think Roger Stone was very unfairly untreated, as were many people."
The White House released a statement Friday night saying Stone was "a victim of the Russia Hoax that the Left and its allies in the media perpetuated for years in an attempt to undermine the Trump Presidency."
"Mr. Stone was charged by the same prosecutors from the Mueller Investigation tasked with finding evidence of collusion with Russia," the White House statement continues. "Because no such evidence exists, however, they could not charge him for any collusion-related crime. Instead, they charged him for his conduct during their investigation. The simple fact is that if the Special Counsel had not been pursuing an absolutely baseless investigation, Mr. Stone would not be facing time in prison."
The White House also cited the "egregious facts and circumstances surrounding his unfair prosecution, arrest, and trial," such as the "spectacle" of Stone's arrest by armed FBI agents, jury bias against Stone, and his advanced age, which puts him at risk of COVID-19 if he catches the virus in federal prison.
As with the Justice Department's unprecedented attempt to dismiss charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn after he pleaded guilty in open court to making false statements to the FBI, Stone's pardon is a case of the Trump administration citing legitimate problems with the criminal justice system for nakedly cynical and self-serving ends. The Justice Department did not care about excessive sentencing or unfair prosecutions before. It does not care about them now, and it will not care about them when they're used again to railroad defendants who aren't Trump's allies.
This isn't the first time the Trump administration has stepped in to protect Stone. A federal grand jury indicted Stone last January on seven counts of obstruction of justice, false statements, and witness tampering stemming from Special Prosecutor Roger Mueller's probe of Russian interference into the 2016 presidential election. Stone was convicted on all counts in November.
Federal prosecutors originally recommended a seven- to nine-year prison sentence for Stone, prompting Trump to fume on Twitter that this was "horrible and very unfair." A day later, the Justice Department overrode the line prosecutors' recommendations—an almost unheard of event—saying Stone deserved a far lighter sentence.
As Reason's Jacob Sullum wrote, Stone's sentence was indeed excessive, but the Justice Department's sudden about-face was still "unseemly and smacks of legal favoritism."
Stone's lawyers tried to appeal his conviction, arguing the jury was politically biased against him. They also asked the court to delay sending Stone, 67, to federal prison because of the ongoing threat of COVID-19.
But U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson rejected his appeal and his request for a two-month delay to the beginning of his prison sentence, instead granting him a two-week delay.
Stone got his start in politics in Richard Nixon's infamous Committee for the Re-election of the President. From those auspicious beginnings, he carved out a career as a flamboyant campaign consultant, lobbyist, and "dirty trickster." He got a tattoo of Nixon's face on his back to complete the image.
Naturally, Stone gravitated toward Trump, whose tawdry brand of soap-opera politics and intrigue fit his style quite well. ("Politics with me isn't theater. It's performance art, sometimes for its own sake," Stone told The Weekly Standard's Matt Labash in a definitive 2007 profile.)
After he resigned from Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign—following a National Enquirer story reporting that he had placed ads in several publications for swingers—Stone was a casino lobbyist for Trump and advised his brief Reform Party presidential campaign in 2000.
Stone jumped to the Libertarian Party in 2012 and started a PAC to support Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson. He also considered running for Florida governor as a Libertarian in 2014, but ultimately decided against it.
Although Stone left Trump's 2016 campaign under a cloud of recriminations and drama, he remained a staunch supporter of the president, and memorably showed up to the inauguration dressed like Snidely Whiplash, or perhaps the Babadook.
Success did not temper Stone's passions. Once, on Twitter, he called former RNC chairman and White House chief of staff Reince Priebus "rancid penis." Tragically, that tweet is now lost to the ether: Stone's Twitter account was suspended in 2017, after he sent a series of profanity-laden messages to various CNN anchors. Judge Jackson later barred Stone from using social media, after he repeatedly violated a gag order during his trial.
The trial and Stone's muzzling turned him into a martyr among hardcore Trump fans, complete with popular "Roger Stone did nothing wrong" t-shirts.
Stone was no more a martyr than any other defendant who finds him or herself in the crosshairs of federal prosecutors—all the less so because he couldn't seem to figure out that federal investigators, prosecutors, juries, and judges don't appreciate political performance art.
Lucky for him, his old business associate Trump is a master of the medium.
"Roger Stone has already suffered greatly," the White House statement concludes. "He was treated very unfairly, as were many others in this case. Roger Stone is now a free man!"
COOL SHIT!
There's a podcast about Moby Dick!!
https://twitter.com/mobydickenergy
a podcast that's a chapter by chapter discussion of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, with guests!!!! hosted by
. premium whale shitposting
patreon.com/talialavin
https://twitter.com/chick_in_kiev
https://twitter.com/DanaSchwartzzz
TV writer. Also writer of books, comics, and
i hope bill watterson is doing okay and is proud of all the children he radicalized with this stuff pic.twitter.com/l31P58xU0l— B. Bolander (@BBolander) July 10, 2020
I absolutely love and crave drama unless I am involved in it in any way.— Dana Schwartz (@DanaSchwartzzz) July 9, 2020
Florida man explains to the Grim Reaper how Hunter Biden and Joe Biden brought #coronavirus back from China to America.— Grant Stern (@grantstern) July 4, 2020
Really.
Looks like Trump's ad blitz is definitely "educating" his base.pic.twitter.com/J0fSNmplML
I just did and you can too. We have a moron governor @GovRonDeSantis but you can’t beat this. #COVIDIOTS #FloridaCovidEpicenter Raise awareness with the Florida Grim Reaper Tour! https://t.co/mRrtbHd7mi— Ale (@Alew430) July 4, 2020
If Trump the "occupier" of our White House wants to align himself with racism, it will be interesting to find out in November if the number of racist voters out numbers the number of anti-racist voters. https://t.co/Xp0F5jFry1— gmrstudios (@gmrstudios) July 6, 2020
We support #BlackLivesMatter. https://t.co/Vvl1DnCxeu— Freedom of the Press (@FreedomofPress) June 25, 2020
Neil Young on his music at Trump’s Mount Rushmore rally: "This is NOT OK with me" https://t.co/6SWq2aRk1v— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) July 4, 2020
Today we have a demagogue who is clinging to the memory of George Washington to make himself more popular.— Arlen Parsa (@arlenparsa) July 5, 2020
So let's tell a story of when this happened before. In 1939 a group of American Nazis held a rally in New York City.
This was their speech backdrop... (yikes thread) pic.twitter.com/xvrIYst9MX
American Nazi front groups with names like the "German American Bund" and "The Hitler Club" wanted to hold a big rally at Madison Square Garden right before WWII started.— Arlen Parsa (@arlenparsa) July 5, 2020
They called it a "Pro-American rally" and dressed the whole event in American flags. Go figure. pic.twitter.com/WHLHC1PFCB
20,000 Americans packed Madison Square Garden NYC to listen to pro-Nazi speeches on February 20, 1939.— Arlen Parsa (@arlenparsa) July 5, 2020
You'll have to keep reminding yourself while you read this thread, these people were *Americans.* This happened right here. pic.twitter.com/rv5ivBt7Kr
They started their Nazi rally with a performance of the Star Spangled Banner... because of course they did.— Arlen Parsa (@arlenparsa) July 5, 2020
Next up, a speaker said "If George Washington were alive today, he would be friends with Adolf Hitler."
And there was plenty of this behavior, as you might expect: pic.twitter.com/NKpNRahykr
There were an estimated 100,000 anti-Nazi protestors outside during the rally. Five times the rally attendance!— Arlen Parsa (@arlenparsa) July 5, 2020
The protestor's slogan? "Be American, Stay Home."
A small army of police protected the Nazis inside @TheGarden, and trampled some counter-protestors with horses. pic.twitter.com/BOrzrmJ2qT
One speaker at the 1939 US Nazi rally decried fake news, saying journalists were untrustworthy:— Arlen Parsa (@arlenparsa) July 5, 2020
"Everything inimical to those Nations which have freed themselves of alien domination is 'News' to be played up and twisted to fan the flames of hate in the hearts of Americans." pic.twitter.com/mEqQfq9aYW
Documentary filmmaker @marshallcurry made a great short doc about the 1939 Nazi rally in New York which you can watch online, free. https://t.co/6OhMbmKLjd— Arlen Parsa (@arlenparsa) July 5, 2020
In this interview clip he explains what happened when a Jewish protestor rushed the stage during one of the Nazi speeches: pic.twitter.com/7X6WgFIct7
The 1939 Nazi rally in NYC was the beginning of the end for their movement.— Arlen Parsa (@arlenparsa) July 5, 2020
The leader of the group was arrested for embezzling rally funds and spending them on his mistress. The next leader was a German spy who had to flee. The final group leader killed himself during WWII. pic.twitter.com/f7rsZpzj8i
The 1939 Nazi rally was timed to coincide with George Washington's birthday.— Arlen Parsa (@arlenparsa) July 5, 2020
Anyway, the next time you hear someone overzealously commandeering the memory of George Washington, or using him as a backdrop for racist apologia, your ears should perk up. Because you know history. pic.twitter.com/Sj2sagc7mS
The best thing I learned on twitter from @shaunking’s grifting was about @arlenparsa. These snapshots of history are an absolute treasure and have been a great way to educate my family. Thank you Arlen.— Victor Laszlo (@VicLaszlo1942) July 5, 2020
A protestor has died after being hit by speeding car during BLM protest in Seattle https://t.co/GPEnRWmERP— gmrstudios (@gmrstudios) July 5, 2020
We support #BlackLivesMatter. https://t.co/Vvl1DnCxeu— Freedom of the Press (@FreedomofPress) June 25, 2020
Formally Known As The Bollocks
COLLECTED JOHN PEEL SESSIONS
a sampling of the list... (which is BIG)
Cocteau Twins - Peel Session 1982
Cocteau Twins - Peel Session 1983
Cocteau Twins - Peel Session 1984
The Housemartins - Peel Session 1986
The Housemartins - Peel Session 1987
The Immortal Lee County Killers - Peel Session 2003
The Incredible String Band - Peel Session 1973
The Jam - Peel Session 1977
The Jam - Peel Session 1977
The James Taylor Quartet - Peel Session 1987
The Janitors - Peel Session 1987
The Jasmine Minks - Peel Session 1986
The Jesus and Mary Chain - Peel Session 1984
The Jesus and Mary Chain - Peel Session 1985
The Jesus and Mary Chain - Peel Session 1985
The Jesus and Mary Chain - Peel Session 1988
The Jesus and Mary Chain - Peel Session 1989
The Jesus Lizard - Peel Session 1991
The Jesus Lizard - Peel Session 1992
The John Dummer Blues Band - Peel Session 1968
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Peel Session 1993
The Joyce Mckinney Experience - Peel Session 1988
The Killjoys - Peel Session 1977
The Killjoys - Peel Session 1978
The Kinks - Peel Session 1974
https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/29287789/how-youtube-basketball-player-one-one-challenges-became-career
How a YouTube basketball player's one-on-one challenges became a career https://t.co/uhr5KWA3bO— gmrstudios (@gmrstudios) July 10, 2020
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| Rosanna Dean |
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| ‘Who has the honour or dishonour of being Eve?’ 2019 |
https://freedom.press/
SCHEDULING ANGRY TIME
https://whatever.scalzi.com/2020/05/30/thinking-about-june/
Over the last couple of projects, I have developed a process that I think works reasonably well for me. In the mornings, between 8am and noon, I use my Freedom app to block news and social media sites, so that I don’t have those to distract me from doing my creative writing during those hours. After that I tend to my other business (emails and non-creative writing) and, while I don’t have any blocking software on at that point, I pretty much try to avoid most news until about 5pm, i.e., when everything I need to do with my day is done and I won’t be distracted by being angry at whatever is happening in the world that day. It’s weird to think of scheduling one’s angry time, but, well. Welcome to 2020, y’all.
More to the point (for me, anyway), having a schedule is pretty much how I have to live my life these days. Younger me might be a little appalled at how much 51-year-old me needs schedules, but 51-year-old me has come to terms with how easily distracted he is, and how distracting the world is, especially now. It’s not a good combination for getting creative things done. Creativity, or my creativity, anyway, needs a little bit of space and time on a daily basis in order to get going and keep going. That means a schedule. Shut up, you’ll be older too, one day, and when you are you’ll probably find a schedule helps you too.
So, June: Back to work for me. I think you’ll appreciate the effort. Eventually.
I learned a new word!!
chy·ron
(kī′rŏn)
July 06, 2020 03:20 PM
It's very hard for cops to lose their jobs. They have the support of a
protection racket police union that will defend their worst actions, including killing people on camera. Even in the rare instances where cops are charged with killing someone, they get to keep their jobs with back pay if they're cleared. (Don't try this at home if you're in any other profession.)
So, you have to wonder what Florissa Fuentes of the Springfield, Massachusetts, Police Department did that was so egregious she was canned in a matter of weeks. Turns out Fuentes shared a photo on Instagram of her niece at a Black Lives Matter rally. That's it. That's the “crime."
See, the police get really offended if you assume all cops are bad, but they also don't like it when you criticize any cops. It's like they want two things and both of them are fascist.
Fuentes joined the Springfield Police Department in July 2019 and was promoted to detective this spring. She's 30 so she's presumably good at her job. But maybe she hasn't kicked enough Black ass for her colleagues to fully trust her. She said she shared the post as an Instagram story to show support for her niece and the Black Lives Matter movement in general. She wasn't condoning violence against police officers because, despite what shouty police union leaders say (and they're always shouty), Black Lives Matter is not an “anti-police" movement. The police exist every day and most protest marches occur after a cop has used a Black man's neck as an ottoman. Correlation isn't always causation, but this is pretty straightforward.
There were two people holding signs in her niece's photo: One sign read, "Who do we call when the murderer wear the badge." That's a reasonable concern. You obviously can't call the police because they sometimes just stand there while another officer kills someone. I'd argue that the entire Black Lives Matter movement poses a variation of the question, "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" or “Who watches the watchmen?"
The other person's sign was more controversial and implied that people should shoot back at the police. But that wasn't Fuentes or her niece's opinion. Nonetheless, she immediately received messages from concerned colleagues warning her of “possible consequences."
From the New York Times:
You have a lot of haters. You're going to get in trouble.
The Springfield Police Department was behaving like a high school clique, the mob, and Scientology. (This is admittedly unfair to the mob.)
She deleted the post and apologized to her coworkers in a private Facebook group.
I did not share the photo with any malicious intent and I should have thought about how others might perceive it.
That wasn't the end of it. She'd crossed the thin blue line.
One co-worker asked Ms. Fuentes to "please stay as far away from me as you can," adding that Ms. Fuentes was "either too dangerous or too stupid to safely associate with." That comment received 17 likes, and Ms. Fuentes deleted the apology.
Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, a Democrat, was also upset. He compared Fuentes's post with a 2017 incident when a Springfield officer posted "Hahahaha love this. Maybe people shouldn't block roadways" after a fucking white supremacist drove a car into a crowd at a Charlottesville, Virginia, rally, killing Heather Heyer. If Sarno can't morally distinguish between these two very different things, he's not fit to hold office.
On June 19, Fuentes was told she could either resign or be fired. She turned in her badge that day. She is a single mother of three children, two of whom are Black. I've checked and there are no reports of mass walkouts or cases of the “blue flu" in response to her unjust termination. But she didn't push an old man, critically injuring him, or shoot a suspect in the back like a coward. She's on her own.
FUENTES: I feel like no matter what position I took I wasn't going to win.
That is a dilemma every Black cop or even a cop with Black loved ones faces. Let's hope Fuentes is able to find more honorable work elsewhere.
Follow Stephen Robinson on Twitter.
This is an older one but gives context to other content AND it's funny.
https://www.wonkette.com/the-top-three-times-kayleigh-mcenany-stepped-on-a-rake-this-week-so-far
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https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/20/07/08/2119206/the-far-side-returns-after-25-years-and-its-all-digital
The Far Side Returns After 25 Years, and It's All Digital (theverge.com)
Gary Larson has released new comics for the The Far Side, the first strips since January 1995. Larson does however caution that this is "not a resurrection of The Far Side daily cartoons." He adds: "I'm just exploring, experimenting, and trying stuff." The Verge reports:The first of the new comics features bears, aliens, and taxidermy (all staples of The Far Side). The style is comfortably familiar, with two large exceptions: instead of watercolor, the new comics are done in digital brushstrokes that make the images feel more volumetric and vibrant than the original full-color cartoons. Also, the penned outlines, which exist in both the watercolor and black-and-white original comics, are almost entirely gone. The end result is images that evoke the feel of the old comics but are somehow a little less cartoony. The characters and elements all feel unified in the scene together.
Both the style changes and the comic's return are due to the fact that Larson is now using a digital tablet. After years of frustration dealing with clogged pens and dried-up markers, Larson decided to give going digital a chance. "I was stunned at all the tools the thing offered, all the creative potential it contained. I simply had no idea how far these things had evolved," Larson writes in an opening letter for New Stuff, the title for his new works. "Perhaps fittingly, the first thing I drew was a caveman."
Both the style changes and the comic's return are due to the fact that Larson is now using a digital tablet. After years of frustration dealing with clogged pens and dried-up markers, Larson decided to give going digital a chance. "I was stunned at all the tools the thing offered, all the creative potential it contained. I simply had no idea how far these things had evolved," Larson writes in an opening letter for New Stuff, the title for his new works. "Perhaps fittingly, the first thing I drew was a caveman."
https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/07/08/2122253/shock-dissipating-fractal-cubes-could-forge-high-tech-armor
Shock-Dissipating Fractal Cubes Could Forge High-Tech Armor (phys.org)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org:Tiny, 3-D printed cubes of plastic, with intricate fractal voids built into them, have proven to be effective at dissipating shockwaves, potentially leading to new types of lightweight armor and structural materials effective against explosions and impacts. "The goal of the work is to manipulate the wave interactions resulting from a shockwave," said Dana Dattelbaum, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory and lead author on a paper to appear in the journal AIP Advances. "The guiding principles for how to do so have not been well defined, certainly less so compared to mechanical deformation of additively manufactured materials. We're defining those principles, due to advanced, mesoscale manufacturing and design."
The researchers tested their fractal structures by firing an impactor into them at approximately 670 miles per hour. The structured cubes dissipated the shocks five times better than solid cubes of the same material. Although effective, it's not clear that the fractal structure is the best shock-dissipating design. The researchers are investigating other void- or interface-based patterns in search of ideal structures to dissipate shocks. New optimization algorithms will guide their work to structures outside of those that consist of regular, repeating structures. Potential applications might include structural supports and protective layers for vehicles, helmets, or other human-wearable protection.The research will be published in the July 2020 issue of AIP Advances.
The researchers tested their fractal structures by firing an impactor into them at approximately 670 miles per hour. The structured cubes dissipated the shocks five times better than solid cubes of the same material. Although effective, it's not clear that the fractal structure is the best shock-dissipating design. The researchers are investigating other void- or interface-based patterns in search of ideal structures to dissipate shocks. New optimization algorithms will guide their work to structures outside of those that consist of regular, repeating structures. Potential applications might include structural supports and protective layers for vehicles, helmets, or other human-wearable protection.The research will be published in the July 2020 issue of AIP Advances.
Spreading Rock Dust On Fields Could Remove Vast Amounts of CO2 From Air (theguardian.com)
Spreading rock dust on farmland could suck billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the air every year, according to the first detailed global analysis of the technique. The Guardian reports:The chemical reactions that degrade the rock particles lock the greenhouse gas into carbonates within months, and some scientists say this approach may be the best near-term way of removing CO2 from the atmosphere. The rock dust approach, called enhanced rock weathering (ERW), has several advantages, the researchers say. First, many farmers already add limestone dust to soils to reduce acidification, and adding other rock dust improves fertility and crop yields, meaning application could be routine and desirable.
Basalt is the best rock for capturing CO2, and many mines already produce dust as a byproduct, so stockpiles already exist. The researchers also found that the world's biggest polluters, China, the U.S. and India, have the greatest potential for ERW, as they have large areas of cropland and relatively warm weather, which speeds up the chemical reactions. The analysis, published in the journal Nature, estimates that treating about half of farmland could capture 2 billion tons of CO2 each year, equivalent to the combined emissions of Germany and Japan. The cost depends on local labor rates and varies from $80 per ton in India to $160 in the U.S., and is in line with the $100-150 carbon price forecast by the World Bank for 2050, the date by which emissions must reach net zero to avoid catastrophic climate breakdown.
Basalt is the best rock for capturing CO2, and many mines already produce dust as a byproduct, so stockpiles already exist. The researchers also found that the world's biggest polluters, China, the U.S. and India, have the greatest potential for ERW, as they have large areas of cropland and relatively warm weather, which speeds up the chemical reactions. The analysis, published in the journal Nature, estimates that treating about half of farmland could capture 2 billion tons of CO2 each year, equivalent to the combined emissions of Germany and Japan. The cost depends on local labor rates and varies from $80 per ton in India to $160 in the U.S., and is in line with the $100-150 carbon price forecast by the World Bank for 2050, the date by which emissions must reach net zero to avoid catastrophic climate breakdown.
New Study Detects Ringing of the Global Atmosphere (phys.org)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org:A ringing bell vibrates simultaneously at a low-pitched fundamental tone and at many higher-pitched overtones, producing a pleasant musical sound. A recent study, just published in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences by scientists at Kyoto University and the University of Hawai'i at Mnoa, shows that the Earth's entire atmosphere vibrates in an analogous manner, in a striking confirmation of theories developed by physicists over the last two centuries. In the case of the atmosphere, the "music" comes not as a sound we could hear, but in the form of large-scale waves of atmospheric pressure spanning the globe and traveling around the equator, some moving east-to-west and others west-to-east. Each of these waves is a resonant vibration of the global atmosphere, analogous to one of the resonant pitches of a bell.
Now in a new study by Takatoshi Sakazaki, an assistant professor at the Kyoto University Graduate School of Science, and Kevin Hamilton, an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences and the International Pacific Research Center at the University of Hawaii at Mnoa, the authors present a detailed analysis of observed atmospheric pressure over the globe every hour for 38 years. The results clearly revealed the presence of dozens of the predicted wave modes. The study focused particularly on waves with periods between 2 hours and 33 hours which travel horizontally through the atmosphere, moving around the globe at great speeds (exceeding 700 miles per hour). This sets up a characteristic "chequerboard" pattern of high and low pressure associated with these waves as they propagate."For these rapidly moving wave modes, our observed frequencies and global patterns match those theoretically predicted very well," stated lead author Sakazaki. "It is exciting to see the vision of Laplace and other pioneering physicists so completely validated after two centuries."
Now in a new study by Takatoshi Sakazaki, an assistant professor at the Kyoto University Graduate School of Science, and Kevin Hamilton, an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences and the International Pacific Research Center at the University of Hawaii at Mnoa, the authors present a detailed analysis of observed atmospheric pressure over the globe every hour for 38 years. The results clearly revealed the presence of dozens of the predicted wave modes. The study focused particularly on waves with periods between 2 hours and 33 hours which travel horizontally through the atmosphere, moving around the globe at great speeds (exceeding 700 miles per hour). This sets up a characteristic "chequerboard" pattern of high and low pressure associated with these waves as they propagate."For these rapidly moving wave modes, our observed frequencies and global patterns match those theoretically predicted very well," stated lead author Sakazaki. "It is exciting to see the vision of Laplace and other pioneering physicists so completely validated after two centuries."
Jack Dorsey Donates $3 Million To US Mayors For Universal Basic Income Pilot Programs In 15 Cities (forbes.com)
Jack Dorsey, the billionaire CEO of Twitter and Square, is donating $3 million to help fund Mayors for a Guaranteed Income (MGI), a new coalition of 15 mayors across the country who want to explore the idea of universal basic income -- a recurring payment to residents -- in their cities. Forbes reports:The coalition was created on June 29 by Michael Tubbs, the 29 year-old mayor of Stockton, California, who has been running a guaranteed income pilot program in his city since the winter of 2018. The majority of the gift will help the mayors create pilot programs for universal basic income (UBI) in their cities, which include Newark, Atlanta, Seattle, Los Angeles, Compton, Long Beach, Pittsburgh, Oakland and more. The rest of the money will go to a new pilot program in Stockton, which Tubbs will announce in the fall.
For now, the roster of mayors in MGI are moderate to liberal-leaning, but that will soon change. Dorsey is making the donation from #startsmall, his philanthropic limited liability company, which he launched on April 7 by transferring $1 billion worth of Square shares -- then 28% of his net worth -- to the LLC. Dorsey said he would primarily focus his charitable efforts on Covid-19 relief, and also fund efforts to improve girl's health and education, as well as UBI experimentation. Tubbs hopes that with more successful experiments of guaranteed income around the country, the federal government will follow with a national guaranteed income program that will extend beyond the pandemic.
For now, the roster of mayors in MGI are moderate to liberal-leaning, but that will soon change. Dorsey is making the donation from #startsmall, his philanthropic limited liability company, which he launched on April 7 by transferring $1 billion worth of Square shares -- then 28% of his net worth -- to the LLC. Dorsey said he would primarily focus his charitable efforts on Covid-19 relief, and also fund efforts to improve girl's health and education, as well as UBI experimentation. Tubbs hopes that with more successful experiments of guaranteed income around the country, the federal government will follow with a national guaranteed income program that will extend beyond the pandemic.
https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/07/09/2121238/giant-clams-manipulate-light-to-assist-their-symbiotic-partner
Giant Clams Manipulate Light To Assist Their Symbiotic Partner (phys.org)
Special cells in giant clams shift the wavelength of light to protect them from UV radiation and increase the photosynthetic activity of their symbionts, shows research from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology -- originally intended as a photonics investigation. Phys.Org reports:Like corals, giant clams are important players in reef ecosystems and live in symbiosis with photosynthetic Symbiodiniaceae algae. The clams also have special cells, known as iridocytes, that can manipulate light via layers of nanoreflectors within each cell. Earlier work has shown that these iridocytes scatter and reflect light to increase the photosynthetic efficiency of the Symbiodiniaceae algae. Now, a team of researchers at the Red Sea Research Center and the Photonics Laboratory have discovered another way that iridocytes help the symbiont to photosynthesize. The researchers studied the morphology and optical characteristics of iridocytes in the giant clam Tridacna maxima and found that they absorb UV radiation and re-emit it as longer wavelength, photosynthetically useful light.
Ram Chandra Subedi, one of the study's authors, explains that the iridocytes contain alternating layers of high-refractive index guanine crystal and lower refractive index cytoplasm. Compressing and relaxing these layers enables the cell to tune its effect on light. As a result, "the guanine palettes not only reflect harmful UV radiation but also absorb it, and emit light at higher wavelengths which are safe and useful for photosynthesis," he explains. This increases the amount of photosynthetically active radiation available to the algal symbiont and also helps protect both the clams and algae from UV radiation. This photoprotective effect enables giant calms to live in very shallow tropical waters where there is enough light for photosynthesis, but also potentially harmful UV radiation levels.The report adds that this research may help explain the mantle colors of giant clams. "The idea is that the vibrant colors of giant clams are not due to optical differences in the tissue, but rather differences in the distribution or abundance of symbionts relative to iridocytes in each individual," reports Phys.Org.
The research has been published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.
Ram Chandra Subedi, one of the study's authors, explains that the iridocytes contain alternating layers of high-refractive index guanine crystal and lower refractive index cytoplasm. Compressing and relaxing these layers enables the cell to tune its effect on light. As a result, "the guanine palettes not only reflect harmful UV radiation but also absorb it, and emit light at higher wavelengths which are safe and useful for photosynthesis," he explains. This increases the amount of photosynthetically active radiation available to the algal symbiont and also helps protect both the clams and algae from UV radiation. This photoprotective effect enables giant calms to live in very shallow tropical waters where there is enough light for photosynthesis, but also potentially harmful UV radiation levels.The report adds that this research may help explain the mantle colors of giant clams. "The idea is that the vibrant colors of giant clams are not due to optical differences in the tissue, but rather differences in the distribution or abundance of symbionts relative to iridocytes in each individual," reports Phys.Org.
The research has been published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2007.11 - 10:10
- Days ago = 1835 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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