Archive for 2017
November 9, 2017
HE CHOSE…POORLY. Bill Nye agrees to do an “Ask Me Anything” chat on Reddit. It does not go well:
Hi Bill,
I have a great way you can start.
Stop pretending you’re a scientist.
In science, we begin with facts. The facts show you have no formal science education beyond a Bachelors in mechanical engineering from Cornell. That’s it. Not even a Masters degree, let alone a Doctorate. You literally have no formal science education beyond an undergraduate degree. The facts also show that the whole “Science Guy” persona emerged out of a stand-up comedy routine you used to perform on local public-access TV back in the 80’s:
Good science requires valid data, so, here you go:
Read the whole thing.
More at Twitchy, in a post whose title appropriately begins, “‘Holy sh*t, he’s getting destroyed!’”
OOPS: Shuttle Down! Self-Driving-Shuttle Era Begins with a First-Day Crash in Las Vegas. But don’t blame the robots yet: “A spokesperson for AAA, which is a sponsor of the study, says the shuttle was stationary when the truck struck the left-front side of the vehicle.”
RICHARD FERNANDEZ: The Big Switch.
James Bloodworth in the left-of-center Independent noticed the exchange of roles too. “In the past decade or so some progressives have found themselves – either through political expediency or something worse – on the side of the far-right. … The result … has been an anti-war movement working enthusiastically with those advocating the murder of homosexuals, a left-wing Mayor of London embracing a man who said Adolf Hitler had been sent by Allah to punish the Jews, and a group set up ostensibly to oppose fascism warmly welcoming religious fascists into its own ranks.”
‘Tis witchcraft. The populists now have the working class. The Western progressives rule at all the kingly courts: in Hollywood, the media, elite universities, in Washington and Brussels. Today social justice means government, regulation, constant nudging, endless investigations of suspicious sexual activity and and an unblinking cross-examination of anyone in contact with Russia.
Who could have predicted it.
Read the whole thing.
DEAR SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, YOU DESERVE AN APOLOGY FROM THE NEWS MEDIA:
The massacre at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs was the worst mass shooting in modern Texas history. Like Las Vegas before it, the number of casualties alone makes it an event that necessitates coverage. Oftentimes, explaining what happened can prompt others to lend a helping hand or spur needed change, like improvements in public policy. Sometimes, for victims, telling their stories can be cathartic.
As journalists, our role as observers and investigators in times of tragedy is important. But so is our empathy and our humanity. As a profession, we must have a conversation about how best to chronicle horrors like this. We can do better.
To the families who opened up to us and put up with me, thank you. The media horde, myself included, owes you an apology. I hope you’ll soon find a quiet moment in which to mourn.
Sincerely,
Lauren McGaughy
Lauren McGaughy is a Dallas Morning News reporter based in Austin.
“We can do better.” But never will, particularly on this issue.
DRAINING OUT ALL THE EXCITEMENT WITH A TRUTHFUL HEADLINE: Moderate Democrat defeats Bush family surrogate in Virginia.
WELL, GOOD: IUDs may have a surprising health benefit. “IUD contraceptive devices may reduce a woman’s risk of cervical cancer by about a third, a new review concludes. Researchers think IUDs might promote an immune response that kills off human papillomavirus (HPV), the virus that causes virtually all cases of cervical cancer.”
21ST CENTURY HEADLINES AND/OR NEWS YOU CAN USE: You Can Now Get a Groupon for Your STD Tests.
WHAT IS IT WITH ALL THESE HOLLYWOOD GUYS MASTURBATING IN FRONT OF WOMEN? Louis C.K. Accused of Masturbating in Front of Multiple Women in N.Y. Times Exposé.
UPDATE: Ann Althouse answers my question:
The main story that begins the article has 2 women accepting an invitation to hang out in his hotel room and then being “asked if he could take out his penis.” He asked, and they just laughed, as they tell the story. He got completely naked and masturbated. . . .
That’s stand-up comedy, in essence. Standing in front of people naked (metaphorically) and masturbating (metaphorically). It’s not surprising that this would be the man’s sexual fetish. Why is he getting thrown in with the other men who are getting ruined these days? It sounds to me as though he asked for permission. What is the story here, that people have decided his sexuality is loathsome? Am I missing something? I would give this man his privacy.
Absurd. Only women have the right to privacy. Like revenge porn, where men who were with them in the past provide unauthorized pics and details about their sex lives. That’s gross. This is about equality.
And you know who benefits from this? Harvey Weinstein, and the others who are happy to have real rapes conflated with other stuff that isn’t rape until it all vanishes in a cloud of “men are awful.”
It’s only bigotry if it’s aimed at an approved group.
WHERE DID HE THINK HE WAS, HOLLYWOOD? Woman says Roy Moore initiated sexual encounter when she was 14, he was 32. I saw somebody from Alabama wondering why the GOP wasn’t running any ads for Moore for the last two weeks. Maybe they knew this was coming. Moore denies everything, calling it “fake news.” The 14 year old is one thing, the charge that he dated an 18 year old at 32 is nothing even if true. The mom thought he was “good husband material.” The WaPo weakens its story by adding this relationship.
AT AMAZON, on sale, Marino’s Men Genuine Leather Dress Belt with Single Prong Buckle.
MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS IS A DEADLY DULL RIDE, Kyle Smith writes at NRO:
Branagh seems to think the comfort-food aspect of the material is enough to attract an audience, but both the costumes and the sets carry a distinctly second-rate air, probably because the top talents in those fields are busy working in other, more contemporary genres. The movie’s main selling point, its supposed “all-star cast,” isn’t really effective either. Where is the glamour here? Cruz, frumpy and frowning, is utterly charmless. Depp has lost the rakish glint in his eye. Ridley may have been excellent as the young Jedi in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but she barely registers here. Odom, who made a splash in Broadway’s Hamilton, has even less to contribute. Gad, still best known as the voice of the snowman in Frozen, is strictly a broad comic and fails to bring any shadiness to his deceitful character. And Dench is simply bored. The feeling is contagious: I couldn’t wait to get off this cramped, stuffy, airless ride.
Besides, there can be only one Poirot, and that’s David Suchet, and he made his own version of Murder on the Orient Express in 2010. You can get a sense of how his and Branagh’s version differ in quality by their respective IMDB ratings:
Suchet’s version is in many ways, the culmination of all of the work he put in portraying the character from 1989 to 2013; if you’re a fan of his ITV series (which ran for years on PBS and later A&E), rent that version instead.
WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Doctors replace boy’s skin using breakthrough gene therapy, stem cells. “The grafted skin attached to his body has continued to replace itself, even months later.”
AT AMAZON, save on Wheels and Tires.
Plus, deals on DVDs.
THE NY TIMES RUNS ITS LOUIS C.K. STORY, HEADLINED, “Louis C.K. Crossed a Line Into Sexual Misconduct, 5 Women Say:”
In 2002, a Chicago comedy duo, Dana Min Goodman and Julia Wolov, landed their big break: a chance to perform at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo. When Louis C.K. invited them to hang out in his hotel room for a nightcap after their late-night show, they did not think twice. The bars were closed and they wanted to celebrate. He was a comedian they admired. The women would be together. His intentions seemed collegial.
As soon as they sat down in his room, still wrapped in their winter jackets and hats, Louis C.K. asked if he could take out his penis, the women said.
They thought it was a joke and laughed it off. “And then he really did it,” Ms. Goodman said in an interview with The New York Times. “He proceeded to take all of his clothes off, and get completely naked, and started masturbating.”
In 2003, Abby Schachner called Louis C.K. to invite him to one of her shows, and during the phone conversation, she said, she could hear him masturbating as they spoke. Another comedian, Rebecca Corry, said that while she was appearing with Louis C.K. on a television pilot in 2005, he asked if he could masturbate in front of her. She declined.
Read the whole thing, if you can stand it.
IT’S DIFFERENT WHEN THEY DO IT: Obama, Clinton Have Long History of Meddling in Foreign Elections.
CARL ARBOGAST: Observe How The Media Describes Stephen Willeford’s Firearm Vs. Devin Kelley.
Notice what Willeford is using? A rifle. A gun.
What they don’t tell you is Willeford used an AR-15. That’s right. One of those “military-style assault weapons” they’re always crowing about.
Do you see how it is? Nearly every story about Kelley talked about the type of gun he used and naturally, the stories were punctuated by describing the gun as “military style” and an “assault weapon.” But Willeford just used a gun. Or a rifle.
Here’s a Google search of “Devin Kelley military style” and just look at the host of stories that come up describing his rifle that way.
Should we expect anything different from the press?
Nope.
I WAS EXPECTING AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: Turns Out Magma Is Locked in ‘Cold Storage’ Before Volcanoes Dramatically Explode.
“The older view is that there’s a long period with a big tank of molten rock in the crust,” says geoscientist Nathan Andersen from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“A new view is that magma is stored for a long period in a state that is locked, cool, crystalline, and unable to produce an eruption. That dormant system would need a huge infusion of heat to erupt.”
Such a huge infusion of heat is what’s thought to have unleashed a violent supereruption in California some 765,000 years ago. . . .
Unfortunately, while scientists are doing everything they can to read the signs of volcanic supereruptions – something NASA views as more dangerous than asteroid strikes – the reality is, the new findings don’t bring us any closer to seeing the future.
“This does not point to prediction in any concrete way,” Singer explains in a press statement, “but it does point to the fact that we don’t understand what is going on in these systems, in the period of 10 to 1,000 years that precedes a large eruption.”
Well, that’s comforting.
WELL, THAT’S HELPFUL: CDC: Too early to tell if flu shot will be more effective than last year.
SHOT: The resistance to Trump is blossoming – and building a movement to last.
Literally wiping the tears from my eyes. This is so funny. OMG. #WailingWankers pic.twitter.com/tApBJKYv7q
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) November 9, 2017
HANGOVER:
On a long enough timeline, every Simpsons gag becomes reality.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Duke University offers scholarship that excludes heterosexual students.
OLD AND BUSTED: If we don’t protect our forests and plant more trees, by the early 21st century, the only forestry left will be a couple of acres cared for by Bruce Dern and his robots in a bio-dome atop a space ship.
The new hotness: Students bemoan effort to plant trees in Israel, call it ecological imperialism.
Has anyone gotten Joan Baez’s take on this headline?
(Via the ecologically balanced headline-rich fields of Maggie’s Farm.)
REMEMBER, ONLY TRAINED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS CAN BE TRUSTED WITH GUNS: After Night of Drinking, F.B.I. Supervisor Wakes to Find a Woman Stole His Gun.
An F.B.I. counterterrorism supervisor is under internal investigation after a woman stole his gun following a night of heavy drinking in a North Carolina hotel, according to documents and government officials.
In July, Robert Manson, a unit chief in the F.B.I.’s international terrorism section, had his Glock .40-caliber handgun, a $6,000 Rolex watch and $60 in cash stolen from his room at the Westin hotel in Charlotte, N.C., according to a police report. . . .
Mr. Manson and other senior agents were in Charlotte for training, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the episode. The agents later told the police that they had been drinking with women who said they were exotic dancers, according to a second person who was briefed on the investigation but, like the first, was not authorized to discuss it publicly.
“Investigators determined that the victim, Robert Manson, met a woman in the hotel bar the prior night and took her back to his hotel room,” Robert Tufano, a spokesman for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, said in a statement.
At 6:30 the next morning, police officers for the department were called to the hotel. Mr. Manson was incapacitated because of alcohol, according to the police report, which he did not file himself. A fellow agent, Kevin Thuman, gave the report, which says the theft happened from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. The hotel bar closes at 2 a.m.
So he’s out drinking with strippers, takes one back to his room, she steals his gun, his watch, and his cash, and the next morning he’s still too drunk to file the report himself. And he’s a counterterrorism supervisor.
And why is an FBI agent wearing a $6000 Rolex?
It’s been a humiliating year for the FBI.