NEWS YOU CAN USE? The Best ‘Scary’ Movies for Wusses.
I don’t know about that number one pick. I’m a connoisseur of horror movies, even though they almost never actually frighten — and Misery scared the crap out of me.
Archive for 2018
October 17, 2018
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Experts: October Is The Optimal Time For Flu Shots.
WEIRD, NONE OF THE HEADLINES I SAW MENTIONED THAT HE WAS A DEMOCRAT: So Alaska’s Lt. Governor (a Democrat) just resigned three weeks before the election.
HILARIOUS: IN 2013, PEOPLE WANTED AN EXCEPTION MADE FOR TOTALLY WHITE GUY ROBERT “BETO” O’ROURKE TO GET INTO THE HISPANIC CAUCUS. “However, the CHC stuck to its charter and maintained the policy necessitating members have Hispanic heritage, which Beto does not. For his part, O’Rourke only commented that he respected the Caucus’s bylaws.The willingness of those on the left to shoe-horn in a privileged white guy under the banner of a minority representative is honestly laughable. But don’t you dare put on a sombrero on Halloween or celebrate Cinco de Mayo.
Update: Link now fixed.
AND THE HITS JUST KEEP ON COMING: 11 Freakiest Things About Arizona Senate Candidate Kyrsten Sinema.
THAT DIDN’T TAKE VERY LONG: Facebook Backtracks on Promise that Always-On Video Calling ‘Portal’ Won’t Collect Data. “How long until Facebook starts leaking our phone conversations to third-party vendors?”
IT’S BIG: 2019 BMW X7.
AT AMAZON, browse bestsellers in Industrial and Scientific.
Plus, save on Snow Removal.
LIBERTY: YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG. In Religious Freedom Case, State Says It Can Force a Muslim Tattoo Artist to Endorse Christianity. “That’s no different from forcing Christians to celebrate gay weddings.”
JONATHAN KEILER: Warren’s Clintonian Smoke Signals.
Deliberate or not, Warren’s approach seems to track more closely to another older white woman also lacking in American Indian DNA, but not chutzpah, by the name of Hillary. Maybe Warren ought to check for Ashkenazi DNA.
Like Hillary, Warren is taking the approach that attacking Trump is a no-lose proposition for a Democrat – a rather obvious point, but one she is taking the lead on. And as a woman, much like Hillary, she is willing to cast aside ideas of equality and fall back on her position as a member of the fairer sex when counterattacked.
So when it was leaked that Trump’s chief of staff, General John Kelly, criticized Warren in a private email as rude and obstreperous, she publicly took it as a proof of her toughness and then claimed that Kelly’s comments were sexist. The mainstream media at least pretended to marvel at her political jiu-jitsu, in turning a potential negative into a positive (at least for Democrats) – in other words, claiming Hillary’s harpy badge and wearing it proudly.
The American Indian ridiculousness is part of the same strategy. It simply rekindled a feud with Trump, which is what Warren wants. It doesn’t matter that he’s right and she appears delusional. Democrats don’t care if their leaders are a bit bent. In fact, they might prefer it. What the base wants is to see Democrats fighting Trump. Warren is giving them a fight.
Warren is also protecting herself from future Democratic challengers with another Clintonian move, by quickly putting negatives in the past.
Maybe, but something simultaneously this silly and outrageous is going to be hard to shake.
OOPS: Advertisers Allege Facebook Failed to Disclose Key Metric Error for More Than a Year. “Facebook knew of problems with how it measured viewership of video ads for more than a year before it revealed them in 2016, according to a complaint filed by advertisers.”
Damping marketers’ concerns is important for Facebook as it seeks a bigger piece of U.S. spending on online video ads, which is projected to grow 30% this year to $27.8 billion. Facebook is expected to account for almost 25% of U.S. video ad spending, eMarketer estimates.
For two years, Facebook had counted only video views that lasted more than three seconds when calculating its “average duration of video viewed” metric. Video views of under three seconds weren’t factored in, thereby inflating the average length of a view.
Facebook replaced the metric with “average watch time,” which reflects video views of any duration.
After disclosing the issue in 2016, Facebook said in a statement that it had “recently discovered” the error.
Facebook told some advertisers that it likely overestimated average time spent watching videos by 60% to 80%. The plaintiffs alleged in Tuesday’s complaint that the error was much larger and that the average viewership metrics had been inflated by some 150% to 900%.
Only Facebook knows Facebook’s actual numbers, so who knows how much worse the problem might have been — or might still be.
SCIENCE MARCHES ON: Scientists Invent Self-Lubricating Condoms to Make Safe Sex More Enjoyable.
CHRISTIAN TOTO: Sarah Silverman’s Empathy Shtick More Fake News. “The progressive comic promotes a ‘kumbaya’ vibe while torching anyone outside her world view.”
THE RETURN OF THE PRIMITIVE — BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY: ISIS Targeting Water Supplies, Power Lines and Cell Towers.
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: What Happened to California (Video)?
CHINESE WARSHIPS HAVE BECOME MORE AGGRESSIVE IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA: The link takes you to a US Naval Institute commentary on a Centers for Strategic and International Studies panel addressing Chinese navy actions in the contested sea area. There is an embedded video of the panel. The video doesn’t begin until 18:09. (Skip to it, otherwise you’ll see the intro for 18 minutes.) There is an introductory talk by Greg Poling. The panel starts around 48 minutes.
Here are a couple of key comments:
“The risk of accidents has been heightened” if the Chinese are no longer trying to shadow vessels conducting Freedom of Navigation Operations, but trying to impede entry.
“That kind of interaction … is certainly dangerous,” but also may be an indication that Chinese President Xi Jinping is trying to demonstrate Beijing’s sovereignty in the South China Sea as one facet of increased rivalry between China and the United States diplomatically, economically and militarily across the Indo-Pacific.”
The article is worth reading. I listened to part of the intro speech and the panel. Good stuff — gets into the details.
Chapter Three of my new book, Cocktails from Hell, addresses China’s adventures in the South China Sea and Himalayas. The book comes out in December.
RISING SUN? Japanese Amphibious Soldiers Hit the Beach in the Philippines with U.S. Marines, 7th Fleet.
The amphibious unit, comprised of soldiers with Japan’s Ground Self Defense Force, joined with Marines of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard dock landing ship USS Ashland (LSD-48) for the training alongside Philippine military forces during the bilateral exercise Kamandag, or “Kaagapay Ng Mga Mandirigma Ng Dagat,” along the Philippine Sea northwest of Manila.
The 10-day exercise between the U.S. and Philippines kicked off Oct. 2 and is focused on humanitarian and disaster response, amphibious operations and counter-terrorism training. The exercise also includes members of 7th Fleet, 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, along with the Philippine Marine Corps, Philippine Navy and Philippine Air Force. Japan doesn’t allow its defense forces to participate in offensive, combat type training, although the prime minister has supported revising its policy and pacific constitution.
The ARDB formed in March under the JGSDF’s Western Army with a mission of rapid deployment for contingencies, including potential threats to and attacks against Japan’s many remote islands.
It’s good to see modern Japan taking self-defense so seriously.
WORSE THAN A BIRD STRIKE: Here’s What a Drone Collision Would Do to an Airplane Wing.
ANTISOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook Deletes Disabled Veteran’s Page Without Warning — After Taking $300,000 for Ads.
On his new website which aims to put an end to social media censorship, Air Force veteran and triple-amputee Brian Kolfage explains who he is and the challenges he’s facing stating: “I’m a veteran of The United States Air Force. I was severely wounded in Combat, on 9/11/2004 while serving in Iraq I lost both my legs entirely and my right hand. I’m the most severely wounded US Airman to survive.”
Kolfage continued: “I’m not a ‘conservative.’ I’m not a ‘liberal.’ I’m an American, with deep beliefs in what our country stands for. I proved this by vowing to protect and fighting for America greatest tenant: Free Speech. Many Americans have fought for these political freedoms … freedom of speech … and every American has enjoyed those freedoms… UNTIL TODAY. October 11th Facebook shut down thousands of Facebook accounts for their political opinions stating that they don’t have a ‘legitimate political argument’. STOP SOCIAL MEDIA CENSORSHIP NOW!”
Kolfage was the administrator of a number of Facebook pages, notably the pages Right Wing News and Military Grade Coffee, both of which were deleted recently as Facebook attempts to crack down on what it considers “misinformation” on the platform. Right Wing News had more than 3 million followers at the time of its blacklisting by Facebook.
Facebook can’t sell ads to readers who don’t go there. It’s fine for sharing cute memes or catching up with old friends, but relying on a “progressive” platform to get out your message is a big mistake.
Kolfage’s new website, Fight4FreeSpeech, is here.
ROGER KIMBALL: The triumph of Melania Trump: The ABC interview was meant to demean the First Lady. Like so many press gambits these days, it backfired. “I am not sure that Melania Trump had the introduction of Henry IV Part 2 in mind when she sat down for her free and frank discussion with the jackals of the — er, with a respected ABC correspondent during her recent trip to Africa. But time and again she dilated upon the ‘unpleasant’, erring and intrusive ‘speculation’ of the media.”
