FASTER, PLEASE: Pfizer pill becomes first US-authorized home COVID treatment.
Archive for 2021
December 22, 2021
“CLOUD STORAGE” JUST MEANS “STORAGE ON SOMEONE ELSE’S HARD DRIVE:” Recent AWS glitches illustrate the power, and fragility, of cloud computing.
TWITTER IS GARBAGE: Saudi Dissident Arrest Raises Questions About Twitter Collaboration.
XI’S GOTTA HAVE IT:
Shot: Bullish China Warns U.S. Unification With Taiwan Unstoppable by ‘Any Force.’
—Newsweek, yesterday.
Chaser: US Air Force allows usage of pronouns in electronic signature.
—The Washington Examiner, today.
YOU CAN ACT LIKE A MAN! CNN’s Chris Cillizza Melts Down Over Omicron. “What is it with CNN’s on-air talent acting like the lamest characters out of The Godfather?”
TOP SELLER: Sony WF-C500 Truly Wireless In-Ear Bluetooth Earbud Headphones with Mic and IPX4 water resistance, Black. #CommissionEarned
VIDEO OR IT DIDN’T HAPPEN: Hoax alert: No video evidence for alleged assault against female Muslim in student center.
The University of Maryland Baltimore County has, “pending further investigative leads,” halted an investigation into an alleged assault on a female Muslim student.
University spokesperson Dinah Winnick shared the update with The College Fix via email on December 15.
“It’s our policy to send alerts to the campus when hate-bias incidents are reported,” Winnick said on December 20, when asked if the school planned to send out a new update about the investigation being frozen. “UMBC Police evaluate the need for any updates based on the investigation.”
The hate and bias investigation report labeled the incident “inconclusive” and other information obtained by The College Fix through a public records request point to the strong possibility of a hoax.
Meanwhile, in Virginia: ‘Islamophobic Hate Crime’ in Virginia Turns Out to Be Fake.
JAMES LILEKS’ WEDNESDAY REVIEW OF MODERN THOUGHT:
It’s not that I don’t like the subject, or the writer. It’s a combination of the two into something that elevates “food journalism” into something very important. It is not very important, although of course I should talk.
Maybe I’m wrong. Perhaps you will react differently to the first paragraph of this New Yorker profile, which I found mysterious: who the hell cares about any of this.
Alison Roman approves of creamed greens, knobby lemons, and iceberg lettuce. She’s a slicer of onions, not a dicer; a “ride-or-die corner person” when it comes to lasagnas and cakes. She doesn’t sift flour, soak beans, or peel ginger. Instapots are a no, as are runny dressings, tomatoes on sandwiches, apples as snacks, and drinks served up. Breakfast is savory. Naps are naked. Showers are “objectively boring” and inferior to baths. The thing to do, according to Roman, is to start the water, put on a towel, and head back into the kitchen. The amount of time it takes to fill the tub is roughly equivalent to the time it takes to tear up a loaf of stale bread, for croutons fried in chicken fat.
“You either like my style or you don’t, you’re into the vibe or not,” Roman told me.
* * * * * * * *
The distinction seems to be about the appearance of caring overly much. In Roman’s world, an admission of effort must be offset by an ungiven fuck.
Ladies and gentlemen, the New Yorker.
You can see the modern-day William Shawn looking at a poem submitted by Robert Frost, thinking “wouldn’t this be better if it was the fuck ungiven, not the road not taken?”
To be fair, this reads like an example of New York life attempting, somehow, to get back to what passes for normal there in some quarters, at least before the phrase “the Omicron Variant” became universally known. Read the whole thing.
SUDDEN BURSTS OF IRRATIONAL ANGER ARE TYPICAL OF DEMENTIA: Don Surber: Manchin shows Biden’s dangerous. “When Manchin told him no, Biden flipped out. How dare some punk with less than 12 years seniority rebuke him.”
HAVING COMPROMISED AND DESTROYED HOLLYWOOD WHILE SUCKING UP ITS TECHNOLOGY, CHINA SAYS SO LONG: Inside China and Hollywood’s Frayed Relationship: ‘We Need to Stop Trying to Keep the Status Quo, Because the Status Quo Is Gone.’ “Xi Jinping’s goal is absolutely to have Chinese films play worldwide just like Hollywood movies, so that China can exert soft power and replace Hollywood. There’s no way they’re going to be cooperative going forward, allowing U.S. films into China.”
WELL, HIS PERFORMANCE IS WORSE THAN CARTER’S: Biden’s economic ratings are worse than Carter’s.
THANKFULNESS SHOULD PRECEDE TAKEFULNESS: Aunt Lillian’s Timely Grace. My Christmas column — with a little thrust at the end.
IT’S MOSTLY PEACEFUL: Squad Member Rep. Pressley Calls Opposing Student Loan Forgiveness ‘Policy Violence.’
GAMING THE BULGE: The Battle of the Bulge began December 16, 1944. The latest StrategyTalk features a discussion of Jim Dunnigan’s classic operational simulation of the battle. “Bulge.” Jim and I also discuss the background to the German attack and lessons learned.
RELATED: A few photos from the Bulge archive. 1: An M-36 Jackson heads for the front. 2: Americans improvise snow camouflage. 3: Snow covered Shermans at St. Vith. 4: Exhausted engineers in the woods near Wiltz. 5: American soldiers in the snow — without winter camouflage. 6: German grenadiers in woods in Luxembourg. This last photo was taken December 22, 1944.
TOP SELLER: From John C. Bogle, The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns. #CommissionEarned I met some “Bogleheads” on a trip once and chatted with them about the Bogle investment strategy and it seemed like there was a lot of useful stuff to learn from it.
WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE: Elon Musk Sits Down With The Babylon Bee (Video).
(Bumped.)