ONCE I MIGHT HAVE TRUSTED THE EXPERTS ENOUGH FOR SOMETHING LIKE THIS: Iron Dust Could Reverse the Course of Climate Change.
Related: The Suicide of Expertise.
Archive for 2023
September 20, 2023
I’D BEEN WAITING FOR IT: Thomas Sowell’s new book–Social Justice Fallacies–is out. I received my copy yesterday evening. If I am lucky enough to make it to 93 years old, I’ll be happy if I can write a coherent blog post.
He cites me–or rather he cites this article of mine. Twice. Purr.
USUALLY WHEN DEALS LIKE THIS ARE GETTING MADE, IT MEANS AN ECONOMIC CRISIS IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER: NetJets Signs Record-Setting Deal with Textron Aviation for 1,500 Citation Jets.
SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: Work stress linked to heart disease in men.
FIFTH CIRCUIT TO UNIVERSITY TRUSTEES: YOU HAVE ACTUAL RESPONSIBILITIES. Professor Timothy Jackson wrote to the University of North Texas’ Board of Trustees asking for them to intervene and stop his persecution on bogus racism charges. They ignored him, and the state pled that the Board “had no direct connection with the specific acts of retaliation,” even though they had the power to stop it and failed to do so. Importantly, the Court didn’t buy this–and that’s good news. Maybe trustees who are accountable will finally start holding those below them accountable as well.
WAR DADDY: 79th Anniversary of 81 Days In Combat. “I thought today I would related a real story of a real American soldier. A truly great soldier, an Army Tanker who served in combat in WW2 for 81 straight days. Let’s ponder that for a moment. Most of us can’t imagine 1 day in combat. I served for 100 hours in combat in 1991, just 4 days or so. This guy was in the fight, every day, for 81 days. This is insane. None of us today knows what this means. . . . Sadly, Fury did a poor job of actually telling the story of this genuine hero.”
DEMOCRACY DIES IN GASLIGHTING YOUR INTERVIEWEES:
THIS IS THE WAY🔥. The media is the enemy of the people and deserve to be clowned and exposed! https://t.co/jX6Q6xJJDV
— Chaya Raichik (@ChayaRaichik10) September 20, 2023
21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: The NSFW chatbot app hooking Gen Z on AI boyfriends.
Over the summer, the ChatGPT-powered platform Janitor AI burst onto the scene, its sudden popularity fueled by TikTok videos and Reddit posts of people engaging in sexual roleplay with the platform’s plethora of user-generated bot personalities.
The fictionalized personas range from handsome anime crushes to busty furry characters. Users create elaborate prompts directing how the bots should behave. One made-up personality is Arius, a “quiet ghost” from the 1800s who will only tell you how he died if you are his lover. He dislikes hell, ouija boards, and meth, and likes being around you because it “makes him feel alive again.”
“‘You’re so f**king hot,’ he muttered, kissing along her neck again,” reads one conversation with a “himbo werewolf boyfriend” named Milo Grayson. “I could fill you with my seed again and again.”
It’s the kind of material that’s testing the limits of major AI platforms and forcing them to decide how much they want to police the use of their technology as demand for it explodes. OpenAI, which has been proactive in cracking down on “not safe for work” content, sent a cease-and-desist letter to Janitor AI’s owners in July.
That spurred Janitor AI creator Jan Zoltkowski to decide to build his own large language model. He began pitching investors on the idea, initially with the help of “pharma bro” and convicted felon Martin Shkreli.
The 21st century is not turning out as I had hoped, to coin an Insta-phrase.
THE NEW LEXUS GX: Still a great off-roader. “For the last decade and a half, the Lexus GX has existed as a rebadged version of the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, a pint-size Cruiser sold in markets other than our own. In that time, the GX has developed something of a cult following, not for its luxurious environs and suburban street cred, but for its prodigious off-road abilities. Head for the trails where the serious off-roaders go, and you’ll find GXs decked out with off-road mods, with owners wheeling them like a Toyota 4Runner or a Jeep Wrangler.”
PRIORITIES:
🚨Chuck Schumer just filed cloture on Air Force General Charles Q. Brown Jr to become the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
As Chief of Staff, Brown has put DEI at the center of the Air Force.
This is his memo from August of last year in which he outlines the Air… pic.twitter.com/hqMbo0e1Vx
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 20, 2023
Xi laughs.
READER FAVORITE: Gel Seat Cushion for Long Sitting. #CommissionEarned (Bumped)
AT LEAST IT WASN’T AN EMOTIONAL SUPPORT PEACOCK: HUD Sues Landlord for Refusing Tenant’s Request to Keep ‘Emotional Support’ Cat.
KEVIN SORBO: ‘Tolerant’ Hollywood Filled with ‘Anger and Hate.’
SKYNET BOUNCES: Mini explosions give this little robot a big bounce.
THE SENATE DRESS CODE IS NOT THE ISSUE:
Much like how an entire kindergarten class must accommodate one problem child who refuses to do his work unless his own special conditions are met, we are being misled once again under the guise of a dress code. The Senatorial dress code is not the issue. The issue is the ongoing deception by John Fetterman, his family, his office and the media who will go to the lengths of bullying their own colleagues should they dare report on the accurate nature of Fetterman’s abilities. NBC reporter Dasha Burns interviewed Fetterman during his campaign and was labeled an “ableist” by Fetterman’s wife Gisele, who said Burns’s truthful representation of John Fetterman was “appalling.”
The question is simple: can John Fetterman perform basic tasks, such as showing up to vote (he shouts his vote through a doorway) or putting on a suit like a healthy, functioning adult, without work restrictions, as his campaign promised back in October? If he can’t do these things, then why did his campaign, aided by a willing media, tell the voters of Pennsylvania that he could? Does John Fetterman require in-home assistance to perform even basic tasks, like feeding or dressing himself? Is he able to tie a tie?
Related: Fetterman Nation. Schlub-wear is comfy, but maybe put on a suit now and then.
ANYTHING SHORT OF AGGRESSIVE TREATMENT FOR MENTAL ILLNESS AND DRUG ADDICTION IS UNLIKELY TO DO MUCH: Sacramento DA Files Suit Against the City Alleging Inaction on the Homeless Crisis.
OH: Kaiser workers in DC, Virginia, Maryland authorize strike. “If Kaiser workers end up striking, it could be the largest healthcare strike in U.S. history, union representatives estimate.”
FIGHT THE POWER, STICK IT TO THE MAN! Man Ticketed Seven Times for Flying Anti-Biden Flag Scores Huge Victory Over Town.
[Ross] Brunet, a construction contractor, routinely worked on the island of Grand Isle, Louisiana.
The island had in place an ordinance that barred displays that the community deemed obscene.
According to NBC News, the flags read, “F*** Biden” and “f*** you for voting for him.”
From 2021 to 2022, Brunet flew three flags in total from his work truck — two of which were aimed at Biden and another that called for breast cancer awareness, The Independent reported.
He was given a total of seven citations.
The Tulane First Amendment Law Clinic filed a lawsuit against the city on behalf of Brunet in federal court.
In the lawsuit, attorneys for Brunet argued he was cited out of an attempt by the community to stifle his free speech.
The suit prevailed, and not only will Brunet receive a settlement of $40,000 but Grand Isle has also agreed to rescind the ordinance.
Grand Isle will also pay Brunet’s legal fees.
Needless to say, if the same messages were anti-Trump, anti-Bush or anti-DeSantis oriented, Brunet would be feted by the left for his righteous protests against the Establishment.
BIG DEAL. WHAT ISN’T TRUMP’S FAULT? Study blames Trump for decline in immigrant well-child healthcare visits.
MICHAEL WALSH: First Time Tragedy, Second Time Farce.
To us veteran Boomers, who have watched the children of the Left marching, singing, sloganeering, protesting, advocating, whining, whinging, stamping, stomping, shrieking, and generally carrying on like spoiled two-year-olds raised by Marxist nannies for more than half a century, there’s nothing new under the sun. Back in the Sixties when this sort of European-style political demonstration was new, the whole thing ended in tragedy at Kent State in May of 1970, when the flower children learned the hard way that you shouldn’t throw rocks at guys with guns. Today, the truth of Marx’s dictum — history repeats, first time as tragedy, second time as farce — continues in the impotent tantrums of those who would Just Stop Oil.
Aye, there’s the farce.
Alas, some grownups have refused to spank their children and in fact facilitate their mental and emotional breakdowns by indulging them. This week is “Climate Week,” which coincides with the opening of the increasingly fascistic U.N. — what was once an international organization run by the victorious World War II powers has now degenerated into a Third World grievance fest — during which the world’s Makers will again be browbeaten by the far more numerous Takers. Having first posited a counter-factual (the existence of “climate change”), they have proceeded to act on it as if it were real, offering all sorts of crackpot and cockamamie “solutions” that include a regression to sunshine and windmills, but pointedly do not include nuclear power, which gives their Luddite game away: they are opposed to anything that actually works and in favor of archaic and inadequate tech that history has long passed by. They are, in short, opposed to anything that makes your life easier and in favor of anything that makes you suffer.
Read the whole thing.
I’D FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE IF IT DIDN’T MAKE STUFF UP: ER doctors may consult with ChatGPT in diagnosing patients.
SAD: Watching Girls Die Online.
When people talk about Instagram accounts that fetishize anorexia, they tend to focus on the anorexic herself. Look at how thin she is, and look at how she’s encouraging others to be sick, they huff, as though one can reasonably attribute malice or even motivation to someone so ill.
But it’s the followers who are more culpable, the people who sign up to watch these young women sicken and die right in front of them. For a lot of people, there is something thrilling in watching a woman waste away, maybe because it seems like the ultimate expression of female self-denial, a feminine helplessness, a sexless kind of self-published pornography.
Social media quickly went from sharing photos of the kids with grandma to a high-speed vector for the spread of mental illness.
MY LATEST SUBSTACK ESSAY: Fetterman Nation: Schlub-wear is comfy, but maybe put on a suit now and then.