Archive for 2023
September 15, 2023
SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: Socializing face-to-face brings greater mental boost than social media.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: 2023 Detroit Auto Show Recap – Where Have All the Cars Gone? “It’s a far cry from my early years covering the show, when Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) was swarmed by every industry worker from the top executives on down for several freezing cold days in January. What was notable about this year’s media day was what was missing. Press conferences, for one – there were only three – and a fourth reveal the night before. A lot of the PR folks and media members were not in attendance – some were at home and others were off on a first-drive program. Time was no one would dare to set a first drive against the show. Even the looming potential of a UAW strike didn’t seem to bring in extra media.”
To be fair, many of them have been replaced with ChatGPT. To . . . mixed results.
FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: He Converted the Walmart Into a Drive-Thru. “It’s your much-needed break from the serious news and this week we have a latenight excavator joyride, how to get your lawsuit dismissed with complete prejudice, and Seattle Man’s unique drinking problem.”
CHANGE: Disney reportedly held talks about selling ABC. “Sources tell Bloomberg that the talks between Nexstar and Disney are still early and that a price hasn’t yet been named. Another source tells the outlet that Disney is also considering selling ABC to Byron Allen, the CEO of Entertainment Studios, which owns several stations, such as The Weather Channel.”
Update: Mogul Byron Allen makes $10 billion bid for Disney’s ABC, other networks.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SCHOOLS ABANDON MERIT: A review of Heather Mac Donald’s new book, which contains nightmare fuel like this “gem” from a Julliard professor to a black student: “Have you practiced?” The student’s response: “I don’t have to. I’ll always have a job.”
WE’LL SEE MORE OF THIS AS EUROPE CONTINUES TO DEPOPULATE: An Italian island is letting foreigners live rent-free for three months.
Ollolai is located in the wild Barbagia area far from the Sardinia’s VIP-packed coastlines — a place where old traditions survive and bandits once lived in caves.
Through time, locals left in search of a brighter future elsewhere, emptying the ancient district, now covered in street art depicting rural life.
In the past century, Ollolai’s population shrank from 2,250 to 1,300, with only a handful of babies born each year.
The village adopted a highly publicized measure in 2018 to revive the old district: selling crumbling homes for 1 euro.
“That was a major success — many foreigners bought and restyled dozens of forsaken dwellings,” said Mayor Francesco Columbu told CNBC. “Now, after investing in high-speed internet, with this new project ‘Work from Ollolai’ we want to make our village a digital nomad hub.”
The VodkaWife and I could do this once the boys are finished with school… and now I’m the one counting the days.
MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: A remote Air Force base in Alaska is getting its own nuclear reactor: If all goes according to plan, the micro reactor will be online at Eielson Air Force Base by 2027.
My nephew did TDY there, and I hope the reactor maintenance doesn’t match the rest of the base.
THEY HATE YOU, THEY REALLY HATE YOU: America’s Wokest Company. Penzeys Spices wants Republicans to know that they’re the “#1 threat to this country.” The upscale spice chain tops Dave Seminara’s list of woke companies (which unfortunately includes just about every big one).
IF YOU THINK YOU’RE HEALTHY, IT JUST MEANS YOU HAVEN’T HAD ENOUGH TESTS: Women receiving inflated risks from genetic testing could undergo unnecessary breast surgery.
IT PUTS YOUR DRESS UP, AND OPENS UP YOUR HEAD: Study adds more evidence that party drug ‘ecstasy’ may ease PTSD.
STUDY: The Harm Caused by Masks.
Mask-wearers breathe in greater amounts of air that should have been expelled from their bodies and released out into the open. “[A] significant rise in carbon dioxide occurring while wearing a mask is scientifically proven in many studies,” write the German authors. “Fresh air has around 0.04% CO2,” they observe, while chronic exposure at CO2 levels of 0.3 percent is “toxic.” How much CO2 do mask-wearers breathe in? The authors write that “masks bear a possible chronic exposure to low level carbon dioxide of 1.41–3.2% CO2 of the inhaled air in reliable human experiments.”
In other words, while eight times the normal level of carbon dioxide is toxic, research suggests that mask-wearers (specifically those who wear masks for more than 5 minutes at a time) are breathing in 35 to 80 times normal levels.
It’s nice to see common sense from 2020 backed up with science, not that I expect it to change any minds among the mask-addicted.
FASTER, PLEASE: Battle intensifies against sepsis, a condition that can kill.
“If someone is experiencing a fever, lethargy or just not feeling well, there may be an underlying infection. So, it’s important to pay attention to those symptoms, or go to the emergency room to be treated,” Cheryl Reinking, chief nursing officer at El Camino Health in Mountain View, Calif., told UPI via email.
Any type of infection — bacterial, viral or fungal — can lead to sepsis. And, according to the Mayo Clinic, the more common causes of sepsis are infections in the lungs, kidney, bladder, digestive system, bloodstream, burns, wounds and catheter sites.
Lacking a spleen due to youthful misadventures, I am aware of this.
IT’S GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA: The Hunter Biden Indictments Are a Ruse. Here’s Why.
IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE . . . FTC Rules Intuit Can’t Continue Its ‘Free To File’ Advertising Bullshit. “Intuit has spent years advertising to the masses that they can file taxes for free using its TurboTax platform as part of a government program, except only a third of the public qualifies for free filing and Intuit did every last thing possible to hide the options for free filing and collected money from many who would qualify to file for free instead.”
FROM “LAYERS OF EDITORS AND FACT-CHECKERS” TO “SCREW IT, JUST GIVE IT TO THE AI”: Microsoft Publishes Garbled AI Article Calling Tragically Deceased NBA Player ‘Useless.’
Former NBA player Brandon Hunter passed away unexpectedly at the young age of 42 this week, a tragedy that rattled fans of his 2000s career with the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic.
But in an unhinged twist on what was otherwise a somber news story, Microsoft’s MSN news portal published a garbled, seemingly AI-generated article that derided Hunter as “useless” in its headline.
“Brandon Hunter useless at 42,” read the article, which was quickly called out on social media. The rest of the brief report is even more incomprehensible, informing readers that Hunter “handed away” after achieving “vital success as a ahead [sic] for the Bobcats” and “performed in 67 video games.”
Condemnation for the disrespectful article was swift and forceful.
“AI should not be writing obituaries,” posted one reader. “Pay your damn writers MSN.”
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Jets File Restraining Order Against Colin Kaepernick.
WHAT ACTUAL “BOOK BANS” LOOK LIKE: ‘Empty shelves with absolutely no books’: Students, parents question school board’s library weeding process.
Harry Potter, The Hunger Games and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
Those are all examples of books Reina Takata says she can no longer find in her public high school library in Mississauga, Ont., which she visits on her lunch hour most days.
In May, Takata says the shelves at Erindale Secondary School were full of books, but she noticed that they had gradually started to disappear. When she returned to school this fall, things were more stark.
“This year, I came into my school library and there are rows and rows of empty shelves with absolutely no books,” said Takata, who started Grade 10 last week.
She estimates more than 50 per cent of her school’s library books are gone.
In the spring, Takata says students were told by staff that “if the shelves look emptier right now it’s because we have to remove all books [published] prior to 2008.”
Takata is one of several Peel District School Board (PDSB) students, parents and community members CBC Toronto spoke to who are concerned about a seemingly inconsistent approach to a new equity-based book weeding process implemented by the board last spring in response to a provincial directive from the Minister of Education.
They say the new process, intended to ensure library books are inclusive, appears to have led some schools to remove thousands of books solely because they were published in 2008 or earlier.
Only new, woke books will be permitted. Because inclusion! And in retrospect, it does look like leftists took 2008 as Year Zero, doesn’t it?
Related (From Ed): 2008, you say? As James Lileks writes:
Why, once upon a time, everyone talked about the Johnny Carson monologue at the water cooler, often reclining in nylon-webbing lawn chairs. The good days!
This argument found no purchase. If you start with the assumption that the marvelous present began around 2008, when the Lightworker descended unto us in mortal form, smoking a Marlboro, then the past is a moral and cultural abattoir best regarded at arm’s length. In the near future, history courses in high school will consist entirely of the teacher saying, “Ah, there’s the bell; for tomorrow, tear out pages 43 through 57 of your texts and burn them. Class dismissed.”
I’m pretty sure the arrival of the Lightworker was meant to be a warning, not a how to guide for the Ministry of Truth.
In any case: Bomb Canada, The Case for War.
CATHERINE SALGADO: ‘Not for Sale’: Taiwan Minister Slams CCP-Pandering Musk.
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY (CHINA EDITION):
Imagine if Tony Blinken was removed, Lloyd Austin was placed under investigation and top generals in charge of US nuclear missiles were sacked. That is what is happening in China. As @USAmbJapan said, like Agatha Christie novel #AndThenThereWereNone https://t.co/paIdZyNKh9
— Demetri (@Dimi) September 14, 2023
To be fair, in this country, a shakeup like that would be a rare sign of political health. In Xi’s China, not so much.
MR. WANTS-TO-APPEAR-TOUGH-ON-CRIME: Newsom Announces $267 Million Program to Combat Organized Retail Theft.
BOOK OF THE DAY: No Grid Survival Projects Bible: [3 in 1] 1000 Days of Ingenious DIY Projects and Ideas to Survive the Incoming Recession and Become Self-Reliant . #CommissionEarned