Archive for 2024
July 27, 2024
SPACE SUBMARINE TIME: New Calculations Uncover a Vast Ocean Beneath Pluto’s Ice.
AIRBRUSHES IN ACTION: Suddenly IOC and French Nervous About Those Opening Ceremony Videos. “Perhaps the reaction to their edgy wokeness is not what they were anticipating eh? When I went back through my X feed this morning after reading this, there are a lot of blank tweets where they’ve already taken down the most offensive snippets from last night’s performances, many of them European broadcast clips.”
Well, the pushback isn’t just coming from “conservative groups” as the press suggests:
We were shocked by the mockery of the Last Supper during the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics. C Spire will be pulling our advertising from the Olympics.
— C Spire (@CSpire) July 27, 2024
IS THAT THE WORRY? THE “RISK OF ESCALATION?” Deadly Soccer Field Attack in Israel Raises Risk of Escalation Between Israel and Hezbollah.
PROTEST AS UPPER-CLASS COSPLAY:
It’s almost always working class men (of color) who have to clean up behind the graffiti of liberal elites: climate change, Gaza protests on college campuses, etc. Put that in the slow cooker… pic.twitter.com/BV6VQjpOo7
— Anthony Bradley (@drantbradley) July 26, 2024
AMONG OTHER THINGS: Athletes can expect high ozone, pollen levels at Paris Olympics.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: South Korean resort island looks to become home to space industry.
MILE MARKERS ON THE ROAD TO DETROIT: San Francisco’s dying downtown suffers another hammer blow as Saks Fifth Avenue bans window shoppers from coming inside.
Saks Fifth Avenue in Union Square has decided to change its customer experience by moving to ‘appointment-only’ this summer, according to KRON4.
Locals will have to pre-book appointments at the store located on 384 Post Street from August 28.
Customers can no longer walk in and browse the luxury items, according to a company spokesman.
It comes as areas in San Francisco have become known for their squalor and misery – so much so that local businesses are unable to recruit staff and residents have felt forced to flee.
In December of 2022, Virginia Postrel wrote in the Wall Street Journal: What Shopping Did for American Equality.
The urban palaces of early department stores, the climate-controlled corridors of suburban malls, the endlessly scrolling pages of Etsy, the utilitarian aisles of Walmart and the chatty reveals of haul videos aren’t merely sites of envy or exchange. They’re places where Americans—both buyers and sellers—work out who we are and who we want to be. Since the mid-19th century, modern retailing has tested the practical meaning of equality and freedom.
When A.T. Stewart opened his multistory dry goods store in 1846, the Manhattan merchant introduced two revolutionary practices that we now take for granted. He let anyone come and browse freely, whether or not intending to buy, and he charged every customer the same price. Both policies changed the everyday meaning of social equality.
At Stewart’s, wrote a journalist in 1871, “you may gaze upon a million dollars’ worth of goods, and no man will interrupt either your meditation or your admiration.” The store and its many emulators established a new social norm. Any well-behaved patron, regardless of class or ethnicity, could freely examine the merchandise without being pestered or pressured to leave.
It was a revolutionary concept, and at least in San Francisco, it was fun while it lasted.
READER FAVORITE: The Backyard Bug Book for Kids: Storybook, Insect Facts, and Activities. #CommissionEarned
WELL, IF IT DOESN’T PEAK BEFORE THE ELECTION WE PROBABLY WON’T HEAR MUCH ABOUT IT: There Are No Good Options Left With Bird Flu. “Even with the spate of farmworker infections, the threat of bird flu to humans is, at the moment, considered low. Researchers are keeping an eye out for two red flags. The bigger one would be the virus’s ability to spread between people. All of the people who have tested positive in the U.S. were infected by exposure to sick cows or poultry, and they have not seemed to pass the virus along to anyone else. Symptoms have generally been mild, including respiratory issues, though several people have developed serious cases of conjunctivitis, or pink eye. (No one in the U.S., or globally, has died from this variant of H5N1.)”
We should hope it’s mild because the abuse of public trust by health authorities under Covid means that there will be much less public cooperation in the future. Of course, since the measures under Covid were mostly destructive and/or ineffective, maybe that’s not a bug, but a feature.
OLD AND BUSTED: Leni Riefenstahl films the 1936 Olympics from a fascist perspective.
The New Hotness? 2024 Olympics portray themselves from a uber-woke perspective:
● Drag Queens Parody the Last Supper During Olympics Opening Ceremonies.
● As Islamic Groups Vow Massacres, Paris Olympics Target Christianity.
● Trans People Are So Oppressed That They’re Opening the Olympics (VIP).
Exit question: “Why is a planet-wide celebration of athleticism and uncommon sporting prowess being introduced with yet another tedious display of cross-dressing, oddly selective sacrilege, and self-satisfied obesity?”
UPDATE:
● Israeli soccer team booed during national anthem at Olympic opener.
● “This summer in Paris, Israeli athletes will proudly compete as citizens of Israel. Six Palestinians will be competing too — but not as citizens of Palestine, because there is no nation of Palestine.”
● Metaphor alert, part un: Olympic flag raised upside down at end of rain-soaked opening ceremony.
● Metaphor alert, part deux:
MORE:
WAIT, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE WASN’T MEANT TO BE A HOW-TO GUIDE: Astronaut Mark Kelly, one of the favorites to be Kamala’s VP pick, literally owns a spy balloon company funded by a Chinese venture capitalist.
I did NOT have the Democrats’ darling politician and favorite to be Kamala’s VP, Astronaut Mark Kelly, as a Chinese spy balloon guy on my bingo card.
But, dudes, it’s real.
Another potential veep candidate is under the spotlight as well: Pennsylvania Dem accuses potential Harris VP pick Gov. Josh Shapiro of sexism, covering up sexual harassment.
THE REST OF THE LIDDELL STORY: Thanks to Instapundit reader Larry who pointed out the superb documentary on Tubi entitled “Eric Liddell: Champion of Conviction.” I watched it and it is indeed, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story. So it’s up today on HillFaith. It’s just short of an hour but is well worth your time.
Liddell had become a national superstar with his Olympic performance and could have remained in Scotland to bask in the glory and live the good life. Instead, he returned to China as a Christian missionary at a time when WWII was on the horizon.
Following Japan’s invasion of China, Liddell lived the last four of his 43 years in a Japanese internment camp. The Tubi documentary does a tremendous job of reporting how those terrible years showed what a genuinely great man of faith and conviction was the Scots’ great champion.
ORWELLIANISM SCIENCE: NIH kicks out scholars critical of gender identity from ‘sex and gender’ event.
DEI CANDIDATE SLAMS DEI OPPONENTS: FLASHBACK: Kamala Harris slammed DEI opponents in Florida speech: ‘You know what they’re up to.’
WELL, THE INSTA-WIFE GAINED ALMOST AN INCH IN HEIGHT AFTER STARTING BARRE AND PILATES: Does Dementia Make You Taller?