Archive for 2018

TWITTER’S GONE CRAZY BANNING PEOPLE ON THE RIGHT, so I’ve deactivated my Twitter account.

Flashback: Despite Twitter’s Protests, The Stifling of Conservative Speech On The Platform Is Real.

UPDATE: People seem to want more, and although there’s nothing duller than posting a screed on why you’re quitting a platform, here’s the gist: I’ve never liked Twitter even though I’ve used it. I was a late adopter, and with good reason. It’s the crystal meth of social media — addictive and destructive, yet simultaneously unsatisfying. When I’m off it I’m happier than when I’m on it. That it’s also being run by crappy SJW types who break their promises, to users, shareholders, and the government, of free speech is just the final reason. Why should I provide free content to people I don’t like, who hate me? I’m currently working on a book on social media, and I keep coming back to the point that Twitter is far and away the most socially destructive of the various platforms. So I decided to suspend them, as they are suspending others. At least I’m giving my reasons, which is more than they’ve done usually.

OPEN THREAD: Hope your Thanksgiving weekend was great!

NYT REPORTER DEMANDS YOU BECOME ‘HYSTERICAL’ ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE.

Curiously though, the Times’ Helene Cooper isn’t “hysterical” enough to demand her bosses no longer charter lavish private tours for its readers to indulge in “omnipotent tourist syndrome” while visiting oppressed foreign lands such as Cuba and Iran, and around-the-world private jet tours with Times columnists:

The tour’s “exclusively chartered Boeing 757” ordinarily seats up to 295 passengers, of the pathetically non-“high-luxury” variety. So the carbon footprint of the Times’ 50 guests will be close to six times that of a commercial-jet traveler. If any of the guests feels a twinge of guilt over his greenhouse-gas emissions, he can chase it away by “enjoying a champagne toast inside an Icelandic ice funnel,” before learning “how climate change is affecting the land of fire and ice.” That’s after having been whisked to Easter Island to “learn how climate change is affecting” that location.

Among the New York Times’ “most noteworthy journalists” who will be joining the “privileged guests” is columnist Nicholas Kristof, who has criticized Trump for his climate-change skepticism and who rails against income inequality and a tax code that, among other things, provides tax breaks for buying private planes. The “privileged guests” who will pay $148,500 for single occupancy, $135,000 for double occupancy, in such properties as a “former Persian caravansary,” will no doubt nod appreciatively at Kristof’s hand-wringing about income disparities. Naturally, a port-of-call in Havana is planned, where “guests” will surely learn about the wonders of socialized medicine.

C’mon Helene – get hysterical and demand this sort of eco-madness at the Times come to an end.

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Do You Need To Take Digestive Enzymes? I used to take them, and felt like they helped, but once I started supplementing with Vitamin D my stomach — specifically, my irritable bowel syndrome — got better and I didn’t need them anymore.

UPDATE: In response to questions in the comments, I don’t take anything fancy, just the Nature Made capsules. I generally take 2000 IU in the summer, and 4000 in the winter. I’ve posted on this before, and readers shared similar experiences in the comments. And here’s a fairly recent post on some of the supplements that I take.

OLD AND BUSTED: Seeking out strange new worlds and boldly going where no man has gone before.

The New Hotness? “Gizmodo offers an account of recent panel discussion about Mars hosted by Lucianne Walkowicz, the NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, and you have to read this, not to believe it, because of course the real problem with going to Mars is that it would represent ‘colonialism.’ No, seriously, that’s what the thinking is.

Read the whole thing. As Steve Hayward asks, “When Did NASA Go to Pot?”

THE 21st CENTURY IS NOT WORKING OUT AS I EXPECTED: Sarah Michelle Gellar is ‘terribly sorry’ for offending people with her pre-Thanksgiving lingerie post.

Forget the turkey — Sarah Michelle Gellar chowed down on some crow in the run-up to Thanksgiving this year.

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” star Gellar has coughed up an apology after apparently offending some people by posting a photo of herself in lingerie as a reminder not to overeat on Thursday.

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While the vast majority of comments displayed support for the actress, some people took issue with the post, leading Gellar to clarify in the comments section that she did not intend to fat-shame anyone.

Gellar should have taken Bethany Mandel’s advice: How to Handle the Outrage Mob.