SPEED TEST: 0 to 150 to 0.
Author Archive: Glenn Reynolds
November 27, 2023
SCIENCE IS EVERYWHERE: How AI could help optimize nutrient consistency in donated human breast milk.
BECAUSE THE GREENS HATE YOU AND WANT YOUR LIFE TO BE WORSE: Why Does My ‘Efficient’ Dishwasher Take a Zillion Minutes for a Load?
For months, Donna King experimented with the various settings of her washing machine, trying to get her clothes to stop coming out covered in detergent residue. In the era of tightening water and energy standards, King thinks the machine just doesn’t use enough water, with clothes emerging nearly dry to the touch.
She regularly runs her T-shirts through the machine a second time. The hairstylist in Oak Ridge, Tenn., sometimes brings laundry loads into work to use the heavy duty setup there.
“I’m all for saving the environment but this ain’t the way to do it, if you got to do something two or three times,” the 59-year-old said. “The standard is great on paper, but when it comes to practical and real life situations, it’s a bunch of s—.”
Indeed it is.
Plus: “The average standard cycle time for a dishwasher has increased from around 70 minutes in 1983 to 160 minutes this year.”
DON SURBER: Irish Lives Matter: It should not take a riot to get that message through. Judging by the government’s response, it may take more than one. “The moment called for a Churchill moment. Prime Minister Leo Varadkar gave them Obama. . . . Well, who are the Irish? Are they not the indigenous people of Ireland?”
HMM: WSJ: Instagram Panders to Pedos? “The Journal sought to determine what Instagram’s Reels algorithm would recommend to test accounts set up to follow only young gymnasts, cheerleaders and other teen and preteen influencers active on the platform. Instagram’s system served jarring doses of salacious content to those test accounts, including risqué footage of children as well as overtly sexual adult videos—and ads for some of the biggest U.S. brands.”
Related: Unsealed complaint says Meta ‘coveted’ under-13s and deceives the public about age enforcement. “Meta ‘routinely violates’ the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA) by targeting children and collecting their information without parental consent, according to the complaint. The lawsuit also argues that Meta’s platforms manipulate young users into spending unhealthy amounts of time on the apps, promote body dysmorphia and expose them to potentially harmful content.”
THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE: What is going on with UAP disclosure? “If nothing else, this opposition coming from the Republican leadership suggests that all or most of the allegations coming from UFO whistleblower David Grusch are probably accurate. After all, if this was all fictional or some sort of government psyop campaign, why would anyone be bothered by legislation intended to expose it? If it were all a hoax, why not allow the perpetrators to be exposed and then move on with the rest of your business? That doesn’t make sense.”
Some earlier thoughts here.
UNSURPRISING: Gen Z wants action movies, not woke storylines: UCLA study.
Gen Z would rather see movies that show two men fighting each other, rather than kissing one another, according to a new survey from the University of California Los Angeles.
The younger, college-aged generation ranked superhero movies and action films high in their interest list, along with “hopeful, uplifting content with people beating the odds” and “people with lives like my own” according to the survey.
Meanwhile, “Nonbinary and LGBTQIA+ Identities” is ranked at the bottom, according to the survey from UCLA’s Center for Scholars and Storytellers.
The survey of 1,500 people also found Gen Z is not interested in sexual content, which may explain their lack of interest in LGBT identity-focused programming.
Respondents reported that they use entertainment media “to escape and take my mind off of things.”
As the Ayatollah said about Islam, there is no fun in wokeness.
Plus: “Storylines about political content such as ‘racial minorities,’ ‘climate change,’ and ‘immigration’ do not make the top 10 ranking.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: As Dept. of Ed launches investigation into Cornell, still no word on consequences for prof ‘exhilarated’ by Hamas terrorism. I would say that we don’t punish speech in this country but you know, we do under the new rules the left has made. My own opinion is that people shouldn’t be fired even for repulsive speech unless it relates to their ability to do their jobs. But that’s not how things work anymore. If Amy Wax can face firing for insensitivity, then . . .
FASTER, PLEASE: The Implosion of the Climate Left. “At the end of March 2021, Alex O’Keefe, among the first Black hires of the Sunrise Movement and a member of management, dropped a long manifesto, signed by three others, into the organization’s Slack account, indicting the leadership for a culture of white supremacy.”
CDR SALAMANDER: American Naval Forces (with a Japanese assist) Capture Pirates. “It is a welcome sight to see Japan step by step become more of a player in the international security arena. They are great allies and responsible professionals. CTF-151 has been just the right arena for them to get used to it. . . . The note about the PRC ships not responding it telling. CTF-151 is a counter piracy force. If you are not going to respond to cries for help from merchantmen from piracy, then why are you actually there? Well, see the prior paragraph.”
Related:
Highway robbery, piracy etc was a common feature of the ancient world to which we are returning at the edges of Western civilization.https://t.co/5Yz4AmSK0V
— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) November 27, 2023
As dependent as China is on sea commerce, you’d think they’d take a harder line on piracy. Unless the pirates basically work for them or something.
IT’S ALL SMOKE AND MIRRORS: Hamas Busted on Yesterday’s Hostage Release Tape, Makes Sure There’s No Audio on Today’s.
The only reason they get away with so much is that the press is largely complicit.
UPDATE: See, e.g., Reuters:
Reuters knows that the hostages being released by Hamas aren’t soldiers (neither are the terrorists Hamas is getting), but they casually drop the term into their headline to fundamentally alter your perception of what is happening. A POW exchange is a lot different than the negotiated release of people held hostage for 50 days–women and children who have nothing to do with the war except by being victims of evil terrorists.
Using “soldiers” was a conscious choice. Reuters knew who was being released, knew their circumstances, knew how they were captured, and knew that they weren’t “released” but ransomed. They framed the story to manipulate the audience.
People weren’t fooled, except those who wanted to be. They received so much criticism that they deleted the headline and issued a non-apology apology, but this was not a mistake made in the fog of war. All the facts are established and well-understood. Reuters just chose to lie.
As they so frequently do. And to be clear, this isn’t a good-faith difference in perception, but a deliberate effort to deceive.
CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Biden Admin Gave $3 Billion Loan to Solar Company Accused of Scamming Elderly.
Nearly 200 Black and Latino students at Evanston Township High School signed up this year for math classes and a writing seminar intended for students of the same race, taught by a teacher of color. These optional so-called affinity classes are designed to address the achievement gap by making students feel more comfortable in class, district leaders have said, particularly in Advanced Placement courses that historically have enrolled few Black and Latino students.
“Our Black students are, for lack of a better word…at the bottom, consistently still. And they are being outperformed consistently,” Monique Parsons, Evanston school board vice president, said at a November board meeting. “It’s not good.”
School districts across the country have sometimes struggled to find ways to boost the performance of Black and Latino students, who, nationwide, tend to enroll in fewer advanced classes and score lower on standardized tests than white students. . . . Equity guides many of the district’s decisions, embodied in a stated board goal: “Recognizing that racism is the most devastating factor contributing to the diminished achievement of students, ETHS will strive to eliminate the predictability of academic achievement based upon race.”
Equity. Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever! George Wallace’s ghost smiles.
CHARLES GASPARINO: Elon Musk has a target on his back as Media Matters adds to X drama.
I HOPE 2024 IS WORSE: Randi Weingarten’s Not-So-Dandy Year: The teachers’ union boss has been having an awful 2023.
Also in April, Weingarten testified before the House Subcommittee on the Covid pandemic. She was there to answer questions about her union’s influence on school reopening guidelines issued by the CDC.
While Weingarten insisted that her main goal was opening schools, it was anything but. She constantly argued for keeping schools shuttered through the spring and summer of 2020 when her union aggressively lobbied the CDC to adjust its school-reopening guidance. Two of its language recommendations were adopted verbatim.
Yet, she had the audacity to tell Congress, “We spent every day from February (2020) on trying to get schools open. We knew that remote education was not a substitute for opening schools. We know that young people learn and connect best in person, so opening schools safely – even during a pandemic – guided our actions, which I will describe in detail.”
But her “details” were really quite undetailed. She dodged, obfuscated, and even used the fact that she was 65 years old to explain her memory lapses.
Additionally, Dr. Tracy Høeg, an epidemiologist, blasted Weingarten, accusing her of fudging a scientific study to wrongly argue to Congress that schools should have been kept closed during the height of COVID-19.
Read the whole thing.
November 26, 2023
UM, INTENTIONALLY? How Multiculturalism Fuels Hate.
HMM: Rebel Offensive in Myanmar Drives Junta Into Retreat. “Amazingly, public demonstrators in Yangon recently dared retribution to chant slogans against China, a major source of arms and other support to the junta, assembling in front of the Chinese Embassy on November 19.”
FEMINISTS ARE JUST ANOTHER LEFTY FRONT GROUP WHO GET THEIR MESSAGING INSTRUCTIONS FROM OTHERS: Mayim Bialik Rips on Women’s Orgs and Their Silence. “There has been an abhorrent and conspicuous absence of women’s organizations around the world unequivocally condemning the systematic rape and torture of women on October 7 by Hamas. Brutal gang rapes, sexual torture, and murder of fetuses happened- period. Where are the ‘BELIEVE THEM’ voices? These crimes against women were in many cases documented by the terrorists themselves and broadcast for the world to see.”
It’s inconvenient for the narrative, so the front groups will dutifully ignore it.
OPEN THREAD: Don’t worry, tomorrow’s Monday.
I MISS THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES. The Terminator franchise should take a break from the big screen in order to evolve.
I had low expectations, and only watched the first episode because an InstaPundit reader was among the writers. But it was great and I was bummed when they canceled it after two seasons.