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New York City Goes Sepia-Toned, Fox News Tells Viewers to Breathe the Poisonous Air Anyway
Parker Molloy writes at The Present Age (which offers a free newsletter worth getting, IMO): Hello, dear readers. Parker here. I’m going to try something new with today’s edition of the newsletter, which will be broken up into two sections (“The big story” and “The rest”). We’ll see if it sticks, but if you’ve got any…
Super-smooth with Cologne Russe and Ascension
The brush is Phoenix Artisan’s Aerolite. I like the knot (though it is somewhat large for my taste), but I find the handle bulky. Still, it did a fine job developing a lather from Barrister & Mann’s excellent Cologne Russe shaving soap, superb in both lather and fragrance: Based on one of the oldest forms…
DIY box fan filters – Corsi-Rosenthal box
Cleaning household air may well be increasingly important as climate change advances. Clean Air Crew has an excellent post for making an effective yet inexpensive air filtration device: Also known as a Corsi-Rosenthal box, this DIY method of building your own air filter with MERV13 furnace filters and a box fan are an easy and…
You get what you pay for: US Military and Civilian Budgets
In the US, people work to support the military, not themselves — that’s based on the relative distribution of tax dollars spent on the military vs. social services, the social safety net, and civilian services and infrastructure. Judd Legum writes in Popular Information: A new report from Brown University’s Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs, shared exclusively…
100 Years Ago, A Woman Told The World How Pointless Their Wars Were
Jessica Wildfire writes at OK Doomer: Is it necessary to feed the people of Europe… to get the wheat out of Russia? Then in heaven’s name, let us have warm water harbors in order to get that wheat out of Russia. — Jane Addams, “The Revolt Against War,” 1915 More than a hundred years ago, an…
US in Throes of Unexceptional Imperial Decline
William J. Astore writes at Consortium News: All around the U.S. things are falling apart. Collectively, Americans are experiencing national and imperial decline. Can America save itself? Is the country, as presently constituted, even worth saving? For me, that last question is radical indeed. From my early years, I believed deeply in the idea of America.…
The error of “There Are Never Any Consequences” or “I Am Waiting and Waiting for Some Accountability” vis-à-vis various Trump/GOP crimes
Many people observe something for a short while, then draw (aka “jump to”) a conclusion and stop looking — so they never correct their first impression. This has been particularly evident as some watch the wheels of justice grind through various crimes committed by Trump and his followers, very much including the January 6 insurrection.…
Yaqi Flipside and Barrister & Mann Lavanille
Phoenix Artisan’s Starcraft is a large brush, at least for me, but it does a good job, and I do like the knot (except for its size — 22mm IMO would have been better than the 24mm it is). The brush did an excellent job with Barrister & Mann’s Lavanilee shaving soap, and provided excellent…
Kale ‘n Stuff recipe
I thought I’d cook up the kale I had. I used my 4-qt sauté pan, into which I put: • about 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil I took the metal cup from my spice & herb grinder and put into it: • leaves from three sprigs of rosemary• thin slices from a 1″ knob of…
Strange Numbers
I found this video fascinating. The problem Derek Muller mentions — that p-adic systems based on composite numbers — non-primes — can result in zero being the product of two non-zero numbers — is something one encounters in abstract algebra. If two non-zero numbers have zero as a product, they are called divisors of zero…
Sea temperatures are at a massive record high
KevinDrump’s post (which includes a chart) indicates that climate change in the future will worsen faster because the oceans have now absorbed so much heat that they can no longer buffer the temperature rise.
Strange bedfellows: RFKjr and his backers
Radley Balko notes on Mastodon: Musk, Shellenberger, Dorsey, Srinivasan, Sacks. All so-called moderates, all using their wealth, influence, and platform to mainstream an absolute nut who has pushed everything from autism-vaccine BS to 5G brainworm lunacy. This is ominous, and deeply unhealthy. journa.host/@juddlegum/110497629483049999
Adding heft to a light razor: Filament head + Barber Pole handle
Barrister & Mann’s Reserve Lavender is an excellent shaving soap, and again I heeded their advice to use a brush with a synthetic knot — today, my RazoRock Amici, a fine little brush. I recently saw someone’s comment on a lavender shaving soap that he didn’t like the scent because “it’s an old lady’s scent.” …
Another Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Gang Member Admits The Department Has Plenty Of Gang Members
In an earlier post, I wrote that police departments reflect and participate in the increasing authoritarian movement in the US, that police too often act as a hostile occupation force rather than guardians of our human and constitutional rights. In Techdirt, Tim Cushing provides additional evidence. He writes: The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department doesn’t have a…
Being poor in the US
I mentioned a post by Jessica Wildfire yesterday, and it occurs to me that it might be behind a paywall. (I subscribe, so I don’t know where the paywall hits.) It was a particularly good post, well worth reading in its entirety, but if you can read it, I thought you should at least see…
During Pride month, journalists should be ashamed
Dan Froomkin writes at Press Watch: The front-page headline in the Washington Post proclaimed that “emboldened shoppers” are threatening Target workers for carrying Pride month merchandise — a trend that the article explained had had “engulfed” the chain “in culture wars.” Those “emboldened shoppers” – in reality, retrograde bullies and bigots spewing the kind of hatred…
I’d love to have had a bike like this
I just recently saw a post on Mastodon in which a guy was praising his bike for making hills easy — “13% grade at 50 miles.” I was curious, and ask I delved into the bike, a Priority 600, I became more and more impressed. I would love to have a copy of this bike.…
CDC Report Recognizes Police-Perpetrated Killing as Major Cause of Violent Death
I think it is time now for US citizens to formally recognize the police as an armed and aggressive hostile occupying force. There are doubtless good cops, but there are also a great many bad cops and police departments that protect them. Mike Ludwig reports in Truthout: In a new report from the Centers for…
Twitter Admits in Court Filing: Elon Musk Is Simply Wrong About Government Interference At Twitter
That’s Elon B. Musk — “B” for “Bullshitter.” Mike Masnick has a lengthy article that lays out in detail how much of a bullshitter Mr. Musk is, to the degree that it’s clear that no one should believe anything that passes his lips. Musk is in much the same league as Trump. Or Alex Jones.
How did patriarchy begin?
Angela Saini, a science journalist and author of four books has an essay based on her latest,The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule, which was recently shortlisted for the Orwell Prize, published in BBC Future: It begins: In 1930, when London Zoo announced its baboon enclosure would be closing down, the story made headlines. For…
“I Wonder What The Poor Folks Are Eating:” A Brief History of Poor People
Jessica Wildfire writes in OK Doomer: Like most Americans, I spent a fair chunk of my life being “not poor.” Never mind that I was making about $12,000 a year as a teacher for most of my 20s. It was just temporary, I told myself. I could use student loans for books, conferences, and professional development.…
NYC Child Welfare Agency Says It Supports “Miranda Warning” Bill for Parents. But It’s Quietly Lobbying to Weaken It.
Dishonesty, in the sense of making untrue statements under the guise of truth (lying, not to put too fine a point on it), is always bad but particularly dangerous when delivered by officials (who nevertheless seem to be prone to the practice). And I do get so tired of it. Eli Hager reports a perfect…
A perfect shave is a pleasurable thing
Barrister & Mann recommend a synthetic brush for their Reserve line of shaving soaps, and who am I to argue? I picked the RazoRock Keyhole brush, a very fine little brush that costs just US$10. With it, I got an excellent lather from the tub of Reserve Spice shaving soap. The fragrance has some spice…
How Parking Ruined Everything
Dante Ramos reviews a very interesting book in the Atlantic: When you’re driving around and around the same block and seething because there’s nowhere to put your car, any suggestion that the United States devotes too much acreage to parking might seem preposterous. But consider this: In a typical year, the country builds more three-car garages than…
“The poison in Australia’s bloodstream”
Australian racism is probably easier for Americans to see than America’s own. Dave Milner writes in The Shot: I carry with me the fuzzy cognitive dissonance of a white man educated in a settler colony, an old land with new rulers, an Imperial outpost trying to be better, more inclusive and kinder but refusing to go…
Atlanta Police Arrest Organizers of Bail Fund for Cop City Protesters
US states are increasingly becoming authoritarian. For example, Texas has decided the state can overturn municipal elections if it wants — and in the case of blue cities, such as Houston, it does want. And now Georgia is arresting people for posting bail (not a crime). Natasha Lennard reports for The Intercept: ON WEDNESDAY MORNING, a heavily…
The far right is responsible for half of all terrorist attacks
I recall when President George W. Bush authorized a study on the dangers of domestic terrorism from Left-wing extremists and from Right-wing extremists. The study of Right-wing extremists was withdrawn by Republicans in Congress, snowflakes one and all, were so outraged by the idea that Right-wing extremists could pose any threat at all. Republicans live…
The Parentification of America
Jessica Wildfire writes at OK Doomer: It was kind of like being Cinderella, without the glass slipper. Parentification happens when an adult places too much responsibility on a child. It’s a form of abuse. An adult might make them the primary caregiver of another family member. They might make them pay bills or get a…
James Comey described how Donald Trump eats the souls of those who work for him
James Comey wrote a fascinating column (no paywall) in the NY Times four years ago that I seem to have missed. In it, Comey describes in detail how Trump suborns people and leads them astray until they are trapped. Comey concludes: What happened to these people? [those who have become Trump’s accomplices and supporters -…
Lessons from Washington State’s New Capital Gains Tax
You’d think that, with Republicans so eager to reduce the deficit, they would endorse getting more tax revenue from those who can easily afford it. However, that’s not the case. One must recognize that Republicans almost always act in bad faith, and their hypocrisy runs deep. Kamau Chege reports in The Urbanist: Taxing the rich works…
Propaganda rarely looks like this
Caitlin Johnstone has an interesting column in Consortium News, in which the above video appears (along with three other very interesting videos). I think the video understates the role of good journalism — for example, I have recently read of various legislation passed based on reporting in ProPublica and Judd Legum’s Popular Information. On the other hand, I…
The Congressional-military-industrial complex costs too much for what it delivers
Kevin Drum writes: CNN has a remarkable story today about the vast difference in cost between warships built in the US and those built in Japan: The country’s newest Maya-class destroyers are armed with 96 VLS cells that can fire both anti-ballistic and anti-submarine missiles, while the “quality of its sensors and systems stands at the very…
Photos from Thursday
When I walked around getting ingredients for my stew-fry, I saw many fine plants. Here are a few.
More signs of the decline of the US: Gov. Reynolds Signs ‘Worst Corruption Bill In Iowa History’
Newshound Ellen reports in Crooks & Liars: As of July 1, the state auditor will be unable to ask a court to order state agencies and officials under investigation to provide records. Instead, the governor and her cronies will get to decide what gets examined. Iowa Public Radio explains: It requires a three-member arbitration board to decide if…
Obesogens in Foods
The abstract from an interesting research report from the National Library of Medicine (emphasis added): Obesogens, as environmental endocrine-disrupting chemicals, are supposed to have had an impact on the prevalence of rising obesity around the world over the last forty years. These chemicals are probably able to contribute not only to the development of obesity…
Why it’s in the public interest to require businesses to provide paid sick leave: Sick Workers Tied to 40% of Food Poisoning Outbreaks, C.D.C. Says
Amanda Holpuch reports in the NY Times (no paywall): People who showed up to their restaurant jobs while sick were linked to 40 percent of food poisoning outbreaks with a known cause from 2017 to 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report released on Tuesday. Paid sick leave and other policies…
The beginning of the end of work
Kevin Drum posts: It begins: When ChatGPT came out last November, Olivia Lipkin, a 25-year-old copywriter in San Francisco, didn’t think too much about it….In April, she was let go without explanation, but when she found managers writing about how using ChatGPT was cheaper than paying a writer, the reason for her layoff seemed clear. ….For some…
Synthetic v. Silvertip: Round 2 complete
.Continuing the series of testing badger v. synthetic on Declaration Grooming’s bison-tallow soaps, this morning I chose Phoenix Artisan’s Green Ray as the brush. It’s a close cousin of the Solar Flare brush that began this series. Again, the synthetic brush show no sign of “gripping” the soap, unlike the badger brushes. It moved easily…
More than 800m Amazon trees felled in six years to meet beef demand
Why is the Amazon rainforest being cut down? Profit. Why are more and more fossil fuels being extracted with new fields developed? Profit. Why is the earth becoming uninhabitable? That’s an unfortunate side effect, but look at how much profit was made. Andrew Wasley, Elisângela Mendonça, Youssr Youssef, and Robert Soutar report in the Guardian: More…
Avoid artificial sweeteners (and refined sugar)
If you want something sweet, eat a piece of fruit. Artificial sweeteners in general are bad, and Lisa O’Mary discusses in Medscape a particular problem with sucralose (Splenda): A new study reveals health concerns about the sugar substitute sucralose so alarming that researchers said people should stop eating it and the government should regulate it more.…
What goes around, comes around: School district bans Bible after “indecent” materials complaint
Interesting report by John Russell in LGBTQ Nation. From the report: . . . Last year, Utah lawmakers passed H.B. 374, which requires public K–12 schools to remove books containing “pornographic or indecent material.” Critics say the law has been used to remove books by mostly LGBTQ+ and Black authors from shelves. In their December 2022 Bible…
Three ‘Forever Chemicals’ Makers Settle Public Water Lawsuits
I blogged earlier about how the US cannot keep its citizens alive, and the previous post gave part of the reason: hypercapitalism has infected US healthcare, with one result being that people are denied treatment if they have “medical debt,” which doesn’t exist in advanced countries that see a healthy (and educated) citizenry as 1)…
This Nonprofit Health System Cuts Off Patients With Medical Debt
I just blogged about how the US is failing to keep its citizens alive and healthy. One reason for that is that the US has chosen to make profit a higher priority than citizens’ health and lives — “medical debt” is not a thing in other wealthy countries. Sarah Kliff and Jessica Silver-Greenberg report a…
When a government agency is asleep at the switch
.Bad lapse. Jason Koebler reports in Vice: Roughly 800,000 Maryland drivers with license plates designed to commemorate the War of 1812 are now inadvertently advertising a website for an online casino based in the Philippines. In 2012, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, Maryland redesigned its standard license plate to read…
Former Gun Company Executive Explains Roots of America’s Gun Violence Epidemic
In an earlier post, I blogged an NPR interview with Ryan Busse, the subject of a ProPublica article by Corey G. Johnson: From the movie theater to the shopping mall, inside a church and a synagogue, through the grocery aisle and into the classroom, gun violence has invaded every corner of American life. It is…
101 Simple Salads for the Season, from the NY Times
An archived page from the NY Times has a great collection of salad recipe ideas. It begins: 1. Cube watermelon and combine with tomato chunks, basil and basic vinaigrette. You can substitute peach for the watermelon or the tomato (but not both, O.K.?). You can also add bacon or feta, but there goes the vegan-ness.…
In comparison to other wealthy countries, the US fails in keeping its citizens alive
A country that does a poor job of ensuring that its citizens live is not a successful country on this basic and essential measure. In the Washington Post, Steven H. Woolf, professor of family medicine and population health at Virginia Commonwealth University, and Laudan Aron, a senior fellow in the Health Policy Center at the Urban…
Checking brush action
.After yesterday’s experience of feeling the (silvertip badger) brush sort of “grab” the soap, I wanted to explore the phenomenon a bit further. So today I picked another silvertip badger brush — the Prince, from Wet Shaving Products — and another example of Declaration Grooming Bison-tallow soap, though this soap is their Milksteak, which has…
Stew-fry Seafood Medley
I celebrate the first of each month, but modestly, as is appropriate for 1/12th of a New Year. I’ve described elsewhere the ritual of The Reading of the Letter from the Past and of The Writing of the Letter to the Future, always a pleasure. And in the food line, I depart from a purely…
“I took anger management classes. Here’s what they get wrong about the world.”
Olivia Watson writes in the Guardian: There are six rules of anger management, says my anger workbook. The first rule: “STOP, think, take a look at the BIG picture.” Then, because why use lower-case when you’ve got capitals: “ANGER MANAGEMENT IS A THINKING PERSON’S GAME!” But thinking, it turns out soon into the course, is discouraged.…
What Number Comes Next? The Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences Knows.
Siobhan Roberts has a very interesting article (gift link, no paywall) in the NY Times. It begins: Some numbers are odd: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 … Some are even: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 … And then there are the puzzling “eban” numbers: 2, 4, 6, 30, 32,…
More shaving discoveries, albeit minor ones
.In yesterday’s shave, I used this same soap formula but with a different fragrance: Unconditional Surrender then, Yuzu/Rose/Patchouli now. The first discovery came when the (damp) brush hit the soap. Yesterday I used a synthetic brush, today a Plisson HMW 12 silvertip. The brush today sort of grabbed the soap. The initial feeling was that the…
How much of you is your genes?
Kevin Drum has a fascinating post on those aspects of us that are genetically determined. From the post: . . . Overall cognition, which is basically intelligence, is about 70% inherited. The other 30% is influenced by shared and non-shared environment. The same is true for oral reading. The subcomponents of intelligence, fluid and crystallized…
India cuts periodic table and evolution from school textbooks — experts are baffled
Apparently, India believes that ignorance is good and nations should move toward making sure its citizens are ignorant. Dyani Lewis reports in Nature: In India, children under 16 returning to school this month at the start of the school year will no longer be taught about evolution, the periodic table of elements or sources of energy.…
Community-Owned Broadband Network Again Tops List Of Most Popular ISPs
Karl Bode writes at Techdirt: For two decades, frustrated towns and cities all over the country have responded to telecom monopolies by building their own fiber broadband networks. Data routinely shows that not only do these networks provide faster, better, and cheaper service, the networks are generally more accountable to the public — because they’re directly owned…
The cult of being confident and why it doesn’t help women
Rosalind Gillis, professor of social and cultural analysis at City, University of London, and Shani Orgadis, professor of media and communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science, recently published the book Confidence Culture. Their article in Psyche seems to be an extract from the book: The imperative for women to be self-confident is ubiquitous. In…
Exploring Transgender Law and Politics
Catherine MacKinnon has an interesting essay in Signs: Preface This discussion of transgender law and politics, held at Oxford University on November 28, 2022, was sponsored by the Oxford Philosophy, Law and Politics Colloquium, the Oxford Feminist Jurisprudence Discussion Group, and the Oxford Jurisprudence Discussion Group. Professor Kate O’Regan of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights…
Unconditional Surrender & Goodfellas’ smile Legione slant razor
.My Phoenix Artisan Solar Flare brush made an exceptionally good lather from Declaration Grooming’s bison-tallow shaving soap. This was one of the soaps Declaration Grooming made in partnership with Chatillon Lux, which provided the fragrance and made the aftershave. The fragrance is extremely appealing to me, though fragrances have an ineluctable YMMV aspect. The lather,…
Autism and identity
Terra Vance has an intriguing article at Neuroclastic, in which autism is seen as a difference at the level of identity. From the article: I asked people one question: Who are you? Almost unilaterally, non-autistic people began describing themselves in terms of their relationships to others — if they were a parent, a spouse, what their career was,…
The goal of education
I attended a college whose motto is “Facio liberos ex liberis libris libraque” — “I make free adults out of children by means of books and a balance.” The motto reflects the goal of a liberal arts eduction: to liberate (thus “liberal arts”). The books represent the books we studied and discussed and the balance represents the…
Did Scientists Accidentally Invent an Anti-addiction Drug?
Sarah Zhang writes in the Atlantic: All her life, Victoria Rutledge thought of herself as someone with an addictive personality. Her first addiction was alcohol. After she got sober in her early 30s, she replaced drinking with food and shopping, which she thought about constantly. She would spend $500 on organic groceries, only to have them…
Tobacco Road and the Stealth
RazoRock’s Keyhole brush is an admirable instrument, and this morning it brought forth a rich lather from Arianna & Evans’s excellent Ultima formula, this one with their Tobacco Road fragrance: “Hinoki, Honey, Bay Leaf, Tobacco, Smoke, Amber.” The lather is thick in consistency, slick in feel, and very nice to one’s skin. The RazoRock Stealth,…
A WWII pamphlet describes Fascism
Heather Cox Richardson writes: Beginning in 1943, the War Department published a series of pamphlets for U.S. Army personnel in the European theater of World War II. Titled Army Talks, the series was designed “to help [the personnel] become better-informed men and women and therefore better soldiers.” On March 24, 1945, the topic for the week…
“My father had dementia and I was his caregiver. Here’s what I wish I had known”
Cynthia Dearborn describes how people don’t understand dementia: In 2007, I was suddenly plunged into the role of caregiver for my then 75-year-old father, who had vascular dementia. His short-term memory was severely impaired, as were his judgment and reasoning skills. At the outset, I knew very little about dementia and next to nothing about…
Faster, better, cheaper, safer solution to environmental problem
The “faster, better, cheaper” mantra of technology applies to a change in a beer plant, which adds “safer” to the list. Aaron Hand writes in Packaging World: With so much industry discussion about the need for automation and digital transformation, sometimes it’s important to step back and realize how many challenges can be solved with a…
Phoenix Artisan Haiku and iKon stainless slant
I enjoy my Omega Pro 48 every time I use it, and today it made a wonderful lather from Phoenix Artisan’s Haiku, a CK-6 shaving soap. The lather quality was very high — CK-6 — and I do like this soap’s fragrance: • Top notes: lavender, bergamot, lemon, rosemary, anise• Middle notes: geranium, fern, carnation,…
“The” as a conjunction
Happened across on Mastodon: My favorite relic English still used everywhere is the word “the” used in phrases like: “the more I look at this, the stranger it seems”, or “the bigger they come, the harder they fall”. This “the” is not the article of any noun, it is a different word, a conjunction descended…
The Hero’s Journey
Interesting quotation seen on Mastodon: Leonard Cohen said his teacher once told him that the older you get the lonelier you become, and the deeper the love you need. This is because, as we go through life, we tend to over-identify with being the hero of our stories. This hero isn’t exactly having fun: he’s…
Refined Carbs Linked to Brain Trouble
Maggie Harrison writes in Neoscope: Not the croissants!! In a new study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, a team of French scientists has linked refined carbohydrates to worse cognitive function — even when consumed by young, healthy adults. Though some diet industry folks might tell you to steer clear from carbs entirely, that’s not sound advice.…
As long COVID turns three, Americans play disability roulette
Wes Ely, MD, a professor of medicine and critical care at Vanderbilt University and the Nashville VA Medical Center and codirector of the Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction, and Survivorship Center and author of Every Deep-Drawn Breath, writes in the Boston Globe (no paywall): While society yawns, impatient to move on from the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans still play disability roulette. About…
Timothy McVeigh’s “defense” and Donald Trump’s Unhinged Letter to Merrick Garland
Teri Kanefield’s posts are always interesting. The latest begins: I. The Rise of American Right-Wing Extremism From Timothy McVeigh to Stewart Rhodes “I’m a political prisoner,” Oath Keeper and January 6 insurrectionist Stewart Rhodes said during his sentencing hearing, “and like President Trump, my only crime is opposing those who are destroying our country.” Rhodes vowed…
A recipe using what I have
Planning I got to thinking about the foods I have on hand and decided to sketch out a recipe. I just got a new 3-L tin of extra-virgin olive oil, and I’ll use this recipe to give it a try. (It turned out to be very good.) • 2 Tbsp EVOO• 2 green garlic, bulbs…
Pete Buttigieg, where are you when you’re needed
If I’m not mistaken, solving the problem described in the Washington Post article by Andrea Salcedo, Luz Lazo, and Lee Powell is exactly the job of Pete Buttigieg, Secretary of Transportation. Is he asleep at the switch? The article begins: LEGGETT, Tex. — A man suffered a stroke but a stopped train blocked paramedics from reaching him for…
Agharta and the Parker 78R
My Plisson brush with a synthetic “Plissoft” knot easily created a superb lather from Phoenix Artisan’s Agharta shaving soap (“Talc, Ambergris, Amyris, French Vanilla Bean, Japanese Sandalwood, Cedar, and Oak Moss”) in the CK-6 formula. I like this fragrance a lot, and of course CK-6 is a favorite. I just noticed that the tubs are…
Shingles vaccine prevents a good chunk of dementia cases
This is a fascinating and significant thread. One sad note: some parents who opposed having their children get vaccines for (for example) chicken pox thought it would be smart instead to expose them to the disease and ‘immunize’ them that way — the ‘natural’ way. Unfortunately, with viral infections like chicken pox, the virus remains…
The future of media with AI in the mix
Jim Vanderhei writes at Axios: Artificial intelligence will soon transform media on a scale and pace that rivals the internet two decades ago. Why it matters: The media companies that survive — and thrive — will be those that adapt quickly to fast-changing consumer needs. We have spent months talking to the people building the new AI technologies, and…
Carrot-stick ferment underway
.I have started my carrot-stick format using the recipe I blogged earlier. A few of the lessons learned: She advises cutting the carrot to reach the shoulder of the jar. It needs to be a bit shorter, since the fermentation weight will sit on top. In the jar at the right, the weight was so…
What my autistic son’s cold cheeseburgers taught me about bureaucracy
John Summers’s article in the Boston Globe provides a specific example of why I believe the various governments of the world will not take meaningful action against climate change — and why the US is more or less crumbling as an effective democracy, unable to address big problems and backtracking on solutions previously found (cf. the…
Devil in the grooves: The case against forensic firearms analysis
The US criminal justice system seems to be in terrible shape, from bottom to top. Radley Balko writes in The Watch: Last February, Chicago circuit court judge William Hooks made some history. He became the first judge in the country to bar the use of ballistics matching testimony in a criminal trial. In Illinois v. Rickey Winfield, prosecutors had…
Twitter Demands Academics Who Won’t Pay $42k/Month Delete Any Twitter Data They Currently Have
Elon Musk is… Well, just read this Techdirt article by Mike Masnick. The article begins: Elon Musk has insisted that “transparency is the key to trust” in rebuilding Twitter in his image. He says it all the time. But, of course, under Musk, Twitter has been significantly less transparent, choosing to skip its transparency reports, and generally close…
Bad news re Covid: Antibody escape, the risk of serotype formation, and rapid immune waning
The reports that Covid is over, along with the total relaxation of precautions such as masking in public, seem based on hope rather than fact. From medRxiv, the preprint server for health sciences: Abstract As the COVID-19 pandemic progresses, widespread community transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has ushered in a volatile era of viral immune evasion rather…
Are ancient grains healthier?
Kamut® is, as explained at the link, the registered trademark for organically raised khorosan wheat. It’s one of my favorite grains, and I eat it frequently — as intact whole grains, not squashed (Kamut flakes) or pulverized (Kamut flour). Reason? Because intact whole grains are better for you. (I cook a batch of grain, then…
Spitfire, Rooney 2 Finest, and the Baby Smooth
My Rooney Style 2 Fiinest brought forth the fine-grained lather I find I get from Phoenix & Beau shaving soaps, and the fragrance of this one — leather, juniper, and tobacco — is quite pleasant. The Baby Smooth is for me a marvelous razor and three very comfortable passes left my face perfectly smooth. Mr.…
Tesla safety problems exposed in massive data leak
Jonathan M. Gitlin reports in Ars Technica: The German publication Handelsblatt is in possession of more than 23,000 internal files and documents from Tesla after an employee leaked the data. The files include personal information on more than 100,000 current and former employees, as well as thousands of reports of problems with Tesla’s advanced driving assistance systems, Autopilot,…
As long COVID turns three, Americans play disability roulette
Dr. Wes Ely, a professor of medicine and critical care at Vanderbilt University and the Nashville VA Medical Center and co-director of the Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction, and Survivorship Center and author of Every Deep-Drawn Breath, writes in the Boston Globe: While society yawns, impatient to move on from the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans still play disability roulette. About 1 in…
A Black 11-year-old called 911. Police arrived and shot him.
US police departments are too often a disgrace and a danger. Timothy Bella reports an incident similar to all too many other incidents in the US: the police shooting innocent people. You’d think that citizens who are regularly shot by the police, often fatally, would want to change things, but I think the US simply…
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Written by Leisureguy
25 May 2021 at 9:09 am
Later On 