You know what we need to do? Throw open the borders. Import some of this vibrant cultural diversity. What could go wrong?
Jan 062023
Jan 052023
A lot of people think that the US is simply throwing money away. These people are wrong.
The majority of the weapons that the US is giving to the Ukrainians are old stock, stuff that would have gone to the incinerator or the scrap heap pretty soon anyway. If you expend a million-dollar weapon that you were otherwise going to simply throw away, you haven’t lost money. But if you expend that weapon for a practical purpose, you not only affect the course of the conflict, you also *learn* things.
Dec 262022
We’re clearly being led by the very, very best:
The War on Merit Takes a Bizarre Turn
For years, two administrators at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) have been withholding notifications of National Merit awards from the school’s families, most of them Asian, thus denying students the right to use those awards to boost their college-admission prospects and earn scholarships. This episode has emerged amid the school district’s new strategy of “equal outcomes for every student, without exception.” School administrators, for instance, have implemented an “equitable grading” policy that eliminates zeros, gives students a grade of 50 percent just for showing up, and assigns a cryptic code of “NTI” for assignments not turned in.
Spectacular.
I have hopes that the lawyers sure to be hired by the families involves *are* fans of merit and are the best at what they do so they can sue this high school and its administration into oblivion.
Dec 242022
So yesterday the former head of Roscosmos decided that the thing to do was hold a birthday party for himself in a city under occupation.
Russia’s notorious former space chief Rogozin wounded in shelling
Dmitry Rogozin – who has called for the extermination of Ukraine – was in Russian-occupied Donetsk, but someone ratted him out to the Ukrainians who launched some artillery at him. They didn’t kill him, but they did get him with some shrapnel. If wholly unverified rumors are to be believed… wounded rather more than previously suggested:
Apologies, here is the proper link.https://t.co/M7bxF2vyFT
— Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) December 23, 2022
It should be pointed out that Rogozin got into “Twitter spat” with Musk back in May, threatening him for supplying Ukrainians with Starlink terminals. Determine for yourself it if would be “ironic” or “poetic justice” or “downright hilarious” if Starlink was used to transmit intelligence on Rogozin’s location or to aim ordnance.
Dec 232022
A McDonalds in Texas is fully automated (except, of course, for the people maintaining the machines). Expect to see more of these… especially in places with legally mandated high minimum wages. So much for “entry level” jobs…
Welcome to the First Ever McDonald’s Where You’re Served by Robots—In Texas
@foodiemunster @McDonald’s has a new test concept
Dec 212022
A Grand Total Of 20 People Showed Up To A Brittney Griner ‘Homecoming’ Celebration In Waco, ESPN Doesn’t Seem Happy About It
The video below shows part of the “celebration.” It’s sad (and yet hilarious) in the way that Kirk Cameron’s Subway birthday party was sad (and yet hilarious).
Dec 212022
The great majority of the time when someone says “there aught to be a law,” there really aughtn’t. But a law I’d get behind: any new bill in Congress must be read, in it entirety, on the floor of the House and Senate by those who wrote and co-sponsored it before it is allowed to come up to vote. Only those who sat there and listened to at least 75% of the reading would be allowed to vote on the bill; those who weren’t there are automatically registered as “no” votes. This would have the effect of making bills *vastly* smaller than the bloated monstrosities they’ve become.
Take, for example, the latest budget. The R. Lee Ermey bit at the end wholly encapsulates things.
Dec 202022
They *had* to know what they were doing…
New York Times slammed over ‘swastika’ crossword on first day of Hanukkah: ‘Disgusting’
Dec 192022
Artists stage mass protest against AI-generated artwork on ArtStation
At best they’ll *slightly* delay the development and deployment of AI that will render them utterly obsolete. Welcome to being just like everybody else.
So wouldn’t it make sense, rather than *not* producing art right now, to instead take this time to crank out as much art, and the best art, so that they can to try to maximize their income potential while they actually can? Artists are no more going to prevent the introduction of AI art than factory workers prevented automation.
Dec 192022
So today twitter posted a new rule:
We recognize that many of our users are active on other social media platforms. However, we will no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) December 18, 2022
It’s a little odd, to be sure. But at a glance, a *lot* of people read that and started screeching about how this is against EU law, how they are outraged, how this is a violation of free speech how they are – yet again – going to quit Twitter and go somewhere else (Mastodon seems to be the popular choice). But as is traditional for these sort of folk, they didn’t actually bother to read the whole thing:
We still allow cross-posting content from any social media platform. Posting links or usernames to social media platforms not listed above are also not in violation of this policy.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) December 18, 2022
we will remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms and content that contains links
That’s… pretty clear. It’s not, as many of these brain damaged morons seem to suggest, a rule that prevents casual linking to other sites, but a rule against setting up accounts solely for promoting other platforms. Is that a little strange? Maybe. But I have noticed that whenever I go to a movie theater and look at the *insanely* high prices for popcorn and soda, there is often also a sign that says “outside food and drink are prohibited.” I’m pretty sure if you went into a McDonalds and nailed a poster for Wendys on the wall, they might object. Send a “shop at Target” marching band into Walmart, and you might find yourself asked to leave.
How many of the people freaking out are really that dumb, and how many are just using performative outrage, I can’t say. But in either case, these are people who aren’t useful or beneficial in public discourse. So if they want to wander off to some self-segregated niche like Mastodon… hey, great. Twitter was supposed to utterly collapse within days of Elon Musk taking over; so far it seems to be running just fine. A lot of objectively awful people have been suspended for *clear* TOS violations, and they have discovered the wonders of being treated like everyone else.
I have wondered if Elon bought Twitter simply to shut it down. That may still be the case, and if so, it would be a net benefit to mankind… so long as TikTok and Instagram and all the rest go down as well. Perhaps he is just screwing around with Twitter before he pulls the plug… might as well, I suppose.