Dec 132022
 

And so Adam Savage goes to the Royal Society In England and gets to look at not only a first edition of Newton’s “Principia,” but the actual *manuscript.* And both he and the archivist handle them with their bare hands.

Shudder.

There are books that *I* own that I hesitate to actually touch without cotton archival gloves. But the Principia? Dude, I wouldn’t touch that unless I was fully sealed. I’d be deathly afraid of not just touching it, not just sneezing on it, but simply *breathing* on it.

 Posted by at 2:39 am
Dec 092022
 

Non-binary Biden nuclear official Sam Brinton accused in second luggage heist

Here’s a thought: if someone projects an image of being a weirdo… take them at their word. They’re a weirdo. Avoid.

Details about the alleged theft are scarce, but 8 News Now stated that Brinton, 35, was charged with grand larceny with a value between $1,200 and $5,000.

Stealing *anything* should be a career-ended for someone like this. Consequently, basic games theorizing should tell you that if you are going to put your future at risk for theft… make it worthwhile. Do like the Bidens or the Clintons and go after those multi-million dollar jobs. Then if you get caught, you can simply blow it off, because for some reason those sort of crimes get a pass. But stealing *luggage?* That’s just *stupid.*

Imagine being an expert in your field. Your field is nuclear fuel, processing, waste treatment, etc. And now imagine showing up for work and being told you have to report to THIS guy.

 

This is how you get underlings selling secrets to the Russians or the Chinese, because you are clearly disrespecting them directly to their faces. I would feel monumentally insulted if I was told that someone so clearly insane was just installed as my boss. Pretty sure I wouldn’t sell out the country, but I’m pretty sure my work ethic would suffer.

 Posted by at 10:26 pm
Dec 092022
 

Not so much for the US.

WNBA star Brittney Griner released from Russian detention in prisoner swap for convicted arms dealer

She is an *acknowledged* drug-transporting criminal. Whether you agree with Russia’s laws on such things or not, those were the laws. And while the US went to the bizarre extreme of returning to Russia an arms dealer for Griner, the US has done doodly squat for other prisoners currently languishing in Russian penal colonies. Why? because Griner has various and sundry privileges that others don’t. see, for example, Marc Fogel. Very similar circumstances of bringing in a small amount of pot; almost no public outcry, no celebrities or TV NPCs shrieking about how the US needs to bring him back. Why? Feel free to guess.

But hey, at least the Russian get “The Merchant of Death” back.

 Posted by at 6:40 am
Dec 072022
 

Ummm… NO.

 

 

 

 

 Posted by at 8:43 am
Dec 022022
 

For probably a quarter of a million years, the natural response to teenagers being moody, weird and uncomfortable in their bodies has been “Get over it, kid, it’s just a normal part of growing up.” Today, of course, we are now being informed in no uncertain terms that the proper response includes pharmaceuticals, hormones, massive life-altering surgeries including amputations and removals of evolutionarily vital organs and the celebration of contra-factual positions.

Canada is doing one better: making it not just legal, not just socially acceptable, but *praiseworthy* for teenagers who are depressed to seek out medical professionals to END THEM. The “MAID” (Medical Assistance In Dying) program is apparently advancing by leaps and bounds; it’s not just people with horrifying terminals illnesses that promise nothing but agony and degradation, but things as tenuous and potentially *temporary* as depression and PTSD. Something like 7.5% of the deaths on Vancouver Island are the result of doctors helping people off themselves.

Let Me Be Obama-Clear: if you want to off yourself, that’s your decision. If you are an adult of sound-ish mind and you don;t want to live on this planet anymore… it’s your life to do with as you please. Getting the government to help you out with that, though, gets a little weird. If you have a terminal case of explosive xenopolycythemic ass cancer eating you alive causing chunks of your flesh to drop off and detonate, then, sure, I can even get behind your decision. But if you’re just *sad?* If you are not yet an actual adult? Naw. There ain’t no role for the government helping out here, and a pretty big argument for the government trying to prevent that sort of thing.

The Canadian government getting involved here makes sense from a purely ledger-based point of view: make it acceptable and in fact praiseworthy for an increasing fraction of the populace to be euthanized, then you can go after the people you as a government *really* don’t want hanging around: those who consume but do not contribute. Elderly retirees living off pensions and social welfare. People in loony bins. The homeless. Criminals. Imagine a Canada where such people were peacefully marched into Carousel, never to be heard from or paid for again. From a bureaucrats point of view, it’s a spectacular system. (One wonder what happens when they realize what an economic drag “migrants” are.) From the point of view of a conscientious religious person, it’s demonic. From the point of view of a pragmatic skeptic, it’s equally horrifying.

Even Canadian clothing retailers are getting in on the action, producing public service spots extolling the virtues of ending oneself, with no actual valid reason given:

 

There are times when bringing on death is the proper course of action. But it is never a good thing; at best, it is merely the least bad option.

 

 Posted by at 7:43 am