“Smooth Criminal” performed on a traditional Chinese instrument somewhere in France.
People who think that “cultural appropriation” is a bad thing can suck it.
Jun 272022
Jun 272022
Young women’s psychological distress increases when they change their identity away from the heterosexual norm
I can’t say that I find this shocking. “Heterosexual” is obviously – and necessarily – the default for any mammalian species. Without it, the species does not reproduce, and thus dies out, making way for other species that *do* reproduce. But in recent years, there has been substantial social pressure, seeming aimed more at women, to abandon the default in favor of homosexuality. And peer pressure can be quite effective at convincing young people to do things that they don’t really want to do… and once they’ve done it, they often regret it.
Women whose sexual identity changed in a more same-sex-oriented direction tended to report greater psychological distress compared to women whose sexual identity remained stable. In contrast, women whose sexual identity changed in a less same-sex-oriented direction tended to report less psychological distress compared to women whose sexual identity remained stable.
Color me stunned.
This quote from one of the study authors kinda leads off the article. It says a few things that seem like they really aught to be followed up, but are, at least in the article, glossed over or outright ignored:
“This is true for many people, and we know that efforts to try and force people to change their sexual orientations are extremely harmful and do not work. However, there are a proportion of women who do experience changes to their sexual attractions and sexual identities across their lives. The sexualities of young women today in particular are less binary and more fluid than ever before.”
A) Yes, it’s harmful to try to force someone to change their sexuality. This includes, does it not, efforts to make straight girls lesbians? It includes, does it not, efforts to convince girls that they are actually boys, boys that they are actually girls?
B) Yes, young women today seem less binary than in millenia past. Ummm… WHY???
There is a sci-fi explanation for this, of course.
Jun 272022
Too many crazy/evil/uncivilized/self-important privileged AHoles out there…
People like this need to be separated from society. if you have such ang4er issues AND impulse control issues… we don’t need you. You are a net negative and a drain on resources.
Jun 272022
While cleaning out my internet computer, the hard drive of which was just about full, I found a folder full of videos that I’d intended to send to YouTube and then promptly forgot about. So, here are two. Two which might kinda ruin the mood… they feature the late lamented Fingers and Raedthinn, both taken far too soon by crappy feline biology.
Jun 262022
Prior to Challenger, one piece of technology that was often touted as something that would be deployed by the Space Shuttle was the “beam builder.” This was a mechanism that would take rolls of aluminum “tape” a millimeter or less in thickness and automatically chop, bend, deploy and weld said aluminum into truss structure beams. These beams would be arbitrarily long… useful for building all manner of things, from space stations to radar satellites, on up to solar power satellites. The technology got fairly far along… but once Challenger exploded, the idea of actually using the shuttle to build vast constructs in space kinda vanished, with ISS being the only example of that. And in the case of ISS, very little actual “construction” was carried out, instead the ISS was simply assembled, with parts like the solar panels deploying rather than being built.
But while it lasted, beam builders featured in a lot of concept art, such as the one below depicting a beam being extruded from the Beam Builder in the rear of the Shuttle cargo bay. Irritatingly, I’ve misplaced the book I scanned this from and cannot immediately confirm who to credit it to.
Jun 262022
Is it illegal? It’s certainly fraudulent. And it’s something to watch out for.
Never mind the “let’s bring in cartel money” aspect, which I’m *really* certain is illegal.
Additionally: she is a special kind of stupid for discussing this on a phone call to an inmate, when it is open knowledge that such calls are recorded. On the other hand, she’s a Democrat, so her chances of being reported on by the media, never mind arrested, are minimal.
BREAKING: Leaked Call With Inmate Reveals SC Democrat State Rep & Senate Candidate @kmforsenate Calling For "#SecretSleepers" to Infiltrate @SCGOP; Advocates For ILLEGALLY Funding Campaign with "Dope Money"
"We can flip some sh*t from the inside out." pic.twitter.com/fbaUOTEXNJ
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) June 26, 2022
Jun 262022
In 1964, the US government dumped around a quarter million M-1 carbine “assault weapons” onto the US market, complete with 15 or 30 round magazines. They were available to anyone who wanted one, no background checks needed, no waiting period; they cost less than $100 for most people, or $20 if you were an NRA member. And what happened? Mass shootings, schools blown to bits, synagogues reduced to bullet sponges? Nope.
Stephen Hunter: The Assault Weapon Massacres of 1964
Access to “weapons of war” was a lot easier then than now. Access to madness is easier now than then.
Jun 262022
“Violent clashes” last night between pro-abortion protestors and police. Where? Los Angeles. You know, California. A state which is about as likely to make abortion legal as it is to install a few terawatts of nuclear power in downtown San Francisco.
Jun 262022
So last night I went to bed after several hours of both of my blogs looking pretty badly screwed up by n SQL injection attack, and with tech support closed for the night (after having been 24/7 operations for the past twenty-something years… thanks, Covid!). Set my alarm to wake me up to have a doubtless hours-long phone call with tech support… and here we are, both blogs seem returned to normal. Huh.
Anyway, I don’t take *nearly* as many photos these days as I did when I lived in Utah. This place simply doesn’t compare on the natural beauty front. Still, every now and then there’s something that seems worth pointing the phone at, if not grabbing the actual camera.
Jun 262022
testing…