I was glad to see Obama show some emotion today, in his announcement of the executive orders to tighten up gun laws. It is right to shed a tear for those killed by our absurd gun laws…or lack thereof.
But it’s only a start. We need to actively reduce the number of guns in our communities; I would like to see more restrictions and confiscations.
I would also ask that Obama should shed a tear for the innocents killed abroad by our military.
When last I commented on one of the UK’s battier climage change denialists, James Delingpole, it was to ridicule his “joke” about executing environmental scientists. He’s back with a new “joke” — I really think he ought to give up on the humor thing. He’s not very good at it.
His new idea is to erect a giant golden statue in Africa to honor…Cecil Rhodes.
The idea is to build in the middle of Africa a gigantic golden statue of the mighty British imperial hero Cecil Rhodes – a really big one, about four miles high, so that Kilimanjaro doesn’t get in the way – to remind all the locals for miles around what a complete and utter toilet their malarial, tsetse flyblown continent would have been if it hadn’t been for all the 19th century explorers, miners and pioneers and nation builders and District Commissioners in their white pith helmets who brought them civilisation, the rule of law and economic progress.
Yeah, racist asshole thinks the entire continent of Africa is a a complete and utter toilet
and that the appropriate way for Britain to signal their attitude towards Africans is to build a giant “fuck you” in the continent. Charming. Hilarious. Not.
Donald Trump has some management advice.
If you are careful when finding employees, management becomes a lot easier. I rely on a few key people to keep me informed. They know I trust them, and they do their best to keep that trust intact.
Good people equals good management and good management equals good people. They have to work together or they won’t work together for very long.
I’ve heard this sort of thing before, and there’s truth to it. The president of the US can’t possibly know everything and do everything, so they should surround themselves with smart advisors to fill in the gaps in their experience.
But what if they are a terrible judge of people?
I even made the Minneapolis Star Tribune! They have a story about my griping about the damned annoying cemetery bells that plagued us for years.
Some neighbors were less enthusiastic than the visitors. Local blogger and biology professor PZ Myers railed for years against the bells that tolled near his home, rousing him from sleep with the sound of “hymns. Cheesy hymns, played mechanically on an electronic carillon.”
Myers, who lives two blocks from the cemetery, said the clangor of bells started at 5 a.m. and continued until 10 at night, despite his protests.
I wasn’t the only one complaining, as the story makes clear, but now the guy who thrust the chimes upon us is busily nailing himself up on a cross.
Nick Matzke has just published a very amusing analysis of American anti-evolution efforts. Evolutionary biology has all these tools that allow one to, for instance, assemble trees demonstrating lines of descent for molecular characters, which are ultimately just strings of letters. And what is a law but a string of letters? We can relatively easily map out patterns of similarities and differences, and catalog which bill was modeled after which other bill.
So Matzke put together the history of creationist efforts to adapt their legal strategies.
The analysis of dozens of bills introduced in state legislatures around the country reveals how a single innovation from a small Louisiana parish (population 156,325) was incorporated into 32 subsequent bills through a process the study describes as “descent with modification.” Two of those 32 bills became law and now “negatively affect science education” for students throughout Louisiana (population 4.7 million) and Tennessee (population 6.5 million).
It’s also being discussed on the Panda’s Thumb.
Oh, but most entertainingly, you can tell that the Discovery Institute is furious. They’re trying to claim now that it was a criminal misuse of NSF funds.
A more serious issue is whether Matzke misappropriated taxpayer funds in order to write his article. Matzke discloses in the article’s acknowledgements that his research was funded by two National Science Foundation grants. But if you look up those grants, they appear to have nothing to do with the article he published.
Indeed, NSF Grant 0919124 is a $422,000 grant intended to “develop bivalve molluscs as a preeminent model for evolutionary studies….” And NSF Grant DBI-1300426 is a $12 million+ grant for the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, which told the NSF it would “provide scientific insights into problems such as the control of invasive species, limiting impacts of infectious diseases, and suggesting new methods for drug design.”
Neither of those awards are directly to Matzke. The larger funds an institute, the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, which by its nature would support diverse projects. The smaller one includes citations to 5 papers with Matzke as an author, all relevant to the grant, so there’s certainly no evidence that he’s been neglecting his responsibilities.
Creationists: science doesn’t currently endorse slavery. A grant award buys you a piece of a person’s time and effort, but does not give you full-time ownership of their brain. In fact, granting institutions encourage awardees to explore new ideas creatively, because that’s what will lead to the next research proposal. That a scientist has found a way to use his skills and his tools in a novel way, without compromising the funded specifics of a grant, is always a big plus.
So once again the Discovery Institute reveals their total ignorance of how science works while reaching for excuses for their own failure. No surprise there at all.
In a turn of events that will surprise absolutely no one, Martin Shkreli has been arrested for illegal trading. It was predictable that an entitled twit with no sense of ethics at all would have crossed the line into crime a few times, and his attention-seeking ways guaranteed that he’d be scrutinized carefully.
Suddenly it looks a lot like Christmas.
Guess whose fault it is that Trump is running for president, and has some popular support? It’s not the mobs of bigoted known-nothings who cheer his every simplistic solutions. It’s not the right-wingers who have been feasting on a steady diet of Fox News. It’s not the beady-eyed monomaniacal fanatics who love their guns and god.
Nope. It’s all the fault of the leftists who oppose every single thing Trump stands for.
He was beaten up by a bird — a bald eagle, no less. That’s a portent of doom!
Erick Erickson, flaming wingnut, posted this amazingly revealing tweet this morning.
Growing up, I remember my parents never letting us have Asian food on December 7th. They were children of WWII.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) December 7, 2015
Growing up, I remember my parents never letting us have Asian food on December 7th. They were children of WWII.
So that’s how Republicans get made, boys and girls — by learning that nonsensical associations are truth. There are more Asians than just the Japanese, you know: the Chinese were our allies in that war. We were also at war with the Germans and the Italians…no word on whether the Erickson family also boycotted sausage and spaghetti. And, of course, the “Asian” food his family would have bought would have been grown and cooked by Americans.
It’s silly. With a name like his, his family should have refused instead to drink Guinness on the anniversary of the Battle of Clontarf (23 April 1014), like all of us good Scandinavian-Americans.
Erickson followed up with an accusation that we’re upset.
Leftists upset my parents wanted us to avoid Asian food on Pearl Harbor Day when we were growing up. Didn’t realize it was that big a deal
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) December 7, 2015
Leftists upset my parents wanted us to avoid Asian food on Pearl Harbor Day when we were growing up. Didn’t realize it was that big a deal
We’re not upset. We’re very appreciative of this insight into your poisonous upbringing, Erick! It helps us understand where you came from.
I am so sorry.
Brian Kilmeade interviews Donald Trump. You can stop right there, you say. That is just too much stupid to be borne. You would be right to stop reading now. Don’t click to go on to the next page. Do not click that link.
You’ll regret it if you do.
Last chance! Turn back now! You’ll be happier if you just go read some webcomics instead.
No, really. I like The Non-Adventures of Wonderella. Questionable Content is always good. Maki Naro? Trust me. Anything. Well, not Dilbert. Almost anything.
You’re still reading? What the fuck is wrong with you?
OK, as long as you understand the principle of informed consent, you may continue. The safeword is any kind of gurgled, choking scream.
