Links - 2nd July 2019 (1)

In the post-truth world, we need to remember the philosophy of science - "Accurate, effective reporting of science must be honest about the nature of the scientific arguments without losing the reader in technicalities. Achieving even an elementary understanding of the science requires distinguishing three dimensions: its subject (such as the past, present, and future climate), evidence about the subject (such as measurements of temperature), and theories about it (such as a hypothetical mechanism for global warming). To confuse any two of these three dimensions leads to alarming mental muddles, in which no theory lacks evidence, or nothing happens unobserved, or a change of theory is a change of climate. In other words, public discussions of science had better avoid basic mistakes in the philosophy of science, on pain of distorting scientific discoveries and their practical impacts... Kofman’s broadly sympathetic piece is entitled: “Bruno Latour, the Post-Truth Philosopher, Mounts a Defense of Science.” The article contains some striking passages. Kofman assures us that what Latour’s critics “have always missed” is that he “never sought to deny the existence of gravity”. She then adds: “Gravity, he has argued time and again, was created and made visible by the labour and expertise of scientists.” In short, scientists created gravity. Really? Did no apples fall before gravity was thought of?"

Not all those pushing back against identity politics are white and male - "Tariq Modood, professor of sociology at Bristol University, a British Pakistani and one with both academic and state honours, believes the left’s obeisance to an unreflective anti-racism is “confused”. In a talk he gave to a workshop on “Labour and England” in September, he said that “the self-effacement of being British among the centre-left made it difficult for people like me to say I was British and was proud to be British, that we were British together…ethnic minorities are now more affirming of a British identity than the white English”. In an interview, he goes further, saying that minorities should “look to British imperial history – and find there proof of your Britishness. We were British subjects – and this resonates with quite a lot with people”... The shame which leftists and liberals often express – the writer Paul Mason wrote in 2015 that “I do not want to be English” – and the left-liberal contempt for what they claim is a continued attachment to imperial glory by whites, are themes picked up and developed by Iranian born Ali Ansari, now head of the Institute for Iranian Studies at St Andrews University... Neither he nor any other of this loose group (who in some cases do not know of each other’s work) deny the Empire’s brutalities: but they are impatient with white guilt. Deprecating British self deprecation, Ansari told me that “the empire is accused of being a racist project – in fact, imperialists who knew and worked in the empire were often very inclusive – cosmopolitanism came to be part of imperialism… Someone said – the ‘trouble with the British is that not only were they the greatest imperialists, but they are also the greatest anti-imperialists’.”... She has also been part of a group which formed the blog, All in Britain – criticising what the writers see as leftist anti-racist dogma which refuses to accept an improving culture of racial integration – and a critique of liberal excess in defence of those allegedly victimised. A blog by Udham Singh (a nom de plume) in March blasted the Teen Vogue columnist Emily Lindin, who had “recently tweeted: ‘if some innocent men’s reputations have to take a hit in the process of undoing the patriarchy, that is a price I am absolutely willing to pay’. Note the claim to victimhood here – absurdly, she thinks she is the one paying the price.”"

Campus yoga group goes inactive after cultural appropriation complaint - "A yoga club at American University has gone inactive after a complaint of cultural appropriation.The campus Bhakti Yoga Club invited a non-Indian group to perform the Indian epic “The Ramayana." This did not sit well with American University student Maya Krishnan, who complained to the President’s Council on Diversity and Inclusion... “The sponsors of this show and the artists acted as if their actions were acceptable because they have converted to the Hare Krishna sect of Hinduism. The reality of this is that white European dancers will never know my intersectional experience as a Hindu woman, being a brown bodied person and the other aspects of systematic racism that I, as well as other South Asian people, have experienced.”"

'Easy' Cooking Isn't Easy: A Thanksgiving Lament - "Homemade beef barbacoa tacos. Short-rib potpie. “Weekday” French toast. Make-ahead coconut cake. They might as well be skyscraper blueprints, so improbable is the possibility that I will begin making my own nut butters, baking my own sandwich bread, or turning that fall farmer’s market bounty into jars of homemade applesauce... I can order excellent pad thai from my phone in under a minute. Or, I can find a recipe for “easy” pad thai, run—literally, run—to the grocery store at lunch, hope that grocery store sells fish sauce, then spend 40 minutes making the dish and 20 minutes cleaning up. The decision to cook from scratch may have many virtues, but ease is not one of them. Despite what we’re told, cooking the way so many Americans aspire to do it today is never fast, and rarely easy compared to all the other options available for feeding ourselves... More of our cookbooks are written by chefs publishing recipes adapted from their restaurants, as opposed to the self-taught home cooks who traditionally authored the lion’s share of the category. Ingredients have gotten more exotic, and less likely to be collected within a trip to your average American grocery store. Za’atar? Yuzu juice? Persian cucumber? For a special cooking project, fine, but galling to discover in the ingredients list for a weeknight dinner. At the same time, magazine test kitchens have shifted from being staffed by seasoned home cooks to young culinary-school graduates, trained in the practices of the professional kitchen (which are entirely based around the premise that a corps of cooks will be working 12 hours a day to create the dishes). Even when these recipes are simplified for home cooking, the fundamental approaches often aren’t practical... real “easy” cooking, if that’s what you’re after, is far too simple to sustain a magazine and cookbook industry. It relies on foods that can be purchased at a single point of sale and involves a bare minimum of ingredients and a small repertoire of techniques"

Why Do Millennials Hate Groceries? - "twenty- and thirtysomethings are bidding adieu to yet another cultural mainstay of the Baby Boomer generation—shopping trips to supermarkets. With an abundance of options on the streets and at their fingertips, young shoppers are eating out at restaurants and bars, ordering in on their phones, or snagging groceries at convenience stores, such as CVS, and superstores, such as Walmart... Why Do Millennials Hate Groceries? - "twenty- and thirtysomethings are bidding adieu to yet another cultural mainstay of the Baby Boomer generation—shopping trips to supermarkets. With an abundance of options on the streets and at their fingertips, young shoppers are eating out at restaurants and bars, ordering in on their phones, or snagging groceries at convenience stores, such as CVS, and superstores, such as Walmart... The big story here is not that young people are uniquely turning away from groceries. Rather, the story is a structural shift toward eating out at restaurants, among Millennials and their parents (and perhaps even their grandparents)... Using Census data, the economist Mark J. Perry calculated that for the first time on record, Americans are spending more money at restaurants and bars than at grocery stores... Using Census data, the economist Mark J. Perry calculated that for the first time on record, Americans are spending more money at restaurants and bars than at grocery stores."

Professional Privilege Checkers Inc. - Posts - "Magic is not for white people. Leave that shit to brown + black women and stop fucking up the cosmic balance with ur fake witchy shenanigans"
"So you felt the need to say brown first lol meanwhile all practices come from Africa. From black people. From my people. Lol but yea ok"

The Aspiring Novelist Who Became Obama’s Foreign-Policy Guru - The New York Times - "Price turns to his computer and begins tapping away at the administration’s well-cultivated network of officials, talking heads, columnists and newspaper reporters, web jockeys and outside advocates who can tweet at critics and tweak their stories backed up by quotations from “senior White House officials” and “spokespeople.”... Watching Rhodes work, I remember that he is still, chiefly, a writer, who is using a new set of tools — along with the traditional arts of narrative and spin — to create stories of great consequence on the biggest page imaginable. The narratives he frames, the voices of senior officials, the columnists and reporters whose work he skillfully shapes and ventriloquizes, and even the president’s own speeches and talking points, are the only dots of color in a much larger vision... “All these newspapers used to have foreign bureaus,” he said. “Now they don’t. They call us to explain to them what’s happening in Moscow and Cairo. Most of the outlets are reporting on world events from Washington. The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns. That’s a sea change. They literally know nothing.”In this environment, Rhodes has become adept at ventriloquizing many people at once... “Instead of adjusting his policies to the reality, and adjusting his perception of reality to the changing realities on the ground, the conclusions he draws are exactly the same, no matter what the costs have been to our strategic interests,” he says. “In an odd way, he reminds me of Bush.” The comparison is a startling one — and yet, questions of tone aside, it is uncomfortably easy to see the similarities between the two men, American presidents who projected their own ideas of the good onto an indifferent world."
What does this say about the US media?

'Anti-Islamic' posters in Essex showing crusader chasing woman in burqa with AK-47 investigated by police - "Posters put up in an Essex town bearing the phrase “Islamists not welcome” are being treated as a hate crime, police have said."
This may be a brilliant troll job to get liberals to welcome Islamism. If you oppose sharia law you're Islamophobic

Islamism, Salafism, and jihadism: A primer - "Islamist groups believe Islamic law or Islamic values should play a central role in public life. They feel Islam has things to say about how politics should be conducted, how the law should be applied, and how other people—not just themselves—should conduct themselves morally. To be or become an Islamist, however, is a conscious act of political affirmation. As the Princeton historian Michael Cook writes, Islamists are “at pains to construe their politics out of their Islamic heritage.” This also explains, in part, why Islamism isn’t just a reaction to modernity, but a product of it. In the pre-modern era, Islam imbued every aspect of public life, providing an overarching religious, legal, and moral culture. It went without saying, so it wasn’t said. With the advent of modernity, Islam, for the first time, became a distinct political project. But why not treat Islamists as we would treat any other ideology or political platform? For starters, modern liberal sensibilities shy away from enshrining a privileged position to any one religion, out of fear of placing constraints on individual freedom—yet the point of Islamism is to advocate for a privileged social and political role for Islamic belief"

Porn star: I didn't have sex with Trump - "An adult film star who previously alleged an extramarital affair with Donald Trump now says in a statement the affair never happened. A lawyer for porn actress Stormy Daniels confirmed his client’s statement Tuesday. Daniels’ real name is Stephanie Clifford."

Indian car owner protects vehicle with a layer of cow dung as summer temperatures exceed 45 degrees Celsius - "An image of her car being shared on social media showed her Toyota sedan completely slathered with cow dung to keep it cool in the hot weather... The use of cow dung as insulation comes from an old practice by rural residents who used it on their walls and floors as insulation – it would keep their homes warm in winter and cooler in summer.Cow dung cakes – poop made with hay and dried in the sun – have also been used as fuel in villages and people have been known to use it in soap and as organic manure. Politicians have also claimed various benefits of cow urine and other bovine-related products. Last month, Pragya Singh Thakur, who contested in the just-concluded general election on a BJP ticket, claimed that she cured her cancer with the help of cow urine... In Uttar Pradesh – where the ruling BJP administration has proposed to set up 1,000-capacity cow shelters in seven districts of the state – a government ayurvedic pharmacy has mooted a plan to collect, process and sell packaged bottles of cow urine as a health drink"
If you use shit can people call you a shithole?

New Jersey man faces prison for sexual conduct with minor, child porn - "Mell began communicating with the 15-year-old through text messages and SnapChat in 2017. He was 51 at the time.Mell already had “a pre-existing relationship with the minor” when he began communicating with her, according to the brief filed in support of his release on bail.“In fact, it was the minor’s mother who first introduced Mr. Mell to obtain flight lessons for the minor”... Mell flew with her in his private plane from Somerset Airport to Barnstable, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod “for the purpose of engaging in illicit conduct, specifically, a sexual act with a person under the age of eighteen."On the flight back, Mell put the aircraft in autopilot mode and engaged in sex acts"