Opinion: Overdue: Throwing the book at libraries - The Globe and Mail - "Booksellers are in competition with libraries whether they want to admit it or not. Just ask the libraries... Libraries impress upon patrons the value of their services to keep people borrowing and to build the institutional case for continued if not increased public funding – which, judging from the websites of the library associations on both sides of the border, is a major preoccupation... People often wonder what happened to independent bookstores in Canada and blame chains such as Barnes & Noble or Chapters/Indigo or behemoth Amazon for their decline. The chains and Amazon have definitely had an impact, but it is nothing close to the effect of libraries... American librarians, proud of their marketing prowess, now boast that there are more library branches than Starbucks shops in their country. Canadian librarians can claim the same. One has to wonder if Starbucks would be Starbucks if municipalities opened publicly funded stores on the same block offering the exact same drinks to the same specifications at several times the scale and at no charge... Writers are loath to draw a line between the fact that they’re poor and the fact that four out of five of their patrons get their books at no charge. Most of us grew up in libraries. We love libraries. Our first library card was as important to us as our first driver’s licence. We do our research in libraries and meet our audiences in libraries. We think libraries are important civic institutions. It is difficult to conceive of them as problematic, so we ignore inconvenient facts to shield libraries from embarrassment... you can make five times more lending an author’s book [as a librarian] than you can writing the book. Plus annual increases. Plus benefits. Plus pension... four out of five books are read at no charge... Librarians argue that libraries are what philanthropist and early public library funder Andrew Carnegie called “palaces for the people,” a bulwark against illiteracy, a foundation of democracy, a last resort for those without access to books or the means to buy them.That was certainly true in the early days of the public library, before compulsory K-12 education, when books were rare and relatively expensive. Not so much today, when everyone goes to school and more than 90 per cent of schools have libraries. All of the classics can be found online at no charge, and millions upon millions of used books can be had for cheap on Bookfinder or Amazon.The dirty secret of public libraries is that their stock-in-trade is neither education nor edification. It’s entertainment. The top three reasons people patronize libraries, according to a massive Booknet survey, are to “relax,” for “enjoyment” and “for entertainment.” That is why the TPL system has 90 copies of Fifty Shades of Grey and six copies of Stendhal’s The Red and the Black. These entertainment readers are not a benighted underclass for whom Tom Clancy is a stepping stone to literacy and employment. They are people who can afford books: disproportionately middle-class, upper middle-class and well-educated. Pushing bestsellers in competition with book retailers, to the detriment of publishers and authors, has become an addiction for librarians who, again, rely on steady or growing patronage statistics to justify their funding requests... The saddest aspect of this whole situation is that there is a far nobler role available to public libraries, one that would deliver important public goods without destroying the financial ecosystem of book publishing. That role, which libraries, to their credit, are increasingly fulfilling, is to serve as community centres and social-service outlets... publishers are belatedly trying to prevent libraries from teaching readers that books have no commercial value, that their content is free... Important as libraries are to civic culture, the books that fill them, and the people who make those books, are more so. A commercial publishing industry is unsustainable if four out of every five readers are reading at no charge. Booksellers and publishers need to make money, and tens of thousands of remarkably talented authors need to be able to dream of someday living as well as librarians."
Funding libraries publicly is like arts subsidies: the poor subsidising the middle class
The different ways that Chinese people eat blood - "Blood—it’s not just the stuff of vampires. A natural byproduct of an animal slaughter, it’s rich in protein, iron, and other minerals, and is a culinary staple around the world.In parts of Europe, blood sausage is the most common way to eat blood, mixed with grains, meat, and fat.But in Asia, the selection is more diverse. In addition to blood sausage, there’s also pig blood cake—made with sticky rice as a base—and coagulated blood that takes on a texture similar to that of tofu."
Reality has been Cancelled - "These days, if you go to university to read humanities and some social sciences — notably psychology and sociology... You will encounter radical scepticism about whether objective knowledge or truth is obtainable, along with a commitment to the notion that real things — like sex and race — are culturally constructed. Your lecturers will impress upon you the idea that society is formed into identity-based hierarchies and knowledge is an effect of power. Your position on a league-table of oppressed identities determine what can be known and how it is known. If you disagree you will at least be marked down, and sometimes formally disciplined... postmodern thought over the last half century has evolved in such a way — meanwhile spilling out of the academy, into activist circles, to the public at large — as to constitute a threat not only to liberal democracy but to modernity itself. Today’s activist dogma is recognisable as much by its effects, such as cancel culture and social-media dogpiles — which Pluckrose and Lindsay document — as by its tenets, which are treated as axiomatic. These include the claim that knowledge is a social construct; science and reason are tools of oppression; all human interactions are oppressive power-plays, and speech is harmful... what policy wonks have long called “The Woozle Effect” (yes, there’s a reason for my Winnie-the-Pooh reference). In wonk-world, a Woozle occurs when frequent citation of previous publications not grounded in evidence misleads individuals, groups, and governments into believing there is proof for something. In this way, invented claims become accepted factlets and then feed into policy. Think, for example, of the so-called “gender-pay-gap”. In reality, the observed gap has nothing to do with gender and everything to do with sex, and does not arise as a result of discrimination. You would not know this from watching the BBC, however.Enacting legislation and developing national strategies on the basis of false claims is the policy equivalent of theology. We may as well sacrifice virgins on mountaintops Aztec-style for all the good Theory is doing to address problems about which everyone — not just social justice warriors, as Cynical Theories notes — cares."
Scientific journal apologizes amid backlash over Canadian professor's essay criticizing diversity hiring - "A Canadian professor who criticized diversity hiring in an opinion essay has prompted a prestigious German scientific journal to retract the piece, and the publisher and his university to issue a public apology.Amid a backlash over the article published June 4, the Angewandte Chemie, which bills itself as one of the world’s prime chemistry journals, withdrew the piece written by Tomas Hudlicky, of Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont... the publication was conducting an internal investigation, calling its acceptance a “clear mistake,” and said two editors had been suspended... Hiring practices, he said, have reached the point where a candidate’s inclusion in a “preferred” social group might override his or her qualifications."
The Overton Window grows steadily smaller. I guess SJWs have abandoned the pretense that "diversity" improves performance
Trump’s Tulsa rally fact check: False claims on COVID-19, Biden and more - "“We’ve spent over $2 trillion to completely rebuild the unmatched strength and power of the United States military.”
This is misleading. The $2 trillion figure refers to the defense budgets for the past three fiscal years: $671 billion in 2018, $685 billion in 2019 and $713 billion in 2020...
“The murder rate in Baltimore and Detroit is higher than El Salvador, Guatemala or even Afghanistan.”
This is false. Baltimore and Detroit do have higher murder rates than Guatemala and Afghanistan, but El Salvador’s rate is higher. Regardless, comparing the crime rates of cities to that of entire countries is misleading."
Steven Crowder on Twitter - "The USA ENDED slavery, ended race-based civil rights violations, elected a Black President TWICE, and made our highest paid athletes, musicians, celebrities and cultural ambassadors black Americans. If we're a "racist" nation... we suck at it."
"Fact checking"
Trainee KPMG accountant sacked after dress code row with boss - "A trainee accountant at one of the world's biggest firms was sacked after accusing her boss of 'mansplaining' when he asked her to wear smarter clothes to work.Zhihui Lu, 26, joined KPMG as an audit assistant in 2015 after graduating from Durham with a degree in accounting and finance - but within two years bosses were raising concerns about her performance as well as her erratic behaviour.On one occasion Miss Lu asked manager Matt Brunton 'who was he as a man to be telling her what she can and cannot wear?' after she turned up at the firm's Canary Wharf office in London wearing jeans and a jumper. In a 'loud and aggressive tirade' she then asked whether he thought her bra was appropriate and tried to show him her bra strap... After being taken on as a graduate trainee she was accused of being overly aggressive, emotional and rude and was repeatedly warned about her behaviour.Miss Lu was suspended and eventually sacked in November 2018 for gross misconduct, and she took the firm to tribunal claiming they had discriminated against her.But the panel sided with KPMG and dismissed her claims for unfair dismissal, harassment, and disability and race discrimination entirely... Miss Lu had ignored requests to stop taking too much food for herself from lunches laid on for staff and on one occasion turned up with containers so she could remove as much as possible.She also refused to sit on the same floor as the rest of the Insurance team, commandeering a meeting room five floors below in which she installed a rice cooker.She repeatedly referred to a senior member of the firm as 'the bald partner' despite knowing his name, and told a female colleague she 'looked terrible' at work... Since leaving the company Miss Lu uploaded a YouTube video parody of PewDiePie's song 'Congratulations'.In the PewDiePie version, the popular YouTuber sarcastically congratulates rival channel T-Series for taking his spot as the number one content creator on the site.In Ms Lu's parody, she congratulates KPMG in a similarly sarcastic manner and accuses the company of starting by selling 'dirt cheap services' and having 'a billion Caucasians' - with the original song playing in the background... Miss Lu responded to the news that she had missed out on a position she had been after by telling a senior manager she would have done better if she had slept with one of the firm's male partners.On one occasion her managers at KPMG became so concerned about Miss Lu's mental health when they could not get hold of her one evening that they rang the police to check at her home that she was alright, an intervention that she later bitterly complained about.In fact - as Miss Lu later admitted - she was out at the opera... 'The firm expects employees to wear smart, business casual clothing - it does not support a policy of ''dress down''.'Miss Lu replied: 'I do not appreciate mansplaining on dress codes. Bras are clothing. My work wardrobe does not support such weather...May I know if I am able to expense winter clothing...to ensure that I dress to your desired taste?'" p>Gad Saad - Posts - "Fun fact: I once used the word "RE**RD" whilst sparring with someone on Twitter and I was banned for 12 hours. @shaunking desecrates Jesus, the incarnation of God, to billions of Christians. @TwitterSupport says: Free speech! [For the record I think that both should be allowed.]"
Dan Fincke - "The great majority of the liberal left that has failed to stand up and denounce en mass the authoritarian left wing extremists who have utterly abandoned the commitment to freedom of speech should be ashamed of themselves.I am devastated that the left is now rightly associated with mob behavior, might makes right politics, and with countless attempts to silence people and get them fired over their opinions. I am profoundly disappointed by how many self-identified "liberals" have been corrupted into thinking this is all acceptable, in such a short span of time.That the left is now the side of thought policing, McCarthyism, moral panics, censorship, intolerance, civil violence, closed-minded dogmatism, and book burning is an utter betrayal of the ideals that so many liberals proclaimed so much allegiance to for my entire life until now."
Experts call for regulation after latest botched art restoration in Spain - "Conservation experts in Spain have called for a tightening of the laws covering restoration work after a copy of a famous painting by the baroque artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo became the latest in a long line of artworks to suffer a damaging and disfiguring repair... Fernando Carrera, a professor at the Galician School for the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, said such cases highlighted the need for work to be carried out only by properly trained restorers."
How can a libertarian blame government regulation for the screwup?
Facebook survey asked users if pedophiles should be able to ask kids for 'sexual pictures' - "In thinking about an ideal world where you could set Facebook’s policies, how would you handle the following: a private message in which an adult man asks a 14-year-old girl for sexual pictures... Facebook faced criticism again in 2017 when the BBC flagged dozens of images and pages containing child pornography. Of the 100 reported images,18 were removed by Facebook, according to the BBC. At the time, the BBC said Facebook asked to be sent examples of the images and then reported the broadcaster to the child exploitation unit of Britain’s National Crime Agency."
ZUBY: (Notable Exception) on Twitter - "I love how judging people based on the content of their character, rather than by the colour of their skin, their gender, or their sexuality has now become a 'right-wing' position. We live in the dumbest timeline."
Eric Varner - "No matter how bad your life is going, just know it could be worse.You could have Pete Davidson's tattoos."
Haskara Andika - "Horror movies should add bloopers, so after watching the main film you'll be able to sleep" "I watched this indonesian honor movie and may did have some “bloopers" except instead of being funny outtakes, they were points in filming where they were forced to stop because the actress playing as the ghost got possessed a couple times and may had to do an exorcism... Suster Ngesot (2007)"