DNA discovery reveals relatives of ancient Egyptians - "Publishing its findings in Nature Communications, the study concluded that preserved remains found in Abusir-el Meleq, Middle Egypt, were closest genetic relatives of Neolithic and Bronze Age populations from the Near East, Anatolia and Eastern Mediterranean Europeans.Modern Egyptians, by comparison, share much more DNA with sub-Saharan populations."
Clearly, this means that any artefacts which have ever been found on the territory of modern day Egypt belong to it. If a Roman coin minted in Britain and owned by a Dalmatian merchant found in Egyptian waters because the Greek ship it was on happened to be shipwrecked there happened to be brought back to France by Napoleon's army, this is clearly stealing their heritage from the Egyptian people
Texas power outage: Why natural gas went down during the winter storm - "It’s estimated that about 80% of the grid’s capacity, or 67 gigawatts, could be generated by natural gas, coal and some nuclear power. Only 7% of ERCOT’s forecasted winter capacity, or 6 gigawatts, was expected to come from various wind power sources across the state. Woodfin said Tuesday that 16 gigawatts of renewable energy generation, mostly wind generation, are offline and that 30 gigawatts of thermal sources, which include gas, coal and nuclear energy, are offline."
This perfectly shows how unreliable renewable energy is. Despite being less than 10% of thermal energy's contribution to grid capacity, it is just over half of the thermal energy's generation that is offline
How much do state dinners cost, and are they worth the expense? - The Washington Post - "CBS News published the costs of President Obama’s first five state dinners, given from 2009 to 2011. On the low end was a 2011 dinner for South Korean president Lee Myung-Bak, which cost $203,053, according to CBS. News reports indicated there were about 200 guests, which put the per-head cost at about $1,000. The most expensive dinner reported by CBS was a 2009 event for the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. It cost $572,187, according to CBS. That was more than $1,700 per head"
Trump’s company billed the government at least $2.5 million. Here are the key charges. - The Washington Post - "When Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago in April 2017, Trump hosted a formal dinner at the club — and, over dessert, told Xi that the United States had fired missiles into Syria, he said. Trump later said the dessert was: “The most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you’ve ever seen.”Trump’s club later charged the government more than $7,000 for the 30-person dinner, including charges for wine, floral arrangements and decorative potted palm trees. The bill appears to include Trump’s own meal."
Apparently saving the taxpayer money, possibly by losing money, is a bad thing.
Trump's trips versus Obama's: When vacations cost millions - "Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said... about Trump's travels so far? "It's a rather obvious use of taxpayer resources for seemingly unnecessary purposes."
Some people were bashing Judicial Watch and claiming they were right wing and had double standards. Oops
Trudeau’s pre-recession period marked by weak economic numbers - "Back in 2015, the Trudeau Liberals ran on—and in some ways, were elected on—a promise that their dramatic changes in fiscal and regulatory policies including higher government spending financed by borrowing and higher taxes and a more interventionist approach to regulating the economy would result in a stronger, more prosperous country. As noted in our new study, however, there’s now sufficient evidence that not only did Canada’s economy not improve but indeed our economic performance during the 2016 to 2019 period (prior to the COVID recession) is the weakest of the last five comparable periods."
Who Forgot to Invite Chun-Li to the Mortal Kombat? - "being the astute film critic that I am I immediately clocked a glaring error in the film. Where in all the realms is Chun-Li? If there is a battle for the fate of Earth then don’t we need all of the greatest warriors gathered, which would include Chun-Li and her spinning bird kick that can knock a man’s head clean off? Sounds like a pretty big plot hole to me that the ultimate street fight is supposed to be won by a ragtag team helmed by Sonya Blade, no offense to the Sonya stans...
Update, 4:39 p.m.: Jezebel has discovered the answer to our question about Chun Li’s erasure, and it is that Chun Li is not part of the Mortal Kombat megaverse. Wow!"
Addendum: "This is why we need mansplaining"
Kyle Mann, boop/bop/beep on Twitter - [On the above] "This is why we need mansplaining"
Mansplaining: when a man tells a woman she is wrong (or disagrees with her
Report: Mansplaining Down But Woman Confusion Up | The Babylon Bee - "In great news for everyone, studies have shown that a campaign against mansplaining has had great results, with mansplaining now at a historic low. In unrelated bad news, though, there’s been a marked increase in women being extremely confused."
Facebook - "Recent posts from #freefromhijab are currently hidden because the community has reported some content that may not meet Instagram's community guidelines"
"Just leave us alone. You abuse us, insult us, attack us with acid, imprison us, and kill us for not wearing hijab. And we’re not even allowed to complain about that? We can’t even open our mouths to peacefully protest once a year online? We can’t celebrate the amazing women across the planet who defy your primitive and misogynistic rules? Leave. Us. Alone. #FreeFromHijab #NoHijabDay #HijabIsRapeCulture"
Islamophobia!
Meme - "Mexican Food Made by Americans: TACO BELL
American Food Made by Mexicans: *crazy burger*"
Thread by @patron_sailor on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "If we're talking about "decolonizing astrology" then we could start with the project of problematizing the heteronormative gender binary that pervades much of contemporary astrology — but I don't know if y'all are ready for it
There are unexamined colonialist ideas that are considered integral to so many astrologies that currently practiced. If you practice so-called evolutionary astrology, for instance, are you ready to unpack its legacy of 19th & 20th C. orientalism?
Bet it's a lot harder than we imagine. Decolonizing astrology won't be about whether we, as astrologers, have the right intentions signalled with the proper vocabulary. Rather: whether our astrologies contain & replicate oppressive structures, and if so, how to dismantle them.
Incidentally, I think it also requires us to be more reflexive in discourse about the plurality of astrologies, rather than speaking of a singular "astrology" without consideration for what that singularity elides and erases
As a parting shot I'll just say that if your astrology posits that sex is a signification of the 8th House then it's perpetuating some fucked-up repressive attitudes imported from the dominant culture — and if you care about liberation, maybe you should think about that"
Social Justice ruins everything. But since astrology is crap anyway...
The party of seatbelts and bike helmets wants to make it illegal to own a bulletproof vest
Facebook - "Logic, Empathy, Honesty:
The victory of the Liberal party in Australia has further proven a point that was first demonstrated by Trump and later by Brexit. When you demonize people on the right, call them racist and incite violence against them, you empower them. Not only this, but polls will consistently show the right wing parties lagging behind. The win is a surprise only to those on the left that haven't realized how useless these polls have become, because no one who believes they will be ostracized or, even attacked, for stating their political views, is going to go out of their way to tell pollsters their intention. The right wing is going to continue to lag behind in the polls but win-out in elections for as long as the left wing continues it's campaign of harassment, shame and incitement. If we are to restore a healthy, balanced democracy, we must learn to discuss things without name calling and intimidation."
This year belongs to the Quiet Australians - "Exit polling indicates Labor was the preferred party of the educated professional classes, but not for the workers, the people in whose name it is supposed to exist... This year, bushfires have come to divide Australians. That climate change might increase the likelihood and severity of bushfires has the ring of truthiness to it and warrants investigation. Yet at this stage it is little more than a hunch without a firm empirical foundation. It may remain so, given the challenge of finding a reliable historical measure. Bushfire season used to bring Australia together, inspiring private donations for its victims. Today it has become a burning stake by which to identify witches. The inane question ‘do you accept that bushfires are proof of climate change?’ has become the stock-standard gotcha question for politicians and even fire chiefs appearing on the ABC. Morrison has become the prime suspect, hauled before this tainted jury as the man we must blame for the smouldering undergrowth and destroyed homes. Morrison’s ‘inaction’ on climate change may be the stated charge, but like President Trump’s impeachment, we suspect his real crime is his refusal to tip his hat to his accusers’ wokish nonsense."
At Australian Ballot Boxes, the Left’s Empathy Deficit Came Home to Roost - " Picture a dinner party where half the guests are university graduates with prestigious white-collar jobs, with the other half consisting of people who are trade workers, barmaids, cleaners and labourers. While one side of the table trades racy jokes and uninhibited banter, the other half tut-tuts this “problematic” discourse. These two groups both represent traditional constituencies of mainstream centre-left parties—including the Labour Party in the UK, the Democrats in the United States, and the NDP in Canada. Yet they have increasingly divergent attitudes and interests—even if champagne socialists paper over these differences with airy slogans about allyship and solidarity. Progressive politicians like to assume that, on election day at least, blue-collar workers and urban progressives will bridge their differences, and make common cause to support leftist economic policies. This assumption might once have been warranted. But it certainly isn’t now—in large part because the intellectuals, activists and media pundits who present the most visible face of modern leftism are the same people openly attacking the values and cultural tastes of working and middle-class voters. And thanks to social media (and the caustic news-media culture that social media has encouraged and normalized), these attacks are no longer confined to dinner-party titterings and university lecture halls. Brigid Delaney, a senior writer for Guardian Australia, responded to Saturday’s election result with a column about how Australia has shown itself to be “rotten.” One well-known Australian feminist and op-ed writer, Clementine Ford, has been fond of Tweeting sentiments such as “All men are scum and must die.” Former Australian Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane, who also has served as a high-profile newspaper columnist, argues that even many mainstream political positions—such as expressing concern about the Chinese government’s rising regional influence—are a smokescreen for racism. In an interview conducted on Sunday morning, Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek opined that if only her party had more time to explain to the various groups how much they’d all benefit from Labor’s plans, Australians would have realized how fortunate they’d be with a Labor government, and Shorten would’ve become Prime Minister. Such attitudes are patronizing, for they implicitly serve to place blame at the feet of voters, who apparently are too ignorant to know what’s good for them. What the election actually shows us is that the so-called quiet Australians, whether they are tradies (to use the Australian term) in Penrith, retirees in Bundaberg, or small business owners in Newcastle, are tired of incessant scolding from their purported superiors. Condescension isn’t a good look for a political movement... the modern progressive left has lost touch with the fact that what ordinary people want from their government is a spirit of respect, dignity and hope for the future. While the fetish for hectoring and moral puritanism has become popular in rarefied corners of arts and academia, it is deeply off-putting to voters whose sense of self extends beyond cultish ideological tribalism... progressives seem to imagine that it can be dispelled, as if by a magic spell, simply by incanting the right hash tags or bleating mantras about anti-racism."