I’m Your Biggest Fan! - Freakonomics - "VAN BAVEL: If you’re about 10 to 12 years old, if the team in your local area wins a championship, it kind of imprints that fandom on you for life...
It would be ideal if our politics was really about ideas and policies and careful, reasoned debate... But politics is also about mobilizing people, getting people out to vote. And often you’re not going to do that unless you make it feel like a sense of community. And they have a shared sense of purpose and also a sense of support and a network that is engaged. What you want to do is harness those partisan identities in healthy ways, create healthy norms that, for example, uphold democracy."
Retailers have become an arm of the nanny state - "Sainsbury’s, one of the UK’s largest supermarket chains, has ditched its 10-year-old motto. With the help of ads featuring the voice of Stephen Fry, it has replaced the classic ‘Live Well for Less’ with the less-catchy ‘Helping Everyone Eat Better’. Just as fears of inflation have returned to Britain, Sainsbury’s has jettisoned its stated commitment to low prices. Instead, in a striking change of priorities, it is now trying to lower customers’ carbon footprints and shrink their waistlines. Sainsbury’s plans to reformulate many of its recipes to prioritise plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy. It wants to sell food that is healthier for everyone ‘and the planet too’... Supermarkets have long tried to present a right-on image. But what’s different here is that Sainsbury’s shift to healthy, green eating is based directly on government propaganda – specifically, Public Health England’s 2016 Eatwell Guide, which advised the public on how to eat healthily and sustainably. When the PHE guide was released, it caused a lot of controversy. As leading obesity expert Zoe Harcombe pointed out at the time, it calculated recommended portion sizes by weight, not by calories – despite the fact that it is the content of meals, not their physical mass, that gives a more accurate picture of how healthy they are. Harcombe also highlighted that the low-fat, high-carb diet recommended by the guide wasn’t what most nutritionists would consider healthy. But Sainsbury’s is running with it anyway... From April 2022, there will be no more buy-one-get-one-free or three-for-two offers on products such as sweets, juices, cakes, biscuits, pizza and ready meals. There will also be no more naughty eats placed strategically at checkouts, store entrances or aisle ends – or their ‘online equivalents’"
Meme - Dr Jordan B Peterson @jordanbpeterson: "Do not trust anyone who uses the words "disinformation" or "misinformation." What they mean is "opinions that run contrary to mine that I should be allowed to suppress.""
Elon Musk @elonmusk: "Especially if they say they're an expert at both. Dead giveaway."
Meme - "Neuron activation. Monkey sees clown girl
I wish clown girls were an actual race of people. Their entire skin is white. The clown nose is natural. Their nipples and pussy lips, aka Clussy, have alternate colors, sometimes the same as the lips. Their skin probably tastes funny Imagine the taste of their breast milk. Grabbing their breasts or ass causes a honk noise. Want to playfully grope Clown wifes butt in public, loud ass honk is heard echoing from her. Everyone turns to you too, knowing full well what is going on. She embarrassingly honks her nose, trying to play it off."
Meme - "Imagine if we had 2 or 3 minds inside of our brains and none of them were aware of each other but they all simultaneously existed"
"Yes. That is real for sure. It's called multiple personality disorder"
Meme - "The Political Compass. Expectations vs Reality
Authoritarian Left: Revolutionary, Destroyed Capitalism, Proud Laborer vs Internet Troll, Lives With Parents, Lazy
Libertarian Right: Billionaire, Eliminated Minimum Wage, Private Road Owner vs Broke, Works For Minimum Wage, Owns No Property
Libertarian Left: Anarchist, Seized The Means of Production, No Gender vs Emily, Can't Define Socialism, BLM I ACAB (She/Her)
Authoritarian Right: General, Taken Military Control, Member of The Only Master Race vs Rural Farmer, Licks Boots of The Police, Won't Accept The Election Results
Centrist: Massive Chad, Doesn't Get Into Politics, Grill Master vs Massive Chad, Doesn't Get Into Politics, Grill Master"
Meme - "*1/16 Scottish*
"American grown with Scottish roots*
*William Wallace woad doll*
*Bagpipes* "My ancestors are calling me back home"
"I did DNA test because America is a melting pot"
"I AM SCOTTISH!!!"
"Scottish men are so sexy*
*Scottish Heraldry* "Hi grandpa""
Meme - "Indiana Jones: black people
Golden Idol: anything that doesn't belong to them"
I interpreted this as being about "We were kangz" and claiming every other culture
'Crows are innocent': Hecklers disrupt NParks bird trapping in Toa Payoh - "A crow-trapping operation in Toa Payoh drew the ire of some individuals on Thursday (Feb 23) evening, with shouts of "crows are innocent" and "animal cruelty" heard directed at the trappers... Some of these residents threw objects at the balloons, they said, adding that they also noticed green lasers used during the operation... NParks said that it was taking steps to reduce the crow population around Bishan Street 12 after several people were attacked by the birds there."
Hopefully they get attacked by the birds
Bride catches groom being breastfed by mum before wedding - "Speaking on the Unfiltered Bride podcast, a UK wedding planner told podcast co-host Beth Smith she had been told the story on two occasions by a make-up artist she called 'Jenny'."
Alphabet Reportedly Lays Off Robots That Cleaned Cafeterias
Florida man arrested for reportedly tossing gator into Wendy's - "Joshua James, 23, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, illegally killing, possessing or capturing an alligator, and second-degree larceny petit theft"
Kelly McParland: Green leader should be insulted Ontario Liberals want to recruit him - "The Liberals were a mighty force for 15 years under former premiers Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne, but so profoundly wore out their welcome that they found themselves reduced to just seven seats in a 124-seat legislature in 2018, and just eight in the succeeding vote last June. Neither result was good enough to garner official party status or the sort of funding they need to keep the lights on. The people behind the “Draft Mike” campaign — DraftMike .ca being the actual name of the website launched to promote the plan — evidently see no one in existing ranks adequate to revive the glory years. The spectacle of a bunch of party members rushing around in search of a camera-ready figurehead they can trot around the province as the next coming of Liberal hegemony is just one aspect of the project that strikes others as failing to pass the smell test. The fact that a number of the 40 signatories on an open letter are senior party members with well-known names and resumés that include high office in past governments can only feed assertions that the Liberals are a party with no fixed convictions other than an unshakable belief in their right to hold power. Rather than develop policies, attract talented people and craft a solid platform, they’d rather beat the bushes for an off-the-rack frontman who can dazzle the shallow end of the voting pool before anyone catches on... who better to lead the Liberal party than someone who’s not an actual Liberal?... Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came to power largely on personal charisma and a glamorous background, but whose eroding standing with Canadian voters is stirring real angst within the party . Trudeau is accused of having failed to develop a sure-fire replacement to take over at his eventual departure. When a party lacks an identity beyond its leader, his or her retirement leaves it flopping around, gasping for oxygen. Not that Liberals are sorry they picked Trudeau: they got seven years of power out of him, didn’t they? Plenty of politicians would happily accept that, even if it entailed the danger of leaving a smoking mess behind when they finally take their leave."
GUNTER: Wage demands of public service works unrealistic - "the Public Service Alliance of Canada seems serious. Their negotiators think it’s perfectly legitimate that federal civil servants should ask for raises of between 25% and 47% over a three-year period... How could anyone, federal union members especially, think they deserve such an enormous, rapid increase in pay? After a big drop off in private-sector income during the first year of the pandemic, private-sector wages have grown just over four per cent since... The latest Statistics Canada data on public- versus private-sector incomes, compiled by Vancouver’s Fraser Institute, show public servants are already better compensated than their private-sector equivalents. Public servants are better paid, receive more benefits, retire earlier with richer pensions, work fewer hours a day, take more personal days off (with pay) and have far greater job security... Public servants used to accept slightly lower pay in return for lighter duties, better benefits and pensions and more job security. Now they want substantially higher pay for less work, too."
txtify.it - "Convert web articles to plain text"
An alternative to archive.vn/archive.ph for getting around paywalls. It strips media and is near-instant (for new articles)
Classical liberalism vs. The New Right - "It has become increasingly clear that the political Right in America is not what it used to be. In particular, my own preferred slant of classical liberalism is being replaced. In its stead are rising alternatives that don’t yet have a common name. Some are called “national conservatism,” and some (by no means all) strands are pro-Trump, but I will refer to the New Right. My use of the term covers a broad range of sources, from Curtis Yarvin to J.D. Vance to Adrian Vermeule to Sohrab Ahmari to Rod Dreher to Tucker Carlson, and also a lot of anonymous internet discourse. Most of all I am thinking of the smart young people I meet who in the 1980s might have become libertarians, but these days absorb some mix of these other influences. I would like to consider where the older classical liberal view differs from these more recent innovations. I don’t so much intend a cataloguing of policy positions as a quest to find the most fundamental difference, at a conceptual level, between the classical liberal views and their New Right competitors. That main difference – to cut to the chase — is how much faith each group puts in the possibility of trustworthy, well-functioning elites... In the classical liberal view, elites usually fall short of what we would like. They end up captured by some mix of special interest groups and poorly informed voters. There is thus a certain disillusionment with democratic government, while recognizing it is the best of available alternatives and far superior to autocracy for basic civil liberties. That said, classical liberals do not consider the elites to be totally hopeless... In the classical liberal view, the great failing of elites is that they do not keep society as free as it ought to be. The New Right thinkers are far more skeptical of elites. They are more likely to see elites as evil and pernicious, and sometimes they (implicitly) see these evil elites as competent enough to actually wreck society. The classical liberals see checks and balances as strong enough to limit the worst outcomes, whereas the New Right sees ideological conformity and indeed collusion within the Establishment. Checks and balances are a paper tiger. Once you start seeing elites as so bad and also so collusive, many other changes in your views might follow. You might become more skeptical about free speech, because you view it as a recipe for putting a lot of power in the hands of (often Democratic-led) major tech companies. And is there de facto free speech if a conservative sociologist cannot get hired at Yale? You also might become more skeptical about immigration, not because you are racist (though of course there are racists), but because you see it as a plot of the Democratic Party to remake America in a new image and with a new set of voters (“you will not replace us!”). Free trade becomes seen as a line peddled by the elite, and that is an elite unconcerned with the social and national security costs of a deindustrialized America. Globalization more generally becomes a failed project of the previous elite. The New Right doesn’t entirely reject the basic principles of free market economics, but it does try to transcend libertarian views with a deeper understanding of the current power structure. In each case there are sociological forces operating that are seen as more important than “mere” free market economics. In this regard the New Right has a more interdisciplinary worldview than do many of the classical liberals. The New Right thinkers regard most power as cultural in nature, rather than rooted in coercive government alone... The New Right is in essence accepting the original classical liberal critique of the state and pushing it a few steps further, adding further skepticism of elites, a greater emphasis on culture, and a belief in elite collusion rather than checks and balances... The New Right also tends to see the classical liberals as naïve about power (the same charge classical liberals fling at the establishment), and as standing on the losing side of history. Those aren’t the easiest arguments to refute. Furthermore, the last twenty years have seen 9/11, a failed Iraq War, a major financial crisis and recession, and a major pandemic, mishandled in some critical regards. It doesn’t seem that wrong to become additionally skeptical about American elites, and the New Right wields these points effectively. While I try my best to understand the New Right, I am far from being persuaded. One worry I have is about how it initially negative emphasis feeds upon itself. Successful societies are based on trust, including trust in leaders, and the New Right doesn’t offer resources for forming that trust or any kind of comparable substitute. As a nation-building project it seems like a dead end. If anything, it may hasten the Brazilianification of the United States rather than avoiding it, Brazil being a paradigmatic example of a low trust society and government... The New Right also seems bad at coalition building, most of all because it is so polarizing about the elites on the other side. Many of the most beneficial changes in American history have come about through broad coalitions, not just from one political side or the other... The New Right (and the classical liberals I might add) also seem to neglect the many cases where American governance has improved over time. My DMV really is many times better than it was thirty years ago. New York City is currently seeing some trying times, due to the pandemic aftermath, but the city is significant better run today than it was in the 1970s. Social Security, for all of its flaws, remains one of the world’s better-functioning retirement systems. The weapons the U.S. military is supplying to Ukraine seem remarkably effective. The Fed and Treasury, for all their initial oversights, did forestall a great depression in 2008-2009. Operation Warp Speed was a major success and saved millions of lives... I worry about excess negativism in New Right thinking. Negative thoughts tend to breed further negative thoughts. If the choice is a bit of naivete and excess optimism, or excess pessimism, I for one will opt for the former."
If you live for peoples’ acceptance you will die from their rejection - "Grammy award winning artist Lecrae puts it this way: “If you live for people’s acceptance, you will die from their rejection.”"
What Movie Studios Refuse to Understand About Streaming - "Instead of building services that provide the convenience audiences want—with competition driving services to make better and better products for audiences—the value is now in making something rare. Something that can only be found on your service. And even if it is not good, it is at least tied to a popular franchise or some other thing people do not want to be left out of. Instead of building better services—faster internet access, better interfaces, better content—the model is all based on exclusive control... we know from history that this isn’t what consumers want. We know from the ‘30s and ‘40s that this kind of vertical integration is not good for creativity or for audiences. We know from the recent past that convenient, reasonably-priced, and legal internet services are what users want and will use. So we very much know that this system is untenable and anticompetitive, that it can encourage copyright infringement and drives the growth of reactionary draconian copyright laws that hurt innovators and independent creators. We also know what works. Antitrust enforcers back in the ‘30s and ‘40s recognized that a system like this should not exist and put a stop to it. Breaking the studios’ cartel in the ‘40s led to more independent movie theaters, more independent studios, and more creativity in movies in general. So why have we let this system regrow itself online?"
Japanese makers of Tropicana fined 19 million yen for “100% Melon” juice with only 2% melon juice
Revealed: group shaping US nutrition receives millions from big food industry - "Newly released documents show an influential group that helps shape US food policy and steers consumers toward nutritional products has financial ties to the world’s largest processed food companies and has been controlled by former industry employees who have worked for companies like Monsanto. The documents reveal the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has a record of quid pro quos with a range of food giants, owns stock in ultra-processed food companies and has received millions in contributions from producers of pop, candy, and processed foods linked to diabetes, heart disease, obesity and other health problems... in 2015, a partnership between the Academy and Kraft ignited controversy when the Academy agreed to allow the company to put its “Kid’s Eat Healthy” seal on Kraft Singles packaging, which suggested an independent source verified the product’s nutritional value. But critics quickly pointed out that the product has poor nutritional value; it is not classified by the federal government as cheese but “Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product”; and it includes dyes and other chemicals. In the face of blowback, the Academy rescinded its stamp... The documents only surfaced because Martin, a former academy president who works for a public school district in Georgia, used her school email for Academy business, which meant the communications were subject to Foia"
Singaporean Man Flies To Thailand Just To Have Dinner With Friends After Accepting Their Dare - "We dared our friend to come to Bangkok for dinner. AND HE DID. 12 Hour Trip. (8pm touch down, he is flying back next day 8am)"
ETFs following US lawmakers’ stock trades go live | Financial Times - "Investors who believe that members of the US Congress have access to information that could give them a trading advantage can now trade two exchange traded funds that follow members’ stock transactions. Subversive Capital Advisor, an asset manager, and Unusual Whales, an option flow platform and data provider, on Tuesday launched the Unusual Whales Subversive Democratic ETF (NANC) and the Unusual Whales Subversive Republican ETF (KRUZ)."
John Fetterman Receiving Inpatient Care for Clinical Depression at Walter Reed | National Review - "The news comes less than a week after Fetterman, a Democrat, was discharged from George Washington University after a brief hospitalization for light-headedness... The 53-year-old experienced an ischemic stroke on May 13, just four days before he went on to win Pennsylvania’s Democratic primary. He later defeated Trump-backed Dr. Mehmet Oz in the general election despite suffering from lingering side effects of the stroke. Ahead of the election, the major newspaper in Allegheny County, which includes Braddock, Pa., Fetterman’s adopted hometown, endorsed Oz — in part due to Fetterman’s “lack of transparency” over his health. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote at the time: “Mr. Fetterman’s health — he suffered a serious stroke in May — is not the issue. His lack of transparency, however, in refusing to release his medical records is troubling. It suggests an impulse to conceal and a mistrust of the people. All candidates for a major elected office should release their medical records, as did Mr. Oz. If you want privacy, don’t run for public office.” During the first and only debate between Oz and Fetterman, the Democrat at times seemed confused and struggled to answer some questions, despite using closed-captioning for what he has said were lingering auditory-processing issues. Fetterman and his team have been accused of downplaying the severity of his medical problems. His wife referred to the stroke as a “little hiccup” on the same day that Fetterman underwent surgery to have a pacemaker and defibrillator implanted"
I remember when all the liberals were claiming he could do the job and denying that they were abusing a sick person
Stephen L. Miller on Twitter - "Why are we talking about a United States Senator like he's a special needs child and after we were told by his campaign he was perfectly fit to perform his duties? Entire industry of journalists were lied to and they don't care."
Susie on Twitter - "Where was the concern and compassion for John Fetterman’s physical and mental health after his stroke and before the election? It wasn’t a priority - winning was."
Michael Hendrickson on Twitter - "I feel like you're intentionally ignoring the most important context surrounding this story. John Fetterman is in this terrible situation because his wife and political handlers were deliberately dishonest with Pennsylvania voters last summer and fall."
jimtreacher.substack.com on Twitter - "He should've dropped out and focused on his health. Why didn't you let him?"
Meme - "our dwarven engineers came up with a new armor design protecting against the typical injuries sustained by warriors returning from battles in the netherworld" *sexy videogame armour*
Survivorship bias!
Meme - "I'm piecing together the American measurement system from media reports. So far grand piano = 4 baby elephants = = 7 beer kegs. I have yet to crack the Corgi code"
On a meteorite
Meme - "THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COUNTRIES
1 STANDARD BANANA
1 KM = 1000 M
1 M = 1000 MM
THOSE THAT USE METRIC
1 STANDARD BANANA
AND THE UNITED STATES"
There's A Cute Little Bird Shop In Singapore Called 'SMLJ' - "The store's logo states that the acronym stands for "small medium large jiao (birds)", which is appropriate, given the many different breeds and species of birds that they bring in."
Fired Muslim workers get settlement from DHL - "DHL Global Mail has reached an agreement with two dozen Somali Muslims who say they were fired from the company's Hebron facility in 2013 because they took a break for evening prayer"
Hindu prayer in Senate disrupted
Someone was claiming only the left objects to people praying in public when I pointed out that the people saying a mother upset at a Christian prayer before a Little League game was an idiot would likely not be happy if it were a different religion
Two orcas devour 17 shark livers in killing spree and disrupt the marine hierarchy - "Two adult male killer whales in South Africa went on a killing spree last week, attacking 17 sharks only to eat their livers, leaving their carcasses to wash up on shore. The infamous pair known as Port, whose dorsal fin bends to the left, and Starboard, whose fin bends to the right, have gained notoriety for eating the livers of numerous broadnose sevengill sharks as well as great whites. Observed since 2015, by 2020, the pair had already upset marine life in South Africa’s False Bay. Hundreds of great white sharks that are normally found in the area — and attracted tourists — had vacated the area... “Great whites and sevengills are the most important top predators in their ecosystems, with a key role in keeping their environments clean and diverse,” Alison Kock, a marine biologist who has been studying Port and Starboard for years, wrote on Twitter. “The abrupt loss of such a large number of sharks will inevitably change how the food web works and the behaviour of the hunted sharks, whose numbers are already low.” Photos of the surgically eaten sharks show that the orca’s are capable of identifying the precise location of the liver. A shark’s liver is rich in oils, fats and high in calories, and accounts for up to a third of its body weight."
Time to blame humans for this