150 Comments

  1. AlexinCT

    What kind of monster is that picture of? What’s that thing’s angle with that pleading face?

    • SDF-7

      Kitten in a little furry cap with cat ears is my interpretation.

      It is cute, you black hearted soul. 😉

      Morning, Banjos!

    • Beau Knott

      It’s the larval stage of The Cat in the Hat. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

      • SDF-7

        Just wait until it whips out its Thing 1 and Thing 2….

      • Fourscore

        Bad Cat’s article was very interesting. Thanks, Beau.

        I may be slow but at least I’ll never catch up.

      • juris imprudent

        Yeah, read that too – good stuff.

      • Beau Knott

        You’re both welcome. I’m glad it was both seen and appreciated.
        For the late risers amongst us, this.

  2. AlexinCT

    Israel Defense Minister: Hamas Has Lost Control of Gaza

    WTF does that mean? They no longer can use the people as human shields?

  3. AlexinCT

    WaPo: “New” Evidence Shows Hamas Intended to Start Major War

    Partially right. Iran wanted a major war because it needs to derail the current effort in the Middle East where Saudi Arabia, Egypt and others are seeking reproachment and ties with Israel, specifically because they know the current US administration is supporting Iran’s ambitions in the area and their nuclear weapons program.

    • SDF-7

      Surveillance footage obtained by VoterGA shows large numbers of ballots being scanned multiple times. Pay attention to the women wearing yellow at the desk. According to VoterGA, she slides ballots into a scanning machine, removes the ballots, and then reinserts the same ballots.

      Ok, this I don’t get — assuming you’re not designing voting tabulation scanning for fraud, of course…. The ballots being scanned usually have your typical bar code / meta data printed on them somewhere. Part of that should certainly be a serial number, uuid, whatever that’s unique per ballot. The database / system / whatnot should reject reentry of a ballot that is already in the system. It wouldn’t help against the “found three boxes in my trunk” style ballot harvesting (filled out in fake or real voters names in advance, brought into the counting) — but it would prevent this precise case of mistakenly or maliciously re-scanning already scanned ballots.

      If the system doesn’t do that — I can only conclude extreme incompetence (throw them out) or evil corruption intentions (really, really throw them out).

      Obviously you need/want to anonymize the uuid vs. voter identification so the ballots are still secret, btw… that’s what the voter “sign in” sheet is for — a parallel “no duplicates” system, needed because you don’t want a hard voter to ballot reference.

      • WTF

        Surveillance footage obtained by VoterGA shows large numbers of ballots being scanned multiple times. Pay attention to the women wearing yellow at the desk. According to VoterGA, she slides ballots into a scanning machine, removes the ballots, and then reinserts the same ballots.

        Impossible! I’ve been assured there was no fraud! Their lying eyes must have deceived them.

      • Nephilium

        It was just part of the vast right wing conspiracy.

      • AlexinCT

        Do you think the fact that the election system in most states is set up in such a way that it is all but impossible to audit votes and voting? Cause I will tell you the real reason it is such a shit show already and the people that profit from that want to make it easier to cheat, is the rewards of the cheating efforts. See Joe Biden in 2020.

      • rhywun

        I just assumed that ballots are NOT tied to individual voters.

        If only because they never were in the past, so why bother now?

    • R C Dean

      As far as I know, where any kind of audit has been performed on 2020 election results, the audit has been failed. Remember, it’s not the auditors job to prove there was fraud or errors, it’s your job to prove there was not. Even aside from the fact that, in the real world, refusing to cooperate is an automatic fail (and the election authorities all refused, to some degree, to cooperate), the results the auditors did get cannot be reconciled to reported results.

      And nothing else happened.

      • AlexinCT

        Yeah, I roll my eyes every time some idiot tells me the proof the election was not stolen in 2020 is the fact courts never found anything. When you explain to them that what practically every single court did was say the people that brought the suits had no standing and dismissed that suit – never looking at anything at all – and that the courts that did take the cases and asked for audits resulted in the people under suspicion just giving them the same bullshit results they gave in the first place, their eyes glaze. Not a single instance where audits were asked for resulted in any real kind of audit in any sense of that function. Turning a blind eye to the fact that the system is broken and would easily be abused is not proof that there was no problem, but that is the argument from the people that think this line of logic proves their point.

        Ask yourself how it is possible that a government we all know is dysfunctional in every space they are in and can’t do the basics has an inauditable election system that works without any problems. An election system that gives the winners the biggest prize on earth. It is not a question of if there is cheating, but a question of if the cheaters want to admit it happens/happened. Also remember that never in our election history did a contested election in the US result in action by government, directly or through social media, to punish and censor those questioning it.

      • juris imprudent

        Hey speaking of that, wasn’t there talk here last Weds about Loudoun County having 100+% voter turnout – more ballots than registered voters?

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        See, that is just a fact of Same Day Registration!

        Honest.

      • juris imprudent

        Well except it turns out it wasn’t anything like that. That’s why I was curious about where that came from.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Supposedly it was a typo on the page that they corrected. The actual turnout was something like 40%.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Just vote harder next time. It’ll work out eventually.

      • Brawndo

        Got concerns about the election coming up? No standing as no harm has been committed.

        Got concerns after the election? Election is over, case is moot.

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        The machine geared up to remove the threat, which was DJT. Now that the threat has been removed, everything will go back to normal.

        Honest.

  4. SDF-7

    Thanksgiving: Looming government shutdown could cause disaster for holiday travel

    Ah, what we do without the perennial “Evil Republicans want to ruin THIS critical government service” torrent of articles every time their stupid CRs are close to running out.

    Dogs and cats!

    Living in sin!

    Anarchy!

    Now tell your Stupid Party to bend over and take it all the way! increase our budget again!

    • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

      “Ah, what we do without the perennial “Evil Republicans want to ruin THIS critical government service” torrent of articles every time their stupid CRs are close to running out.”

      Bully Pulpit is bully pulpit. That is just a fact and of course the left and its minions will beat it into the ground, as it FUCKING WORKS. This is a losing issue for the right, and yet they keep falling for it. They don’t do it during a Rep presidency, which could offset some of the effects, as then they would be able to control the effects of it that the public sees. But, no. They only do it during a Dem presidency, who is going to go out of their way to make. it. hurt. And show every single citizen that it is the fault of the R’s.

      It is a losing game, stop playing. Or, at the very least, change the rules so you can win.

  5. rhywun

    “Disparate impact” – it’s not fair that some people get a mansion and I don’t.

    • AlexinCT

      The problem with people that tell you capitalism is bad is that they are mentally stuck in the economics of feudalism and collectivism/marxism where wealth is finite, and thus, for one person or group of people to get rich, others must lose and get poor (or poorer). In reality, capitalism is a system that allows willing people to trade for mutual advantage, and when someone manages to produce a product or service others want, generate a ton of wealth. We unfortunately don’t have that because social justice governments have created a system where they can make good money picking the winners & losers, always to serve their own purposes and financial gain, while painting the people that actually create value and wealth as the culprit for disparities. Do not trust the collectivist’s promise that they will fix inequality, unless you understand the only equality they can deliver is equality of misery for all but the people at the top.

    • Necron 99

      Communist to comrade, “If you had two houses, comrade, would you give me one?”

      Comrade, “Of course, you are fellow communist, of course I would share and give you one of my houses.”

      Communist, “If you had two cars, comrade, would you give me one?”

      Comrade, “Yes, definitely. Why do you even ask? I am communist and I would gladly share and give you one of my cars.”

      Communist, “If you had two chickens, comrade, would you give me one?”

      Comrade, “No.”

      Communist, “No? Why no?”

      Comrade, “Because I have two chickens.”

  6. SDF-7

    Iceland ‘is on edge’ waiting for volcanic eruption

    1) It never ceases to amaze me when people live in places like active volcanic zones [he says while knowing if Yellowstone lets go, we’re all screwed…]. Geothermal access is nice — but seems unwise.

    2) Don’t want it to be Iceland (because I don’t want people killed over it), but part of me wouldn’t mind a nice volcanic eruption that lowers temperatures a degree or two to remind the climate change folks that nature laughs at their paltry efforts. I’m sure they’d find a way to blame it on fracking or something…

    • WTF

      It seems everyone has forgotten about the Mt. Pinatubo cooling.

      • AlexinCT

        You mean the usual suspects have buried that information – deep – so they can indoctrinate and scare a bunch of kids that can’t think their way out of a paper bag?

      • SDF-7

        I was thinking 1816 and 536, but yeah….

    • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

      A volcanic eruption began on Jan. 23 in Heimaey, the largest island of the Vestmannaeyjar group. Red-hot lava was threatening a town of 5000 & an important harbor. The vent was a nascent volcano. As the entire nation watched on TV a small crew with fire hoses squirted the front of the lava. This was in Feb., 1973. Cooling the lava was the idea of physicist Thorbjorn Sigurgeirsson. His idea was met with skepticism but he was impressed by the early results of his experiment. Where th hoses had played on the lava its movement was arrested, while the unwatered flow on either side moved on. As the spreading lava advanced in the direction of the town pumps obtained from the mainland drew water from the sea in an effort to save houses.

      https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1988/02/22/i-cooling-the-lava

  7. juris imprudent

    Here’s a delightful read on the trash that is post-colonial theory.

    Progressives are perennially prone to recurring failure of analysis when it comes to imperialism by refusing to see it for what it is: a state phenomenon. Progressive policy claims rest on the notion that handing things to the state is how good things are achieved. If imperialism is inherently a state activity (as it is), then the state becomes much more problematic as an instrument for social progress.

    • R C Dean

      That assumes that imperialism/colonialism can’t be an instrument for social progress. I’d say the results are decidedly mixed, but not 100% bad.

      Of course, one of the largest imperialist projects of the 19th century – the British in India – was largely a project, at least initially, of the British East India Companyt not the British government.

      /nitpicking OFF

      • juris imprudent

        Yes, he mentions that – that the British government subsumed the Company (which was a Crown Charter anyway – so talk about splitting hairs) role there.

    • AlexinCT

      The usual argument by these neo marxists is that the world consists of the oppressors (those that are successful, like western civilization, and especially the US or Israel) and the oppressed (everybody not as powerful or successful, and then because the oppressors prevented that). The new marxist doctrine teaches that the oppressors need to be decolonized to give the oppressed a chance. This logic is not just dumb, but insane, and allows these idiots to do away with the normal concepts of good vs. evil in favor of power balance shit that makes no sense. It allows you to cheer on barbarians and claim absolute evil is not that, because it was perpetuated on those that are successful/powerful.

      Beware those that talk about colonizers. At the risk of going all Godwin, your fist step in convincing people one group is evil and thus worthy of killing, is to label them as the bad guys. When they accuse someone or some entity of being a colonizer, they are labeling that entity as evil. eventually they will tell you any and all actions are good in the fight against evil. It is the same logic driving the Obama admin weaponized unelected bureaucracy that first demonizes their political opposition as Nazis, racists, sexists, homophobes, misogynists, and so on and then concludes they are justified to steal elections, corrupt/abuse the law and use it as a tool to target your enemy, and eventually to just send them to camps and/or kill them.

      • juris imprudent

        In true Marxist style, however, he sees this last as an aspect of class dynamics. The state will be fine if run by correct folk with correct consciousness. That social progress comes from correct enlightenment is a recurring theme. One can see why Fanon appeals to the collective narcissism of academics. He licenses them to worship the splendour in their heads and assert a sense of moral superiority over everyone else in their societies.

        Note the term Warby uses: correct enlightenment. This is why we are where we are – this is the logical outcome of the Enlightenment, or as he puts it Post Enlightenment Progressivism. And worst of all, having “social progress” come from the state – who’s only moral authority is the monopoly on force. Think on C.S. Lewis’s quote here.

      • AlexinCT

        I have always felt that the one problem with the enlightenment and with every collectivist system/movement that came out of it, is the fact people were made to believe that governments could deliver heaven on earth and fix all problems. Whether you are religious or not, it is telling that in all religions the concept that heaven can not be created on earth was stressed. Man is flawed. Government will consist of flawed people. Worse yet, imagine flawed people on a crusade to prove THEY can do the impossible.

        Progressivism and progressives are always focused on the utopian outcome and sooner than later will justify any and all means to reach that end. Including 120 million dead people and 3 billion prisoners of an evil ideology which appeals to people that want government to solve problems for them for whatever reason.

      • juris imprudent

        Don’t forget the non-Marxist original Progressives in this country – believers in eugenics (and Buck v. Bell), anti-miscegenation, the Tuskeegee experiment. You can’t find a butcher bill like that on the conservative side (that was slower to follow the Enlightenment to its endpoint).

      • AlexinCT

        Like I said: progressivism is about making a new man that willingly subjugates their own needs and desires to those of the society in order to create heaven on earth. That logic quickly goes to “we should just get rid of those we can’t fix to the new man’s mold” in one or more ways…

        It always ends with piles of bodies.

      • juris imprudent

        The Social Gospel was an adaptation of Christianity to Enlightenment ideals.

      • Pine_Tree

        To jump in and then leave (in response to ji): Basically agreeing with you. Zooming out, the word “social” as an adjective is basically a Boolean “NOT” function. Just like “social justice” is the opposite of justice, the “social gospel” is the opposite of the gospel. Whereas the gospel describes something that has been done BY god, and for which one cannot work, the social gospel is an ideal, with the god-part gone, to which one is supposed to work (shorthand version).

      • juris imprudent

        Oh I agree with that, I’m just using the historical verbiage as it existed then.

      • Zwak says the real is not governable, but self-governing.

        They work to create a monopoly on Morals, not just force. That is what often gets missed in critiques of the left, as the critiquer is mistaken in thinking there will be room left for alternate thought.

        See totalitarian countries for examples of this.

  8. PieInTheSky

    Illegals in US could cost taxpayers $451 billion per year

    Don’t be so stingy you can afford it.

    Also can I get one billion please?

    • AlexinCT

      Piker, you should ask for at least ten times that to be taken seriously by the people that will tell you sure as long as you give them their 10%.

    • Fourscore

      At this point what difference does it make? It’s only paper with numbers that is used to measure things. Not like real wealth.

      /Gives a billion to PITS

    • Rat on a train

      But I was told they were net taxpayers. Democrats wouldn’t lie.

    • Sean
  9. SDF-7

    I think I took longer on the “Express” today than the main one… the 8 letter word just didn’t stick out for me.

    I played https://squaredle.com/xp 11/14:
    *23/23 words (+1 bonus word)
    🎯 Perfect accuracy

    Screwed up accuracy on my own on the main event — missed a letter in the word I was thinking of. The immortal words of Red Foreman leap to mind.

    I played https://squaredle.com 11/14:
    *30/30 words (+1 bonus word)
    🎯 In the top 5% by accuracy
    🔥 Solve streak: 106

    • Sean

      I played https://squaredle.com 11/14:
      *30/30 words (+9 bonus words)
      📖 In the top 11% by bonus words
      🔥 Solve streak: 2

      I played https://squaredle.com/xp 11/14:
      *23/23 words (+1 bonus word)
      📖 In the top 41% by bonus words

    • Rat on a train

      At least it was a hit for misspelling not because the world list has missing entries.

      I played https://squaredle.com 11/14:
      *30/30 words (+4 bonus words)
      🎯 In the top 5% by accuracy
      🔥 Solve streak: 13
      I played https://squaredle.com/xp 11/14:
      23/23 words
      🎯 Perfect accuracy

    • Raven Nation

      I played https://squaredle.com 11/14:
      *30/30 words (+4 bonus words)
      🎯 Perfect accuracy
      🔥 Solve streak: 25

      I played https://squaredle.com/xp 11/14:
      *23/23 words
      🎯 Perfect accuracy

    • AlexinCT

      Da Fuq? Did the Spudmesiter hijack Pie’s account?

      • PieInTheSky

        I occasionally try to troll the spud by stealing his shtick

      • AlexinCT

        5-D Chess… Nice.

    • robodruid

      Its been a while since i have seen a DR post.
      WTF she doing in Turkey? kinda dangerous

      • SDF-7

        Getting stuffed?

      • rhywun

        I’m not spatchcocking that.

  10. Brawndo

    “President Trump’s older sister, retired judge Maryanne Trump Barry, passes away at 86 in her apartment”

    Isn’t that the name of the DC mayor that was caught smoking crack?

    • AlexinCT

      You saying she was connected to Marion and thus also a pipe hitter?

    • AlexinCT

      Save your money for the elaborate divorces?

      • juris imprudent

        You can’t have an elaborate divorce without a substantial pile of savings.

      • AlexinCT

        Been there, done that….

      • Fourscore

        But worth it…

  11. Sensei

    Because businesses and hospitals aren't already doing this…

    Under draft rules reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, New York will require general hospitals to develop and test incident response plans, assess their cybersecurity risks and install security technologies such as multifactor authentication. Hospitals must also develop secure software design practices for in-house applications, and processes for testing the security of software from vendors.

    New York Plans Cyber Rules for Hospitals

     

    • rhywun

      Let’s set up a multi-billion dollar infrastructure stuffed with political appointees and wastrels and find out!

      • Sensei

        Winner!

    • Fourscore

      Good stuff, Jimbo, but I’m not teaching anyone to walk this way…

    • kinnath

      I learned to do wheel chair wheelies in high school. It’s like riding a bike (except balance is a front/back problem not a left/right problem). Once you learn, you don’t forget.

      I haven’t done it in 45+ years, but I expect it would only take a few minutes to get it back.

  12. PieInTheSky

    Ben Shapiro slams colleague @RealCandaceO
    for her “absolutely disgraceful behavior” in front of a visibly shocked audience.

    Shapiro goes on, saying “her faux-sophistication on this issue is ridiculous.”

    Tensions rising at Daily Wire?

    https://twitter.com/autumngroyper/status/1724327682878431399

    • Pope Jimbo

      I notice that Shapiro isn’t rushing to create a (((Lincoln Battalion))) and putting his money where his mouth is.

      I’d have more respect for him if he did something like that. Instead he is insisting that we send Israel a bunch of taxpayer money – if not actual troops – to do the fighting instead.

    • rhywun

      What was the disgraceful behavior?

      • Urthona

        Basically implying that Israel’s actions in Gaza have been immoral but doing so in a vague way.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Also this goes back to Kayne’s tweet about ‘death con 3’ on Jewish people and Candance defended his right to stupid speech.

      • juris imprudent

        Does Kanye do any kind of speech other than stupid?

  13. Pope Jimbo

    Man up Hollywood!

    I love how the men of Dutch’s platoon ruthlessly dunk on each other in that way only very close friends can do. Watch the scene on the helicopter as they’re being inserted into the LZ. I hate to break this to all of you non-men, but this is how young men, particularly agressive Alpha Males, behave around one another when they are alone in an exclusively male “safe space”… in the parlance of our times. If you were in the target audience for PREDATOR, which is to say a young man who grew up in the years before the turn of the millenium, then it’s likely that you found this scene endearing because it’s exactly what you did with your guy friends when you hung out together.

    But this kind of male behavior has been branded toxic by the broader culture and it has mostly disappeared from the action genre. Men, it has been decided, cannot be allowed to see other men behaving this way because if they do, well then they might want to emmulate it, and we have determined as a culture that this kind of aggressive male behavior must be stamped out.

    • AlexinCT

      True dat.

    • The Other Kevin

      That’s still around, just not as much as before. You should hear the stuff we say to each other in the locker room. Thankfully nobody cares about what a bunch of disabled guys say to each other.

      • AlexinCT

        Most guys still do this with each other, but now it is behind closed doors, because there always are those ready to accuse people of not accepting the new progressive norms.

    • rhywun

      Good article. 100% agreed.

    • juris imprudent

      by the broader culture

      Disagree. The broader part of the culture is having this shoved down their throats by the culture shapers.

  14. PieInTheSky

    Rereading Gibbon and MacDiarmid’s 𝘚𝘤𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘚𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘦 in advance of starting annotations for a new edition. For all the pessimism of the book, and of the Scottish Renaissance more generally, the quotations opening the book illustrate its comical and satirical slant.

    https://twitter.com/se_lyall/status/1724387626914808188

  15. PieInTheSky

    Nearly 2 in 5 Americans will receive an inheritance in their lifetime.

    They’re most likely to be white and well off already.

    Yet almost no one has to pay an “estate tax” anymore. It’s one of the biggest loopholes for the rich in the US tax code

    https://twitter.com/byHeatherLong/status/1724094437733626104

    • SDF-7

      Oh, that’s a pet peeve of mine. You fuckers already taxed the shit out of it when people were alive. You have no claim to it being passed to the next of kin other than just theft — and that kind of shit is how you destroy multigenerational small farms and businesses.

      Keep your fucking grubby paws off, you racist bastards.

      • PieInTheSky

        you sound like an angry white man. this must be some o that there white fragility

      • AlexinCT

        EXACTLY!

        There is no justice unless government gets to rob you and fuck your corpse on the way out!

      • Fourscore

        “I wonder what Grandpa did with all his money”?

        “Did you forget all the investment trips to Las Vegas”?

    • Urthona

      It’s a “loophole” that the government doesn’t getty the money.

  16. PieInTheSky

    Over 100,000 ancient coins have been discovered cached in Maebashi City, Japan. A sample of 334 coins revealed 44 distinct currencies, running from China’s Western Han Dynasty (175 BC) to the Southern Song Dynasty (1265 AD)

    https://twitter.com/Paracelsus1092/status/1723996277812109657

    • UnCivilServant

      Some collector is mad that they touched his stuff.

  17. PieInTheSky

    Why pets don’t really bring humans happiness nor improve their well-being

    https://studyfinds.org/pets-dont-bring-people-happiness/

    The vast majority of dog and cat owners will say their pets enrich their lives in countless ways and bring immeasurable levels of extra happiness, but researchers from Michigan State University suggest that most pet owners may just be telling themselves what they want to hear. Their new study found that despite owners claiming pets improve their lives, researchers did not see a reliable association between pet ownership and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    In all, the study authors assessed a total of 767 people on three separate occasions in May 2020. The research team opted to adopt a mixed-method approach that allowed them to simultaneously assess several indicators of well-being, all while also asking participants to reflect on the role of pets from their point of view in an open-ended manner.

    Crucially, however, when study authors actually compared the happiness of pet owners to levels seen among non-pet owners, the datasets showed no difference in the well-being of pet owners and non-pet owners over time.

    • juris imprudent

      Ah, the tell…

      says William Chopik, an associate professor in MSU’s Department of Psychology and co-author of the study

    • kinnath

      horse shit

      There are four cases to test: 1) non-owners who are already happy not having a pet; 2) owners who are already having a pet; 3) non-owners forced to take on a pet; 4) owners forced to lose their pet.

      There is no difference between owners and non-owners who are already happy, because they got to where they are through their own choices.

      Try studying people who have recently lost their pet. You’ll get a different outcome.

      • Urthona

        Also, people who report being “happy” tend to regard it as a stress metric.

        Hence why parents with young children are less “happy”. However, parents who have had children will then later on in life report themselves more content and fulfilled.
        And people with more demanding jobs are less “happy”. But look back on that job as more fulfilling.

        Etc.

        I question whether being temporarily “happy” is an important metric. I often jokingly refer to it as the “loser metric”

      • Certified Public Asshat

        It’s probably missing from the study, but I wouldn’t dispute the idea that people, in general the youth, are forgoing meaningful relationships with other people and replacing them with pets.

        A family pet is of course a great thing.

    • Urthona

      Isn’t “happiness” the most most bullshit metric of all time though?

      • grrizzly

        Pretty much. It’s even more stupid when they try to compare various countries by “happiness”. The concept is impossible to estimate within one culture, but then they “measure” it and compare “happiness” in both Sweden and Laos.

      • The Last American Hero

        Try to explain the hordes of people smuggling themselves into Bhutan.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Every young kid needs a dog.

      When the world is against you and your parents are looking up orphanages in the phone book a dog will curl up with you and let you know that the pack needs you and loves you. Dogs always remember that kids need unconditional love. Sometimes us parents forget that.

      • Fourscore

        Then they grow up. The parents, I mean.

  18. The Late P Brooks

    Now with more contrived emotionalism

    Released every five years, the National Climate Assessment is a congressionally mandated evaluation of the effects of climate change on American life. This new fifth edition paints a picture of a nation simultaneously beset by climate-driven disasters and capable of dramatically reducing emissions of planet-warming gasses in the near future.

    This is the first time the assessment includes standalone chapters about climate change’s toll on the American economy, as well as the complex social factors driving climate change and the nation’s responses. And, unlike past installments, the new assessment draws heavily from social science, including history, sociology, philosophy and Indigenous studies.

    Complex social factors; like evil white supremacist capitalism.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    The new approach adds context and relevance to the assessment’s robust scientific findings, and underscores the disproportionate danger that climate change poses to poor people, marginalized communities, older Americans and those who work outdoors.

    “Climate change affects us all, but it doesn’t affect us all equally,” says climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, one of the authors of the assessment. But threaded throughout the report are case studies and research summaries highlighting ways “climate action can create a more resilient and just country,” she says.

    Life is not fair, Katherine. Stop pretending you can (given enough of other people’s money) make it so.

    • AlexinCT

      WE DEMAND EQUALITY OF OUTCOME!

      /idiots

      • juris imprudent

        I can’t decide if they’ve never read Harrison Bergeron, or they did and thought it was a how-to manual.

      • AlexinCT

        It sure feels like they read every dystopian book out there and decided they were “How to” manuals for progressivism’s end goal, yes….

    • Urthona

      How unsurprising that equity nonsense finds its way in.

      Looking forward to the debunking of this.

      I literally just saw a graph yesterday that showed average temperature in the U.S. from NOAA data and it was pretty flat.

      I know if you chart my region of North Texas, it’s actually gotten a bit cooler (but warmer in the winter) in my lifetime. (which is awesome)

    • Fatty Bolger

      All of the actual, real negative effects of “climate change” are due to actions being done in support of the climate change agenda, and I would not be one bit surprised if they hit poor people disproportionately. In fact, I would expect it.

  20. Derpetologist

    ***

    In computer science, a one-way function is a function that is easy to compute on every input, but hard to invert given the image of a random input. Here, “easy” and “hard” are to be understood in the sense of computational complexity theory, specifically the theory of polynomial time problems.

    ***

    ***

    The existence of such one-way functions is still an open conjecture. Their existence would prove that the complexity classes P and NP are not equal, thus resolving the foremost unsolved question of theoretical computer science.[1]: ex. 2.2, page 70  The converse is not known to be true, i.e. the existence of a proof that P≠NP would not directly imply the existence of one-way functions.[2]

    ***

    ***

    Although the P versus NP problem was formally defined in 1971, there were previous inklings of the problems involved, the difficulty of proof, and the potential consequences. In 1955, mathematician John Nash wrote a letter to the NSA, in which he speculated that cracking a sufficiently complex code would require time exponential in the length of the key.[5] If proved (and Nash was suitably skeptical), this would imply what is now called P ≠ NP, since a proposed key can easily be verified in polynomial time. Another mention of the underlying problem occurred in a 1956 letter written by Kurt Gödel to John von Neumann. Gödel asked whether theorem-proving (now known to be co-NP-complete) could be solved in quadratic or linear time,[6] and pointed out one of the most important consequences—that if so, then the discovery of mathematical proofs could be automated.

    ***

    So if someone (say, me) invented a true random number generator, that would be a one-way function, and so would resolve the P vs NP problem.

    ***
    A proof showing that P ≠ NP would lack the practical computational benefits of a proof that P = NP, but would nevertheless represent a very significant advance in computational complexity theory and provide guidance for future research. It would allow one to show in a formal way that many common problems cannot be solved efficiently, so that the attention of researchers can be focused on partial solutions or solutions to other problems. Due to widespread belief in P ≠ NP, much of this focusing of research has already taken place.
    ***

    Spoiler: P ≠ NP

    https://platedlizard.blogspot.com/2023/11/proof-of-existence-of-one-way-functions.html

  21. The Late P Brooks

    Let’s not judge before all the facts are in

    Mayor Karen Bass, who also spoke at the press conference, made sure to urge the public not to jump to the conclusion that the fire was set by homeless people in the area, 16 of whom were living in the immediate vicinity when the fire erupted on Saturday.

    “There is no reason to assume that the origin of this fire, or the reason this fire happened, is because there were unhoused individuals nearby,” she said.

    All 16 of those unhoused people have been provided temporary housing, Bass noted.

    It were global warming wot dunnit.

    • Strange Brew

      Dey didn do nuffin.

    • The Other Kevin

      Could have been a white supremacist.

    • Rebel Scum

      There is no reason to assume

      Ok, Karen.

  22. Rebel Scum

    Iceland ‘is on edge’ waiting for volcanic eruption

    Which will be the most exciting thing to happen to Iceland since 1940.

    • Urthona

      Kinda hope it’s a big blasty one and not a disappointing dribbler like the last one.

      • pistoffnick

        a disappointing dribbler

        That happens as you get older. Nothing to be ashamed about

  23. Rebel Scum

    WaPo: “New” Evidence Shows Hamas Intended to Start Major War

    You don’t say.

    • juris imprudent

      They probably even thought they had a winning plan!

  24. The Late P Brooks

    Isn’t “happiness” the most most bullshit metric of all time though?

    Garbage in…

    SCIENCE!

  25. Rebel Scum

    Thanksgiving: Looming government shutdown could cause disaster for holiday travel

    As if I need an excuse not to travel.

    • Sean

      I’m going all the way to Allentown, for my Boston Market.

    • Derpetologist

      I’m not religious, yet his words remind of the painting where the archangel Michael defeats Satan.

      https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/48QAAOSwDNZeuCmD/s-l300.jpg

      Perhaps the purpose of Indi’s life was to expose wickedness and inspire others to fight it.

    • Drake

      I am religious and the easiest place to find evil in this world is in a big government bureaucracy.

      • juris imprudent

        big government bureaucracy

        Truly banal.

      • Sensei

        I’m not, but my wife and extended family are as are many friends.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    Appeal to magic

    It’s true that the 10 isn’t just any freeway. It’s one of the busiest corridors in the country, and the primary route between east and west Los Angeles. The section of the 10 Freeway damaged Saturday morning by a pallet yard fire is a major artery carrying some 300,000 vehicles in, out and through downtown most days. (The fire is being investigated as arson.)

    So the temporary shutdown is a big deal. It’s also a painful reminder of Los Angeles’ transportation challenges. This sprawling region, where many people commute long distances to jobs and school and for other needs, remains too dependent on cars as the primary mode of transportation. Past temporary freeway closures have been considered so potentially catastrophic that they were given names like Carmageddon and Jamzilla. And now we have the Palletpocalypse.

    In an ideal world, a freeway closure wouldn’t upend lives and businesses. With more bus and rail lines, along with faster, reliable service, there would be no need to panic. Travelers would have ample choices to get to their destination, and with fewer passenger cars on the road, cargo trucks could have easier passage.

    Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom have pledged to get the 10 Freeway fixed and reopened as fast as possible, which is good and necessary. But why stop there? They should also push for a rapid expansion of transit service. That would serve travelers now during the closure and encourage people to keep using transit after the route reopens.

    ——-

    Transit advocates want L.A. and California leaders to turn this emergency into an opportunity, by accelerating existing transit services and programs. For example, Los Angeles could speed up the installation of bus-only lanes in areas affected by the 10 closure so riders don’t get stuck in traffic.

    Wave your magic wand, Governor Newsom. Show the world what a forward-thinking leader you are. Now is the time to turn catastrophe into triumph. We can turn our freeways into parks.

    • SDF-7

      Jeez… for $52 million used and auctioning, I’d be expecting a light aircraft carrier… not a single car.

      • juris imprudent

        Or a private jet. A pretty darn nice one at that.

    • mikey

      Henry Manney a writer for Road and Track had a 250 GTO as a daily driver in Paris. It was apparently pretty tatty when he sold it via R&Ts Cars For Sale section. It went for $2,500.

    • Urthona

      I wouldn’t pay more than $51 million for that.

    • UnCivilServant

      I tapped out at $50.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Good riddance, race traitor

    On Monday, the former SNL star returned to guest-host The Daily Show, where she made sure to bid farewell to the South Carolina senator’s presidential dreams in perfectly brutal fashion.

    Scott dropped the bombshell on Sunday while speaking to Fox News’ Trey Gowdy, telling him that voters, “who are the most remarkable people on the planet… they’re telling me, ‘Not now, Tim.” Which both enraged and amused Jones.

    “Not now? NOT NOW?!,” she repeated, somewhat incredulous. “No, ‘not now’ is what you say when a telemarketer calls you during dinner time. This was more like: ‘We ain’t ever—ever, ever, ever, ever—voting for your fucked-up ass, anti-abortion, anti-gay, Milk Dud-looking motherfucker.’”

    I can see why she is so popular. She serves as the proxy for all those white liberals who want nothing less than to call Tim Scott a dumb nigger to his face.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Who here won the Ferrari?

    I’d rather have a 250LM.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Those Ferrari GTOs are cool, but they are susceptible to getting carbon on the valves.