He’s an ultra-selfish, anti-science, anti-vaccine moron that only comes around when it’s HIS wife and child that nearly die.
Source: Careless selfishness and the harm done to the most vulnerable
When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying the cross
Title is a quote from “It Can’t Happen Here” by Sinclair Lewis. Go read PZ’s post for more details.
It’s an unfortunately under-reported fact that our recent attempted insurrection had a strong unifying force: White Christian Nationalism. You didn’t see many atheists or Muslims or Jew…
Golfing Cockatoos
A really interesting and fun to read article from GrrlScientist.
A new study finds that problem-solving cockatoos can combine simple tools to accomplish a task, which is a thing that only a very few primates were previously known to perform
Source: Golfing Cockatoos Demonstrate Their Ace Tool Using Skills To Play Golf
This is why I voted No on the last Right to Repair ballot question
Josh Siegel, an assistant professor of engineering at Michigan State University who studies connected-car security, says the automakers might be right, and the system envisioned by the law may not be technically doable. Siegel says the ballot measure may have been “well intentioned,” but it wasn’t written “with a full understanding of the complexity of automotive telematics systems.” Those systems give access not just to data about what’s broken and why but also to the driver-assistance systems that enable emergency braking and elements of the drive-by-wire system that helps drivers control their cars. Asking the automakers to pull together a safe and open telematics system in just a few months wasn’t realistic, Siegel says.
“I think that they could create a platform that would meet some of the requirements of what the legislation is calling for,” he says, “but I wouldn’t want it in my own car.”
Source: A fight over the right to repair cars turns ugly | Ars Technica
Numerical Predjudice
A fun comic from the The Perry Bible Fellowship today.
Big Numbers – The Perry Bible Fellowship
Clicking the random comic button got me another great one from the past.
A Tennessee Quack Protection Law
Go read the details at:
The Antivaccine (Anti-Science) Party
Although there is much that is very good in the story, the overall framing is one that I see all too often (and that annoys me), namely that it’s “unexpected” that the right would ally with antivaxxers. It’s not unexpected. It never was unexpected. But the mainstream media have long labored under this delusion even though it hasn’t been even remotely true for at least several years, if not much more than a decade.
Source: One more time: The Republican Party is the antivaccine party – RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE
Massachusetts Attorney General Sues School Health Corporation Over Selling Snake Oil Theraworx Prodcut to School Districts
Sadly the AG does not have the legal authority to sue the manufacturer of the Theraworx Protect product, Avadim Health, and get it taken off the market. Hopefully the FDA has taken notice and is working to get the snake oil hand sanitizer re-labeled accurately and the FTC will ensure the false advertising stops.
Of course Avidim Health’s other snake oil placebo products (Theraworx Releif, PHUEL, and Combat One) are almost certainly exempt from regulation in the USA. This is because Orrin G. Hatch (R–UT) made sure we have a law that specifically exempts snake-oil placebo’s from needing to be effective.
Hastings, Minnesota a Town That’s gone All-in on Trump Inspired Bigotry
The Trump party (formerly the GOP) continues apace at encouraging the display of the latent very, very, un-Christian bigotry of a large percentage of American Christians. The only consolation is that because they also have an anti-science stance, about a thousand of them a day are dying of Covid and many more are being financially and physically harmed. If Covid keeps evolving in dangerous ways, and they keep denying the reality, enough of them will eventually be dead or become aware of how they fell for one of the greatest con-men of the century, their messiah Trump.
Source: Hastings, Minnesota: Candidate’s child became target in school board election – CNN
Bravo Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
His lies, his illogical defense, and his hubris damage all professional athletes.
Source: Aaron Rodgers Didn’t Just Lie – by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem, not just one of the best athletes of all time but also a wise rational human.
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