Monday, May 20, 2019
Happy "Molly Norris is still in hiding" Day.
Wednesday, May 15, 2019
This is why I don't believe in global warming.
I've been saying for years that surface temperature measurements (and long term trends) have been affected by encroachment of urbanization on the placement of weather stations used to measure surface air temperature, and track long term climate. In doing so we found some hilariously bad examples of climate science in action, such as the official USHCN climate monitoring station at the University of Arizona, Tucson:
USHCN weather station in a parking lot. University of Arizona, Tucson
I have published on the topic in the scientific literature, and found this to be true based on the science we've done of examining the USHCN and applying the siting methodology of Leroy 2010.
In Fall et al, 2011 we discovered that there was a change to the diurnal temperature range (DTR). It decreased where stations had been encroached upon, because of the heat sink effect of man-made materials (asphalt, concrete, bricks, etc.) that were near stations.
The number of sites not meeting official NOAA standards is more than 10%. You get up over a third, stupidity isn't an explanation anymore. That's a deliberate campaign. Its corruption.
But the surface monitoring system does not exist like an island, whole and complete, isolated unto itself. The same organization that allowed so many surface temp stations to be corrupted also controls all the other monitoring systems, and the record keeping as well. Do we actually know what the temperature was on May the 15th 1927 in Topeka Kansas? Or did they corrupt the records too? Did they corrupt the satellite data?
Friday, May 10, 2019
Microsoft is trying to force me to use Linux.
Coming soon to a word processing app you probably already subscribe to is Microsoft's new Ideas plugin. This leap forward in the predictive text trend will endeavor to help you be less offensive. Worried you might be a little bit racist? A little gender confused? Not sure about the difference between disabled persons and persons who are disabled? Never fear, Microsoft will fix your language for you.
Using machine learning and AI, Microsoft's Ideas in Word will help writers be their least offensive, most milquetoast selves. Just like spell check and grammar check function, Ideas will make suggestions as to how to improve your text to be more inclusive. On the surface, this seems like a terrible idea, but when we dig further beneath the impulse, and the functionality of the program, it gets even worse. What's happening is that AI and machine learning are going to be the background of pretty much every application, learning from our behaviours not only how we'd like to format our PowerPoint presentations, but learning, across platforms, how best to construct language so that we say what we are wanted to say as opposed to what we really mean.
But really, do I want to be writing stories on software that counts up every time I use a gender pronoun and keeps a record of it on a server somewhere? Indeed, keeps everything I write on a remote server somewhere if I have Autosave turned on.
Yes that's right kids, if you want to use Autosave with Word, then you have to have OneDrive turned on, and the Autosave sends everything to OneDrive.
Which I am assured is -tewtally- safe and secure, dewd. Nobody could EVER use the contents of your OneDrive to train AI software, just ferinstance. Right? Oh no wait, they can. Says so in the fine print.
Wednesday, May 08, 2019
When the top female athletes are boys...
A junior, Selina [Soule] missed qualifying for the 55-meter in the New England regionals by two spots. Two spots, she said, that were taken by biological boys.
Had the boys who identify as girls not been allowed to compete, Selina would have placed sixth, qualifying to run the 55 in front of college coaches at the New England regionals.
Instead, she placed eighth, watching the 55 from the sidelines after qualifying in only the long jump, an event in which the transgender athletes didn't compete.
"It's very frustrating and heartbreaking when us girls are at the start of the race and we already know that these athletes are going to come out and win no matter how hard you try," Selina told The Daily Signal. "They took away the spots of deserving girls, athletes … me being included."
Tuesday, May 07, 2019
Alexa and Smart-home are spying on you.
Many smart-speaker owners don't realize it, but Amazon keeps a copy of everything Alexa records after it hears its name. Apple's Siri, and until recently Google's Assistant, by default also keep recordings to help train their artificial intelligences.
So come with me on an unwelcome walk down memory lane. I listened to four years of my Alexa archive and found thousands of fragments of my life: spaghetti-timer requests, joking houseguests and random snippets of "Downton Abbey." There were even sensitive conversations that somehow triggered Alexa's "wake word" to start recording, including my family discussing medication and a friend conducting a business deal.
Alexa's voice archive made headlines most recently when Bloomberg discovered Amazon employees listen to recordings to train its artificial intelligence. Amazon acknowledged some of those employees also have access to location information for the devices that made the recordings. [Emphasis mine]
Every kind of appliance now is becoming a data-collection device. My Chamberlain MyQ garage opener lets the company keep - again, indefinitely - a record of every time my door opens or closes. My Sonos speakers, by default, track what albums, playlists or stations I've listened to, and when I press play, pause, skip or pump up the volume. At least they only hold on to my sonic history for six months.
And now the craziest part: After quizzing these companies about data practices, I learned most are sharing what's happening in my home with Amazon, too. Our data is the price of entry for devices that want to integrate with Alexa. Amazon's not only eavesdropping - it's tracking everything happening in your home.
Amazon acknowledges it collects data about third-party devices even when you don't use Alexa to operate them. It says Alexa needs to know the "state" of your devices "to enable a great smart home experience." But keeping a record of this data is more useful to them than to us.
Monday, May 06, 2019
It's not a phone. Its a tracker.
In June 2018, the four major U.S. carriers promised to stop selling their mobile customers' location info to third-party data brokers after a security problem leaked the real-time location of U.S. cellphone users. Despite the carriers' promises, a Motherboard investigation found in January 2019 that they were still selling access to their customers' location data.
Sri Lanka: first ever recorded -actual- anti-Mooselimb "backlash."
Two people have been arrested in a Sri Lankan town after Christians attacked Muslim shops.
Residents say the mostly-Catholic mob stoned and vandalised Muslim-owned businesses in the seaside town of Negombo, where a suicide bombing targeted a Catholic church last month.
Social media was shut down and extra troops deployed onto the streets and hundreds were reportedly involved in violence over the weekend.
Thursday, May 02, 2019
"Shut up!" they explained to the child's father.
Last month, the Supreme Court of British Columbia issued an order that a father (referred to by the pseudonym "Clark") may not refer to his 14-year-old daughter (pseudonym "Maxine") as a girl or by her original name, whether in public or in private. Doing so has been ruled to constitute "family violence" because Maxine identifies as a boy. According to a separate protection order, police may immediately arrest Clark if they suspect he violated this Orwellian order.
In addition to these gag provisions, the order prohibits Clark from "directly, or indirectly through an agent or third party, publish or share information or documentation relating to [Maxine]'s sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, mental or physical health, medical status or therapies," besides the Court, legal counsel, medical professionals, or any person authorized by Maxine or the Court.
The order also prevents Clark from allowing anyone besides his lawyer "to access or make copies of any of the files" relating to this ruling and order.
So essentially the defense is prevented from making public the details of the case, the ruling, or the judge's order. In other words, Shut Up! or we will hurt you. We will hurt you a lot.
Saturday, April 20, 2019
Why is there no off switch?
It's almost as if the vendors of common, must-have devices want to make it possible to spy on us. An enterprising journalist should ask why they don't make such switches. They certainly have deliberately made it hard for us to stop being spied upon -- even though we're their customers. Think about that. We're their bread and butter, and we're increasingly and rightly concerned about our security. Yet they keep selling us these insecure devices. That's just weird, isn't it? What the hell is going on?
I remember a loooong time ago when I was in high school, my mother's office got an Apple computer. On an IBM PC, the off-switch was an OFF switch, it stopped the power to the motherboard. On the Apple, it was a suggestion. You pushed the "off" button, and eventually the machine would get around to shutting off. Unless it was hung, in which case it would just sit there, forever. Mom solved the problem by unplugging it at the end of the day.
The answer is the same as it always is. Threat of bankruptcy. You spy, you die. That will take a social movement the size of the one currently being waged for #MeToo.
Update: Welcome Instapundit! In the comments, one person suggested an aluminum pot as a makeshift Faraday cage. Excellent thought!
Friday, April 19, 2019
On Good Friday, an admonition to virtue from a Capitalist Asshole.
The House on Lake Minnetonka That Never Existed
Because of its proximity to the campus me and my friends would regularly bike and run around this lake. Not only for the beauty of the lake, but the architecture of the houses that surrounded it. And even though one would prefer to run around this lake during summer, one of my fonder memories of the Twin Cities was running around Lake of the Isles at night during winter.
Even though it may have been -5 outside, I still enjoyed running around Lake of the Isles because it gave me my goal, my inspiration, and my incentive to work hard and study hard in school. I did not come from wealth, but at night (and not in a creepy, stalker type sense) many of the mansions would have their lights on allowing me to kind of peer into these homes and wonder about what life was like on the inside.
What was it like to have a nice warm home and not sleep in a basement?
What was it like to have so much wealth you didn't have to worry about student loans?
Is that a wall oven I see? Is the wife of that home making dinner? Gosh, a home cooked meal would be great.
And forget dinner, I bet those people have nothing to worry about. They're RICH. They got it made.
Its a bit long, but on a Good Friday with all that's been going on the last few years, and with the Cathedral of Notre Dame burning the way it did, I found this post of Aaron's to be one of the best practical bits of advise on a virtuous life I have ever seen.
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
North Korea mean to animals! [sob!]
Campaigning group Animal Defenders International (ADI) said circus animals like these had been tamed by a lifetime of suffering.
ADI president Jan Creamer said: "Forced to perform in circus style shows, these poor animals endure a lifetime of suffering and deprivation.
"Denied the normal, social and mental stimulation they would enjoy with their families in the wild, the compliance of these intelligent, feeling animals is achieved through violence, threats, and withdrawal of food, water and affection during training.
"The public can help end their suffering by avoiding animal shows and letting attractions know why they are taking their custom elsewhere."
Monday, April 15, 2019
Naked man with knife shot by armed guard...at McDonald's.
It began when the suspect, described initially as a shirtless Latino man, crashed his car into into the wall of a Carl's Jr. restaurant, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. He then got out and ran across the street to a nearby McDonald's, during which time he undressed completely.
Deputies said the man, now naked, entered the McDonald's and stabbed an 88-year-old man who was eating with his grandson.
As the suspect was coming out of the McDonald's, he was confronted by an armed security guard, the sheriff's department said. When he tried to assault the guard, the guard shot him at least once, hitting him in the upper torso, deputies said.
Both the suspect and the stabbed customer were taken to local hospitals. The suspect was pronounced dead, while the stabbing victim was listed in stable condition and was expected to survive, officials at the scene told CBS2.
The guard was unhurt.
Update: Welcome Instapundit! Thanks, Sarah! ~:D
Friday, April 12, 2019
The End of women's sports if the Dems get their way.
Physics. Doesn't. Change. You fricking Lefties can cry all you want about how gender is a "social construction" and cry all day long about the feeeeelz, physics does not care.
The Daily Caller reports that "Democrats' Equality Act would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to make 'sexual orientation and gender identity' protected characteristics under federal anti-discrimination law," and would force schools to accommodate "transgender" male athletes who identify as female by placing them on female-only sports teams.
Biological males competing as females have become a trend in high school sports (as well as some professional sports), and several biologically male athletes have earned top honors in state sporting competitions, beating out the women for whom the all-female contests were created.
...[some snippage]...
Activists who support "transgender rights" in sports contend that there are no innate physical differences between women and men, and that men who identify as female are "authentically women," and should be allowed to compete, even if they have a clear and undeniable statistical advantage.
The Human Rights Coalition even wrote a statement in support of the bill, claiming that opponents of the measure are denying science.
"Opponents of equality in athletics for transgender athletes have argued that girls who are transgender have unfair physiological advantages over cisgender girls and as a result, will dominate women's competitive sports," they wrote, adding that it is not "rooted in fact" that men are stronger and faster than women, according to the Caller.
Rep. Dan Lipinksi (D-IL), the last remaining pro-life Democrat, was the only member of the caucus to oppose the bill. Republican Reps. John Katko (R-NY) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) joined with Democrats to press the bill forward.
The entire DemocRat caucus, except one guy, signed on to this thing. They intend to legislate, cast into law, that there are no physical differences between men and women. You take a man, put him in a dress, and he's now a woman. By declaration alone.
This is a stunt, just like Alexandria Occasional-Cortex's Green New Deal which did not receive even one vote in the House. The "Equality Act" will pass through the House, all the good people will vote for it, all the bad people will vote against it, and it will vanish, never to be seen again.
But it does tell us a great deal about what kind of people these DemocRats are, and what their intentions are. They're quite happy to throw 150 years worth of gains made by the progressive women's movement out the window for a bit of momentary virtue signalling. If they get what they say they want, all the top women athletes in the United States will be men.
Full disclosure, I don't play sports, I don't have kids that play sports, and I don't watch sports. I detest sports.
As a large and grizzled old male, I don't care a good goddamm who else is using the bathroom at McDonald's. If some girl wants to stick on a mustache and pretend to pee standing up, that is her problem. I'm in no danger from mustache girl, she's a twig compared to me.
As a Conservative, I don't care that the women's movement is getting squashed. Women are supposed to be property, aren't they? Kept barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen to make me a sandwich. That's what Conservatives believe, right? Fer shur.
Y'all Lefties and lesbians have brought all this shit on yourselves. I'm sitting here with my popcorn and beer, laughing it up. I don't have a dog in this fight.
Oh, but wait. I do. I'm living next to a nation whose government is composed of thieves and liars. That probably won't turn out well for me. Eventually one of them will want to take -my- stuff. "First they came for the Lezzies, but I'm a dude so I said nothing..."
Dear Americans, please stop voting for these Leftist assholes. I'll see what I can do about the Liberals in October.
The Phantom
Update: Welcome Instapundit horde! Woohoo!
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
How the "armed civillian" thing works.
This is a video of a typical armed citizen encounter with violent assholes.
Pay particular attention to how nobody dies. Over 90% of self defense encounters, no shots are fired.
Also notice how, on a crowded street in Chicago, right in front of McDonald's, nobody comes to help the old man. They're ALL taking video with their fucking phones. If he didn't have that gun, those two would have beat him as much as they wanted to. Maybe to death.
You're welcome.
Tuesday, April 09, 2019
Trans-athletes. If the facts are against you...
As a performance scientist and someone who has worked in elite sport for over a decade, I am interested in the determinants of physical performance and how to manipulate and enhance these variables. Over my years working with athletes, I have become accustomed to observing the differences between the sexes and have extensively studied why these differences exist. It has therefore been baffling to me to see some of the discussions regarding why sex categories in sport exist and how to include trans-athletes. What we must understand is that there is currently a general lack of understanding regarding the potential consequences on elite sport due to ill-informed policy making and the pressures of activist groups.
As a physical therapist, part of my schooling was the "determinants of physical performance" that the author, Andrew Langford, talks about. These determinants are myriad. Bone density, the physical size of tendons and ligaments, the size of muscle attachments to the bone, muscle cell twitch speed, the ratio between "fast twitch" and "slow twitch" muscle cells in the major skeletal muscle groups, the width of the pelvic girdle and distance between the hip joints, on and on it goes.
Men have bigger, denser bones. I'm not going to add the idiot boilerplate because its a lie. 80% or more of men have bigger denser bones than 80% of women. They have larger contact surfaces in every major joint. Their muscle attachments and ligaments are larger. Their narrower pelvic girdle provides a mechanical advantage in walking, running, jumping etc. None of this goes away when a man or woman "transitions." It all stays the same. To bad so sad, physics is physics.
In mid-March 2019, Farrow was investigated by the Surrey police at the behest of Susie Green, the founder of Mermaids Gender, a trans activist organization. Green reported tweets in which Farrow used male pronouns to address her MTF daughter, believing them to be a violation of the UK's Malicious Communications Act.Green also noted a tweet from October of 2018 in which Farrow accused Green of facilitating the 'castration' of her underage trans daughter. This was related to claims that Green brought her trans daughter, then 16 years old, to Thailand to receive a sex-change as she was not of the legal age to do so in the UK. This was confirmed by Green herself in a 2012 BBC 3 Documentary. Green eventually dropped the complaint into Farrow, claiming she did not want to give Farrow a wider platform to spread "misinformation."
Since, Farrow and her family has been the target of rapidly escalating cyber-abuse.
The same wave of bullying has been turned on two famous sportswomen, Martina Navratilova and Sharon Davies. Lesbians, aka "TERFS", aka older ladies who don't like men and don't want them around, are getting beaten up at Gay Pride Day parades by "trans-allies" and ejected from Lefty venues for speeches etc. leaving them begging The Heritage Foundation for a safe place to talk. By which I do not mean a "Safe Space," I mean a place where they won't get their asses kicked by armed Antifa goons.
Monday, April 08, 2019
More militants attacking farms.
A family-owned cafe has been forced to close its doors and leave staff jobless after they were relentlessly abused by vegan animal activists for months on end.
The Gippy Goat Café in the small Victorian town of Yarragon, about 110km south-east of Melbourne, closed its doors for the final time on Sunday, claiming they could no longer stand the abuse.
Owners John and Penny Gommans said they have been targeted for months.
They claim tensions have only gotten worse since activists broke into their farm and stole three goats last December.
British stores stop selling cutlery? Apparently yes.
Britain's sixth largest supermarket operator Co-operative Group was the latest chain on Friday to say it had stopped selling single kitchen knives in response to a wave of fatal stabbings.Chief Executive Officer Steve Murrells told reporters on a call after the company's annual results that it put a halt to the sale of knives about three weeks ago.
"We've launched our safer colleague, safer community campaign to support colleague safety and help identify the causes of community crime. This has seen us remove kitchen knives from sale in our stores," he said.
United Kingdom Ministry of Truth.
The UK government is taking a hard line when it comes to online safety, moving to establish what it says is the world's first independent regulator to keep social media companies in check.
Companies that fail to live up to requirements will face huge fines, and senior directors who are proven to have been negligent will be held personally liable. They may also find access to their sites blocked.
The new measures, designed to make the internet a safer place, were announced jointly by the Home Office and Department of Culture, Media and Sport. The introduction of the regulator is the central recommendation of a highly anticipated government white paper, titled Online Harms, published early Monday in the UK.
The regulator will be tasked with ensuring social media companies are tackling a range of online problems, including:
- Inciting violence and spreading violent content (including terrorist content)
- Encouraging self-harm or suicide
- The spread of disinformation and fake news
- Cyberbullying
- Children accessing inappropriate material
- Child exploitation and abuse content
As well as applying to the major social networks, such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, the requirements will also have to be met by file-hosting sites, online forums, messaging services and search engines.
Saturday, April 06, 2019
Screen time does NOT rot teenaged brains.
Data from more than 17,000 teenagers show little evidence of a relationship between screen time and well-being in adolescents. The study, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, casts doubt on the widely accepted notion that spending time online, gaming, or watching TV, especially before bedtime, can damage young people's mental health.
Friday, April 05, 2019
Even Microsoft can learn. Eventually.
Microsoft has announced that starting with the Windows 10 May 2019 Update, which will hit general availability late next month, users will no longer be forced to install new Windows 10 feature updates as they become available.