And then there’s this cloud on the horizon.

Why did CNN give Howard Schultz a town hall last night? Its own polls have him way down. Once again, he offered no substance. His only “qualification” is he has billions to pour into a campaign. Schultz is what’s rotten about American politics. Shame on CNN for legitimizing him.

— Robert Reich (@RBReich) February 13, 2019

Same reason they gave Trump so much airtime, no doubt. Greed? Cupidity? Lust for gain? One of those.… Read the rest

Why does the BBC keep doing this?

They did a segment to observe the anniversary of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie and his blasfeemius book.

To discuss it they invited Farzana Shaikh, Geoffrey Robertson (Rushdie’s lawyer during the fatwa), and Peter Tatchell. Gita Saghal informed us that they could have had Pragna Patel but decided not to.

Getting annoyed watching @BBCNewsnight. They asked Pragna of @SBSisters, but stood her down after asking if she were Muslim!

— Gita Sahgal (@GitaSahgal) February 11, 2019

So they decided against Pragna and got Tatchell instead – also not a Muslim! What the hell?

Why is it that black or Asian women have to pass an authenticity test, not a test if

Mermaids is doing “gender training”:

@ACCJulieCooke opening our third day of training sessions delivered by @Mermaids_Gender. Fantastic trans awareness and education for our staff and partners! @MerPolCEU @MerpolLGBT pic.twitter.com/m5nmJdfH2p

— Christian Owens (@SgtCOwens) February 12, 2019

At the top of this image the slide informs us: Gender identity is also on a spectrum. We all have our own unique identity.

Do your arms stick out a little bit? Have you measured how far? That measurement would be your exact unique gender identity. If that’s too hard to measure you can check to see if you have things flapping out at the sides of your head, or if you have a waist, or if you wear a triangle. That is, … Read the rest

The Guardian on the Ligue du LOL’s campaign of bullying women and Other races:

The group, believed to have had about 30 members, is said to have spread pornographic memes online and doctored photos to humiliate its victims.

What group members claim started as dubious humour in private exchanges, however, appears to have soon degenerated and spread on to the wider web mostly through Twitter.

Even “humour” in private exchanges doesn’t have to involve, say, pornographic memes and doctored photos. There are other ways to be funny and even other ways to gossip about people’s flaws.

They’re posting lengthy apologies / explanations on Twitter, saying they didn’t realize how nasty it all was for the people they did it to.… Read the rest

BuzzFeed reports:

A secret group of mainly male French journalists have been accused of coordinating a sprawling, yearslong campaign of harassment abusing women writers, feminist activists, people of color, and LGBT people.

The group, Ligue du LOL, or LOL League, has been operating for about a decade. So far, three journalists have been suspended, one has resigned, and one has been fired since the accusations were made public online. People working at four of France’s biggest news outlets have been implicated.

Journalists – you know, people who help shape our opinions and worldviews.

The LOL League started as a Facebook group in 2009 by journalist Vincent Glad, who now works at one of France’s largest newspapers, Libération. The group

Oh come ON.

I dunno. I guess you could study this systematically and someone probably should. It does seem like when women are running, the threshold is lower for controversies that are deemed to overshadow a campaign, e.g. Warren/DNA, Gillibrand/Franken, Klobuchar/staff (or Hillary/email).

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) February 10, 2019

Oooooooh yes I guess you could systematically study whether or not women are subject to more disparaging commentary than men are, why has no one ever thought to do that???

Much acid rejoindering.

Decades of studies about this issue, as well as a profusion of regular, on-going work examining implicit bias and sexism/racism in media. I’ve got to believe you know this, but this makes critical commentary sound like a

Priorities. On the one hand, permanent brain damage; on the other hand, profits. We all know which one wins; it’s The American Way.

Former NBC sports commentator Bob Costas says the network pulled him from its football coverage after he criticized the NFL and its handling of the concussion crisis. In an interview with ESPN’s E:60, Costas revealed that NBC executives removed him from its Super Bowl LII broadcast after he spoke at a 2017 journalism symposium. “The reality is that this game destroys people’s brains,” he said during that discussion. After an ensuing series of media appearances, Costas says NBC Sports’ executive producer texted him, “You’ve crossed the line.”

What line? I guess it’s the line … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Your Name’s not Bruce? on Hurtling down the path to extinction.

In War of the Worlds, the Martians meet their demise through lack of foresight, because they have no resistance to Earth germs; they are killed “after all man’s devices had failed, by the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon this earth.” Now, with our devices and technology working all too well, and plenty of warning (but still, no foresight, beyond the quarterly statement), we may bring about our own end by killing off the insects. Who knows, this might have a bigger, faster impact on human thought (and numbers) than the comparatively slow motion disaster that is climate change.… Read the rest

Bad Astronomy:

That lovely photograph was taken on February 3, 2019, by the Chinese Longjiang-2 satellite, which is orbiting the Moon. It’s a small photo, just 640×480 pixels, but what it shows belies its size; that is the Earth and Moon in one shot, a single image framing all of humanity.

Doesn’t the Moon look strange? That’s because you’re seeing the far side — in fact, the geometry dictates the only way to see the Earth and Moon together in one shot from lunar orbit is if you are over the far side at the time.

But that’s the side forever pointing away from Earth, so we cannot see it from the ground, or even low Earth orbit. To

Oops.

The world’s insects are hurtling down the path to extinction, threatening a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems”, according to the first global scientific review.

More than 40% of insect species are declining and a third are endangered, the analysis found. The rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles. The total mass of insects is falling by a precipitous 2.5% a year, according to the best data available, suggesting they could vanish within a century.

That’s not good. Lots of mammals, birds and reptiles eat insects, so you do the math.

The planet is at the start of a sixth mass extinction in its history, with huge losses already reported in larger

This again. University of Bristol Free Speech Society:

We are saddened to inform you that due to Student Union bureaucracy we have been forced to cancel the invitation we extended to Angelos Sofocleous to be on our panel discussion on free speech. We have given the SU plenty of notice for this event. But they felt it proper to cancel his attendance in the last minute, citing “security concerns”. For context, Angelos is a full time student at Durham University who lives amongst students on campus. We leave it to the public to reach their own conclusions with regards to the SU’s intentions.

In the government’s guidance for students on free speech released last year it states, “Students should

Spotted at the Trump Hotel earlier tonight – Matt Whitaker, post-testimony.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) February 9, 2019

Let’s see, can we improve on that at all? Matt Whitaker after that grotesque performance at the hearing going to the Trump Hotel and…ordering the dolphin steak, painting “Mueller is a witch-hunter!!” on the wall, wearing a “Bring Back Rape!” T shirt?… Read the rest

They just don’t get it.

The bishop, who has maintained his innocence, will be charged and face trial by a special prosecutor on accusations of rape and intimidation, the police investigating the case said. But the church acknowledged the nun’s accusations only after five of her fellow nuns mutinied and publicly rallied to her side to draw attention to her yearlong quest for justice, despite what they described as heavy pressure to remain silent.

“We used to see the fathers of the church as equivalent to God, but not anymore,” said Darly, her voice shaking with emotion. “How can I tell my son about this, that the person teaching us the difference between right and wrong gave him his

Via clamboy – a long thread on Seattle and SOME INCHES OF SNOW OMIGOD.

I’ve never witnessed anything quite like Seattle grocery stores when locals are preparing to brave 4-5 inches of snow.

— Daniel Silvermint (@DSilvermint) February 8, 2019

Oh no. They’ve started looting. People running out of stores with armfuls of Yerba Mate tea.

— Daniel Silvermint (@DSilvermint) February 8, 2019

People are bartering monogrammed yoga mats for just a single slice of cauliflower pizza.

— Daniel Silvermint (@DSilvermint) February 8, 2019

I awoke to the sight of Dickensian orphans picking through my compost. I don’t even know where they found those flat caps. The snow is still 10 hours away. #SeattleSnowpocalypse #Snowmageddon

— Daniel Silvermint (@DSilvermint) February