Originally a comment by Jim Baerg on Stuck in presentism.

It was only with Kepler’s elliptical orbits that a heliocentric model predicted planetary motions better than a geocentric model.

Galileo’s observation of Jupiter’s moons showed that there are at least some objects that definitely orbit something other than the earth. The phases of Venus are hard (impossible ?) to explain in a non-heliocentric model.

For a non-dogmatic thinker, it was really only the combination of all of those developments that would remove reasonable doubt about heliocentrism. Though the lack of observable parallax of stars bothered scientists until measurements became good enough to detect the parallax in the 19th century.

Similarly in the case of continental drift/plate tectonics. There was reasonable doubt until the 1960s. It was accumulated data better explained by plate tectonics that tipped earth scientists into general acceptance of plate tectonics.

Honest present day scientists can try to look at what evidence was available to their predecessors of a given time to judge what they might have believed under the circumstances.

How to apply similar considerations to ethical issues is another matter.

Trump has a new fixation: Hannibal Lecter. Makes sense.

Trump mentioned Hannibal Lecter again last night, during a rally in North Carolina. During a rambling tangent about immigrants, Trump said: “They’re coming from everywhere. They’re coming from all over the world, from prisons and jails, and mental institutions and insane asylums. You know, they go crazy when I say, ‘The late great Hannibal Lecter,’ OK? They say, ‘Why would he mention Hannibal Lecter? He must be cognitively in trouble.’ No no no, these are real stories. Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lamb [sic]. He’s a lovely man. He’d love to have you for dinner.”

These stories really are stories, yes, but that doesn’t make them true accounts of real people. Why would Trump keep mentioning a fictional murderer?

Trump said more or less the same thing during his speech at the Republican national convention last week. And several times before that, stretching all the way back to May.

As…one does?

Trump’s unending Hannibal references are so overwhelmingly confusing that it has sent the internet running to the hills in search of something, anything, that might explain why the next potential president of the world’s biggest superpower keeps repeating the same baffling non-sequitur every time he gets near a microphone. 

Wellll there’s your answer right there. He’s both stupid and ignorant, so he gets stupid ideas and then he sticks to them. There’s no more to it than that. He’s every boring gasbag who thinks he’s funny you’ve ever sat next to on a bus or at a dinner. That’s all.

Trump doesn’t want to debate Harris. Of course he doesn’t.

In a statement released Thursday night, Trump’s campaign explained that they would be putting any future presidential debates on hold.

“Given the continued political chaos surrounding Crooked Joe Biden and the Democrat Party, general election debate details cannot be finalized until Democrats formally decide on their nominee,” said Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung.

Childish.

“There is a strong sense by many in the Democrat party—namely Barack Hussein Obama—that Kamala Harris is a Marxist fraud who cannot beat President Trump, and they are still holding out for someone ‘better,’” said Cheung. “Therefore, it would be inappropriate to schedule things with Harris because Democrats very well could still change their minds.”

Still childish.

Despite Trump’s repeated attempts to avoid going head-to-head with Harris, she has continued to push for a debate on September 10. “Voters deserve to see the split screen that exists on a debate stage,” she wrote in a post on X Thursday. “I’m ready. So let’s go.”

It occurs to me there’s an advantage in her having been a prosecutor. It means she’s had a lot of practice dealing with verbally and legally skilled opponents face to face in real time. That’s an advantage Hillary Clinton didn’t have. I bet it will come in handy. I doubt Captain Blowfish will be able to rattle her.

Oh shit. Half of Jasper has burned up.

I haven’t been there but I know people who have, and loved it.

Huge, fast-moving wildfires have destroyed up to half of the historic Canadian town of Jasper, officials say, as firefighters try to save as many buildings as possible. Entire streets have been levelled by the blazes in Alberta province, with video showing smouldering rubble where homes once stood.

…

During a news conference on Thursday, a tearful Alberta Premier Danielle Smith struggled at times to recount the scale of the damage, but said “potentially 30 to 50%” of buildings had been destroyed.

“There is no denying that this is the worst nightmare for any community,” she said, adding that Jasper National Park had been “a source of pride” for many generations. Ms Smith became visibly emotional as she described the beauty of the park and its significance to the community, which relies largely on tourism. Some 2.5 million people visit the park, and nearby Banff National Park, each year.

Beautiful places are beautiful, and we’re allowed to love them and mourn them.

Hundreds of firefighters from around the world have been deployed to help with the response, but officials warn the extent of the damage is still emerging. The focus on Thursday, they said, was on containing the towering flames which engulfed the town from two sides.

Pierre Martel, director for the national fire management programme at Parks Canada, said the fire was started by a lightning storm and escalated late on Wednesday as it was fanned by powerful winds. “It [was] just a monster at that point,” Mr Martel said. “There are no tools we have in our tool box to deal with it.”

Meanwhile there’s another one of those raging Northern California fires devouring all in its path.

A rare fire tornado has ripped through bushland in northern California, as the state’s largest wildfire this year doubled in size overnight and burned out of control.

The Park fire, which started on Wednesday, has already burned through more than 164,000 acres of land northeast of Chico, and was 3% contained on Friday, Cal Fire said.

It’s way too close to Chico now. I have an internet friend who lives in Chico – some of you probably know her too. She had a go-bag ready by the door but as of last night the fire was cutting off some escape routes. I hope she’s out.

The Park fire has grown exponentially since it sparked on Wednesday, growing from about 1,400 acres on Wednesday near Chico, California, spreading about 45,500 acres by Thursday into California’s Central Valley, before tripling in size by Friday.

The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for northern Sacramento Valley, and warned high winds and low humidity on Friday could combine to “cause new fire starts and ongoing wildfires to … grow rapidly and dangerously in size and intensity”.

Not the future any more.

Dear BBC droning on and on about drag queens again.

When Sab Samuel became the first drag queen to read children’s stories to youngsters at UK libraries it sparked protests across the country.

Oh no, those horrible naughty people who aren’t particularly thrilled to see mockery of women made a feature of libraries.

Sab, who is better known for their stage name Aida H Dee, is used to being challenged. Growing up, they were too scared to go to school. Sab said bullies attacked them while teachers said they “could not do anything to help”.

Everything changed for Sab, they said, when they performed in drag as an evil villainess in their Bath school play at the age of 13. They stood on stage and decided to be unabashedly themselves.

Unabashedly evil eh?

At the end, they were rewarded with a standing ovation and some of their previous enemies praised their courage. This spurred them on to launch the UK’s first drag queen story time which took place in Bristol in 2017.

Hero! Making contempt for women official!

Now Sab tours the country performing at theatres and libraries. “It’s not just for LGBT+ kids, it’s for everyone. Everyone should feel proud of who they are,” they said.

But he’s not proud of who he is, he’s proud of playacting being someone else. Acting is an art and it’s fine to be proud of it, but it’s silly to conflate it with who-they-are.

There are many more paragraphs of this glurge. I’ve learned to hate the BBC.

Originally a comment by Sonderval on Activists shocked to learn of other views.

Well duh, what would you expect it to reflect? Your views?

Yes, people probably expect exactly that because they think that different from all people in the past, their current moral and ethical values are the endpoint of ethics evolution. It is totally inconceivable to most people that some things we today take for granted may be viewed as horribly wrong in the future. Even if you point out that people 200 years ago thought the same thing, they still do not see the relativity of the situation.

Furthermore, they also do not see how they stand on the shoulders of past people to actually arrive at their moral values. They all assume that, had they lived 300 years ago, of course they would have been horrified at cat burnings or public executions. Ask any scientist and they will most probably tell you that back in the days of Galilei, of course they would have immediately been convinced by the arguments that earth moved around the sun. (Many of the same scientists will also tell you how “sex is binary” is of course wrong….)

Almost no-one tends to ask the question “Which practice that is common today will horrify people 200 years from now?” or “Why, if I had lived in the past, do I believe that I would still have my modern values despite the fact that they agree with and were formed by the world around me?” The closest they may come to this is talking about “the right side of history” and assuming that in the future, all of their values will be seen as the correct ones.

But actually thinking about the fact that all of us are probably doing something that “the right side of history” will view as wrong is rarely done.

We want Trump to lose, right? So this is good news:

Barack and Michelle Obama endorse Kamala Harris for president

In a joint statement announcing the endorsement, the Obamas praised Harris and listed her accomplishments.

“But Kamala has more than a resume,” the statement said. “She has the vision, the character, and the strength that this critical moment demands. There is no doubt in our mind that Kamala Harris has exactly what it takes to win this election and deliver for the American people.”

…

Obama and Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, have been in touch regularly, and he has been serving as a sounding board for her as he has over the 20 years they’ve known each other, a source told CNN earlier this week.

Obama didn’t immediately endorse Harris following President Joe Biden’s announcement on Sunday that he was not seeking reelection.

“I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges,” the former president said in a statement at the time.

According to the source, Obama believed it was important for the Democratic Party to have a legitimate process by which delegates would select their new nominee. An Obama adviser told CNN that the former president was taking the same approach as he did during the 2020 Democratic primary, watching closely with the intent of being able to unify the party when a nominee is chosen – whether it was Harris or someone else.

Not using his clout to affect the selection, but waiting to use it once the selection is made. Seems sensible.

Originally a comment by Tim Harris on Where’s the mud?

Lady Mondegreen is absolutely right — idealising Nature (with a captal ’N’) as something greater than human beings was very much part of Romanticism in all its forms (Wordsworth, for example), though Constable – unlike Turner – tends to prefer more ‘human’ landscapes. Before Romanticism, there were the 17th & 18th century landscapes that harked back very obviously and nostalgically to the pastoral tradition in poetry – ‘Nymphs & shepherds dance no more/ By sandy Ladon’s lilied banks…’), or the landscapes that seemed to be painted from the point of view of a landowner, high up and fondly contemplating his domain.

And it is also the case that Chinese & Japanese landscape painting (which I hugely admire) was idealised, although in a very different (mostly Taoist) way.

I see no problem with providing some sort of ‘context’ to any work of art, so long as it is thoughtful & illuminating, and not a sort of dissolution of the quiddity of works of art into sets of economic, social, and institutional influences which are regarded as wholly determining the works. John Barrell has some fine books on landscape painting, and on that marvellous poet John Clare, the son of an impoverished farm labourer who still has not had his due.

Ew.

It’s revolting.

More of the same, or no?

The National Gallery will display John Constable’s famous painting ‘The Hay Wain’ as a “contested landscape” at an upcoming exhibition.

The 1821 painting is a British classic, depicting a rural landscape near Constable’s native Suffolk. The idyllic scene shows a cart and horse travelling through the tranquil River Stour.

But some critics say the painting conceals a dark secret. Not present in the scene are the poorer workers of the time, many of whom were suffering from hunger and poverty.

…

The new exhibition will attempt to explain the full social context of the painting. It will be displayed alongside satirical images from the period which give another perspective on the politics of the time.

I think I would find that interesting, at least if it were done well. It doesn’t seem quite as much pointing out the obvious as the “Oh no the Albert Memorial is reactionary” item does.

Maybe that’s because I tend to react to idyllic rural scenes the same way myself. If they’re too idyllic I tend to want some mucky pigs somewhere in the picture.

19th century monument reflects 19th century views, exclaims pack of fools. Well duh, what would you expect it to reflect? Your views?

Prince Albert’s memorial in Kensington is “problematic” and “highly offensive”, drawing on “racial stereotypes” that reflect a “Victorian view of the world that differs from mainstream views held today”, its presentist custodians at The Royal Parks charity say (Evening Standard, GB News, Telegraph).

That’s because it was created by people who had the views that people had then as opposed to the views that people have now. I think you’ll find that’s a general pattern. It’s difficult to adopt the views of people a century or two in the future because you don’t know what they are going to be. Do you see what I mean? That’s a closed box to us. If we knew what they were, and we agreed with them, they would be our views. We don’t know what they will be, so we can neither agree nor disagree with them, because of the not knowing.

The Royal Parks have now offered a presentist critique of the monument, with the four statues that represent Asia, Africa, America and Europe described as reflective of a “Victorian view of European supremacy”.

“Representations of certain continents draws on racial stereotypes that are now considered offensive,” updated information about the plinth now reads on the Royal Parks website.

The page continues: “Though the Empire has traditionally been celebrated as a symbol of British supremacy, many today consider this view as problematic because colonialism often relied on the oppression and exploitation of people, resources and cultures.”

Please, point out the obvious some more.

News media continue to lie about men who commit crimes of violence. Brighton and Hove News for example:

Brighton woman, 70, appears before court charged with murdering husband

Brighton woman, 70, is of course not a woman.

A 70-year-old Brighton woman has appeared in court by video link charged with murdering her husband in their Kemp Town flat. Joanna Rowland-Stuart was aided by a British Sign Language interpreter at Lewes Crown Court this morning (Wednesday 24 July).

Rowland-Stuart, formerly known as John Stuart, appeared by video link from Downview prison, in Surrey, but did not enter a plea over the death of her husband Andrew Rowland-Stuart.

Mr Rowland-Stuart was a former lorry driver previously known as Angie or Angela Rowland, Angie or Angela Rowland-Stuart and Andy or Andrew Rowland.

Oops, they slipped up there – a stray “Mr” spoils the game.

The emergency services were called to the couple’s 15th-floor home in Lavender Street, Brighton, shortly after 7.30pm on Monday 27 May. Despite paramedics’ efforts to save 70-year-old Mr Rowland-Stuart, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police arrested Joanna Rowland-Stuart, a former transgender rep and a former director of the LGBT Community Safety Forum, on suspicion of murder.

So much for the LGBT Community Safety Forum, eh?

The B&H Gazette may have a mole in its ranks, because it goes on to provide what looks like a very sarcastic pair of photos, first this one captioned Andrew

and then this one captioned Joanna:

Rowland-Stuart remains in custody, awaiting trial.

Update: Andrew is one person and “Joanna” is another, so the photos aren’t all that sarcastic. Thanks to John Reed for catching my dopy error.

Originally a comment by Screechy Monkey on It’s not a gold star.

I think you’re all being really harsh here.

First, Biden just did an incredibly hard thing. Yes, it was the right thing to do, for his party and the country. Yes, you could say that he was morally obligated to do it. But there are a lot of things that people should do that are really hard to do on a personal level, and a lot of people fail that test. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, for one.

Joe Biden spent decades of his life dreaming of being president one day. He gets there, and does a good job, and now he’s being asked to do something that no incumbent president has done since LBJ? And unlike LBJ, who had a mixed record as president — many great accomplishments, but also the escalation in Vietnam — Biden’s actual record as president is quite good and he doesn’t get enough credit for it. It probably doesn’t seem fair to him, and you know what, it probably isn’t in some sense. It wasn’t fair that his first wife and his daughter died in a car crash and he was a single father as a young senator. It wasn’t fair that his son Beau died young. I’ll leave out Hunter because we can argue what responsibility Joe has for how he turned out, but suffice it to say he’s had his share of personal tragedy.

And now you all want to begrudge him a bit of pride in a gracious speech confirming a pretty grand gesture of statemanship? It just strikes me as so, so petty.

Second, bragging about his record and how ordinarily that would merit a second term isn’t just personal pride. Joe Biden bragging about his record is good for Kamala Harris, and therefore the Democratic Party and the country. Harris is going to spend this campaign bragging about Biden’s presidency and running on his record.

Sigh. This is just dense. Thick. Dumb. Uncomprehending. Point-missing. Reality-ignoring.

Biden says:

President Joe Biden on Wednesday said abandoning his reelection campaign and endorsing his vice president, Kamala Harris, as the Democratic candidate was the best way to unite the country and save democracy, despite his ambition to win a second term.

Biden’s announcement to end his presidential bid on Sunday followed a disastrous June debate with Donald Trump, which exacerbated questions about his ability to defeat the Republican candidate, or to serve another four years if he succeeded.

In his address to the nation from the Oval Office, the 81-year-old president said he believed he deserved to be reelected based on his record during his first term.

!!!

Dude. The whole problem is that you are progressively losing your faculties. It’s a time thing. Your first term is wholly beside the point because it’s over, and time is continuing to pass, and you’re not as sharp as you were four years ago, or three, or two, or one. I’m sorry to say that but it’s true. It can happen to anyone. First term was then and this is now. It’s not about what you “deserve”; it’s about what everyone needs.

The vanity is not attractive. Sorry.

A drag queen and another man do the Olympics torch thing, and now this.

Women don’t exist or if they do exist they don’t matter, and by the way, if they’re running for high office be sure to tell them how to dress.

A piece of advice. Don’t go for a hike in extremely hot weather. If you do, take as much water as you can carry and don’t go far. If you don’t take much water and you do go far…well, you won’t come back.

A 56-year-old woman died while hiking near a state park in southwestern Utah over the weekend after running out of water on a sweltering day, police said.

Emergency crews responded near Quail Creek State Park on Sunday to a report of a hiker “in distress due to not having enough water and the temperature being 106 degrees,” the Hurricane City Police Department said in a statement.

Too hot. If you don’t have enough water, turn back after 10 minutes.

Three hikers died in state and national parks in Utah over the previous weekend, including a father and daughter from Wisconsin who got lost on a strenuous hike in Canyonlands National Park in triple-digit temperatures.

Don’t do strenuous hikes in triple-digit temperatures.

Use your brain.

Prosecutor v felon:

Vice President Harris vowed to reprise her role as a prosecutor on the campaign trail while running against former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee and a convicted felon.

Those are all one person. Clumsy writing makes it look as if Harris is running against three people, but no, Trump is the nominee and the convicted felon.

Harris, too, quickly pivoted to the kind of rhetoric she said to expect from her on the campaign trail — that of a seasoned attorney, who before she was elected as vice president and a United States senator from California served as that state’s elected attorney general and before that, a courtroom prosecutor.

“In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds. Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say: I know Donald Trump’s type,” she said.

Hardened criminal v experienced prosecutor. I’m getting more optimistic.

Gov. Andy Beshear, D-Ky., seen as a potential contender, told MSNBC Monday morning that he was endorsing her candidacy. “The vice president is smart and strong which will make her a good president,” he said.

Fellow Democratic Govs. Gavin Newsom of California and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania also quickly endorsed Harris, eliminating speculation that they might try to challenge her at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in four weeks.

…

While some Democrats are advocating for an “open process” in Chicago, there seems to be little appetite for a contentious battle for the nomination to take on former President Donald Trump, and any potential challenge seemed likely to be nominal.

Also good.

Could it be that the nightmare will end?

Goddy terrorism in the news:

The Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary has been found guilty of directing the terrorist group al-Muhajiroun (ALM) and drumming up cross-border support for the banned organisation online.

After a trial at Woolwich crown court in south London, Choudary was convicted of having a “caretaker role” in directing ALM.

Choudary came as close to becoming a household name as an extremist can get in the UK through his media appearances and controversial actions such as protesting at UK soldiers’ funerals. Security experts have claimed Choudary influenced dozens of British jihadists.

But the trained solicitor’s apparent ability to act just within the bounds of the law ended in 2016 when he was convicted of supporting Islamic State and he served half of a six-month prison sentence before being released on licence.

Well if you believe in a terrorist god you’re bound to think terrorism is goddy and thus mandatory.

Two men.

Zero women.

Women erased again.

Women barely exist. Women are at home mopping the floor. Women are passive blobs who don’t do anything. Men are the people who matter; women are the machines for making more men.

Oh good, the struggling royals get to have more money. That’s a relief.

The monarchy is to get an extra £45m due to soaring profits from the Crown Estate. The income boost comes from a surge in profits from the estate, due to six new offshore wind farms.

Profits from the Crown Estate have increased to £1.1bn, which in turn will lead to a rise in the Sovereign Grant, which pays for the Royal Family’s running costs. The grant will rise from £86.3m in 2024/25 to to £132m in 2025/2026 – which will help pay for the last stages of renovating Buckingham Palace, officials said.

How lovely for them. Might be able to afford an occasional night out, as well.

The annual accounts – delayed for a month because of the general election – revealed the household would get two new helicopters over the coming year, to replace existing 15-year-old aircraft. The report said they were “a key component” in enabling the King and wider Royal Family to carry out engagements, allowing them to get to remote regions of the UK.

Graham Smith, chief executive of anti-monarchy group Republic, said: “We do not owe the royals a living, we do not owe them palatial homes, private helicopter travel or lives of leisure and luxury.” Mr Smith added: “They abuse the taxpayer’s trust day in, day out, taking our money to spend on their own private lifestyles.”

Yes but it brings the tourists in.