Read it.

Was thinking about similarities and differences between the reaction to AIDS and to SARS-2. AIDS hit much more slowly, of course. It was way more dangerous per customer, but it was obvious early on that it was only spreading in a small fraction of the population.

The health authorities such as the CDC didn’t believe in quarantine then, either, and they prevailed. They were wrong, of course. They spent a lot of effort trying to convince the public that HIV was a significant threat to straight men and women: that was a lie. Presumably it was motivated by the probably-correct notion that people wouldn’t give a shit unless they were personally threatened, or possibly just because. Wiki is still doing its part to further nonsense on this topic: ” Announcements by various celebrities that they had contracted HIV (including actor Rock Hudson, basketball star Magic Johnson, tennis player Arthur Ashe and singer Freddie Mercury) were significant in arousing media attention and making the general public aware of the dangers of the disease to people of all sexual orientations.” Arthur Ashe got a bad transfusion: as for the others, what do you think?

Although it really did manage to spread in the general population in Sub-Saharan Africa – but not much elsewhere.

Read it.

The mayor had warned last week, “Anyone tries to get in the water, they’ll be taken right out of the water,” while also threatening summonses for violators as the city battles to keep the coronavirus under control by banning swimming for now.

But Sliwa, dressed in a wet suit — and his trademark red Guardian Angels beret — strolled into the surf and swam around for about an hour without consequence, while a crowd of people on a pier near the old Parachute Jump cheered for him.

Seven or eight Parks officers tried ordering the Guardian Angels’ founder and mayoral candidate out of the drink at one point, but when he refused, they just stood and stared from the sand.

Read it.

Facebook and Twitter’s decision to allow their workers to telecommute permanently could shake up Silicon Valley’s demographics and potentially lead to red states turning purple as people continue bailing on California for Texas and Arizona, among other states.

Michigan Dam Failures and Climate Change

Time: Climate Change is a Threat to Expensive French Wine  Women and minorities hardest hit.

Mississippi Delta marshes in a state of irreversible collapse, Tulane study shows

Naomi Oreskes, the Golden Opportunity

Claim: Climate Change Requires Streamlining of Cash Deliveries to Remote Aid Recipients

Read it.

The argument that vitamin D deficiency may contribute to more severe cases of Covid is gaining ground. It is now reaching the point where it is surprising that we are not hearing from leading medical officials and politicians that people should consider taking supplements to ensure they have sufficient vitamin D.

Read it.

Twitch tried to downplay concerns over an advisory board member who identifies as a deer and believes many gamers are “white supremacists.” Twitch, the platform for watching internet celebrities broadcast as they play video games, lit fire to a cultural powder keg in mid-May. The company appointed a transgender streamer who identifies as a deer among its “Safety Advisory Council.” Now it’s trying damage control.

I have substantial reservations about any organization that goes by the name Twitch.

Read it.

Years ago I learned that when the Scottish Enlightenment said they loved “Equality” and when the French Philosophes echoed that same sentiment, they were talking past each other. Hume and Locke wanted a voluntary equality of opportunity, while the French wanted a compelled equality of result. But there is no indication that either side understood that the same word meant different things across the English Channel. As a result, it took much longer for the rest of the world to understand the intellectual horror that was the French Revolution.

This is why people go to war over the definitions of words (‘gay marriage’ is a good case in point). Those who control what words mean wind up controlling how people talk about something which in turn results in control over how people think about things. Consider the Trayvon Martin case and the attempt by the media to tag the shooter as a ‘white Hispanic’.

The Left understands this at a deeper level than the Right, which is why they end up winning more often than not. The intellectual damage of smears like ‘price gouging’, ‘black market’, ‘windfall profit’, ‘pink slime’, and innumerable other tendentious terms is almost incalculable.

Read it.

The coronavirus pandemic, and resulting government response, has created one of the greatest disruptions to daily life in modern American history. With much of the country now focused on “reopening,” pundits and policymakers have focused their attention on what the “new normal” of a post-COVID America looks like. Although much of the attention has been focused on the future of massive public gatherings and changes to American work environments, the most significant change to American societies may be faith in our governing structures.

Actually, we’d prefer that they die, preferably in great pain.

Read it.

I’m not sure but I think this is a metaphor for the Biden campaign.

Read it.

Articles in college alumni magazines, even in the Ivy League, are usually puff pieces about academic programs and professors. They are designed to make graduates feel so good about their alma mater and its intellectual achievements that they will write out yet another donation check. Seldom do the articles circulate much outside of the closed circle of alums. Not so with a 1,007-word piece in the May – June 2020 issue of the Harvard Magazine entitled “The Risks of Homeschooling” in which Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Bartholet recommended a “presumptive ban” against parents’ educating their children at home (as between three and four percent of US parents currently do). That is, unless these parents can prove to educational authorities “that their case is justified.”

Greenpeace Climate Activists Take on Silicon Valley: Slam Big Oil Connections

Climate Activists Fear Post Covid-19 Commuters Will Avoid Public Transport

The planet has a problem with buildings: Here’s how smart ideas, tech and design can change that

This Is the Last Known Footage of a Living Thylacine

These endangered whales are disturbingly thin—why that matters

California trash-to-hydrogen plant promises dirt-cheap, super-green H2

There is no Climate Emergency !

The Looming Failure of Wind Energy

Monbiot vs Moore: “You Provided Us with No Solutions” to Climate Change

Is This Controlled Demolition All Over Again?

Judge Nixes Bid to Stop Coal Sales That Trump Revived

Read it.

Once you’ve started using an ad blocker, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. Blocking ads will reduce your risk of being defrauded or getting a computer virus, and make your computer run faster than when it was new.

Freeberg is apprehensive.

oe Biden is all-but-obliged to pick a Karen as his running mate. Not a “could be male Karen or could be female Karen,” but a double-ex chromosome, born-with-vagina-and-everything lady-Karen. He’s said so. And it won’t be a soothing, common-sense, quiet-strong type woman either. She’ll be a screech-wort. a scrunt. The kind whose presence you never leave without a sigh of relief. A scold. A shrew. A beeyotch.

Kevin Williamson puts the boot in.

The New York Times report on Joe Biden’s insistence that some black voters “ain’t black” is a truly remarkable piece of non-journalism. The trouble to which Astead W. Herndon and his editors went to avoid looking at the story head-on is remarkable if only from a purely compositional point of view.

The bombshell line is mentioned in the lead and then followed by . . . paragraphs of tax-policy details.

Babylon Bee.

Can’t get more socially distant than that.

Read it.

Perhaps they suddenly realized that they’re living in a Communist dictatorship.

Read it.

Some historical movements fade into oblivion. (Meet any physiocrats lately?) But not fascism. Despite the fiery demise of the Nazi regime 75 years ago this month, the idea of fascism has retained its power to arouse fear and contempt—even in countries where it poses no realistic threat to the prevailing liberal democratic order. In the realm of US politics, the term has become common currency among detractors of Donald Trump—while on the other side of the spectrum, conservatives use it as a casual slur to attack COVID-19 lockdown policies they deem misguided. When protestors used the f-word to describe New Jersey’s pandemic response (on Victory in Europe Day, or VE Day, no less), state governor Phil Murphy properly replied that the malapropism created “a disgusting false equivalence.”

Climate change is turning parts of Antarctica green, say scientists

Mount Everest is visible from Kathmandu for first time in living memory

A ‘Hyperactive’ Hurricane Season Is About to Strike  Women and minorities hardest hit.

Climate change and a pandemic of lies

Forecasters Expect Above-Normal 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season

Australia Enrages Activists, Embraces “Technology Neutral” Carbon Credits

Read it.

Well, that’s what happens when you’re state is run by Democrats.

Read it.

As a tactician, I need to ensure the boat is fast. Otherwise, we’re not going to win, regardless of how well I do my job. And, since the main was always front and center for me, I was constantly studying it, ensuring my mainsail trimmer was doing his/her job. I hope the following will help you better understand the connection between the science and sail trim—and there’s plenty more detail in the book.

Just in case you were wondering. I know I was. (‘Does this bunt make my sail look fat?’)

Read it.

Damn, Trump is just such a tool of Putin….

Read it.

Guess who is finding out that dense urban living and cattle-car mass transit have a down side?

As cities from New York to San Francisco have locked down in recent months to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, many residents have decided they’d rather wait out the pandemic elsewhere. While the wealthy have settled into their second homes in the Hamptons or Lake Tahoe, many young people are leaving expensive shoe-box apartments to shelter with their parents in the suburbs.

Read it.

That sounds about right.

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Over the last few weeks, I’ve heard from a trickle of parents considering homeschooling. Thanks to the CDC, that’s about to become a flood. The individuals responsible for these guidelines have, quite plainly, never encountered a child. They don’t know about how they operate or about what’s in their best interest. These recommendations are shocking and speak for themselves.

Read it.

My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

The Guardian.

Extremely unusual to see a proglodyte icon dissed by a Voice of the Crust.

6 Green Products To Help You Shop More Sustainably  Vogue. Green is apparently the new black.

Welcome to the End of the ‘Human Climate Niche’  Famous science journal New York Magazine.

Australian man fined for rescuing whale from sea nets  No good deed goes unpunished.

Will the human race become extinct? Almost certainly  The Independent.

ClimateFeedback review of PragerU video challenges good news on polar bears

‘Nature Rights’ Advances to World Economic Forum

Climate change will turn coastal Antarctica green, say scientists

Read it.

President Donald Trump’s campaign is launching a talk show Wednesday evening critiquing ABC’s “The View” for the network’s portrayal of the president and what it called “fake news.”

The first episode of “The Right View” premieres at 8 p.m. on Wednesday and will feature top Trump 2020 advisers Lara Trump, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Mercedes Schlapp and Katrina Pierson.

We used to call Reagan ‘The Great Communicator’ but I think Trump is giving him a good run for that title.

Read it.

Last night I saw one of my exes post to her wall, the same familiar screed. “Oh my god. My governor is opening up the state of Oregon. Think of all the people who are going to die.”

I checked out the state of Oregon, it has a population of 4.218 million. It has had a grand total of 140 deaths. Over two-thirds of them are over the age of 65 and every single death had an underlying condition according to the stats I can find.

Sorry but you and your husband, a pair of 30-somethings who do kickboxing for a hobby, are going to be fine. You’re not that special.

Read it.

Slow news day.

THEY’RE EVERYWHERE! THEY’RE EVERYWHERE!

The real climate science deniers

Claim: Climate Change Killed the Giant Kangaroo, not Humans

Climate Wars: How Activists Lost the Battle for an Aussie Carbon Tax

Victor Davis Hanson.

Compare the current progressive view about civil liberties against the old liberal positions of the past.

Been there, done that.

Read it.

I will debating/discussing the topic “Does coronavirus mean the end of traditional education?” @ the Cambridge Union.

Read it.

And for local Democrat politicians, who depend on reliable proglodyte student voters to stay in power.

Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #409

NASA’s ICESat-2 Reveals Arctic Sea Ice Has Thinned by as Much as 20%  I guess Science Means Never Knowing Exactly What The Measurement Is.

‘Snowpiercer’: Climate Change ‘Deniers’ ‘Doomed Us with Their Lies’

Vice: “White Supremacy Led To the Climate Crisis”

Vice: People of Colour Experience Climate Grief More Deeply Than White People, by Steve Sailer

+7C Global Warming by 2100: CMIP6 Cranks Up the Climate Sensitivity Estimate for COP26  I’m still waiting for ‘rising sea levels’ to submerge New York.

CBS: Climate and Corona Show ‘Mother Nature’ ‘Hissing’ ‘I Will Not Be Ignored’

Wacky weather punched a new hole in the ozone—and it could happen again

Read it.

Me: How many have you got?

NFL’s Diversity Proposal Would Give Teams Draft Advantages For Nonwhite Hiring

Raheem Sterling to hold ‘ambassador’ talks with Premier League as Megan Rapinoe calls for more white players to follow his lead to tackle racism in football

Washington Post Roundly Mocked For ‘Bizarre’ Stacey Abrams Profile Comparing Her To ‘A Runway Supermodel’

ABC: “Climate change talk has been around for 30 years. Where’s the action?”

The end of plastic? New plant-based bottles will degrade in a year  The Guardian.

Extinction of Threatened Marine Megafauna Would Lead to Devastating Loss in Functional Diversity

Pack Ice around Bear Island in the Barents Sea on 15 May: last time was 2003

Capitalism or the Climate?

Culturally-determined response to climate change: Part III

John Derbyshire.

o there was this couple, he 86 and she 85, crossing the cemetery on their way to Anthony’s grave on the morning of May 8th as they had done hundreds of times before.

Twenty-nine-year-old Sheldon Francis, a black man dressed entirely in black, with a black face mask, came up behind them and shot them both with a handgun.

Maybe they needed to be jogging.

Steve Sailer.

From the New York Times opinion page’s series on how Raj Chetty has discovered exactly which Zip Codes are hoarding the Magic Dirt and which are stuck with the Tragic Dirt, a black lady writer responds to the growing menace of woke Asian lady writers by laying down just about All the race cards other than (unaccountably) Emmett Till….

I’m curious as to how a black woman wound up with a name like Brandi.

Global Cooling!! Low Solar Activity To Cause Temperatures To Plummet, Say Scientists

Using proverbs to study local perceptions of climate change

One Billion People Will Suffer from “Unliveable” Heat Within 50 Years

New Zealand Budget Ditches Climate Change, Prioritises the Economy

In my case it will be ‘Jeez, was he still around?’

CSIRO Scientists Accidentally Prove Coral Rapidly Adapts to Global Warming

Cooper Throws Childish Tantrum Over Criticism of Greta Being a Coronavirus Town Hall Guest

The Dangerous Consequences of Renewables in the Age of COVID-19

Climate change: The worst foods for the planet  Vox.

Harp seal population critical to Davis Strait polar bears is still increasing

The Great Lakes are higher than they’ve ever been, and we’re not sure what will happen next

The Great Lakes are higher than they’ve ever been, and we’re not sure what will happen next  Popular ‘Science’. Uh, they’ll go back down? As they always have?

Former and Current Reality TV Show Host Anderson Cooper Has Meltdown Over Completely Valid Criticism Over CNN’s Carnival-Barker Move of Naming Greta Thunberg a Covid Expert

Sky News Australia DESTROYS CNN: ‘Shame on CNN’ for Putting Greta Thunberg on COVID-19 Panel

Read it.

I’m good with that.