According to this guy it's not oil production the Ukraine is aiming at,

it's the feedstocks for explosives and rocket fuels.  Which makes sense.

And it would not surprise me at all if he's right about the Biden people getting it wrong.

Since the previous post brought the subject up, let's look at a journal dumping an article

to please the screamers.
An alarming recent event highlights the vulnerability of the scientific endeavor to politics. ASB is a primary target for activist researchers who will not tolerate dissent from their views, and a months-long campaign by activists to pressure Springer Nature into retracting an ASB paper that they didn’t like has culminated in success. While the activists’ desire to censor inconvenient research should come as no surprise, Springer Nature’s capitulation to their demands represents a profound betrayal of scientific integrity and the publisher’s commitment to truth.

The paper in question, “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria: Parent Reports on 1655 Possible Cases,” was authored by researchers Suzanna Diaz (a pseudonym) and Michael Bailey and published in ASB on March 29. Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD), a newly proposed pathway to gender dysphoria, was first described by the researcher Lisa Littman in 2018; the theory may help explain the documented surge in cases of gender dysphoria among adolescents and young adults who had previously exhibited no gender-related issues. Littman proposed and provided supporting evidence that social factors have at least partly caused the surge, especially among girls.(bold mine)

Such a hypothesis might appear plausible, or at least a straightforward empirical matter to be decided through evidence-based examination. But it violates the dominant narrative favored by medicalization activists that the rise in trans identities stems from an increase in societal acceptance of “gender diversity.” Evidence supporting ROGD would call into question the “gender-affirming” model of care, an approach premised on the notion that kids can know their “gender identity” from very early on and will rarely, if ever, change their minds about it. ...
A short version would be "Thou shalt not publish papers that might disprove the Preferred Narrative™!"  And the cowards that go along with it.

I'd heard of some dams having a 'drowning machine' just downstream, but this explains

just why.

I knew there were arguments about whether the Big Bang Theory was correct,

I had not known that a lot of the data sent back by the Hubble and James Webb imagery was throwing a seriously big wrench into the works.

Imaging we can't see, but it is interesting

 For the first time, scientists have taken a proper look at an ultra-low velocity zone. These enigmatic pockets of rock sit close to the Earth's core, about 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) below the surface.

"The Science Is Settled!" people hardest hit

But another case, against Dr. Tim Ball was decided by the Supreme Court of British Columbia, with Mann’s case thrown out, and him ordered to pay the defendant’s legal costs, no doubt a tidy sum of money. News first broke in Wattsupwiththat, via an email Ball sent to Anthony Watt. Later, Principia-Scientific offered extensive details, including much background on the hockey stick.
...
Dr Mann lost his case because he refused to show in open court his R2 regression numbers (the ‘working out’) behind the world-famous ‘hockey stick’ graph (shown below).
This bastard's been refusing to release that from Day One, and that he'd rather lose a case than possibly win it by opening up tells you a lot.

I wonder how the Mann ass kissers will try to spin this?

No one surprised, except the experts

A new academic study has found that, once again, gun laws are not having their desired effect. 

A joint study conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of California at Davis Violence Prevention Research Program found that California’s much-touted mandated background checks had no impact on gun deaths, and researchers are puzzled as to why.
"But it HAD to work, our data must be bad, or incomplete, or something!"  Etc.

California’s failed gun control law appears to be yet another example of experts, to quote the great Milton Friedman, judging “policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.”
Another example being "Even if this doesn't work, at least we're doing something!"

Be it known that Fecesbook and the Zuckerbitches are at it again

Now I can't even sign on until I run their 'anti-virus' software.  No thank you, I don't want whatever the hell your crap will leave behind.


Just saw some pictures of a bunch of celebritutes in their finest designer attire; makes me wish for celebrities who at least have the fashion sense of those in the 50's and 60's.


He gets this part right:
The way we demonize comedians for use of language or terminology is unspeakable. Because that's exactly what comedians should be doing, offending and upsetting people, and being offensive. Comedy is there, like art, to make people uncomfortable, and challenge their views, and hopefully have a spirited yet civil argument. If you're a comedian whose bread and butter seems to be language, situations, and jokes that I find racist and offensive, I won't buy tickets to your show or watch you on TV. I will not support you. If people ask me what I think, I will say you suck, and that I think you are racist and offensive. But I'm not going to try to put you out of work. I'm not going to start a boycott, or a hashtag, looking to get you driven out of the business.

The utter contempt with which privileged Eastern liberals such as myself discuss red-state, gun-country, working-class America as ridiculous and morons and rubes is largely responsible for the upswell of rage and contempt and desire to pull down the temple that we're seeing now.

I've spent a lot of time in gun-country, God-fearing America. There are a hell of a lot of nice people out there, who are doing what everyone else in this world is trying to do: the best they can to get by, and take care of themselves and the people they love. When we deny them their basic humanity and legitimacy of their views, however different they may be than ours, when we mock them at every turn, and treat them with contempt, we do no one any good. Nothing nauseates me more than preaching to the converted. The self-congratulatory tone of the privileged left—just repeating and repeating and repeating the outrages of the opposition—this does not win hearts and minds. It doesn't change anyone's opinions. It only solidifies them, and makes things worse for all of us. We should be breaking bread with each other, and finding common ground whenever possible. I fear that is not at all what we've done.
And then says this:
...If you look around the world (in the Philippines, in England), the rise of nationalism, the fear of the Other. When people are afraid and feel that their government has failed them they do things that seem completely mad and unreasonable to those of who are perhaps under less pressure. As unhappy and surprised as I am with the outcome, I'm empathetic to the forces that push people towards what I see as an ultimately self-destructive act. Berlusconi, Putin, Duterte, the world is filled with bad choices, made in pressured times.
'the fear of the Other'.  I think there's little of that, and lots of pissed-off at the people he mentions in the first part.

Also, voting for Clinton, that's not a 'ultimately self-destructive act'?


“it hurts my heart that so many young people are so comfortable enough using these phrases and objectifying women with such ease.”
Welcome to the party, dumbass.   A lot of people have been pointing out that how your friends, and you, influence kids is destructive in the long run, and you laughed at them.  Now you're suddenly seeing what they're talking about?  Really?


So, if I have this right: Boys are more prone to play with "boy" toys because boys are afforded less freedom by social norms, and are essentially forced to play with boy-toys, and girls are afforded more freedom to play as they choose, and this means that... girls are the oppressed sex?

The authoress goes on to state that the spatial skills that boy-type toys teach are important for later-in-life abilities in STEM fields. (And you can tell how important STEM fields are to feminist theorists by the exactly zero of them who majored in a STEM field.)

So if you follow this dingbat's logic -- and why should you? She obviously hasn't -- then, in order to spur girls into being better at STEM, you should force them, as boys are forced, to play with boy-toys against their inclinations.

And that, you see, will result in more "choice" for girls!


A: Yes, Obama & Co. worked hard to screw Israel.  Because Obama doesn't like Jews, Netenyahu wouldn't kiss his ass, and because- for God knows what reason- they like enabling a bunch of bloody-handed savages.
B: Yes, they're still lying about it.  Because that's what they do.
C: God knows what other shit this miserable bastard will throw out as he leaves.

When the last cellphone in the Caliphate is destroyed or worn out no one will know how to make another. Their 8th century is capable of producing fanaticism but probably couldn't make a ball point pen. Objects in the ISIS universe are "magical" -- put there by Allah in the possession of the infidel for holy warriors to plunder and enjoy until the power which inheres in them gradually fades away.

Surprisingly much of the modern world is not very different. Many people treat technology like magic even in the West. How does a cell phone work? Dunno. Where does it come from? The store.
...
If a global catastrophe destroyed all of civilization's works yet spared these few million they could re-create every object in the world again. By contrast if only these few millions perished the remaining billions though untouched could continue only until things broke down.  It is knowledge which sustains civilization. Of course knowledge is also stored in libraries against catastrophe. Or is it?  If universities began seeing science as old "white man" sorcery they might start purging it like ISIS does wizardry. 
And the result, as Heinlein noted, will be blamed on 'bad luck'.


And if you're not familiar, there's a list of  213 things Skippy is not allowed to do; part of them:
The sound of the Phalanx anti-missile defense system going off is not just a way to alert the crew that the ship is about to sink.
Sponge Bob Square Pants is not a proper cadence for marching
Not allowed to exchange my M16 for a Pistol, “Because it’ll be more fun.”
Not allowed to Exchange my M16 for a shotgun, “Because all the cool kids have one.”
Not allowed to exchange my M16 for a Sub-Machine Gun.
Ok, I can, but only if I can find one for the commander too. 

Also, there's a followon.  I particularly like
Do not challenge SERE grads to play hide-and-seek.