Episode 7 of Alt★Hero, No Rest for the Wicked, is now live on Webtoons. As you’ll see, we’re sticking with the European storyline that follows the characters introduced in the first issue rather than following the order in which the issues were released.
Category: Uncategorized
For the record
Just thought I’d put these out there for future reference:
The Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China.
January 14, 2020, World Health Organization
There is no evidence that the coronavirus was created in a laboratory.
April 20, 2020, The Conversation
The World Health Organization reiterated that the coronavirus which causes COVID-19 is “natural in origin.” Scientists who are examining the genetic sequences of the virus have assured “again and again that this virus is natural in origin.”
May 1, 2020
Dr. Anthony Fauci, a renowned U.S. infectious disease expert, has said that there is no scientific evidence to back the theory that the coronavirus was made in a Chinese laboratory. “If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what’s out there now, the scientific evidence is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated,” he said.
May 4, 2020, National Geographic
WHO says it has no evidence to support ‘speculative’ Covid-19 lab theory
May 5, 2020, The Guardian
The British government has not seen any evidence to suggest that the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 was man-made.
May 9, 2020, UK Health Minister Matt Hancock
Scientists: ‘Exactly zero’ evidence COVID-19 came from a lab.
May 12, 2020, Center for Infections Disease Research and Policy
Evidence of COVID’s natural origin mounts even as conspiracy theory about Chinese lab refuses to die
May 13, 2020, Cornell Alliance for Science
The pandemic and the public schools
Given that technology and homeschooling have already rendered the public schools totally obsolete from an actual education standpoint, one can’t help but wonder if one of the side-benefits of pushing the lockdown measures in response to Corona-chan is killing the public schools once and for all.
The shutdown of schools across America, both public and private, has thrown the lives of parents into an upside-down struggle. And now, in the name of safety, the Centers for Disease Control are nearly guaranteeing the destruction of public schools in the United States.
They don’t mean to, of course. After all, public schools are the government-run and government-approved schools. But right now, every single parent across America is homeschooling. We are all getting a look at the shortcomings of curriculum, bureaucracy, and the people involved. While some teachers have risen to the occasion and tried their absolute hardest to attend to the educational and mental well-being of their students, there are some teachers who are just mailing it in. And there are kids and families that are mailing it in as well. The situation, as it stands right now, is not a sustainable one….
At the rate the districts and the CDC are going, the only kids left in public school will be the kids whose parents can’t afford to get them a private tutor/governess, the kids whose parents are not involved to begin with, the kids whose parents need the public school for childcare/meal purposes, and special education kids. And if you think teachers’ unions were down on homeschooling before, wait until public school enrollment drops nationwide and districts start losing real money over decreased enrollment. The best part? The unions will have no one to blame but their local government. The longer the school shutdown continues, the more parents are going to make other plans. Public education in the United States may have been unintentionally killed by government.
Taking a short term economic hit that was inevitable anyway thanks to the debt situation is a very small price to pay for killing the two primary engines of evil propaganda in the USA. And Corona-chan hasn’t exactly been good for the media or Hollywood either.
Best pandemic ever.
Tell, don’t show!
Episode 2 of Quantum Mortis: A Man Disrupted is now live on Webtoons.
In not-entirely-unrelated news, Dark Legion Comics has submitted its first entry in the Webtoons story contest. Episode 1 of Chicago Typewriter is now live.
Deflation in Canada
The 12-year period of credit disinflation appears to be over as the global economy is finally beginning to visibly deflate despite the best efforts of the central banks:
Canadian inflation went negative for the first time since the 2009 recession after the coronavirus lockdown put the brakes on the world economy.
Consumer prices dropped 0.2 per cent in April from the same month a year earlier, Statistics Canada reported Wednesday from Ottawa. That’s down from a 0.9 per cent annual rate in March and 2.2 per cent in February.
The report adds inflation to the list of economic indicators showing an historic impact from the coronavirus pandemic. Collapsing gasoline prices have pulled inflation lower over the past two months, but weak demand should keep inflation at extremely low levels for an extended period, and could even spur worries about deflation. That will keep pressure off the Bank of Canada to ease up on accommodation efforts any time soon.
From March, prices fell 0.7 per cent, matching the largest one-month drop since 2008.
Deflation is actually good for consumers and the real economy, since their money is worth more, but it is very bad for those who are dependent upon living off the debt of others. Which, of course, is why the banks and the financial elite have been desperately fighting to delay the deflation and credit crash that has been inevitable since 2008.
Debt jubilees are coming. Intellectuals of both the Left and the Right are already calling for them. In fact, one of the primary reasons behind the systemic overreaction to Corona-chan, as well as the constant goalpost-moving concerning the lockdowns, may be the cover provided for the ongoing economic crash.
Interpreting the Gamma
John Scalzi attempts to finesse a tricky social triangle. And he actually does a pretty good job of walking the tightrope, in which he simultaneously:
- Insinuates that he is friends with Neil Gaiman.
- Implies that he does not approve of Neil Gaiman’s heavily-criticized globetrotting excursion in the face of the Scottish lockdown.
- Insists that he is not obliged to publicly condemn Neil Gaiman’s behavior.
And all without actually staking a position to which he can be held accountable. Comments, of course, are closed. Secret King wins again!
A solid, creditable performance. I give it 8 of 10.
The Matrix Reconverged
The former Wachowski brothers are reconsidering their storytelling.
In conjunction with Warner Bros. Studios, the Wachowskis have released a new cut of The Matrix where Neo just takes the blue pill.
The revised cut will be approximately 30 minutes long, as Neo will take the blue pill and then just go about his pretend life blissfully unaware of humanity’s enslavement in the real world. Credits will roll as Neo wakes back up in his computer-generated existence and lives happily ever after.
“The red pill has been co-opted by the alt-right, and we just needed to set the record straight,” said Lilly Wachowski. “Now Neo will no longer take the problematic red pill and will instead support the status quo and not cause any problems. It’s much safer this way. Just think about how much happier Neo will be.”
I feel so much safer already. In other Wachowski news, Speed Racer will no longer speed, but will abide by the posted speed limits at all time. And he will wear a seat belt and drive a hybrid.
Also, the former Lana Wachowski now identifies as a prong-horned antelope.
A quiet end
L’affaire du Damore has come to a quiet close:
Google and the engineer it fired agreed to end their legal fight but didn’t detail terms of the case’s conclusion. Google and James Damore, an engineer it fired in 2017, have agreed to dismiss his lawsuit against the tech giant, a quiet end to a loud case that began with a controversial memo in which Damore criticized the company’s efforts to improve the diversity of its workforce.
“This matter is dismissed in its entirety,” Judge Brian Walsh wrote in a Thursday order with the Superior Court in Santa Clara, the Silicon Valley county where Google is headquartered, after Damore and Google “agreed to end the case … between them.” Details of the agreement weren’t disclosed.
Translation: Google paid Damore several million dollars in order to prevent the further public release of information.
Meanwhile, Pikachu confirmed that Google remains committed to complete convergence:
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai responded to a report that Google has dramatically scaled back diversity and inclusion programs to appease conservative critics, promising that the company remains committed. “Diversity is a foundational value for us. Given the scale at which we build products and the fact we do it locally for our users, we are deeply committed to having that representation in our workforce,” said Pichai in an interview on The Vergecast. “What we are doing in the company is constantly at our scale. We look at that first — see what works, what we can scale up better. All I can say is we probably have more resources invested in diversity now than at any point in our history as a company.”
Translation: Google will keep hiring people who can’t possibly do the necessary work until it goes bankrupt.
The “evidence” rhetoric
A socialgalactician observes scientistic rhetoric in action.
Me:“here is anecdotal evidence hcq works”
Scientist friend: “so we agree there’s no evidence hcq works”
The devotees of scientistry always, Always, ALWAYS rely upon on rhetoric, specifically, upon a false definition of “evidence”. Their rhetorical redefinition is limited, ironically enough, to “published, peer-reviewed scientific evidence”, which statistical analysis has proven to be less reliable than a coin flip.
Then they came for Chuck Dixon
Reddit SJWs are attempting, with limited success, to brigade the latest episode of Chuck Dixon’s Avalon by leaving negative comments and driving the rating down. They have managed to drive it down to about 7.6 from the 9.6 it was before. There are only about 20 of them, but that’s been enough, apparently. UPDATE: they’ve actually driven it below 7.0 now. As if that will accomplish anything. Gammas….
And in other Arkhaven news, Hypergamouse Episode 4, EVOLUTION IN ACTION, is now live.
For UATV subscribers, there is a new episode of Barcelona Life up on the new UATV site, featuring what I can testify is an excellent Kung Pao Chicken recipe.