Trust the Science

Now this is science I am entirely willing to trust: coffee is very, very good for you:

The massive database contains the health records on half a million Britons, who are regularly quizzed on their lifestyle habits. Participants, who were aged 40 to 69, completed questionnaires on how many cups they drank per day and whether they opted for instant, ground or decaffeinated.

The findings, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, show 44 per cent drank instant, 18 per cent ground and 15 per cent decaf. Just over a fifth did not drink coffee.

Over the course of the 13-year study, nearly 28,000 participants died. Some 43,000 developed cardiovascular disease and 30,000 were diagnosed with arrhythmia — an irregular heartbeat.

All types of coffee were linked with a reduction in early death from all causes, with two to three cups per day linked with the lowest risk. Those drinking that much ground coffee were 27 per cent less likely to die early than non-coffee drinkers. Meanwhile, decaf fans had a 14 per cent reduced risk and instant was linked with a 11 per cent drop. And all those who drank coffee had a reduced risk of heart disease, heart attacks and strokes.

The good news is that since the amount of coffee drunk was self-reported, the ideal number of “two to three cups per day” is actually at least four cups, and could easily be five. Because no one, in the entire history of drinking coffee, has ever accurately reported how much coffee they really drank.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to fire up another espresso… for my health, you understand.

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Cheating and Chess

I know nothing of the accused, but as a longtime online game player and game developer, I have absolutely no doubt that the world champion is correct:

World champion Magnus Carlsen on Monday broke his silence on the scandal that has shaken the chess world, explicitly accusing 19-year-old American grandmaster Hans Moke Niemann of cheating for the first time since their controversial meeting at the Sinquefield Cup this month.

In a statement posted to his social media accounts, Carlsen cited Niemann’s unusual progress through the chess ranks and his surprisingly relaxed behavior when they played in St. Louis.

“I believe that Niemann has cheated more—and more recently—than he has publicly admitted,” Carlsen wrote. “His over the board progress has been unusual, and throughout our game in the Sinquefield Cup I had the impression that he wasn’t tense or even fully concentrating on the game in critical positions, while outplaying as black in a way I think only a handful of players can do.”

Niemann didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Carlsen’s statement. He had earlier denied any allegations of impropriety in over-the-board chess, though he confessed to cheating on two occasions in online games. Niemann chalked those up as youthful errors, but Chess.com saw fit to ban him from the platform.

Chess.com this month also indicated Niemann wasn’t being forthright about the breadth of his cheating, saying in a statement that it had shared evidence with Niemann about his ban that “contradicts his statement regarding the amount and seriousness of his cheating on Chess.com.”

In Carlsen’s statement, he said he considered withdrawing from the Sinquefield Cup when Niemann was invited to participate, but he chose to play anyway. Carlsen later resigned a game against Niemann in another event after making just a single move. “So far I have only been able to speak with my actions, and those actions have stated clearly that I am not willing to play chess with Niemann,” he said.

I don’t believe it’s possible to eliminate cheating from online gaming. I first noticed the problem when playing VASL by email; my record in face-to-face and live online games was significantly better than in play-by-email (PBEM) games. I even did a statistical analysis that confirmed my suspicions; while my average dice rolls were the same in my live online games and my PBEM games and in line with statistical norms, my opponent’s average rolls were a full point lower in PBEM games than in live online games and than statistical norms would indicate.

What these cheaters were doing was playing the saved game, recording the play, then stopping when they got a result they didn’t like, reloading the game, and replaying it. While most of their moves were honest, enough key rolls just happened to go their way to give them enough of an edge to win.

In like manner, it wasn’t hard to tell the cheaters with targeting programs in online shooters. One rapid and improbable headshot is credible, five in a row are not. Unfortunately, while there has been some progress on this front over the last 10 years, most game developers are unwilling to ruthlessly apply statistical models to determine which players are cheating and punish them accordingly.

So, it’s good that champion players like Carlsen are not only willing to refuse to play the cheaters, but are willing to call them out for their cheating. And what a flex on the part of the champion, to walk away from the game, give up the points, and go on to win the tournament anyhow.

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Improving on Tolkien

The Amazon Abomination tries, and succeeds, to improve upon the late, great grandmaster of high fantasy. Needless to say, it doesn’t go well.

They are trying to improve Tolkien.

They are not succeeding.

Mithril now has an origin story. According to Celebrimbor, there is a legend of an Elf warrior fighting a Balrog for a tree in which one of the Silmarils is lodged. The fight was so titanic (and cliché) that it forced the power of the Silmaril through the tree’s roots, into the ground and created the Mithril.

No. It didn’t. Mithril’s origin story is that the Dwarves found it and dug it up.

Here is a brutally quick history of the Silmarils.

Feanor created three jewels of literally unsurpassed beauty, within them was the light of the two trees of Valinor. Manwë’s wife made the jewels sacred so that no one evil or mortal could touch them without withering and dying. Morgoth coveted them so much, that he killed the Trees in order to steal them. Then he took them to his fortress of Angband. Their light burned him but he couldn’t part with them, so Morgoth put the Silmarils in a crown that he wore upon his head.

Feanor and his sons made a terrible vow to recover them. Their clan committed untold crimes against the rest of the Elves to fulfill this vow. Great wars, Kinslayings, and misery were the result.

Beren stole a Silmaril, and gave it to his wife Luthien, when she died again (don’t ask) it passed to their son Dior. When the sons of Feanor killed him it fell into Dior’s daughter, Elwing’s hands. She flew with it to her husband and they sailed with it to Valinor to beg the aid of the Valar.

When Morgoth fell after the War of Wrath, the remaining two Silmarils were taken by Eanwë, the herald of Manwë. The last two sons of Feanor snuck into the Valar camp and stole them. Eanwë caught them but apparently decided to let the holy jewels pass judgment on them and gave one to each of the brothers.

They were so tainted by the crimes they had committed in the pursuit of these jewels that they were horribly burned and withered by the Silmarils. Maedhros threw himself and his Silmaril into a fiery pit. Maglor cast his into the sea and apparently spent the rest of his immortal life singing songs of lamentation.

So, of the three Silmarils, one of them is now the North Star, one of them got chucked into a volcano and the third was pitched into the sea. None of them was ever, at any time in a god damned tree, ever. Their locations were always accounted for in the legendarium.

As for Mithril, this is blatant idiocy. The Silmarils never worked that way.

Mithril is just a precious metal. Now it is super rare and worth ten times its weight in gold, but it ends there. It’s not magical and never was.

Well, at least they’re trying to tell a story of some sort. Even if it is an incoherent one that is completely inconsistent with canon.

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Boomers, Unvarnished

I posted this on Gab, with a link to the full four-panel comic, which inspired a few fascinating, and all-too-telling, responses from Boomers there. As one reader put it:

The reactions to this are simply amazing to behold… they won’t read the whole thing, and even if they do, they completely miss the point.

  • That’s what i learned from my depression era grandparents. i learned to do the yard work and other chores to earn my own way.
  • Yeah God forbid you teach a kid they have to work for what they want in life. That nothing comes free. This is why kids today are spoiled rotten cry babies that think they should get their way just because they want it without having to work for it. That Boomer didn’t have to give this kid shit and made him work anyway. Nothing wrong with teaching a kid the benefits of hard work period.
  • Ignore the weasels crying about “not being given anything”. The entire strip makes no sense. That grandpa would let his grandson do the work if the kid was interested. He obviously has someone doing the lawn because his family members are spoiled brats. Hell, I’ve got a 22 year old son who I can’t get to take out the garbage his entire life, let alone mow the lawn. He’s pretty worthless when it comes to being self motivated. And yes, I mowed some lawns in my day as a kid. I had a paper route for several years from age 10 -17 and paid for my first car with that money. I was given a lot because my parents thought it was the way to love me, but I also learned to earn. This thought process has gone the way of the dodo bird, and you can tell by the whiners lamenting boomers’ supposed easy life. Here’s a reality check for you; nobody owes you a damn thing.
  • Most if put in their position would do the same thing. Direct your contempt at the people who deserve it, not the generation that was the first victimized and exploited by cultural Marxism.
  • One of the whiniest generations bitching about one of the toughest generations. You are full of shit and a POS picking on older people while you yourself has contributed nothing to society.

It’s informative to be told repeatedly by Boomers that a) they did nothing wrong, b) if they did, it wasn’t their fault, and c) if you’d had the opportunity, you would have done the same thing.

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God, Country, and Family

It’s hard to beat that as a campaign platform:

An exit poll has found Giorgia Meloni is set to win Italy’s elections and become the country’s first female Prime Minister as it braces for its most right-wing government since Mussolini.

Italy lurches to the far-Right in political earthquake: Exit poll finds ‘anti-woke’ Giorgia Meloni is set to win elections and become the country’s first female PM as EU state braces for its most right-wing government since Mussolini.

Giorgia Meloni, 45, who ran on a motto of ‘God, country and family’, will become Italy’s first female PM

An exit poll for state broadcaster RAI said Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, in alliance Matteo Salvini’s League and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, has won between 41 per cent and 45 per cent of the vote. The figure would be enough to guarantee control of both houses of parliament.

According to the poll, the closest contender, the center-left alliance of former Democratic Party Premier Enrico Letta, apparently garnered as much as 29.5 per cent.

We should find out soon how serious Meloni is, and if she’ll govern like Thatcher or if she’s an Italian Merkel. The two most pressing issues are a) the anti-Russian sanctions and b) the European Union. If she’s legitimate, she’ll rapidly end the former and begin laying the groundwork for a referendum about leaving the latter.

But the electoral trend is clearly in favor of the nations and against the globalist “progress” of the last 50 years.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, this is not a good sign that the new Italian government will actually oppose globohomo. But, as always, let’s see what they do rather than overanalyze what they say.

Italian lawmaker Giorgia Meloni, the front-runner to become the country’s next prime minister, is expected to reverse course on Italy’s support for China’s Belt and Road Initiative and strengthen ties with Taiwan if a coalition headed by her party wins the country’s general election today. “Without any doubt, if there is a center-right government, it is sure that Taiwan will be an essential concern for Italy,” Meloni told the Central News Agency in an interview.

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Connections

Ever notice how all of these sketchballs in various fields appear to be tied together in a variety of ways that you would never, ever, imagine?

Hunter Biden co-owned a firm that was partnering with Kobe Bryant “on a series of academies in China.”

Whether it’s Epstein and Gates, or Podesta and Alefantis, or Zelensky and Stiller, the creepiest people in unrelated fields always seem to find a way to get connected to each other.

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Saturday Arktoons

HYPERGAMOUSE Episode 77: You Have to Work

THE RED TATTOO Episode 20: Ambushed

INVASION ’55 Episode 11: Into the Depths

BEN GARRISON CLASSICS Episode 62: Mount Trumpmore

CHUCK DIXON PRESENTS: COMEDY Episode 66: McHale’s Navy – A Dainty Dish

SHADE Episode 57: The Mondläufer

SAVAGE MEMES Episode 162: False God

THE SWORD OF GOD Episode 30: The Mark IV Tactical Pupper

CHATEAU GRIEF Episode 146: Burial Grounds?

BOB Episode 71: Inflation

And a helpful reminder that the MIDNIGHT’S WAR crowdfund will begin late October.

MIDNIGHT’S WAR

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Smart Thermostats are Very Stupid

Contra their sole purported purpose for existing, smart thermostats have been scientistically proven to INCREASE energy usage:

“Engineering estimates from the California Technical Forum …. predict that smart thermostats will produce substantial reductions in energy consumption,” the report, called “The Human Perils of Scaling Smart Technologies: Evidence from Field Experiments,” said. It was released by authors from Johns Hopkins, University of Chicago, University of Southern California and University of Alabama.

They studied the smart thermostat impact on energy consumption using data over an 18-month period including more than 16 million hourly electricity use records and almost 700,000 daily observations of natural gas consumption.

“The most relevant estimates to our experimental sample come from Department of Energy Technical Reference Manuals, which are annual reports produced by energy providers and regulators. These reports primarily rely on engineering simulations and survey data to predict the effects of energy efficiency programs at scale.

“These predictions are then used by energy providers to justify expenditures on energy efficiency programs. Mapping these predictions for Californians, which vary by climate zone and the size of a home, to our experimental samples we find that savings of 1.3% and 4.0% are respectively predicted for overall electricity and natural gas consumption.”

However, those thermostats were found to “fail to deliver the expected energy savings.”

The researchers said, in their nearly 100-page report, those thermostats “actually increase electricity and gas consumption by 2.3% and 4.2%, respectively,” the report found. The report explained the problem was not necessarily one of usability. “In fact, researchers observed, nearly all users with the smart devices programmed them almost immediately, and many did so with energy savings in mind,” the report said.

Instead, the problem was with how often and to what extent users overrode the programming to set heating temperatures higher, or cooling temperatures lower, when they wanted to change it.

And this doesn’t even account for the real detriment to installing a smart thermostat, which is that it provides the service provider the ability to shut off your heat and power in the event Alexa hears you saying something that violates the current Narrative.

First, don’t even consider installing one. Second, if you’ve got one installed, replace it with a traditional dumb thermostat that is fully under your control.

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