Mailvox: how little they learn

Apparently it is very difficult for some to resist the sweet siren song of media attention:

I know you don’t care about internet personalities but this one seemed too on-point not to mention.

JF Gariepy has agreed to do an interview with Canadian media re: nationalism He has agreed to this despite numerous warnings from his fans who have pointed out the many smear jobs with which you are familiar.

Moreover, he believes he will use his great intellect and clever wording to prevent the possibility of negative framing — and thus will not be recording the interview himself because “it’s not what a man would do”.

Just thought you might be amused at how little people learn.

I am amused indeed, in part because I turned down no fewer than three separate requests for interviews and media appearances today. This interview should end about as well for JFG as his evolution debate with me.

And, just in case it still hasn’t registered with everyone here, I repeat: don’t talk to the media!

Galileo had it coming

The Renaissance Mathematicus considers the importance that Galileo’s famously controversial work, Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo, actually played in the development of modern astronomy:

What role did the Dialogo actually play in the ongoing cosmological/astronomical debate in the seventeenth century? The real answer is, given its reputation, surprisingly little. In reality Galileo was totally out of step with the actual debate that was taking place around 1630. Driven by his egotistical desire to be the man, who proved the truth of heliocentricity, he deliberately turned a blind eye to the most important developments and so side lined himself.

We saw earlier that around 1613 there were more that a half a dozen systems vying for a place in the debate, however by 1630 nearly all of the systems had been eliminated leaving just two in serious consideration. Galileo called his book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, but the two systems that he chose to discuss, the Ptolemaic/Aristotelian geocentric system and the Copernican heliocentric system, were ones that had already been rejected by almost all participants in the debate by 1630 . The choice of the pure geocentric system of Ptolemaeus was particularly disingenuous, as Galileo had helped to show that it was no longer viable twenty years earlier. The first system actually under discussion when Galileo published his book was a Tychonic geo-heliocentric system with diurnal rotation, Christen Longomontanus (1562–1647), Tycho’s chief assistant, had published an updated version based on Tycho’s data in his Astronomia Danica in 1622. This was the system that had been formally adopted by the Jesuits.

The second was the elliptical heliocentric system of Johannes Kepler, of which I dealt with the relevant publications in the last post.

Galileo completely ignores Tycho, whose system could explain all of the available evidence for heliocentricity, because he didn’t want to admit that this was the case, arguing instead that the evidence must imply a heliocentric system. He also, against all the available empirical evidence, maintained his belief that comets were sublunar meteorological phenomena, because the supporters of a Tychonic system used their perceived solar orbit as an argument for their system.  He is even intensely disrespectful to Tycho in the Dialogo, for which Kepler severely castigated him. He also completely ignores Kepler, which is even more crass, as the best available arguments for heliocentricity were to be found clearly in Kepler published works. Galileo could not adopt Kepler’s system because it would mean that Kepler and not he would be the man, who proved the truth of the heliocentric system.

Although the first three days of the Dialogo provide a good polemic presentation for all of the evidence up till that point for a refutation of the Ptolemaic/Aristotelian system, with the very notable exception of the comets, Galileo’s book was out dated when it was written and had very little impact on the subsequent astronomical/cosmological debate in the seventeenth century. I will indulge in a little bit of hypothetical historical speculation here. If Galileo had actually written a balanced and neutral account of the positive and negative points of the Tychonic geo-heliocentric system with diurnal rotation and Kepler’s elliptical heliocentric system, it might have had the following consequences. Firstly, given his preeminent skills as a science communicator, his book would have been a valuable contribution to the ongoing debate and secondly he probably wouldn’t have been persecuted by the Catholic Church.

Like Giordano Bruno and the Library of Alexandria, Galileo’s status as a secular saint and martyr rests almost entirely upon a false characterization of the historical events due to his utility in attacking the Roman Catholic Church and Christianity.

Take care of y’all chicken

There isn’t a lot of grammar, or IQ, in Marshawn Lynch’s parting advice for the young sportsman, but there is a surprising amount of wisdom:

“It’s a vulnerable time for a lot of these young dudes, you feel me? They don’t be taking care of their chicken right, you feel me? If they was me or I had the opportunity, the opportunity to let them know something, I say, ‘Take care of y’all money because that s— don’t last forever.’ Now I’ve been on the other side of retirement, and it’s good when you get over there and you can do what the f— you want to, so I tell y’all right now while y’all in it: Take care of y’all bread so when you’re all done, you go ahead and take care of yourself. So while y’all at it right now, take care of y’all bodies. Don’t take care of y’all chicken, don’t take care of y’all mentals, ’cause we ain’t lasting that long.

“I had a couple players that I played with that they no longer here no more, they no longer — so you feel me? Start taking care of y’all mental, y’all bodies and y’all chicken for when you’re all ready to walk away, you walk away and be able to do what you want to do, but I appreciate it. Thank you all and have a good day.”

Never confuse intelligence with wisdom. And never discount observation because it cannot be properly explained.

I thought they were GOOD for the economy

A Swedish township is going bankrupt thanks to immigrants:

The Swedish municipality of Bengtsfors has petitioned the national government for aid due to massive costs incurred taking in more migrants than the municipality could afford. Local Moderate Party politician Stig Bertilsson said the multi-page letter was clear in identifying the cause of the budget deficit as being related to the large number of “new Swedes” taken in and requested aid to cover the costs, SVT reports.

“Costs in municipalities that have received new arrivals have continued to be substantial even when government revenues have stopped. This creates a large negative hole in the municipal cash register,” Bertilsson said.

When asked about tax revenues from new migrants that could bridge the deficit gap, Bertilsson said that in the long run he hoped there would be a rise in revenues but so far there has not been one, adding that the Swedish labour market “has a long way to go”.

Haven’t they taken the increase in their GDP into account? Don’t laugh, though, the US is also bankrupt and for exactly the same reason. The only difference is that the US can still convince people to accept its IOUs.

Divisional Sunday

Whereas a lot of people were amazed that the Titans won. I wasn’t even remotely surprised. They’re a solid, well-coached team across the board whereas the Ravens are overly reliant upon RGIII 2.0, whose long-term utility I continue to seriously doubt despite his incipient MVP status. I was even less surprised by the Vikings’ loss to the 49ers, since it was clear from the first possession that the offensive line could not get Dalvin Cook going.

As for what I expect today, it is Chiefs over Texans, easily, and Green Bay over Seattle.

BREAKING NEWS: The Cleveland Browns have hired their next head coach. Former Vikings offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski is the Browns’ new head coach, according to multiple reports.

Good for him. Although I have to say, on the basis of yesterday’s game, I would have gone with Robert Saleh.

It’s Houston 21, Kansas City 0. This is why I don’t bet on football.

UPDATE: I did not like O’Brien’s decision to kick the field goal to go up 24. But I did not see it coming back to bite him so fast and so hard. The lesson, as always, is this: if you are the underdog, never take your foot off the gas.

The sooner you lose the momentum, the more likely it is that you lose the game.

Divisional Saturday

I’m entirely relaxed about this one. I would just like to see a good game in which Handsome Jimmy is sacked 37 times, Dalvin Cook rushes for 190 yards and 3 TDs, and Kirk Cousins goes 7 for 10 for 102 yards, 1 TD, and no interceptions. But I have no actual expectations. As always, SKOL!

In the other game, I have a hard time seeing a banged-up Seattle team beating Green Bay. And nothing could be sweeter than going to Lambeau and winning the NFC championship on the frozen tundra.

Mailvox: the utility of the framework

MS appreciates the perspective provided the Social-Sexual Hierarchy’s framework of behavioral patterns.

I’ve been doing a little historical reading and it seems to me that most of the very famous betrayals in history were by Gamma types. I know you’ve repeatedly made the point that Gammas can’t be trusted precisely because they’ll turn on others when they feel slighted, but being able to think of well-known examples of treachery and then comparing what is known of the traitor with the Gamma profile has been quite enlightening.

This is a useful observation. One common theme in betrayals is the way in which the betrayer acts because he feels that he has been insufficiently valued, respected, or rewarded. “I was a big fan of X, but then he went too far” is more than just an old rhetorical device used by the media and political fundraising organizations as long as I can remember, in a personal context it is a very clear sign that the turncoat is a gamma.

Which, of course, is why the same logic that dictates turncoats cannot be trusted tends to suggest that gammas should not be trusted. Envy is the great sin of the Gamma, so as long as there is someone in the organization of whom he may feel envious, the potential for betrayal will be there.

It can be difficult, particularly for those who can sincerely use the assistance, to turn down much-needed offers of support from enthusiastic supporters who only seem to want to help. But the costs of their assistance usually turns out to be several orders of magnitude larger than the benefits. This is why you should never volunteer to help any individual or organization if you suspect you would ever be unable to simply walk away from the situation in silence if things don’t happen to work out to your satisfaction.

We may have to start Unauthorized News

It looks as if the Republican Establishment is making a run at OANN:

Allies of President Trump are pursuing an effort to acquire right-leaning news channel One America News Network, according to people familiar with the matter, in a bid to shake up a conservative media market that has been dominated by Fox News. The investment firm Hicks Equity Partners is looking to acquire the channel and is pitching other wealthy GOP donors to arrange a bid of roughly $250 million for the channel’s parent company, the people said. The firm is owned by the family of Thomas Hicks Jr., co-chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Because that’s just what we need, one more outlet repeating the mainstream narrative. The RNC group – who almost certainly are not genuine “allies of President Trump” – say they want to buy OANN to “compete” with Fox News. Which is precisely the opposite of their intentions. The next step would be a merger with Fox, or a sale to Warner or the Devil Mouse.

This is all about control, not competition.

The Z-man doubles down

The ZmanVerified Account@TheZBlog

His blunder was in making claims that can be independently verified. That and picking a fight with the Zoomers. They dug into his various claims because they have time on their hands and they like mixing it up on-line.

A friend said to me that he has become the old man stomping on the flaming bag of poop while shouting into the darkness.

It was entertaining for a while, but I’m bored with it now.

Except, of course, there was never any blunder. My claims were correct and theirs were not. The few “independently verified” claims that appear to have been verified are both inaccurate and irrelevant. If the Z-man wasn’t technologically illiterate, he would understand how ludicrous their claims have always been. No one, including us, has ever run anything on the scale of Unauthorized using a $75 Premium account on Vimeo.

Do keep in mind the actual claims that were made. Even I am not that brilliant.

And the Z-man is now a proven liar. As everyone involved already knows, and as everyone else will learn soon enough, the Z-Man has conclusively and publicly demonstrated that he is not only a liar, but a particularly lazy and stupid one at that. He does nothing and he has accomplished nothing beyond emanating envy of those who take the time to actually produce things, construct projects, and build communities.

I understand it is going to be very, very amusing for those who are in the know and for those who trust me to rub their retarded little noses in their own bullshit as the facts gradually become apparent to even the most wilfully ignorant. Nevertheless, resist the temptation. The more time that passes, the more they double down and insist upon the correctness of their statements, the more amusing it will be.

Uncle John’s Band put it rather well on SocialGalactic: The success of UA has been the snake revealer. The sort of scum who would rather cry in their permitted corners of the status quo than see the change they pretend to want.

Adios again, Oakland

The Raidess are no longer the Oakland Raiders:

The Raiders are no longer the Oakland Raiders. They’re not the Las Vegas Raiders either.

For now, they’re just the Raiders.

The franchise made a change to all of its social media accounts, dropping Oakland. It will not add Las Vegas to its handle until the new league year starts in March, according to Josh Dubow of the Associated Press.

The NFL already made the switch, listing the Raiders as just the Raiders with no city attached in its releases last week to announce the 2020 draft order and 2020 opponents of each team.

Perhaps they should become an itinerant pirate team, playing all of its games away all season. That might actually work….

But Las Vegas does appear to be a fitting home for them.