Tag: trainwreck

Fashion is the new science

The AAS releases a formal statement concerning men’s fashion:

The following statement was issued on 19 November 2014 by the Executive Committee of the American Astronomical Society on behalf of the AAS Council:

The past few days have seen extensive international discussion of an incident (known online as #shirtstorm or #shirtgate) in which a participant in a European Space Agency media conference wore a shirt with sexualized images of gun-toting women and made an unfortunate remark comparing the featured spacecraft to a woman. Viewers responded critically to these inappropriate statements, especially jarring in such a highly visible setting (one in which very few women appeared), and the scientist apologized sincerely. But in the meantime, unacceptable abuse has been directed toward the critics, from criticism of “over-active feminism” to personal insults and more dire threats.

We wish to express our support for members of the community who rightly brought this issue to the fore, and we condemn the unreasonable attacks they experienced as a result, which caused deep distress in our community. We do appreciate the scientist’s sincere and unqualified apology.

The AAS has a clear anti-harassment policy, which prohibits “verbal comments or physical actions of a sexual nature” and “a display of sexually suggestive objects or pictures.” Had the offending images appeared and comments been made under the auspices of the AAS, they would be in clear violation of our policy.

If I were a scientist, I would immediately resign from any organization that was releasing statements on fashion, much less had a formal policy on what I could and could not wear.

I’m sure it will surprise no one to know that the president of the AAS is a female SJW. The sad thing about this isn’t that most women care more about clothes and politics than science; we already knew that. What is both tragic and observable is that even women who are professional scientists care more about clothes and politics than science. They aren’t merely an embarrassment to their sex, they are the epitome of a humiliating shame to it.

It can’t possibly be true that “unacceptable abuse has been directed toward the critics”. Whatever abuse they received not only was well-merited, but didn’t go nearly far enough because they deserve shameless mocking for the rest of their pathetic lives.

And this is why you don’t let SJWs into any organization to which you belong. Because this is what they do.

The paradox of international aid

A longtime NGO enthusiast belatedly discovers that international development programs are an invasive species that change the targeted societies in unexpected, and often negative ways, and reliably fail to achieve the results intended.

This is the paradox: When you improve something, you change it in ways you couldn’t have expected. You can find examples of this in every corner of development practice. A project in Kenya that gave kids free uniforms, textbooks, and classroom materials increased enrollment by 50 percent, swamping the teachers and reducing the quality of education for everyone. Communities in India cut off their own water supply so they could be classified as “slums” and be eligible for slum-upgrading funding. I’ve worked in places where as soon as a company sets up a health clinic or an education program, the local government disappears—why should they spend money on primary schools when a rich company is ready to take on the responsibility?

My favorite example of unintended consequences comes, weirdly enough, from the United States. In a speech to a criminology conference, Nancy G. Guerra, the director of the Institute for Global Studies at the University of Delaware, described a project where she held workshops with inner-city Latina teenagers, trying to prevent them from joining gangs. The program worked in that none of the girls committed any violence within six months of the workshops. But by the end of that time, they were all, each and every one, pregnant.

“That behavior was serving a need for them,” she says in her speech. “It made them feel powerful, it made them feel important, it gave them a sense of identity. … When that ended, [they] needed another kind of meaning in their lives.”

The fancy academic term for this is “complex adaptive systems.” We all understand that every ecosystem, each forest floor or coral reef, is the result of millions of interactions between its constituent parts, a balance of all the aggregated adaptations of plants and animals to their climate and each other. Adding a non-native species, or removing one that has always been there, changes these relationships in ways that are too intertwined and complicated to predict.

But it should be kept in mind that this dynamic works both ways. Mass migrants are also an invasive species, and they change the “ecosystem” they are invading every bit as much, and as “unexpectedly”, as the development programs do.

I need to see if I am still a member

Before I resign from IGDA:

In a sign of how frenzied, panicky and intolerant the games industry establishment has become over the legitimate concerns of ordinary gamers, the International Game Developers’ Association branded some 10,425 Twitter accounts, including those of journalists, as harassment “offenders” in a humiliatingly ill-conceived attempt to provide a “blocking tool” to its members.

The blocking tool, which has been widely mocked online for its lack of sophistication and “blanket ban” approach, was assembled by Randi Harper, a persistent online agitator. The tool prevents users from seeing not only the tweets of users Harper has decided are implicated in harassment, but also many accounts who simply follow those users, by blocking a list of thousands of users with the use of an automated “bot.”

So indiscriminately has the block list been compiled that the IGDA’s own staff appear on it. Roberto Rosario, chair of the IGDA in Puerto Rico, is named on the list. In an acutely embarrassing moment for the Association, Rosario, who is not a GamerGate supporter, publicly threatened to resign unless his name was removed or the bot was disavowed.

It turns out that I, too, am on the block list. I was asked to join IGDA by its then-president at a big European games conference some years ago, which I subsequently did. I’m pretty sure that he’s not the president now, because he didn’t strike me as a complete idiot. I know I’m a member of  a European GDA, but it’s a different organization than IGDA, so I don’t know what my current membership status is with them. Expired, I assume, but I’ll have to check on Monday.

Banning “feminist”

Men loathe them. Women are embarrassed by them. Civilized people despise them so much that TIME Magazine had to withdraw “feminist” from its “words to ban in 2015 poll” because so many people were voting for it and that made the feminists at the magazine experience the dread feelbad.

TIME apologizes for the execution of this poll; the word ‘feminist’ should not have been included in a list of words to ban. While we meant to invite debate about some ways the word was used this year, that nuance was lost, and we regret that its inclusion has become a distraction from the important debate over equality and justice.

In other words, “the important debate over equality and justice” should not involve any actual criticism of the beliefs of one side. Forget banning the word “feminist”, what would be better is to ban all feminists from the Western Civilization they are trying to destroy.

Feminism is the one ideology that makes National Socialism look merciful and Communism look viable by comparison. Regard its adherents accordingly.

How to make a monster

A Very Important Lesson from John Scalzi and the SJWs:

John Scalzi@scalzi
Kid called me out on Twitter last night for something she considered sexist. Proud of her; happy to have raised her so she knew she could.

Josh Neff ‏@joshuamneff
You’re doing parenting right.

The Inner Babysitter ‏@PSMHopkins
I literally cheered when I saw that last night.

Ben Emery ‏@JamesBenEmery
As a parent, that’s when you sit back and go, “I know I’ve made mistakes, but overall I haven’t completely failed.”

ChaosNexus ‏@ChaosNexus
I can’t imagine there would be any wilting flowers in the Scalzi household.

John Scalzi ‏@scalzi
@ChaosNexus There really aren’t.

Well, there is observably one wilting flower there, at any rate. Notice how the male SJW openly revels in his failure; he asserts pride in his own degradation. Now, where have I heard this sort of thing before? Ah, yes, now I recollect, in Isaiah, when the prophet speaks of the judgment of the wicked of Judah.

“O My people! Their oppressors are children, And
women rule over them. O My people! Those who guide you lead you astray and confuse the direction of your paths.”
– Isaiah 3:12.

And then, of course, there is this:

“The sex impulse was dangerous to the Party, and the Party had turned it
to account. They had played a similar trick with the instinct of
parenthood. The family could not actually be abolished, and, indeed,
people were encouraged to be fond of their children, in almost the
old-fashioned way. The children, on the other hand, were systematically
turned against their parents and taught to spy on them and report their
deviations. The family had become in effect an extension of the Thought
Police. It was a device by means of which everyone could be surrounded
night and day by informers who knew him intimately.”
– George Orwell, 1984

There is nothing new about the SJW. He is the harbinger of evil and the symptom of a decadent society in the process of collapse. But to return to this specific SJW, there is, as you might expect on Twitter, a punchline.


@scalzi “Kid called me out on Twitter last night for something she considered sexist”
So you muted her?

High-larious.

That’s what you call a predictive model

The Anonymous Conservative wrote on November 5th:

While it is not clear why Lena Dunham canceled her book tour dates, it would not surprise me to find out that she is presently in bad shape health-wise – nauseous, headachy, weak, and probably fighting off some head-bug. One of the biggest things which will strike you about amygdala deficiency is how it will create physical illness from amygdala activation in those afflicted.

They really do live awful lives of horror.

That was followed the next day by this announcement concerning The Dunham Horror:

Lena Dunham postpones European book tour with ill health following claims she ‘sexually abused’ sister. Girls creator Lena Dunham has postponed two scheduled appearances on her European book tour until December citing ill health.

Considering the degree to which this lumpenrabbit is being subjected to widespread rejection, even by some inhabitants of the global warren, we should probably start a pool concerning the date of her upcoming “suicide attempt”.

Perhaps he should read the book

It being November 5th, I’m assuming time is up and the ball is back in The Dunham Horror’s court. So to speak. The complete document can be found at The Hollywood Reporter:

November 1, 2014

CONFIDENTIAL LEGAL NOTICE
PUBLICATION OR DISSEMINATION IS PROHIBITED

Dear Mr. Horowitz, General Counsel, Editor-in-Chief, and Mr. Thomas:

This law firm is litigation counsel for Lena Dunham in connection with her substantial claims against each of you (collectively, “you” and “your”) regarding your story dated October 29, 2014, bearing the headline “Lena Dunham Describes Sexually Abusing Her Little Sister”, which alleges that my client states in her book Not That Kind of Girl that she supposedly:

1. “experiment[ed] sexually with her younger sister Grace”;;
2. “experimented with her six-year younger sister’s vagina”;; and
3. “use[d] her little sister at times essentially as a sexual outlet”.
(collectively herein, the “Story”)….

In light of the malicious and hurtful nature of this Story, our client intends to vigorously pursue all possible legal remedies available to her, should you fail to immediately comply with the foregoing demands.

Please confirm within twenty-four (24) hours that you will comply with the foregoing demands.

If The Dunham Horror is determined to sue someone who has shown “the obvious tendency to subject [her] to ridicule”, she should probably sue her lawyer. I mean, did Charles J. Harder, Esquire, even bother reading the book before drafting this letter?

Our underoos are not magic!

This announcement betrays an almost shocking naivete concerning human nature:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has declared that it is
offended by ridicule about the undergarments worn by its faithful and
references to them as “magical underwear”.

A video released by the church on YouTube compared the underwear, known as “temple
garments”, to nuns habits, priests’ cassocks, Jewish prayer shawls,
Muslim skull caps, and the robes of Buddhist monks.

It said: “Some people incorrectly refer to temple garments as magical, or
magic underwear. These words are not only inaccurate but offensive to
members of the church. There is nothing mystical or magical about temple garments and church
members ask for the same degree of respect and sensitivity that would be
afforded to any other faith by people of good will.”

Look, I have zero problem with Mormons. They are, by and large, good people. Numerous readers here are Mormon. Larry Correia, Brad Torgersen, and Orson Scott Card are all Mormons. They may harbor a few strange beliefs, but then, so do I. But look, you simply cannot wear special, funny-looking underwear and expect people to find no amusement in it. You just can’t! And then informing the pulic your underwear stirs “the deepest feelings of
the soul” is just asking, nay, demanding amusement at your expense.

The Church would do much better to grin and bear it than try to play the offense card on that basis. Because, like it or not, underwear is intrinsically funny to most people and “magic underwear” is downright off the charts.

UPDATE: Josh has a better solution:

Honestly…the best way for them to handle this would be to say: “Because of our masculinity and virility, we Mormons require undergarments that offer more support for our massive penises.”

Once, twice, three times a failure

They’re not called The Stupid Party for nothing:

Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee and now the tacit head of the Republican Party, visited Iowa as part of a feverish nationwide tour designed to help the GOP take control of the Senate. He has insisted that he is not interested in running for president a third time. But his friends said a flurry of behind-the-scenes activity is nudging him to more seriously consider it.

Sometimes, people seriously ask me why I’m not a Republican. I usually just laugh. In part due to things like this. America has just staggered into its sixth year of the Obola-ridden Democratic administration, so naturally the Republicans are discussing whether to field a legacy, a loser, a lardass, or a legal immigrant.

A failure in tech support

Spacebunny has an amusing encounter with Adobe’s fascinating approach to technical support.

Space Bunny ‏@Spacebunnyday
I have a new focus for my battle. @Adobe they are the reason I can’t print…..

Adobe Customer Care ‏@AdobeCare
@Spacebunnyday Hi there, can you provide more detail on your printing issue? Which Adobe app are you using? ^M

Space Bunny ‏@Spacebunnyday
@AdobeCare Reader – document could not be printed, no pages selected message. Uninstalled XI reinstalled version 8 and it works.

Adobe Customer Care ‏@AdobeCare
@Spacebunnyday Glad it has been sorted- thanks for letting us know! ^M

Space Bunny ‏@Spacebunnyday
I like the fact that you don’t CARE that your newest version doesn’t work….

Full points to Adobe Customer Care for being proactive and trawling Twitter in search of customer problems to attack. That’s great. But we really do have to subtract a few points for reading comprehension. And their subsequent response is not exactly confidence inspiring.