Pat @Pat@qoto.org

#vaccine #mandate #COVID19 #masks #respirators #USA
#RespiratorsAreBetter

In case anyone is wondering, here is the clause in the US Constitution that Biden says gives him the power to mandate vaccines or tests:

"The Congress shall have Power... To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes."

Their perceptions of reality are approaching Trumpian levels of delusion.

(Maybe that's why that clause is labeled "Section 8")

Here's another scene from "Moneyball" showing the protagonist (right) and a black actor playing a bit part. Notice how the white guy is in the foreground, closer to the camera, while the black guy is back, away from the camera, resulting a smaller image of his face.

Also, the white guy is smiling while the black guy is frowning.

In this scene the black guy repeatedly contradicts the white protagonist.

#racism #blm #film #acting #tv #BradPitt #bias #prejudice

Based on another thread discussion about racial bias in film (https://qoto.org/@tripu/107128812553422948), here's a peudo-random list of ten films to critique regarding how they treat black actors/characters.

Lion (2016)
Logan (2017)
Looper (2012)
Mad Max:Fury Road (2015)
Manchester by the Sea (2016)
Midnight in Paris (2011)
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
Moneyball (2011)
Moonlight (2016)
Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

Of those on the list that I hadn't seen yet, only Lion and Moneyball are available for free (that I could find). Lion is about a guy's journey back to his family in India. In a quick scan of the film, I didn't see any black people, mostly Indian actors, Nicole Kidman and another white guy.

**** Spoilers *****
I watched Moneyball and it's a perfect example of what I'm talking about. It's extremely biased against black people. It's a film about baseball. In real life there are a lot of black people in baseball, but in this film the screen is nearly always filled with white faces. There are only a few bit parts by black actors in this dialogue-heavy film and one other black character (small part), a player who got about a dozen lines -- mostly negative and largely in opposition to the protagonist.

The first black actor with lines didn't come until more than a half-hour into the film. In the scene, he was the only black person in a room with about a dozen other white guys. He has a couple of lines and was questioning/opposing the protagonist. The next black bit part had 2-3 lines and again contradicted the protagonist. Later, when the black character/player is being interviewed by a reporter, she interrupts him as he begins to speak. The reporter says, "Excuse me. Could you please get out of my shot.", (speaking to a random extra who was placed into the scene specifically for the reporter to utter that negative line). And there were a couple more bit parts, again same negative tone.

When the team wins its triumphant record-breaking game, it was a white guy who hit the home run, but when the team suffers its crushing loss, it was a black guy who hit the pop fly for the game-losing out.

This is what I talking about -- the racial bias in film. These films are not outliers, they're typical. I'm sure we'd see the same sort of thing in other films in that random list.

Here's a frame from "Moneyball", showing a black man blurred out while the white guy is in focus:

"Genuine" doesn't rhyme with "wine".

#pronunciation #PetPeeves #English #SpeakersWhoShouldBetter

-Vietnam veteran
-Commander of the U.S. Army Forces Command
-First black National Security Advisor
-Four-star general
-First black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
-First black Secretary of State
-Chairman of America's Promise Alliance
-Board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations
as well as the boards of private companies

-Served in three presidential administrations:
Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush

-Presidential Medal of Freedom (twice)
-Congressional Gold Medal
-Presidential Citizens Medal
-Secretary of State Distinguished Service Medal
among dozens of other government and civil medals and awards

-Author of the "Powell Doctrine"
-Oversaw the successful liberation of Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm
as well as more than two dozen other national crises

-Husband and father

#ColinPowell #USA #Presidential #Medal #of #Freedom #America #Reagan #Bush #Obama #Biden #veteran

I just puked...

https://www.c-span.org/video/?515364-2/washington-journal-news-headlines-viewer-calls&event=515364&playEvent

timecode: 39:40

(that didn't take long)

@khird @louisrcouture

Hint: There are no typos or misspellings in my toot.

#democracy #republic #USA
#ignorant #banal #parrots

If I hear another person ignorantly parrot the phrase, "We're not a democracy, we're a republic!", I think I'll puke.

Democracy has many forms. The form of democracy we have in the US is a representative democracy. Because it is not a monarchy, it is also a republic. (A republic is a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who is accountable to the public.)

**** "Democracy" and "republic" are not mutually exclusive. ****

Here's Merriam-Webster's current definition of democracy:

"a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections"

Here's an image of the definition from Samuel Johnson's dictionary of 1785, at the time when our country was formed:

_
#quiz #test #science

Without using any reference material (no internet, books, etc.), explain florescence in detail.

I just blocked a user for racist comments.

What's wrong with this picture?

This is a frame from the movie "Exodus: Gods and Kings"

Congratulations to Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens for being awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for their work in developing methodologies in the analysis of causal relationships.

The methodologies are useful in many fields of study beyond economics and allow precise conclusions to be drawn about cause and effect from natural experiments (observation of naturally occurring conditions and events rather than planned, controlled experiments).

This is has been a huge problem in many fields -- establishing cause and effect rather than just correlation between variables. Their methods have made that easier.

#economics #cause #effect #causality #experiment

The feature set in Affirmation 7.4 has significantly increased over the previous version.

#NewRelease #features

Captain Kirk in space (for real)

Congratulations to Dr. Chris Boshuizen, Glen de Vries, Audrey Powers, and William Shatner for traveling into space on top of the Blue Origins New Shepard rocket. The Texas launch happened on the morning of October 13, 2021 14:49 UTC.

The 90-year-old Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk on the original Star Trek series, is the first Star Trek actor to go into space and the oldest astronaut to boldly go beyond the Kármán line (100 km above sea level).

Video: launch and flight
https://youtu.be/uEhdlIor-do?t=8555

Video: Shatner discusses his experience and how thin the atmosphere is
https://youtu.be/uEhdlIor-do?t=9971

#TruthBeTold

The truth is...

Bozo the Clown wasn't a single person, but several people who played the character. They include Michael Zamakhshari, Hank Werneckfarsborn, Roy Higgs, and others.

To differentiate between the various versions of the character, they are simply referred to as the Z Bozo, the W Bozo, the Higgs Bozo, etc.

#TruthBeTold
#clown #qed #qcd #qm #mass #confusion #electrifying #weak #strong #tv
#dumb #pun

--------
#TruthBeTold = A statement that is logically or literally true (or partly true), but seems to imply something that isn't true or is just plain weird. (for rhetoric, logic or propaganda studies... or just for fun)

Created with #Mathlab by "Jahobr".

Source code: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black_and_white_wiggler.gif#Summary

This video explains how the Earth's greenhouse effect works, and it's not the same way that an actual greenhouse works.

(includes a detailed explanation with some math)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUFOuoD3aHw

If the Earth was the size of an apple, the atmosphere would be less than the thickness of the apple's skin.*

The portion of the atmosphere that humans can inhabit and breathe in is only one-fifth the thickness of the apple's skin.

* - where the highest aircraft have flown <40 km (excluding spacecraft, of course)

#Earth #space #air #breathe #aircraft

I just visited a website that stuck 419 cookies on my machine!!!!

A single page on a single site, and they cramped 419 cookies onto my computer.

Also, whenever a site asks me to set cookie options and gives me the option of "only absolutely necessary cookies", somehow they think that doubleclick and youtube cookies are absolutely necessary to make they're site run.

#hack #privacy #browser #WWW

.
Here is the definition of "woke":

woke - aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)

(from “Woke.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/woke.)

If someone is "woke" they are aware of when a situation is contrary to the ideals exposed by The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson. That political philosophy was developed by Thomas Hobbs and John Locke, among others. It is the foundation of the United States and many other republics throughout the world.

#woke #race #justice #equal #liberty #blm #usa