Daniel Dvorkin @medigoth@qoto.org

Oh kid, you're so close to getting it.

"[Russian] #Duma Deputy Head of the Committee on Information Policy Oleg #Matveichev stated on April 4 that he has prepared a bill to recognize #feminism as an extremist ideology and argued that #feminists overwhelmingly oppose the '#military #operation' in #Ukraine. Matveichev argued that #Ukrainian feminism consists of women serving together with men fighting against #Russians and alleged that the woman accused of killing of #Russian milblogger Maxim #Fomin (Vladlen #Tartarsky) was motivated by feminist ideology. Matveichev has not specified how the bill would define feminism, and the bill may use a vague overarching definition in order to further promote widespread self-censorship. Russian authorities may increasingly portray other ideologies and groups not explicitly aligned with the Kremlin as being against the war in Ukraine in order to set conditions for increased crackdowns and self-censorship. Ukrainian 'feminism' would appear to be giving Ukraine an advantage in this war since, as Matveichev notes, it has brought many talented and determined Ukrainian women into the fight."

Source: https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-april-8-2023

So, let's review:

The #murderer drove his car into a crowd. The #victim, who was carrying a #rifle openly, in accordance with #Texas law, raised the rifle in self-defense toward the car coming at him. The murderer, who in addition to using his #car as a #weapon, was also carrying a #pistol, shot the victim. "#Gun #rights advocates" are supporting the murderer.

Sometimes I wish I still belonged to the #NRA so I could resign again.

And that's not even the main issue here. No, the main issue is that the #Republican Governor of Texas, along with his hand-picked toadies on the state parole board, wants to legalize #murder. Which, by the way, he will almost surely succeed in doing, in this particular case. Republicans all over the country will back him.

Every day I have a harder time believing any of us are going to live through this.

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/local/2023/04/08/texas-governor-greg-abbott-will-pardon-daniel-perry-convicted-of-murder-garrett-foster/70095504007/

Huh, most people just call this #decaf.

Oh, Quora.

It would be kind of amazing how many #racist #asshats are still celebrating this pathetic attempt at a country that only existed for fourteen years and ceased to exist before many of them were born, until you consider that many of them are also still celebrating a pathetic attempt at a country that only existed for four years and ceased to exist before many of their *great-grandparents* were born.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure the "#Rhodesians" did, in fact, fucking die.

Some answers just write themselves.

https://www.quora.com/Is-NPR-annoying-and-needs-to-be-taken-off-the-air/answer/Daniel-Dvorkin-3

This one has been flying around my #Facebook friends list. In and of itself, it's true. I have no argument with what it *says*. But there's a lot it's not saying, and I can't help but feel like it's designed to disparage the #15minuteCity concept by that omission.

First, the concept itself. The idea of the 15-minute city ("#15mC") is pretty simple: everything you need for your daily life should be within 15 minutes' #walk. Some definitions have "walk or #bicycle ride," but I think that drastically weakens the concept.

In other words, a healthy, able-bodied adult should be able to get to all the usual destinations in no more than a quarter of an hour, on foot. I would add to this that #children, the #elderly, and people of all ages with #disabilities should also be able to get where they're going via accessible #public #transit, in the same amount of time.

*All* the usual destinations. Which yes, means #grocery #stores, #restaurants, #movie #theaters, etc.—for people who #work there as well as the patrons. And every other kind of #workplace too. Of course you don't *have* to work or eat or shop close to home. But the option needs to be there, and the work has to be able to pay for all the rest.

That's *always* been part of the concept. If the work criterion is not met, you don't have a 15mC; you have a theme park, like the post says. Fair enough.

Yes, and? If you have a #house without a roof, you don't have a house, you have a collection of walls. If you have a plate without #food on it, you don't have a meal, you have #hunger. If you have a #legislature that can arbitrarily kick out its members for voicing their opinions, you don't have #liberty, you have #tyranny. Everyone understands this.

So if we agree that the 15mC is a good idea—I certainly think it is—then let's try to make it happen. This kind of sniping strikes me as less a valid critique and more an attempt to make the whole idea sound impossible.

Maybe that's not the intent, but it's sure how it comes across. Yeah ... don't do that.

Interesting tidbit from FiveThirtyEight:

"Sad news for us data nerds: According to respondents of a recently released December YouGov poll, #statistics was ranked the least interesting college major, with 42 percent of adults calling it 'not interesting.' Criminal justice had the lowest percentage of respondents who called it 'not interesting,' at just 18 percent. When respondents were asked which majors they would pick if they were pursuing a college degree today, a plurality (20 percent) chose #computerscience."

The full poll results are here: https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/8nv9pr6ke6/results_College%20Majors.pdf

Almost surely, a lot of those students who think computer science is interesting, but statistics isn't, are planning on careers in "#datascience," #ML / #AI, etc. So here comes yet another generation of computer scientists who will badly reinvent statistics instead of learning the field from the ground up. Great.

I guess the #awesomebros will find it ...

...

...

...

... hard to swallow!

Thank you, thank you, I'm here all week. Try the #pachycephalosaurus.

https://markwitton-com.blogspot.com/2023/03/new-paper-fresh-evidence-and-novel.html

Every #tool is dangerous, and the more powerful the tool the more dangerous it is. Of course. Is #AI as dangerous as #nuclear #weapons? Probably not. It might be in the same league as, oh, say #internal #combustion #engines—and those have done a hell of a lot of damage. But they haven't done it by ushering in the #apocalypse. Instead the damage is from slow, creeping, cumulative change where the effect of any one individual event is too small to measure.

So I really think the focus on world-ending scenarios takes away from the conversations we need to be having. This reminds me a lot of the simmering "how far is too far" #genetics debate, especially the kibitzing from "#ethicists" with no understanding of the #biology and an #ethical sense that isn't nearly as developed as they think it is. There are conversations on that topic I'd like to have without the constant Greek chorus of "#Frankenstein! #Gattaca! #JurassicPark!"

This is your regularly scheduled reminder that Eliezer #Yudkowsky is a complete fraud. He has no qualifications of any kind, in any field. Nor has he contributed any substantial research, in any field. His only credentials are membership in a "research institute" he founded himself, and starting a #cult. None of his opinions are worth a moment of your time.

If you know, you know. If you don't, you're probably better off. Carry on.

In fairness, I should add that I do know people who have found certain aspects of the #paleodiet work well for them. Weight loss, lower blood sugar, etc. Okay: I think the ideal #diet is very much an individual thing, and people who are measurably healthier when they eat a certain way should absolutely eat that way! But when it becomes an #evangelical #religion, it ceases to have any possible medical value.

This makes a great deal of sense to me. Our ideas about which #foods and methods of preparation are tasty vs. disgusting are *deeply* cultural, even in today's relatively homogenized world.

Much more so when our #ancestors lived in widely separated groups, in vastly different environments, and making use of whatever they could get was the only alternative to #starvation. Humans are the omni-est of #omnivores, and we assign cultural significance to practically everything we do.

Also, I'm always just happy to pass on any news that demonstrates how much the modern idea of the "#paleo diet" is bullshit. That's a pretty strong preference on my part, but I don't claim it as a cultural universal. 😉

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/meat-rotten-putrid-paleo-diet-fire-neanderthal

Via an old #USAF #medic friend: a picture from my much younger days. My head looks weirdly small. Perhaps I was hoping the jolt would blow it back up to normal size.

I can date this one pretty precisely. It's at the #RAF #Upwood #clinic, where I arrived in June 1990, and shaved off the mustache within a few months. Also, I'm wearing whites, which I only did at the Primary Care Clinic, where I was first assigned. In the Acute Care Clinic, where I was from October of that year on, we wore BDUs. So it has to be somewhere in that time frame.

That kid, he's not me. Better in some ways: energy, optimism, idealism, openness to new experiences. Worse in others: temper, stubbornness, a certainty of his own rightness taken to absurd extremes. It takes some growing up to learn the difference between opinion and truth. Uncle Sam was not always pleased with the process.

But I remember him fondly, and wish him well. Given the number of people who were close to him then and are still here now, I guess they do too. I'm glad.

Most school shootings are inexplicable to anyone but the killer or killers. This one may not be: https://twitter.com/xxclusionary/status/1640598560876920832

As soon as a friend sent me the link, before I even clicked on it, I just knew what it was going to be. Churches and church-affiliated schools covering up systematic sexual abuse of children is very nearly as common as the abuse itself.

Expect an intensification of the "groomer" rhetoric in the coming weeks. They still think they can cover themselves that way.

#church #school #shooting #schoolshooting #sexualabuse #molestation #grooming #conservative

Most likely I'm preaching to the choir by posting this here. But #covid has spawned more conspiratorial thinking than any other event I can remember in my lifetime, and that includes things like 9/11. So, in case it's useful for countering any bullshit you may encounter, here you go.

https://www.quora.com/Why-did-the-WHO-come-up-with-a-brand-new-virus-death-classification-procedure-just-for-covid-in-early-2020-What-was-wrong-with-the-pre-2020-virus-death-classification-procedure/answer/Daniel-Dvorkin-3

I was an #airman a lot longer than I was a #soldier. But I was a soldier first. There are not quite words for how much this pisses me off.

https://www.pogo.org/investigation/2023/02/documents-show-air-force-leaders-shirking-their-close-air-support-responsibilities

Possibly the last time I'll give an honest, non-sarcastic answer to this kind of question. I've tried, for decades, and I'm just about done. Snark is practically all I have left. Consider this a brief flash of the old me.

I really doubt the questioner will pay attention, but maybe it will do someone some good. FOR ... THE ... LURKERS!

https://www.quora.com/Why-does-the-Democratic-Party-hate-white-men-so-much/answer/Daniel-Dvorkin-3

The wheels of #Mouse grind slow, but exceedingly fine.

#Disney rolled over a lot quicker than I expected when #DeSantis took #ReedyCreek away. Gloomily, I thought that meant they were giving up—calculating that it was better to alienate some large part of their customer base than to pick a fight with a terrifyingly succesful #fascist politician on his way up the ladder. Now I have a different view.

This conference presents a huge challenge for #DeathSatan. If he tries to stop it, he's in for a massive court fight... and/or persuading Dinsey that it's finally time to leave #Florida, which could happen, and would be a massive blow to the state. Maybe even enough to lose him Florida's electoral votes in the 2024 Presidential election where he clearly expects to be a candidate.

If he doesn't, he looks weak. The #Republican #Party is hopelessly committed to #performative #masculinity. The slightest appearance of weakness on the part of #SqueakyRon will give Former #President #Babyhands all the opening he needs to win the pissing contest. Forget the general: #Trump gets the nomination and DeSantis is yet another also-ran.

Me, I'll just be over here making popcorn.

I will note that it's a deeply weird feeling for me to be backing a giant corporation against a legitimately elected government, however much it galls me to admit the latter. But strange bedfellows and all that. #Stalin vs. #Hitler: sometimes you gotta pick a side.