Ain't easy being perfect…or even writing a story about it

From the Associated Press this morning: 

Biden boosts US vaccine stockpile as world waits

“We want to be oversupplied and overprepared,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday
…

The story goes on to report Russia and China practicing "vaccine diplomacy" by donating massive portions of their own vaccine supply to other countries beset by shortages.

Meanwhile, Russia and China, whose leaders don’t face voters in free and fair elections, have used their domestically produced shots for strategic leverage.

Which opens up a whole new can of worms.

If we held a free and fair (to use the AP description) election today on "should we vaccinate ourselves first or send some of our vaccine to Yemen (or any other country of your choice)," how would it turn out. How would the same election turn out in Russia or China? How about in Yemen?

And don't even ask about "leaders facing voters."

Deserving a (very) warm round of applause

'Red Hot Chilly Dippers' brave frigid water for fun and charity

"It's so brain-clearingly refreshing," said Burlington artist Kath Montstream…

I guess we're not finished discussing the whole consent thing

Cow Cuddling Services Are More Popular During Covid-19 Coronavirus Pandemic

However, don’t assume that cows have been requesting such services. That would be udderly wrong. 

FBI doesn't (oh no) find buried treasure in Pennsylvania

Emails: FBI was looking for gold at Pennsylvania dig site

The FBI has long refused to confirm why exactly it went digging, saying only in written statements over the years that agents were there for a court-authorized excavation of “what evidence suggested may have been a cultural heritage site.”

And we have a new winner

For a substantial number of years, I thought the silliest thing I had ever heard about time came in an interview on a local TV station in Georgia wherein a person, commenting on the dreaded arrival of Daylight Saving Time one Spring, referred to Eastern Standard Time as God's time (as in "don't mess with…).

But a sentence from an article in Bloombeg Citylab this morning (available on Apple News but paywalled on the web) is sillier yet. Discussing objections to Daylight Saving Time in Europe, it begins, "A continent full of people — tired of being plunged into early evening darkness in the fall and then having an hour of precious life yanked from their existence in the spring…" [Italics mine.]

Allow me to assure you, changing the hour on your clock does not add or subtract time from your life. Which is undoubtedly a good thing. 

Meanwhile, contrary to evident support in Europe for doing away with DST all together, a bipartisan (whatever that means any more) group of U.S. Senators are all in for more of it, sponsoring a "Sunshine Protection Act of 2021" (we're from the government and we're here to protect you) that calls for DST to become standard time here, presumably forever.

So, no pressure—just make a note to change your clocks (if you still have any clocks that need changing) this weekend when DST (this year) begins.

Also, Sunday is Pi Day, so win-win.

The new nuclear option is…

…deplatforming.

 

Doesn’t sound as fierce, but it’s just as fatal. More, maybe. Denying voice is denying thought, and denying thought is denying humanity.

 

Why Deplatforming Might Be Useless — Or Worse — When It Comes to Preventing Right-Wing Violence

 

Fly

Paper Airplane Designs

The week that wasn't

NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn’t happen this week

The Rs have finally found a business they want to sue

Republicans, longtime champions of tort reform (which generally decodes as “no suing for damages”) are going all in for new law to permit suing media companies for censoring "conservative views” (which, in this case, decodes as “malarkey”).

 

GOP Pushes Bills to Allow Social Media ‘Censorship' Lawsuits

Len Niehoff, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, described the idea as a “constitutional non-starter.”

 

Now, we’re all for free speech, which we take to mean everyone has the right to say whatever they damn well please and also to not say it if they choose. But the constitutional, aka 1st Amendment concept of free speech is simply that the government cannot censor speech (see above re: “not say”). Also, neither the government nor some corporation nor that guy down the block can force you to listen to what’s being said, at least not in the, you know, paying attention sense.

 

So, poppycock (hey, if I’m saying “malarkey” I’m all in).

 

Anyway the social media companies (which is what all this is really about) have plenty to answer for already.

Right away this sounds scary

We’re living on a planet of ants

Susanne Foitzik is a proud myrmecologist.

 

See what I mean? And it goes on.

 

What genetic changes have turned a species of diligent worker ants like Temnothorax longispinosus into ravaging hordes of slave makers like Temnothorax americanus?

And that’s just in the first paragraph of this book review at Ars Technica. Seems a long way from a “cozy mystery” (see below).

But maybe a pretty good book to add to the list.

 

Green is where you find it (or not)

Zoom isn’t carbon-free. The climate costs of staying home.

Estimates vary, but in general, data centers are thought to use anywhere from 2% to 5% of the world’s electricity, and produce as much carbon dioxide as the aviation industry. 

Can "Murder, She Wrote" make a comeback?

Murder, but gentler: ‘Cozy’ mysteries a pandemic-era balm

The genre’s parameters are few: no swearing, no sex, and little to no gore. Just what the pandemic-era doctor ordered.