Mike Solana | 15 Dec 2021 pirate wires #58 // recalling UFOs, the invisible virus, war on nuclear meets the war on space, and america’s vanishing act Bear with me for a minute, this one’s kind of weird. Four years ago this Thursday, the New York Times broke one of the most incredible stories in…
Bad Cattitude | 8 Dec 2021 The dark sorcery of monopoly on meaning defining the words and symbols in which we image the world is a powerful kind of magic. watch as the malleability of language distorts it from facilitating clear thought and expression and transforms it into a misframed bog of quicksand so subtle…
TCW | 6 Dec 2021 CAMBRIDGE University’s student newspaper Varsity is putting ‘trigger warnings’ on articles to avoid upsetting its readers. The policy meant that a story in a recent issue about the spiking of student drinks on a night out was preceded by: ‘Content note: This article contains discussion of spiking and sexual harassment.’ In another…
Daily Mail | 1 DEC 2021 EU Equality Commission issued inclusive language guide to ‘promote equality’ But Eurocrats were accused of trying to ‘cancel Christmas’ after suggesting staff say ‘holiday period’ to avoid offending non-Christians Other suggestions included saying ‘send humans to Mars’ instead of ‘colonise Mars’ and ‘synthetic fabrics’ instead of ‘man-made fabrics’ Document…
Bad Cattitude | 3 Dec 2021 We need to be people who HAVE ideas, not people who ARE their ideas … the former can change their minds and/or be pals with those who hold differing views … the latter take all disagreement as a personal attack. that is no basis for a civil society, much…
Eugyppius | 30 Nov 2021 More thoughts on conspiracies, now that I’ve angered many readers. I should have expected that my last post would provoke some angry replies [see UPDATE]. Now that my inbox is full of grumpy people, I will double down. First, though, a parable from my very formative and disturbing time in American academia:…
Common Sense | 27 Nov 2021 California’s burglars organize flash mobs. Waukesha massacre “caused by an SUV.” And comedy gold from the Women’s March. Welcome back to TGIF and happy Thanksgiving. It’ll be a short one this week so we can all get back to family life—cozy, mask-free, family life (and watching the Dow drop…
uTobian | 19 Nov 2021 I doubt this post will be popular. But I have a unique perspective on a topic of fierce debate and I think my readers just want me to tell it like it is. So here goes. For the next 10 minutes I’m asking you to suspend judgement and forget everything…