Utopia, you are standing in it!

I used to think that InsideHigher Ed (IHE) was a pretty objective forum for reporting news from academia. But now, it seems, they’re going the way of BuzzFeed, publishing what is essentially a hit piece on Steve Pinker that, starting with his trivial assistance to Alan Dershowitz in the first prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein for sex crimes (Pinker interpreted the language of a statute, for chrissake), goes on to dredge up all the other accusations of Pinker from the last several years: he’s white, male, old, a sexist, and his scholarship is deficient. In other words, it goes beyond the ambit of the news to once again thrust a sword into Pinker. You can read the piece by clicking on the screenshot below.  Yes, I know where the title of the piece comes from, but it makes absolutely no sense to me in this context.

Note the prominent use…

Francis Menton provides some essential advice for non-scientists in his recent essay at Manhattan Contrarian You Don’t Need To Be A Scientist To Know That The Global Warming Alarm “Science” Is Fake. Excerpts in italics with my bolds.

When confronted with a claim that a scientific proposition has been definitively proven, ask the question: What was the null hypothesis, and on what basis has it been rejected?

As Menton explains, you don’t need the skills to perform yourself the null test, just the boldness to check how they dismissed the null hypothesis.

Consider first a simple example, the question of whether aspirin cures headaches. Make that our scientific proposition: aspirin cures headaches. How would this proposition be established? You yourself have taken aspirin many times, and your headache always went away. Doesn’t that prove that the aspirin worked? Absolutely not. The fact that you took aspirin 100 times and the…

Back in May 2017 BBC audiences were told that Hamas had abandoned “anti-Jewish language” with the publication of a new policy document.

“It also says Hamas’s struggle is not with Jews but with “occupying Zionist aggressors”. The 1988 charter was condemned for its anti-Jewish language.

The text is seen as an effort by Hamas, which rules Gaza, to soften its image.

“The document gives us a chance to connect with the outside world,” spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.

“To the world, our message is: Hamas is not radical. We are a pragmatic and civilized movement. We do not hate the Jews. We only fight who occupies our lands and kills our people. […]

For years there has been criticism of Hamas over the language of its charter, in particular articles which were branded anti-Semitic.

The charter speaks of the need to fight “warmongering Jews” and cites a hadith – a report of what…

Psychologists, psychotherapists and what-have-you seem to be doing good business from helping players cope with something that – when all is said and done – is sport.

They are helping nerve-shattered fans, too, after the tense Cricket World Cup final between England and New Zealand, a game ultimately decided by the number of boundaries scored by each side.

On the strength of this, England won the cup.

Would the toss of a coin have been fairer?  Or should the title have been shared?

No matter.  The fact is a lot of Black Cap fans found their stress levels raised and the NZ Herald fretted:

“Kiwis have been left emotionally bruised today after New Zealand came just centimetres from winning the Cricket World Cup.”

Elizabeth Warren has moved into second place among the vast array of Democrats wanting to be president. Presumably because no one is listening to what she has to say.  Let me review a few bits:

She promises to Import at least 700% more refugees to the U.S.

She wants a total moratorium on all new fossil fuel leases.

She promises on her “first day” as president to set up a commission to investigate U.S. Crimes against immigrants.

Warren’s Immigration plan will decriminalize illegal immigration, end the detention of border crossers.

Crossing the border illegally should not be a criminal offense.

Warren is committed to ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine (?)

A New tax on the Rich will pay for day care for every newborn in the U.S.

Then a new wealth tax will take care of her modest $1.25 trillion debt-and-tuition deal, a tax on “Wall Street Speculators