First Looks category archive

Gene Lyons marvels at the stupid. A snippet; follow the link for the rest.

Strangest of all, of course, is that a genuine miracle cure does exist. A scientific miracle, that is: vaccines with the capacity to bring the pandemic to an end. Shackled by ignorance and paralyzed by fear, however, millions of our fellow citizens have refused to take it.

Propagandized by opportunists and madmen, and at war with everything known about communicable diseases since the life of Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), many have taken refuge in humanity’s most basic pre-rational instinct: tribalism.

Today I received the notice to pay the annual registration fee for my 2003 GMC Sonoma pick-up truck.

I also received the return receipt from the certified letter that I sent to the DMV containing the appropriate form from my car registration document to notify the DMV that I no longer owned said truck. I have a new(er) car.

I’m hanging on to the former until I’m certain the latter has been properly processed.

Afterthought:

I think I shall name my car “Whitey.”

Whitey Ford.

Marauders who fly the fiendly skies.

Yet another person practices random acts of politeness.

Covidiocy is taking a toll on health care workers. Here’s a bit of the report from The Michigan Advance:

Across Michigan, doctors, nurses and other medical professionals spoke to the Advance about workplaces increasingly filled with aggressive and violent patients and their family members: people who are angry over pandemic policies, such as mask requirements and visitor restrictions, and take it out on those trying to save their lives.

Workers described people throwing punches and hurling cascades of threats at them after long waits in understaffed emergency rooms. Others will yell at doctors because they don’t believe their COVID diagnoses, and patients have threatened legal action if they don’t receive ivermectin — a drug used to deworm horses that some prominent conservatives are pushing as a COVID-19 treatment despite a specific warning from the Federal Drug Administration not to do so.

Tony Norman has more on the topic.

Republicans worry about the national debt when and only when there is a Democratic president.

At Psychology Today Blogs, Phil Reed offers some thoughts. A snippet:

Multinational companies and corporations are set up for a clear purpose—to make money. The rest, such as facilitating expression and communication between people, is just advertising and marketing.

(Syntax error fixed.)

David Lazarus explores the “your car’s extended warranty is expiring” robocall scam.

Even if you already know the calls are a scam, his explanation of the nuts-and-bolts of the con is enlightening.

Aside:

We sometimes get two or three of these a day on our cell phones and land line (yes, we still have a land line).

Per his article, the number of such calls in the United States this year is projected to be in the neighborhood of 13 billion. That’s about 40 calls for every man, woman, and child and about 120 for each registered vehicle.

At Psychology Today Blogs, Eugen Dimont, Bella Ren, and Maurice Schweitzer explore why persons use “social” media to “share” conspiracy theories which they do not actually believe. A snippet; follow the link for the complete article.

It turns out that when many people share information they care about broadcasting information that will boost their social engagement. We found that when the social rewards (such as the number of “likes” people received) were high, many people were willing to share conspiracy theories that they knew to be untrue.

Remember, “social” media isn’t.

Der Spiegel interviews evolutionary biologist Victoria Herridge on biotech company Colossal’s intention to genetically engineer woolly mammoths, which have been extinct for millennia. She is, shall we say, at best lukewarm to the endeavor. Here’s a snippet:

DER SPIEGEL: Those who believe they can revive animal species may also not be doing a good enough job of saving other species from extinction.

Herridge: Of course! When you have tools like that in your hand, you think less about your own behavior and its consequences. It worries me that we humans prefer to be interested in such shiny, high-tech projects as with the mammoth rather than in pragmatic species conservation projects that, if managed well, can actually make a difference.

Follow the link for the rest. It is worth your while.

PoliticalProf.

Image via All Things Amazing, an image site (some images NSFW).

Diet of worms frolics.

The stupid. It metastasizes.

Do not forget, “social” media isn’t.

. . . and it reminds me of my internet friend (who I once had breakfast with in Newark, Del.), Shaun Mullen.

He is still missed.

Read more »

Off to drink liberally.

Via Job’s Anger.

PoliticalProf,