From Pine View Farm

December, 2015 archive

CSI: Reality 0

Even though CSI’s Gil Grissom kept saying, “Follow the science,” science has little or nothing to do with forensic evidence. Matthew T. Mangino reports:

Imagine visiting your doctor and she recommends a course of treatment but warns that the treatment has been applied with little or no scientific validation and with inadequate research, assessments or reliability.

Your doctor is telling you, let’s use this treatment, but “neither I — nor anyone else — knows if it works.” No way — the FDA, the Medical Society, even the National Academy of Sciences would never let that happen.

Unfortunately, no one is preventing it from happening on a regular basis in America’s courtrooms. The use of inadequately tested or assessed courtroom evidence results in offenders being locked away for years — in some cases for life.

Follow the link to follow the evidence.

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The Lead Poisoning Epidemic 0

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It Was a Tesseract of God 0

In Wingnut World, there is no such time as “yesterday.”

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How Stuff Works, Combat Boots Dept. 0

PoliticalProf.

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Good Fences Make Good Neighbors . . . 0

. . . unless the fences are bamboo.

I once knew a fellow who bought a house with a stand of bamboo in the back yard. He grew to hate the stuff.

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Stacking the Deck 0

Donald Trump says,

Click for a larger image.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Pump-action politeness:

According to a police report, the suspect approached a clerk at Viva Video (seen below) last Wednesday night and “attempted to return a sexual device” he had previously purchased at the St. Paul business.

The customer claimed the item–which police identified as a penis pump–did not work as advertised. However, the store clerk declined the return request “because [the pump] had been used,” cops noted.

After being rebuffed by the employee, “the suspect pulled out a black handgun and threatened the clerk” before fleeing from the business (without a new penis pump).

The fellow still has his ammosex toy.

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QOTD 0

Kerry Greenwood:

Of course, with enough kif and absinthe, one could believe anything: fairies, pelmanism, politicians.

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And Now for Something Completely Different 0

I once heard Gene Kelly quoted as saying that the difference between him and Fred Astaire was that Astaire made everything look easy, whereas he (Kelly) made it look hard. Unfortunately, I cannot provide a citation.

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Immunity Impunity 0

The Grand Jury decision not to indict in the Tamir Rice case in Cleveland is, as best as I can tell, a perfect storm of excuses.

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Blowback 0

You can’t make this stuff up.

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“Like an Invisible Plastic Shield” 0

One of the things about privilege is that those who have it don’t notice it.

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Twits on Twitter 0

Twitter promises to deal with trolls. A snippet:

Malicious Twitter users are said to be hampering the site’s efforts to be a frontrunner in the online news market, and its European head, Bruce Daisley, told the Independent that Twitter was committed to cleansing the service as it enters its 10th year.

Twitter reportedly plans to introduce measures that spell out to trolls that their undesirable communications have an effect in the offline world, as well as on the internet. By making it clear that trolls’ actions exist “in the real world” and encouraging victims to expose their abusers by publishing their names, it hopes to eradicate trolling and improve its brand.

Little boy. Thumb. Dike.

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Boys and Their Toys 0

Frame One:  Persons saying,

Via Job’s Anger.

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“Sinks of Iniquity” 0

Frederick Neuman tries to figure out what goes on ladies’ rooms to give Donald Trump a case of the wobbling willies. A bit:

The last time I had a serious discussion about what went on in the ladies (girls’) room I was eight or nine years old.

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Dis Coarse Discourse 0

Two Trump supporters looking at Yiddish dictionary and saying,

Via Juanita Jean.

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QOTD 0

Desmond Morris:

Clearly, then, the city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo.

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“Getting Your Goat” 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, Kirby Farrell muses about scapegoating as a political and social force. Take a look at his article and consider whether anything he says applies to our political discourse.

I bet you find that it does.

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iJunk iJump 0

Look where you’re going, folks.

While distracted by either his phone or a camera, a man fell over the edge of a cliff in San Diego and plummeted 60 feet to his death on Christmas Day, officials said Saturday.

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Great Moments in Tech Support 0

You don’t have to make this stuff up.

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