November, 2020 archive
Geeking Out 0
Magiea v. 7 with the Fluxbox window manager using the Operation style.
I do likes me my pretty pictures.
Just the Vaxx, Ma’am 0
Michael Ungar, writing at Psychology Today Blogs, strives to understand the mentality of anti-vaxxers. He suggests three factors to account for their denial of scientific and medical evidence. Some excerpts; follow the link for a detailed exploration of each.
- First, let’s deal with trust in science. . . . . when it comes to vaccinations, there are those who think they know more than the microbiologists who have spent lifetimes studying the minutiae of viral and bacterial infections. I can only attribute this mistrust to arrogance . . . .
- Second, anti-vaxxers have broken the social contract. Our individual resilience is always dependent on the resilience of the support systems we depend on.
- Third, anti-vaxxers are manipulating others to make themselves feel omnipotent.
Methinks he left out a fourth factor.
We are a society of stupid.
Denial Is Not Just a River in Egypt 0
It’s also poor public health policy.
Witness what’s happening in the Dakotas, where the populace and the governments at state and local levels have repeatedly turned blind eyes to the pandemic:
“I think the hardest thing to watch is that people are still looking for something else and a magic answer and they do not want to believe covid is real,” Doering told CNN in an interview Monday.
“Their last dying words are ‘this can’t be happening, it’s not real,'” Doering said, adding that some patients prefer to believe that they have pneumonia or other diseases rather than covid-19, despite seeing their positive test results.
More disquieting tales of denial at the link.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Expose children to politeness at an early age.
When they arrived at the scene, they say they found a 4-year-old suffering from an accidental and self-inflicted single gunshot wound.
Both Sides Don’t 0
While on the topic, I commend this article, in which Wallace B. Mendelson explores what it’s like to view the world through Trump-colored glasses, to your attention.
How Stuff Works, Trump Succession Planning Dept. 0
In a longer article regarding a Federal judge’s ruling that the Trump-appointed head of the Department of Homeland Republican Family Values Security was illegally appointed to his post, Elizabeth Dye summarizes how Trump’s promotion procedure (if you can dignify it with a three-syllable word) works:
Follow the link for the details.
Addendum:
Broken link fixed.
I noticed my error (I broke the link) about an hour ago, about 10:20 p. m., but it seems my hosting provider was having some issues. I got a 502 error when I tried to connect to the backend of the site to edit this post.
There’s a reason no hosting provider will promise more that 99% uptime–computers and networks are physical objects, and physical objects will break from time to time. But I’ve been using this provider for a decade now. I would recommend them to anyone because of their reliable performance and excellent tech support–especially because of their excellent tech support (and, in another life, I used to wear a headset myself).
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Once again, a responsible gun owner discharges his responsibility, this time from afar.
Gutting Out the Vote 0
Thom suggests the election was, indeed, rigged, but not in the way Republicans claim. He argues, rather, that suppressing legitimate votes has been (and still is) a long-term Republican strategy.
In the light of Thom’s arguments, this comes as no surprise.
Twits on Twitter 0
Twits who go looking for trouble and find it.
Stray Question 0
You do realize, do you not, that 2001: A Space Odyssey, was set nearly two decades ago?
Where is my jet pack?
