January, 2022 archive
Their Behavior Was Infectuous 0
A New Jersey doctor describes what happened when two persons visited an elderly relative in a nursing home. The two visitors were unvaccinated and seen not wearing masks. As a result, there was an outbreak of COVID among staff and residents in the home that resulted in sickness, quarantine, and at least one death. The doctor concludes (emphasis added):
Follow the link for the gory details.
Maskless Marauders 0
Maskless marauders who fly the fiendly skies.
There is no truth to the rumor I’m starting right here that they were planning to meet up with Ted Cruz.
Know Them by the Company They Keep 0
The Arizona Republic’s E. J. Montini points out that Arizona’s Governor does not shy away from shysters.
Vaccine Nation 0
Warning: Short commercial at the end.
It’s All about the Algorithm, Forensic Science Fiction Dept. 0
The EFF questions the justice of trial by algorithm. Here’s a bit from the introduction to the article (emphasis added):
The software vendors claim both that the software contains valuable secrets that must not be disclosed and that their methods are so well-vetted that there’s no point letting a defendant question them. Obviously, both can’t be true, and in fact it’s likely that neither is true.
Remember, those magical “forensic” results you see on television shows like the CSI’s and NCIS are fiction. Based on actual forensics, yes, but carried to extremes. For a dose of reality, watch Forensic Files.
Aside:
I do like NCIS (the original, that is), but one thing I find really annoying is the flying windows on the computer screen when McGee is hacking into a computer. Real hacking is not like that (I know–I’ve studied it in legal–and safe–tutorials). Real hacking is almost all tedious command line activity. And the last thing any hacker wants to do is use so much of the target computer’s computing power that it attracts notice. All those flying windows would put the target computer’s cooling fans into high gear . . . .
Grumble grumble grumble.
Debunking De Bunk 0
In a long, detailed article, the AP’s David Klepper tears apart what his story identifies as “the five top falsehoods” about the January 6 insurrection, which are spreading in right-wing and “social” media. Here’s a bit of debunking; follow the link for the rest of de bunk.
CLAIM: THE RIOTERS WEREN’T VIOLENT
Dozens of police officers were severely injured. One Capitol Police officer who was attacked and assaulted with bear spray suffered a stroke and died a day later of natural causes.
Former Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, who rushed to the scene, said he was “grabbed, beaten, tased, all while being called a traitor to my country.” The assault stopped only when he said he had children. He later learned he had suffered a heart attack. Fanone resigned from the department in December 2021.
Rioters broke into the Senate chamber minutes after senators had fled under armed protection. They rifled through desks and looked for lawmakers, yelling, “Where are they?” In House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, staffers hid under desks while rioters called out the name of the California Democrat.
That’s not how some Republican politicians have described the insurrection.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Don’t let politeness take a back seat.
Guns and stupid, guns and stupid,
They go together like love and Cupid.
Let me tell you, brother,
You won’t find one without the other.
Facebook Frolics, Stolen Grief Dept. 0
Snopes goes down the rabbit hole to find to find the origin of a Facebook fake.
Once you think humanity has plumbed the depths, the Zuckerborg opens new depths to plumb.
Geographically Challenged 0
Aside:
I used to live in northern Delaware (indeed, that’s where I was living when I started this blog). When I had to go to my company’s headquarters in D. C., I occasionally would see Joe Biden and Bill Roth, Delaware’s Senators at the time, on the early Metroliner to Washington. (And, no, I never disturbed them.)
Why? Because they lived in Delaware and commuted to D. C. every day. They stayed over in D. C. only when pressing business forced them to.
Frankly, I think that’s one reason that both of them were pretty good Senators–they remained grounded in their home state (though, sadly, Roth got a little ditzy towards the end of his career).
But I suspect that the smears Farron refers to will resonate with many Republican supporters. What with smartphones and all, reading maps seems to be a lost art.