Collected Links (06/10/2022)

•  At least 20 million people watched the prime time coverage of yesterday's Congressional hearing on the events around January 6, 2022. That is roughly equivalent to a Monday Night Football broadcast, and does not include watchers on PBS, which may have been several million. Presidential debates, by comparison, get numbers around 68 million -- three times as much. Fox News, of course, did not broadcast the debate live, with sound. During the first part of the debate Tucker Carlson was on, who said, among other things:

It’s deranged, and we’re not playing along,. . . . This is the only hour on an American news channel that will not be carrying their propaganda live. They are lying, and we are not going to help them do it. What we will do instead is to try to tell you the truth.

(Quoted in the NYT article linked; see also Fox News itself, or this similar article at Huffington Post.) The hearings were also covered or reported on by news networks outside the United States, and even on Fox News, eventually, so, I guess Tucker thinks there is a worldwide conspiracy against him.

• Also as reported in the NYT, a report from CDC data and analyzed by the Williams Institute at UCLA law school, the number of youth identifying as transgender has sharply increased. To quote the article:

The number of young people who identify as transgender has nearly doubled in recent years, according to a new report that captures a stark generational shift and emerging societal embrace of a diversity of gender identities.

The analysis, relying on government health surveys conducted from 2017 to 2020, estimated that 1.4 percent of 13- to 17-year-olds and 1.3 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds were transgender, compared with about 0.5 percent of all adults.
   . . .

But the numbers, which vary widely from state to state, also raise questions about the role of peer influence or the political climate of the community.

The article has superlative graphs of the variance by age and among states.

Collected Links (06/09/2022)

• “‘Needless to say’ is needless to say, needless to say.” — Enoch Haga, via Futility Closet
• A (simplistic) slyt video on the Langland Project in mathematics, video by Quanta Magazine Science Channel, link via Nag on the Lake.
• Fox News has been pestering me with stuff today, none of which suggests I watch (or which even references) tonight's Congressional hearings regarding the events of January 6, 2021. It does have an article regarding the hearing on its website. They suggest George Takei doesn't understand the Second Amendment because he says the millions of AR-15 rifles Americans have could be better used in Ukraine to fight the war there (yeah really, Fox News said that -- it is liberally mixing idiocy and mendacity on this one); "Fox News contributor Joe Concha took sharp aim at late-night host Jimmy Kimmel's ‘tee ball’ interview with President Biden [hitting] Kimmel for being a ‘political activist’ and leaving all of Biden's claims unchallenged" (Concha's description of the interview is inaccurate, to be kind, but it's particularly absurd for a supposed news channel regularly engaging in distortion to accuse an overt comedian of not asking hard enough questions); Fox News claims false that "dem leaders" are supporting "menacing protests" outside of Supreme Court Justices homes (that is ridiculous and false for several reasons -- such protests have been denounced by "dem leaders" -- and such protests are not new or one sided); Fox News calls (or supports calling) Democrats "the party against civil rights" by seeking a ban on assault rifles; "Kayleigh McEnany blasts Biden's [supposed] silence on Kavanaugh murder attempt: 'Where are you, President Biden?'" -- these are just stories Fox News is pushing to me on social media -- its other overage remains the same shit-storm of bias and dishonesty it always is.
• Meanwhile, in Missouri the Governor signed a bill that, among other things, shields doctors who write and pharmacists who fill ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine prescriptions. That's because these medicines "work so well" in treating COVID that we better make sure the doctors and pharmacists don't face consequences for using them. 
• Key points from the Congressional hearing regarding January 6, 2021, tonight:
• Donald Trump was explicitly told by the Attorney General and others that the evidence showed Trump was (a) going to lose the election as the votes were counted, and (b) lost the election;
• An independent investigatory body was sought originally: the Republicans in Congress torpedoed that;
• Trump and Mark Meadows were explicitly told by Trump's and the Republican's actual election experts, as well as their Attorney General (Bob Barr), that the allegations of fraud were groundless, and their claims regarding Dominion Voting Systems were false.
• Trump and his cronies lost over 60 lawsuits claiming the election was rigged;
• Donald Trump spent millions of dollars of campaign funds advertising his claims of election fraud even though he knew those claims were groundless and what he was saying was false;
• Trump and Jeffrey Clark at the Justice Department falsely claimed the Attorney General supported the fraud claims and tried to get Clark appointed as Attorney General so he could support Trumps false claims;
• Trump repeatedly pressured Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election -- Pence refused and knew if he had capitulated to the pressure it would be illegal;
• John Eastman, a lawyer, hatched a legal plan to try to get the Vice President to not properly certify the election but send it back to the States even though he knew the legal arguments for that action was meritless;
• Trump secretly met at the Whitehouse with cronies, excluding his Whitehouse advisors and lawyers, to hatch a plan to overthrow the election;
• Immediately following that secret meeting Trump tweeted, calling for his supporters to come to D.C. and engage in action against certifying the election results on January 6;
• Jared Kushner took the threats by Whitehouse counsel and others to resign as "whining" -- many officials, of course, had threatened to resign (and some did);
• On January 5 Steve Bannon said that "all hell is going to break loose tomorrow";
• At a speech on January 6 to a large crowd Trump told the crowd to march on the Capitol and to "fight like hell";
• The Joint Chief of Staff did not immediately act regarding the January 6 events because although the Vice President repeatedly and forcefully called for action, the President did not;
• Very compelling video of the January 6 attack on the Capitol shown;
• A police officer (Officer Edwards) testifies about her experience of the attacks -- it was very violent -- she was left unconscious -- she describes the officers injuries and calls it carnage -- she says she was in the middle of a battle -- hours of hand-to-hand combat;
• A documentary filmmaker (Mr. Quested) testifies about his experience on January 6 as well as a meeting between the leaders of the Proudboys and Oathkeepers the night before, which he filmed. The Proudboys and Oathkeepers on January 6 headed to the Capitol while the President was speaking -- he describes the events there as very violent;
• Rioters (on video) stated that Trump asked them to come and march on Capitol.

Collected Links (06/08/2022)

•  "Orson Wells" on the "Transgender  Question." Via Tim.
•  Also via Tim, a series of tweets by Lindsey Simmons on dark money in Missouri and their nasty business. These tweets, of course, are exactly right and very informative. Simmons is running for US Congress in MO 4th Congressional District, which is overwhelming conservative. It went 2/3 for Trump in the last 2 Presidential elections. She is running to replace Vicky Hartzler, who is running for Senate In MO. Hartzler herself is a real piece of work. A former high school home economics teacher, her political stances, as listed on Wikipedia, are a laundry list of every nasty and wrongheaded political position a US politician could take.
• Open Secrets -- the best site I know tracking political donations.
• Werner Herzog writes novel, feels "he has finally found his medium." NYT, free registration required.
• NYT print edition today has an article titled "C.E.O. Earnings Soar, Widening the Pay Gap," written by Stephen Gandel. I can't find it online by title, author, or keywords. Hmmmm . . . why NYT why?
• The school murders in Uvalde, Texas, are horrible and heartbreaking. The testimony of the parents of victims, testimony of a child who survived, and the testimony of a Uvalde pediatrician is overwhelming and terrible. The politicians (overwhelmingly, almost exclusively Republicans) who refuse to meaningfully address it are now acting well below "politics as usual," and worthy of our disgust. I would casually compare them to the police officers who sat in the hallway of the school and refused to confront the gunman for 45 minutes, but they are well below that threshold, too.

Collected Links (06/06/2022)

• The (initial?) Brookings Report on the January 6 insurrection attempt and the President Trump's involvement.
• Rolling Stone article on the very tortuous and very interesting writing of The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
• Mark Strand's A Piece of the Storm -- with audio -- at the blog Chawed Rosin, via Nag on the Lake
• Skelling Michael (the island monestary that served as Luke's last home in the Star Wars sequels), also via Nag
• Lidar uncovered remains of buried ancient developed areas of what is now called the Casarabe culture in the Amazon in Bolivia.
• Another excellent walking map of London, again via Nag

Collected Links (06/05/2022

• Language links for The Codex: Google Translate, Merriam-Webster, Etymology Dictionary, Old Norse Dictionary
• "Weatherford detective accused of stealing 99 Fentanyl pills faces lesser charges than man originally arrested with the pills" -- this news story is from April 2022 -- we can speculate on the many reasons why things like this happen, but they do happen and frequently enough that they suggest serious issues with aspects of our justice system. 
• Source of some band names, from the now defunct blog, Bits and Pieces
• The New Yorker on gang membership in the LA County sheriff's office.
• Quoting MetaFilter (which, in turn, quotes Free Learning List): "Free Learning List is a rated/reviewed list of the Internet's Best Educational Resources. 'The scores attributed to these resources have been graded on the basis of effectiveness, engagement, design, and popularity/veracity; however they are also largely subjective evaluations.'" This looks like an excellent resource.
• 15 Paintings that Define the Drama of the Baroque Art Movement at My Modern Met

Collected Links (06/04/2022)

• A Poetry Reading by Mark Strand at the Library of Congress (1987) -- @ 9:10 Carlos Drummond de Andrade's Looking for Poetry (Mark Strand translator) (the reading/poem leading to this post); also: de Andrade's Boy Crying in the Night @ 6:05, Your Shoulders Hold Up the World @ 7:21; Strand's Narrative Poetry @ 13:36 (meh -- N.B. a narrative poem about narrative poetry), Grete Samsa's Letter to H @ 20:10 (again, meh -- N.B. a prose poem), Virgento Ad Julianus [sp?] @ 24:51, Luminism @ 26:08, The Famous Scene @ 28:52 (lovely, in its manner -- is good poetry hyperbole?), Always @ 30:28 (also lovely), Violent Storm @ 33:18 (early Strand . . . and lovely), Keeping Things Whole @ 36:45 (his most famous poem? he always seems to read it -- he precedes reading this by saying he doesn't like it because it took him too little time to write), Seven Days @ 38:33 (meh -- but this supposedly took him a long time to write), Shooting Whales @ 42:08 (richer than a Winslow Homer painting), [although Strand elides the title, next is My Mother on an Evening in Late Summer] @ 46:14 (very good), Viewing the Coast [is this it? Black Sea] @ 49:16 (wonderful), Alcetus [sp?] @ 54:02, and The Empire of Chance @ 56:02 (meh).
• Exceptionnelle démo de beatbox par MB14 - En Aparté slyt (Rocks on many levels)
• Former Chief Justice Rehnquist's long addiction to Placidyl -- imagine if a "liberal" Justice was well-known, as Rehnquist was, to have such am addiction -- would not most of the current press go nuts?
• "In The Number Ones, [Tom Breihan, a columnist at Stereogum, is] reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958 . . ." Via MetaFilter
  
• I've been taking a short hiatus on vomiting over Fox News
• "Mr. Spock" "sings" "Twinkle Twinkle Little Earth" on Leonard Nimoy's album "Music from Outer Space."

Collected Links (06/03/2022)

• "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (Korean Edition)" -- from John
• Chief Justice Roberts supposedly wrote both the opinion of the Court and dissent in ACA case ultimately upholding "Obamacare." He initially favored the challengers, wrote that as the main opinion, then changed his view, and wrote what then became the main opinion, and his original draft was largely kept by the dissenters. [Note the opinion was split on the several issues it considered; some Justices joined with Roberts on some issues and some on others. Opinion: National Federation of Ind. Business v. Sebelius; See also (Forbes -- different article with essentially same story).]
• Kurt Gödel supposedly discovered a "loophole" in the Constitution while he was studying to be a United States citizen -- the loophole would have allowed the country to become a dictatorship. He told this to the citizenship examiner, who decided to move past it (not that his view would have prevented him from becoming a citizen . . .). Albert Einstein and economist Oskar Morgenstern were apparently present at the citizenship ceremony/examination. Gödel apparently never told anyone what the "loophole" was. [N.B. I can think of perhaps a half dozen ways within the Constitution -- as I think many can -- in which the U.S. could become a dictatorship -- but I also know none of these potential paths are realistic.]
• While many people (including many film critics -- who are, it turns out, a type of people), have tried to excuse the extraordinarily racist and pro-KKK film Birth of a Nation as just how people (meaning white people, I guess) thought at the time, i.e. as a product of its age, Eugene Debs and others called it out for the racist and hateful crap it is. [N.B. Debs was from Terre Haute, Indiana, where I lived from ages c. 11-18; Debs views were not emblematic of the community I knew, but, to the contrary Terre Haute stands out as about the most politically/culturally anti-Debs place I've ever known.]
• Pachelbel's Canon in D, performed on original instruments -- by Voices of Music -- and a equally beautiful version by the Nippon Philharmonic Orchestra.

Collected Links (06/02/2022)

• "Plastic Recycling Doesn't Work and Will Never Work" -- at The Atlantic
• Joy of Computing -- via Metafiler, which, to quote: "'Joy of Computing is here to remind you that computers can be both useful and fun': one new link to a technical project posted each day -- blog posts, toys, tools, games, and more."
• Empty Chairs at Empty Tables from Les Miserables as sung by Cormac Thompson. SLYT. A charity version relating the song to losses from COVID.
• Shower thoughts on self-driving cars, at Reddit -- "When Self-driving cars become mainstream, occasionally dead old people will just arrive places." And so much more (hmmm, self-driving car bombs ...).
• !!! (Chk Chk Chk) -- Man on the Moon -- This. Rocks.

Collected Links (06/01/2022)

• Linguistic Relativity (Sapir-Whorf) -- Wikipedia -- well written and thorough.
• "Gravity is Not a Force" -- Veritassium -- really great but does not define what is meant by a "force" -- i.e. the title is misleading because he means "gravity is an effect of space-time, which effect some people might call a "force" but it is not a "force" acting independently from that effect (and let's not get too deeply into gravitons or the Standard Model or gravitational waves)." In the Standard Model bosons are particles that form fields, but bosons are also the consequence of fields. Einstein famously did not believe in "spooky action at a distance," and the idea of a space-time field with a mediating particle (gravitons) is consistent with General Relativity. So, saying "gravity is not a force" is a little misleading since it ignores what might be meant, when closely examined, by "force."
• Newton's method of calculating pi -- Veritassium -- superlative video --  includes getting from πr to πr² -- also includes great stuff on Pascal's triangle in negative numbers and fractions and continuums -- shows (without overtly saying so) why Newton was a brilliant mathematician -- Newton's method developed from integration and series and development of (1+x)².
• Newton's Pendulum (Gangnam Style)
• Göbekli Tepe -- at Reddit -- at Wikipedia -- quote from Reddit: "built around 9500BC while Britain was still connected to Europe and humans hunted mammoths in Siberia. We are closer in time to the construction of Stonehenge and the Giza Pyramids, than [Stonehenge and the ancient Egyptians] were to [Göbekli Tepe]."
• Fox News: "Biden keeps repeating false Second Amendment claim, despite repeated fact checks" --  -- the quoted language that is asserted to be false is "You couldn’t buy a cannon when the Second Amendment was passed." Fox News, of course, provides no evidence that ordinary people could just go out and buy cannons. Fox News, of course, provides no evidence that, in the words of the Second Amendment, that ordinary people would "keep and bear" cannons. It seems absurd to believe (without evidence, natch) that some people kept cannons, say, at their households or even on their person. Cannons at the time were very difficult to make. The only evidence is that cannons were bought and sold for military or quasi-military use. (N.B. "quasi-military" because the U.S. military as a body was loosely organized and depended on state militias and not in any substantial way on a federal military body in the years after the American Revolution. See, e.g.) Fox News, citing Politico. claims all weapons were unregulated because it asserts there were no formal federal gun laws until 1934. That's nuts. There were numerous state gun restrictions before that time. Moreover, restrictions on ownership (and practical inability and common understandings of prohibitions) were a product of the common law not written laws or regulations, as law at that time was driven by common law not statutory law. Fox News's and Politico's suggestions to the contrary  are, frankly, wrong and indicated of legal and historical ignorance. Indeed, the Constitution's explicit provision for issuing Letters of Marque and Reprisal shows the understanding that the use of weapons such as cannons had to be authorized -- it was not some sort of freely floating around right. Fox News also states as a fact "The Second Amendment as it is written does not limit who can 'keep and bear arms' or what kind of arms people can keep and bear." Actually, the Second Amendment does not say any types of weapon or any amount of weapons can be owned. The Supreme Court of the United States has repeatedly made this clear (see specifically Section III of the Court's opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller, which is the watershed "pro-gun rights" decision from the Supreme Court and still makes this clear). Indeed, the clerks for Justices Scalia and Stevens recently made this clear -- Scalia and Stevens wrote, respectively, the Court's opinion and main dissent in Heller -- in a lengthy and detailed op-ed.  The assertion that Biden's statement is false, extends back to Politifact, which called it "dubious," not false, i.e. not a lie. It was "dubious" because Biden did not, gratuitously, point to a specific case where someone was prohibited from owning a cannon. But that is incorrect: it puts the "proof" requirement on the wrong person: if you say private individuals could go around owning cannons, in the sense we mean, not for military purposes as they existed then, then I think the onus is on you to prove it. As discussed above, I think that notion -- that private laypeople owned cannons -- edges on the absurd for several reasons. Having that view, as Biden evidently does, is  not a lie. Fox News's story is intended to cement in the reader the belief that Biden is dishonest. Biden, like all of us, makes plenty of mistakes. He certainly says many things poorly. He has, without question, told lies during his life and long political career. This the statement here, right or wrong (and it may be right) isn't a lie.. Fox News knows that and goes ahead, anyway. Again, this story was pushed to me today by Fox News. It's not like Fox News is also pushing stories that are truthful. 
• Fox News, again! Michael Sussman, a lawyer connected with Hillary Clinton's 2016 Presidential campaign, was found not guilty of lying to the FBI. The supposed "lie" was hawked by Fox News as a major scandal involving Clinton and the Democrats. Fox News repeatedly suggested the supposed "lies" were actual criminal conduct and involved "massive fraud" and was, in fact, "the biggest political scandal in modern history." Sussman was prosecuted by a special prosecutor selected by Trump; the supposed "lie" involved Trump's alleged wrongful conduct in relation to Russia. So, there was a patent conflict of interest from the get-go as Trump appointed a prosecutor to investigate and prosecute a political opponent's campaign over statement's about Trump. According to Mother Jones (on a story pushed to me, BTW), the special prosecutor's investigation has actually strengthened the case against Trump. Anyway, the jury was not out long before ruling for Sussman and rejecting the Trump special prosecutor's prosecution. Fox News's response? The result was due to "jury nullification." "D.C. juries are famous for failing to follow the facts and the law." The jury was "biased" and composed of "Hilary Clinton peers." And more and more. Fox News is not just mendacious but prolific.

Collected Links (05/31/2022)

• NYT Wirecutter "52 Things We Love" HP Officejet Pro 9015e printer, ChefsChoice Trizor XV knife sharpener, Milwaukee Fastback utility knife, Nektech 60W USB-C GaN charger, Nidra Deep Rest eyemask, Novaform Comfortgrand mattress, Channellock wirecutters, Cuisinart Chef's Convection toaster oven.
• Fox News: "Biden's refusal to send rockets to Ukraine shows 'complete lack of strategy' from White House: Victoria Coates" -- classic Fox News: irresponsible title of an irresponsible article -- irresponsibility here that extends to outright dishonesty. First, the U.S. is sending rockets to Ukraine -- indeed, the U.S. under the Biden administration is by far the leading supplier of arms to Ukraine. The announcement the Fax News story related to involves an announcement of an additional $700 million military aid to Ukraine, including advanced medium range rockets. So, the headline and article are dishonest. Second, in fact the U.S. is not sending one type of advanced long range rocket that would potentially expand the conflict by allowing Ukraine to begin an offensive against Russia as the missiles can be targeted missiles at sites in the Russian interior. Strategically, we cannot allow that, nor can we contravene our NATO allies on this, and they surely would not allow this. So, there's significant strategic concerns here, not a "complete absence of it. Third, the "complete lack of strategy" quote -- itself hyperbole even if there was some strategic disagreement (which there isn't) -- was not actually made on the missile decision per see but to the announcement of it. Coates says that our saying what we're going to do is a "complete lack of strategy." So, Fox News overtly distorted it for a headline and article. Fourth, using representing a cherry picked quote from "talking head" is not news although it is represented on the broadcast as news. Note, in this regard, Fox News has separate news and commentary divisions. This is from the news side. Fifth, the line between news and commentary at Fox, as demonstrated in part by this article, is becoming non-existent. Fox, apparently, is abandoning attempts to even superficially present news straight. This is why the most ethical of their anchors (in my view) -- Shep, Chris -- have quit. And Sixth this is not just casual dishonesty: this story was "pushed" to me by Fox News. UPDATE: It turns out the U.S. is in fact sending the very weapons in question. Not seeing a correction from Fox. Instead I see "Russia Stages Nuclear Drills After U.S. Announces Rockets to Ukraine" -- which flatly contradicts in its own deceptive way the thesis of Fox News's first salacious and untrue article, discussed above -- and "Biden's Latest $700M Ukraine Weapons Package: Here's Everything in It".
• Knee Drives for Exercise -- to stretch and exercise my weak points (well some of the many)
  
• Bionic Reading Font -- I, personlly, find this much easier to read quickly and with comprehension -- I think this is a great idea.
• "Trump’s Fiscal Legacy: A Comprehensive Overview of Spending, Taxes, and Deficits" -- bottom line: during the Trump presidency we added $3.9 trillion to the U.S. deficit.
• At Quartz: "A Harvard Economist Summarizes His Class on Monopolies in 54 Tweets"

Collected Links (05-30-2022)

• Why much published research is wrong (problems with p-values, etc.)
• Calculating p-values: Wikipedia; Wolfram (discussion); Kahn Academy (slyt)
• Ceramics by Ariana Heinzman (on Colossal) -- hand made vessels, bright abstracted floral motif (mostly) surface decoration
• Wisteria in Japan (on Colossal)
  
• "Japanese Suburbs in Watercolor" (on Nag on the Lake) -- lovely
  
• Flora Yukhonovich -- abstracted Rococo paintings
  
• "Latecomers [Edited] Guide to Crypto" (via Tim) Annotated "grossly irresponsible" NYT tech article -- although some of the annotations are trenchant, a fair number are just sniping. "Crypto," of course, is not tangible property -- its proponents would have us believe it's a currency. It's subject to the same quasi-ponzi scheme and speculation driven concerns as any intangible asset; concerns that currencies are not pegged to any tangible standard, such as gold, have been the source of hand wringing for at least 150 years. That's repeated again in the annotations. Yet except in El Salvador (currently) crypto's not an official currency anywhere, it's not a necessary means of exchange, and it's highly speculative as an investment. It may have benefit for this who want to wash or shelter assets (despite the articles suggestions otherwise). But I'm not an investor. 
  
• Maps for proposed walks around London (on a blog called A Lady in London) (via Nag on the Lake)