“Chemical Brain Preservation Is A Technology That May Soon Be Validated”

November 20, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

In order to recreate biologically dead human beings, you need their memories, not just skin and hair and eyes. A quartet of predictions about the future from John Smart‘s long-form post at Kurzweil AI about brain preservation::

“1. As I argue in this video, chemical brain preservation is a technology that may soon be validated to inexpensively preserve the key features of our memories and identity at our biological death.

2. If either chemical or cryogenic brain preservation can be validated to reliably store retrievable and useful individual mental information, these medical procedures should be made available in all societies as an option at biological death.

3. If computational neuroscience, microscopy, scanning, and robotics technologies continue to improve at their historical rates, preserved memories and identity may be affordably reanimated by being ‘uploaded’ into computer simulations, beginning well before the end of this century.

4. In all societies where a significant minority (let’s say 100,000 people) have done brain preservation at biological death, significant positive social change will result in those societies today, regardless of how much information is eventually recovered from preserved brains.”

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Even More Proof That Donald Trump Is A Moron

November 19, 2012 in Humor, Politics | Permalink

Donald Trump: The shrimp scampi is divine.

Do you know who is better looking than Donald Trump? All the women whose looks the bovine builder mocks. Women like Katy Perry and Arianna Huffington and Kristen Stewart and Sarah Jessica Parker. The latter was recently ridiculed as “unsexy” by Trump because she thought little of the stupid and racist stunt whereby he offered $5 million if the President would release his brith certificate and college grades.

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Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump

Sarah Jessica Parker voted “unsexiest woman alive” – I agree. She said “it’s beneath me to comment on the potential Obama charitable gift.” What’s really beneath her?

_____________________________

Of course, Parker is a very attractive person, unlike the hideous hotelier. But deeply ugly rich men, if they’re also very sexist, think their money gives them the right to insult the appearance of women even though they themselves are unsightly. What’s ugliest about Donald Trump, of course, is his abject bigotry and racism. And no amount of orange tanning cream can cover up that kind of mess.

But do you know what else was recently very ugly? The kitchen at DJT, Donald Trump’s Las Vegas steakhouse. It was closed for awhile this week because of a reported 51 health-code violations, which according to Forbes included the following:

  • no measures utilized to destroy parasites in undercooked halibut
  • the presence of expired yogurt
  • month-old caviar
  • duck dating back to June 
  • two-week-old tomato sauce
  • expired peanut dressing
  • an improperly functioning freezer

So, what exactly was on the menu at Donnie’s Vegas steakhouse this week?

The pasta primavera sure was tempting.

That green salad looked mighty good.

And let’s not forget the sirloin.

My compliments to the chef.

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“We Are On The Threshold Of An Era That Will Be Strongly Influenced, And Quite Possibly Dominated, By Intelligent Machines”

November 19, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

In the introduction to his 1960 paper, “Steps Toward Artificial Function,” Marvin Minsky, who later served as a technical consultant for 2001: A Space Odyssey, succinctly described the present and future of computers:

“A VISITOR to our planet might be puzzled about the role of computers in our technology. On the one hand, he would read and hear all about wonderful ‘mechanical brains’ baffling their creators with prodigious intellectual performance. And he (or it) would be warned that these machines must be restrained, lest they overwhelm us by might, persuasion, or even by the revelation of truths too terrible to be borne. On the other hand, our visitor would find the machines being denounced on all sides for their slavish obedience, unimaginative literal interpretations, and incapacity for innovation or initiative; in short, for their inhuman dullness.

Our visitor might remain puzzled if he set out to find, and judge for himself, these monsters. For he would find only a few machines mostly general-purpose computers), programmed for the moment to behave according to some specification) doing things that might claim any real intellectual status. Some would be proving mathematical theorems of rather undistinguished character. A few machines might be playing certain games, occasionally defeating their designers. Some might be distinguishing between hand-printed letters. Is this enough to justify so much interest, let alone deep concern? I believe that it is; that we are on the threshold of an era that will be strongly influenced, and quite possibly dominated, by intelligent problem-solving machines. But our purpose is not to guess about what the future may bring; it is only to try to describe and explain what seem now to be our first steps toward the construction of ‘artificial intelligence.'”

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“It’s One Thing To Be Able To Say Something–That’s Marvelous. As Long As It’s Not A Documentary.”

November 19, 2012 in Film, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

In 1979, Merv Griffin interviews the big-name cast of The China Syndrome, a drama about a cover-up of security hazards at a nuclear power plant. The talk is largely a Hollywood ass-kissing session. Within a couple of weeks of the film’s release, a real-life version of the horrifying scenario played out as Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island plant melted down. Now that’s a tie-in.

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“All Deaths Are Recorded Outside Of Lake Buena Vista At Celebration Hospital”

November 19, 2012 in Excerpts, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

I’ve heard many times that a lot of the “tourists” at Disney World are plain-clothed security ready to pounce. Image control goes even beyond that. For instance: Apparently no one ever dies at Disney World, not at the “Happiest Place on Earth.” Sure, people actually do die there all the time, from natural causes and accidents. But the death is never called until the deceased has been removed from the park. A passage on this odd topic from an Ask Me Anything on Reddit with a former employee of the theme park:

Question:

I have a heard a rumor explaining why Disney boasts that there have been no deaths at any of the parks. It claimed that there is no official announcement of dead/alive until the body is outside of the Disney grounds, so even if a ride or natural causes claimed someone, the death is not truly attributed to Disney. True/false?

Answer:

This is true, all deaths are recorded outside of Lake Buena Vista at Celebration Hospital.*

A copy from a similar question on the other AMA: ‘Car accidents occur all the time as well, but Disney doesn’t just have an internal security force like other parks, they have internal police and fire as well. All of this is privatized, as one of the stipulations walt had bringing his Florida Project (Walt Disney World resort) to life was to have a town called Lake Buena Vista, which the Disney company controls. Basically, the only time you hear something is when a family doesn’t accept Disney’s more than gracious settlement (they are in the high six figures usually) and continues to actually sue or report to the media.’

*Celebration Hospital is a hospital run by Florida Hospital, a Christian hospital network in the greater Orlando metropolitan area. Celebration is a city that was founded, and to-an-extent still controlled by the Disney company. It was supposed to be ‘a little slice of Americana’ and as such is an insanely creepy place.

Hope that answers your question.”

••••••••••

Robert Smigel takes you inside Walt Disney’s vault:

“When She Was Born, She Didn’t Cry”

November 19, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

There are great moments of invention in any thinking person’s life. I don’t mean in the sense of inventing a product or system or anything like that, though that does happen on occasion. I’m talking about those moments of clarity when we realize something that we didn’t know before–something that a lot of other people might not yet know. It happens more often when we’re young and we have less experience and less information clogging up our brains, but it still can occur at any point in life, especially if you’re making an effort. It’s a positive, delightful experience.

But most learning–at least the really important lessons–isn’t delightful at all. It comes from pain and loss. The kind of shock or defeat that can recalibrate or even shatter a belief system. I’m talking mostly about emotional pain, though we learn, too, from the physical kind. And what becomes of people with a rare disorder that leaves them unable to feel physical pain? How does that affect their growth, their maturation? From a New York Times story by Justin Heckert about a teenager impervious to pain:

“When she was born, she didn’t cry. She barely made a noise, staring out from her swaddling with a blank red face. When she developed terrible diaper rash, so raw that it made Tara wince to even wash her, the pediatrician gave instructions to change her formula and put cream on the rash and keep it dry. ‘I kept thinking, But she’s not crying,’ Tara said. ‘The doctors dismissed it, but we’re thinking, What’s going on?’

When Ashlyn was 3 months old, the Blockers moved from Northern Virginia to Patterson, Ga., where Tara has family. At 6 months, Ashlyn’s left eye was swollen and bloodshot. The doctor suspected pink eye, but Ashlyn didn’t respond to the treatment, so they went to an ophthalmologist, who found a massive corneal abrasion. ‘And Ashlyn is just sitting there, happy as can be,’ Tara recalled. The ophthalmologist assumed she had no corneal sensation in her eyes, and referred them to the Nemours Children’s Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. It took a while to get an appointment, and before they made it to Jacksonville, Ashlyn rubbed big red splotches on her nose and almost chewed off part of her tongue with her emerging teeth.

At the clinic, they drew Ashlyn’s blood and took scans of her brain and her spine, but the tests were inconclusive. Over the next 18 months, there were more tests. A nerve biopsy from the back of her leg left stitches that ripped when she was running. When the doctor finally gave his diagnosis, Tara was afraid she would forget the words, so she asked him to write them down. The doctor took out a business card and wrote on the back: ‘Congenital insensitivity to pain.'”

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A Brief Note From 1901 About A Family Reunion

November 18, 2012 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the November 11, 1901 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“There was a family gathering in the apartments of Cassino Di Napoli, a rag picker, 65 years old, who lives on the first floor of the rear house at 570 Sackett Street, between 7 and 8 o’clock last evening and before the party was over one man had stab wounds in the head, two stab wounds in the back, besides a variety of other injuries, and a woman had been slashed on the head and bitten. A knife poker, stove lid and other implements were called into play and the house where the little family reunion took place looked after the fracas as if it were the fatality ward of a hospital.”

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“You Know What People In The Middle Ages Were Really, Really Good At? Killing.”

November 18, 2012 in Politics | Permalink

One of the most colossally dumb things coming out of another tense week in the Middle East, regardless of how you feel about the politics involved, was the following statement from Israel Interior Minister Eli Yishai:

“The goal of the operation is to send Gaza back to the Middle Ages. Only then will Israel be calm for forty years.”

Yishai is obviously unconcerned about the humanitarian crisis such a scenario would create, but why, even for selfish reasons, would you  want your neighbor to be living in Medieval times? Who would choose to live next door to such conditions? You know, communities destabilized, backwards, weak and with little to lose. How will this lead to Israelis feeling secure for decades? 

I suppose his contention is that Palestinians without rockets will mean Israel can’t be targeted from the air, but do you know what people in the Middle Ages were really, really good at? Killing. A Gaza Strip that is modern, developed and upwardly mobile would probably be a safer alternative for all involved. I know comfortable, tech-friendly nations can devastate militarily and not always for warranted reasons–I live in one of them–but there should be as much to lose as possible on all sides. That would be safer for everyone.•

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“There Will Always, Always Be Twinkies”

November 18, 2012 in Urban Studies | Permalink

I just purchased six cases on uBid.

Has there been a bigger non-story in recent memory than the “Twinkies no more!” piece that has seemingly been run by every news outlet in the country this week? You know, the parent company, Hostess, is going out of business so their world-famous product will soon disappear forever. You need to horde boxes of Twinkies because once they’re gone, they’re gone!

Of course, this is nonsense. A product so popular will be purchased by another company in short order, and there will always, always be Twinkies as long as people want to buy them. It’s a waste of newsprint and airtime and the type of lazy bullshit that makes the media look foolish.

I’m not saying that you should ever eat these death-cakes. You should not. They are horrid. But for those who want a particularly gigantic ass, Twinkies will be there to help you achieve your goal.

Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

November 18, 2012 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

“Please send me a mail.”

I need somebody from Serbia to give me information about a Pop Star (New York)

Hello, I need somebody from Serbia or Montenegro, Croatia or any other surrounding country to give me information about a Serbia pop star, need to know how famous she is, is she´s the bad girl pop star (like Lindsay Lohan) or the good girl pop star (like Hillary Duff) stuff like that… please send me a mail and help me with that if you’re from Serbia or any other surrounding country I also want to know about important Serbian magazines to sell pictures of this pop star.

Thank you.

“The Goal Was Not To Build A Product. The Goal Was To Reelect The President.”

November 18, 2012 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech | Permalink

Alexis Madrigal has an interesting article in the Atlantic about the data stream vs. anecdotal evidence divide of the recent Presidential election. An excerpt about Obama’s tech team:

“To really understand what happened behind the scenes at the Obama campaign, you need to know a little bit about its organizational structure. Tech was Harper Reed’s domain. ‘Digital’ was Joe Rospars’ kingdom; his team was composed of the people who sent you all those emails, designed some of the consumer-facing pieces of BarackObama.com, and ran the campaigns’ most-excellent accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, video, and the like. Analytics was run by Dan Wagner, and those guys were responsible for coming up with ways of finding and targeting voters they could persuade or turn out. Jeremy Bird ran Field, the on-the-ground operations of organizing voters at the community level that many consider Obama’s secret sauce . The tech for the campaign was supposed to help the Field, Analytics, and Digital teams do their jobs better. Tech, in a campaign or at least this campaign or perhaps any successful campaign, has to play a supporting role. The goal was not to build a product. The goal was to reelect the President. As Reed put it, if the campaign were Moneyball, he wouldn’t be Billy Beane, he’d be ‘Google Boy.’

There’s one other interesting component to the campaign’s structure. And that’s the presence of two big tech vendors interfacing with the various teams — Blue State Digital and NGP Van. The most obvious is the firm that Rospars, Jascha Franklin-Hodge, and Clay Johnson co-founded, Blue State Digital. They’re the preeminent progressive digital agency, and a decent chunk — maybe 30 percent — of their business comes from providing technology to campaigns. Of course, BSD’s biggest client was the Obama campaign and has been for some time. BSD and Obama for America were and are so deeply enmeshed, it would be difficult to say where one ended and the other began. After all, both Goff and Rospars, the company’s principals, were paid staffers of the Obama campaign. And yet between 2008 and 2012, BSD was purchased by WPP, one of the largest ad agencies in the world. What had been an obviously progressive organization was now owned by a huge conglomerate and had clients that weren’t other Democratic politicians. 

One other thing to know about Rospars, specifically: ‘He’s the Karl Rove of the Internet,’ someone who knows him very well told me. What Rove was to direct mail — the undisputed king of the medium — Rospars is to email. He and Goff are the brains behind Obama’s unprecedented online fundraising efforts. They know what they were doing and had proven that time and again.”

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“I Think We’ll Be In Augmented Reality All The Time”

November 18, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Via Computerworld, a passage on Ray Kurzweil holding forth at the DEMO conference last week: “You can learn new material at any age, but there is a limited capacity. That’s one of the things we will overcome by basically expanding the brain into the cloud,’ he said. ‘We need to be able to repurpose our neocortex to learn something new. People who have a rigid process and hold onto old information; they will have a hard time doing that. You need to be able to move on.’

While Kurzweil did not give a timetable for these predictions, he said the notion of ‘brain extenders’ has already begun thanks to technology including IBM’s Watson supercomputer and augmented reality. ‘I think we’ll be in augmented reality all the time,’ Kurzweil said.”

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“I Began The Search For The Yeti With Some Skepticism”

November 18, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

I put up a post last month when I began reading The Three Christs of Ypsilanti (and, wow, what a reading experience it was). At midway point or so, there’s a reference to a 1961 Life magazine article about Sir Edmund Hillary preparing for a Himalayas expedition to search for the Abominable Snowman. It’s difficult to fathom that anyone still believed that such a thing possibly existed in the same decade we were to reach the moon, but it’s true. The New Zealand mountaineer actually penned the piece himself. The opening:

“Does the yeti or ‘abominable snowman’ really exist? Or is it a myth without practical foundation? For the last four months our Himalayan scientific and mountaineering expedition has been trying, to find out–and now we think we know the answer.

There has been a growing pile of evidence in favor of the creature’s existence: the tracks seem by many explorers or Himalayan glaciers, the complete conviction for the local people that yetis roam the mountains, the yeti scalps and hands kept as relics in the high monasteries, the many stories by people who claimed to have seen them.

But despite the firm belief of many Himalayan explorers and of some anthropologists, I began the search for the yeti with some skepticism.”

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“I Love Being Alone In A Room With A Typewriter”

November 18, 2012 in Videos | Permalink

Merv Griffin interviews prolific playwright Neil Simon in 1967.

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This Week’s Afflictor Keyphrase Searches

November 17, 2012 in Misc. | Permalink


Some search-engine keyphrases bringing traffic to Afflictor this week:

Highlights From Yet Another Week Of Afflictor

November 16, 2012 in Misc. | Permalink

Afflictor: Believing General Petraeus has gotten very involved with recruitment.

Reporting for duty, sir.

  • It doesn’t matter that the best player didn’t win the AL MVP, but still.
  • Gore Vidal thought denying others’ talents elevated him. He was wrong.
  • Nate Silver chats about election-year number crunching.
  • Drug addiction may be part of our evolutionary survival instincts. 

A Brief Note From 1852 About A Serious Affray

November 16, 2012 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the February 16, 1852 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“Last evening, about 8 o’clock, a row occurred between some parties who were making themselves drunk in the liquor store of Henry Briordy, in Stewart’s Alley, Front Street, in which one of the combatants had his ear completely bitten off, and his head and face beautifully minced. The man who lost his ear, who is named James Mullen, had some angry words with a lighterman who manages a boat on the East River, and blows were exchanged between them; but it did not amount to much and the boatman left, while Mullen remained in the rum shop. Soon after a man named Pat McGinnis, who witnessed the scene accused Mullen of meanness. An altercation commenced with the parties inviting each other to the street to settle the differences. The wife of McGinnis offered material aid to her husband by striking Mullen on the head with a club, while her husband bit one of his ears completely off. This morning Justice King fined McGinnis $25, and his wife, who is a good, mild looking woman, was fined $15.”

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“The Erection Of A Modestly-Sized Greenhouse Might Not Appear Worthy Of Much Attention”

November 16, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

I’ve posted before about the possibilities and perils of terraforming on Earth. A Norwegian firm is currently drastically altering a ribbon of desert in Qatar. From CNN:

“In a region known for its towering skyscrapers, the erection of a modestly-sized greenhouse might not appear worthy of much attention.

But this small construction site near the coast in Qatar’s Mesaieed Industrial City could help transform the landscape forever, says its developers, turning desert land into flourishing centers of food and freshwater production.

The $5.3 million, one-hectare pilot plant opens later this month and is a major milestone of the Sahara Forest Project (SFP) — a concept that has been developed by a Norwegian company since 2008.”

“The Ultimate Destiny Of The Futuristic System Would Be To Shift Aging Tech Entrepreneurs Around Their Retirement Communities On Mars”

November 16, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

I’m fairly consumed by Elon Musk’s proposal for the Hyperloop, a high-speed and futuristic transportation which can whisk passengers via tubes across states without leaving a carbon imprint. Some new details from the Register:

“Elon Musk dropped a few further hints about his Hyperloops transit plan in London last night, saying it is ‘a cross between a Concorde and a rail gun” whose biggest hurdles included ‘right-of-way’ issues.

And it seems that the ultimate destiny of the futuristic system would be to shift aging tech entrepreneurs around their retirement communities on Mars.

The sometime net-payments kingpin turned car designer turned rocketman told an audience at theEconomist‘s Innovation Awards that he hoped to publish some actual details of the project before the end of the year.”

See also:

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“False Narratives Can Have Serious Consequences”

November 16, 2012 in Science/Tech, Sports | Permalink

Baseball is just fun, not important. There are no real ramifications. There are errors, sure, but each one is spelled with a small “e.” I can understand children crying or being really depressed if their favorite team loses. They haven’t had enough life experience to be consumed by headier matters. But adults who behave this way are lacking something. They haven’t evolved properly, haven’t developed the best priorities.

So it doesn’t really matter that the wrong player won the AL MVP award yesterday when Miguel Cabrera beat Mike Trout, or that many of the voters used stubbornly illogical, irrational reasons to justify their choice. The world will be fine despite this mistake.

But it’s still a little galling to see so many educated adults use such faulty reasoning, to cling to a narrative of their choosing in the face of facts. It was simple: Trout added more value to his team than Cabrera did for his, when you factor in offense, defense and baserunning. It doesn’t take a degree in advanced statistics to figure this out. The sportswriters who supported Cabrera did so because they cherry-picked certain statistics (offense, in this case) because they wanted to choose a player who won the Triple Crown (led his league in homers, RBIs and batting average). They wanted to reward the “historical importance” of such a feat. Except that at best it’s a tradition steeped in false logic and one that’s selective reasoning when used as the crux of an MVP argument.

They chose the narrative they cared about most for emotional reasons. The sad thing is, Trout, the actual best player. had a very real and wonderful narrative. A 22-year-old rookie who was the absolute best player in either league in his initial season? Such a rare and wonderful thing.

As I said, it won’t do any harm. But in other areas of life false narratives can have serious consequences. People can be passed over for employment or housing because “common wisdom” says certain things about certain people. Believing a narrative instead of facts can convince parents to not immunize children because of unwarranted fear. Mitt Romney lost nine out of ten swing states not only because he was a weak candidate but because of his campaign’s disdain for numbers. Facts matter and it would probably be a good thing if we practice using them even when considering the less important things in life.•

“Their Use Must Be Drastically Reduced In The Next 20–40 Years Or We Will Begin To Starve”

November 15, 2012 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

From financier Jeremy Grantham’s impassioned, new Nature article about the scary potential of climate change, which is rushing at us like Yeats’ sun, blank and pitiless:

“Then there is the impending shortage of two fertilizers: phosphorus (phosphate) and potassium (potash). These two elements cannot be made, cannot be substituted, are necessary to grow all life forms, and are mined and depleted. It’s a scary set of statements. Former Soviet states and Canada have more than 70% of the potash. Morocco has 85% of all high-grade phosphates. It is the most important quasi-monopoly in economic history.

What happens when these fertilizers run out is a question I can’t get satisfactorily answered and, believe me, I have tried. There seems to be only one conclusion: their use must be drastically reduced in the next 20–40 years or we will begin to starve.

The world’s blind spot when it comes to the fertilizer problem is seen also in the shocking lack of awareness on the part of governments and the public of the increasing damage to agriculture by climate change; for example, runs of extreme weather that have slashed grain harvests in the past few years. Recognition of the facts is delayed by the frankly brilliant propaganda and obfuscation delivered by energy interests that virtually own the US Congress. (It is not unlike the part played by the financial industry when investment bubbles start to form … but that, at least, is only money.) We need oil producers to leave 80% of proven reserves untapped to achieve a stable climate. As a former oil analyst, I can easily calculate oil companies’ enthusiasm to leave 80% of their value in the ground — absolutely nil.

The damaging effects of climate change are accelerating.” (Thanks Browser.)

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Recently Posted On NYC’s Craigslist

November 15, 2012 in Misc., Urban Studies | Permalink

“For a school project.”

Do you have Bed Bugs & Stink Bugs – $5 (NYC)

Need live Bed Bugs & Stink Bugs for a School Project.Must be in a safe clear containers (storage containers, clean medicine bottles, etc.) where they can breathe but not escape

Bedbugs – 10 or more per container $5per container

Stink Bugs – 5 or more per container $10per container

If you have the bugs but do not have safe containers and are in NYC or Bronx, contact me.

“Lately, Dr. Spock Has Broadened His Range And Often Speaks Out About Politics”

November 15, 2012 in Politics, Science/Tech, Videos | Permalink

Dr. Benjamin Spock, the pediatrician who encouraged parents to be more affectionate to their children and protested the Vietnam War, is interviewed by Merv Griffin in 1966.

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“A Higher Percentage Of Conservatives Are More Inclined To Question Empirical Methods”

November 15, 2012 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech | Permalink

Nate Silver, the erstwhile baseball numbers cruncher, who, from what I hear, now does political predictions, just completed a chat with readers at Deadspin. The opening follows.

______________________________________

Question: 

Will you be forecasting the 2014, and 2016 election?

Nate Silver:

As tempting as it might be to pull a Jim Brown/Sandy Koufax and just mic-drop/retire from elections forecasting, I expect that we’ll be making forecasts in 2014 and 2016. Midterm elections can be dreadfully boring, unfortunately. But the 2016 G.O.P. primary seems almost certain to be epic.

Question: 

Hypothetically, if the GOP presidential nom starts getting up big in the polls in 2016, do you fear a backlash from your most ardent supporters/fanbase?

Nate Silver:

We got a modest amount of this in 2010, where I’d get Tweets saying things like “When did Nate become a Republican?”

But I don’t want to make it sound as though the two sides are equal. It seems as though a higher percentage of conservatives are more inclined to question empirical methods, to put it diplomatically. 

Question:

Nate – Who gave the most ridiculous refutations of your work? Old school baseball guys, or GOP media a couple weeks ago? 

Nate Silver:

It’s MUCH worse in politics, I think:

1) People in sports will make lots of silly refutations of your arguments. But they do tend to deal with your arguments, rather than attack your character or your integrity.

2) A lot of people in politics operate in a “post-truth” worldview, whether they realize it or not. Less of that in sports.

3) In sports, scouts actually contribute a lot of value, even though statistics are highly useful as well. In politics, the pundits are completely useless at best, and probably harm democracy in their own small way.

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Even More Proof That Donald Trump Is A Moron

November 15, 2012 in Humor, Politics | Permalink

Donald Trump: The best argument yet for steep inheritance taxes.

In addition to being an unsightly, orange-headed goof who ridicules the looks of attractive women, Donald Trump is unintelligent, bigoted and delusional. A couple of examples. 

Cher recently poked fun at the racist, sexist buffoon, so he tweeted about her.

_______________________

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonalTrump

.@cher should spend more time focusing on her family and dying career!

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump

.@cher–I don’t wear a “rug”—it’s mine. And I promise not to talk about your massive plastic surgeries that didn’t work.

_______________________

Hmm, what could “focusing on her family” mean? It would seem to be a potshot at Chaz Bono who was born female and had sexual-reassignment surgery. As if Chaz is transgender because of some failing of Cher as a mother. As if anyone who doesn’t fit into the so-called mainstream is somehow less of a person, an occasion to point fingers at a “culprit.” My assumption is that Chaz is more of a man that Donald Trump will ever be. And Donald Trump shouldn’t make make fun of anyone’s cosmetic surgeries. I’m pretty sure he’s the only one in his family with large, natural tits.

But Donald Trump isn’t only delusional about celebrity Twitter feuds. He also thinks he’s bright enough to fool someone about his campaign of bigotry against our first African-American President.

_______________________

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump

Why do so many people say I hate President Obama—I don’t hate the President at all. I just disagree with his policies!

_______________________

But, of course, no one is buying this bullshit. Demanding that the President provide his birth certificate (after he already had) is the Birther’s racist way of disqualifying Obama, saying that he is “other” and not “one of us.” It had nothing to do with policy. Repeatedly ordering Obama to release his school transcripts has nothing to do with policy. It’s a means to suggest that the President got where he is not by effort, talent and intelligence but because of Affirmative Action. It’s meant to demean him and diminish anyone African-American who achieves. (Donald Trump, who inherited money, land and connections from his father, is actually the one who received a head start in life that he didn’t deserve.) And saying that the President is “not smart” has nothing to do with policy.

Donald Trump pretending his hateful attacks on the President are about “policy” is just him trying to backtrack from his disgraceful behavior not because of remorse but because of expediency. He should not be allowed to do so.

John Wilkes Booth: Why, I didn’t hate President Lincoln at all. We just debated in a theater balcony once.

Leon Czolgosz: There was no dispute with President McKinley. I merely playfully rubbed his belly with my gun.

Squeaky: President Ford and I were tight. We were just horsing around.

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