New preprint! "Literacy skills seem to fuel literacy enjoyment, rather than vice versa" https://t.co/hrDNWKulwU We tested the direction of causation in 3,690 twins aged 12. See here what we found (1/5): pic.twitter.com/T75aVC3yAH
— Dr Elsje van Bergen (@drElsje) September 22, 2021
The ancient theatre of Thasos island, Greece, 4th-3rd c.BC. pic.twitter.com/5di3GOCp1d
— Archaeology & Art (@archaeologyart) September 23, 2021
From Cancel Culture Takes a Big "L": The press tries and fails to hype a crisis into existence over Dave Chappelle's new Netflix special by Matt Taibbi.
Taibbi has really been hammering, appropriately, the mainstream media for their evolution into the propaganda department of the Manderin Class, focused on suppressing embarrassing stories (Hunter Bidne's laptop(s)), attempting to hide popular sentiment (representing chants of "Fuck Joe Biden" as "Let's Go Brandon"), hyping panic porn (Covid-19) and refusing to investigate facts which might run counter to their preferred ideological narrative.
In this instance, all the mainstream media outlets hyped a supposed protest of Netflix employees against a recent David Chappelle production.
This echoes the supposed January 6th protest last month involving, supposedly and depending on which media outlet you listened to, 100's of thousands of right wing authoritarian kooks. Then as we drew nearer to the planned event, 10,000s. Then hundreds.
In the end, reporters from the mainstream media outnumbered undercover FBI agents who in turn outnumbered the few actual protesters.
Here is Taibbi's account of the Netflix protest.
First, there were the numbers. Over the course of the last week, news commentators predicted a huge demonstration of Netflix employees in protest of comedian Dave Chappelle’s The Closer special, with Yahoo! typifying coverage. “Reports say that one thousand Netflix employees — nearly 10% of the company’s workforce,” they wrote, “are planning an October 20 walkout to protest the Chappelle special.”
The Hollywood Reporter did say “at least one thousand” were planning on participating in a “virtual walkout,” whatever that is, but noted the story first came out in The Verge, which talked about a “company-wide” demonstration. Others followed, mostly without any hint that any of the reporters involved talked to anyone at Netflix but the demonstration’s organizers.
Nobody checked, because everyone liked the narrative as was. As a result, “at least one thousand” became gospel, via headlines like Gizmodo’s “1,000 Netflix Employees Are Reportedly Planning Walkout to Protest New Chappelle Special,” or The Independent inviting us to “watch live” as “more than one thousand Netflix employees are set to walk out of their jobs on Wednesday.”
By this Wednesday, October 20th, the day of the planned walkout, the story became “hundreds of Netflix employees and supporters are expected” to show up (CNN). Then, as the event started, it became “hundreds of protesters stood in solidarity with” Netflix’s employees, per The Daily Beast, for instance. Then NBC told us “Hundreds rally outside Netflix,” where protesting employees who lined up outside were “met with roaring applause.”
How many employees walked out? Not one news organization put the real number in a headline.
It seems broadly agreed that the number of Netflix walkout protesters was at most in the dozens. A few dozen killjoy ideologues versus 12,100 employees overall. Far fewer people than in an average wedding (167). The mainstream media wanted something dramatic to make the case that America is overwhelmingly actively prejudiced against trans people. Instead, the employees confirmed that people are simply not as concerned by fringe and disputed social issues as are the mainstream media.
“A young woman in my own practice has 2 small children. She has never been married. I bumped into the father of her two children. He told me how much he loves Linda. He told me that he has proposed marriage, twice & both times Linda turned him down.” Why? Here’s why👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/9YgSfOScwZ
— Brad Wilcox (@BradWilcoxIFS) September 22, 2021
The Unknown CitizenW. H. Auden - 1907-1973
(To JS/07 M 378This Marble MonumentIs Erected by the State)He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to beOne against whom there was no official complaint,And all the reports on his conduct agreeThat, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.Except for the War till the day he retiredHe worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views,For his Union reports that he paid his dues,(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)And our Social Psychology workers foundThat he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every dayAnd that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declareHe was fully sensible to the advantages of the Instalment PlanAnd had everything necessary to the Modern Man,A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went.He was married and added five children to the population,Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation.And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.
The Alchemist in Search of the Philosopher's Stone by Joseph Wright of Derby.
The picture shows the alchemist trying to produce the elusive Philosopher's stone, which could turn ordinary metal into gold, but instead, to his amazement, he discovers phosphorus. However, Wright does not picture the alchemist in a 17th-century background but he romanticizes the room by imagining medieval gothic arches and high, pointed windows as if he is in a church. He also gave a very favorable impression of the actual process which involves the reduction by boiling of urine. A 1730 description of the manufacture of phosphorus described the need for 50 or 60 pails of urine that was both putrid and "bred worms".
The German alchemist Hennig Brandt, in search of the Philosopher's Stone, discovered phosphorus during an experiment with fermented urine in 1669. This period, 1650-1750 was at that transition from a world of uncertain knowledge structured through religious beliefs to the Age of Enlightenment, the age when thinkers adopted the determination that the world is knowable by man and can be discovered through the scientific method, evidence, reason and logic.
The painting is probably based on a description of the process for making phosphorus in a book about chemistry by Pierre-Joseph Macquer, which was shared with Joseph Wright by the Liverpool chemist, Matthew Turner. The small jet of blue light from a hole in the flask is the first visible sign of phosphorous.
I like this painting for two reasons. The first is that it pays tribute to the Age of Reason (discovery of phosphorous) but also acknowledges through its imagery a more ancient religious sentiment. The kneeling figure of Brandt, his acolytes of knowledge in the background, the lighting of revelation.
And that is the second attraction. Tenebrism is a term derived from Italian, 'tenebroso', which means darkened and obscuring. Tenebrism describes paintings in which significant details such as faces and hands are illuminated and highlighted while contrasting with a predominantly dark setting. It is a striking technique and I have always been attracted to paintings in such a style.
COVID Population Fatality Ratios By Single Year of Age
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) September 22, 2021
Data from January 1, 2020 to September 18, 2021, as of September 22, 2021. pic.twitter.com/XLeGOS2Krx
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