July 22, 2018

July 21, 2018

Ladies and Gentlemen, Your Social Media

True stories took, on average, six times longer than falsehoods to reach at least 1,500 people.

The reason false information does better than the true stuff is simple, say the researchers. Things spread through social networks because they are appealing, not because they are true.

On Twitter, falsehood spreads faster than truth, The Economist, March 10, 2018

July 20, 2018

Cactus Interruptus

Flowering Cactus, October, 2008

Kidnapping Babies As State Policy One Week, Genuflecting before Putin the Next. Are We There Yet?

A good laugh:

With the exception of his Nazi association, Heidegger’s life was relatively uneventful.

Martin Heidegger: The forgetfulness of Being,Times Literary Suplement, July 18, 2018

July 14, 2018

I Suggest Checking His Papers Very Very Carefully Before Letting Him Back Into The Country. Zero Tolerance

How do we know that the person we take to be "Donald Trump" isn't actually a trained impostor cleverly substituted for the original Trump by Russian agents during the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow back in 2013? Doesn't Ian Fleming demand this of us?

We should require DNA testing of the presumed president before letting "Donald Trump" return, just to be on the safe side.

July 06, 2018

Standards And Practices

I would append Dante to every comment deriding Trump and his Republican enablers I ever make now that I've run across it.

Tu stesso ti fai grosso
col falso imaginar, sì che non vedi
ciò che vedresti se l'avessi scosso.

Paradiso, Canto I, lines 88, 89, 90

July 05, 2018

One Hundred Per Cent Outstanding

“I don’t believe them at all,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, according to pool reporter Todd J. Gillman of The Dallas Morning News. “I believe him.”

“Jim Jordan is one of the most outstanding people I’ve met since I’ve been in Washington,” Trump continued. “I believe him 100 percent. No question in my mind. I believe Jim Jordan 100 percent. He’s an outstanding man.”

Outstanding man, that Jordan.

July 01, 2018

The San Francisco Giants ballclub recorded its 45th victory today by completing a sweep of a three game series in Arizona against the division-leading Diamondbacks. The victory lifted the team to five games over .500 for the season.

Last year, in a season left unremarked if equanamity is to be preserved, the club reached its 45th victory on August 8, never reaching .500 the entire season long.

Presently the lads are five weeks ahead of last year's pace, suggesting that last year's result will be surpassed as well.

Play Ball!