Posts by linger
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Hard News: The next four years, in reply to mark taslov,
Nevertheless, the phrase “PC gone mad” and similar tantrums against "identity politics" still constitute fairly reliable diagnostics for speakers short on empathy for those unlike themselves.
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Hard News: The next four years, in reply to Tom Semmens,
Nah. Just the false consensus effect in operation (i.e., we tend to think others will naturally share our own views and competences). You can expect it’s something that educated liberals will more often fall prey to, because it’s a lot easier to “build a consensus” for something communicable by emotional grunting (“USA! USA!” “Lock her up!” “Burn the witch!”) than for something that requires nuanced thought. No need to bring out the moral judgypants accusations of “laziness and arrogance” – even leaving aside that that sort of reflex judging is (i) the very thing you’re accusing your purported “(neo)liberal elite” hivemind of doing, and (ii) one of the worst features of the right’s attitudes towards “undeserving” immigrants and beneficiaries -- because it drives real laws with real negative effects on the most vulnerable members of our society. Identity politics matters a great deal.
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Polity: TPP, eh?, in reply to Alfie,
If the drafters were in any way competent, such laws would be worded so as to come into effect only after the TPP, which would make them dead letters now anyway. But then again, why should we expect competence from these assclowns?
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Hard News: Public Address founder…, in reply to WH,
Let’s just see what happens
I don’t advise anyone to hold their breath: we’ve heard all of this before. Here’s Mills in 2002.
"We’re almost completely done with the core science. We’re getting to the point where we’re not going to need a lot of money,” he explains. “Our focus is on scaling up for commercial applications."
Followed by that Phase I report ... asking for more money.
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Hard News: Public Address founder…, in reply to John Farrell,
Certainly that was Bob Park’s verdict in 2008 (when, familiarly enough, BLP was promising delivery of a working product “within 12-18 months”).
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And as if on cue, here's a new BBC Radio 4 series, Nothing But The Truth, on the "post-truth" world.
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Mills himself has a “doctorate level qualification”. It’s not in physics.
Nor did any of the observers emerging with any enthusiasm for the company have relevant qualifications in quantum mechanics.
Amongst other organisations, NASA looked into it, concluding the evidence was “not compelling” (which Park 2002 notes is admin-speak for not wanting to admit you wasted your research budget).
Meanwhile, Mills' spectroscopic findings have been adequately explained as the product of already known processes; and no separate band has ever been observed in the hydrogen emission spectrum corresponding to Mills' claimed lower-energy "hydrino" state.… Ah. I see what you did here.
Dammit, I’d managed to forget that post-truth was the winner. -
Hard News: Public Address founder…, in reply to Russell Brown,
Possibly move to the Tale of Two Iceblocks thread? – where WH has already posted a reference to the same emergent technology/scam (cross out whichever doesn’t apply, but until details of the proposed mechanism are supplied, the latter seems more likely: the report as cited implies catalysts can magically create energy, which -- if that is the actual claim -- is risible).
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Speaker: Are we seeing the end of MSM,…, in reply to John Farrell,
Note also the headline’s victim-blaming femme fatale reference
(“crash” should presumably have been added). -
Hard News: From Zero: Weed, in reply to Steve Withers,
Hey, what do Labour really have to lose at this point -- could they possibly make themselves more unpopular with the public? The bigger problem for them is that it would expose party disunity: their current MP roster includes some social conservatives who would be vocally against any such policy.