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Open thread 12/25/23 — 36 Comments

  1. MERRY CHRISTMAS

    From chilly Colorado. It is about 12 right now, but no Snow.
    Making a Roast Duck today. A Christmas Tradition for my Wife and I. We would go to Omaha to visit her Parents at Christmas. They would have two Ducks, so lots of leftovers. Her Dad (an 82nd Airborne Vet of WWII) made these absolutely killer Manhattans. Never had one until I had Christmas with them. Two of them and I was Lit.

    Stay Safe and Sound, and Be Careful Out There

  2. Maverick scientist/author/philosopher Rupert Sheldrake has done some interesting research and written a book:
    _____________________________

    The Sense of Being Stared At

    Most people surveyed say they’ve had the felt experience of someone looking at them from behind, which is immediately confirmed when they turn around. Most have also had the converse experience; staring at someone in a crowd who then turns around to look back. Since the late 1980’s I have been researching this sense of being stared at,formally termed scopaesthesia, which has wide implications for the nature of our minds, our vision, and the world at large.

    The significant positive scores in my experiments confirm that the feeling is a real phenomenon that depends on factors as yet unknown to science. Non-human animals likely also share this kind of sensitivity, giving new significance to the evolution of predator/prey relations, mating, and social systems.

    This research is described in a series of papers (below) and in my book The Sense of Being Stared At, And Other Aspects of the Extended Mind.

    https://www.sheldrake.org/research/sense-of-being-stared-at

  3. I don’t know far to go with Sheldrake. I’m glad he’s around as a gadfly.

    The prominent science journal, “Nature,” recommended his first book as “the best candidate for burning there has been for many years.”

    –“John Maddox on Sheldrake and Book Burning”
    https://www.youtube.com/embed/QcWOz1xjtsY

    Sheldrake did a TedX talk, “The Science Delusion,” which Ted later removed from the series.

    –Rupert Sheldrake, “The Science Delusion BANNED TED TALK”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKHUaNAxsTg

    I have come to despise this aspect of current science, in which scientists consider themselves high priests and gatekeepers to their idea of Truth. They don’t just disagree and rebut, they wish to shut down alternate views.

    Meanwhile, academics and scientists have no problem with climate change alarmism, half-baked, deceptive renewable energy schemes, the trans nonsense, and the shifting of academia from liberal debate to woke indoctrination.

    Oh, and let’s not forget the Reproducibility Crisis:
    _______________________________________

    More than 70% of researchers have tried and failed to reproduce another scientist’s experiments, and more than half have failed to reproduce their own experiments. Those are some of the telling figures that emerged from Nature’s survey of 1,576 researchers who took a brief online questionnaire on reproducibility in research.

    https://www.nature.com/articles/533452a
    _______________________________________

    I know I romanticized science and scientists as a kid, but this seems a long way down from what we have a right to expect. IMO.

  4. I’m not a scientist, but it seems to me that results which can’t be replicated are not to be relied upon.

  5. It is a tough Christmas today. Evil is afoot in the world with the CCP, our ruinous Democrats, the Democratic regulatory Deep State, Biden, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, the Houthis in Yemen, Putin the aggressor, and North Korea’s Kim.
    The American Republic’s toes are at the edge of the terrible abyss. God bless the USA! And give us the strength to pull back from that edge.

  6. huxley, on a subject related to the Reproducibility Crisis, Claudine Gay is accused of hiding the underlying data for her published article which gained her tenure at Stanford. The Manhattan Contrarian says:

    As far as I am concerned, failure by a researcher to share the underlying data as to published work is prima facie evidence that the data have been falsified. The ability to disprove that inference is completely in the hands of the researcher, here Ms. Gay, and there is no reason to refuse disclosure other than known problems in the data.

    The paper which showed the data problems in 2002 has been removed from internet archives.

    https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2023-12-24-claudine-gay-update-now-its-data-falsification

  7. A single failure to replicate an experiment could well be just a failure to run the experiment properly. However, a genuine “can’t be replicated” is almost always something that just ain’t so.

  8. Shirehome,
    Had a holiday meal at a friend’s house that included two roast ducks. He gave me the carcasses. I stripped all the meat I could get, then simmered the two skeletons with Herbs and Spices and had two quarts of sublime stock.

    The bits I stripped off I made into a breakfast hash. Weak at the knees good.

    Merry Christmas, all. I’m spending the day delivering food, forgotten ingredients and booze to folks here in the Valley of the Sun.

  9. huxley,

    Thanks for your post about The Sense of Being Stared At. I mentioned this interesting (to me) topic here once, although I didn’t know there was a term for it.

    I have read that animals can sense magnetic fields, so maybe the explanation involves that.

  10. What a glorious and patient kookaburra! I can never get that close or get one to sit still that long. Sorry it didn’t laugh at the camera. Now that would have been something else.

    Like I said the other day… blessed Christmas to you all. Ours is wonderful and I expect all 12 days to continue being so… whatever else unfolds.

    “My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people. He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel!” – Luke 2:30-32

  11. Obviously, experiment required by all here is to pick a target and stare at he/her/them/they/it/other .
    Multiply power by including spouse, or friend.
    Post results next week.

    Reminds me of story in middle school book that led me to try and communicate telepathically with pretty classmates.

  12. there is nothing wrong with Science, unless you ignore that the Creator put in motion, random chance, or mans arrogance that he can command the elements is where they fall away,

  13. Falsifying data?
    You don’t say!
    Oh Plucky Woman!!
    But one can certainly understand her POV.
    Why should a White male be allowed to plagiarize countless times (and even be elected president with a RECORD NUMBER of votes) but a Black woman NOT be allowed to do so???
    Sexism? Racism? Outrageous double standards, anyone?
    It’s all so lamentable…

    And Obama does have a point. She should be supported. Absolutely.
    What? A White male president can go and destroy his country but a Black woman president CANNOT be allowed to destroy her university?
    What is this? What’s going on here?
    Can this possibly be America in the 21st century?

    The hypocrisy is staggering…
    Calls for her resignation are outrageous…

    Instead, the powers that be might consider making her the next VPOTUS. The country’s mighty tired of cackling word salad, and her plagiarizing past makes her a most suitable—and qualified—fit.

    (Hey! maybe Kamala Harris can be awarded the presidency of Harvard in return…)

  14. Hey! maybe Kamala Harris can be awarded the presidency of Harvard in return…)

    It would serve them right. 😉

  15. there’s a reason Gilead’s capital was set in Harvard, largely for margaret atwood to get back at her instructors in graduate school, sans Perry Miller,

  16. I had a similar photo-op experience with a llama in a Texas field. Spotted it when I was driving and pulled over (that was when they were still a relatively new import to ranching). It was near the fence, so I got out and took a couple of pictures. When I backed away a bit to leave, the wooly diva actually turned her (surely a her) head and batted her eyes, clearly implying that I needed to get her other profile.

  17. Re: Claudine Gray won’t share her data

    Kate:

    Yes, thanks for the Contrarian link. Gay is a perfect, flagrant example of Something Being Terribly Wrong.

    Nonetheless, I’m betting 50-50 Gay will be forced out.

    And all the Obama’s horses and all the Obama’s men couldn’t put Claudine together again.

  18. Victor Hanson would seem to agree with you, in a searing article that sees him unload on the Ivy League—make that unload on “Everything”—grift and use a four-letter word (and not in Latin). More egregiously, he may have misspelled “wainscotted”…though that might be the spell-checker’s fault.
    ‘ “It’s All One Big Status-Acquisition Hustle”… And Half The Country Likes It That Way ‘—
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/its-all-one-big-status-acquisition-hustle-and-half-country-likes-it-way
    Key graf (RTWT):
    ‘…You may have noticed that our country, formerly a republic of sovereign individuals, has become one great big racketeering operation run by a mafia-like cabal with Marxist characteristics — or, at least, Marxist pretenses. That is, it seeks to profit by every avenue of dishonesty and coercion, under the guise of rescuing the “oppressed and marginalized” from their alleged tormenters. Apparently, half the country likes it that way.

    ‘ Much of the on-the-ground action in this degenerate enterprise is produced by various hustles. A hustle is a particularly low-grade, insultingly obvious racket, such as Black Lives Matter, DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), and “trans women” (i.e., men) in women’s sports. Some of the profit in any hustle is plain moneygrubbing, of course. But there’s also an emotional payoff. Hustlers and racketeers are often sadists, so the gratification derived from snookering the credulous (feelings of power) gets amplified by the extra thrill of seeing the credulous suffer pain, humiliation, and personal ruin. (That’s what actual “oppressors” actually do.)

    ‘ Categorically, anyone who operates a racket or a hustle is some sort of psychopath, a person with no moral or ethical guard-rails. Hustles are based on the belief that it is possible to get something for nothing, a notion at odds with everything known about the unforgiving laws of physics and also the principles of human relations in this universe….’

    Unfortunately, while Hanson’s right about the massive grift he may, alas, be wrong about Gay (cue Cloria Gaynor). This may be the hill that all those psychopaths—with POTUS44 in the vanguard (but “leading from behind” the arras)—may decide to crash and burn on…that is, if they DO crash and burn.
    – – – – – – – – – – –
    FWIW, given the Banana Republic aspirations of “Biden” & Co., the Ivy League should probably consider rebranding… “Banana League” has a nice ring to it…but why not just save time and effort by calling the whole rotten-to-the-core, coast-to-coast edifice (oh, and including Hawaii) “Obama League”…?
    – – – – – – – – – – – –
    Further thoughts on the matter:
    Aren’t things such as “honesty”, “integrity” and “honor” merely decrepit white-supremacist, racist constructs? Kinda like math and physics?

    If so—and we KNOW it is so (just look at how successful “Biden” is!)—then just WHAT has Gay actually done wrong?
    After all, among her other stellar achievements she has targeted the absolutely RIGHT country (and people) with profoundly-considered, contextually-correct genocide…

    In fact, SHE (and her cohort) HAS DONE EVERYTHING RIGHT.

  19. @ Barry > “Victor Hanson would seem to agree with you, in a searing article that sees him unload on the Ivy League—make that unload on “Everything”—grift and use a four-letter word (and not in Latin). ”

    You unjustly malign Professor Hanson. The actual post lifted by Zerohedge is “Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,” and only uses the phrase from VDH as an opening quote.

    And a good phrase it is, too, being the conclusion from this post, which also unloads quite severely on our ruling elites.
    https://jewishworldreview.com/1223/hanson121523.php

  20. Oops.
    Thanks for the correction, AF.
    (I should have known he would never have misspelled “wainscotting”…)

  21. From the “gothamist” link:
    “…The bill, authored by Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and introduced with a majority of councilmembers as cosponsors, requires police officers to report all their investigative interactions with civilians, including low-level encounters not previously required to be tracked….”

    That’s how you kill police departments: by making the police HAVE TO record and report every little thing, every encounter. Drive ’em nuts. Prevent ’em from doing their job.

    The strategy seems to be working…

  22. I only came across this gentlemen because a member of the times editorial board was too lazy to actually link the controversy in question,

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