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Home » Open thread 4/14/23

Open thread 4/14/23

The New Neo Posted on by

Maurice Gibb, one of the three musical geniuses making up the Bee Gees. Geniuses? Yes, geniuses:

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Open thread 4/14/23 — 36 Comments

  2. Maurice really was an awesome funk bass line composer.

    It’s funny, a lot of electric bass players who play funk tend to look down their noses at people who primarily play with plectrums (picks) rather than their fingers since there is such an emphasis on slap bass in that genre. But players like Maurice Gibb, Carol Kaye, and Bobby Vega proved that you could get pretty funky with a pick.

  3. https://catalog.bates.edu/departments/GEC/overview

    https://campusreform.org/article?id=21949

    ==

    What does Bates not mandate in order to graduate? Well, not mandated are a course in statistics and research methods; courses which would assist one in understanding regression (e.g. multivariable calculus); a course in logic, a course in epistemology, a course in aesthetics, a course in ethics (though, given the moral quality of the faculty, that might be a blessing); historical surveys of the other world civilizations, of the ancient world, of the Medieval occident, of the Modern occident. And so forth.
    ==
    The course requirements for departmental majors are also weak.

  5. Thank you to whomever posted the link to notthebee’s breakdown of women celebrating their days of womanhood and achievements as biological females (also knows as “females”). I followed the link last night and it was very inspiring.

    I really felt we may be reaching a tipping point. I hope that trend spreads like a virus and we see more and more of it until it is infused in our culture.

    I have been married to my wife for over 3 decades and she has borne us children of both genders. Witnessing what my wife endured bringing them to life (and the suffering when pregnancies don’t result in live births), nursing them, caring for them, raising them… And the physical challenges that accompany having the plumbing to bear children… And the mental/emotional challenges that are unique to women navigating life…

    It is a hideous affront that some people are trying to co-opt the true, physical, mental and spiritual nature of womanhood via a one-dimensional, cartoonish interpretation and seeking attention for physical challenges they will never endure.

    Kudos to the women who are standing up for themselves and showing our culture the way out of this insanity.

  6. RTF, I applaud your sentiments with only one correction: Your wife has borne you children of both sexes.

  8. Love the video.

    The weather in town here is much nicer and one of the tourist stretches I was walking recently, which is lined with a dozen speakers, was playing Staying Alive. Quite lovely.

  9. Kate,

    from merriam-webster.com:

    Gender is interchangeable with sex when used to mean “either of the two major forms of individuals that occur in many species and that are distinguished respectively as female or male especially on the basis of their reproductive organs and structures.” This is especially true in nontechnical use.

    Some of our kids are distinguished as female and some as male. I make a lot of gaffes in my typing here, but I’m not sure what I got wrong on this one.

  10. The proper term used to be sex. Gender referred to language.

    But people have been abusing “gender” to mean “sex” for so long and so often that dictionaries adjust. This is not unusual. Happens with lots of words.

  11. stan,

    Going back, again, to merriam webster it appears you are, technically correct, but the usage I employed came into common use over 500 years ago. How many centuries does a term need to be in use before it’s considered “proper?” 🙂

    The words sex and gender have a long and intertwined history. In the 15th century gender expanded from its use as a term for a grammatical subclass to join sex in referring to either of the two primary biological forms of a species, a meaning sex has had since the 14th century; phrases like “the male sex” and “the female gender” are both grounded in uses established for more than five centuries.

  13. With all due respect to Merriam-Webster, “sex” was, in my lifetime, and in my parents’ lifetimes, the word referring to either male or female. It is only in the last few years that “gender” for humans came into common use in the USA, and it was done, I believe deliberately, to blur the lines, and to allow for the definition of more that two “genders” depending upon the psychological condition of the people involved. I try hard to avoid its use unless I’m talking about grammar, or about the psychological conditions some men and women are suffering. In this view, “gender” is about feelings and “sex” is about biology.

    Based on your reference to Merriam-Webster, this battle has been lost, along with many others.

  14. One thing I didn’t notice on the Bud-Light thread, the m of the y = mx + B of Molson Coors’ stock chart took a sharp uptick starting around April 10. Wonder what could have caused folks to bet on them around that time?

  15. Kate,

    I think we’re on the same team. I’ve always used both terms interchangeably regarding humans and other animals, and it seems like that’s been common for 500 years. I agree that some people are trying to expand the usage of “gender,” but aren’t you playing into their hand by reverting to only using “sex?” They would agree with you that, except for intersex people, there are two sexes. They also believe there are myriad genders. That is why, unlike me, they do not use the words interchangeably when referring to a human’s sex.

    I do not believe there are myriad genders. I believe there are two and they follow biological sex. There is a female gender and a male gender. There is a female sex and a male sex.

  16. Art Deco,

    The GE, or lack there of, of Bates core curriculum is not all surprising. The standard GE of at least one course in science, art, history, math, languages, philosophy, social studies, etc has been disappearing for the past 15 years. Especially at the “little Ivies” such as Bates.

  17. The standard GE of at least one course in science, art, history, math, languages, philosophy, social studies, etc has been disappearing for the past 15 years. Especially at the “little Ivies” such as Bates.
    ==
    IMO, the disappearance distribution requirements should be unlamented. One replacement was synthetic courses, but that’s done for faculty convenience and the courses are of scant value, so they’re disappearance should be unlamented as well. I dislike the baccalaureate degree as an institution, but if you’re going to have one, a core curriculum of history, philosophy, and statistics and research methods (as well as the preparatory work necessary to handle statistics) should be instituted. And the trustees shouldn’t ask the faculty about it.

  18. Judge Napolitano had an interesting discussion with former Navy intel, lawyer, knowledgeable with Russian politics. While they start talking about the leaked documents and how he would have ever come into contact with them (Jordan makes a fundamental error talking about computer access– which isn’t the case here as the leaker had the documents sitting on his kitchen table), the more interesting segment is on will Putin survive the war.

    Judge Napolitano can be infuriating at times– he has long been a Trump detractor, but he has people with differing viewpoints on this podcast, from a mercenary fighting in Ukraine to a former CIA analyst that believes the administration narrative, and in between the people commenters here love to hate– Ritter and Macgregor.

    All in all, an informative perspective.

    Leaked Docs & Leaker Arrest – COMPLETE BREAKDOWN w John Jordan

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5C0UjTzq9g

    PS: they are using the leakers counter/table to identify “this is the guy” as some of the photographs apparently included a snippet of the counter/table.

  20. I came across this quote again today. It’s really remarkable stuff. I considered trying to imagine just how messed up the mind must be to think like this, but I’m afraid doing so might damage me.

    Does this tell you everything you need to know?

    “Women have always been the primary victims of war. Women lose their husbands, their fathers, their sons in combat. Women often have to flee from the only homes they have ever known. Women are often the refugees from conflict and sometimes, more frequently in today’s warfare, victims. Women are often left with the responsibility, alone, of raising the children.”

    – Hillary Clinton

  21. I think bass players fall into two camps: those who also play the upright bass are probably more likely to prefer using their index and middle fingers. Those who came from the world of the six string guitar probably prefer playing with a pick.

    BTW Neo, suggestion for a video to post: Glenn Frey singing “The Shadow of Your Smile” (if you haven’t done so already).

  23. RTF, here’s the definition from the Dictionary on my Mac desktop. (I don’t know what dictionary this is; obviously not the modern Merriam-Webster.) It’s consistent with what I have always seen and been taught.

    1 the male sex or the female sex, especially when considered with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones, or one of a range of other identities that do not correspond to established ideas of male and female…The word gender has been used since the 14th century as a grammatical term, referring to classes of noun designated as masculine, feminine, or neuter in some languages. The sense denoting biological sex has also been used since the 14th century, but this did not become common until the mid 20th century. Although the words gender and sex are often used interchangeably, they have different connotations; sex tends to refer to biological differences, while gender more often refers to cultural and social differences and sometimes encompasses a broader range of identities than the binary of male and female.

  26. Is the divide between women who value their traditional role as mothers– the women without which civilization won’t survive and the feminists who regret the role nature has assigned them large enough to be exploited? Will those feminists side with the neo-women of our brave new world?
    Is the divide large enough for corporations to carve out niche businesses catering to two disparate groups?

  27. Oh, physicsguy, the photos with that link are awful. It reminds me of the former Energy Dept. employee who went around the country stealing women’s luggage and posing in their clothes. If the company wishes to sell primarily to gay males it can do so, but it surely will not attract female purchases with that publicity.

  31. Re: Elon Musk

    Confuses me. Obviously one intelligent dude with a helluva work ethic. Way out of my league anyway.

    I loved his Twitter buy-out, support for free speech, taking trans surgeons and the BBC to task, smoking weed on Joe Rogan (granted not a winner in this venue), and his ongoing support for an artificial intelligence research moratorium. (I consider AI the most serious threat facing humanity in this century.)

    But his Tesla venture and the assumptions underlying it — that there can be and will be a global infrastructure which can power the world and its cars based on solar/wind — strikes me as either stupid or horribly cynical.

    Check out:

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/04/14/reality-versus-the-tesla-energy-report-part-ii/

  32. @huxley:stupid or horribly cynical.

    Tesla is more of an excuse to develop battery technology. Not to mention that he got a lot of money from the government. I’d say neither. If a capitalist* insists on wanting to hang himself, another capitalist will sell him the rope.

    *I don’t like this word, “capitalism” is the enemy’s name for a free economic system. But more and more I think it is the right word for our increasingly-less-free system of regulatory capture, rent-seeking, and pork-barrelling. The people pushing us to electric cars are doing so to put taxpayer money in the pockets of themselves and their friends, and big corporations are going along because people will be forced to buy from them. Hogs like troughs pretty well, up until the bacon part anyway.

  33. Not to mention that he got a lot of money from the government.

    Fredeick:

    Horribly cynical. As I said.

  34. It’s funny you posted this at this time. This video was recommended to me just a day or two ago on YouTube and I watched it.

    Officially, I hate disco, but the BeeGees were always exempt from that because they are just that good. I also think it’s fascinating that they had been around since the late 50s, but exploded in popularity in the mid to late 70s, reinventing themselves and helping to create the disco sound.

    Those base lines are really funky and smoov, and their arrangements were really sophisticated and finely crafted.

  35. > It is only in the last few years that “gender” for humans came into common use in the USA, and it was done, I believe deliberately, to blur the lines,

    I don’t think this was the original reason. I suspect “gender” came into use because “sex” is an incredibly overloaded word that has a lot of meanings. “Gender” doesn’t, even if it’s been misappropriated for the purpose of meaning “sex” in terms of “male” or “female”. “Gender” has been used this way for decades, but the whole idea of “gender” being a superset of the actual human sexes has only been common for a decade or so.

  36. they changed because in order to rearrange relationships that had been around for thousands of years, they had to do it,

    yes scott ritter probably no one i’d really like to have dinner with, prefer brennan or clapper or fiona hill, they are ‘all liars and killers’* none of whom who have our best interests at heart

    *loki being the villain is allowed to say, unacknowledged truths, even though he soft pedals his own misdeeds,

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