Things that are no surprise
(1) The Massachusetts judge who blocked Trump’s mail-in voting rules has blocked them again, despite the recent SCOTUS ruling lifting her first injunction:
Remember, the Supreme Court did not decide the rule on Monday. The majority said the states and District of Columbia sued over the new rule too early because the USPS had not finalized it.
Well, the USPS finalized the new rules on how to handle mail-in and absentee ballots on Wednesday.
The defendants returned to [US District Judge Indira] Talwani with the rule, arguing the USPS exceeded its authority and inserted itself into federal elections.
Talwani determined the plaintiffs will likely succeed on the merits and face irreparable harm. She also said the balance of harms and the public interest warrants the temporary restraining order.
It probably will go back to SCOTUS again. One of the left’s tactics is to try to run out the clock as much as possible.
(2) Even in golf, “trans women” (biological men) are winning:
At least four women’s golf tournaments in Canada have been won by men this summer.
At least golf isn’t a contact sport in which men playing alongside women can physically harm women. But men can still have somewhat of an advantage:
We conducted a natural experiment, using publicly available data, comparing world class men and women golfers’ performances on their respective tours. Performance and course data were collected on all 50 PGA and 32 LPGA Tournaments in the 2021-2022 season and differences between the tours were identified. The lengths of the courses and holes on the LPGA Tour were approximately 90% of those on the PGA Tour. Overall, women had better driving accuracy than men but scored fewer eagles and rounds in the 60s. Anthropometric and physiological differences likely contribute to women’s adapted movement strategies during the swing and cause them to choose playing strategies that men do not, primarily in driving and approach shots. Altogether, our results suggest that women’s golf courses are likely not sufficiently scaled according to anthropometry or physiology. Thus, golf remains more demanding for women, which may, at least partly, explain their differences in performance compared with men.
(3) Chinese bot farms are campaigning against US AI centers.
You don’t say.
Roughly 200 accounts from a suspected Chinese bot farm have quietly tried to influence Americans to oppose AI data centers on social media, X said Thursday night.
Why it matters: The U.S. and China are racing to build the world’s most advanced AI systems — and it appears Chinese propaganda has infiltrated American circles with the hope of slowing the U.S. down.
Driving the news: The X Safety team probed suspected Chinese accounts involved in influence operations and identified 200,000 accounts, including 200 accounts “posting in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy,” the team said in a tweet.
(4) Hand-washing is more effective against a wider range of pathogens than hand sanitizer. Duh.
(5) Mamdani seems to have more sympathy for the death of a killer than for the death of his victim:
Jose Miranda stopped by a laundromat in The Bronx to wash his clothes one hot August day two years ago, and was hacked to death, randomly, by a maniac with a meat cleaver.
He left behind two boys.
His convicted killer Clarence Woodward recently died at Riker’s; we don’t know how. Mamdani commented:
“I am deeply saddened by the death of a New Yorker in City custody at a jail on Rikers Island early this morning,” the mayor wrote.
“My thoughts are with his family and loved ones as they grieve this loss.”
But why would the mayor offer his solemn sympathies to the Woodwards while having nothing to say in support of the Mirandas?
The question answers itself. And it would have taken so little effort to have said something decent to the Mirandas as well.
But men can still have somewhat of an advantage
Uh, yeah, that’s why there are different tee boxes for men and women.
Anthropometric and physiological differences
Men are bigger, stronger and faster, which anyone with eyes can see, and I’m so tired of what has been clearly and obviously known for millennia having to be “proved” again and again to mollify a fringe group of mentally ill weirdos.
It’s time for SCOTUS to fish or cut bait.
@mikeski: that’s why there are different tee boxes for men and women.
Indeed there are. For people who don’t golf, the tee block distance is based on how many strokes are “expected” to get on the green, to oversimplify a bit. Some are “one” stroke away, some “two”, occasionally “three”. That’s why the women’s tees are much closer on the longer holes, because women on average don’t hit as far. If both sexes play from the men’s tees then a par 5 hole would be more like par 6 or 7 for a woman.
Of course there are activists trying to change this in the name of equality. And in principle anybody can play from any tee block they wish, if they’re just playing for fun. Where it gets tricky is getting your play officially acknowledged, for handicap purposes or whatever. Women’s handicaps are rated from the women’s tees, even for the rare woman who hits long enough she’d rather play from the men’s. They don’t keep four sets of handicapping rules for men who play from the women’s, women who play from the men’s etc. A woman who hits long is disadvantaged if she plays from the men’s tees and if she plays from the women’s she has a different game from, if not necessarily actually an advantage over, other women.
US District Judge Indira] Talwani. Appointed by Obama. Phillips Exeter Academy, Radcliffe and Cal Berkley Law.
I’d have to look closely at this case, but it certainly looks like she is ignoring the law.
We are so lucky in Nebraska. Our federal judges are fair.