Society's ChildS


Bulb

Let there be light... so long as it's decolonised. Right-on academics condemn the science of illumination as 'white male dominated'

Rob Lyons
RT
Tue, 25 Aug 2020 20:43 UTC
light, prism, rainbow, light refraction
© Getty Images / artpartner-images
According to a new Canadian university project, physics is "a mirror of colonial patterns and social inequality," particularly "in the context of light." This is all not just baffling, but dangerously bonkers.

In the light of Black Lives Matter and the decision by Oriel College at Oxford University to move its statue of Sir Cecil Rhodes, the idea of "decolonising" education has made serious headway, with many institutions now reworking curricula to better reflect diversity and black and ethnic minority concerns.

There are plenty of problems with that outlook. It suggests that ethnic minority writers and thinkers should be included in college courses because of the colour of their skin, rather than the brilliance of their ideas. It also suggests that students can only really learn if education is "relevant" to them. After decades of fighting for equality, it seems we are now re-racialising society. Worse, this re-racialisation is seen as progressive.

Comment: It is impossible to build anything of lasting substance based on lies and delusions, but those "fighting against the colonially oppressive blah blah blah" in the hard sciences are determined to try. Unfortunately, they're trying to drag the rest of society into their delusions and if they win it will put the world back several hundred years in terms of scientific and technological development.

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2 + 2 = 4

Full stops are 'intimidating' Gen Zers and are being 'revised', linguists say... just like 'racist' maths & proper spelling

Helen Buyniski
RT
Tue, 25 Aug 2020 21:29 UTC
Eternity in an Instant
© Getty Images / Eternity in an Instant
A full stop - ending a sentence with a period - is a sign of 'aggression' to the hyper-sensitive generation raised with cell phone in hand, according to linguists who presumably prefer we communicate in emojis.

Ending a message with a period has come to "signify an abrupt or angry tone of voice" to Generation Z, some linguists claim, arguing that in the era of ubiquitous texting and instant messaging, full stops are no longer necessary to merely indicate the end of a sentence.

An idea's conclusion is implied by the end of the message, they insist (because nobody communicates in more than one sentence at a time anymore, apparently - you just hit 'send' and start a new message). When full stops are used, they're supposedly interpreted as "ominous" or emotionally charged by the hyper-sensitive young people reading the message.

The full stop's use is being "revised in a really fundamental way," Professor David Crystal, billed by the UK Telegraph as "one of the world's leading language experts," alleges. It's no longer about ending a sentence but about an "emotion marker," he says. This is even "backed up by science" - a 2015 Binghamton University study found college students perceive text messages ending in a full stop as being "less sincere" than those without one.


Comment: It appears we are close to reaching peak millennial. Even a dot on a page can hurt, apparently. Talk about micro-aggression. . . . . . .

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NPC

'Liberals' excuse to say the n-word'? 'Uncle Tom' trending as disaffected RNC viewers fail at mocking convention's speakers


RT
Tue, 25 Aug 2020 13:26 UTC
Tim Scott, Congressman Vernon Jones and Herschel Walker
© REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque; Handout via REUTERS/2020 Republican National Convention
The first day of the RNC featured a slate of black and female speakers. The party's Twitter critics said these people betrayed their race and gender, calling them "Uncle Tom's" to the dismay of US conservatives.

The Republican National Convention's Monday lineup featured speakers like US Senator Tim Scott, Congressman Vernon Jones and former NFL player Herschel Walker, who are all African Americans and were accused of being "Uncle Tom's". Their critics who use this derogatory term believe that they were betraying the black community by aligning with the Republican party and President Donald Trump.

"Uncle Tom" is a common trope used to degradingly describe African American conservatives in the US. Notably, following the RNC the term began trending nationally on Twitter without any hashtag or other means of user coordination.

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Briefcase

US DOJ to charge pharmaceutical giant Teva in generic drugs price-fixing probe - source

David McLaughlin
Bloomberg Law
Tue, 25 Aug 2020 21:29 UTC
teva
© Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images
U.S. prosecutors are preparing to charge Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. with conspiring with competitors to raise prices for generic drugs, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The Justice Department is planning to charge Teva as soon as Tuesday after the company rebuffed a settlement that would have required paying a criminal penalty and admitting wrongdoing, said the person, who declined to be named because the matter is confidential.

Teva's U.S.-traded shares fell as much as 6% on the news and were down 2.3% to $9.41 at 3:25 p.m. in New York. A spokesperson for the company, which is based in Israel, declined to comment.

Charges against Teva, the world's largest generic-drug maker by market value, would mark the most significant case to come out of the Justice Department's years-long investigation into allegations that companies conspired with one another to prop up the prices of certain widely used medications. Nine of every 10 prescription drugs dispensed in the U.S. are generics.
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NPC

Washington Post does about-face on Covid-19 plasma treatment the moment Trump comes out in favor


RT
Tue, 25 Aug 2020 21:21 UTC
plasma
© Reuters / Lindsey Wasson
Media coverage of a promising Covid-19 treatment has flipped from supportive to negative, a US health official has revealed, suggesting the president's praise of the treatment might relate to it falling out of favor.

The Washington Post's outlook on using blood plasma from recovered Covid-19 patients to treat the sick has flipped from optimistic to skeptical following a Sunday announcement from US President Donald Trump that the treatment has received emergency approval by the Food and Drug Administration. The switch in coverage was noted by the spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services on Monday.

Despite promising preliminary results, including data from a large Mayo Clinic study suggesting plasma treatments can significantly reduce mortality, the newspaper appears to have done a 180 on what had been very positive coverage of the treatment, publishing a story on Monday headlined "Scientists express doubts about coronavirus treatment touted as breakthrough by Trump."

Comment: Maybe Trump can do us all a favor by coming out in favor of mandatory vaccinations, thereby forcing the Leftist Media to immediately denounce vaccines.

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X

Poll: Joe Biden gets no bounce after DNC but leads Trump by 9

Kyle Olson
Breitbart
Sat, 22 Aug 2020 00:00 UTC
Biden stare
© AP/Andrew HarnikJoe Biden's stare at the DNC convention
Joe Biden achieved no immediate bounce after the Democratic National Convention (DNC), a poll found.

Morning Consult reported that Biden went into the DNC with the support of 51 percent of likely voters. Biden ticked up only one point after the convention to 52 percent. Donald Trump remained at 43 percent in both polls. That was in contrast to a similar poll in 2016 that found Hillary Clinton at 40 percent pre-DNC and 43 percent after. Trump experienced the reverse: 44 percent before the DNC, 40 percent after.

In 2020, only six percent of voters said they were undecided after the convention. That number was 17 percent in 2016.

In 1992, Bill Clinton won a 16-point bounce after the DNC to catapult himself over incumbent President George H.W. Bush, according to Politico.

Biden's lack of any significant bounce is better than what happened to Mitt Romney in 2012 when Romney actually lost a point in the standings.

The RealClearPolitics (RCP) average of polls found Biden has led Trump since at least last October. RCP's average of polls found Biden is 7.6 percent ahead of Trump.

Comment: The results depend on who, how many and political orientation of the sample to determine the relative validity of a numerical tally. Let's see their promo, affiliations and to whom they cater:
About itself: Morning Consult is the official polling partner of POLITICO, Fortune, New York Times, and Bloomberg News. Morning Consult also has a news section that is centered around polling and trends. Typically, there is minimal bias presented such as this: Detroit Debates Deliver Meager Returns for Biden's Challengers. A factual search reveals they have not failed a fact check. In fact, their polls are frequently used by IFCN fact-checkers as evidence.

Overall, we rate the Morning Consult 'Least Biased' based on mostly neutral polling and low biased story selection. We also rate them Very High for factual reporting due to a proven polling methodology as well as being a reliable source for fact-checkers. (D. Van Zandt 10/31/2016) Updated (8/3/2019) Source: https://morningconsult.com/
RealClearPolitics: One of our most notable features, the RCP Poll Average, changed the way people talk about public opinion surveys during the election cycle. The most cited source for U.S. political polling information, the RCP Poll Average provides everyone from political experts and campaign consultants to amateur political junkies a more accurate read on the status of the election.

The accuracy of the RCP Poll Average is unmatched and trusted for use in Bloomberg terminals and campaign communication documents, as well as being widely cited by hundreds of news organizations including The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times, FOX News, CNN, USA Today, and MSNBC.
FiveThirtyEight, a company founded by Nate Silver (who published under the name Poblano for political blog Daily Kos), had been partnered with The New York Times, then passed to ESPN. The final prediction by FiveThirtyEight on the morning of election day (November 8, 2016) was at 10:41AM and had Hillary Clinton with a 71% chance to win the 2016 presidential election.

FiveThirtyEight, a company that rates pollsters for accuracy and bias, gives Morning Consult a B- for accuracy and a slight leftward bias of 0.6%. (as per source Morning Consult)

FiveThirtyEight was acquired by ABC News on Apr 17, 2018.
See also:

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Arrow Up

We need to be braver

Andrew Doyle
Spiked
Wed, 05 Aug 2020 00:00 UTC
BLM megaphoner
© UnknownBLM Scream
Standing up to woke intolerance isn't easy. But we must do it.

During a recent conversation about groupthink in the arts, a playwright friend of mine told me about his experience last year of rehearsing his latest drama. A director had been enlisted to take charge, and from the outset was determined to impose his ideological values on to the production. Before long he was cutting lines that he considered 'problematic', and policing how these topics were discussed in rehearsal. The characters as portrayed in the script were morally ambiguous but, to the frustration of the writer, this director was adamant that the show must convey the 'correct' message. For him, theatre was simply another tool to spread the word of social justice.

Anyone who works in the arts will be aware of the deleterious impact that woke politics has had on creative freedom, although few will be bold enough to admit it publicly. That this director was enjoying his power was obvious, and I did suggest to my friend that perhaps a more open-minded practitioner might have improved the process. 'That's the trouble', he said to me, 'we couldn't find one'. By the time the production's run had started, my friend was struck by a terrible realisation. He had been treating this director as one might a dangerous dog: overly anxious not to cause him any displeasure, and always aware that he could lash out and bite at any moment.
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Stormtrooper

Spain calls in its army 'to fight COVID-19 resurgence' (really, to suppress growing resistance)


Euronews
Tue, 25 Aug 2020 18:06 UTC
people waiting Coronavirus test
© AFPPeople queue to be tested for coronavirus in Guernica
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Tuesday he was making the army available to help regions fight a new explosion of coronavirus cases.

"The Spanish government will provide the regions with the strength of the armed forces to carry out the tracing" of cases, he said during a televised address, specifying that 2,000 soldiers would be deployed for this purpose.

Sanchez said the evolution of the pandemic in Spain is "worrying" but stressed it is still far from its height in mid-March.
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Star of David

Avoiding the P-word: How Palestine is being deleted

David Kattenburg
Mondoweiss
Mon, 24 Aug 2020 17:29 UTC
graffitte Qalandia checkpoint israel
© David KattenbergGraffitti near Qalandia checkpoint
The Israel-Palestine 'conflict' (a deceptive term, some say) is largely a war of words. Pitched battles have been fought over nouns, adjectives — even definite articles.

Last week, under pressure from a group that polices the Canadian media on behalf of the 'Jewish state', CBC Radio host Duncan McCue issued an on-air apology for using the word "Palestine" in an interview on the Public Broadcaster's flagship current affairs show, The Current. Like a real-life Winston Smith, a CBC digital editor swiftly excised the offending toponym from the online version of McCue's CBC interview and dispatched it down the memory hole.

Had Mr. McCue uttered the word "Palestine" in the course of an interview with a Palestinian politician or commentator, his objectivity may well have been faulted. In fact, his guest on the August 18 edition of CBC's The Current was the graphic novelist Joe Sacco, creator of a work called Palestine.
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Black Magic

On the rise of self-imposed racial segregation: Universities now offering black-only dormitories

Frank Furedi
RT
Tue, 25 Aug 2020 16:41 UTC
segregation signs black white
© Getty Images / Walter Bibikow
Martin Luther King would be appalled

When students return to university next week, many will need to prepare for living and eating only with people of the same color. Whatever happened to the dream of a desegregated country?

Racial segregation is a really bad idea. So it is not surprising that advocates of identity politics are demanding that black-only dormitories should be established on American campuses.

The Washington Square News, the undergraduate students' paper of New York University (NYU), recently reported that the university was willing to "help implement residential communities open solely to 'Black identifying students with Black Residents Assistants.'" NYU aims to establish such a segregated residential floor by autumn 2021.

Comment:

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