2 is a Cold War story - the US and USSR got into really detailed gravimetric mapping when they realised that your ballistic missiles won't fly accurately unless you take local gravitic variation along the flight path into account.
Fact-checking drives me bats. All of the bullshit "Yes this is technically true but we disagree about the policy implications so we're going to call it a lie" nonsense is awful.
Gravimetric Variation surely should have been the name of Beto's band.
2: False: Humans cannot drive bats.
IOW, even the liberal New Republic got the linked article exactly right.
And I miss Beto. If we had to keep a young white guy with a weak resume and questionable politics in the presidential race, I strongly prefer the ex-punk-rock/skateboarder to the ex-McKinsey consultant.
Come over here and say that.
5.2: Agreed.
Also? The gravity article's web site wants to put about 300 cookies onto your machine. Not the nice crunchy kind, either.
I don't miss Beto, nationally. I'm annoyed at him for not being more committed to Texas before pivoting to the national scene.
My impression was that the usefulness of fact checking web sites was undermined pretty quickly after they became popular. Shills immediately realized that they could just set up a talking point dispensary and bill it as "fact checking".
OP.1 and 2, agreed. I seem to remember complaining about fact-checking here before, maybe even that same WaPo guy, but can't find the link in TFA.
The GRACE-B probes that performed the gravity measurements used fused silica gyroscopes that were perfectly spherical to within 3x10E-7 inches.
"[I]magine a GP-B gyroscope enlarged to the size of the Earth. On Earth, the tallest mountains, like Mount Everest, are tens of thousands of feet high. Likewise, the deepest ocean trenches are tens of thousands of feet deep. By contrast, if a GP-B gyroscope were enlarged to the size of the Earth, its tallest mountain or deepest ocean trench would be only eight feet!"
It is truly amazing what we can build.
Other awesome tech includes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHBcVlqpvZ8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendelstein_7-X
https://www.reactionengines.co.uk/
Once upon a time, in my misspent youth, I knew enough about 11 to expound upon it slickly.
In the big picture, Pareene is of course correct, but he stumbles when he tries to identify a broader conspiracy:
It is odd that fact-checking was so narrowly defined when a narrow mandate served the interests of power, and that its brief has now expanded considerably at a time when an overly broad mandate serves those interests.
That's silly. A fact-checking regime geared toward the conventional journalistic bias always helps power. Why fact-checking evolved in the direction it did is a question that Pareene doesn't answer -- and I'm not convinced that it has really evolved that much. Kessler has always been a dumbfuck, and Politifact's 2013 Lie of the Year was Obama's "If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it."
In paragraph 19 of the Politifact item, we find out that Obama's statement was only 98% true, and that the remaining 2% included people who got better coverage cheaper. Politifact explicitly cites unverified anecdata to defend its accusation:
That was less than 2 percent, but there was no shortage of powerful anecdotes about canceled coverage.
Jeet Heer (who Pareene links) does better with a more narrow approach, I think.
The other problem with fact-checking, as conceived by the Post and others, is that it ghettoizes the truth. On the front page, you have your news, where Trump can say whatever the fuck he wants with maybe a caveat thrown in, and somewhere else in the publication, you get your actual facts, and the Post can pretend it has met its responsibility thereby.
14: If you squint he could be arguing that the transition was from technicalities in the Bush years to political argumentation in the Obama years and thereafter, but really if it had been broader in the Bush years it would have been in a way friendly to Bush too. They wouldn't have gone deeper to "Bush correctly cited UK intelligence on Niger uranium, but neglected to mention the CIA disagrees with that intelligence" but rather changed focus to "The Democrats' condemnation of the surge ignores that the Iraqi provisional government supports it" or some such.
Kessler is so bad the WaPo had to bring in a ringer to cover Trump. (Daniel Dale is great.)
#15 is correct. Media just reporting what people say, and then in a corner somewhere choosing a few details and explaining that they aren't true, is not what anyone would intuitively expect.
It's like the Magic of the Marketplace where people are given all these opportunities to Shop for their Insurance Coverage and the companies, or politicians, say We Trust People To Be Smart Enough To Make The Right Decisions For Themselves, when if that was true their profits would plummet. People look for help and find straightforward advice that the majority of these deals are not good for anyone, and flatly don't believe it. Shouldn't they be required to give you only good options, since they do claim that the bad options are also good? No, that would be interfering with the marketplace, like not allowing people to lie interferes with free speech.
13 Your youth was spent well, it's your middle-age your squandering.
You're.
I mean I'm squandering mine too so...
16: Right.
Pareene gets in a good line that, looking further, illustrates what a hack Kessler is. Pareene:
("Michael Strain of the American Enterprise Institute wrote recently for Bloomberg" is a typical Kesslerism)
He links Kessler here, who disputes Bernie's statement that wages are flat since the '70s by pointing out:
Wages are up nearly 20 percent since 1996, for instance.
On the actual Pew study chart, you can see that Kessler deliberately cherry-picked the lowest point on the chart to compare to today.
The word I was trying to remember is "mascon" for "mass concentration" and the Moon has a lot of big ones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_concentration_(astronomy)
Not to be confused with Mass_concentration_(politics).
Or the town of Concentration, Mass.
Thankfully, the Wikipedia entry for Camp Concentration (Disch, 1968) lacks disambiguation links.
I've been vaguely trying to locate a psychiatrist for the past few weeks to book an appointment to talk about whether or not I have ADHD, and it feels like some weird mind game designed to filter out anyone who has ADHD. For example, it's finally dawned on me that my insurance does not cover any psychiatrists within an hour of my house. I clicked through to a major ADHD-advertised clinic in the town south of me, and they explain how insurance reimbursement rates are so low that most psychiatrists won't work with them (which is consistent with what Pokey's psychiatrist says) and so they give you a "superbill" that you can pass on. Plus there's a bunch of upfront paperwork.
I was more motivated after reading some stuff about ADHD in women, specifically about the inability to concentrate when there are any noises or sounds and how it tends to develop as a teenager or older.
I'm now old enough to yell at people to shut up.
ADHD is hereditary. You get it from your children.
17: Dale is a treasure.
If we make it out of the next 10 years alive, I really hope Dale writes a book. His job before being the Trump fact-checker was city hall reporter in Rob Ford's Toronto; he must have the best stories.
Irrelevantly, now that I have a child in school there, I know that locals pronounce the city of which Rob Ford was the mayor Trawna. Two syllables, not three as in To-Ron-To.
Some locals make it 3 syllables-- there's a lot of variation in TO accents-- but no local pronounces the 2nd 'T'. (Ta-Ron-No.)
OT: What do you do if you find two endorsed checks for a combined few thousand dollars? Assume the checks were found while walking on a moderately-traveled sidewalk and that the name of the payee turns out to be somebody I never heard of but where the first google hit is an IMBD page.
32: Either return them or leave them where you found them. If you're in dire financial straits and a few thousand would make a big difference, I wouldn't feel too bad about taking them, but bear in mind the risk of either being prosecuted for theft or showing up on some kind of prank show.
My first though was someone needs this money to live on, but I think the googling disproves that.
I'm not going to cash someone else's check.
What I'm looking for is "minimum to slightly above minimum effort at returning" before I put them in the shredder.
Contacting the writer of the checks so they can stop payment and write new checks is going to be much easier than trying to track down the recipient.
If they're endorsed it's also possible that they've been electronically deposited already (at least some banks let you do this by taking a picture with your phone). Again, the writer would be able to tell.
There's no phone number on the checks, but there is an address. I can just mail them back and be a good citizen.
2nd 17 - and note that depressingly before making that move he was doing a better job on Trump from a Canadian publication than anyone was doing in the US. Smart of them to bring him on board, but a bit of a black eye on US media also.
31: I think it is more Toh-Rhanna , (i.e. təˈɹɒnoʊ if I've got it right). But the middle "t" is definitely lost. Definitely more "To" than "Ta" at the beginning.
43: I think [toʊˈɹɒnə] is more what you're going for. [təˈɹɒnoʊ] sounds like the pronunciation MattD is describing in 31.
Actually maybe [toˈɹɒnə] or [tʊˈɹɒnə] would be better to reflect the reduced but still o-colo(u)red vowel that you're suggesting if I understand correctly.
It's from an Iroquois word meaning "Land of midrise condominium towers."
47: Damn, how tall does something need to be to count as a highrise?
Yeah, the first "o" is reduced to something between the "o" in "toe" and an "a". (No idea what the technical way of expressing that might be.) "Rhanna" is right for the rest.
I think 46 is about right, i was never good at phonetic
The internet says they are high rise after a dozen or so stories, but I say 46 floors.
No one seems to build anything in the dozen-stories range these days anyway. For mid-rises, the most economical is podium construction, wood over concrete, which maxes out at 6-7 stories; above that you can use steel frames, but that's uneconomical below maybe 18 stories.
soon it may qualify even under 50's eclectic metric - I have heard there are a large handful of >50 story ones going up now. Plenty of 40ish ones now.
re 52: of course wikipedia has looked into this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Toronto
on the topic of Canada: NMM to Neil Peart.
51
No one seems to build anything in the dozen-stories range these days anyway.
The DC area is full of those. Downtown, that's roughly the legal limit. In the suburbs like Rosslyn ("suburbs": in some senses Rosslyn is more urban than DC, but it's not actually in the district) there are a lot of buildings around that general height.
They exist; I mean they don't seem to account for any new construction.
32 et seq. Two women of my acquaintance inhabited a flat in a then-sketchy part of London that had previously been the home of a supermodel, right before she made it big. A check for some absurdly large sum (£100,000, maybe?) arrived in the mail for the previous occupant, who by that point was appearing in every fashion magazine. They kept the check (or cheque) on their refrigerator door as a curiosity / conversation piece. It's likely that the intended recipient noticed the missing payment and arranged to get a replacement, but at that point she was notoriously drugged out on heroin and X, so it's possible that she never did.
even the liberal New Republic
Without anyone seeming to notice, TNR has assembled a stable of contributors that has got to be the leftiest in 50 years, if not 75. Walter Shapiro used to be left of the median on their masthead, and is now holding down the right flank, AFAICT.
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Americans: How often do you see/use QR codes?
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Non-Americans may answer too, but you'll be down-weighted in accordance with GNP.
From time to time. Lots of people are unfamiliar with them. I've tried to use them as an alternative to sign-in sheets (a QR code for a link to a signup google form), but even though it's a youngish crowd, plenty of people aren't getting it.
According to a story on the Iranian-Canadians who died on the Ukraine Air flight, the Iranian population of Toronto is big enough that it's known to some as Tehranto.
QR codes were pretty much a flash in the pan in my experience. Like Minivet I still see them around occasionally.
they (QR codes) show up in things like 2factor authentication quite a bit.
working out some strategies for getting the dmv in my neighborhood redeveloped as a 8-12 story mixed use site, put the dmv parking lot (currently surface) underground, replacement dmv at ground floor also colocated senior center & preschool as ground floor public uses, market rate retail for the rest of ground floor with maybe a publicly accessible courtyard where the neighborhood farmers' market could be relocated, mix of housing affordability levels from vvlow to market and all delivered in the district of the "progressive" yet militantly anti new housing recently elected asshole supervisor, would be so so so awesome. revenge deliciously served as a butt load of new housing, take that asshole.
59: Conferences and travel mostly. Sometimes at hotels, occasionally on products or ads to get information. Don't think I've seen them as a way to actually pay for something.
(Any use, not just payments.)
I don't think anything 8-12 stories pencils, for the same construction cost reasons.
Also, do you say phones or cellphones or smartphones.
Ethnography can be so unrewarding.
You live up to your reputation.
Good my people; I have been vouchsafed a revelation. First, that we have beaten into our skulls from the youngest ages that the scratches of rusted metal shall inflict upon us the tetanus; second, that we are subsequently informed that the dread tetanus is an affliction produced by anaerobic bacteria; and, finally, that we are yet later informed that rust is the result of oxidation; that is, that any environment which produces rusted metal is ipso facto not anaerobic but aerobic and therefore not friendly to tetanus but hostile to it. Brethren. I am affronted.
So the Teheran flight was a shootdown. Shitshow.
59: Americans: How often do you see/use QR codes?
I had the stupid idea to use QR codes to distribute lesson materials for a student-teaching lesson I did at a night/second-chance high school in Vienna a few months ago. Mostly 20-somethings, high % immigrants. It was a disaster: very few knew how to scan them, and while it's easy show explain how with iPhones, there's no equivalent simple, built-in way with Android that will work with every version.
Are Austrians Americans? They are not. Nonetheless, I thank you.
That's a point. Because I only buy android phones which will update it's easy to forget that stuff which is now painless, like scanning QR codes, once required the acquisition of a special app whose very name I have now forgotten
The Sultan of Oman is dead! Does this matter? I'm guessing no, but await enlightenment eagerly.
I am reading 79 in the voice of Starfire from Teen Titans Go.
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constitutional court is due to rule later this month whether to dissolve Future Forward based on a complaint that includes allegations the party's triangle logo resembles a symbol of the Illuminati|>
The article on gravity was weird. It seems to try super hard to avoid saying that gravitational variations are caused by what ajay called mascons: clumps of stuff that are more or less massy than the norm. The effects of the Moon and Sun are mentioned as well, but without saying "these are big clumps of mass that affect the perceived gravity on Earth." It's like burying the lead.
As for fact-checking sites, the true original was Snopes, which is still around. It's good enough that all the Trump fans think it's evil and biased. It always has done a good job on "urban legends," which is where it started. I can't see how anyone is surprised that in a weaponized media environment, everything will be a weapon, so of course Kessler et al. Google's default news page pops up about half a dozen fact-check sites, so you can get your misinformation all in one place, which is sort of a reasonable attitude to take.
84. The word in the British Foreign Office, who put him in power, was that Sultan Qaboos was "dragging Oman kicking and screaming into the 16th century." Whether his death is impoprtant or not will depend on whether his successor can keep it there, or even move it on further. Qaboos was what western power brokers would call a moderate, and thus a useful diplomatic ally to them; I know nothing about the new guy except that he wasn't expected to succeed. Whether or not that creates instability remains to be seen.
Also, there was a significant independence uprising 50 years ago in Dhofar on the south coast, which was defeated by the SAS and the RAF. Whether or not the resentments associated with that are still slow burning is another known unknown, at least to me.
I thought there was a ban on Omanism about the dead.
84 It's a pretty big deal for the region. Sultan Qaboos was a key mediator, things might well have gotten much worse with a number of crises over the past few decades without him. He also successfully kept his own country out of the various proxy wars that have gone on (keeping Oman out of the Saudi war on Yemen and preventing any spillover is a minor miracle). His shoes will be hard to fill.
Barry, have you heard any scuttlebutt about why Haitham got the nod over Asad?
Yes, an article in Bloomberg that Haitham was in charge of the Oman 2040 economic plan and has good relations with the business community and that economic concerns drove the decision. Linked here: https://twitter.com/louisakeeler/status/1215994134009384960
Everyone interested in goings on in the Gulf region should follow Kristian Ulrichsen: https://twitter.com/Dr_Ulrichsen
Thanks. This is a bitch, isn't it:
He "won't be able to rely on the wise counsel he used to receive from the U.K. and U.S., given their own leadership challenges," Grappo said.
Shit gets spread everywhere.
they explain how insurance reimbursement rates are so low that most psychiatrists won't work with them
This seems to be a particularly acute problem for poor people. We got Medicaid expansion in Virginia (huzzah!), so all of a sudden tons of low-income people have theoretical health insurance. But the coverage is spotty, and there's apparently no local psychiatrist who's accepting new Medicaid patients. None. For a demographic cohort that's been through some shit.
Best healthcare system in the world, though.
95: psychiatrists in clinics here take Medicaid, some in private practice take Blue Cross, fewer take Tufts - soon to be merged with Harvard Pilgrim which even fewer took. But a lot of the solo practitioners, primarily the ones who still do psychotherapy take cash only. Out-of- network benefits would cover 70% of reasonable and customary or of the Medicare rate after you pay a deductible of $1000 or so for generous 1st dollar coverage - so maybe 1/3 of the cost. Medicare pays psychologists $80/hr but no pay for collateral contacts, I.e. talking to a kid's teacher and with prior authorizations and after the fact clawbacks, it might be more like $15 or $20/hr. By contrast, a reasonable cash rate for an experienced social worker or psychologist with advanced training is $170. This is one area where we should not be trying to cut costs but instead shifting resources from other parts of the health system. A psychiatrist who does therapy will bill around $300/hr. At least, in the outpatient setting, those out of network bills aren't a surprise.
The best thing you can do for your mental well-being is move to Canada without telling your grandmother.
97: I just made an urgent trip to Canada because my FIL had pleural effusions and dangerously low sodium. There was definite piece of mind knowing that the medical bills were *mostly* covered. Even his nurse said she couldn't imagine living in the US.
I may have been making a joke about Harry.
If all the royals moved to Canada, that would free up some housing in London.
Since we're talking about royals, this is probably the place for the PSA: Baby Yoda is not actually Yoda. Same species, different character. I'm not gonna stop calling him Baby Yoda, though, because I'm fine with being technically wrong about something that annoys people somewhere.
They apparently still refuse to give his species a name.
99: I get that, but it isn't completely untrue for others.
I thought the species was Mandaloria.
100: But not necessarily the one in Ontario.
Anyway, fact-checking as done in "the fact-check column" has been shit for at least seven years.
I would have written "8" because that thread is from 2012 but I didn't want a pinocchio because it was written later in 2012.
Hugely enjoying Neil Gaiman's "Norse Mythology", by the way. It gets at one of the central things about the Norse myths which is that a lot of them are funny, in particular almost all the ones involving Thor.
Right? Like the one where some old peasants accidentally injure one of his goats and he takes their children as slaves in payment? I laughed till the marrow spurted from my nose.
QR codes (or equivalent tech, I don't know if it's patented) are pretty much standard here for electronic ticketing of all types: train tickets, cinema tickets, boarding passes.
They exist; I mean they don't seem to account for any new construction.
I live in a 10-storey building, adjoined to a 15-or-so-storey building. It was built six years ago.
I guess I have used QR codes then.
||| For those of you tracking my lucrative side-hustle as a Twitter-reply-quipster, I'm thrilled to let you know that I've shattered my previous record for "likes" - approaching 600 as of now! And all for having the nerve to ask a professor and staff writer at the New Yorker, if he's currently working on his high school diploma. As with most of my commentary, it makes perfect sense if you're an idiot.
https://twitter.com/peepinthefog/status/1216524832139042818
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QR codes are used on all my Amtrak tickets these days for commuting on the Capitol Corridor. We also print them in the Sunday bulletin next to the call to the offering, which will take you straight to the donation page in our church app, for those who want to give through the app. (I prefer checks myself because checks don't charge an extra processing fee, but I suppose it's handy for those who want to give but may have left the checkbook at home).
You invented the internet, but still use checks.