Ordinary World for 29 Oct 2018
Your Ordinary World Links for Monday, 29 October, 2018, with thought and philosophy the subject to read, share, and discuss at Ordinary Times.
Ten Second News
-Troop Opposition To Trump Growing
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Support has dipped a bit, but opposition is up and the gap has closed:
President Donald Trump’s approval rating among active-duty military personnel has slipped over the last two years, leaving today’s troops evenly split over whether they’re happy with the commander in chief’s job performance, according to the results of a new Military Times poll of active-duty service members.
About 44 percent of troops had a favorable view of Trump’s presidency, the poll showed, compared to 43 percent who disapproved.
The results from the survey, conducted over the course of September and October, suggest a gradual decline in troops’ support of Trump since he was elected in fall 2016, when a similar Military Times poll showed that 46 percent of troops approved of Trump compared to 37 percent who disapproved. That nine-point margin of support now appears gone.
“The troops are turning Democratic!” is a thing I’ve been hearing since 2004. Maybe it’s happening now, or maybe it’s just Trump.
Comment → --Quiet For Quiet
Sometimes people don’t like that they kind of want peace:
Comment → -Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu compared Hamas to ISIS earlier this week and said that there was no diplomatic solution for the conflict, but also said that war should be a last resort, and Israel will do what it can to avoid it. The responses were not particularly accepting. Yet the cabinet’s decision – or lack of a decision – on Tuesday seemed to follow that reasoning.
There was no vote in the cabinet on what to do next, since no ministers put up a fight against security officials’ suggestions, which Netanyahu strongly supported – Israel should follow a “quiet for quiet” formulation, meaning that it will hold its fire as long as Hamas does.
A strange thing happened almost immediately after sources briefed reporters that the cabinet unanimously decided to accept a ceasefire with Hamas: ministers began denying it.
-Too Sexy For That Job, Too Sexy For That Job…
This doesn’t surprise me at all, actually.
According to a new study carried out in the US and UK, handsome men are more likely to be seen as a threat by their bosses and are hence less likely to score equally powerful positions. The study involved researchers at University College London’s School of Management and the University of Maryland in the US carrying out four separate experiments in four different offices, according to the Daily Mail. They found that when men were hiring other men to work with them, their decision was negatively affected by the attractiveness of the candidate and the type of job. Women’s perceived hotness, shockingly, did not prevent them from being desirable additions to the boardroom.
“Managers are affected by stereotypes and make hiring decisions to serve their own self-interests so organizations may not get the most competent candidates” said professor Sun Young Lee, lead researcher at the University of Maryland. “With more companies involving employees in recruitment processes, this important point needs attention. Awareness that hiring is affected by potential work relationships and stereotyping tendencies can help organizations improve their selection processes.”
Men have a tendency to be really catty (for lack of a better term) when it comes to attractive actors. It took a decade before guys would admit that Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio had talent, and I think a lot of that is based on assumptions that they were just pretty boys.
I remember a guy back when I was in college or just out of it. Took me a long time to warm up to him. I realized at some point it was because I was making assumptions about him based on his gorgeous appearance. It wasn’t even jealousy in any real sense. It was just a sense of “guys that look like that.”
Comment → -+ California Congressman gives “nukes” as reason that any American civil war would be a short one
( 33 )-California Congressman gives “nukes” as reason that any American civil war would be a short one
John Cardillo, of Newsmax (yeah, I know… he’s not the point), tweeted this:
Make no mistake, Democrats want to eradicate the Second Amendment, ban and seize all guns, and have all power rest with the state.
These people are dangerously obsessed with power. https://t.co/f1AS6Me0ko
— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) November 16, 2018
If the tweet disappears, it’s a link to an article by NBC talking about California Congressman Eric Swalwell calling for a confiscation of assault rifles.
A Republican Bluecheck (somebody I’ve never heard of) made a tweet in response and the congressman in question tweeted back this (the link is good as of right now but here’s a screenshot if, for whatever reason, the tweet isn’t there later):
(Image is taken from Rep. Eric Swalwell’s twitter banner.)
Comment → --A Japanese History of America, 1861
/ #japan #Snakes #USAThis whole thread is amazing. A couple of snippits.
A thread of images from a Japanese illustrated history of America from 1861.
Here is George Washington (with bow and arrow) pictured alongside the Goddess of America. 1/ pic.twitter.com/LoF54y54bL
— Nick Kapur (@nick_kapur) November 14, 2018
Comment → -Meanwhile, John Adams wants to get revenge on the snake that ate his Mom, so he goes to ask a magical mountain fairy for help! 12/ pic.twitter.com/UaxxN5BJPI
— Nick Kapur (@nick_kapur) November 14, 2018
-The People v Facebook
/ #FacebookWhen Facebook users learned last spring that the company had compromised their privacy in its rush to expand, allowing access to the personal information of tens of millions of people to a political data firm linked to President Trump, Facebook sought to deflect blame and mask the extent of the problem.
And when that failed — as the company’s stock price plummeted and sparked a consumer backlash — Facebook went on the attack.
While Mr. Zuckerberg conducted a public apology tour in the last year, Ms. Sandberg has overseen an aggressive lobbying campaign to combat Facebook’s critics, shift public anger toward rival companies and ward off damaging regulation. Facebook employed a Republican opposition-research firm to discredit activist protesters, in part by linking them to the liberal financier George Soros. It also tapped its business relationships, persuading a Jewish civil rights group to cast some criticism of the company as anti-Semitic.
In Washington, allies of Facebook, including Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader, intervened on its behalf. And Ms. Sandberg wooed or cajoled hostile lawmakers, while trying to dispel Facebook’s reputation as a bastion of Bay Area liberalism.
I’ve long believed that Facebook is particularly vulnerable, compared to many of the companies presently considered to be their peers, because they don’t offer a hard service nor are their central to the Internet or computing experience. They need goodwill. Which makes stuff like this so potentially bad for them, and also compels them to do it in the first place.
Comment → --Police Kill Good Guy With A Gun
/ #Jemel Roberson #policeJemel Roberson was a security guard at Manny’s Blue Room, a bar in Robbins, Illinois. Patrons there got drunk and were asked to leave and, although they initially did so, they then returned and started shooting. Roberson was armed. He returned fire and eventually apprehended one of the shooters. Then, the Midlothian Police Department arrived. Patrons told the police that Roberson was a security guard at the bar.
Four people were injured in the shooting but will survive. A fifth was shot and killed. The fifth was Jemel Roberson. He was, by every imaginable measure, the platonic ideal of the NRA’s “Good Guy With A Gun” argument. The police killed him anyway. His heroism had not mattered in the end.
Meanwhile, all of the following people survived their encounters with the police:
- Fred Hopkins Jr. He shot seven police officers, killing one of them. He was apprehended alive.
- Robert Bowers. He killed eleven worshippers at Pittsburgh’s Tree Of Life synagogue. He was apprehended alive.
- Travis Reinking. He killed four people at a Nashville Waffle House. He was apprehended alive.
- Gregory Bush. He killed two people at a Kroger near Louisville. He was apprehended alive.
- Dimitros Pagourtzis. He killed ten people at a Houston school. He was apprehended alive.
The police are capable, in other words, of not shooting, or at least, it would sure seem like it. They choose not to in certain cases. Roberson’s mistake was not being one of those certain cases.
Comment → --Stan Lee, 95, passes away
American comic book writer, editor, publisher and former president of Marvel Comics, Stan Lee, passed away today at the age of 95.
May his memory be a blessing.
(Image is Stan Lee’s Twitter avatar.)
Comment → - ← ITW All TSN →
Biases and Lies, Told By Us, To Us
A while back Jaybird brought up “Priming” while dealing with the Yanni vs Laurel thing. Cognitive bias, however, influences just about every thought you have in one way or another, and dealing with it beyond just behavior in understanding it better is a complex endeavor.
Sunday Brunch: Culture Quick Links
Sunday Brunch: Culture Quick Links on Music, Art, Thought, and People for your Sunday Enjoyment.
