Sky News on our (absurdly hopeful) 2° Future

Just in time for the talks in Paris* and as the last hopes of our keeping temperature-increase under 2 degrees Celsius evaporate, here's a nice video from Sky News illustrating what, at this point, our most optimistic future might look like due to our greedy shortsighted stupidity.

This video, released in the last 24 hours or so, on our 2° future was accompanied by scarier videos illustrating 3° & 4° respectively.  For some reason, Sky has since chosen to set the accompanying videos to 'Private' status on YouTube.

To be generous to Sky, maybe these videos were just released prematurely by accident, and will be re-released shortly.  Maybe.**

The remaining video is instructive.****  But we're missing the progression that the video-makers clearly intended with just the one.  Also, each video ended with an encouragement to share said content via social media.  Kinda hard to do that Sky when you disappear the videos with no warning, and no explanation.



* Which due to our ever currently convenient obsession with 'The War on Terror'*** are to occur under a 'State of Emergency' with protests conveniently banned.

** That, or representatives of Murdoch's buddies in the fossil-fuel-industries got wind of what one of his media-outlets was putting out, and convinced Sky of the benefits of a little self-censorship ?

*** Many of the roots of which can be directly tied back to our dependence upon fossil-fuels, and support of the backwards regimes who control much of the supply thereof.

**** Myself, I think there's an argument that some of the millennials and younger may have an excuse (living under Western corporate media & the likes of GOP-compromised educational systems) for not understanding just how dire the threat is.  But, really, if you're over thirty or so and need any further convincing, then at this point I can't put it down to any better than, at most generous, wilful ignorance.


Update: This vid. on 5° change may be a replacement for the other two videos I mentioned.

Stick a Fork In It Already

So, I guess in between the endless repeats of Forensic Files, the onetime 'CNN Headline News' likes to occasionally pretend to still be a news-organisation.  And this is the result.

Bring back Ted Turner !  All is forgiven...


Update: Well, this explains a lot.

Clickbait

Indeed.

Doesn't help that just about every major news-site, up to, and even including the BBC, seem to be adopting the format of all content replaced by a series of squares or rectangles wherein an image is overlaid or captioned with a line or two of text, in a manner that just so happens to be almost indistinguishable from their 'promoted' content, be it from Taboola, Outbrain, their own in-house system, or the devil himself.

Our brave new online world has much to recommend it at times.  But more often than not, it just sucks.



And then the effect bleeds into the offline world as well, what with all those full-page ads. in magazines that just so happen to look like news-stories, till you start to smell bullshit, look down, and notice: 'Sponsored Content' in microscopic font.

Never mind the effect on commercial television, which seems to think that having a bunch of himbos & bimbos standing around a laptop watching cat-videos constitutes 'news'. 

Fuckin' Internet...

The Iowa Straw Poll

So no more Iowa Straw Poll in American Presidential elections ?  Well although far less welcome news than actually ditching the 'tradition' of small states like Iowa & New Hampshire having disproportionate influence on elections by running caucuses & primaries ahead of everyone else, that's good news I guess.

Although it means perhaps no more delightful images like these of candidates (& S/O's) guzzling corn-dogs and the like.

Actually, on that basis alone, thanks Iowa Republicans !  You just can't unsee that can you ?



And how's the media covering this ?


Time ?

The Iowa Straw Poll that measured the intensity of the state’s most conservative activists and their love of free ice cream—and little else—was declared dead Friday at the age of 36. The cause of death was irrelevance.

HuffPo ?

R.I.P. Iowa Straw Poll, 1979-2015

NPR ?

A once important political event, which has seen its influence diminished by pay-to-play allegations, breathed its last breath Friday morning.

State Republicans voted to kill the Iowa Straw Poll in a unanimous vote — reversing themselves from a unanimous vote in January to continue it.

Politico ?

The Iowa straw poll — which gave life to Ron Paul, stole it from Tim Pawlenty and offered hope to Rick Santorum — was pronounced dead Friday. It was 36 years old.

Mother Jones ?

The Iowa Straw Poll, a fundraising event for the Republican Party of Iowa that advertised itself as a pivotal proving ground for the first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses, died on Friday. It was 36.

Daily Beast ?

The Iowa Straw Poll was taken off life support on Friday after losing its battle with relevance.  It was 36 years old.

Hmm...I'm sensing a theme here...  So, what the hell...

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you donate to Americans for Prosperity.

Stay Classy, JPost

What ?  We're just sayin'.  And if you click on the link, the Title specifies 'Not Just News.'   I'm willing to bet that a large part of JPost's readership wouldn't even see or acknowledge what is so very fucking wrong with that shit in the middle of the image above.  I try to keep an open mind.  I really do.  And then I see shit like this.  And I just give up...

Felix Kiprono is in love, and the young Kenyan lawyer is aiming high.

According to the daily newspaper Nairobian, the object of Kiprono’s affections is none other than President Barack Obama’s daughter, Malia.

Just how far is Kiprono willing to go to snatch the girl of his dreams? According to the Nairobian, he is prepared to offer the leader of the free world a dowry of 50 cows, 70 sheep, and 30 goats.

"People might say I am after the family's money, which is not the case. My love is real," Kiprono told the Nairobian newspaper.

Just how smitten is Kiprono with Malia Obama?

"I got interested in her in 2008," he said. "As a matter of fact, I haven't dated anyone since and promise to be faithful to her. I have shared this with my family and they are willing to help me raise the bride price."

He said he plans to deliver a letter to the US Embassy in Kenya to officially declare his intention.."

Ours will be a simple life. I will teach Malia how to milk a cow, cook ugali (a starchy dish) and prepare mursik (a sour milk) like any other Kalenjin woman," he said

Update: Apparently CNN & The Indy. also 'reported' on this non-story.  Which I guess, makes it okay...er, No.  No, it doesn't.  Our modern news-media is such a fucking disgrace.

History Repeating

Hmm, this from the Guardian piece on Thatcher's deal with Rupert Murdoch back in the eighties seems familiar.

Times Newspapers had long cherished their independence. In 1966, when the Times was in financial difficulty, the new owner who came to the rescue, Lord Roy Thomson of Fleet, promised to sustain it as an independent non-partisan newspaper – precisely how he had conducted the profitable Sunday Times. Murdoch was able to acquire both publications in 1981 only because he began making solemn pledges that he would maintain the tradition of independence. He broke every one of those promises in the first years.

Almost feels as if there were something in much more recent history along...oh, yeah...

Most readers just write a letter to the editor. Murdoch made a $5 billion offer to buy the Journal's parent company, Dow Jones. To do that, he must first win over the Bancroft family, which has controlled Dow Jones for the last 92 years and has so far resisted all of his overtures, in part because of concerns about what he might do to the Journal.

He insists he will not meddle in the journalism or slash-and-burn the staff. "We're not coming in with a bunch of cost-cutters," he said, but added: "I'm not saying it's going to be a holiday camp for everybody."

Of course he wouldn't.  On the one hand, you've got his entire history, and his use of just about every property he ever owned for partisan political purposes, and then you've got the word of...Rupert Murdoch.

Now if only someone could encourage Rupert to put Fox News behind a paywall too...

What Family of Nations ?

Is it really just over half a year since the referendum for Scottish independence ?  Hard to believe perhaps with the Tories and the national UK media tripping over one another in England to come up with ever more outlandish scaremongering claims about Nicola Sturgeon & the SNP.  All the promises, all the pandering, all the out-right bribery...  And with the referendum so soon forgotten, and a general election underway in which the SNP could decide the balance of power, it's throw Scotland under the bus time.  If it weren't for Trident, I'd almost be rooting for the SNP myself at this point.

Blatant Media Bias

The murder of the Russian liberal politician Boris Nemtsov in Moscow on 27th February 2015 was an international media sensation.

The story of his murder was extensively covered by all mainstream Western media. Few held back from speculations about who was responsible. Though evidence was completely lacking, the Western media had no hesitation pointing the finger at the Russian government.

The murders in Ukraine of the Ukrainian opposition politician Oleh Kalashnikov and of the Ukrainian opposition journalist Oles Buzina have attracted no such attention.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/columnists/20150417/1021016897.html#ixzz3XcApMjnu

Well thanks for calling that to our attention, Kremlin media.  And yes the coverage in the western media is absolutely biased. (not snark)  Completely unlike that fine example of totally not wall-to-wall anti-Western propaganda set by RT & RIA NovostiSputnik. (blatant snark)  And if I were to search Google News for 'Kalashnikov murder', I bet I wouldn't find any major western media outlets reporting on the stories at all...

...except the BBC, the Guardian, Reuters, CNN, the New York Times, The Telegraph, Newsweek, the Finanical Times, the Daily Mail, Radio Free Europe, the Washington Post, RTÉ, Voice of America, and the Sydney Morning Herald.  Shit, what happened to the International Business Times ?  How'd I leave them out ?

Waiting Auntie Hill's Announcement with Baited Breath

So, with Auntie Hill. announcing her bid for the presidency shortly (what, you didn't know she was running ?), I guess 2016-season is officially open.  Only 575 days till the election !  Yippee !

And so, I guess I need to release my version of the all-important candidate-lineup-thingee for 2016:

Sure is crowded, huh ?  Though Hillary is pretty much the only serious candidate for the Democratic party (bad bad bad idea morons not giving her at least some competition in the primaries, if only to prepare her for what's to come), while, as was the case last time, the Republican clown-car is overflowing with lunatic pretenders (also not such a great idea).  What fun will be had.  And only...another 575 days and counting !

Israel in Colour by British Pathé

Interesting time-capsules in these videos, including in the way Israel was portrayed by British Pathé back in the 'fifties & 'sixties.  Keeping in mind that Israel during much of this period was more political ally of the UK & France than of the United States.  There's a more than somewhat touristy if not propagandistic tone to many of the videos, but always cool to see a window into the past.  And in colour no-less.  Hell, most British teevee was still in black-and-white till the seventies.

Last line of the last video, from '69: 'They hope for peace.  The tragedy is, can it be achieved ?'  Well...

Male Preference for Optimal Lumbar Curvature, or...

Huh, this is interesting I guess.

A psychology study from The University of Texas at Austin sheds new light on today's standards of beauty, attributing modern men's preferences for women with a curvy backside to prehistoric influences.

The study, published online in Evolution and Human Behavior, investigated men's mate preference for women with a "theoretically optimal angle of lumbar curvature," a 45.5 degree curve from back to buttocks allowing ancestral women to better support, provide for, and carry out multiple pregnancies.

"What's fascinating about this research is that it is yet another scientific illustration of a close fit between a sex-differentiated feature of human morphology—in this case lumbar curvature—and an evolved standard of attractiveness," said the study's co-author David Buss, a UT Austin psychology professor. "This adds to a growing body of evidence that beauty is not entirely arbitrary, or 'in the eyes of the beholder' as many in mainstream social science believed, but rather has a coherent adaptive logic."

This research, led by UT Austin alumnus and Bilkent University psychologist David Lewis, consisted of two studies. The first looked at vertebral wedging, an underlying spinal feature that can influence the actual curve in women's lower backs.

About 100 men rated the attractiveness of several manipulated images displaying spinal curves ranging across the natural spectrum. Men were most attracted to images of women exhibiting the hypothesized optimum of 45 degrees of lumbar curvature.

"This spinal structure would have enabled pregnant women to balance their weight over the hips," Lewis said. "These women would have been more effective at foraging during pregnancy and less likely to suffer spinal injuries. In turn, men who preferred these women would have had mates who were better able to provide for fetus and offspring, and who would have been able to carry out multiple pregnancies without injury."

The second study addressed the question of whether men prefer this angle because it reflects larger buttocks, or whether it really can be attributed to the angle in the spine itself.

Approximately 200 men were presented with groups of images of women with differing buttock size and vertebral wedging, but maintaining a 45.5-degree curve. Men consistently preferred women whose spinal curvature was closer to optimum regardless of buttock size.

Hmm, I wonder how this is being covered by other news outlets...

Really ?

Classy headline yo.

Business Insider Australia, huh.

That's...not...what they said.

'Better workers' ?  Well credit for least sexy picture, Telegraph.

Maybe I should just stick to the BBC.  Gah, and now I'm blinded by excessive whitespace, as the BBC push what was the mobile site onto the desktop.  And another site falls victim to the cult of flat design.  Well at least they've lost the hyper-pixelated pictures that used to plague the mobile site.