All entries by this author

Deploy the crest

Apr 23rd, 2023 5:33 pm | By

I approve this elegant and polite mating ritual.

Read the rest



Developing fast

Apr 23rd, 2023 11:39 am | By

AI gonna eat our lunch yeah?

[Google boss] Sundar Pichai told the CBS programme 60 Minutes this month that AI could be “very harmful” if deployed wrongly, and was developing fast. “So does that keep me up at night? Absolutely,” he said.

So how much of a danger is posed by unrestrained AI development? Musk is one of thousands of signatories to a letter published by the Future of Life Institute, a thinktank, that called for a six-month moratorium on the creation of “giant” AIs more powerful than GPT-4, the system that underpins ChatGPT and the chatbot integrated with Microsoft’s Bing search engine. The risks cited by the letter include “loss of control of our civilization”.

An

Read the rest


Good luck against a powerful and malign foe

Apr 23rd, 2023 10:41 am | By
Good luck against a powerful and malign foe

Glinner on Barry Humphries:

My acquaintance with him was about as fleeting as it was possible to get and yet I feel all those qualities manifested in the single email I received from him. A couple of years ago, Stella O’Malley and I wrote a letter defending JK Rowling from the death and rape threats sent to her by trans rights activists. I thought it would be an easy and safe way for comedians to stand up against the rising authoritarianism of the hysterical, misogynist Left. But hardly a single comedian of my acquaintance signed it.

Barry signed it, though. And he sent me this.

Read the rest


Guest post: The ‘passion’ is all in the side-picking and purity-signalling

Apr 23rd, 2023 8:40 am | By

Originally a comment by latsot on Trans activism as progressive credential.

Well there’s not even a passion about trans rights, is there? If there were passion, there’d be a constant emotional outpouring describing those rights and the injurious effects of their supposed lack. If there were passion, there’d be powerfully reasoned argument, studded with heart warming and heart breaking examples.

The passion is not for ‘trans rights’, it’s for shouting the slogan, signalling the virtue, siding with the side, as you say, Arty.

One of the most interesting parts of any #LetWomenSpeak event is watching the behaviour of the ‘protesters’ (when they’re not being violent). They’re passionless, for the most part. They stand, slackly and without expression, blandly repeating … Read the rest



The most authoritarian branch

Apr 23rd, 2023 6:04 am | By

Thanks to Rev David Brindley for alerting us to this gem:

And how will we be defining “vilifying”? “discriminating against”? “the rights of trans people”? How will we be knowing when it’s “unnecessary” to prioritize “sex characteristics” over “gender”? How will we be knowing why sex has “characteristics” (which there’s no need to prioritize) while gender doesn’t? How will we be defining “transition care”? How will we be defining “leading questions”? How will we be defining “harms”?… Read the rest



Guest post: Trans activism as progressive credential

Apr 22nd, 2023 6:26 pm | By

Originally a comment by Artymorty on Serious people.

I still can’t quite figure out where all of this passion about “trans rights” has suddenly come from. It’s got little to do with the ‘Western’ concept of transsexualism as it was understood a few decades ago, and it’s got nothing to do with celebrating or encouraging gender diversity in general. Nor does it have anything to do with the ways other societies are structured around sex, sexuality, and gender roles, like in indigenous, collectivist cultures around the world. “Transphobia” as the term is presently used is an elusive spectre that seems to have been conjured entirely out of people’s minds. None of the terms it relies on can be consistently … Read the rest



He’s so excited

Apr 22nd, 2023 4:35 pm | By

Yuh huh.

He’s a guy. He may be a guy of distinction, I don’t know, but he’s a guy.

That’s a woman who won’t get a 2023 women of distinction award, because this fella got it instead.

Well, feminist … Read the rest



Serious people

Apr 22nd, 2023 3:09 pm | By

And another thing.

“…but trans rights are human rights. They shouldn’t be up for debate amongst serious people…”

Jolyon Maugham is a lawyer. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it an important part of a lawyer’s job to be very careful about precision in language, and to make sure everybody is talking about the same thing?

I ask because what exactly are “trans rights”? How can we tell whether they’re human rights or not if people aren’t clear about what they mean by the category?

Is it a human right to force … Read the rest



More in conceit than in warmth

Apr 22nd, 2023 10:47 am | By

Jolyon continues to out-Jolyon himself.

What possesses him to keep calling her “Jo” in that infuriating way? He’s not her friend, so he doesn’t get to “Jo” her – especially since in his case it’s not just inappropriate familiarity, it’s also male condescension plus intrusion. It’s a deeply hostile act, so it makes his whiny “Y won’t you make a truce with me??” all the more passive-aggressive and … Read the rest



Famous for energetic abuse

Apr 22nd, 2023 9:24 am | By

Now for the scathing review of Jolyon’s book by Yuan Yi Zhu in the Times.

How to explain the rather indefinite but very real fame of Maugham to those who do not tweet? Well, you see, he was a successful but obscure tax barrister. Then he started a mildly successful blog, which led to him advising the Labour Party on tax policy and even to fleeting fantasies of becoming attorney-general in the House of Lords in an Ed Miliband government.

But what really made him famous was his energetic abuse of anyone who disagreed with him on Twitter…

That yes but I think his colossal ego also played a large part. It really is a sight to behold.

For instance … Read the rest



We both know Jolyon’s vanity outshines the sun

Apr 22nd, 2023 8:58 am | By

Heh Rowling finds Jolyon’s “we both know” as absurd as I do.

He does! Of course he does. The conceit of that man could power a rocket to Mars.… Read the rest



We both know

Apr 22nd, 2023 5:31 am | By

Hilarious. Jolyon Maugham has published a book. The Times has a disdainful review. JK Rowling remarked on the review.

So what does the notoriously pompous self-admiring barrister do? He tells her – chummily calling her “Jo” as if they were friends which they are NOT – she should read it.

Read the rest


Body positivity through amputation

Apr 22nd, 2023 4:52 am | By

Hmmm. Something doesn’t add up here.

There’s this show on Channel 4 in the UK:

Channel 4 is known for pushing the boundaries and kickstarting conversations with its shows – and Naked Education is no exception.

Fronted by Anna Richardson, the six-part series – co-hosted by Yinka Bokinni and former Love Island star Doctor Alex George – aims to break taboos and aid body positivity with frank discussions and a whole load of nudity.

One pair we meet in episode three is Finlay Games and Lucian Main, two transgender men who get candid about coming out, transitioning, surgery, and navigating life as trans people.

In a truly powerful moment, the guys bare all, with Lucian showing his scars from

Read the rest


“People with periods”

Apr 21st, 2023 5:20 pm | By

J.A. alerted us to the fact that Science Friday on NPR was about menstruation and went big on the “people” who menstruate bullshit. Let’s read their summary:

Saying the phrase “menstrual blood” or or the word “period” can feel almost dirty. That’s because in the western world, people with periods are taught not to discuss this exceedingly normal biological process. Half the world will menstruate at some point in their lives, and yet menstruation remains exceedingly under-studied. 

Sure enough – they tactfully bashfully ashamedly hide the fact that it’s women who are subject to this association with dirt and failure to study. It’s intensely ironic (and of course enraging) to hide women even on this subject, because how can … Read the rest



Crikey

Apr 21st, 2023 11:37 am | By

Breaking news out of Australia:

Fox Corporation chief executive Lachlan Murdoch has dropped his defamation case against the Australian publisher of news outlet Crikey and several of its editors and executives.

Friday’s move came [after] Fox News and Dominion Voting reached a last-minute settlement in a billion-dollar defamation case in a US court on Wednesday, in the final minutes before a trial was due to begin.

Mr Murdoch launched legal action against Crikey publisher Private Media in the Federal Court in August, claiming it defamed him in referring to his family as “unindicted co-conspirators” in the US Capitol riots.

The action related to a June 29 opinion piece that was taken down and then posted back online on August

Read the rest


A mere ‘gestational’ mother

Apr 21st, 2023 10:28 am | By

Louise Perry on women as flowerpots:

Last month, the Law Commission published its long-awaited report on the legal status of the surrogacy industry. It contained – as expected – one particularly alarming recommendation. Alongside various tweaks to payment and regulation processes, the Commission suggests a crucial change to the parental status of a baby born by surrogacy.

At present, the woman who gives birth to the baby is considered to be that child’s legal parent, and the intended parents are obliged to apply for a parental order following birth. But if the Law Commission gets its way, the situation will be reversed. Although the surrogate will still have the right to object, the default presumption in law will be

Read the rest


Cricketwashing

Apr 21st, 2023 9:39 am | By

Saudi Arabia uses various sports to try to make itself look not horrible.

Now Saudi Arabia is coming for cricket – just another step in the grandest sportswashing campaign in history. The country is an autocratic monarchy run on the fundamentalist principles of Wahhabist Islam. Laws of ‘guardianship’ mean that women cede control of their lives to male relatives.

No that’s not the right way to put it. Women don’t cede anything, they’re not given the chance to cede anything – laws of “guardianship” mean they never have control of their lives at any time.

The legal system uses prison, torture or execution against political dissent and anyone outside proscribed sexual or gender norms. The Saudi-led war in Yemen

Read the rest


Montana standoff

Apr 21st, 2023 9:13 am | By

Again, adult news outlets parroting the childish fantasy-based jargon.

Montana’s House speaker on Thursday refused to allow a transgender lawmaker to speak about bills on the House floor until she apologizes for saying lawmakers would have “blood on their hands” if they supported a bill to ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth, the lawmaker said.

“She” is “he” and there’s no such thing as “gender-affirming medical care.” “Affirming gender” is not medical and it’s not care.

Rep. Zooey Zephyr, who was deliberately misgendered by a conservative group of lawmakers demanding her censure after Tuesday’s comments, said she would not apologize, creating a standoff between the first-term state lawmaker and Republican legislative leaders.

“Misgendered” is silly jargon too. … Read the rest



Creative interpretation of visitor numbers

Apr 21st, 2023 5:23 am | By

What are they even for? One minute we’re told “head of state” and the next it’s “bringing in the tourist cash.” Are they any real use at either of those, or anything else? Are they enough use to justify the enormous amount of tax-free money they keep having more of?

A common argument in defence of the royal family is the benefit they bring to the UK economy through tourism. But despite widespread claims of their tourist value, firm evidence that the Windsors are what bring visitors to Britain is hard to come by, with most assertions anecdotal or speculative. The storm-tossed tourist industry may be desperately hoping for a coronation bump, but the benefit the event will bring is

Read the rest


Formerly Kvindemuseet

Apr 21st, 2023 3:44 am | By

Says it all.

KØN – Gender Museum Denmark, formerly Kvindemuseet (Women’s Museum), is a history museum in AarhusDenmark focused on the cultural history of gender and sexuality in Denmark.

Of course it is. It used to be Women’s Museum, but then people came to their senses and remembered that women are worthless and don’t matter, so they changed it to Gender Museum. SO much better. Why anyone ever thought women mattered is a mystery.

There’s a statue of Gender out front.

https://twitter.com/singlikeadiva/status/1649334580955197440… Read the rest