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#51
Politics / Re: Government by the Bizarre:...
Last post by Dark Lightning - April 02, 2026, 08:35:51 PMYikes. It was in a movie(?), "Life's tough. It's even tougher when you're stupid".
#52
Politics / Re: Government by the Bizarre:...
Last post by billy rubin - April 02, 2026, 08:01:26 PMin fact, the individual that i was talking to about lies in the media has been trying to locate a reliable source for ivermectin.
#53
Politics / Re: Government by the Bizarre:...
Last post by Dark Lightning - April 02, 2026, 07:53:34 PMSad. That's the demographic who will use horse parasite medicine and bleach to kill Covid...and many times, themselves. That and accepting a know-nothing like RFK Jr as a person of authority in medicine.
I've been calling it Faux News for decades, btw.
I've been calling it Faux News for decades, btw.
#54
Politics / Re: Government by the Bizarre:...
Last post by billy rubin - April 02, 2026, 07:10:26 PMthat "willfully" is an important characteristic, i think.
i cant help but learn things just by existing. i take a walk along the road with the dog and i see things i never noticed before and they go into the hopper for processing. later on that information might be linked up with something else to make a connection, if i can retrieve it. learning things is involuntary, but i take willful effort to encourage the retrieval and cross-referencing as a conscious skill.
but lots of people i know dont have an interest in taking any effort, for a variety of reasons. some of them are deer-in-the-headlights people, but others with more brains just dont have an interest in expanding their comprehension of the world. they remain ignorant of things i see around them, and are comfortable that way.
thats a choice they make that has consequences. one of them is that they are more easily duped by people who do educate themselves, but are interested in using that skill in deceiving people.
im thinking of the american fox news, for example. someone asserted to me the other day that you cant trust any media sources to tell you the truth, which of course is what you hear from the ones that lie. i pointed out that bias was universal, but actual lies were not so common. the example i used was fox news, who have recently lost a defamation case in which they were found guilty of lying, and it cost them $787 million. they were ignorant of the judgement, and had no interest in assessing its implications for them.
as a result, fox news still has some level of authoritative status in their minds that it does not deserve. fox lies to them, and they are willfully led by the nose.
i cant help but learn things just by existing. i take a walk along the road with the dog and i see things i never noticed before and they go into the hopper for processing. later on that information might be linked up with something else to make a connection, if i can retrieve it. learning things is involuntary, but i take willful effort to encourage the retrieval and cross-referencing as a conscious skill.
but lots of people i know dont have an interest in taking any effort, for a variety of reasons. some of them are deer-in-the-headlights people, but others with more brains just dont have an interest in expanding their comprehension of the world. they remain ignorant of things i see around them, and are comfortable that way.
thats a choice they make that has consequences. one of them is that they are more easily duped by people who do educate themselves, but are interested in using that skill in deceiving people.
im thinking of the american fox news, for example. someone asserted to me the other day that you cant trust any media sources to tell you the truth, which of course is what you hear from the ones that lie. i pointed out that bias was universal, but actual lies were not so common. the example i used was fox news, who have recently lost a defamation case in which they were found guilty of lying, and it cost them $787 million. they were ignorant of the judgement, and had no interest in assessing its implications for them.
as a result, fox news still has some level of authoritative status in their minds that it does not deserve. fox lies to them, and they are willfully led by the nose.
#55
Politics / Re: Government by the Bizarre:...
Last post by Dark Lightning - April 02, 2026, 06:41:44 PMI know plenty of people like that. I worked 15 years in assembly of spacecraft. One would think that all the people working in such an environment would be pretty smart. Nope. I did spend about 10 years in antenna engineering. A lot of really smart people, PhDs everywhere. In the Navy and afterwards until I graduated uni, a period covering 11 years, again, lots of willfully ineducable people.
#56
Politics / Re: Government by the Bizarre:...
Last post by billy rubin - April 02, 2026, 05:26:44 PMit would be an endless task. the other day one driver asked me about bald eagles. he was under the impression that they were immortal and periodically lost their feathers and beak and regenerated their entire bodies, giving them another lifetime. another recently asked me to explain what a hypothetical question was.
people dont like to be educated or corrected, as it implies that they dont know what theyre talking about. the fact that they really might NOT know what theyre talking about is secondary to their reluctance to acknowedging ignorance. if i contradict every error i hear i merely anger people.
so im circumspect about what i say, dont use sentences that contain too many multisyllabic words, and just look for the tipping points.
i suppose this sounds arrogant, but its the reality of the world i work in.
people dont like to be educated or corrected, as it implies that they dont know what theyre talking about. the fact that they really might NOT know what theyre talking about is secondary to their reluctance to acknowedging ignorance. if i contradict every error i hear i merely anger people.
so im circumspect about what i say, dont use sentences that contain too many multisyllabic words, and just look for the tipping points.
i suppose this sounds arrogant, but its the reality of the world i work in.
#57
Politics / Re: Government by the Bizarre:...
Last post by Dark Lightning - April 02, 2026, 05:07:06 PMMan, that is industrial grade ignorance. You educated them, right? At least a little?
#58
Laid Back Lounge / Re: rewilding, or, turning bac...
Last post by billy rubin - April 02, 2026, 04:43:28 PMin the meantime, ive retired!
a little.
my job driving a brine truck in the oil fields is five days per week, nominally 12 hours per day. although it normally runs only about 55 to 57 hours per week. but its only five days, rather than the alternate 6-day weeks i had at my last place.
but ive swapped for a three-day work week, so i get four days off in a row, starting this week. the company does this for people who will work over the calendar weekends, which lots of people dont like because of child visitation or spousal schedules. the pay is higher for the shorter week, so the money hit is not as bad as it culd be.
anyway, my work week is now friday, saturday, and sunday, so i will have more time to work on the ranch here and might actually accelerate some of the projects.
and i can ride my motorcycle more.
a little.
my job driving a brine truck in the oil fields is five days per week, nominally 12 hours per day. although it normally runs only about 55 to 57 hours per week. but its only five days, rather than the alternate 6-day weeks i had at my last place.
but ive swapped for a three-day work week, so i get four days off in a row, starting this week. the company does this for people who will work over the calendar weekends, which lots of people dont like because of child visitation or spousal schedules. the pay is higher for the shorter week, so the money hit is not as bad as it culd be.
anyway, my work week is now friday, saturday, and sunday, so i will have more time to work on the ranch here and might actually accelerate some of the projects.
and i can ride my motorcycle more.
#59
Politics / Re: Government by the Bizarre:...
Last post by billy rubin - April 02, 2026, 04:35:16 PMwe appear to get the government we ask for, though.
there was a discussion around the dispatch table the other morning where i work, as the drivers were picking up their assignments for the day.
the question one had was who we were threatening to bomb: iraq or iran? the driver didnt know the difference.
another driver had never heard of nuclear fallout, and asked me if what i meant was chemtrails. which he had heard of.
there was a discussion around the dispatch table the other morning where i work, as the drivers were picking up their assignments for the day.
the question one had was who we were threatening to bomb: iraq or iran? the driver didnt know the difference.
another driver had never heard of nuclear fallout, and asked me if what i meant was chemtrails. which he had heard of.
#60
Science / Re: Artemis II
Last post by billy rubin - April 02, 2026, 04:26:12 PMis it great though?
ive been looking through the various news articles on the program, and im having a hard time finding any substantive public reason to be going there. theres certainly lots of american flags and great statements about the achievements of mankind and the unity of it all.
but im a skeptic on these things. what i see is something else.
as near as i can tell, the moon mission is a publicly-financed pilot program for elon musk and the rest of the space billionaires to get public funding for what will inevitably be a private mining business. the oligarchs are good at this-- use the tax dollars extracted from fast food workers and walmart greeters to fund their projects, then stuff the income from the resulting industry into their personal mattress.
the only profitable reason to go to the moon that i have seen so far is that it is a possible source of H3, a light isotop of helium used in radiation detectors and possibly for the cooling systems in . . . data centers.
but maybe im wrong, and something will surface after the confetti is cleared up.
ive been looking through the various news articles on the program, and im having a hard time finding any substantive public reason to be going there. theres certainly lots of american flags and great statements about the achievements of mankind and the unity of it all.
but im a skeptic on these things. what i see is something else.
as near as i can tell, the moon mission is a publicly-financed pilot program for elon musk and the rest of the space billionaires to get public funding for what will inevitably be a private mining business. the oligarchs are good at this-- use the tax dollars extracted from fast food workers and walmart greeters to fund their projects, then stuff the income from the resulting industry into their personal mattress.
the only profitable reason to go to the moon that i have seen so far is that it is a possible source of H3, a light isotop of helium used in radiation detectors and possibly for the cooling systems in . . . data centers.
but maybe im wrong, and something will surface after the confetti is cleared up.