Althouse

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• Pokeweed.
• "He failed to keep Patty Hearst, the kidnapped publishing heiress, out of prison for her role in a bank robbery. He fell short..."
• "Kind of like Subaru. I don’t want to say it’s a cult, but Subaru people love Subarus. There’s this base of loyal customers who say, 'Wow, we’re really into this, this is our thing.' And that’s what Crocs has become."
• "[R]esidents of the John Knox Village senior community got a trip via computer to the International Space Station in the kickoff to a Stanford University study..."
• "The project at the heart of the controversy asked a fifth-grade class to write biographies from the perspective of historical figures who 'personify good or evil'..."
• "In his classic essay, 'The Inner Ring,' C.S. Lewis warned about 'the delicious knowledge that we — we four or five all huddled beside this stove — are the people who know.'"
• "Facebook plans to end its controversial policy that mostly shields politicians from the content moderation rules that apply to other users..."
• Until tomorrow.
• "American intelligence officials have found no evidence that aerial phenomena witnessed by Navy pilots in recent years are alien spacecraft..."

Pokeweed. Posted: 04 Jun 2021 06:26 AM PDT

"He failed to keep Patty Hearst, the kidnapped publishing heiress, out of prison for her role in a bank robbery. He fell short..." Posted: 04 Jun 2021 05:27 AM PDT "... in his insanity defense of the confessed Boston Strangler, Albert DeSalvo, and could not save himself from contempt of court citations, humiliating handcuffs and disbarment in 2001 for misappropriating millions. By then, however, his reputation had long been secured with triumphs that began soon after his law school graduation in 1960 with the Torso Murder Case. George Edgerly, a Lowell, Mass., auto mechanic, was accused of dismembering his wife and dumping her parts in a river. He had failed a lie-detector test, complicating the defense. But when the lead lawyer had a heart attack, Mr. Bailey took over and, raising the specter of reasonable doubt, won an acquittal. (Edgerly was later convicted in another murder.)" From "F. Lee Bailey, Lawyer for Patty Hearst and O.J. Simpson, Dies at 87/With theatrical courtroom flair, he was involved in a host of notorious criminal cases, including those of the Boston Strangler and a Vietnam War massacre" (NYT).

"Kind of like Subaru. I don’t want to say it’s a cult, but Subaru people love Subarus. There’s this base of loyal customers who say, 'Wow, we’re really into this, this is our thing.' And that’s what Crocs has become." Posted: 04 Jun 2021 05:23 AM PDT From "Love them or hate them, Crocs are back/Sales have surged during the pandemic and the brand's signature foam clog is turning up everywhere. 'I would wear them to the Met Gala'" (WaPo).

"[R]esidents of the John Knox Village senior community got a trip via computer to the International Space Station in the kickoff to a Stanford University study..." Posted: 04 Jun 2021 05:19 AM PDT "... on whether virtual reality can improve the emotional well-being of older people. Donning 1-pound (470-gram) headsets with video and sound, the four could imagine floating weightless with astronauts and get a 360-degree tour of the station. In other programs, residents can take virtual visits to Paris, Venice, Egypt or elsewhere around the globe; attend a car rally, skydive or go on a hike.... The goal is to see whether virtual reality can improve their mood, strengthen their relationships with staff and make them more receptive to technology."  From "Can virtual reality help seniors? Study hopes to find out" (WaPo).  I liked this comment: "VR does wonders for seniors. My friend an I spent 4 days straight protecting the world from Zombies. Felt great. We must of shot a million of 'em. And for the anxiety, the beer helped a lot." Virtual travel sounds great to me, and not just for old people. Able-bodied, able-minded people should, perhaps, be encouraged to see the world this way. Compare the carbon footprint of real world travel and virtual travel. And with virtual travel, you're immediately transported to all the best places, with no time (and money) spent on airplanes, no exposure to disease and crime, no jet lag. And your view of the place is free of other tourists. You can have only local people there, and they can (be programmed to) enjoy meeting you and talking to you. They'll show you around and pursue subjects — history, architecture, fashion, cars, politics — geared precisely to you.

"The project at the heart of the controversy asked a fifth-grade class to write biographies from the perspective of historical figures who 'personify good or evil'..." Posted: 04 Jun 2021 04:47 AM PDT "Students were asked to discuss how their subject may have rationalized their actions, the board said. The short essay on Hitler was displayed in the school among others from the project for weeks, but after an image of the essay was shared online, parents and other community members expressed outrage. However, some groups, such as the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, have called for tempers to calm, saying the child and their family had no antisemitic intentions, and noted they have suffered from an outpouring of 'misdirected' vitriol, which spread on social media." From "Tenafly teacher, principal placed on paid leave after student's controversial Hitler report" NorthJersey.com). Here's the image — shared by one parent on Facebook — showing the essay with statements like: "My greatest accomplishment was uniting a great mass of German and Austrian people behind me," "I was pretty great, wasn't I?," and "My belif [sic] in antisemitism drove me to kill more than 6 million Jews." Don't invite children to write from the perspective of an evil historical figure if you don't want them to compose material like this. It was dumb to print "Accomplishments" on the form and hang it on the wall where it would be seen and judged by many people who don't understand what the assignment was. It's good that no one seems to be going after the child here.

"In his classic essay, 'The Inner Ring,' C.S. Lewis warned about 'the delicious knowledge that we — we four or five all huddled beside this stove — are the people who know.'" Posted: 04 Jun 2021 03:57 AM PDT "Lewis lectured rising British university students that 'from the first day on which you enter your profession until the day when you are too old to care,' that they would be driven by the desire to be within the Inner Ring. It is, of course, a fallacy; there is no special knowledge that emanates from such bonfires. Lewis went on to describe the perilous dangers such an illusion carried, dangers to the soul if not necessarily someone's career. 'It may end in a crash, a scandal, and penal servitude; it may end in millions, a peerage and giving the prizes at your old school,' he argued. 'But you will be a scoundrel.' 'Of all the passions,' he added, 'the passion for the Inner Ring is most skillful in making a man who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things.'" From "Opinion: The sad self-importance of journalists" by Hugh Hewitt (WaPo). The C.S. Lewis material is good, but Hewitt doesn't do enough with it, and it's hard not to laugh along with the top-rated comment: "Self-important 'journalist' writes about self-importance of journalists..."

"Facebook plans to end its controversial policy that mostly shields politicians from the content moderation rules that apply to other users..." Posted: 04 Jun 2021 03:48 AM PDT "... a sharp reversal that could have global ramifications for how elected officials use the social network. The change, which Facebook is set to announce as soon as Friday, comes after the Oversight Board — an independent group funded by Facebook to review its thorniest content rulings — affirmed its decision to suspend former President Donald Trump but critiqued the special treatment it gives politicians, stating that the 'same rules should apply to all users.'... The changes are notable for Facebook since it historically has taken a hands-off approach to what elected officials say on its service.... For the past few years, Facebook has maintained a list of political accounts that aren't subject to the same fact-checking or content moderation processes that apply to other users...." The Verge reports. They had an exception and they made an exception to the exception. The new approach is to eliminate that exception to which they succumbed to the temptation to make an exception. Same rules for everybody is the soundest approach. Everyone instinctively understands it. We can deal with exceptions too, though it takes some sophistication and trust, but when you proceed to make an exception to your exception, we're properly suspicious.

Until tomorrow. Posted: 03 Jun 2021 05:43 PM PDT

"American intelligence officials have found no evidence that aerial phenomena witnessed by Navy pilots in recent years are alien spacecraft..." Posted: 03 Jun 2021 05:23 PM PDT "... but they still cannot explain the unusual movements that have mystified scientists and the military, according to senior administration officials briefed on the findings of a highly anticipated government report. The report determines that the vast majority of more than 120 incidents over the past two decades did not originate from any American military or other advanced U.S. government technology, the officials said. That determination would appear to eliminate the possibility that Navy pilots who reported seeing unexplained aircraft might have encountered programs the government meant to keep secret. But that is about the only conclusive finding in the classified intelligence report, the officials said. ... [S]enior officials briefed on the intelligence conceded that the very ambiguity of the findings meant the government could not definitively rule out theories that the phenomenon observed by military pilots might be alien spacecraft." The NYT reports.

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