Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Yesterday was quiet, as the CSICon meeting consisted largely of workshops. The talks begin in earnest today, and I speak tomorrow morning, followed at 2:45 by a visit to what is recognized as Vegas’s best buffet. First, some pictures of the Strip.
The view from the conference venue, on the 26th floor of the Horsehoe Casino, where there’s a convention center. Vegas is located in the middle of nowhere, among the parched Nevada mountains you can see in the distance.
Below: The Strip, otherwise known as S. Las Vegas Boulevard. I haven’t yet seen it in its full glory at night, when it’s bedecked with moving lights, fountains, and other things to catch the eye, but the whole street is lined with large casinos that, of course, contain hotels for vacationers and gamblers: I believe these two are Caesar’s Palace and the Bellagio
Oy. Alcohol is everywhere: it seems that every other store is selling beer or margaritas (apparently a local favorite). “Paris” is a casino with replicas of Parisian monuments (see below):
Some of the buildings are replicas of famous structures elsewhere in the world. To wit, there’s a pretty good-sized Eiffel Tower, as well as Belle Epoque architecture:
And, of course, an Arc de Triomphe:
If an unlucky Martian traveler happened to land in Vegas to survey America, it would immediately depart for home, freaked out and baffled. In fact, being in this city, which I see as the Gate to Hell, makes me feel my own mortality even more strongly. Thank goodness I have the CSICon conference to repair to.
But I also found a duck-themed donut store. Those are small rubber ducks in the window.
The Big Event of last evening was the award of this year’s Richard Dawkins Prize (for the public promulgation of science), which went to British physicist Brian Cox.
The ceremony began with a video filmed in Oxford of Richard describing Cox’s achievements, not neglecting his musical achievements as keyboard player for the rock band Dare (they released two albums). Richard showed a clip of Cox at a recent performance with the band D:Ream at the Glastonbury Festival, playing keyboard on the hit “Things Can Only Get Better“. Neil deGrasse Tyson, who made the formal presentation of the award to Cox, pointed out that the song title meant that, at the time, things were at their absolute rock bottom.
Here’s that Glastonbury video from June of this year. Click on “Watch on YouTube:
Tyson’s introduction was, as expected, lively and hilarious, and he wrote it just yesterday, as I learned from dinner on Wednesday. I wasn’t close enough to see the award (it’s always an appropriate statuette, this time made of glass), but here are a couple of lousy, long-distance iPhone photos of the two of them, with Cox getting the award:
The Presentation:
As usual, the recipient then gives an hour lecture on their work, and Cox chose to talk about black holes. It was an absorbing talk with only a couple of slides. The center of attention was the speaker Cox, delivering a perfect talk without notes and without saying “uh” once. This is a man of eloquence, and one who knows how to speak without notes (humanties professors: please learn at least the latter skill).
Da Nooz:
There may be more nooz later as I slept late (hooray!) and must get coffee and hie myself to the conference.
*First, however, I’ll steal my usual three items from Nellie Bowles’s weekly news summary at The Free Press, called this week “TGIF: The McDonald’s Election” (this refers to Trump’s stunt of serving fries at a drive-through McDonald’s). The TGIF is archived here.
I was going to write about this first one, but I’ll let Nellie do it:
→ We hide study results we don’t like: Researchers behind a long-term study on the impact of puberty blockers in gender-dysphoric teens announced that after almost a decade of collecting enormous data they. . . will not release the findings. The vibes aren’t right to release them. They’re holding them back because the findings so far are not good for the cause, said the lead researcher, Johanna Olson-Kennedy. I’m totally serious. The cause here is expanding the use of puberty blockers. And more broadly, the cause is that gender-dysphoric minors need hormonal and surgical interventions. This is part of a pattern to hide data on transitioning minors from the public.
Olson-Kennedy put it this way, in explaining why she will not release the study results: “I do not want our work to be weaponized.” Weaponized here means: People looking at the science she did and responding to it. All Olson-Kennedy admits is that: “Puberty blockers did not lead to mental health improvements.” But she won’t say more! You can’t see the data yourself. Puberty blockers don’t help, but that’s all I’ll say, and I refuse to explain myself.
If this was a privately funded study, I’d say fine. But it’s not. This study was funded with tax dollars. This study was done through the National Institutes of Health. You cannot take American taxpayer money and then refuse to release results because it’s politically inconvenient. But actually, if no one is going to hold you to account—if, in fact, your decision is celebrated—then I guess you can.
Oh, but this study that showed high levels of satisfaction with puberty blockers? This one was published. Very good. So everyone can keep saying scientific consensus, evidence-based,and research-backed. With this one weird trick, you can say that the opposing voices have no evidence (by quickly killing anything that could be evidence).
→ Facebook censorship: Just for old times’ sake, Facebook is doing some censoring ahead of the election. This time it’s a little harder, yes, but they’re up to the task. So the new rule is: You are not allowed to write about the Biden administration’s inefficiencies. Yes, Facebook will block you for trying. Specifically: You cannot point out that the administration set aside $42 billion in 2021 to set up rural broadband and has so far connected zero people. Nor can you point out that they set aside $7.5 billion for electric vehicle charging stations and have, after two and a half years, built eight charging stations. Post about it and it’ll be blacked out as FALSE INFORMATION. This paragraph you just read is forbidden knowledge.
When Facebook was busted for this—this being blocking negative content about Kamala Harris ahead of the election—Facebook said oops! Whoops! Boop! Heard blasting in Facebook HQ: the old Britney anthem. Old habits die hard. Let’s just hope Ella Emhoff doesn’t have a weird laptop floating around!
This is pretty funny:
→ No, Trump does not work at McDonald’s: Donald J. Trump this week took a break from selling Trump Coins and Trump Bibles to do a campaign stunt at a McDonald’s in Feasterville, Pennsylvania. There, he donned a blue apron and learned fry frying techniques while cameras rolled. He went to the takeout window and handed out burgers to giddy supporters. It was pretty standard retail politics, like when politicians in England pull pints or in France, where I assume they disclose an affair. It’s called appealing to the average voter. No one was confused about what was happening. No one needed to get upset. But watching Trump eke past Kamala in the latest polls in this very tight race, the mainstream media could not let McDonald’s stand. First of all: Did you know the photo shoot was staged and that Trump does not actually work at McDonald’s?
That’s right. You caught them: The campaign planned ahead to have the former president come to a McDonald’s franchise. He didn’t even apply through the online portal to become a member of the crew. And did you know his technique was bad? Horrible. Here’s The New York Times explaining that the former president is not good at making fries: “After Donald Trump served fast food during a campaign stop at a McDonald’s, several actual McDonald’s workers who examined a video of his performance earned mixed reviews from workers and patrons alike.” He also threw salt over his shoulder, which was against health codes. Someone appoint a special prosecutor immediately.
Did you know that doing a campaign stop at a fast-food joint is not like actually working at a fast-food joint? MSNBC needs to make sure. Next we’re going to have a special edition investigating whether the tooth fairy is just your mom.
Kamala Harris and Donald J. Trump are locked in a dead heat for the popular vote, 48 percent to 48 percent, the final national poll by The New York Times and Siena College has found, as Ms. Harris struggles for an edge over Mr. Trump with an electorate that seems impossibly and immovably divided.
The result, coming less than two weeks before Election Day, and as millions of Americans have already voted, is not encouraging for Ms. Harris. In recent elections, Democrats have had an edge in the popular vote even when they have lost the Electoral College and thus the White House. They have been looking to Ms. Harris to build a strong national lead as a sign that she would do well in such critical swing states as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump remain effectively tied even after three of the most tumultuous months in recent American political history. A high-profile debate, two attempts on Mr. Trump’s life, dozens of rallies across seven battlefield states and hundreds of millions spent on advertisements have seemingly done little to change the trajectory of the race.
Ms. Harris’s position, if anything, may have declined among likely voters since the last Times/Siena College poll, taken in early October. At the time, she had a slight lead over Mr. Trump, 49 percent to 46 percent. The change is within the margin of error, but The Times’s national polling average has registered a tightening in polls over the past few weeks as well, suggesting at the very least that this contest has drawn even closer.
While this latest Times/Siena College poll offers a glimpse into national sentiment, the presidential election will be decided in the seven battleground states where Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump have devoted the overwhelming amount of their time and resources. Most polls in those states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin — suggest the contest is equally close.
Here’s a visual depiction of what the article already said:
*Below is a video of pro-Israel Iranian singer and writer Elica Le Bon taking apart Ta -Neheshi Coates’s pig-ignorant diatribe against Israel in his latest book as well as when Coates did an interview with Trevor Noah. Just skip the first 30 and last 30 seconds if you don’t need the commentary. Le Bon is one of the most eloquent spokespeople Israel, cutting through the forest of lies and misconceptions that surround this conflict.
Elica on the futility of Western policies that favor Hamas (e.g., calls for a cease-fire). Cenk Uygur has a cameo trying hard to pop an artery.
More later; I need coffee, and they don’t provide in the rooms here. That is a serious issue.
I lost respect for NdGT last year over his defense of genderism. Someone should ask him whether he supports Olson-Kennedy suppressing her own research findings to “defend trans kinds”? Or whether a cosmologist should do the same in defense of his favourite hypothesis about string theory? When Pink News comes to your defense, you know you’re on the wrong side http://www.thepinknews.com/2023/09/28/neil-degrasse-tyson-trans-women-sport/
If this was a privately funded study, I’d say fine.
Well not quite, Nellie. Since it is important information regarding the welfare of children it is utterly unethical for any scientist or doctor to brush it under the carpet, regardless of who funded the study.
PS Re the Facebook censorship. This is why Musk buying Twitter was important (even if one regards the way he runs it as sub-optimal), since there you can learn about stuff that is being censored on Facebook. In the old days the censors at Facebook and Twitter would have colluded to ensure that no-one knew those things.
Musk apparently is doing a great deal of censoring of his own. I have read several articles describing what types of stories and information are being blocked as well as falshoods being promoted. He is using twitter as a platform to promote his personal viewpoints. Doesn’t sound like “free speech public forum” to me. It seems hypocritical to criticise one platform for censorship while praising another for equal or greater actions.
“Algorithms” is go-to term for what they do. The Chinese use them on Tic-Toc and Musk is using them on “X”. So, too, is everyone else, I’ll bet. Media, social or otherwise, is today a vast wasteland.
OK, but can you support the claim of Twitter censorship with evidence and examples? Yes, Musk’s personal viewpoints are indeed being promoted, but that’s largely because he has 200 million followers. Similarly, Obama has 141 million Twitter followers and his multiple pro-Harris Tweets are also being promoted (since I often see them in my “For you” feed I don’t think they’re being unfairly downrated). And, yes, a “free speech” forum will indeed contain both falsehoods and truths. Is there a way round that?
Twitter has become an echo chamber for the right. Well, actually, maybe it was always an echo chamber.
Still, you won’t find good balanced information on there any more than you will find it on any other social media site. Musk will happily publish articles on Facebook censorship regardless of whether it is true.
I like Duck Donuts. There’s one in Daytona Beach, across the road from Buccee’s.
On the Presidential polls, I don’t think that most of them makes sense. The number to look at is the likely way likely Electoral College votes. RCP has the EC at 219 to 215 (Trump/Harris) without “toss ups” and 312 to 226 with toss ups. When you look at the betting average, it doesn’t make sense when you look at national polling without looking at the EC.
‘ . . . Cox, delivering a perfect talk without notes and without saying “uh” once.’
No doubt he also did not employ the irksome locutions “sort of” and “kind of.” (One I heard an NPR interviewee utter in the last couple of days: “I sort of bought some sandals.” No doubt, someone “kind of” sold them to him. Another example heard elsewhere: “I was SO kind of over it.”)
IIRC, while doing his McDonald’s thing Trump said to the effect that he had wanted to work at McDonald’s but never did. Well, maybe he did “want” to, but, a la the military, was disqualified from doing so due to the results of a physical examination.
Las Vegas is equal parts pathetic and interesting to me. It’s sad that it’s such a monumental waste of resources for us to be entertained. It does, however have some interesting entertainment though.
Vegas does have world-class shows. Two that I’d love to see are Cirque du Soleil and, of course, Penn and Teller
Exactly, I saw Penn and Teller once. If you listen to much of Penn in his podcasts, you’d know after the show they run up the aisles to the foyer and meet and greet every audience member until they all leave. Penn was extremely gracious knowing my teenage daughter was excited because he held our camera, took a selfie, said “That’s not very good” and took another one. He must have done it five times so we had multiple photos to choose from. https://photos.app.goo.gl/tgBLU5AnjuYfQu839
What a great experience for your daughter! It confirms what I’ve heard, which is that Penn and Teller are extremely warm to their fans. It speaks well of them.
When Penn was on The Apprentice, he played for— and won— the most money for his charity, the Las Vegas charity Opportunity Village. But Trump changed the result because Penn wouldn’t endorse his bid for president.
The show’s horrified sponsors ended up donating more to Penn’s charity than he would have made otherwise. And Penn was never anything but gracious to DJT.
When I first started doing a lot of hiking, mostly in the Green Mountains of Vermont I thought everyone should experience this beautiful place. I would see people exercise walking around town and I would extoll the wonder of the hiking trails. When the trails started to get crowded I started to reconsider, especially during COVID when hiking was something you could do without a mask. The reason I bring this up was in reference to places like Vegas, Atlantic City, Disney world, ocean liner cruises,etc. Now I can see they have some value. Just think if all those people were hitting the trails! And now in Vermont they are closing roads because of too many leaf-peepers. I think people who worry about population decline are nuts.
Keep up the great reportage and pics. I haven’t been to LV in decades but it is always fun and I’m enjoying “our” (your, my and all of WEIT’s) trip there now.
I get all the stuff I like from your stories and don’t have to leave my sofa AND I don’t have to interact with Neile. How’d he “feel” yesterday, sorta man, sorta woman? etc.
Sorry, but my tolerance for Mr. T. has lessened lately.
Not for Brian Cox though – a totally top notch fellow who deserves a RD prize.
best, and probably slow down at those bonkers buffets they have out there.
best,
D.A.
NYC
You’re spot on about Brian Cox, David. He must be one busy guy, though. My daughter is at the University of Manchester, and two of her flatmates study theoretical physics. Cox actually teaches a module on their course, lecturing in person to first-year students! I was flabbergasted when she told me this – that a hotshot, famous professor takes the time to teach new undergraduates. I’ve always liked Cox, but I have even more respect for him after hearing this.
MSNBC had fun mocking and satirizing Trump’s MacDonald’s gambit. The purpose of their extended joking was to avoid by omission this elephant in the living room….
Harris claims she worked at MacDonald’s. This was fact-checked. The report came back from corporate: “we cannot confirm she ever worked at MacDonald’s.” Kamala Harris does not provided any clarifying comment, nor has she supplied any proof of her claim; [begin personal opinion] Harris and the Dems are lying about this. [end personal opinion]
Donald Trump’s theater piece was not stupid and weird and blundering. It was direct send-up with an acid-laced message about the character of his opponent.
In a Newsweek report.
“we and our franchisees don’t have records for all positions dating back to the early ’80s.”
Not the same thing if you ask me.
You point to the reason MacDonalds said they can’t confirm she worked for them, nor that she did not. No problem.
The essential: there is zero confirmation for Kamala Harris’ claim.
Okay, so why not believe it?
If it is an important claim, the substantiation ought to be everywhere. Family jokes about it. Why she quit or was fired. She is using the claim to bolster her “capitalism” and “all-american-girl” brand. She should be piling on the Americana.
Yet her financial proposals for titanic new spending, increased corporate taxes, and especially tax on unrealized gains, are nearly to the left of Karl Marx. Even he did not dream of taxing money of entrepreneurs before they obtained it. That is not America. USA is not a socialist nation.
So what is her political philosophy? We don’t believe the first claim about MacDonald’s. We have solid evidence of her extreme policies, because it is right out of her mouth, the same voice that says she was flipping burgers at MacDonald’s.
I believe that the original Duck Donuts was (and still is) in the town of Duck on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, maybe a couple of decades ago, with the second location in Virginia Beach, VA. I have never read their website until today….just eat the donuts….but apparently they have grown tremendously with stores throughout the US and internationally. But I will try to forget that I know that and just continue to think of them as our local donut shop.
Will Brian’s speech be made public? Would love to hear it.
Btw, there’s a great new Randy Rainbow song following the posted link of. Brianmon keyboard.
Yes, I think that all the talks will be published. They certainly taped them all.
Great!
I’ve been to Vegas over a dozen times because that’s where James Randi held all but the first Amazing Meeting skeptic conventions. I didn’t expect to like the city — I prefer nature walks and picturesque small towns — but was immediately entranced. When talks were over I’d walk the strip, either on my own or with anyone I could rope into joining me. It was the combination of everything — lights, activity, and tackiness on so large and opulent a scale it achieved a kind of aesthetic merit for its own sake. Las Vegas was nothing like I was used to; in small doses, that’s fun.
I’m glad the Dawkins Award is still going strong and Brian Cox was chosen this year. PCC received it when I was still involved in the Award Committee, back when Margaret Downey began it for Atheist Alliance International.
My particular task was designing and putting the actual award together, the one that sits on the podium and then, hopefully, is taken home to be cherished forever and gather dust. I always used mounted fossils or fossil replicas. Jerry, of course, got the (replica) skull of an ancient cat with enormous, scary fangs.
My health isn’t quite up for traveling to Vegas anymore or I’d no doubt be at that convention now. Looks like an appropriately amazing lineup.
I still have that sabertooth replica sitting proudly in my office. It’s fantastic. Many thanks for designing it and have no worries that it will be gathering dust (in fact, I dust it!)
I had no idea that you had received the award, because you’ve been too modest to mention it (at least since I’ve been reading your blog)! That’s very impressive. My very belated congratulations!
every year I think “I’ve gotta get out there to Vegas for that, all my favorite people are there..”
Next year, hope to see some of you there.
D.A.
NYC
They don’t provide room coffee because then you wouldn’t be near a slot machine or a Keno board.
Of course Donald Trump doesn’t actually work for McDonalds. But the obviously staged event was triply beneficial to the orange guy nonetheless. Why triply? First, people love it when a candidate engages with the electorate. Second, Trump’s appearance at McDonalds frames up his campaign’s move to show Kamala Harris as being less than candid. (There is no confirmation that she ever worked for McDonalds. That doesn’t mean that she didn’t but the lack of confirmation hurts her.) And third, McDonalds French fries are so beloved (and I would say awesome) that anyone seeing Trump dispensing fries into those iconic packages can almost taste their salty awesomeness! There you go. Triply helpful to Trump.
(1) Trump didn’t engage with the electorate – he handed fries to a few selected people including campaign staffers;
(2) Why should the lack of confirmation that she worked at McDonalds hurt Harris? – she says she did, there is no external confirmation one way or the other, McDonalds simply says its records don’t go that far back. Are you saying she is inherently not believable? – if so, on what basis?
(3) YMMV, but I don’t find McDonalds’ fries that good.
Accept it. It was a good stunt. No, McDonald’s wouldn’t allow Trump to serve food to its customers in the general public with his not having taken food-handler training and other orientation as an employee. Harris was making a deal of her off-hand remark that she had worked at McDonald’s. She should have known it would be fact-checked against her out of spite. In the low-blow world of politics, he bested her.
But as a disinterested foreign observer, I’ll offer a deal. If you can tell me that Kamala Harris really was bussed for racial balance purposes as a little girl, as she taunted Joe Biden in the 2016 campaign for opposing bussing way back then, I’ll believe her that she really did work at McD’s. Reason I ask is that around the time she dropped out she seemed to tell a fact-checker in an interview that she had made up the story: “(Cackle) It was a debate! (Cackle.)” If I misinterpreted this exchange, then I will apologize by believing her McD’s story. (Wikipedia reports that she was bussed. I’m still doubtful. I haven’t heard her make the claim this time around.)
Of course all politicians lie. We suspect big lies aren’t really true and we aren’t fooled, or they represent promises and wishful thinking which aren’t lies. It’s the little lies that someone makes up to aggrandize herself that trouble the mind. If she made up the bussing story, then no I do not believe her McDonald’s story on its face, trivial as it is.
I don’t care for their fries, either.
Great put down of Ta-Nehisi Coates by Elica Le Bon.
Erica is one top notch, beautiful young lady. I adore her.
Why Ta Nehisi is even taken seriously is amazing. I first heard about him reading his reparations article in the Atlantic some years ago and thought: OK, not a serious person.
Charisma? Affirmative action? Dunno.
D.A.
NYC
There’s ducks at the Flamingo Hotel (and Flamingos, of course!)
As I understand it, as a convicted felon Trump would be disqualified from working at MacDonalds.
Trump has never worked at a blue collar job in his life. He’s probably never washed a dish, took out the garbage, mowed a lawn, changed a light bulb, etc.
I thought he looked like a clown trying to figure out the “complicated” task of putting french fries in a simple container.
People like Novella, who proclaim their skepticism while eating Kool-Aid powder directly from the package, are one of the reasons I quit going to skeptics conferences. What really annoys me is that I also felt it was prudent to quit referring patients to SBM, for fear of them thinking I was detached from reality.
But how were the donuts?!
I lost respect for NdGT last year over his defense of genderism. Someone should ask him whether he supports Olson-Kennedy suppressing her own research findings to “defend trans kinds”? Or whether a cosmologist should do the same in defense of his favourite hypothesis about string theory? When Pink News comes to your defense, you know you’re on the wrong side http://www.thepinknews.com/2023/09/28/neil-degrasse-tyson-trans-women-sport/
Well not quite, Nellie. Since it is important information regarding the welfare of children it is utterly unethical for any scientist or doctor to brush it under the carpet, regardless of who funded the study.
PS Re the Facebook censorship. This is why Musk buying Twitter was important (even if one regards the way he runs it as sub-optimal), since there you can learn about stuff that is being censored on Facebook. In the old days the censors at Facebook and Twitter would have colluded to ensure that no-one knew those things.
Musk apparently is doing a great deal of censoring of his own. I have read several articles describing what types of stories and information are being blocked as well as falshoods being promoted. He is using twitter as a platform to promote his personal viewpoints. Doesn’t sound like “free speech public forum” to me. It seems hypocritical to criticise one platform for censorship while praising another for equal or greater actions.
“Algorithms” is go-to term for what they do. The Chinese use them on Tic-Toc and Musk is using them on “X”. So, too, is everyone else, I’ll bet. Media, social or otherwise, is today a vast wasteland.
OK, but can you support the claim of Twitter censorship with evidence and examples? Yes, Musk’s personal viewpoints are indeed being promoted, but that’s largely because he has 200 million followers. Similarly, Obama has 141 million Twitter followers and his multiple pro-Harris Tweets are also being promoted (since I often see them in my “For you” feed I don’t think they’re being unfairly downrated). And, yes, a “free speech” forum will indeed contain both falsehoods and truths. Is there a way round that?
Twitter has become an echo chamber for the right. Well, actually, maybe it was always an echo chamber.
Still, you won’t find good balanced information on there any more than you will find it on any other social media site. Musk will happily publish articles on Facebook censorship regardless of whether it is true.
I like Duck Donuts. There’s one in Daytona Beach, across the road from Buccee’s.
On the Presidential polls, I don’t think that most of them makes sense. The number to look at is the likely way likely Electoral College votes. RCP has the EC at 219 to 215 (Trump/Harris) without “toss ups” and 312 to 226 with toss ups. When you look at the betting average, it doesn’t make sense when you look at national polling without looking at the EC.
‘ . . . Cox, delivering a perfect talk without notes and without saying “uh” once.’
No doubt he also did not employ the irksome locutions “sort of” and “kind of.” (One I heard an NPR interviewee utter in the last couple of days: “I sort of bought some sandals.” No doubt, someone “kind of” sold them to him. Another example heard elsewhere: “I was SO kind of over it.”)
IIRC, while doing his McDonald’s thing Trump said to the effect that he had wanted to work at McDonald’s but never did. Well, maybe he did “want” to, but, a la the military, was disqualified from doing so due to the results of a physical examination.
Las Vegas is equal parts pathetic and interesting to me. It’s sad that it’s such a monumental waste of resources for us to be entertained. It does, however have some interesting entertainment though.
Vegas does have world-class shows. Two that I’d love to see are Cirque du Soleil and, of course, Penn and Teller
Exactly, I saw Penn and Teller once. If you listen to much of Penn in his podcasts, you’d know after the show they run up the aisles to the foyer and meet and greet every audience member until they all leave. Penn was extremely gracious knowing my teenage daughter was excited because he held our camera, took a selfie, said “That’s not very good” and took another one. He must have done it five times so we had multiple photos to choose from. https://photos.app.goo.gl/tgBLU5AnjuYfQu839
What a great experience for your daughter! It confirms what I’ve heard, which is that Penn and Teller are extremely warm to their fans. It speaks well of them.
When Penn was on The Apprentice, he played for— and won— the most money for his charity, the Las Vegas charity Opportunity Village. But Trump changed the result because Penn wouldn’t endorse his bid for president.
The show’s horrified sponsors ended up donating more to Penn’s charity than he would have made otherwise. And Penn was never anything but gracious to DJT.
When I first started doing a lot of hiking, mostly in the Green Mountains of Vermont I thought everyone should experience this beautiful place. I would see people exercise walking around town and I would extoll the wonder of the hiking trails. When the trails started to get crowded I started to reconsider, especially during COVID when hiking was something you could do without a mask. The reason I bring this up was in reference to places like Vegas, Atlantic City, Disney world, ocean liner cruises,etc. Now I can see they have some value. Just think if all those people were hitting the trails! And now in Vermont they are closing roads because of too many leaf-peepers. I think people who worry about population decline are nuts.
Keep up the great reportage and pics. I haven’t been to LV in decades but it is always fun and I’m enjoying “our” (your, my and all of WEIT’s) trip there now.
I get all the stuff I like from your stories and don’t have to leave my sofa AND I don’t have to interact with Neile. How’d he “feel” yesterday, sorta man, sorta woman? etc.
Sorry, but my tolerance for Mr. T. has lessened lately.
Not for Brian Cox though – a totally top notch fellow who deserves a RD prize.
best, and probably slow down at those bonkers buffets they have out there.
best,
D.A.
NYC
You’re spot on about Brian Cox, David. He must be one busy guy, though. My daughter is at the University of Manchester, and two of her flatmates study theoretical physics. Cox actually teaches a module on their course, lecturing in person to first-year students! I was flabbergasted when she told me this – that a hotshot, famous professor takes the time to teach new undergraduates. I’ve always liked Cox, but I have even more respect for him after hearing this.
MSNBC had fun mocking and satirizing Trump’s MacDonald’s gambit. The purpose of their extended joking was to avoid by omission this elephant in the living room….
Harris claims she worked at MacDonald’s. This was fact-checked. The report came back from corporate: “we cannot confirm she ever worked at MacDonald’s.” Kamala Harris does not provided any clarifying comment, nor has she supplied any proof of her claim; [begin personal opinion] Harris and the Dems are lying about this. [end personal opinion]
Donald Trump’s theater piece was not stupid and weird and blundering. It was direct send-up with an acid-laced message about the character of his opponent.
In a Newsweek report.
“we and our franchisees don’t have records for all positions dating back to the early ’80s.”
Not the same thing if you ask me.
You point to the reason MacDonalds said they can’t confirm she worked for them, nor that she did not. No problem.
The essential: there is zero confirmation for Kamala Harris’ claim.
Okay, so why not believe it?
If it is an important claim, the substantiation ought to be everywhere. Family jokes about it. Why she quit or was fired. She is using the claim to bolster her “capitalism” and “all-american-girl” brand. She should be piling on the Americana.
Yet her financial proposals for titanic new spending, increased corporate taxes, and especially tax on unrealized gains, are nearly to the left of Karl Marx. Even he did not dream of taxing money of entrepreneurs before they obtained it. That is not America. USA is not a socialist nation.
So what is her political philosophy? We don’t believe the first claim about MacDonald’s. We have solid evidence of her extreme policies, because it is right out of her mouth, the same voice that says she was flipping burgers at MacDonald’s.
I believe that the original Duck Donuts was (and still is) in the town of Duck on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, maybe a couple of decades ago, with the second location in Virginia Beach, VA. I have never read their website until today….just eat the donuts….but apparently they have grown tremendously with stores throughout the US and internationally. But I will try to forget that I know that and just continue to think of them as our local donut shop.
Will Brian’s speech be made public? Would love to hear it.
Btw, there’s a great new Randy Rainbow song following the posted link of. Brianmon keyboard.
Yes, I think that all the talks will be published. They certainly taped them all.
Great!
I’ve been to Vegas over a dozen times because that’s where James Randi held all but the first Amazing Meeting skeptic conventions. I didn’t expect to like the city — I prefer nature walks and picturesque small towns — but was immediately entranced. When talks were over I’d walk the strip, either on my own or with anyone I could rope into joining me. It was the combination of everything — lights, activity, and tackiness on so large and opulent a scale it achieved a kind of aesthetic merit for its own sake. Las Vegas was nothing like I was used to; in small doses, that’s fun.
I’m glad the Dawkins Award is still going strong and Brian Cox was chosen this year. PCC received it when I was still involved in the Award Committee, back when Margaret Downey began it for Atheist Alliance International.
My particular task was designing and putting the actual award together, the one that sits on the podium and then, hopefully, is taken home to be cherished forever and gather dust. I always used mounted fossils or fossil replicas. Jerry, of course, got the (replica) skull of an ancient cat with enormous, scary fangs.
My health isn’t quite up for traveling to Vegas anymore or I’d no doubt be at that convention now. Looks like an appropriately amazing lineup.
I still have that sabertooth replica sitting proudly in my office. It’s fantastic. Many thanks for designing it and have no worries that it will be gathering dust (in fact, I dust it!)
I had no idea that you had received the award, because you’ve been too modest to mention it (at least since I’ve been reading your blog)! That’s very impressive. My very belated congratulations!
every year I think “I’ve gotta get out there to Vegas for that, all my favorite people are there..”
Next year, hope to see some of you there.
D.A.
NYC
They don’t provide room coffee because then you wouldn’t be near a slot machine or a Keno board.
Of course Donald Trump doesn’t actually work for McDonalds. But the obviously staged event was triply beneficial to the orange guy nonetheless. Why triply? First, people love it when a candidate engages with the electorate. Second, Trump’s appearance at McDonalds frames up his campaign’s move to show Kamala Harris as being less than candid. (There is no confirmation that she ever worked for McDonalds. That doesn’t mean that she didn’t but the lack of confirmation hurts her.) And third, McDonalds French fries are so beloved (and I would say awesome) that anyone seeing Trump dispensing fries into those iconic packages can almost taste their salty awesomeness! There you go. Triply helpful to Trump.
(1) Trump didn’t engage with the electorate – he handed fries to a few selected people including campaign staffers;
(2) Why should the lack of confirmation that she worked at McDonalds hurt Harris? – she says she did, there is no external confirmation one way or the other, McDonalds simply says its records don’t go that far back. Are you saying she is inherently not believable? – if so, on what basis?
(3) YMMV, but I don’t find McDonalds’ fries that good.
Accept it. It was a good stunt. No, McDonald’s wouldn’t allow Trump to serve food to its customers in the general public with his not having taken food-handler training and other orientation as an employee. Harris was making a deal of her off-hand remark that she had worked at McDonald’s. She should have known it would be fact-checked against her out of spite. In the low-blow world of politics, he bested her.
But as a disinterested foreign observer, I’ll offer a deal. If you can tell me that Kamala Harris really was bussed for racial balance purposes as a little girl, as she taunted Joe Biden in the 2016 campaign for opposing bussing way back then, I’ll believe her that she really did work at McD’s. Reason I ask is that around the time she dropped out she seemed to tell a fact-checker in an interview that she had made up the story: “(Cackle) It was a debate! (Cackle.)” If I misinterpreted this exchange, then I will apologize by believing her McD’s story. (Wikipedia reports that she was bussed. I’m still doubtful. I haven’t heard her make the claim this time around.)
Of course all politicians lie. We suspect big lies aren’t really true and we aren’t fooled, or they represent promises and wishful thinking which aren’t lies. It’s the little lies that someone makes up to aggrandize herself that trouble the mind. If she made up the bussing story, then no I do not believe her McDonald’s story on its face, trivial as it is.
I don’t care for their fries, either.
Great put down of Ta-Nehisi Coates by Elica Le Bon.
Erica is one top notch, beautiful young lady. I adore her.
Why Ta Nehisi is even taken seriously is amazing. I first heard about him reading his reparations article in the Atlantic some years ago and thought: OK, not a serious person.
Charisma? Affirmative action? Dunno.
D.A.
NYC
There’s ducks at the Flamingo Hotel (and Flamingos, of course!)
As I understand it, as a convicted felon Trump would be disqualified from working at MacDonalds.
Trump has never worked at a blue collar job in his life. He’s probably never washed a dish, took out the garbage, mowed a lawn, changed a light bulb, etc.
I thought he looked like a clown trying to figure out the “complicated” task of putting french fries in a simple container.
People like Novella, who proclaim their skepticism while eating Kool-Aid powder directly from the package, are one of the reasons I quit going to skeptics conferences. What really annoys me is that I also felt it was prudent to quit referring patients to SBM, for fear of them thinking I was detached from reality.