One of the experiments that grabbed the public’s imagination was one where young children who were able to delay gratification in the form of getting a treat seemed to have more positive life outcomes. Now there is a study using cuttlefish that follows the same model and finds that they too will forego an immediate reward in order to get a better reward later. One of the researchers Alex Schnell was interviewed about the work.
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The weird guy known as QAnon shaman who was part of the insurrection in the US Capitol and sat the Senate president’s chair and even said a prayer is now in jail. The past weekend, he gave an interview to the CBS show 60 Minutes+. Without his makeup and regalia, he cuts quite a different figure. It appears that he lives with his mother who was also interviewed and she seems to be an enabler of his idiocy.
One of the features of American political life is that after leaving high office, politicians cash in by publishing books. Another lucrative activity is giving highly paid speeches to big corporations, Wall Street firms, and other wealthy organizations, with the Clintons and the Obamas being notable examples of how to become spectacularly rich doing so. These speech gigs are really a form of legalized bribery, for the sponsors of these events to gain access and curry favor wit, people who can do favors for them through their contacts in government or when they cycle back into government after the next election. Other people who served in administrations, such as current treasury secretary Janet Yellen and secretary of state Anthony Blinken, went the same route during the Trump era and can make even more money when their current time in office ends.
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This heavily promoted hit Netflix series is one of the silliest things I have seen in a long time.
I can just imagine how the pitch for this idea went. The creators realized that there seems to be an inexhaustible appetite among American audiences for shows about the bygone days of the English aristocracy with the action taking place in stately mansions, as can be seen from the immense popularity of earlier shows like Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey. This series cranks that all up to 11. The entire series take place in the fanciest of castles and homes and beautiful parks and other outdoor settings with everyone, and I mean everyone, including the servants, dressed in the finest clothes. There are no big name stars in the show and I figured this must be because they spent most of the budget on costumes. The entire time of people is spent gossiping about each other and promenading in gardens or attending the balls that seem to occur every night. Apparently these events require women to wear a new outfit each time.
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A baptist preacher is on leave and in ‘professional counseling’ after a video surfaced of his Sunday sermon in which he told women that they had better always look hot in order to prevent their husbands from being attracted to other women.
He tells churchgoers that it is “really important” for men to have a beautiful woman on their arm, asking the crowd: “Why is it so many times that women, after they get married, let themselves go?”
“Now look, I’m not saying every woman can be the epic trophy wife of all time like Melania Trump, I’m not saying that at all,” he says, as an image of the former First Lady appears on screen behind him.
“Most women can’t be trophy wives, but you know… maybe you’re a participation trophy.
Pastor Clark then criticises women for wearing casual clothes like jogger bottoms and pyjamas, before turning to “weight control” and referring to one woman as “a sumo wrestler”.
“Don’t ever forget this, God made them to look and you want them to look at you – not some hottie out there or someone on a computer screen,” he is seen telling parishioners.
Here’s a clip.
Pastor Stewart Allen-Clark tells congregation that women need to work harder to look good for men. “I’m not saying every woman can be the epic trophy wife of all time like Melania Trump. Most women can’t be trophy wives, but you know … maybe you’re a participation trophy.” pic.twitter.com/5GfyqIeQZw
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) March 6, 2021
I’m not sure his ‘participation trophy’ metaphor works. Don’t you get a participation trophy just for showing up, irrespective of how well you look or perform?
The $1.9 trillion stimulus package proposed by Joe Biden is on the way to becoming law. The US senate passed by a strict partisan 50-49 vote a version of it that was different from what the House of Representatives passed earlier in the week. One Republican senator was absent which meant that vice-president Kamala Harris did not have to cast a tie-breaking vote. Republicans delayed the process as much as they could by introducing amendment after amendment that was defeated, with one senator even invoking a rule that resulted in aides reading aloud the entire text of the 628 page bill, a futile process whose only effect was to waste 11 hours of time.
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The latter appeared on the former’s talk show and it was fun to watch the interview because both of them are funny people with somewhat silly sense of humor who can laugh at themselves and they riff nicely off each other.
I just finished watching this excellent six-part documentary series that tells the story of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US constitution. It is arguably the most important amendment as it has enabled great strides towards equality in the US. It was enacted in the aftermath of the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863 that freed all the salves in the south.
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.”
Despite this expansive wording, the Emancipation Proclamation was limited in many ways. It applied only to states that had seceded from the United States, leaving slavery untouched in the loyal border states. It also expressly exempted parts of the Confederacy (the Southern secessionist states) that had already come under Northern control. Most important, the freedom it promised depended upon Union (United States) military victory.
Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the nation, it captured the hearts and imagination of millions of Americans and fundamentally transformed the character of the war. After January 1, 1863, every advance of federal troops expanded the domain of freedom. Moreover, the Proclamation announced the acceptance of black men into the Union Army and Navy, enabling the liberated to become liberators. By the end of the war, almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union and freedom.
So March 4th came and went and Trump was not inaugurated. What a disappointment for his cult followers. Jimmy Kimmel comments on the non-event.
