Does ignoring those annoying robocalls help reduce them?

We all get pesky robocalls and each one presents a problem. If we do not recognize the number, should we answer? Ignore? Block the number?

Apparently, the answer is that none of these actions make much of a difference.

To better understand how these unwanted callers operate, we monitored every phone call received to over 66,000 phone lines in our telephone security lab, the Robocall Observatory at North Carolina State University. We received 1.48 million unsolicited phone calls over the course of the study. Some of these calls we answered, while others we let ring. Contrary to popular wisdom, we found that answering calls makes no difference in the number of robocalls received by a phone number. The weekly volume of robocalls remained constant throughout the study.

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The fascinating world in the ocean depths

The bottom of the oceans is a mostly unexplored frontier that does not get as much attention as the frontier of space. But it does attract adventurers who seek to go where no one has gone before. On January 23, 1960 Auguste Piccard and Don Walsh went to the bottom of the Challenger Deep, the deepest known point in the world that, at a depth of 11,034m, is deeper than Mount Everest is high. But no went there again there for over a half-century until in 2012, when filmmaker James Cameron went there in a submersible. Unfortunately, the submersible had many systems failing during the trip so that, although he was not in danger, it was never used again. I blogged about this back then. No one went again for another seven years. But in the last year that picture has changed dramatically.
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Tropic Thunder and the problem of actors in blackface

Having white people put on blackface makeup to perform is now viewed as highly offensive and many people who have done so have apologized for it. In a post on the problem of cultural appropriation, I discussed the other factors in the problem of white actors darkening their skin to play roles that could have been played by actors of color.

But the problem can get meta, as in the case of the 2008 action comedy Tropic Thunder. That film is about a a group of actors making a Vietnam war film on location in a jungle in Asia. Robert Downey, Jr. plays a white actor who is so committed to the ‘method’ school of acting, where one completely immerses oneself in the character 24/7 before and during the entire shooting of the film, that he puts on blackface and never removes it until after the film is completed. Since the role was that of a white actor playing a black man, did that make it appropriate to cast Downey in blackface? Or, since he is always seen on screen as black, should that role have been played by a black actor, which would have resulted in a black actor playing a white actor who is playing a black character? Some of the jokes in the film involve other actors who are black reacting to Downey knowing he is a white actor playing a black man. Would the jokes have landed as well, if we (the audience) did not know that Downey was white?
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This is what happens with a rotten business person as president

When Trump ran for president in 2016, he touted the fact that he was a businessman and that this background would enable him to run the government more efficiently. The idea that being a businessman is good training for running a government is a dubious proposition at best because there are major differences between the two. With a business, you have to appease just the stockholders if it is a public company or nobody at all if you own a private company. But with government you have to deal with a huge number of different constituencies that have independent sources of power and are not beholden to you and finding ways to get things done takes a different skill set.
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The devastating fires in the Pacific Northwest

The wildfires in the Pacific Northwest have been on a devastating scale. Starting in California they have spread north to Oregon and Washington states and consumed millions of acres of land. While California is subject to regular drought and heat and is thus prone to wildfires, the other two states are cooler and rainier and thus do not usually experience this level of fires. The level of fire activity in those areas is being called ‘unprecedented’.

Washington Gov. Jay Inlsee on Wednesday held a news conference after touring Bonney Lake, where the Sumner Grade Fire has burned more than 800 acres including four homes, and has forced evacuations.

Inslee previously issued a statewide emergency proclamation due to fires in eastern and central Washington. However, the fires have only gotten worse and due to recent weather conditions, around 480,000 acres have burned since Monday,

“This is an extraordinary series of events we have suffered,” Inslee said, pointing to the combination of dry grass, high temperatures and heavy winds.

The governor said the conditions have been exacerbated by the changing climate in Washington, and said he looks forward to working with people across the state to fight the cause of the fires.

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The dangerous deception

Another day, another bunch of Trump lies revealed, as well the lies of those around him who are supposed to be public servants. Much attention has been paid to Bob Woodward’s latest book that says that Trump knew about the dangers posed by the coronavirus as far back as in February but downplayed the threat.

Donald Trump knew the extent of the deadly coronavirus threat in February but intentionally misled the public by deciding to “play it down”, according to interviews recorded by one of America’s most venerated investigative journalists.
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Fox News reporter confirms Trump’s derogatory comments about the military

Jennifer Griffin stands by her story that confirmed the report in The Atlantic that Trump constantly denigrates members of the military as losers and suckers and has contempt for those who get injured or killed. She also says that treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was lying when he said that he did not hear Trump say such things at a meeting at which he was present.

Trump is of course furious that the network that he thinks, with considerable justification, should be cheerleaders for him had a reporter say unflattering things and has called for her to be fired.

Michele Bachmann resurfaces and hilarity ensues

Were you wondering what the nutty former Minnesota congresswoman and onetime contender for the Republican presidential nomination was up to these days? Me neither. After deciding not to seek re-election in 2018 where she faced a good chance of losing, she faded away. Or so I hoped. But there she is in the news again spouting one of her trademark nutty theories, and this one is a real doozy.
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Barr is a liar just like his boss

The president gets to appoint his cabinet, subject to Senate approval, and so it is not a surprise when he picks people who favor his policies. But of all the cabinet positions, the attorney general is the one who is expected to be most independent of the president. This is reasonable, since the AG is responsible for the impartial application of the laws and the Department of Justice has immense power over individuals. Unfortunately, it is not unusual for AGs to seek to please the president at the expense of justice but the current AG Bill Barr has been extraordinarily brazen in his efforts to advance Trump’s agenda and to avoid criticizing him even when he advocates illegal actions, such as when Trump recently urged people to vote twice. Trump was supposedly suggesting this to expose the weaknesses of the election system, laying the groundwork for challenging his defeat in November.
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Postmaster General in trouble over straw donors

In the endless procession of Trump cronies indulging in illegalities, the latest is Louis DeJoy, his pick to be Postmaster General who immediately began trying to cripple the US Postal Service. The Republican attempts to hobble this venerable national institution have been long standing even though the framers of the US Constitution explicitly included it in the powers allocated to Congress in that founding document, as laid out in Article 1, Section 8 that reads in part: “To establish post offices and post roads.”
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