Monday, July 13, 2020

In which the pond starts off a gloomy Monday with the dog botherer's thinking pump ...


The pond has to admit, a little shame-faced, that these days it can only take a little of the dog botherer and his denialism.

The doggie fucker was out and about on the weekend, but the pond took a pass, knowing that there would be an abundance of doggie drivel on the Monday. And lo, so it came to be ...


For a nanosecond, the pond had thought of doing a late breaking weekend edition to celebrate the ongoing moral vanity of the doggie dribbler confusing science with free expression. There would have been a chance to put up some links as a useful counterbalance.

For example, back in May the NYRB published a useful summary, via a book review, of the current state of play regarding a world without ice, but alas and alack, it's inside the paywall. 

And Jessica Riskin in the same publication did an amusing review of a book on the scientific method, Just Use Your Thinking Pump!, but alas and alack, it too is inside the paywall. Please allow the pond to put this anecdote outside the wall …  that reference to a thinking pump came in a discussion of Edward Youmans and The Popular Science Monthly

As a young man, Youmans had discovered the writings of Herbert Spencer, then at the height of his powers. Spencer was churning out best sellers of social theory and popular science that Darwin described as "detestable", obscure, unedited, clever but empty, a lot of "dreadful hypothetical rubbish," and a disappointing tissue of "words and generalities," and inspiring Darwin's friend the botanist Hooker to characterise Spencer as "all oil and no bone … a thinking pump." (If you're finding that image obscure, so did Hooker. "I can attach no meaning to the simile," he confessed, but "it ought to have one." Darwin was so pleased with it that he read it aloud to his family, by whom "it was unanimously voted first-rate and not a bit the worse for being unintelligible.")

The pond realises it's defaming Spencer to put the doggie botherer's moronic scribbling the category of a thinking pump, but at least the pond can note the tendency to greasy, slimy oil, and lack of bone ...


The arrogance and stupidity here is the implication in that line "anyone with an understanding of climate and/or science." It implies that the dog botherer has an understanding of climate and/or science, when the pond has already scientifically established that the dog botherer is all greasy oil and no bone, by the simple expedient of referring people to an article which has a first clue by people who use ice cores, go out into the field, observe, devise theories and models.

The pond might have been crueller and noted the absolute lack of credentials or peer-reviewed publications or field work or whatever, but why try to establish that a thinking pump might at some point in the future have some credibility or usefulness?

Instead the pond is left with the dog botherer doing the usual jibber jibber about the Donald and his fourth of July speech, apparently unaware that months too late the Donald decided to wear a mask to distract from another of his initiatives …



Why does the pond bother? Well it's the doggie's arrogant assumption that everybody else is wrong that still gets to the pond ...


They ignored a self-seeking, self-promoting narcissist selling the brand of snake oil the reptiles love? Shame on them …



Well it wouldn't be a doggie piece if the ABC didn't turn up with a thought crime, and here's a thought. Which politician did Speersie name as a favourite before scoring the job at the ABC, and suddenly overnight becoming a cardigan-wearing mindless zombie, a figure of fear, loathing and treachery amongst the loyal kool-aid imbibing reptile ranks still yearning for their Jonestown?


Indeed, indeed, all that and more venerable thinking pump, but the pond would rather put an immortal Rowe into action, with more Rowe here


And so to the next hurdle the pond must jump before it reaches a tranquil Monday state of mind ...


That Major headline made the pond wonder when in the last month, year, decade or perhaps eternity, it had read, in the opinion section of the lizard Oz, a solid piece by a climatologist, or just a scientist … almost anyone would do, but instead we routinely get the likes of the dog botherer and the Major, cluttering up the thinking pump with fatuous thoughts ...


The Major, being part of the hive mind, is actually preparing the way for other reptiles to do the dance of living with the virus - see below - when in reality, what you do, if you're of a certain age, is die …


Why should the pond pay attention to the Major's thinking pump, since he doesn't have the first clue about medicine, public health, the virus or anything much else? Lordy, lordy, he couldn't even find a humble Order of Lenin medal when it mattered ...


Actually it doesn't much matter about parties or ideology when it comes to the virus, which really doesn't pay much attention to that sort of nonsense - as shown by the recent outbreak in NSW surrounding the Crossroads Hotel in Casula …

If anything, all that blather does is remind the pond why it has an affection for Melbourne and Melburnians …



Yes, there's a refugee Victorian in the house at the moment, but relax, you can get Melburnian approved coffee by attending Euroespresso on Parramatta road in Campberdown ...

Fortunately, the good thing about the Major is that by trimming off his failure to mention the Order of Lenin fiasco in his CV, and the rest of his CV, the pond can get him out of the way in just one more large chunk ...


We will need to take on board? What, in the way that the Donald took to wearing a mask?

And so to the 'learn to live with it' routine which unfortunately means the pond has only time to note that things at the 'leet reptile HQ in Surry Hills seems be be falling apart ...


Well, time to span and transform this, and let the pond say it in lower case, the pond has never used Flight Centre, and certainly never will, even as the reptiles sublet their opinion pages to the Flight Centre ...


The pond was immediately reminded of that callow youth in the United States who attended a Covid party … a lot of people have marvelled at the folly ...


Dr. Appleby said the man had told his nurse that he attended a Covid party. Just before he died, she said the patient told his nurse: “I think I made a mistake. I thought this was a hoax, but it’s not.”

The pond thinks it made a mistake. It started reading Graham Turner, and his naked commercial concerns seem to have affected his thinking pump …


Please allow the pond to assure anyone in the vicinity that the pond has never used Flight Centre, and should air travel become a possibility in the future, the pond will certainly not be availing itself of Flight Centre's services …

If the pond wants to fly to the US to get infected, it would rather fly by way of cartoon …


But do go on ...


The obvious question is why anyone should be paying attention to this brand of thinking pump? And that question gets more pointed when it comes to the next par, which starts off with "I believe."

When it comes to questions of science, the pond believes that for every drop of rain a flower grows, somewhere in the darkest night a candle blows, for someone who goes astray someone will come to show the way, the pond believes, the pond believes, but it actually has fuck all to do with how to handle a pandemic. Is there a public health expert or epidemiologist in the reptile house? Apparently not ...


You don't learn to live with the coronavirus, you learn to die with the virus … but one thing's certain, the pond can certainly live and die without benefit of employing the services of the Flight Centre Travel Group …

And so to a bonus, because what do you know, the lizard Oz editorialist knows how to sound like a Little Sir Turner echo ...

Pardon the pond, but that blather about the widespread, deadly consequences of Swedish-style "herd immunity" is a nonsense. The reptiles, for a time, just like Boris and the Poms, were all the go when it came to following Sweden …

They kept on publishing rapturous stories, frequently bludged from The Times



There was the WSJ too …


The pond could go on and on and on, like the reptiles do, but will suffice to say that it has no use for the services offered by a newspaper peddling the services of the Flight Centre, or acting as a Little Sir Echo for the words of the Flight Centre, with naked self-interest to the fore ...


Business leaders aren't experts on public health, but they want to keep on making a shitload of money to keep themselves in the style they're accustomed to?

Amen to that.

The pond understands only too well the objectives and strategies of the reptiles and the sayings of Mr Turner and his thinking pump. They want to kill the pond … but luckily the pond has attended a better class of school in the United States, and learned a few lessons from the Donald …




21 comments:

  1. "Just Use Your Thinking Pump!, but alas and alack, it too is inside the paywall."

    Indeed it is, DP, but you can get just enough of an idea from the 'enticement pump' bit that NYRB leaves outside the paywall. But you can also get some ideas from:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intuition_pump
    https://www.amazon.com.au/Intuition-Pumps-Other-Tools-Thinking/dp/1491518871

    The second one is about a book by Daniel Dennett - much more useful than one by Herbert Spencer.

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  2. Doggy Bov: "We can only expect the Herald to continue to get the major issues wrong, and publish an ever-diminishing array of commentators, shunning debate until it eventually collapses in on itself like a black hole."

    I think I have mentioned just a few times the practice of the reptiles (and very particularly the Doggy Bov) to comprehensively project all failings and all evil onto convenient others so as to be able to attribute all successes and goodness onto themselves. And isn't that just a totally accurate description of News Corpse by the DB.

    Also, the reptiles unfailing belief that they will get away with it every time. But if you really want to see some successful 'cancel culture' then how about the reptiles and Yassmin Abdel-Magied ? Probably could even include Emma Alberici now.

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  3. "Why should the pond pay attention to the Major's thinking pump, since he doesn't have the first clue about medicine, public health, the virus or anything much else?"

    Couldn't agree with you more, DP, so I think I'll just let the Major's evil odour waft on by, today. Other than his attack on Dan Andrews that is: I, for one, really, really want to hear Andrews' rationalisation for that decision, but as the Major says, Dan has gone for an "inquiry" so that he can refuse to say anything.

    He really is a sad case, Andrews: remembering how opposed he was to legalising euthanasia until his own father urgently needed it. Oh yes, then he moved to legalisation very quickly.

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  4. To whom it may, etc. Yesterday GB challenged with 'C'mon folks, just because it's lockdown in Victoria doesn't mean you can catch 'rona' from a loonpond post.'

    This humble correspondent has had, um, 'interesting' company for several days. Friends asked if we would have some house guests on the estate. Sure. Pleasant enough people until we realised that every excursion to the local scenic spots must include a detour into Gotham to get the daily 'Flagship'.

    They don't just read it, they needed to express surprise that we did not get it. But surely - writers like this Henry Ergas. What a great thinker, and so well-read. They even offered to give me time to read his most recent interpretation of the history of plagues so we could 'discuss' what he was saying.

    And other contributors. Famous introductory statement 'As you can see, we are not political, but lately there has been a lot of just plain good sense in 'The Australian'

    Not wishing to become known as bad hosts, I sought other diversions that left no time for a 'discussion' about that Henry Ergas.

    Thank you, DP and others, for dealing with our Henry in the only sensible way. I could not trust myself to consult the pond until we had seen the 'guests' well down the road on their way to their next destination. You were there for me then.


    Chadwick

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    1. You do live such an "interesting" life. :-)

      But then, indeed Henry does appear to have read an enormous number of books and to have a very good recall of them (as attested by Nicholas Gruen recently) and given the popularity of such shows as Hard Quiz, Chaser Australia, MasterMind etc, a good grasp of trivia seems to have quite a strong audience following.

      Besides Henry never says anything particularly intellectually challenging, does he. A lot like Steven Pinker that way. And even more like the entire herpetarium population, that way.

      But mostly, I think, people read the likes of Henry for the sheer pleasure of having their own simplistic thoughts reflected and hence reinforced. Though I don't quite know what anybody would read Nullius Ned for - other than as a study of sub-normal intellect.

      Delete
    2. Oh, I forgot to ask: did your house guests ever mention the Doggy Botherer ? I'm sure he must have some followers, or even a fan or two, but I just can't imagine who such people might be.

      Delete
    3. At least you had a heads up, it would never do to start laughing then have to blow retreat - "Oh sorry, I didn't know you were serious".

      A discussion really requires some common understandings to establish a starting point and I find that you have to go back an awfully long way to find common ground with most conservative types.

      Delete
    4. GB - I was afraid to ask for their nominations as sources of 'good sense' in the Flagship; afraid that I might have responded in the way Befuddled has suggested, or worse (as in, outright guffaws). Had we been able to keep it to the Henry, I had the 'Cambridge Economic History of Australia' to put before them, so they could contrast the Henry's assertions that the full-fibre NBN would have been a massive waste of money, against what he clearly approved of for expenditure to get Australia wired up to the telephone, a century ago.

      Chadwick

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    5. Wise caution, indeed, Chad but I wondered if your guests might have volunteered some opinions unprompted.

      As for the Henry, well today is different from yesterday, of course, and the world changes so a wise reptile's opinions change with it. Daily if necessary.

      Delete
  5. Just for general interest

    https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2020/07/11/why-america-wont-be-great-again/

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    1. "We are perennially fascinated with the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. Why? Likely because its collapse cast such a long shadow on Western Europe. Once the center of civilization, the Roman collapse sent Western Europe into a dark age. It would take a millennia to recover."

      So this numbnut reckons that Western Europe was in a "dark age" from 476 to 1476. Sigh. He then goes on to drag Isaac Asimov and 'Foundation and Empire' into it. Sure the Western Roman Empire was basically gone, but that doesn't mean Western Europe spent 1000 years "in the dark".

      Perhaps he should look up Hildegard of Bingen and maybe even Christine de Pizan.

      Delete
    2. Yeah - thought that was a bit sweeping, but the argument is not that technology or science didn't proceed, they certainly did, it's that the breakdown of trade and social organisation made Western society less productive in the economic sense. That is probably true in the Western empire at least.

      I don't have a firm opinion one way or the other but he lays out a case and lists sources so the reader can consider the issues. It certainly looks like the American Empire is still bouncing along after the initial oil shock and they do seem to lack the adaptability required to come up with something new.

      Delete
    3. I Think you'll find that Western Europe was really quite productive back then in many senses. We are aware that Spain, having cast off the Islamic bonds around about then financed the discovery of the Americas in 1492. 1492-1476 = all of 16 years since the 'Dark Ages' ended.

      Yes with the gold and silver from the southern Americas, and the profit from piracy flowing to Britain, the new, post 1490s world did take off somewhat, but it wasn't actually starving and penurious before then.

      Besides, at least in a military and economic sense, America is still very great.

      But I'll have a read of it anyway, just because I'm like that :-)

      Delete
    4. Quite true, but it's all relative.

      Columbus trucked all over Europe looking for a backer (I think Spain was his fifth attempt) and it didn't end well for him.

      In some ways the countries that missed the initial rush to plunder - errr, colonise new territories won out in the long run because they were forced to innovate rather than rely on the booty.

      The English, for instance, were only in North America because the choice pickings in South and Central America were already taken.

      No easy gold or silver to steal, the natives were not suitable for slavery so the new lords had to resort to commerce. Dear me what were the likes of Lords Baltimore or Ashley to do? Perhaps offer the lower classes some stake in their own production (headright system).

      Anyway, just something to think about.

      Delete
    5. I don't disagree with the central thesis: the bigger and more powerful the 'empire' the bigger its energy use, per capita and overall. But I think he was just a bit casual about the actual history. For one thing, he omits entirely any mention of the Eastern Roman Empire. After all, Constantinople was the capital of the then still one and only Roman Empire from about 330 CE/AD and the Byzantine empire lasted until the late 1300s (finally trashed by the Turkics in 1450 by which time it had shrunk to an enfeebled city-state). Look up Theodoric the Great.

      North America was mainly kicked off as a British 'dependency' by the Puritan wave of 1620-1640, but there was also considerable British involvement in southern America - check the history of Argentina. But to class China as "the" world power is gratuitous, surely, even though it was a major power, certainly under Kublai Khan who was, but of course, a Mongol and the grandson of Genghis Khan - and whose attempted invasions of Japan popularised "kamikaze".

      Delete
  6. In for a penny... another opinion on Vic lockdown

    https://www.theage.com.au/national/melbourne-has-nothing-to-apologise-for-we-ve-just-been-unlucky-20200709-p55aip.html

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    1. A good article that gives the finger to the reptiles and their bash a leftie Premier babble.
      This virus don’t do politics!
      https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jul/13/new-south-wales-braces-for-potential-covid-19-outbreak-as-cases-at-crossroads-hotel-grow?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

      I think it was Kez? who said months ago......testing,testing,testing.

      Delete
    2. Trouble is though, Bef, that "mistakes were made" especially in respect of the quarantine "security" arrangements. Why were the appalling "private security" firms given the job ?

      And why is Andrews allowed to get away with this "inquiry" nonsense that is purely to insulate him and his cronies from righteous public disapproval.

      Delete
  7. I’ll see the dog botherer’s endless denial of science and raise him my Madame Frederic Carriere climbing rose that is in bloom for the second winter running........cos that’s totally normal. Cheers.
    CA.

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  8. Totally off topic, but I’m on the blower tomorrow to demand that the Caterist and his MRC are defunded pronto as there are many better ways to spend nearly a quarter of a million dollars p/a. :((

    https://www.theguardian.com/law/2020/jul/13/liberal-thinktank-submission-on-class-actions-labelled-an-undergraduate-essay-that-would-fail?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
    CA.

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    1. And the best of luck to you, mate.

      Delete

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