Brandolini's law, also known as the B.S. Asymmetry Principle, is an internet adage that emphasizes the effort of debunking misinformation, in comparison to the relative ease of creating it in the first place. It states that the amount of energy needed to refute B.S. is an order of magnitude larger (that is, ten times larger) than is needed to produce it. -------- The Gish Gallop is a rhetorical technique in which a person attempts to overwhelm their opponents by providing an excessive number of arguments with no regard for the accuracy or strength of those arguments.
The spice tumeric, used for curries and health benefits, is often contaminated with lead, which is used to enhance its yellow color. The FDA has no standards for the amount of lead allowed in spices. In Southeast Asia, where tumeric is grown and widely used, lead poisoning in children is a major issue. Bangladesh recently took steps to prohibit the use of lead additives. India, the world's largest producer and exporter of tumeric, should do the same, but at this time has not.
The presentation on the Ralph M. Brown Act, from the December 6, 2023, Arcata City Council meeting. By City Attorney Doug White and associate attorney Nubia Goldstein. With questions and discussion from the City Council members and comments from members of the public. 1 hour 10 minutes.
Reading time: 6 minutes -- Climate change and the effects of Carbon Dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels was all discussed in the press over 150 years ago. Here are some articles from 1867, 1896, 1912, and more.
Reading time: 3 minutes -- This article is presented here not as a guide, but for our smiles. How does an AI program describe our Gateway Area Plan? It is not entirely accurate in places. But for an overall view of the Gateway Plan, it's actually pretty good.
Reading time: 3 minutes -- This is an AI-generated essay about the impacts of the State Density Bonus Law. It's here partly for our education and partly for our smiles. Yet as an overall view, it's not bad.
"Even if you haven’t been to the woods lately, you probably know that the forest is disappearing. In the past ten thousand years, the Earth has lost about a third of its forest, which wouldn’t be so worrying if it weren’t for the fact that almost all that loss has happened in the past three hundred years or so. As much forest has been lost in the past hundred years as in the nine thousand before"
"By his reckoning, only 8.5% of projects meet their initial estimates on cost and time, and a piddling 0.5% achieve what they set out to do on cost, time and benefits." -- "Over-optimistic time and cost estimates stem from both psychological and political biases: a reliance on intuition rather than data, and . . . “strategic misrepresentation”. This is when budgets are deliberately lowballed in order to get things going, on the premise that nothing would ever get built if politicians went around being accurate."
This just goes to show that almost anything can become controversial. Last year, Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton warned Fox News viewers that Democrats "want to make you live in downtown areas, and high-rise buildings, and walk to work, or take the subway, or ride an electric scooter" and "make us all poor."
In recent years, windowless bedrooms have become somewhat normalized on college campuses. Students at the University of Texas, Austin and the University of Michigan are currently renting dorm bedrooms without windows. Sunlight in your bedroom could become a luxury as cities debate allowing landlords to rent windowless rooms in former office buildings to alleviate the housing crisis.
The Everett, Washington-based company "Pallet" is making $7,500 prefab tiny homes that can be setup in 1 hour to help solve the homelessness crisis. Its smallest $7,500 64-square-foot unit "Pallet 64" is now being used in villages across the US.
Ry Cooder from his second album "Into the Purple Valley," 1972. The song is a Depression Era late-1930s song, in protest to California's "No More Migration" laws. Also here is the Sis Cunningham version from 1976,
A growing collection of non-local articles and links that pertain to Gateway, Arcata, Humboldt, California, national, global, and (perhaps) galactic issues. Please send us links to your favorites so they can be added.
A growing collection of local articles and links that pertain to Gateway, Arcata, Humboldt, California, national, global, and (perhaps) galactic issues. Please send us links to your favorites so they can be added.
Providing housing for working-class people does not involve rocket science. Major
technological breakthroughs aren't required to create low-income housing. It is
a matter of national will.