WSJ: UW Chancellor Fired for Porn
WSJ: UW Chancellor Fired for Porn
The university system’s board of regents voted unanimously to terminate University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow during a closed session Wednesday evening. UW-La Crosse Provost Betsy Morgan will serve as interim chancellor following Gow’s dismissal, university system leaders said.
What could Gow have done that was so bad?
Scientific American: Theory that Man is the Hunter
Take a moment to appreciate the difficulties faced by a biologist. Retain your integrity and possibly lose your job, or advocate for Gender Identity Theory and try to act like the most obvious facts about humans and every other mammal are not true.
It’s much easier for anthropologists. They aren’t a hard science and their integrity was never cherished. They can sleep at night knowing that when this fetish goes out of favor, they will never be called to retract anything.
I’ve had to use a Martingale collar for him because his head is so small, he slips out of a regular collar. He’s a good pup, so a little tug is enough to get him back on track. The big problem was when he is up against his instincts. When he sees a new dog, he’s excited to go investigate.
A Martingale collar doesn’t choke a dog because it has hard stops, but it does exert neck pressure like a training collar. When he’s working on instinct, he can pull hard enough to feel choked. It’s a problem at dog parks or camping. I got him a Rabbitgoo harness. It’s a dumb company name, but it’s pretty nice and Sparky doesn’t mind wearing it.
Sparky wouldn’t mind wearing the harness full time, but I can’t pet him properly. He really likes being petted. That means to take him out in the Winter, I have to put the harness on him, then put the Carhartt jacket on him. I thought a good idea would be to combine the two and make the jacket into a harness.
Having a sewing machine is great. You may be thinking, “but Uncle Rick, sewing machines are for girls”. Sure, nice comment Andrew Tate, but have you learned nothing from Brie Larson? Anybody can do anything now.
Nylon webbing can be sewn easily and buckles and D-rings are parts that I keep in stock. I’m looking forward to customizing some tarps this spring.
When Sparky wears it, he looks a little like Inspector Gadget.
It wouldn’t have been difficult to make the jacket into a harness just by adding webbing, but I wanted the chest plate from the harness. The chest strap and belly strap were removed from the jacket. The straps on the harness had to be altered and buckles added. I threw away the top plate of the harness. The whole harness is only $20.
With the leftover belly straps, leg skirts could be added. Here they are pinned on.
It makes him look like a samurai. Mudflaps to cover the top of his ass are also possible. It was getting too busy. If I start designing outfits, we may go full battle rattle.
I guess I’m not a Doctor Who fan.
A couple of days ago, I wrote about the TV show, Alone. Sparky likes it too. He doesn’t usually care much about TV, but in the later seasons, there are enough bears, wolves and other large animals to get his attention. They usually play up the sounds of cougars, wolves and bears. That always get his attention.
When I’m going to be out for a long time, I like to leave something on TV for Sparky. Not that he watches much, but it gives him some ambient sound and he can watch if he wants.
I’ve tried Youtube videos for dogs. There are a bunch of these.
Alone is a survival show different from all the rest. The difference is that the participants are completely alone. There is not a group of camera men and producers just off screen. Participants are dropped off in a harsh wilderness environment with limited equipment. Someone could die, but nobody has yet. The participants are spread out, five or ten miles from any other participant. Each has a few cameras to film themselves and a radio to call in when they are ready to quit. The last person remaining wins a big money prize.
Alone is a great show to have on in the background because there isn’t a plot, but each participant is doing something interesting. After watching several seasons, there is dependable sequence to the seasons.
First episode: Participants get dropped off. A tarp is thrown over a tree for an expedient shelter, then each person does a little recon of their area. They spend the night terrified of getting eaten by the local apex predators. Each person talks about how prepared they are for this experience, but by the end of the episode, one or two have dropped out.
The next few episodes: Participants build a shelter, set snares, gather plants and mushrooms and start fishing.
Episodes after that: Some people get really hungry, somebody gets injured, a few try hunting. It starts getting really cold. A few more people drop out. People who stay are making musical instruments or patio furniture to keep busy.
The last few episodes, there are three or four people toughing it out. Somebody accidentally burns down their hut, some else is delirious from starvation. One by one, they drop out until the last person wins.
To keep the seasons from getting repetitive, the producers vary the situation. The first few seasons are on the Western Canadian coast, so the terrain is mountainous and miserable, fishing is the best approach and water may be scarce. In Mongolia, water is available and it’s flat, so fishing can work along with snares for small animals. In central Canada, big game hunting is feasible. Moose, bear and musk ox are hunted.
Another way to mix it up is to vary the participants. One season, they choose people who didn’t win from previous seasons. In another, they use teams of two, rather than individual participants. Loneliness is a big issue, so that could have helped, but it didn’t change things much.
Alone is not a show to watch with your full attention, but in the background, it works great. I’d give it 8 out of 10. It’s showing on Hulu, Netflix and the History Channel.
It’s Christmas Eve, and if I’m honest, Christmas music generally isn’t great. My condolences to anyone who ever worked retail during Christmas.
WSJ: Former Navy SEAL Who Keeps Churning Out Hit Books
WSJ: Former Navy SEAL Who Keeps Churning Out Hit Books
Some writers sell fantasy, romance or mystery. Former Navy SEAL Jack Carr trades in his precise knowledge of guns and battlefield tactics.
I have listened to the first three of Carr’s books: The Terminal List, True Believer and Savage Son. Along with a knowledge of guns and tactics, he understands people and writes plausible scenarios. I am a big fan of his books.
Jack Carr stacks up well with similar writers. Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan books are more political action thrillers. Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books are more crime action thrillers. Mark Greaney wrote a few Jack Ryan books, but has his own Gray Man books which tend to be hyper-violent. There are also authors like Michael Connelly who wrote the Harry Bosch series of detective action thrillers. Those are more tracking clues, and less violence.
Jack Carr writes about former special forces personnel who aren’t looking for trouble, but it finds them. The books tend toward figuring out who needs violence, making a plan, then executing complex tactics to bring the bad guys down with as much firepower as is necessary.
That ultrarealistic detail is Carr’s signature. It’s part of the formula propelling him to success in a competitive genre, military and political thrillers, where few newcomers break out. Drawing on his experience, Carr spins tales about a SEAL who begins on a mission to avenge the deaths of his family and winds up unraveling terrorist plots and global conspiracies.
If you are interested in the genre, Jack Carr is worth reading.
WSJ: Elon Musk on Woke Mind Virus
WSJ: Elon Musk on Woke Mind Virus
For months and months, the world’s richest man has been talking about the “woke mind virus”—let’s call it WMV for short. He describes it as a threat to “modern civilization” and says those concerns motivated his decision more than a year ago to buy the social-media platform now known as X.
Musk is the richest person in the world and with Tesla and SpaceX, owns two companies that dominate their highly technical market sectors. He also owns companies that may be critical to the future in the fields of boring tunnels, artificial intelligence and a brain/computer interface. Since Musk is bringing us the future more than anyone else on Earth, it may be worth trying to comprehend his message.
When it comes to how he defines that threat, however, he has been vague in public—painting a picture of something akin to hysterical groupthink by liberals against merit-based achievement and free speech, a catchall for what he expresses disagreement with.
That seem pretty clear. While a few large investment companies, corporate media and politicians are banging on about diversity, inclusion and equity, it may be worth asking where they see DIE taking Western democracies.
With recent congressional testimony and charges of plagiarism against the current president of Harvard, it seems obvious that she is a diversity hire with scant accomplishments to be account for her lofty position. How much of the rest of our institutions are led by unqualified people who are above accountability?
Musk is arguing for merit in judging applicants and with his obvious success, it’s worth considering his opinion.
When I was at the gym yesterday, one of the TV’s kept playing those ASPCA commercials. I was telling Sparky about how sad those dogs looked in the commercial.
Sparky thought that was pretty funny. He thinks that I’m a chump and those dogs are lying their asses off.
I called bullshit on him, so Sparky showed me.
It was uncanny. He didn’t pull out his dentures, I was watching. Then he holds his head a certain way so his eyes look bereft of hope and his neck looks like he’s starving.
Sparky is the dog version of Lon Chaney Jr.
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