calliope
@calliope@retrolemmy.com
- Comment on Jason Arday, former Cambridge professor, dies week after resigning amid plagiarism allegations 6 days ago:
Allegations of plagiarism were raised last month by Nathan Cofnas, a philosopher of biology and former Cambridge researcher who has publicly criticized diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Cofnas previously wrote that in a meritocracy, “Blacks would disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment.”
Arday previously denied any intentional wrongdoing, saying errors in his academic work were inadvertent and arguing that much of the criticism against him was an ideologically and racially motivated campaign against him.
Supporters of Arday also argued the scrutiny went far beyond legitimate academic criticism and said he became the target of an ideological campaign because of his work on race, inequality and diversity.
Liverpool John Moores University previously investigated allegations relating to his doctoral thesis and said it found no evidence of academic misconduct, according to The Times of London.
Articles by The Times of London and The Telegraph reported last month on possible embellishments in Arday’s personal history, including claims that he raised millions for charity through endurance challenges, which he later amended. The Telegraph questioned his claim to have published a book, “Being Young, Black and Male: Challenging the Dominant Discourse,” saying it could not find evidence it was ever published.
- Comment on Top economist warns that the AI math doesn’t make sense: 'Profits are currently being funded by investors rather than earned from customers' 1 week ago:
I actually came back to ask “is that an Aerosmith ‘Livin On the Edge’ reference in the wild?!”
I loved it.
- Comment on Hawaii Democratic House candidate faces felony threat charges after beach fight caught on video 2 weeks ago:
Note that pretty much only the worst news sources are covering this right now and are intentionally using a misleading “Democratic house candidate” headline.
Honolulu Civil Beat is the only honest source so far who put “longshot” into the title.
This guy has been arrested three times this year and has restraining orders. He was never an actual “candidate.”
Several people have taken out temporary restraining orders against him, including Maui County Council member Thomas Cook, who said he was worried about his personal safety and for his staff after Basin disrupted a meeting in May.
Cook said Basin “became aggressive and confrontational” and “threatened violence against the police” and a council ambassador.
Two days later, on May 29, reports circulated that Basin “brandished a weapon in a county office building in a confrontation with county employees.”
That was in May.
- Comment on It’s Looking Like the Cybertruck Is the Biggest Flop in Automotive History 3 weeks ago:
Oh totally, Nader is the piece of shit here…
In response to Nader’s criticisms, GM attempted to sabotage Nader’s reputation. It “(1) conducted a series of interviews with acquaintances of the plaintiff, ‘questioning them about, and casting aspersions upon [his] political, social, racial and religious views; his integrity; his sexual proclivities and inclinations; and his personal habits’; (2) kept him under surveillance in public places for an unreasonable length of time; (3) caused him to be accosted by girls for the purpose of entrapping him into illicit relationships; (4) made threatening, harassing and obnoxious telephone calls to him; (5) tapped his telephone and eavesdropped, by means of mechanical and electronic equipment, on his private conversations with others; and (6) conducted a ‘continuing’ and harassing investigation of him.”
He went on to lobby for consumer rights, helping drive the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air Act, among others
You’re fucking delusional.
- Comment on It’s Looking Like the Cybertruck Is the Biggest Flop in Automotive History 3 weeks ago:
Not super common where I live!
I see 1-2 a month, at most. Lots of other Teslas, but few people are buying Cybertrucks in the middle of the U.S.
- Comment on It’s Looking Like the Cybertruck Is the Biggest Flop in Automotive History 3 weeks ago:
This is actually really funny, because Ralph Nader literally started his activist career pointing out that they didn’t in 1965.
The book, critical of the automotive industry, argued that many American automobiles were generally unsafe to operate.
- Comment on 1 month ago:
There’s also a relevant quote from Wikipedia article on Actraiser:
According to Douglas Crockford’s Expurgation of Maniac Mansion, Nintendo of America had a strict policy regarding game content in the early 1990s, especially in regards to material that could be deemed offensive, a blanket category that prohibited the inclusion of any overtly religious themes or plotlines in a game.
Nintendo of America may not have been consistent, but they were definitely over-strict for some games.
- Comment on The Most Iconic American Artwork Is the Hardest to See 1 month ago:
Calling the Statue of Liberty “the most iconic work of American art” is insane.
- Comment on YouTubers face up to five years in jail after being arrested sneaking into World Cup game 1 month ago:
I would be shocked if it stuck long-term unless someone wanted to make an example out of them (which isn’t out of the question).
They were both charged with interference with a sporting or entertainment event, which could lead to a prison sentence of up to five years if they’re found to have solicited each other into doing so, as that is a third-degree felony. Additionally, they can both be fined $5000.
“Interference with a sporting or entertainment event” is a stretch, and for the third degree felony it would have to be proven that they solicited each other to “interfere with an event.”
They will probably plea to a lesser charge.
- Comment on We’re Getting America’s Children Hooked on Gambling 1 month ago:
Well duh.
It will take decades for anyone people to care enough to change anything, just like cigarettes. Gambling will eventually be a huge issue, but the robber barons are in control.
I grew up with Joe Camel ads in Sports Illustrated, this is the same thing.
- Comment on Dianna Russini Was an N.F.L. ‘Insider.’ Was She Also Out of Bounds? 1 month ago:
Oh she’s trashy trashy.
Ms. Russini tried to fend off a ticket by telling the officer that the coach of the Buffalo Bills had been fired, and she was trying to break news.
The officer was unmoved, telling her he was a fan of a different team.
That’s when she made him an offer. Maybe she could connect him, right then and there, to his favorite team’s coach.
“Do you want to talk to the coach? You should talk to the coach,” Ms. Russini said she told the officer as she recounted the incident a couple of weeks later on “Stugotz and Company,” a radio show and podcast.
“I FaceTime the head coach,” she said, without naming him. “Head coach is in his office. He said, ‘What’s up?’ I go, ‘I just got pulled over and I just wanted you to meet my friend, Officer Joe.’”
The coach helped her get out of the ticket by telling the officer, “You should let her go, she’s a good citizen,” Ms. Russini said.
The podcast host howled with laughter. “I wish I had that kind of access,” he said.
She did this in front of her kids and then bragged about it.
- Comment on The Secret Reason Bosses Want Everyone Back in the Office, Every Day of the Week 1 month ago:
Case by case, there may be good reasons for teams to work together in person. As a general rule, though, it turns out that ordering people back to the office full time is a power and status move. It’s a signature strategy of leaders who exhibit narcissistic qualities. They see any kind of remote work as a threat to their authority and admiration. They want to be worshiped at the office altar.
- Comment on Artsy darling Remedy Entertainment has a new CEO - a former EA exec and sports betting platform president - who is there to "accelerate growth" 6 months ago:
Thanks for asking, honestly. I didn’t make the connection either.
- Comment on Democratic Upset in Deep Red Texas District Rattles Republicans 6 months ago:
I’ve been reading a book about this that makes a very good case with data that they are Christian Nationalists or Christian nationalist accommodators.
Which, oddly enough, shouldn’t be confused with actual Christians who read the Bible and go to church. They are different and they have different beliefs. That’s how stupid Christian Nationalists are, they’re not even Christian.
Christian nationalism is a separate social construct, and they are, indeed, a combination of fools and monsters. Or monstrous fools.
The book is short (165 pages) and dense; it’s called Taking America Back For God by Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry and it has been illuminating.
- Comment on Meet the Vitalists: the hardcore longevity enthusiasts who believe death is “wrong” 6 months ago:
He literally thinks he should be able to live forever at the expense of others, including his own children.
- Comment on Meet the Vitalists: the hardcore longevity enthusiasts who believe death is “wrong” 6 months ago:
They really bury the lede, which is that the same anti-aging dingleberry you’ve probably already heard of was the main speaker. He’s always the main speaker.
I was told that around 300 people had signed up for that day’s events, which was more than had attended the previous week. That might have been because arguably the world’s most famous longevity enthusiast, Bryan Johnson, was about to make an appearance.
He’s awful.
On October 13, 2021, Johnson announced an anti-aging attempt called “Project Blueprint.” Johnson underwent a series of six monthly 1-liter plasma transfusions with his son as the donor for one of the transfusions, but he says he will not repeat the transfusions due to lack of benefits.
Gimme your blood, kid!
The FDA has stated that transfusions such as the kind Johnson had are without benefit and may be harmful.
- Comment on Sam Altman’s make-or-break year: can the OpenAI CEO cash in his bet on the future? 6 months ago:
It’s the same pattern as social media followed over a decade ago. Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey were always claiming their services were going to change the world for the better.
Both of their services (Facebook and Twitter, respectively) have been used for organizing fascism and hate because hate is extremely profitable and they would rather have money than make the world a better place.
They have ultimately, actively changed the world for the worse.
- Comment on State Terror Has Arrived 6 months ago:
I’m realizing that this kind of willful ignorance in journalism is a major part of the problem.
As long as the plausible deniability exists that “we didn’t know,” everyone can pretend it isn’t a pattern and refuse to even learn.
Meanwhile, these same people were violently cracking down on protesters nearly ten years ago, vocally supporting white supremacy. Many of these ICE agents were in prison before being pardoned by this administration in 2025.
- Comment on ICE Agent Charged With Misdemeanor Following Scuffle With an Activist 6 months ago:
Imagine going after a 68-year-old man who is filming you. Throw him under the jail.
In an interview, Mr. Held, a 68-year-old trust and estate lawyer, said that he had been using his phone to record the agent from a sidewalk on Dec. 27, when Mr. Saracco approached him seeking to take the phone.
He had his hands on me and threw me to the ground,” Mr. Held said. “He did grab my phone, but I held onto it with both hands, I had to use all my might. I said, ‘Calm down, you have to de-escalate.’ I heard horns honking and he got off me, he did not get my phone.
“Calm down, you have to de-escalate” is such a badass thing for him to say while being assaulted.
- Comment on What’s Behind the Staggering Drop in the Murder Rate? No One Knows for Sure. | A decline in homicides across the country was a stunning reversal after crime rose during the pandemic. 6 months ago:
How is it a “stunning reversal” when it was declining significantly before the pandemic?
It was declining before the pandemic. Everyone knew this. No one is stunned.
- Comment on Suicides Were Frequent at the Golden Gate Bridge. Not Anymore. 6 months ago:
One of the most (personally suicide-deterrent) quotes I’ve ever read is from Golden Gate Bridge jump survivor Ken Baldwin.
I realized then that all of the problems in my life that I thought were unsolvable were in fact solvable—except for having just jumped.
- Comment on In Minneapolis, I Glimpsed a Civil War 6 months ago:
It’s so crazy to me that there are patterns of asymmetric war (like The Troubles, which lasted 30 years), and the media always go back to full “civil war” because it drives clicks.
As a longtime foreign correspondent, I have covered civil wars in countries across the globe
When all you visit is civil war, everything looks like civil war.
- Comment on Move Over, ChatGPT 6 months ago:
Yep, this is exactly how most people describe using an AI chat bot to write code.
It’s a junior developer who can’t learn.
- Comment on A Man Bought Meta's AI Glasses, and Ended Up Wandering the Desert in Search of Aliens 6 months ago:
The man in the article also was alcoholic until mere “months before buying the glasses.”
They are burying all the ledes to make a “regular guy goes crazy due to AI” story.
- Comment on A Man Bought Meta's AI Glasses, and Ended Up Wandering the Desert in Search of Aliens 6 months ago:
It’s always kind of weird to me when articles describe insanely wealthy people in such a way that they try to make them sound normal.
A 50 year old who worked at the sane financial services company (in my experience, finance programmer bros are awful a lot of the time).
In 2022, he leveraged his family’s finances to realize a passion project: a rustic resort in rural Utah
“He had it all… please ignore the obvious.”
- Comment on La. Seeks Extradition of Calif. Doctor Over Abortion Pills 7 months ago:
Leave it to a tiny shithole in Louisiana to try to throw a doctor in jail from a thousand miles away based on their personal beliefs.
- Comment on ICE Agent Who Fatally Shot Renee Good Suffered Internal Bleeding After Encounter, Officials Claim 7 months ago:
CBS News reported, citing two U.S. officials briefed on his medical condition.
They don’t even cite believable sources.
- Comment on UK officials may be barred from US over X ban 7 months ago:
There it is, there’s another cliche! Keep em coming.
- Comment on UK officials may be barred from US over X ban 7 months ago:
Genuinely your arrogance is astounding.
- Comment on UK officials may be barred from US over X ban 7 months ago:
I don’t care at all. You’ve made your point.