In which Kanye West dodges a bullet

RIP Parler, if only for now.

Parler, the self-described “uncancelable free speech platform,” has been sold and shut down while its new owner conducts a “strategic assessment.” The platform will be back eventually, new owner Starboard says.
The Parler website is now a simple page containing only today’s press release announcing the acquisition, which was completed without financial terms being disclosed. “No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business any more,” the acquisition announcement said, promising a revamp.
“While the Parler app as it is currently constituted will be pulled down from operation to undergo a strategic assessment, we at Starboard see tremendous opportunities across multiple sectors to continue to serve marginalized or even outright censored communities—even extending beyond domestic politics,” the press release said. No timing for a return was mentioned.

Lest we forget, of course, the idea had been to sell the white (power) elephant to Kanye West; at least part of why Candace Owens was cuddling up to the latter was because her husband George Farmer was CEO of Parler by then and the thing was already tanking, and basically they were intending to exploit Kanye’s mental problems by selling it to him (because, obviously, these people are DOGSHIT)… and no one to seems to know what Starboard paid for it, but I imagine it was less than Candy and George were hoping the mentally ill man would give them for it. Alas for them, Kanye went full Hitler and started saying the quiet part out loud, and even they realised this sale would be a bad look even for them and called it off… and now here they are. I don’t know why Parler even bothered existing at all given that Gab was already a thing when they started (and a lot more honest about appealing to the fash), and now that Elon’s running the shitshow at Twitter, the latter is sufficiently friendly to the far-right that even Gab is not exactly necessary any more… And I read that last bit of the press release as implying that Starboard might actually turn Parler’s original intentions on their head, which would be kind of hilarious…

Teeth sind Krieg

So 2023 marks 30 years since this happened:

And no, I don’t mean Dave Mustaine pissing and moaning about being kicked out of Metallica

If Kerrang were shitting their pants about those Norwegian kids and their wacky antics at this point, things would of course go further south a few months later… I think it is important to remember how young most of the black metal crowd were when the Norwegian scene began, even the guys from Mayhem were in their teens when they started in 1984 and so were a number of the bands that followed in their wake (a few are even younger than me, including Ivar Bjornson from Enslaved and quite a few of the rotating cast of Gorgoroth and most of Dimmu Borgir). I think that explains at least some of the idiocy that some of them took part in (it wasn’t all burning churches and killing each other), but also, frankly, some were kind of disconnected from reality on some level.

The scene has, I think, mostly grounded itself as its participants have aged and even come to realise there was and is something absurd about black metal’s theatrics and posturing. The documentary Until the Light Takes Us kind of drove the final nail into the coffin with its revelation that the Helvete shop crowd would be all “trve kvlt” and “Satanic” while other people were in the shop, but when the customers were gone they would talk among themselves about how they enjoyed their cornflakes at breakfast and that sort of thing. It was always posturing except for a few with even less sense of irony or self-awareness than the rest who took it too seriously and didn’t realise how much of it was just show (and some arguably still don’t; looking at you here, Gorgoroth/Infernus)… And with hindsight, the posing all looks sillier and sillier. I mean… for fuck’s sake, how were we supposed to take this sort of thing seriously:

Honestly? I gather this is someone called Heimvik from a band called Ofryskje which released one demo in 1997, apparently he was the vocalist and he had no nose, an amusingly elliptical mouth and a thing for gardening tools. I mean, black metal has been rife with ridiculous imagery, like this iconic and, well, immortal photoshoot for Immortal:

“Boo!”

And Dimmu Borgir feared no nonsense either:

“Yeah, they used up all the black facepaint, I had to make do with the hat… No, I don’t think Shagrath is compensating for anything here”

But really I think Heimvik and his dental work are underappreciated in the annals of silly black metal visuals, which are extensive and only get sillier as the years pass. It’s the sort of picture that’s probably better in this sort of mediocre quality, the sort of washed-out contrasty photocopy look is exactly how it should look and why would you want to see any more detail anyway? And it’s definitely the sort of thing that makes me wonder how we were ever supposed to take black metal seriously, which I say as someone who does enjoy the stuff…

Fyre! (I’ll take you to court)

Byrn!

Yeah, the guy behind Fyre Festival who isn’t Ja Rule is now promoting a sequel to his first event. You know, one of the most infamous debacles of its kind in history, for which he spent four years in jail and he still owes $26m, and the government of the Bahamas still considers him a fugitive from their justice system; during his trial he refused to pay his legal team and continued to commit fraud by selling tickets to events that didn’t exist or didn’t sell public tickets.

The question isn’t why you should be invited to part 2, the question is why should anyone believe McFarland is actually going to do part 2 at all, let alone get it right. He himself says “well duh, I’ve got to pay back that $26m somehow” and fair enough, he does, but… I’m assuming that setting up a festival of this sort would actually require several million dollars, so is he implying he already has that, or at least has access to it? Cos if he does, wouldn’t he be better using that to pay off his debt directly? It’d be a gesture of goodwill, and probably better than sinking it into an event that probably won’t actually make that money and leave him further in the hole, because people know of his history as a con artist (there are in fact two documentaries on Fyre Festival) and what happened first time round and only complete idiots and people who somehow missed the original shitshow would trust him with their money now. Surely. I’m all for redemption arcs, but not everyone gets one or deserves one, and I’m not sure Billy Z. does. In any case, if it does happen somehow, I hope the people at the festival take their own lunch with them…

The Voice fallout continues…

…With more of a whimper than a bang this time, though.

Liberal MP Julian Leeser has resigned as shadow attorney general and shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, less than a week after the Liberals confirmed they will oppose an Indigenous voice in the constitution.
Leeser, who is a supporter of an Indigenous voice, announced in a statement on Facebook on Tuesday morning he had resigned so as to campaign for a yes vote in the referendum.
Leeser’s move was welcomed by fellow Liberals who support the voice, including MP Bridget Archer and senator Andrew Bragg, but is considered unlikely to trigger further resignations from shadow cabinet despite several moderates expressing concern about the party’s position in that forum.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, accepted the resignation, telling reporters in Brisbane it reflected that “his position is at odds with the overwhelming majority of the Liberal party members in our party room”.
Leeser told reporters in Sydney he hadn’t “been able to persuade” his colleagues to support a voice in the constitution.
“I resign without rancour or bitterness and remain a loyal Liberal, fully committed to the leadership of Peter Dutton,” he said.

And that’s why Julian Leeser can still go fuck himself, because apart from this one issue he’s still a toad for Dutton. And his own proposed model for the Voice involves removing its ability to actually advise parliament, so it’d have even less power than I think Labor will let it have. Quoth Julian also:

In the post, Leeser acknowledged “the support and good grace of Peter Dutton throughout the process and the faith he has shown in me”.
“However, on the voice referendum we find ourselves in different places. People of goodwill can disagree.”
At the press conference, Leeser added that Dutton came to the debate with an “open mind and a good heart” but claimed he had “not been able to engage” with the government because it had refused to answer 15 questions the opposition leader had posed.

This is Peter Dutton we’re talking about, a man with neither of those things and not a person of goodwill at all. I know Ken Wyatt’s resignation from the party over the Voice didn’t make any real difference to anyone except himself, but it felt like something, like an actual protest. Leeser’s bullshit is vacuous by comparison and I look forward to him going down with the ship.

In diabetes news, this is news somehow

I am frankly a bit confused by this article hailing a doctor in the UK:

A red-brick surgery in the seaside resort of Southport in the north-west of England is on the frontline of one of the biggest questions facing the NHS: what’s the best fix for our growing obesity crisis?
Dr David Unwin thinks he has the answer. He has championed a low-carb lifestyle that not only helps patients lose weight but also, in more than half of his patients who were on the diet, has even managed to reverse type 2 diabetes, once thought to be an irreversible and progressive disease.
Such results appear remarkable and will be scrutinised by NHS officials now rolling out a national low-calorie diet programme to treat obesity and type 2 diabetes, which can lead to serious health complications and early death.
Unwin also appears to have identified what one expert calls the “magic ingredients” that motivate his patients to adhere to lifestyle changes for several years.

I mean, bravo for him if he has, but… I’ve always been under the impression ever since I was diagnosed with diabetes myself back in 2004 that diet was a big part of diabetic maintenance (certainly one of my first meetings with anyone at the Randwick hospital’s diabetes clinic was with their nutritionist, an off-putting man I didn’t like but that’s not really relevant), that the poorness of my diet was a substantial part of why mine was so out of control (and, frankly, why it’s still not as well controlled as it should be). And I have a very limited range of things I actually like (one of the things that makes me wonder if I have some flavour of autism, but let’s not go there now), and, frankly, an attempt at dietary change when I was diagnosed with diabetes just depressed me terribly and didn’t actually make much difference anyway, so back to the things I enjoy I went… sigh.

And, frankly again, most of what I do like is carbohydrate-y, so whatever’s in Dr Unwin’s diet sheet probably isn’t going to interest me that much. It is, incidentally, curious that the article says nothing about that:

Dr Simon Tobin, the senior partner at the Norwood Surgery in Southport, who is a keen runner and follows a low-carb lifestyle, said: “Many of our patients have been low carb for six, eight or 10 years, so it is completely sustainable. If you had a drug that did half of what we have done with the low-carb approach, it would be worth an absolute fortune. No one is shouting about it because it is not a drug that’s making a profit for a big pharmaceutical company.”

So if no one stands to make money, why doesn’t the article specify the “magic ingredients” beyond just the vague mention of them being “low-carb”? Give people some ideas for themselves, maybe even I might see something of interest… The article seems to be withholding a lot of information; if, as I said, dietary considerations have always been important in controlling diabetes, I’m left puzzled by the end as to quite why Unwin in particular is getting this sort of attention. Also:

Dr David Oliver and Dr Kim Andrews set up the Freshwell Low Carb Project at the Freshwell Health Centre, near Braintree in Essex, and have reported significant weight loss in patients.
An observational study published in October 2021 reported 774 patients were given dietary advice, out of whom 339 attended a review and had their weight measured. They lost a total of 1,103kg, with a median weight loss of 2.5kg.

That… doesn’t actually seem like much. If the 10-20kg losses Unwin’s patients reported are accurate, that’s significant. 2.5kg doesn’t strike me in anywhere near the same way. Plus those figures mean 435 patients, i.e. nearly a hundred more than those who did the review, didn’t do it. I’d be very curious as to how those people went and how that may or may not affect their results…

Somehow Celtics is still a thing

For reasons I don’t understand, Michael (Mehul) Kingsbury is still at it:

What is this “Irish whisky” of which he speaks? Even in the US, where this clown lives, they spell it with an “e”…

Anyway, back in those long distant days (October 2021) when I still operated a Youtube channel, I actually did a video about Mehul and his absurd proposed TV show/racist propaganda nonsense. If you don’t want to listen to me droning on for 16 minutes however (and who could blame you?), I’ll boil the story down… basically around 18 months ago, Mehul started attracting attention on Twitter for a show he envisaged called Celtics, and for mass-blocking thousands of Irish and Scottish people who actually know about history before they could criticise him for the numerous things wrong with his idea. Some of which included:

— The title. “Celtics” is not a word (unless you’re referring to the basketball team);
— In his promotional art, he included a goddess called Aeronwen, who may not actually have existed in the first place and if she did then she was Welsh and therefore outside Irish mythology. Also he praised the actress playing Aeronwen for her natural Irish accent, which a putative Welsh goddess surely wouldn’t have had in the first place;
— Plus he said the show would be using Gaulish accents for “authenticity”, despite the fact we don’t know what a Gaulish accent would’ve sounded like, and despite the fact that a putative Welsh goddess wouldn’t have had one of those either;
— The “Book of Danu” isn’t an actual thing and there are no known myths about Danu, and I gather her very name is a linguistic reconstruction that’s not universally agreed upon;
— He also uses Belenus, who was indeed worshipped in Britain, but his actual cult centre was in Italy, and he was a national god in Noricum, a kingdom around what is now Austria and Slovenia and which was then an ally of the Roman republic and later part of the Roman empire.

This latter point is kind of important and deeply ironic, considering this description of the show from Mehul’s website:

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