As IF Times

Source: Firestorm of criticism sparked by Peeple, app that lets users rate people | CTV News

So the other night, we finally got a chance to meet Dan.  We had heard a lot about him from others who had met him recently.  The encounter started off pleasantly enough, as he lived in a modest but well kept home in the up and coming part of the city.  Our first hint of his personality was the Prius parked out front.  Hmm, already giving off Hipster/Greenie vibes.

He answered the door politely although we could hear lots of furniture moving noises and what sounded like rushed scrambling before he appeared.  We were cheerfully invited inside, which was nice, but expected.  There was little in the way of furniture, but what was there was tasteful but not expensive.  A Le Corbusier lounge chair looked strangely inappropriate next to a later model Ikea wing chair.   We also noticed the magazines conspicuously on display including Architectural Digest and Travel and Leisure.  But in a pile just off to one side of the coffee table were also a stack of People magazines.  What this may show is cultured mind still in development.  Or it could be his girlfriend’s periodicals.

His appearance is acceptable by modern standards, with the obligatory 2 days growth of stubble and heavy framed glasses. There was no hint of Axe body perfume that so many hipsters wear these days.  Dan is about 5 feet 10 and in decent shape as others have noted.

We talked a bit about a number of topics including politics, pop culture, philosophy and also delved into a few of his hobbies and interests.  He exhibited a reasonably broad familiarity with most topics, if a bit shallow on depth.  We found that his worldviews are very much in line with populist opinions you’d find in this generation of people, but the Prius already gave us that hint.   We can see how previous raters would give Dan a good score, but for us, he was only average at best.  As someone to spend time with at social functions, he’d be a good candidate but we suspect boredom would set in after a while.  Ability to carry on a conversation was good and he was reasonably articulate. After 45 minutes, we left for another appointment and he politely showed us out.

All in all, a pleasant if unexciting experience.  That is not to knock Dan at all.  We think he would make an excellent companion and bar buddy.  Appearance is an 8 and personal deportment also an 8 if not a 9.  We would hang out with Dan again.

3 stars out of 5.

Source: Climate change is the reason behind bumblebee disappearance –

Of course it is.  Though I’ve tried hard to avoid writing about climate change/global warming yet again, there is an endless flow of flotsam that continues to populate the general news pages on a regular basis.  It’s as if there was a factory in China somewhere that manufactured new kinds of stories about global warming as  they would make cheap garments.

There are very few events in nature today that don’t have some presumed ‘link’ to global warming much like the famous Kevin Bacon 6 degrees of separation theory.  A recent sensationalist headline warned that oceans can rise 20 feet “in the near future” according to “a study”.  Sea Rise.  If anyone cared to read beyond the breathless headline, they would find that the statistical probability of this scenario’s outcome is very low and only if a number of perfect conditions were to exist.   Nevertheless, the takeaway from the article is that oceans will soon rise 20 feet and we’re all going to die.  This notion is along the same lines of probability of everyone in the world flushing their toilets at once, creating a tsunami of poop that would swamp all cities. In fact, lead author Andrea Dutton, of the University of Florida, said it could take many centuries for a 20-foot rise.  Centuries! 

I wonder if the people who put tourist traps in Venice worried about sea rise when they built it.  In fact, if Venice’s success as a tourist spot is a byproduct of rising seas,  then in a few centuries’ time, all kinds of new tourist traps would be created, obviating the need to go to the expense of travelling to Venice.

As far as bumble bees; well bumble bees pollinate flowers, flowers are pretty and given to girls; girls are happy and therefore they make breakfast for their husbands or boyfriends.  This includes bacon and there’s your connection to Kevin, in less than 6 degrees of separation.