Recent Comments

1. 1 day ago on Monty

   Remember that the jury in OJ’s trial did not find that he didn’t do the murders. A few of the jurors even told the press afterward that they thought he was guilty. What their verdict said was that the prosecution failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he was guilty. That’s why people continue to debate his innocence.

   And the “guilty” side got stronger when the jury in his civil trial said it was more likely than not that he did the murders.

   And then it got a lot stronger when he confessed a few years later in a book he wrote detailing how he did it (and, though the public never saw that book, in interviews about the book — I saw one live on TV).

2. 1 day ago on Monty

   Your sample size is too small. The same study was done with a large enough samples to produce statistically significant (rather than just random) results before the vaccines were released and showed the opposite.

   And subsequent numbers from entire populations showed the same thing (though ISTR the vaccines were a little less effective than the original studies predicted).

3. 5 days ago on For Better or For Worse

   It seems you don’t get fiction. It makes little difference that the characters and events aren’t real in developing feelings about them and discussing them.

   And in terms of practicality, complaining about real people rarely accomplishes any more than complaining about fictional people.

4. 5 days ago on For Better or For Worse

   I worked in the housing department in the 1980s, and it was well understood that your vandalism rate goes way down when you go co-ed (specifically, the vandalism in the men’s dorms goes down when you add women).

   There were plenty of theories as to why that was, but the effect was unmistakable.

   There was a similar effect, not only on vandalism, but on various other measures of housing success, when you mix classes. Freshmen seem to switch from being children to being adults around the middle of the year in a mixed residence, but where you have a freshmen dorm, that doesn’t happen until the middle of their second year.

5. 5 days ago on For Better or For Worse

   I believe Mike’s point is that since there are other people willing to pay the rent — people Housing would like to house — Housing will be willing to give them a refund.

   And he’s probably right. Housing departments don’t make profits and have no reason to want to soak students for all they can get; the only reason they would require residents to pay for a full year even if they wanted to leave mid-year would be because they didn’t think they could re-rent the space, which would make the full-year residents pay an unfair share of the cost.

6. 8 days ago on For Better or For Worse

   OK. But as I explained, this door opens outward, into the hallway. That’s strange, but you can see it’s true.

7. 9 days ago on Doonesbury

   All Trump meant by the fact that Christians will never have to vote again if they just get off their butts and vote this time is that in four years, he will fix everything so completely that there will be no work left to do and everyone will see that it is good and will never want to change it back.

   You have to remember how Trump’s mind works. He thinks he’s a god. He thinks he has answers nobody else has thought of in the past 100 years. He thinks everyone loves him (which is how he is so sure the votes in 2020 were miscounted). He thinks he could have stopped Russia from invading Ukraine or Hamas from attacking Israel. He promised a quick fix to pretty much everything he was asked about (remember — he’s going to stop the killing in Ukraine in 24 hours, and before inauguration day. Any day now, I guess).

8. 9 days ago on Doonesbury

   Yeah, but the commentators I’m thinkin of are talking about a shift in popular opinion evidenced by this election, not a shift in power.

   Yesterday, I even heard someone say Trump won by an “overwhelming majority.” Overwhelming majority is what Ronald Reagan did: every electoral vote except his opponent’s VP’s home state and 60% of the people.

   The only thing overwhelming about Trump’s win is that he got all of the swing states, but remember that swing states aren’t really the entire electorate, like campaigns treat them — they’re just the states that are teetering on the edge, which means winning them doesn’t signal any shift at all. Show me Trump winning a blue state and I’ll concede some kind of shift to the right.

9. 9 days ago on For Better or For Worse

   I don’t see your point. You reach the screws while standing in the doorway, neither inside nor outside the room, regardless of which direction the door opens. And that’s what this guy is doing.

   This door does open outward, which is weird. Looking from the hallway, the door handle is on the left, hinges right (look at the door in the third panel). In the second panel, the door is completely open, 180 degrees, into the hallway. The blond guy is standing in the hallway shushing other people in the hallway. The guy with the screwdriver is facing right (again, as seen from the hallway; we’re looking from inside the room), unscrewing the hinges.

10. 11 days ago on Doonesbury

    I wish I knew why all the commentators are talking about a major shift to the right. What I see is the right gained 3% of the senate, half a percent of the House, and the presidency. The latter was with fewer electoral votes than most presidential election winners and 51.5% of all voters.

    That just looks like a run of the mill election. It’ll probably go the other way in the next election.