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Afternoon Links: What the Media is Hiding About Lawnmower Boy, the Tribe’s Streak Continues, and Biological Differences

By Jim Swift

What the media won’t show you about the lawnmower kid… A click-baity Facebook page affiliated with conservative blog Independent Journal Review is being mocked for suggesting that media wouldn’t show photos of the 11-year-old boy the White House used as a PR ploy mowing the White House lawn. Except “the media” did show it. CNN even interviewed the kid. Come in close, dear reader, and I will reveal a secret to you about what the media won’t show you about Frank the lawn-mowing 11-year-old. Are you ready? Frank did a bad job. Don’t believe me? Look at the proof. Stay in school, Frank!

Far-right Twitter competitor Gab seemingly intent on suicide. Maybe you haven’t heard of Gab.ai, a site that serves as a refuge for people who were booted from Twitter. It’s quite popular with the alt-right, racists, quacks, and loons, but some (perhaps few) relatively normal folks use it, too. I have an account because it’s like a free pass to the zoo. What conspiracy did Mike Flynn, Jr. tweet about today? Gab.ai delivers. The site raised a million bucks from its users (who secretly pine for Twitter), and even developed an app! Until that app was banned by Google, which has prompted the site to waste its time and hard-earned money on a lawsuit. Here’s an excerpt from the Post on the suit:

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Google banned the social media platform from the Google Play Store last month, citing violations of Google’s hate speech policies. Andrew Anglin, the founder of the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, had become an active user on Gab after a succession of companies refused to service his site. Gab also counts other controversial right-wing figures among its users, including Milo Yiannopoulos and Andrew “weev” Auernheimer. In a statement, Google described the lawsuit as “baseless,” and said it would defend its decision in court, if necessary. “In order to be on the Play Store, social networking apps need to demonstrate a sufficient level of moderation, including for content that encourages violence and advocates hate against groups of people,” Google said. “This developer is welcome to appeal the suspension if they’ve addressed the policy violations and are compliant with our Developer Program Policies.”

Anyone with an Android phone knows that is is easy to install applications on their device outside of Google Play. Just apparently not the geniuses at Gab.ai, who seem content to piss away their small fortune on what is almost certain to be a losing battle.

How about those Indians? Yes, more Cleveland Indians coverage. This is history here, deal with it. Last night, the Tribe won its 22nd consecutive game, a new MLB record. This one, as we went to press at THE WEEKLY STANDARD was a nail biter! The Tribe and Royals played a low scoring game, and the visitors entered the bottom of the ninth up 2-1. The Tribe had earlier loaded the bases not once, but twice, and couldn’t deliver. … With two outs, Francisco Lindor hit a game-tying double that gave the near sell-out crowd free baseball. (Extra innings are brought to you by the Cleveland Clinic! Afraid you’re having a heart attack? Use the Express Care App to consult one of the country’s premier medical professionals!) In the bottom of the 10th, Jose Ramirez’s amazing hustle turned a single into a photo-finish double, and Jay Bruce’s single (complete with Hatteberg fist pump) kept the streak alive. Next game is against the Royals, tonight at 7:10 p.m.

Biology gives boys a physical physics advantage? What a dumb time to be alive. The Times Educational Supplement (UK) has a stunningly silly report titled: “Taking the pee out of physics: how boys are getting a leg-up.”

Playful urination practices – from seeing how high you can pee to games such as Peeball (where men compete using their urine to destroy a ball placed in a urinal) – may give boys an advantage over girls when it comes to physics. And we believe there’s something we can do about it.

What’s the problem? An adolescent gender gap in physics? I guess? Because boys writing their name in the snow in pee is creating a physics gender gap?

All this is experienced up to five times a day, so by 14, boys have had the opportunity to play with projectile motion around 10,000 times. And 14 is when many children meet formalised physics in the form of projectile motion and Newton’s equations of motion for the first time. This self-directed, hands-on, intrinsically (and sometimes extrinsically, and socially) rewarding activity must have a huge potential contribution to learning, resulting in a deep, embodied, material knowledge of projectile motion that’s simply not accessible to girls.

It’s not 1950 anymore, and little girls play sports. (I hope my soon-to-be-born twins will pick a sport that is cheap, like rec soccer.) But, OK, boys learn about physics because they pee. What’s your solution?

However, we can make a change: it’s not necessary for physics curricula to begin with projectile motion. Other topics, such as energy conservation, which is more central to physics, could be taught first instead.

Yes, Newton’s laws of motion should take a back seat to the law of conservation of energy just because of biological gender differences. Well, at least they acknowledge such differences exist, I guess. So there’s that.

Speaking of biological gender differences… Harvard, after much controversy, rescinded an offer of a fellowship to Chelsea Manning at their institute of politics. Which is a good thing, of course, since Manning is a traitor. Our good friend Michael Graham has a new episode of his morning podcast “Michael in the Morning” with Bill Kristol discussing this controversy. It’s a daily must listen, so do subscribe to Graham’s podcast on iTunes.

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