Monthly Archives: August 2020

“Free Will Debunked” Debunked

Posted on 2020-08-30 by jimbelton

Steven Woodford believes that science has “debunked” the fact that humans have free will. I’m going to examine his argument. We all experience what is known in philosophy as ‘libertarian free will’. That is, we feel like we are in … Continue reading →

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Firefox is Blocking Bitchute

Posted on 2020-08-28 by jimbelton

My Windows laptop was in bad shape this morning. After manually cleaning up Firefox, I restarted it and discovered it had automatically upgraded itself. The new version claimed to be faster. One of the first sites I tried to open … Continue reading →

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Review of “Mortal”

Posted on 2020-08-27 by jimbelton

* * C Mortal is a Norwegian film about an American, Eric, who has come to Norway to find out about his past. He’s living in the woods, it turns out, because the farm where his ancestral family lived was … Continue reading →

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Call Out Overpopulation? Surprise: You’re a Racist

Posted on 2020-08-27 by jimbelton

Writing in The Guardian, George Monbiot opines that Population panic lets rich people off the hook for the climate crisis they are fuelling. Basically, he says that calling out overpopulation is racist. Let’s have a look at this inanity. When … Continue reading →

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Series Review: “Lovecraft Country”

Posted on 2020-08-26 by jimbelton

F How can I write a series review of Lovecraft Country after watching only part of the first episode? Easily. This Jordan Peele offering is a bait and switch. After an initial dream sequence which teases Cthulu and the Lovecraft … Continue reading →

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Review of “Coma” (English dub)

Posted on 2020-08-26 by jimbelton

* * * B Coma is a Russian science fiction film about a world built from the memories of people in comas. An architect wakes up in this bizarre world, only to be attacked by a mysterious being known as … Continue reading →

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Series Review: “Hanna”

Posted on 2020-08-25 by jimbelton

* * * B I really liked season 1 of Prime’s “Hanna”. I’d give it four stars. Joel “Takeshi” Kinnaman was fantastic as Hanna’s father. Mireille Enos, who previously partnered with Kinnaman in “The Killing”, was a suitably creepy villain … Continue reading →

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California Caves, Yet Uber is Doomed?

Posted on 2020-08-25 by jimbelton

Aaron Benanav, writing in The Guardian, opines that Uber’s business model is doomed. This seems fairly hyperbolic. Having threatened to pull out of California completely, Uber and Lyft recently won a temporary reprieve from orders to reclassify their drivers as … Continue reading →

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Explaining the Basic Economics of the Minimum Wage

Posted on 2020-08-24 by jimbelton

Lori Lee Oates, Ph.D., writing for the CBC, writes The time is now: We can no longer wait to act on poverty and the minimum wage. It has often been said that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of … Continue reading →

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Review of “The Invisible Man”

Posted on 2020-08-24 by jimbelton

* * * B I finally got around to watching the 2020 remake of H.G.Wells classic “The Invisible Man”. This film does an excellent job at coming at the story with a fresh take. The viewpoint character is a woman … Continue reading →

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