“The strongest argument for socialism is that it sounds good. The strongest argument against socialism is that it doesn’t work. But those who live by words will always have a soft spot in their hearts for socialism because it sounds good.” --Sowell
A letter from Alan Turing to his former math teacher was bought at auction recently for £75,000 (estimate £20,000-30,000).
From an article on Racism: "...because racism is “prejudice plus power,” and all structural power is situated in the hands of whiteness, nonwhites may be capable of prejudice—a bad thing to be sure—but they cannot be racists. The default use of the term “whiteness” as the target of opprobrium bakes this contention into the language."
This obsession with "Power" is a hangover from many impenetrable writers and it forgives a lot. Cruelty is evil whether effective or not.
This is interesting.
Some of the nation’s law schools—including at Harvard and Georgetown—are letting applicants take the GRE instead of the grueling LSAT in an effort to attract students with a broader range of experience.
Heroes of Beslan update:
Husnain Rashid, 31, allegedly made a post threatening the four-year-old prince George on messaging app Telegram, along with other posts which allegedly could help others identify UK targets such as stadiums. But it's ok I guess because Mr. Rashid has no "power." Or maybe it becomes ok if he has power. Or something.
“Deaths from opioid-related hospitalizations more than quadrupled from 2000 to 2014 as providers treated patients with more severe cases of pain addiction,” according to a study published Monday in Health Affairs. The study found inpatient mortality rose from 0.43% in 2000 to 2.02% in 2014. The analysis also “showed that hospitalizations due to opioid or heroin poisoning have increased in recent years, even as the rate of people seeking treatment of opioid addiction at a hospital has gone down.”
Despite appeals and warnings from world leaders, President Donald Trump has reversed decades of policy by declaring Jerusalem Israel’s capital, and moving the U.S. embassy there. Every objection acts as if this is a threat to peace. A remarkable mindset. Well, Hamas got the Peace Prize.
Who is...Richard K. Morgan?
The New York Times (12/4, Park, Subscription Publication) reports that according to McKinsey, the “median rise in premiums for bronze plans was 18 percent from 2017 to 2018.”
So with the rise in premiums, is anyone surprised? And who should be responsible for it, the guys who wrote the law or the guys who can't fix it?
I went to the Science Center for a talk on dinosaurs and Antarctica. It was fascinating. Before the Age of Mammals, Antarctica was a hot swamp with many species isolated after the separation of the single Pangaea continent into its smaller parts. So the world's understanding of dinosaurs is skewered by the prominence of Northern Hemisphere research. The Southern Hemisphere is different in evolution and one can track migrations of little beasties--like marsupials, for example. And the Antarctica is virgin, with very little research. That said, it is horrible to work there and only a few areas have enough exposed earth to be rewarding. An interesting night--and the area will be terrific to work in after global warming gets going.
I left to go home and see Monday Night's Survival of the Fittest.
Watched the gang war cleverly disguised as a football game. Shazier's injury was an accident, a quirk of violent actions on huge, fast-moving and leveraged bodies. The other stuff was the purposeful attempt to injure. I had a bit of sympathy for JuJu--it was a fast play but the hit was certainly marginal. If he had not acted like Skelator after he might be forgiven. But generally it was like cheering for a loosely connected felony collection. And the announcers lost control of it.
An article on Burfict: http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/21653459/vontaze-burfict-cincinnati-bengals-makes-no-apologies-actions-pittsburgh-steelers-anyone-else-nfl
 |
www.espn.com
It's true that Burfict's on-field persona -- domineering, explosive, mercurial -- does not appear to extend off the field. But the problem is how he plays football -- with a violence that can be excessive.
| |
Netflix has a new, expensive sci-fi story called Altered Carbon based upon Richard K. Morgan’s cyberpunk novel. Netflix just announced the drama’s premiere date: Feb. 2, 2018.
There has been some debate over the free market and capitalism kicking around on some of the libertarian sites. One rather surprising thing to see in print from Mingardi although I think it is probably true, if hard to explain: "I would maintain intellectuals are still typically more anti-capitalist than any other group."
Than any other group? That must mean something.
From a recent study on the minimum wage: We find a significant impact of increasing minimum wages on prices in grocery stores. Our baseline estimate of the minimum wage elasticity of grocery prices is 0.02. This magnitude is consistent with a full pass-through of cost increases into prices.
Golden oldie:
http://steeleydock.blogspot.com/2015/10/sunday-101815.html|
steeleydock.blogspot.com
In today's gospel, Christ answers the apostles' questions of a hierarchy among them. Jesus summoned the twelve and said to them, "You kn...
|
There is an interesting problem developing in Pakistan. Billions of dollars have been planned to be invested in Pakistan by China through a program the Chinese have been developing as they try to increase their international financial presence. A small article reported the successful agreement between the two in principle but there was no specific money invested yet because of the country's "instability." The years of Pakistani underwriting of terrorism has come back to bite them. And modern growth--with its attendant risk--is not compatible with medievalism.
“We have a very serious and destructive problem in America. Yes, we know, we have many. But this one is different because it is widely tolerated and, sadly, carefully nurtured by our nation’s leadership regardless of party. Truth has become one of the lowest coins in the realm. The narrative, carefully conceived, studiously nurtured, and determinedly communicated has, it seems, become the highest coin of the realm.”--Gershowitz. And Oxford Dictionaries announced that “post-truth” had been chosen as the 2016 word of the year.
Over the past decade, Pakistan has been the target of a vicious jihadist insurgency that has claimed as many as 80,000 lives.
Harvard Business School professor predicts that half of America’s 4,000 colleges will be bankrupt in 10 to 15 years. Why? Because online education will become a more cost-effective way for students to receive an education, effectively undermining the business models of traditional institutions and running them out of business.
AAAAAAAaaaaaaannnnnndddddd.......a graph:
No comments:
Post a Comment