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Terrible precedent
The Supremes overturned a couple of similar findings by lower federal “courts” relating to “free speech”. Both cases are about blocking on Twitter or Facebook, not about real speech. The lower courts decided that local officials could block responses at their social media accounts. The Supremes decided that officials CAN’T block. (Note: this back-and-forth wasn’t…
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Can’t argue with that!
Bloomberg writes about Cathie Wood’s takeover of St Petersburg. She moved her inverse disinvestment firm to St Pete a couple years ago, and now is doing some seriously good work in EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION. = = = = = START QUOTE: …The curriculum she and her team developed is being taught to sixth graders across Pinellas…
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Good sign of sanity
Geologists are showing some sense. = = = = = START QUOTE: Earlier this month, geologists voted down a proposal to give the years since 1950 a geological name, the Anthropocene Epoch. The vote at the subcommission of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) was 12 to 4, with 2 abstentions. = = = =…
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Why should we care?
Religion News Service discusses the dechurching of the Yankee world, and asks what will happen to all those buildings? Allegedly we would care if 100k libraries shut down or 100k schools shut down, but we don’t care about 100k churches. All of those things happened in 2020. Churches did nothing to protect their people from…
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Timeless
A timeless Twitter thread from Bhattacharya. Once upon a time, I thought it reasonable for public health to expect not to be contradicted. You know, *smoking is bad for you” and the like. But that idea was based on public health telling the truth about science. Post covid era, my trust they will do that…
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Another old pattern
A long time ago I observed a pattern among blogs. Announcing a big start usually leads to nothing much. Announcing a dramatic Goodbye usually leads to continued work. Real productive action starts abruptly without any Hello and stops suddenly without any Goodbye. Now I’m seeing the same thing in Substack, at least on the starting…
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Pew comes through again
Pew surveyed people in 30 countries, asking them what’s wrong with democracy in their country and how it can improve. One answer came up almost universally: PEOPLE. The politicians themselves are fucked. If you could replace them with competent sane humans, things would improve. Below this top answer, each country had different secondary answers. Meanwhile,…
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Bit of justice
Bloomberg writes that middle managers are being laid off faster than real workers or top execs now. They quote one middle manager who survived previous layoffs and finally got the ax. Kendall Smith led a marketing team at a health-care staffing tech startup before she was recently let go after surviving previous rounds of layoffs.…
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Returning to an old pattern
Headline: Bentley introduces 5 custom editions inspired by Indian flag. One of the specials is the Bentayga Opulence Edition. A long way from Rolls with its “adequate” horsepower. This is reverting to an old norm. Before independence, maharajahs were a prime market for Rolls and Packard super-special custom limos and speedsters. = = = =…
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π Day
Keeping up a tradition… π Day again! Since I’m talking typography lately, I’ll hash and rehash a couple items from 2019. = = = = = Thinking about Trump as Pied Piper. When the metaphor first appeared in those DNC emails I didn’t quite understand it. After learning that Trump is Roy Cohn’s protege, I…
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Gangster all the way
I’m coming to appreciate Bloomberg podcasts as the least divisive available source, and the closest to the Fairness Doctrine. The “independents” are mostly either pure DNC cult or pure Trump cult. In this one short podcast Bloomberg discusses the idiotic Tiktok ban rationally, pointing out that both parties are relying heavily on Tiktok for campaign…
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Confusion isn’t work
Continuing from this set of thoughts on the physics definition of WORK. All action is in the agencies. The Biden admin, obviously without any participation by the senile puppet at the top, is doing several positive things. It’s cracking down on monopolies and mergers in a serious way, including mergers in the tech area. The…
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Wrong problem
Nieman Lab, which surveys journalism, says that several of the finalists for Pulitzer this year used AI in their work. As usual the article concentrates on the loss of “individual” creativity. That’s not a variable, not a new situation. Major writers and reporters have always used secretaries and assistants, which were called amanuenses in earlier…
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Sounds good at first…
This Brownstone article proposes an official health agency devoted to pushing dietary fads. The article starts with one valid point. Since 1920 the medical establishment has ignored basic aspects of health like diet, exercise, confidence, and sunlight, focusing EXCLUSIVELY on adding more pills. Doctors will rarely tell you to eat less and walk more. But…
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