Tag: Tenure
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Should learn
The current mess should be a learning experience for people who still believe that the president is an active participant in government. We’ve seen forcefully that the current occupant is not capable of participating. The same thing happened with Reagan, who was senile in the last two or three years of his term (at least).…
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One big mistake
Michael Kochin makes an excellent proposal but misses the history entirely and treats all the standard consensus positions as real. Kochin is mostly echoing an earlier book by Paul Feyerabend. He says that in the 1700s western culture decided to separate church from state, but didn’t anticipate the later replacement of church by Science. He…
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Another stepback
Another example of stepping back to the higher-level question. One of the Things I Learned From Others was this clarifier by Dick Morris in the ’90s. Political messages are NOT aimed at voters. They’re aimed at donors or other politicians. When we see absurd crap floating around the media and ask Do they really think…
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Missing part of the picture(s)
Nina Power of Compact writes about the triviality of Big Art. There are two sources of money for Big Art. (1) Serving as tradable securities for rich fuckheads. (2) Licking the butts of bureaucrats who provide Arts Grants. I’d argue that the first source is ancient. Big Artists always worked for aristocrats, and always painted…
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Revelation, not reveal
Looking up something about analog computers, ran into this NASA publication on the history of fly-by-wire. The really interesting part of the book is NOT the computing part; it’s the basic history of flying with wings. Each profession and skill has its own internal history and base assumptions, which are rarely understood by outsiders. Sometimes…
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Started later there
Worth reading! A detailed history from a former British government official in charge of science grants. Briefly: Until 1997, Britain made grants the right way, providing an annual ‘block grant’ to each lab or university to use however they wanted. In 1997 the Major admin adopted the US system of single grants awarded competitively for…
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Who fucking cares?
Via MindMatters, math profs are trying to use ChatGPT to disprove theoretical conjectures. So fucking what? Mathematical conjectures and theorems are meaningless noise, like the pro wrestling of “congress”. Theorems never solve real problems. A different sort of theory (not same as theorem) arises from real experimenters solving real problems, and occasionally provides a useful…
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Virus = voices
This isn’t the worst example by any means but it’s the available example at the moment. A local bridge has been out of service for four years during maintenance and upgrading. = = = = = START DEVIL: “It’s been a long four years. You know, a couple those years of construction was during COVID,”…
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News for ya, bud.
Fareed Zakaria claims to be puzzled by the unrest on college campuses, and says that colleges are not the nice COMMUNITIES that they once were. More students are lonely and depressed. Got news for you, asshole. Colleges were NEVER a community for unpopular people. Colleges were DESIGNED to be a community for aristocrats. In the…
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Bandwagon
Luskin at EvoNews points to a new paper by establishment biologists who acknowledge that the standard theory of evolution is flawed. They propose, without actually doing it, that AI might help to sort out the question. Unfortunately they miss the basic problem with LLMs. In current parlance, the term AI means systems like ChatGPT. If…
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Jeffrey gets Booker T
Jeffery Tucker of Brownstone is a complicated figure. He has some Libertarian genes that occasionally pop out, possibly without full intentions. His deep anger at the SHIT we endured drives him to PROTEST! Be like MLK! Be like Assange! Get imprisoned and assassinated so you can’t influence anyone at all! He’s moving quickly toward the…
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Punching half was so much fun…
In the ’60s colleges expelled and arrested “leftist” protesters. Since then, colleges have been expelling and arresting “right-wing” protesters while supinely obeying “leftist” protesters. Now they’re arresting leftist protesters again, and nobody seems to notice the reversal. Pro-Palestine has been a leftist issue for 60 years. I tried to join the SDS in ’68 but…
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Branch farts
From previous item: = = = = = START REPRINT: In fact NSA and CIA don’t use “laws” and “courts” at all. Even ordinary police are not restricted by “warrants”. All police spy on everything** they find interesting, then apply for a “warrant” when they’ve finished spying. After the “warrant” is AUTOMATICALLY ISSUED by a…
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No, wait
As usual I was doomscrolling, noting that many colleges are dropping “humanities” courses, which really means torturer training courses. I was pissed because all the online writeups were bemoaning the loss, blaming Deplorables. No, wait! WHY AM I PISSED? THE ACTUAL TREND IS MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. The bitching from well-paid devils is a…
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Reprint on elite influence
From last year. Linked in previous, worth a reprint. = = = = = START REPRINT: Most of our institutions are stuck in a Parkinsonian positive feedback loop, often without any real reason. Corporations and universities and media channels keep punching and torturing and strangling their customers, and then they wonder why their customers are…
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