Friday, August 26, 2022

Links 26 August 2022

Edward Matthew Hale, Psyche at the Throne of Venus (1883) 

The largest megalithic complex in Spain, with more than 500 stones in alignments and other arrangements, is found during survey of proposed avocado orchard.

Bonkers one-minute video of building demolitions.

At the Met, online catalog of all their publications; pdfs of all the out of print titles are available for free download.

Having already demolished claims that there was a "great resignation" – labor force participation went up during the pandemic years – Kevin Drum now takes on the "quiet quitting" meme.

Recent wargaming of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan sounds like an ugly mess: "all scenarios end in stalemate."

"As India Goes, So Goes Democracy"

Collection of drawings and plans by Frank Lloyd Wright.

The horror of the "Cash for Kids" scandal, in which two Pennsylvania judges "shut down a county-run juvenile detention center and accepted $2.8 million in illegal payments from the builder and co-owner of two for-profit lockups. Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile court, pushed a zero-tolerance policy that guaranteed large numbers of kids would be sent to PA Child Care." Of course "PA Child Care" was really a jail for adolescents, which is just another level of horror.

William Deresiewicz explains that he was too conservative, too focused on teaching, and too pure in his love for literature to survive the careerist, woke groves of academia. He may be right, but on the other hand the insufferable tone of everything I have read by him might also be part of it. (See here)

Review of a stack of books on Millennials and generational conflict.

Societies with strong "kin-based institutions" have slower economic growth.

Many apparently successful social programs actually only work for girls, and have no impact at all on boys. In one study, offering free college led more girls to attend and graduate but had no effect on boys.

Simple means of reducing traffic deaths.

A new stock character: the morally dubious podcaster.

Republican primary candidates who think Trump won in 2020 are also making accusations of fraud in their own races, whether they win or lose.

Bellingcat, Der Spiegel, and La Republica expose a "socialite" who for years palled around with NATO officials in Naples as a Russian spy; she fled back to Russia in 2018 after Bellingcat published a list of passport numbers that Russia seemed to have issued to GRU agents.

Ukraine Links

Essay by journalist Illia Ponomarenko on how hard it has been to predict the events of the war.

Lessons in drone warfare from Ukraine, courtesy of a post from the DNR drone center.

Fortune story on all the young people leaving Russia: "Seventy percent of my friends, who were in intellectual spheres…like IT, science and engineering, have left or are actively looking for ways to leave."

Interview with a Ukrainian offficer about his combat experience, including the first days of the war in the south.

Statement from the hitherto unknown National Republican Army claiming to have carried out the assassination of Russian journalist Darya Dugina, a far-right figure.

Scary short video of a thermite rocket attack.

1 comment:

szopeno said...

One Russian far-right blogger is laughing at western stupidity on imposing visa ban on Russians. He says that siphoning Russia of young talent, especially from IT sector, would have long-term higher impact than half-hearted sanctions. Seeing how many Russians indeed would want to leave and now they have increasing difficulties, I must say there is something in that.

I got one student from Belarus, who couldn't return for exam to Poland because of sanctions and, supposedly, general climate of hostility towards Russians and Russian-speakers. I wonder whether he would be back this semester.