In 2010 California's prisons were overcrowded and the state was struggling to comply with a court order to somehow relieve the problem. But now the number of inmates has fallen by more than 70,000, because of the decline in violent crime and some changes in sentencing, and the state is looking to save money by closing unneeded prisons.
Maryland's Supreme Court orders a new trial for a man who was convicted after a ballistics expert testified that bullets found at a crime scene were "definitely" from his gun, which the science does not support; the court will allow only testimony that the bullets are "consistent" with any particular gun.
Two Bronze Age victims of the Bubonic plague identified in Austria, c. 2000 BC.
If you're in Rome, you can now visit the site of the Curia of Pompey, where Julius Caesar was stabbed. (Not in the forum, that's Shakespeare.) Augustus himself called it a locus sceleratus, a cursed place.
A plague of Mormon crickets descends on northern Utah.
Interesting feature on the Natufian site of Nahal Ein Gev II, on the Sea of Galilee, with good photographs. Sadly it has too much verbiage about firsts and beginnings, but such is journalism. (For one thing it is not at all unusual for some members of hunter-gatherer bands to remains in one place all year, and in fact has happened often wherever resources are rich enough.)
Twenty-five years ago a neuroscientist bet a philosopher that within 25 years science would understand how the brain creates consciousness. He lost.
Kevin Drum asks whether it is really harder to live on one income now than in 1960. (No.)
Tyler Cowen wants to understand more explicitly what is really going on in scientific fields, and finds that practitioners are very bad at explaining this.
Beautiful glass by Lino Tagliapietra.
In a review of Patrick Deneen's Regime Change, Ross Douthat asks: if what we need is a different elite, how could we get one? How have elites changed in the past? (NY Times) My answer to that question would be, elites only change in response to profound social and economic change in the whole society. Which means that plans to fix America by replacing our elite are not likely to go anywhere.
A claim that there are 5 billion dormant cell phones in the world, which, if true, says something interesting about capitalism, technological progress, planned obsolescence, waste, and change.
National Geographic lays off all its staff writers; a tweet from the editor says all articles will be freelance.
A house that Henry VIII gave to Anne of Cleves after their annulment is for sale. It has its own wikipedia page, which makes a lot of claims about interesting history.
And now we are told to stop calling it an "attack" when an orca rams a boat, because they might just be trying to play. Still haven't seen anyone call for killing them.
At the Robert F. Kennedy rally, "The people I encountered believe that they are living under a deeply sinister regime that lies to them about almost everything that matters." (NY Times) I think one of our fundamental problems is that the world feels opaque to many, many people, everything happening in ways they don't understand.
538 delves into the polling on affirmative action, which is complicated because small changes in wording can generate shifts in the result, and a question like "Do you support increasing ethnic diversity on college campuses?" can get a different response than "Should colleges be allowed to use race as a factor in admissions?"
Ukraine Links
Russia has doubled the number of pens for the trained dolphins it is using to defend Sevastopol. According to naval experts dolphins are most useful for defending against human frogmen, so it seems Russia is worried about Ukraine's special forces.
Prigozhin's first post-coup statement.
Gary Kasparov on what Prigozhin's coup means about Russia.
And Dmytro Natalukha: "Prigozhin will be liquidated, and Putin will be replaced."
And Tatiana Stanovaya has her own explanation of what happened, clera and concise.
A portrait of Prigozhin as am amoral thug.
After diplomatic meetings, the parties often provide the press with a short summary of what went down; this is called a diplomatic readout. Here is the best diplomatic readout ever:
The conversation between Mr. Lukashenko and Mr. Prigozhin was “very difficult,” said Mr. Gigin. . . . “They immediately blurted out such vulgar things it would make any mother cry. The conversation was hard, and as I was told, masculine.”More mutinous talk from Russian soldiers who say they are being wantonly sacrificed and won't take it any more.
It IS harder to live on one income today than in 1960. I read the article. He’s way out of line comparing apples vs oranges. Just health care alone skews the argument. Housing? I’ve rented out properties since 1972; then the rent was $400 for the same property that rents for $1900 today. Maintenance has been quadruple the initial cost of that house. Bought for $20K and have put at least $80K into it in maintenance…. This year refurbishment, replumbing, rebuilding bathrooms, etc will cost $60K. The cost of labor, materials and overhead has increased, as it should. I challenge the author to try to support two people, much less a family of four on $3,750 per month including health insurance, transportation, housing. Here in rural VA, you can do it, if you pare down to the bone, grow your own vegetables, and go only between home and work. If you work from home you’ll have to have internet and a computer. In 1960 no one had health insurance and most carpooled or had one vehicle, if that.
ReplyDeleteTyler Cowen wants to understand more explicitly what is really going on in scientific fields, and finds that practitioners are very bad at explaining this.
ReplyDeleteWhile it might be news to Cowen, the tendency for scientists to struggle to explain their fields of expertise to laypeople has been recognized for a very long time.
This is why "science educators" are so important - you need someone who can understand the complexities of the science, and then successfully translate it into simpler terms that can be grasped by the general public. The last truly great science educator was, of course, Carl Sagan, but there have been others since (although none quite so gifted).
Going further back, arguably the reason Einstein became as famous as he did was because he also had a certain knack for interacting with the public, being perhaps a bit less deft at actually educating people, but certainly quite skilled at charming them when attempting to do so. It could also potentially be argued that while Charles Darwin was the classic scientist who was better at researching than explaining his findings to the common man, his close associate T. H. Huxley was much more of a "science educator" who worked to promote Darwin's work among both the common people and the scientific elite of the time.
I personally would compare it to the work of linguists and translators - it's one thing to be able to speak French beautifully, but it's quite another to be able to translate French into English in a way that successfully conveys the essence and nuance of the original to English speakers who lack the full context which would be available to a native French speaker.
A scientist speaking to another scientist who works in the same field can assume their listener already knows a staggering number of things, and has a robust context to operate within. But speaking to a layperson, they're at a loss for how to convey things which are deeply tied up in a context the average person simply does not have available to them.
That, to me, feel a lot like trying to explain some idiomatic phrase or some odd grammatical construction which makes sense in French language (and in French cultural knowledge), but which comes across as nonsensical or gibberish to an English speaker coming from a wholly different background context.
It takes an additional skillset to both be a scientist AND be able to explain science to non-scientists.
National Geographic lays off all its staff writers; a tweet from the editor says all articles will be freelance.
ReplyDeleteHow the mighty have fallen.
At the Robert F. Kennedy rally, "The people I encountered believe that they are living under a deeply sinister regime that lies to them about almost everything that matters." (NY Times) I think one of our fundamental problems is that the world feels opaque to many, many people, everything happening in ways they don't understand.
ReplyDelete"When education is not liberating, the dream of the oppressed is to become the oppressor." - Paulo Freire
The world is intentionally made opaque to Americans. When people lack the ability to make sense of the world for themselves, they become reliant on others to do it for them and tell them what to think.
The wealthy oligarchs in our country want people to be poorly educated, because it makes it easier to manipulate them - whether to vote as they want, or to buy the products they sell.
Democracy is doomed to fail when the citizenry are not educated, principled, and civically-minded. But Capitalism thrives on the masses being stupid, unscrupulous, and selfish.
It is perfectly clear which force is the stronger in our society, and which we champion more.