Triumphal article about the rise of mathematics in early modern Europe.
Dolphins stealing bait from crab traps.
Kevin Drum says anti-semitism is going mainstream on the American right, lots of talk about Jews conspiring to destroy the white race. I think this perfectly captures the irrationality of antisemitism; why, exactly, would Jews do this?
Artifacts melting from the Canadian ice; I always love seeing ancient bags, which remind us that being a hunter-gatherer involved carrying a lot of stuff around.
The latest version of America's determination to be miserable concerns economic rants on social media, especially TikTok, where people talk about a "silent depression." NY Times: "Never before was consumer sentiment this consistently depressed when joblessness was so consistently low." That isn't really true, but it does puzzle me to see so much negativity when inflation is coming down and employment remains robust. I think it ties back to something I have written about before, our utter lack of enthusiasm for the future.
Kevin Drum fills us in on the important details of OBM Circular A-4, which will change how government agencies do cost-benefit analysis.
What causes the red wine headache, a phenomenon people have talked about since the 4th century BC? A new study says an antioxidant found in grape skins messes with the way your body processes alcohol, creating toxic byproducts; sufferers have a genetic variant that damages their ability to handle those toxins. (NY Times, original study)
Pity the poor costume designer who had to create the uniforms and especially the hats for the new Napoleon movie, since star Joaquin Phoenix is a vegan who won't wear wool. (NY Times)
Tyler Cowen's list of the best nonfiction books of 2023.
Archaeologists delve into a nineteenth-century London workhouse.
Cool abstract sand art by Jim Denevan.
More on the galaxies spotted by the Webb Telescope that seem to be older than the universe: they also seem to have weird chemical compositions, with a lot of nickel, more than stars could have made in a few billion years by any mechanism we understand.
Promising new design for wind turbines.
College later in life: "From the 1930 birth cohort onwards around 20% of college graduates obtained their degree after age 30. . . . these so-called late bloomers have significantly contributed to the narrowing of gender and racial gaps in the college share." Via Marginal Revolution.
Clark Dunbar photographs American Indians in their powwow regalia.
Summary of the military situation in Ukraine as of November 21.
Reports that Russia is destroying and flooding coal mines in occupied eastern Ukraine.
RIP Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie; his Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error (1975), which used medieval inquisition records to explore rural life in southern France, had a huge influence on me and remains a classic of microhistory. (NY Times, The Guardian, wikipedia)
Kevin Drum says anti-semitism is going mainstream on the American right, lots of talk about Jews conspiring to destroy the white race. I think this perfectly captures the irrationality of antisemitism; why, exactly, would Jews do this?
ReplyDeleteWhy? Because according to Fascist thought - which the American right is continually embracing to a greater and greater degree - "The People" (classically "The Aryan Race" among the Nazis and now "The White Race" among modern Conservatives) are perpetually in a state of both unassailable inherent superiority AND egregious victimization by jealous others.
Essentially, they view themselves as virtual demi-gods who ought to rightfully rule over the entire universe and have their every whim and wish fulfilled at the expense of everyone else...
...and the fact that they AREN'T currently luxuriating in such a privileged position is seen as proof-positive that they have been somehow robbed of their birthright by others - and the only conceivable reason why anyone else would do such a thing is stated to be mad, irrational jealousy derived from their own inferiority.
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One of the more insidious facets of Fascist thought is that it claims to be able to explain any situation, no matter how illogical or absurd, on the basis of this precept.
Why would someone want to insist the earth is round when actually isn't? Because they are inherently irrational and wicked.
Why would someone want to insist the Holocaust happened when it actually didn't? Because they are inherently irrational and wicked.
Why would someone want to insist that Climate Change is real when it actually isn't? Because they are inherently irrational and wicked.
Why would someone want to insist that Pepertual Motion is a myth when it actually isn't? Because they are inherently irrational and wicked.
Why would someone want to insist that WiFi / Cell Phones / Power Lines don't cause cancer when they actually do? Because they are inherently irrational and wicked.
Why would someone want to insist that Chemtrails don't exist when they actually do? Because they are inherently irrational and wicked.
Why would someone want to insist that COVID-19 is natural when it's actually man-made? Because they are inherently irrational and wicked.
Why would someone want to insist that COVID-19 is real when it's actually fake? Because they are inherently irrational and wicked.
Why would someone want to insist that Evolution is real when it's actually fake? Because they are inherently irrational and wicked.
Et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseam.
Reports that Russia is destroying and flooding coal mines in occupied eastern Ukraine.
ReplyDeleteWhile in a sense, this is potentially encouraging as it suggests the Russians don't expect to be able to hold the territory, it's still depressing to see such brazenly Orcish behavior.
@G- it is not a "fact" that Americans are poorer than in 2019. Check out the charts regularly posted by Kevin Drum. Our incomes have kept pace with inflation.
ReplyDelete@G and @John
ReplyDeleteI found this conversation between Peter Coy and Binyamin Appelbaum very interesting on the question of why Americans are so economically gloomy. There is in it a, to me, pleasing note of culpa nostra about the way economists have thought about how people "ought" to feel about the economy: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/23/opinion/bidenomics-inflation.html?searchResultPosition=3
I will self-indulgently add that I grow increasingly tired of Kevin Drum. His basic message seems to be: "Why aren't people as smart as me?" I think this tends to shed more heat than light.
(I hope Drum's approach doesn't turn out to be the sum of the AGI's take on us humans.)
@John
ReplyDelete"Incomes" is a very broad aggregate that includes non-wage earnings (which are almost universally enjoyed by wealthier individuals). Averages or even medians of incomes can easily rise because of gains made at the top by people with non-wage earnings like investments - or put more simply, the rich getting richer can make "incomes" go up while the poor stagnate or even lose ground.
And I guarantee you, for the poorest Americans, who have seen steeply rising rents and food prices recently (which make up a disproportionately large percentage of their income), wages have not remotely kept up.