Just a note that friend-of-the-blog David and I saw Eivor in Silver Spring on the 23rd, and she was fabulous. Some of her music sounds more like casting a spell than anything else I know. Sadly that was the last stop on her North American tour, so it will be a while until we can see her again on this side of the Atlantic.
Major quantum computing announcement from Microsoft: press release, news story, 6-minute video from Sabine Hosenfelder, who says this is "good news, but not remotely as important as they try to make it appear."
The release of Andrew Tate divides Trump's supporters. Wasn't QAnon supposed to be about fighting sex trafficking?
Interesting essay on the thought of Harold Innis (1894-1952), a key thinker in media studies venerated by Marshall McLuhan, James Carey, and others in the field.
A new kind of artifact for your consideration, the "divination spoon;" this example comes from the Isle of Man, c. 400 to 100 BC.
Tweet summarizing the argument that James K. Polk was America's most successful president; since he had accomplished all his goals in one term he didn't even run for a second.
The headless female body found in an Irish bog, c. 350-1 BC. I'm wondering why they speak of DNA as something that may be done in the future, since these days a DNA test can be done in a couple of days.
Russell Vought's "radical constitutionalism" and the Trump agenda.
Tyler Cowen on the rate of AI adoption and why it may not have as much economic impact as you might hope. Under the "O-Ring model" it is often the weakest link that determines success, and "Soon enough, at least in the settings where AI is supposed to shine, the worst performer will be the humans." In some areas AI may soon not only be smarter than humans, but too smart for us to recognize how smart it is.
The landscape of Inca pilgrimages to mountain peaks.
Bronze Age timber circle ("Woodhenge") found in Denmark.
On Twitter/X, Richard Hanania compares the careers of Elon Musk before and after social media addiction.
Fascinating gold seal found by British metal detectorist.
The worst volume control contest, very amusing.
Against relevance mongering.
Important progress in treating pancreatic cancer using mRNA vaccines, the very technology RFK Jr. wants to ban. (Original paper, news story, Sloan-Kettering accouncement)
Not to mention that the whole "what we need is to leave healthier, more organic lives, not use drugs or vaccines" thing would make more sense if the Trump administration weren't rolling back Biden's bans on cancer-causing chemicals.
New frescoes showing the mysteries of Dionysus found in Pompeii.
Following in a long political tradition, Elon Musk promises that his actions will raise economic growth in the US to 3%, exactly the average of the last two Biden years.
Alex Tabarrok says the Trump's attack on wokeness in the universities will misfire because they are mostly cutting science funding and woke scientists aren't the problem.
New drug to extend the lives of dogs approved by the FDA. How many who get prescriptions will give the drug to their dogs and how many will keep it for themselves?
Immigration is surely a factor in the rise of German's AfD party, but the NY Times finds that a better predictor is out migration: the more people a district has lost in the past 25 years, the more likely it was to support AfD. A party for those left behind.
Feudalism as a contested concept. This debate has been going on among historians for a century without having any impact on the word's use by others, including economists and political scientists. My view is that the word "feudalism" is dubious in implying a coherent body of policy or ideas, but we need some word to describe the privatization of government power that was so widespread in medieval Europe. During my dissertation research I encountered a bizarre variety of people who claimed the right to beat people up and imprison them on behalf of the king, including two peasants who said they were the hereditary guardians of an irrigation ditch. In many traditional societies wealthy, important people wield a lot of power that is sort of theirs and sort of delegated from the king or emperor, but my impression is that medieval western Europe was a leader in this sort of thing.
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