Month: September 2021

by wj It seems that there are several places around the country which are actually trying out variations on the idea of Universal Basic Income (UBI), to see how it works in the real world. https://usbig.net/state-level-ubi-and-guaranteed-income-initiatives-in-the-u-s/ We may, in the not too distant future, have something besides theory on which to evaluate the idea. (Actual … Read more

by liberal japonicus From The Guardian Pinker’s progress: the celebrity scientist at the centre of the culture wars He has twice been a guest at Bohemian Grove, which has been described as an off-the-record summer camp for male members of the American establishment. Discuss.

by liberal japonicus We’ve talked about this a bit here, so a discussion on where things are moving in Minneapolis https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/22/minneapolis-reckoning-defund-the-police-513568 This, from this link is interesting. The amendment went through the city’s Charter Commission, who are appointed by the chief judge in Hennepin County. At the Minneapolis City Council, city staff tried to attach … Read more

by liberal japonicus This article https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/25/california-latino-voters-democrats-gavin-newsom-recall About 30% of California’s registered voters are Latino, and it appears they voted largely Democrat – but some say it was ‘about ensuring this state didn’t move backward’ and this one https://www.thedailybeast.com/tucker-carlson-pushes-racist-great-replacement-theory-yet-again-adl-renews-call-for-fox-to-fire-him The Fox News host has repeatedly fear-mongered about Democrats allegedly bringing in dark-skinned immigrants with the express … Read more

by liberal japonicus I feel like posting this in the open thread would be a bit of a U-turn, and I wanted a ever-so slightly more focussed thread. And I had forgotten all about this. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/09/22/chaos-and-drama-new-report-sheds-light-what-went-wrong-aboard-navys-covid-stricken-carrier.html There was a comment about how, with the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the US military should be pivoting to a … Read more

by liberal japonicus I love this stuff https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/08/indigenous-americans-polynesians-dna-800-years-ago https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/sep/22/genetics-reveal-how-humans-island-hopped-to-settle-remote-pacific

by liberal japonicus An interesting piece about the various frames in the decision to shelve the military’s DADT policy. https://inkstickmedia.com/transcending-a-readiness-frame-for-lgbtq-rights-in-the-military/ Driving the repeal forward with a readiness frame was a huge success. The day the repeal was implemented there was an enormous lifting of weight off the shoulders of LGB military personnel. However, downplaying the … Read more

by liberal japonicus Hope I don’t insult everyone by suggesting that there may be a lot of people here who are bibliophiles. So, an article. https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2021/09/why-are-ebooks-so-terrible/620068/ I’ve got some thoughts, but the lamp is lit.

by liberal japonicus The New Thermodynamic Understanding of Clocks Don’t let the title chase you off, really interesting article.

by liberal japonicus This Guardian long read is interesting. Such obstacles made the ship an off-putting proposition for insurers. No one would agree to cover them. “They wouldn’t even tell us why we weren’t insurable, they just kept saying no,” Romundt said. “It’s kind of hard to remedy something if you don’t know what the … Read more

by liberal japonicus Some may have noted that two threads were temporarily closed. This was done in part because of some private knowledge that GftNC was going through, and will be going through for the whole month of September, a particularly difficult time. She’s told me that she will almost certainly not be replying to … Read more

by wj I came across this TED talk on how language shapes how we think. https://www.ted.com/talks/lera_boroditsky_how_language_shapes_the_way_we_think/up-next The speaker is mostly talking about how different languages shape our perception. How a language which doesn’t use “right” and “left”, but rather gives cardinal directions (even for which hand you are talking about), will make people much more … Read more

by liberal japonicus Not my best title, but whatever. Tons of things to link to out there, here are a few of them John Roberts has lost control of the Supreme Court The Scotus also has the relatively mild mannered Josh Marshall sounding like he wants to storm the Bastille SCOTUS Delenda Est Reminiscent of … Read more

by liberal japonicus A week or two ago, this article was posted by CharlesWT about the word that made the play MacBeth so creepy. Nous observed the following Brief response to CharlesWT’s Macbeth article, I think the reason why the number crunching quant side of literary analysis meets resistance is mostly because the data results … Read more