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by liberal japonicus Living in Japan, I was awake for all of this as I had classes and meetings, such that I had to stop looking at anything around noon. I came home, commiserated with my wife (it was a very quiet evening) and went to bed early. How did I sleep? As Tommy Lasorda … Read more

by wj JanieM gave us a great upbeat musical post.  But we have this election tomorrow, and I expect that everybody is going to feel compelled to talk about it.  Wednesday, if not before.  So, to keep from polluting her thread, here’s an Open Thread for you. Just to kick it off, here’s a chance … Read more

by JanieM Farmstand in October – better version here. I was trying to write a post about nanny tech – a phrase I thought I had invented until I googled it. But it’s hard to have orderly thoughts about anything this close to the election, so instead of that post, I’ve made a YouTube playlist … Read more

by liberal japonicus The title is from Michelle Obama's speech. Pretty powerful stuff. It is pretty interesting what different pieces take away as the key point. The whole process of a headline is pretty destructive to a speech that was a defense of Harris' qualifications, a call out of Trump, a call to arms for … Read more

by liberal japonicus I don't know about y'all, but I am having that feeling that I get watching a horror movie and not sure who is going to die. I won't try and give you even a short list of what I've been reading, just this https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/oct/20/elon-musk-promises-to-award-1m-every-day-to-voters-as-he-steps-up-campaigning-for-trump Elon Musk said his Trump-supporting political action committee … Read more

by liberal japonicus Before COVID, I did martial arts. I'm afraid I've stopped, but in compensation, I spend an inordinate amount of time watching Youtube videos about them and came across this one, where Neil Adams, a British judoka who was a world champion and an Olympian silver medalist was being interviewed by Lex Fridman. … Read more

by liberal japonicus The previous thread is getting creaky, so I have a separate thread in mind to write after this, but I (and I'm not sure if this is a great idea) am going to put up this thread about Ta-Nehisi Coates' new book, The Message. While the book follows in the footsteps of … Read more

by liberal japonicus Folks who have been here awhile might now that I've written a few times about my parents, and how people are formed by their parents is something that I take a great interest in. Here's probably the post that is closest to this (with some links to other things I wrote in … Read more

by liberal japonicus The last thread on the VP debate didn't take off, and I don't blame you, I threw up in my mouth a little to hear Vance lay out his plans for Lebensraum. But rather than talk about that, I wanted to talk a bit about another topic, health insurance. I read somewhere … Read more

by liberal japonicus I've heard that there was a debate happening somewhere, so this is a thread for it.

by liberal japonicus Another open thread, the other seems to be I/P and vaccinations, but I'm listening to some things and these two prompted the question above This first one is an interview of/discussion with Emily Jashinsky by Ezra Kleinhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXTjqaTQpYg&t=2509s One comment that sums up my take "This lady keeps saying things are 'rooted in … Read more

by liberal japonicus Harris is sitting down for an interview with MSNBC (preview here) which seems like as good a reason as any for an open thread. I'm still waiting for Harris to go on Hot Wings though…

by liberal japonicus I recently read this substack piece by Jay Kuo, Donald Trump is a stochastic terrorist, which baffled me a bit, because it seemed to me that terrorism, by it's very definition, is stochastic. A group or person commits an act or acts that are aimed at instilling fear in a larger group … Read more

by liberal japonicus Feel free to continue to chat about the debate, this post is about what may happen from this point. I can't speak for others, but it's been like watching a great sports game where you watch the highlights again and again and then watching commentators talk about those highlights. Oh, and your … Read more

by liberal japonicus I imagine everyone will have their own take about the debate that is about to finish, so I'll crack this thread open. Have at it.

by wj There’s an old aphorism: Prediction is hard; especially about the future. I’ve seen it attributed to various sages, including Yogi Berra and Albert Einstein.  The thing is, it’s not true. Prediction is very, very easy.  What’s hard is accurate prediction.  So, since it’s easy, I’m going to venture a prediction.  (Aided by the … Read more

by liberal japonicus I think that everyone gets their info and news from other sources, ObWi was never really going to be a place to post hot takes or red meat, but this is one of those things where I really fear for my sanity. The NYTimes podcasts have been interesting, Ezra Klein interviewed Tim … Read more

by liberal japonicus Thought that we need the space. A few things that have been rattling around my head. -GftNC has some questions about the rallying cry "Not going back". I think, because Americans have such a glossy memory of previous times, it works perfectly for USaians. I mean, it covers people who love Reagan, … Read more

by wj  We're overdue for another Open Thread.  And this coming week's Democratic National Convention seems likely to provide cause for comment.  So here's your chance!  Open Thread

by liberal japonicus The report that Politico was given documents from the Trump campaign that were hacked by Iran, including a 270 page(!) dossier on JD Vance has me retell this joke: A: Ask me how I became the greatest Iranian comedian? B: Ok, how did you become… A: Timing! The Politico article reports that … Read more

by liberal japonicus As everyone is probably aware, Governor Tim Walz is Harris' VP pick so a thread about that. Here is his first speech, in Philadephia (starts at 32:39). A few observations/questions in order to put up a quick post. Listening to Shapiro's introduction speech, I'm glad they chose Walz. Not that the speech … Read more

by liberal japonicus This started as thinking about pundits but has overflowed into a lot of other news. I had in mind the categories fellow travelers and useful idiots. These are pretty radioactive terms, and I welcome some alternatives, but absent any substitutes, I have to trudge on. As I understand it, fellow traveler was … Read more

by liberal japonicus The title is lifted from a comment by Pete that had GftNC at a loss. I thought I'd talk a bit about tautologies, as an invitation to an open thread. The linguist Paul Grice is probably most famous for a set of maxims, which are now termed Gricean maxims, that he proposed … Read more

by wj    We're about due for a new thread anyway.  And Biden stepping aside from the campaign seems like an inevitable topic.  So here we go.    

by liberal japonicus Seems like I should open another thread, so here it is. Have at it.

by JanieM   As suggested by Pete, a thread for anyone who wants to talk about "the Biden thing." I've been skimming BJ threads about it and picking up snippets of opinions and news articles from here and there, and I think my best course is to say nothing atm (as per this song), although … Read more

by liberal japonicus A little early, but I thought I'd put this thread up to talk about the UK elections on July 4th. I've been watching them intently, with the fascination that a Trekkie doing Duolingo Klingon might have for Enterprise registry numbers. In part, that's to avert my gaze from dealing with questions about … Read more

by liberal japonicus {note: this is not a post speculating about Biden stepping down, despite how the title might lead one to think that. I promise I was working on this before pre-debate discussion even started.] I've been trying to write this post for a while now, but maybe sending it out now is the … Read more

by liberal japonicus I'm sure everyone is getting a surfeit of doomscrolling from a lot of other places. Here at ObWi, we like to wrap our observations about the coming judgement day in wrapping paper that says 'ain't that amazing'. “Recognizing and segmenting visual objects in images, as well as environmental sounds and spoken words … Read more

by wj    lj mentioned in comments to the previous thread that he's been at a conference this past week.  Well, I'm doing the same.  In Kigali, Rwanda.  And was inspired. I suspect that, for any of you who are over 50, when you hear "Rwanda" the next word that comes to mind is "genocide."  … Read more

by liberal japonicus How about that Rishi? Or should I say Rishi!? There is too much stuff to list but off the top of my head and starting at the useful mark of that press conference, there is Rishi in the rain (with a New Labor soundtrack leaked email blaming MPs for poor campaigning Greece! … Read more

by liberal japonicus Some open tabs agout language in my browser to chat about A stone discovered with Ogham runic text in England Ogham is highly unusual among world writing systems, consisting solely of parallel lines in groups of 1-5. The stones provide insight into the Irish language before the use of the Latin insular … Read more

by liberal japonicusGftNC noted (along with this article) that I didn't open up the last thread, though I meant to, so here is a 100% open thread. The article is Marina Hyde's takedown of the voter id law in the UK, which also noted that Jacob Rees-Mog and Boris himself fell afoul of the law, … Read more