Archive for 2023

SCIENCE: Women look at women’s breasts as much as men do. “We can’t just pin this on the men. Women are perceiving women this way, too. It could be related to different motives — men might be doing it because they’re interested in potential mates, while women may do it as more of a comparison with themselves. But what we do know is that they’re both doing it.”

BUDGET RED LINES BEING DRAWN: First out two weeks before the September Budget Battle Showdown begins is the House Freedom Caucus.

UPLOAD YOUR MIND: The race to link our brains to computers is hotting up.

I used to be more enthusiastic about this kind of tech, back when I trusted tech people more.

Tech is no longer a threat to the establishment, it’s one of the establishment’s main sources of money and power.

Which is bad in itself, but also casts a new sort of light on questions like “do I want my brain connected to a computer?” The answer is very different when the computer is basically my device that I control, the way computers were in the ‘80s and ‘90s, as opposed to an interface with a network of hardware and software that I don’t control and can’t trust. Letting something like that connect to my brain is a much less appealing proposition. Likewise AI personal assistants to run my affairs, and even upgrades to my physical body that involve any sort of computerization. You know, all the paraphernalia of 1990s transhumanism.

So I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t trust them because they’ve shown themselves to be untrustworthy, and back around the turn of the millennium they hadn’t really done so yet.

So there’s that.

NOT ENOUGH POLITICAL POWER TO EXTRACT GRAFT? Why Can’t You and I Get Rich Quick?

It’s true, of course, that most well-off people come from at least reasonably well-off parents. But while some of that may be embedded socioeconomic privilege, it may also be due to heritable traits that promote wealth, just as a propensity toward alcoholism or a short time horizon does the opposite. To his credit, Freddie admits this: “Now, because I’m me, I would point out that because academic ability is heritable and academic ability is moderately to strongly correlated with financial success, it wouldn’t be correct in a simplistic sense to suggest that this means that the persistence of family wealth is random or independent of the ability of the individual.”

But it’s also true — and increasingly so, I’d say — that society is run largely for the benefit of the upper quintile, if not the upper decile, and all sorts of policies both reflect and reinforce that. Indeed, pushback against that, and the over-the-top reaction thereto, is the hallmark of Trump-era politics.

#JOURNALISM:

Remember:

UPDATE: Truth is a “right wing narrative.”

DAVID BERNSTEIN: Which Groups Have Received Racial Preferences in Higher Education Over the Years?

Looking at the underlying facts in major cases in the Supreme Court and circuit court cases, we see that Black Americans have always been eligible [for preferences], the Mexican American classification expanded into all Hispanics, Asian Americans and subgroups thereof were initially eligible but later were considered “over-represented” and therefore at best ineligible for preferences, if not subject to higher standards than white applicants.

And all of this is illegal and unconstitutional.

MORNING BRIEFING: Biden Is Ignoring Maui, but I Have a Plan to Get Joe There ASAP! “Some of you are going to curse me out as being heartless, but what I’m about to say is true, Hawaii lacks the electoral votes to draw *President Biden’s interest. Also, Hawaiians are too damn loyal to the Democrats to begin with. . . . Please understand that Biden requires spending 40% of his year sunning his bumper crop of liver spots, and he’ll get to you when your number of electoral votes increases and your unshakable loyalty begins to waver.”

Plus: “The bad news: No, Kruiser is not yet back. The good news: He is day drinking.”

WELL, THEY SHOULD BE SINCE THE CCP HAS BOUGHT UP HALF OF IT: Most voters are concerned about China’s influence on the nation’s government. “According to the survey, 63% of voters believed that, to varying degrees, China has some level of influence over American politicians. This included “37% of Likely U.S. voters believe China has a lot of influence over American politicians and another 29% think China has some influence.” It comes after multiple reports indicate repeated efforts by China to attempt to influence the nation’s politics, Rasmussen acknowledged.”