WELL, THAT AN DEMOCRATS’ POST-ELECTION TEARS: This Fungus Contains The Most Bitter Substance Known to Humankind.
Author Archive: Glenn Reynolds
April 13, 2025
YEP:
Let me state quite clearly that this is utterly unacceptable in every possible way.
There is no room for political violence on the American scene, no matter what you think about someone's politics.
Of course, this could be based in antisemitism as well, but it's too soon to… pic.twitter.com/wkKf3cG91y
— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) April 13, 2025
I TAKE A SUPPLEMENT: What Happens to Your Brain Without Vitamin K? New Study Reveals Surprising Effects. I’ve noticed that it’s beneficial for your skin. I had some keratosis spots on the back of my hands, which my dermatologist called “barnacles that we pick up as we sail the seas of life.” After I took Vitamin K for a while they disappeared. Apparently they don’t normally do that on their own.
SORRY, YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO REPLACE LAWYERS WITH AI UNTIL I’M READY TO RETIRE:
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 13, 2025
Key bit: “In some instances, the models provided answers superior to the human-established ground truth.”
WE ALL KNOW WHY:
Why is this the policy of the US Naval Academy? https://t.co/kN8LdGq2XE
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) April 12, 2025
THE OBSTETRICAL DILEMMA: Large-scale study explores evolutionary trade-offs of wide vs. narrow hips.
IF IT WERE THE REVERSE THEY’D BE CALLING IT PROGRESS: FTC now has three Republicans and no Democrats instead of the typical 3-2 split.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: A guide to the “platonic ideal” of a Negroni and other handy tips.
TARIFFS UNTHINKABLY BAD FOR TRADE, “CARBON TAXES” UNIMAGINABLY GOOD: Countries agree to reduce maritime emissions, tax carbon offenders.
NOBODY TRUSTS YOU GUYS, SIT DOWN: WHO working group makes progress on pandemic preparedness plan.
“THE OBJECT OF POWER IS POWER.” Liberal Canadian PM Mark Carney Runs on Banning Free Speech if Elected Canadian Prime Minister (Video).
THEY’VE BEEN LUKEWARM ON THIS STUFF: It’s Time for the Supreme Court to Define ‘Proximate Cause’ in Firearm Advertising Liability Claims.
As I’ve noted, the judiciary suffers from a lot of built-in class bias.
IT’S NOT LIKE THEY CANCELLED PEOPLE FOR SAYING POSITIVE THINGS ABOUT COLONIALISM OR SOMETHING: UC free speech conference decries Trump admin’s ‘destructive effort to attack’ university research.
HMM: Alex Berenson: A scientist offers a simple, fascinating theory why mRNA jabs may have caused diffuse problems in so many people. “Bench scientists in academia and at the mRNA companies can be talking aggressively to each other about how to develop and improve this still-novel biotechnology, even as the scientific establishment circles the wagons against outside questioners.”
HERITABLE CHARACTERISTICS: It’s Not Who You Know, It’s Who You Are.
Children resemble their parents. When the resemblance is physical, we usually think it’s funny or cute. But when the resemblance is financial, it’s an Issue. Non-economists debate the merits of the cynic’s maxim that, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Economists debate the magnitude of the intergenerational income correlation.
During the past two weeks, I’ve been reading all the articles I can find on this subject. Here’s my three stage summary:
Stage 1 (1970s-80s): The intergenerational income correlation is low, about .2. This shows that capitalism is pretty fair – while many people see a class society where rich people give their kids a massive edge in life, the reality is that people succeed largely on their merits.
Stage 2 (1980s-1990s): Previous researchers underestimated the intergenerational income correlation by failing to correct for year-to-year fluctuations. The true correlation is much higher, about .4, showing that we live in an unfair class society.
Stage 3: (late 1990s – today): The intergenerational income correlation is indeed quite high. But twin and adoption studies show that most or all of this correlation stems from heredity. The reason why kids from rich families do well isn’t that mom and dad buy their way through life. The reason, rather, is that rich families have genes that cause financial success, and pass these genes on to their kids. (Casual consumers of this literature often get confused by the fact that the effect of IQ is far too small to explain the intergenerational income correlation. The key thing to remember is that there is a lot more to genetics and success than IQ).
Notice: In Stage 1 and Stage 2 , the normative subtext was quite clear. Capitalism is pretty fair! No, it’s not! On my reading, though, most researchers have moved from Stage 2 to Stage 3 without noticing that their normative subtext is more pro-capitalist than Stage 1 even imagined.
But if the science doesn’t support the Narrative, is it even “the science?”
April 12, 2025
OPEN THREAD: Party like it’s Saturday night.
ONE DAY WE’LL HAVE HELIUM-3 RECOVERY STATIONS IN CLOSE ORBIT AROUND THE SUN: The sun just leaked a huge amount of helium-3 — the rare isotope scientists want to harvest on the moon.
SHOW THEM THEY’RE OUTNUMBERED:
Look at what happened when terror supporters tried to have a protest at Ole Miss.
American patriots will never be intimidated.
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) April 11, 2025
IT RUINS EVERYTHING IT TOUCHES: How DEI Left Service Academies In A ‘State Of Decay,’ And How Trump Can Fix It.
WHERE WE ARE:
I think the establishment is stupid enough to throw all the rules out the window to get Trump and then will be stunned to find that it has no rules left to protect itself https://t.co/C7AWlt05EV
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) April 12, 2025