Reading

Created
Wed, 04/10/2023 - 00:13
En fiktiv dialog med en skotsk 1700-talsfilosof på spårvagnen genom Göteborg – det låter som en usel idé. Rentav pinsam. Men har man Horace Engdahls bildning, stil och värdighet kan man uppenbarligen förvandla ett sådant upplägg till en bladvändare. Värdigheten, förresten. Den är fortfarande sårad efter metoo-skandalen vid Svenska Akademien, där Engdahl försvarade sin vän Jean-Claude […]
Created
Wed, 04/10/2023 - 00:02

While many in the West take a very dim view of China, China expert John Ross is far more positive, telling MintCast that China has seen the highest sustained economic growth of any country in world history. "People don’t understand the scale of China’s success, and they still don’t understand what it means, therefore, in the transformation of the lives of ordinary Chinese people,”

The post Why China’s Rapid Rise is Terrifying the United States, with John Ross appeared first on MintPress News.

Created
Wed, 04/10/2023 - 00:00
A time for “calling in” If the threat posed by the authoritarian right is as existential as it seems, some of us might want to unhunch our shoulders and not be as reflexive about running off potential allies. If Digby’s Monday post about Red Caesarism was not a wake-up call, you just ain’t woke. About that. A repeated theme in Anand Giridharadas’s “The Persuaders” is “Is there room among the woke for the waking?” Do those on the left edge of the left — at the cutting edge of consciousness, if you prefer — possess enough critical mass to achieve the progressive goals they seek: Veteran activists Giridharadas profiles have decided they do not. Success means expanding their movements without compromising them. They’ve learned to “call in” progressives with whom they mostly agree rather than just calling them out for their failings, to focus more on conversion than on hunting heretics. They walk a fine line seeking to coalition with more moderate allies without watering down their own goals. A listserv I once enjoyed blew up when the “call out” fad hit the progressive movement.
Created
Tue, 03/10/2023 - 23:01

Attention, everyone!

I have decided to start wearing dainty little rings.

For those wondering, “How many dainty little rings? How many fingers?” I am excited to announce the answer is multiple fingers across both hands. Currently, I am up to three total dainty little rings: the middle and pointer fingers of my left hand and the middle finger of my right. From there, only time will tell where we will go.

You can expect to see the impact of this on my personality, effective immediately.

When I slip on my dainty little rings, I immediately feel ten years older and five times sluttier. Of course, there are still times when I do feel like a man who is still wearing his wedding ring, despite the divorce papers sitting in his desk drawer and the fact that his wife is in Cabo with her trainer, Stephen—the same feeling that prevented me from wearing rings in the first place. But when the rings are dainty, and my nails are shaped and painted like little Jordan almonds, I don’t feel like I have big fat man fingers; I feel like a Woman Who Works in PR.

Created
Tue, 03/10/2023 - 19:12
Back in 1991, when yours truly earned his first PhD​ with a dissertation on decision making and rationality in social choice theory and game theory, I concluded that “repeatedly it seems as though mathematical tractability and elegance — rather than realism and relevance — have been the most applied guidelines for the behavioural assumptions being […]
Created
Tue, 03/10/2023 - 18:14
This Tuesday report will provide some insights into life for a westerner (me) who is working for several months at Kyoto University in Japan. It’s slightly cooler now in Kyoto but still warm. I have spent a lot of time in my life in the Netherlands and Belgium and they are very bike friendly countries…
Created
Tue, 03/10/2023 - 17:19
It’s a movie we’ve seen over and over again in US politics. Centrists engage in respectful discussion with a thoughtful conservative[1], only to discover they are actually talking to a dishonest troll. Yet, just like Charlie Brown lining up to kick Lucy’s football, they keep coming back for another try. Examples include Paul “policy wonk” […]
Created
Tue, 03/10/2023 - 11:00
I will be eternally grateful to all the scientists who made the mRNA vaccines that have saved millions of lives during he COVID pandemic. Today two of them received the Nobel Prize for medicine: Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discoveries that enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 that were critical in slowing the pandemic — technology that’s also being studied to fight cancer and other diseases. Hungarian-American Katalin Karikó and American Drew Weissman were cited for contributing “to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health,” according to the panel that awarded the prize in Stockholm. The panel said the pair’s “groundbreaking findings … fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system.” Traditionally, making vaccines required growing viruses or pieces of viruses and then purifying them before next steps. The messenger RNA approach starts with a snippet of genetic code carrying instructions for making proteins.