Freddie deBoer argues that “pedantic ridicule never convinced anybody of anything.” Ethan Gach made a good counterpoint that the “tactic is actually extremely effective against those who do share cultural affinities and social ambitions.” I’d bridge this gap by saying that the latter group will, at least, pretend to be convinced and argue it going forward. Which may amount to the same thing.
Uncle Steve argues that Hollywood may be less liberal and egalitarian than it thinks.
Strangely enough, as building commences, rent in DC has fallen more than most other major cities.
Purple City has a post about edge cities, looking at Chicago and Houston (which, by the way, is very large). An eye-opening tidbit in the second part, the reverse commute in Houston (people starting in town and driving to the suburbs for work) is worse than the traditional commute inside the city’s loop.
Rose Eveleth argues that free access to science research has its problems. BioMickWatson disagrees.
How the US oil industry is poised to come out a winner in collapsing oil prices, while Russia looks the loser. That might not be the easiest sell to North Dakotans if they get laid off.
A lot of elite investment firms and the like wouldn’t hire a Super Bowl hero.
The UK has given the go-ahead to DNA-spliced three-parent children.
In graphical form… how vaccines prevent measles outbreaks. It shows transmission rates at various vaccination rates. Pretty cool.
North Dakota has been invaded by monster-sized jackrabbits. I’d say that the University of North Dakota (formerly the Fighting Sioux) has their new mascot, but it’s already taken by South Dakota State.
H1B visas are supposed to go to jobs that can’t be filled by Americans, but some employees of Southern California Edison are irate because they’re having to train their H1B replacements.
This is one bad-arse archer.
Haruki Murakami has an advice column, and now there are English translations.
A doctor in Massachusetts is no longer accepting patients that are obese. Or any patients over 200 pounds, apparently.
About the Author
13 Responses to Linkluster Dallas Loop
Queenland
Greetings from Stonebridge a fictitious city in a fictitious state located in a tri-state area in the interior Mid-Atlantic region. We're in western Queenland, which is really a state unto itself, and not to be confused with Queensland in Australia.
Nothing written on this site should be taken as strictly true, though if the author were making it all up rest assured the main character and his life would be a lot less unremarkable.
Regarding Oil prices
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2015/02/peak-what/
That’s a great link. That Peak Oil exists is almost certain, at least in the abstract sense. A big part of the Peak Oil argument though is its urgency. The author laments it’s loss, but I would expect it to return when prices increase, and it’s all but certain that prices will increase at the first sign of a shortage. A lot of progress was made in a short period of time during the last price run.
Also, it’s good to see you in these parts!
I kept meaning to put Hit Coffee in my reader, and then… Oooh SHINY!
Anyway, Re: Peak Oil – like Climate Change, it’s not a question of if, just when & how bad will it be. I hope Dr. Murphy is a bit wrong and some well-moneyed interests take advantage of the delay to improve our ability to get off fossil fuels.
Pedantic ridicule isn’t about convincing, it’s about social signaling.
A lot of it certainly seems to be.
We have jackrabbits that size ’round these parts. Doesn’t seem to affect much, except for the carrot farmers.
Of course, we also have coyotes and bobcats and the occasional brown bear and the even more occasional mountain lion. So there’s predators out there, and the rabbits stay in check and my wife tries not to think about how the coyotes and cats stay alive too much, because the rabbits are, in fact, really cute.
Much less the hawks that we admire so much. A full-grown jackrabbit is too big for a hawk or a larger owl to take, but an immature rabbit would be vulnerable to a bird of prey.
There aren’t at least coyotes in North Dakota?
They do! Also a South Dakota mascot.
The University of South Dakota is the Coyotes, South Dakota State is the Jackrabbits. Seems to me that USD got the better end of those selections. Notably, the University of North Dakota became the Sioux specifically because Sioux are the primary hunters of Bison, which is North Dakota State’s mascot.
Here is a (somewhat bloody) video of a tiny weasel killing a far larger rabbit.
http://m.liveleak.com/view?i=399_1423516056
Hmmm… North Dakota Weasels?
H1B visas
To be fair, no one is MAKING the soon-to-be former employees train their replacements. I’m sure they are doing so for a positive letter of reference and a better severance package.
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Tablet is described by Wikipedia as “an online publication of Jewish life, arts, and ideas”.
Tablet has decided to start charging to make comments.
Sometimes the jokes write themselves.
The joke also restarts the ticker on comment suspensions…
Fair point about the words “having to” when “are being assigned to” is more accurate.
Yes, but in my defense I didn’t even get to make the joke, just like I didn’t make it here.
As for my original comment, I forgot to mention that the docile nature of engineers makes them susceptible to these kinds of shenanigans from their bosses.
Which, of course, makes me think of this.