Blog Archives
“The promise of the management class is that they could manage colleges better than faculty. They have wildly failed at this on every level.”-Garry Canavan
Gracy Olmstead laments – and collects lamentations – on the expanding empire of child-free cities. Seattle is contemplating membership in the club.
It might indeed be “good for cities” to take cars off the road. Except that it’s not what people want.
The City Journal suggests that California’s blanket primary system could cost Democrats.
Vamien asks and answers the question of whether Arrow is a huge rip-off of Batman. The answer is the affirmative. When watching the Arrow-Flash crossover, it very much made me think of the Batman-Superman relationship.
Andrea Moore grew up in a crack-addled house, but feared being taken away from it.
Cleveland State wants its students to graduate on time, and they’re willing to pay for it. As we seek to hold colleges accountable for the results of their students’ progress, there may be more programs like this – and more done to entice the very students most likely to graduate on time. It’s an interesting set of incentives.
Kevin Williamson argues that our current transportation systems are royalist. There are actually some good points in here, but they’re not all easy to notice amidst attempts are partisan point-scoring.
In a piece about Iran, Spengler argues that rule-of-the-majority is superior to democracy. I was actually pondering a minoritarian form of government for an alien race for a story. The basic idea is simple: The minority’s innate vulnerability leaves them in a position where they have to heed the majority, in a way that’s not true for the inverse.
I think I’ve heard this before, but I can’t remember: The color blue is a relatively modern invention.
I love this: Peeing on a particular wall in Germany was becoming such a problem, they invented a way so that the wall will pee back.
Aaron Carroll talks about penis size.
Adam Ozimek argues that the red states are under no obligation to prop up blue state operational expenses.
Should unemployment insurance duration terms change with age?
You can AirBnB in an igloo in Massachusetts.
Nobody does lists like Cracked does lists. Here are five really fished up court trials.
Introducing a bus that runs on poop.
John Tammy argues that cities persevere not by keeping industry as much as through flexibility.
Birth tourism is a booming business.
Xavier Marquez looks at electoral parodies, which is to say when autocratic leaders scoff at the notion of democracy by pretending to engage in it.
Alice in Wonderland remains a classic, but its author’s reputation has taken a beating.
Jes Howen McBride says that small homes make for better cities.
A Russian stuntman decided to put himself on fire and jump off a building. With video!
The haunting beauty of Tokyo without advertisements.
Over at Bawdy House Provisions, I wrote a piece on the controversy regarding the Indiana RFRA:
Ross Douthat has made repeated mentions that the right is “negotiating its surrender.” He makes a point similar to the one I am about to make, but he seems to view it in the context of “the left changed” while I see it as “the right refused to until it was far too late.”
The problem here is that they are coming from such a place of weakness that there isn’t much to negotiate. The have to play off latent sympathy from the other side, to which they have shown none. Actions have consequences. Rather than relating this to a war that is winding down, though, I think the more applicable comparison is to trying to negotiate a settlement after the verdict is in. You had your chance to get a much better settlement. You were unreasonably cocky, and these are the consequences.
The writing was on the wall a decade ago. Gay marriage was going to become legal. It was just a question of when. We’re slightly ahead of schedule by my predictions. But the right had plenty of time to “evolve” on the issue and make a swift and orderly accommodation of the fact that gays, too, would like to be married, and the perspective that there aren’t many logical reasons why they shouldn’t that don’t involve an open bias that was likely to become increasingly unsavory.
One area I meant to explore but didn’t is that this is where policy conflicts with ideology. Which is to say that the purpose of a political party is to win elections. And on this front, the GOP’s stance served them well throughout the last decade. Each side held up its end of the bargain, in a short-sighted way. The fight will have outlived its usefulness in relatively short order, I believe, and the GOP will determine that even mostly symbolic measures like this one are costing them more than they’re getting from them. They won’t toss the religious right overboard, but it won’t carry on like the abortion issue has. And those advocating restricted rights – and social ostracization – will be left with less than they would have if the party had taken a longer view. But it’s not a party’s job to protect the interest of its constituents (against their own inclinations, in this case). It’s their job to win elections. It’s headed towards being an issue with all of the usefulness of a burned out candle.
So Taco Bell released this commercial.
Which is really quite gorgeous.
I’ve long wondered why Taco Bell doesn’t do breakfast, given that Sonic has previously gotten my business solely for having (very lackluster) breakfast tacos in parts of the country that don’t offer it regularly. It’s definitely punching up to go after McDonald’s on the breakfast front because that is what they do best.
Speaking of which, it’s looking like McD’s is finally rolling out the all-day breakfast in San Diego. It’s amazing what desperation will get you to do. Jack in the Box figured this out ages ago. It happens quite frequently these days that I end up getting breakfast sandwiches at Sheetz simply because they serve it later in the day.
And lastly, McDonald’s is also in the news for announcing that it’s going to start paying its employees more. However, given that they only own about one in ten of its locations, the effect will be limited. When I worked at McDonald’s, I was actually about fifty cents ahead of minimum wage. And when minimum wage went up, my pay went up, too.
For cleaner fuel burning, European utility companies are turning to wood. What could go wrong?
Matt Yglesias lauds changes in Houston’s bus transit system.
Two Rotterdam School of Management professors argue that gender quotas in management drive away both women and men.
America’s true silent majority: German-Americans. I’ve got some German on my mother’s side.
Janet Halley looks at sex, gender, race, and Title IX enforcement of rape charges on campus. Whitefaces maybe should be changed, though.
Here are some awards for the weirdest high school mascot names in Texas. In a world of Tigers and Wildcats, I consider these to be a relief and wish there were more of them.
Noah Berlatsky argues that the elongated copyright terms restrict scholarship. As the creators’ families and DC fought over the rights to Superman, it was just amazing to me that someone can still own the rights to Action Comics #1.
Between thesmug superiority of the left and the know-nothingism of the right, Roberta X seems to have gone apolitical.
Marryin’ cousins make for more babies.
McMansions are back.
Ryan Cooper believes self-respecting atheists should ditch New Atheists.
James thinks I need therapy, on account of my affection for Brutalist architecture.
Which got me thinking… why do I like it? It’s not like I am particularly an architectural critic. I’m not even sure it falls under the category of “Having an opinion to have an opinion,” which I sometimes do.
My first thought was comic books, which explains my aesthetic tastes in some things (like solid colors over patterns). That would explain my appreciation of gothic architecture, for example. But if brutalist architecture is common in comic books the same way that gothic architecture often is, I can’t think of any examples.
But I like it for its simplicity, raw utilitarianism. Yet I don’t have the same fondness for the glass boxes that take up skylines (I don’t dislike them, either, but it’s not the same). But my instinct is along the lines of “I like it because that’s how government buildings are supposed to look.” Why do I think that?
I think it’s because of my dad.
My father worked at a sprawling government installation that more or less defines the area of the suburbs where I was raised. I will call it Livingston AFB. And he actually worked on the base, as opposed to across the street where my brother does. Which meant that when I went to see him at work, I would go onto the base with all of its buildings that were… brutalist. Or something indistinguishable to it, to my eye.
And of course my father was awesome, the government agency he worked for was awesome, and all that jazz. Better yet, it was in the pre-9/11 days when you had a degree of free access to it (I think the sticker on our cars were required), and driving around it was interesting with all of the planes and other aircraft they had on display. And, of course, it was the very symbol of the federal government where I grew up.
So other designs that are so-called “nice looking” and a hoity-toity “non-depressing” and “sort of looks oppressive” carry no truck with me.
And of course, once you like something and dislike something, you come up with more reason to like or dislike it. Which is probably where my “honesty in architecture” comes from. And my vague belief that government facilities shouldn’t look nice. They should be there, and tolerable. Like the government! Or something.
Ed Riley, younger brother of freshly minted Nebraska football coach, argues that football’s benefits outweigh the risk, for young people.
Wendy Kaminar tried to have a discussion at Smith about freedom of speech. It ended up largely redacted in the transcript.
Michael Brendan Dougherty argues that Uncle Sam is a horrible nutritionist.
Jennifer Deal explains that rest is important for work.
People look at me sideways when I mention Kansas and Utah as places with tech job opportunities, but there’s a there there, and as Silicon Valley becomes more crowded, I expect it to become more popular among mid-level employees with families. (Also: Austin!)
Decoding superior online dating profiles.
Francis Wilkinson blames illegal immigration on baby boomers.
Fender benders are almost a thing of the past.
David Sims ponders a Legend of Zelda TV series. I remember how all of my friends thought the 80’s series was really good. I’m glad that I have been vindicated by thinking it was pretty bad. Not sure that they could make a series that I am particularly interested in, though.
At Cancer Research UK, Nikki Smith takes the media to task for its misleading reportage on ecigarettes, and Prof Lynn T Kozlowski tells parents whether they should worry about their vaping teenagers.
The Atlantic reports on the logistics of the Antarctic winter, where you don’t bother to fly because temperature is below that at which fuel freezes.
1/ So I chuckled at this @SMBCComics today:
http://t.co/6uxuBlOqDA
But I realized that some of it was off because of our modern myths.
— Alex Knapp (@TheAlexKnapp) March 21, 2015
2/ The comic points to our idea that our ancestors saw being the center of the universe as a sign of exaltation or being special.
— Alex Knapp (@TheAlexKnapp) March 21, 2015
3/ Funny thing, though – this wasn't the case!
In Aristotle-influenced Medieval philosophy (Islamic and Christian), this was bad!
— Alex Knapp (@TheAlexKnapp) March 21, 2015
4/ As Mano Singham noted awhile back (http://t.co/flHO2oiXbo), they thought it was the worst part of the universe.
— Alex Knapp (@TheAlexKnapp) March 21, 2015
5/ And they thought it was the worst part of the universe because in the Aristotelian physics, the center is where all the muck collects.
— Alex Knapp (@TheAlexKnapp) March 21, 2015
6/ And that's an idea that fits in nicely with a picture of a world Fallen from glory after Adam and Eve committed Original Sin.
— Alex Knapp (@TheAlexKnapp) March 21, 2015
7/ The upshot being, geocentrism isn't arrogance by putting humanity at the head of the table, but humility by sticking it in the garbage!
— Alex Knapp (@TheAlexKnapp) March 21, 2015
8/ It's fascinating to me how much of the folklore about history of science gets promoted by pro-science folks despite having no validity.
— Alex Knapp (@TheAlexKnapp) March 21, 2015
9/ There is, for whatever reason, a need to see our ancestors as deluded dunces arrogant in their ignorance. But this wasn't the case!
— Alex Knapp (@TheAlexKnapp) March 21, 2015
10/ The real story about resistance to heliocentrism is much more interesting, b/c it was less about philosophy and more about EVIDENCE.
— Alex Knapp (@TheAlexKnapp) March 21, 2015
11/ Namely, that until Kepler came along, the Copernican model just didn't predict stuff as well as Ptolemaic ones!
— Alex Knapp (@TheAlexKnapp) March 21, 2015
12/ The folk history of science is all about lone geniuses who find the truth and fight ignorant superstitions.
— Alex Knapp (@TheAlexKnapp) March 21, 2015
13/ But the real history of science is about collaborations, rivalries, serendipity and debate. And its interaction with religion complex.
— Alex Knapp (@TheAlexKnapp) March 21, 2015
14/ To me, it's a shame that so many in the skeptical/science community uncritically accept the "lone genius vs superstition" narrative.
— Alex Knapp (@TheAlexKnapp) March 21, 2015
15/ Because not only is it historically inaccurate, it paints a false picture of how science works!
Fin (for now)
— Alex Knapp (@TheAlexKnapp) March 21, 2015
Eye-tracking technology can help detect concussions in football and maybe Alzheimer’s.
Nathan Washburn looks at the decline of the rural hospital and what can be done about it.
In order to avert global warming, some experts argue we need to ramp up nuclear power in a big way.
The police want Waze to remove its cop-spotting feature. With Nokia Here now available, that’s one of only a couple reasons I use Waze at all these days.
An effort to give Vermont a Latin motto has run into some resistance because immigration… or something.
I’d kind of expect Salon to hedge a bit on the vaccination issue. Instead, they giggle at an efforts to troll Amazon reviews of an anti-vax book.
If you can name one of your state’s senators, you’re a step ahead of most millenials.
Over a decade ago, John Judis co-wrote a book about the Emerging Democratic Majority, but now he says it was illusory and is talking of the Emerging Republican Advantage. {More}
The Incidental Economists want everybody to get their vaccines, but Aaron Carroll wants us to stop asking politicians gotcha questions about vaccines, and Bill Gardner wants us to stop hating on the parents.
The oil boom in North Dakota brought with it quite a bit of diversity.
Yay Brutalism!
Details have been leaked about a new Chinese air craft carrier, but Ryan Faith says they raise more questions than they answer.
That the dude claims to have had sex with a dolphin is creepy. That it allegedly lasted a year? Not mitigating.
College students are drinking less than they used to! They’re also hanging out and going out less, too.
High-tech firms are having difficulty filling well-paying sales positions, and are having to reconsider how they advertise these jobs as well as the pay structure.
Philip Bump and the Washington Post have some egg on their face after doing a “statistical analysis” that demonstrated what the electoral map would look like with 100% turnout. What they got were two maps:
On left, note south and northeast. On right, note everywhere.
Which was, evidently, not enough to raise enough alarm bells to reconsider the project (instead they just note the flaw and move on). Vox immediately pounced:
But here’s the gigantic problem: state-specific exit poll numbers were only available for 18 states in 2012. There’s also a national exit poll that offers composite results for the whole country. So for the 32 states without individual exit poll results, the Post used those national exit poll numbers to make projections.
The problem with that is that looking at how women voted nationally isn’t a good way to project how women in conservative Kentucky will vote. Similarly, how white people voted nationally doesn’t tell you all that much about white voters in liberal Vermont, as Josh Barro argued on Twitter.
That’s why the Post’s map based on racial projections comes up with the odd result of the South going Democratic and much of New England going Republican — because they had no individual exit poll data for those states. Instead, they assumed that white voters in each of them, under full turnout, would vote like white voters did nationally (59 percent for Mitt Romney).
States polled shown in gold. Black for the states originally eliminated, gray for states eliminated some time later.
Even if they got rid of the skew (which they didn’t quite), valuable information was lost. Given the strain that news organizations are under, it’s perhaps not reasonable to expect them to stand out voting booths in Rhode Island or South Dakota, but it would be really nice if someone one. These elections only happen once every four years. And the Washington Post would save itself some embarassment.
The Washington Post did go back and look at the data from 2004, though, from back in the halcyon days when all states were counted. The results were actually a bit unexpected, as (to whatever extent the data reveals anything) Bush might have done better in 2004 than he did, potentially flipping Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Only a bit unexpected, though, as Bush underperformed in the electoral college (which was closer than the national popular vote). It should also be added that the 2004 vote count is less useful than today, due to various demographic changes. Which is why having the 2012 data would be nice.