Thursday Throughput for February 7
The only thing Malthusian predictions have had in common is being completely wrong
Author: Michael Siegel
Fyre and the Age of Humbug
It is, perhaps, the supreme irony of our time that when we have access to all the information in the world literally in the palm of our hand, humbug has become more powerful than ever.
Thursday Throughput
Saturn is losing its rings. The shepherd moons are keeping it together but the ice is slowing raining down on the planet and not being replenished. So be sure to take a look some times in the next … well, 100 million years.
Thursday Throughput
One thing that annoys me is people conflating the far side of the moon with the “dark side”. These are not the same thing.
An Historic Parallel For the Wall and Opioids
Seen in that light, the President’s comments become much more sinister. He’s trying to leverage the ongoing opioid epidemic into support for his his wall. It almost certainly won’t help. But once the problem gets better he’ll claim credit for it.
The Bowl Points System
One of the most thrilling BCS games I can remember was the 2007 Fiesta Bowl when an outmanned and outranked Boise State team upended the mighty Sooners. That’s the kind of thing I would want to see in an expanded playoff system. Not another chance for Georgia to blow a big lead against the Tide.
Thursday Throughput
So … ten stellar collisions weren’t enough for you, huh? How about ten, ten colliding black holes! Hahahaha.
Paul Ryan and the Beast That Didn’t Starve
The numbers do not lie: Paul Ryan’s tenure as Speaker corresponds to the most fiscally irresponsible period in American history.
How To Pay For It
I’m against Medicare for All but I understand that many people are for it. There are various arguments in favor. But paying for it will not be easy. And supporters had best stop trying to pretend that it is.
Thursday Throughput
Does men’s dominance of Scrabble prove there’s no sexism in science? Eh, not quite.
Yes, Virginia, We Can Block the Sun (Maybe). No, We Shouldn’t.
You are trying to balance two environmental disasters against each other, with catastrophe looming on either end.
Thriller at 35
Just watch the video and bask in the sight of one of the 20th century’s great entertainers at the absolute height of his powers.
Turkeys and Drumsticks 2018
Who are the biggest Turkeys of 2018? Who are the best of 2018? Let’s find out.
Thursday Throughput
No, a quarter of millennials are not experiencing PTSD because of the election. A few months after the election, college students were still a bit stressed by it. Which makes them like everyone else.
Politics, Empathy and the Kavanaugh Thing
It became readily apparent that the [Kavanaugh] fight was not about his judicial philosophy or whether the allegations of sexual misconduct were true. It rapidly became a war between our two political tribes in which the only thing that mattered was victory and in which each side was living in its own reality.
14 Reasons Why
The more I turn over [Bush’s] record and compare it to where Trump is going, the more it becomes obvious that this isn’t just about a personal animus for Trump. At every turn — the environment, the budget, trade policy, immigration — Trump is shaping up to be worse.
Straw Dogs
The straw ban isn’t the problem; the idea that the straw ban is some kind of bridge to solving bigger problems is. Because straw bans are easy; effecting real change is hard.
EFF vs. FOSTA
Moral panics can crash quickly. Or they can last centuries, as the moral panic over witchcraft did. I have no feel for how long the moral panic over sex work will last. But now that FOSTA is law, the potential damage it will cause has dramatically increased.
The Cadaver King, the Country Dentist and a Problematic Judiciary
Why on Earth do we elect judges? Why, in a system designed to resist the passions of the mob, do we bring it back in at the point of maximum leverage?
