Category Archives: Uncategorized
Chris Rock on race in the US – and a bunch of other stuff
Here’s the thing. When we talk about race relations in America or racial progress, it’s all nonsense. There are no race relations. White people were crazy. Now they’re not as crazy. To say that black people have made progress would be to say they deserve what happened to them before. Right. It’s ridiculous. So, to… Read More »
The punishment of an open (Norwegian) prison
Now imagine yourself in a prison that commands a view from a tourist brochure. Your cell phone lies on a shelf, next to a TV and CD player, inside a prison that lets you go to paid work or study. There is no perimeter wall. Prison staff will help you with free-world social services to… Read More »
*Scientists like to think of science as self-correcting. To an alarming degree, it is not*
From The Economist: Academic scientists readily acknowledge that they often get things wrong. But they also hold fast to the idea that these errors get corrected over time as other scientists try to take the work further. Evidence that many more dodgy results are published than are subsequently corrected or withdrawn calls that much-vaunted capacity… Read More »
What is making me happy today (music) – Ba Kristo by Kekele
Links I Find Interesting
1. In praise of art forgery 2. The Not-So-Great Professor: Jeffrey Sachs’ Incredible Failure to Eradicate Poverty in Africa 3. “Mr. Zuckerberg’s belief that connectivity is a human right is honorable. Where he and his allies err is in imagining that fun is not, and in underestimating the power of entertainment to transform society.” 4. “Something amazing… Read More »
Probably the most severe Airbus A380 commentary you’ll read
…the pinnacle of aesthetic disregard was achieved upon rollout of Airbus’s biggest and most ballyhooed creation: the enormous, double-decked A380. With maximum takeoff weight of more than a million pounds, the Airbus A380 is the largest, most powerful, and most expensive commercial plane in history. And possibly the ugliest. There is something grotesquely anthropomorphic about… Read More »
The Pace of Modern Life. Or we’ve-been-complaining-about-the-same-things-for-a-very-long-time
Here. H/T Felix Girke on FB.
Why Is This Man Wearing A Turban?
Teju Cole has a new blog for The New Inquiry. From his second entry: The niqab is illegal in Belgium (as it is in France): adult Muslim women may not, of their own free will, cover their faces in public. In the words of the liberal MP who proposed the ban in Belgium: “Wearing the… Read More »
What is making me happy today – music
I just discovered Meklit Hadero through Google Music Magnifier site. She’s an Ethiopian-born, San Francisco-based, jazz and soul singer songwriter: Born in Ethiopia in the early 1980s, she grew up in Iowa, New York, and Florida. After studying political science at Yale, she moved to San Francisco and became immersed in the city’s thriving arts… Read More »