May 2016
- May 9
- The Center Cannot Hold
The problem with being pragmatic is that you tend to underestimate other people's frustration and anger. Because you could never imagine wanting to wreck the whole thing, you have a deep and abiding belief that no one would ever desire such utter and complete wreckage.
· Read more… - May 10
- Economic Injustice and Systemic Racism
I can't help but feel that reducing every problem to the problem of income inequality is one of the major reasons why Sanders really never made significant in-roads with older PoCs.
· Read more… - May 10
- Utopia
Since "utopia" literally means "nowhere", isn't every place that actually exists by definition not a utopia?
· Read more… - May 11
- Greatness
No thing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen. — Epictetus
· Read more… - May 11
- Uncertainty
The Source of Richard Feynman’s Genius • 2016 May 11 • Maria Popova • Brain Pickings
· Read more… - May 12
- Shrug Emoji
Facebook really needs a ¯_(ツ)_/¯ reaction button.
· Read more… - May 12
- Are More People Becoming More Aware of Neoliberalism?
While there are splinter factions that sincerely advocate a return to authoritarian and feudalistic politico-economic models, most influential people in the West advocate neoliberalism, which most Westerners don't recognize as an ideology and just accept as fact.
· Read more… - May 12
- Vaping
My gut instinct is that vaping is safer than smoking cigarettes and might actually be on par with inhaling polluted air, but it also seems obvious that it might have side effects.
· Read more… - May 12
- Stationary Phase
An example of the fact that exponential growth cannot continue forever simply because of the laws of thermodynamics.
· Read more… - May 12
- How to Obtain a Pet Fox
This article discusses Dmitri Belyaev's experiments with silver foxes and domestication (and discusses the major differences between domestication and taming.)
· Read more… - May 16
- Earthsea and the Great Underground Empire
In the Wikipedia entry about Infocom's Enchanter, it mentions that Enchanter's system of magic is based on the Old Speech of Earthsea in terms of mechanics.
· Read more… - May 16
- Etruscans
OMG. So the Etruscans were the B Ark of Lydia (a kingdom that encompassed Western Turkey)?!?!
· Read more… - May 16
- Google Tightening the Noose on Flash
Chrome will start blocking Flash by default.
· Read more… - May 16
- Consent
It is frightening that people who are purportedly doing science on human subjects have no concept whatsoever about the meaning of consent.
· Read more… - May 18
- Schisms
The caveat is, even if Sanders drops out and dedicates his fundraising efforts to Clinton's campaign, that's probably not enough to placate his most ardent supporters.
· Read more… - May 18
- It Depends on What You Mean by Elected
It never really occurred to me until now (since Trump = Hitler comparisons are rife) that there is some debate about whether or not Hitler was ever democratically elected.
· Read more… - May 18
- Obsoleting Computer Programming and Replacing with Machine Learning
When AI is more advanced and the next level of automation comes to eliminate service jobs, it's possible that programmers that aren't working on extending/maintaining AI will be among the first to be eliminated.
· Read more… - May 19
- The Tower of Joy
Lightsaber battles are OK, but adding an Ennio Morricone track is better!
· Read more… - May 19
- Antibiotic Resistance
Antibiotic resistance isn't so much about humans vs. bacteria as it is about humans vs. laissez-faire capitalism, specifically Big Ag, but also the health insurance/for-profit health care industrial complex.
· Read more… - May 19
- The Destruction of the Republican Party and the Decline of the U.S.
Stepping back further in order to fully admire the spectacle, the whole narrative arc of the Party of Lincoln transforming into the Party of Trump is quite breathtaking.
· Read more… - May 19
- Bernie Sanders is the Only One Standing in the Way of a Trump Presidency
The bridge building probably can't really start until Clinton clinches the nomination, but if she doesn't succeed in reconciling with a majority of Sanders voters (the Bernie-or-Trump crowd is unreachable anyway) then we're definitely going to be watching Trump being inaugurated next January.
· Read more… - May 19
- The Reason People in This Country are Starving
Proponents and GMOs and pesticides like to point out that increased production is the only way to prevent massive starvation. While I am not anti-GMO or anti-pesticide, this is demonstrably false.
· Read more… - May 19
- Trump Leads Clinton
Caveats: yeah, it's a Fox News poll, the margin is well within the error range, polls this far out from the general election are mostly useless, Trump has already clinched the nomination while Clinton hasn't, etc., etc., but, still, it kind of freaks me out. [#AllHailPresidentTrump](/tag/all-hail-president-trump "tag: All Hail President Trump • mahiwaga"
· Read more… - May 20
- The Realignment of the U.S.
Matt Taibbi already deconstructed how absurd Andrew Sullivan's argument is—the problem with the U.S. isn't that it's too democratic—but I do think there's a chance that Trump will win and I do think the backlash might make our system even less democratic than it already is.
· Read more… - May 20
- Oklahoma
I am flabbergasted.
· Read more… - May 20
- Compared to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts
They're only counting sugar, not total carbohydrates, which is kind of silly since the starch in the doughnut will get converted into sugar by salivary enzymes in the mouth and pancreatic enzymes secreted into the small intestine.
· Read more… - May 21
- Real Science is Never That Certain
One of the problems of the Facebook/Twitter era is that all headlines are click-bait.
· Read more… - May 24
- Dominance and Submission
Returning to the dominance hierarchy framework and the concept of the alpha male, it's true that dominance and submission does exist. It's not a myth per se.
· Read more… - May 25
- Comprehensive Eye Exams
There is an app called Opternative that checks your visual acuity. For $40, an ophthalmologist can review the findings from the app remotely and write a lens prescription.
· Read more… - May 25
- Hate Voting
Historically, has there ever been a general election in the U.S. like this where both (presumptive) nominees were so intensely disliked by significant percentages of their own parties?
· Read more… - May 26
- Bionerd Thoughts
I switched radio stations and it was in the middle of playing the song that ﾐA彡 and I danced to for our first dance at our wedding reception.
· Read more… - May 26
- What's the Emoji for Mayhem?
Imagine an updated version of "Fight Club" where instead of blowing up buildings, Tyler Durden merely creats a botnet that automatically creats hundreds of billions of fake accounts with emojis in their nicknames based off stolen identities, and Project Mayhem's only responsibility is to answer phones and pretend to be the people whose identities were stolen… (I think I may have thought too hard about this….)
· Read more… - May 26
- Respectability Politics and Projection
Bill Cosby makes me think that the reason why some PoCs turn to respectability politics is that they're secretly terrible—possibly quite monstrous—people who want to convince other PoCs that if they get called out, it will make the whole race look bad, so it's in everyone's best interest to never call them out.
· Read more… - May 26
- The American Dream is Dead
The American Dream is officially dead (which is probably for the best, to be honest.)
· Read more… - May 26
- Corporal Punishment
While I am not a parent, my job does require me to regularly counsel parents on how they treat their children, and I try to make recommendations based on the best available evidence….
· Read more… - May 26
- Libertarian Utopia
Ayn Rand, Rand Paul and Paul Ryan walk into a bar. The bartender serves them tainted alcohol because there are no regulations. They die.
· Read more… - May 26
- Pan-resistant E. coli
I remember apocryphal stories of pan-resistant E. coli at one of the ICUs I did my residency at. You had to wear outbreak suits to get in and out. I never figured out how they managed to end the quarantine. I can't imagine that every patient in that unit died….
· Read more… - May 27
- The Partition of California
Thinking about the fact that candidates are actually campaigning in California despite having a very late primary, I'm wondering how the state could have more of an impact on the rest of the country.
· Read more… - May 27
- Pan-Resistant E. coli Caveat
Turns out, the E. coli isolated from a woman's infected urine isn't actually pan-resistant.
· Read more… - May 27
- Antibiotic Resistance and Profit Motive
When you get right down to it, the antibiotic resistance crisis is mostly driven by profitability. It simply isn't profitable to invest all that money in R&D, clinical trials, and marketing of antibiotics. Despite their obvious critical utility, the demand for antibiotics that are effective against multidrug-resistant pathogens is, overall, not very high.
· Read more… - May 31
- Comeback vs Come from Behind
Bernie Sanders inspired some pedantry when he said that Golden State had a "comeback" victory.
· Read more…