Philosoraptor
1d ago
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Philosoraptor
1d ago
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I teach a writing class for (aspiring) scientists, and it is so hard to train some smart people out of writing this way. Some people just think that using big words and complicated sentence structure is the best (or only) way to communicate important ideas. The idea that you should always use the simplest language that will do the job takes a lot of getting used to for certain folks. The way some academics write does not help.
brain
Philosoraptor
2d ago
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Wouldn't it be cool for your job to be "say the dumbest, wrongest shit imaginable to millions of people once a month or so, and get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for doing it?"
Philosoraptor
2d ago
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For Brooks, culture is something that's out there, and which arises, fully formed, from some kind of pervasive but nebulous ether. Politics (and economics) is fully downstream of that, and is completely parasitic on this ex nihilo culture. This is pretty much a paradigm case of your brain on idealism 
: it's the ideas--in the form of culture--that shape our political economy on this view, but not the other way around; politics and power never "act back" on culture, but are forever subservient to ideology. This gets the arrow of causal influence almost perfectly backward. As you say, the predominant beliefs of most Americans are shaped by decades of material conditions--propaganda, immiseration, austerity, and political capture by the richest of the rich. Even if we grant that he's right in describing the views of most Americans (which I think is actually pretty suspect too), Brooks never thinks to interrogate why and how people come to have the views that he attributes to them; we just think what we think, and then shape our world in response to that bundle of ideas that God has placed into our minds. Politicians, on this view, are merely weathervanes whose job it is to act based on the ideological winds, forever hostage to their vagaries and totally unable to shift their direction.
Philosoraptor
3d ago
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The Atlantic: "Why Trees are Antisemitic"
Philosoraptor
3d ago
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Yeah it's just bafflingly wrong. He says something a little later about how Kamala is sort of doing what he says, but she just doesn't have time to swing the Democratic priesthood around, and anyway it's all performative and she's really a death to America commie like the rest of them. It's almost breathtaking how incorrect this column is.
Philosoraptor
3d ago
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Volunteering
"Why isn't she running away with it?" David Brooks asks. Turns out, it's because of woke! It's also because Democrats insist on hating oil, and generally catering only to the most extreme of the extreme left--if only she would pivot to the center! Some of the most distilled, unfiltered bullshit I've ever seen, even considering the source.
Philosoraptor
4d ago
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No, of course they're not. This is made up bullshit to run cover from them just searching shit whenever they want to.
Philosoraptor
4d ago
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First they came for the arms dealers
Philosoraptor
4d ago
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This is why eggs in smaller diameter ovipositors are always going a significant fraction of the speed of light.
theintercept.com
Despite only being trained to detect the "big six" (cannabis, cocaine, fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, and MDMA) drug dogs are somehow magically able to provide probable cause to search packages that their chud handlers think might have abortion medication. The cops explain this by saying that abortion drugs are commonly packaged around narcotics.
Philosoraptor
4d ago
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Many such cases.
Philosoraptor
4d ago
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Mia Wallace/Vincent Vega 2024
Philosoraptor
5d ago
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The ocean in general is by far the largest carbon (and heat) sink. Some of that is from photosynthesis--about 70% of all the photosynthesis on the planet happens in the ocean --and some of it is just brute absorption of CO2. That system is showing signs of flagging also, as increased temperatures reduce water's ability to hold CO2 and disruptions to thermohaline circulation hamper oceanic photosynthesis, but it was really land-based sinks that dramatically failed this year (partially because of all the wildfires).
Philosoraptor
5d ago
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100%
This would be perfect for her because he's a credulous moron.
Philosoraptor
6d ago
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Philosoraptor
6d ago
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Preprint of a new paper examining the material conditions that give rise to internationally recognized scientists just came out. The authors argue that if we were *actually* recognizing and nurturing scientific talent, we'd expect the family income distribution of Nobel laureates to be roughly normal (i.e. most Nobel winners would come from families with incomes around the 50th percentile). Their results *very much* do not bear this out: the average Nobel winner grew up in a household in the about the 90th percentile of income no matter where they grew up, with disproportionately large numbers coming from the 95th percentile and up. This strongly suggests that academic achievement, especially at the highest levels, is not a meritocracy, but rather limited by the material conditions of birth.  I know, but the size of the effect is really staggering. [Paper here](https://paulnovosad.com/pdf/nobel-prizes.pdf)
academic.oup.com
This is an almost incomprehensibly bleak update. >We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster. This is a global emergency beyond any doubt. Much of the very fabric of life on Earth is imperiled. We are stepping into a critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis. For many years, scientists, including a group of more than 15,000, have sounded the alarm about the impending dangers of climate change driven by increasing greenhouse gas emissions and ecosystem change (Ripple et al. 2020). For half a century, global warming has been correctly predicted even before it was observed—and not only by independent academic scientists but also by fossil fuel companies (Supran et al. 2023). Despite these warnings, we are still moving in the wrong direction; fossil fuel emissions have increased to an all-time high, the 3 hottest days ever occurred in July of 2024 (Guterres 2024), and current policies have us on track for approximately 2.7 degrees Celsius (°C) peak warming by 2100 (UNEP 2023). Tragically, we are failing to avoid serious impacts, and we can now only hope to limit the extent of the damage. We are witnessing the grim reality of the forecasts as climate impacts escalate, bringing forth scenes of unprecedented disasters around the world and human and nonhuman suffering. We find ourselves amid an abrupt climate upheaval, a dire situation never before encountered in the annals of human existence. We have now brought the planet into climatic conditions never witnessed by us or our prehistoric relatives within our genus, Homo (supplemental figure S1; CenCO2PIP Consortium et al. 2023). > >Last year, we witnessed record-breaking sea surface temperatures (Cheng et al. 2024), the hottest Northern Hemisphere extratropical summer in 2000 years (Esper et al. 2024), and the breaking of many other climate records (Ripple et al. 2023a). Moreover, we will see much more extreme weather in the coming years (Masson-Delmotte et al. 2021). Human-caused carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases are the primary drivers of climate change. As of 2022, global fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes account for approximately 90% of these emissions, whereas land-use change, primarily deforestation, accounts for approximately 10% (supplemental figure S2). > >Our aim in the present article is to communicate directly to researchers, policymakers, and the public. As scientists and academics, we feel it is our moral duty and that of our institutions to alert humanity to the growing threats that we face as clearly as possible and to show leadership in addressing them. In this report, we analyze the latest trends in a wide array of planetary vital signs. We also review notable recent climate-related disasters, spotlight important climate-related topics, and discuss needed policy interventions. This report is part of our series of concise annual updates on the state of the climate.
 [Link](https://x.com/BasedBeffJezos/status/1838063253491990905)
This is a long shot, but I'm trying to replace the water pump on my wife's 1988 Toyota pickup. The guy who put the last pump on used a TON of RTV liquid gasket to seal it on, and it might as well be fucking welded in place for all it will move. It's an aluminum engine, so I'm trying not to attack it with a chisel or anything too violent. Any comrades here with car mechanic experience got any tips? I'd prefer not to drop the $400+ the mechanic is going to charge to do it.
www.newsweek.com
I was sure it was going to be professional genocide ghoul Shapiro. Color me surprised.
arxiv.org
>In 2023, the CO2 growth rate was 3.37 +/- 0.11 ppm at Mauna Loa, 86% above the previous year, and hitting a record high since observations began in 1958, while global fossil fuel CO2 emissions only increased by 0.6 +/- 0.5%. This implies an unprecedented weakening of land and ocean sinks, and raises the question of where and why this reduction happened. Despite the incredible, unprecedented work of The Most Progressive President of Our Lifetime in the US, global carbon emissions continue to accelerate. However, in general carbon that's introduced into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels doesn't always just stay there; in fact, most of the time *most* of that carbon gets absorbed by one or another carbon sink as part of normal geosystemic processes. These sinks include getting sucked up by plants as part of photosynthesis, dissolving into the ocean to marginally raise its pH (mostly this one), or reacting with rocks on the surface to from new minerals. The upshot is that a lot of the warming potential of the fossil fuels we've been burning has been averted by the natural carbon cycle absorbing much of our collective waste. This natural absorption showed an alarming drop off in 2023, even as carbon emissions continued to rise. This is very, very bad and is setting us up for warning and other climate change impacts that may happen far in advance of what our models predicted--decades instead of centuries.
web.archive.org
Liberals not being total losers challenge (difficulty: impossible)
Loser energy at levels never thought possible before
dailynous.com
He was controversial, but he was in my opinion one of the best all-around living philosophers. He was enormously influential on my own thinking, as well as kind and patient every time I met him. Enormously influential, and a big loss to the discipline. >There is no philosophy-free science; there is only science whose philosophical baggage was taken on board without examination.
>Mr. Musk, in a black T-shirt and moto jacket, weighed in on the subject of the future, too. > >“I think we’re currently teaching kids in school to hate America or to question whether America is good,” Mr. Musk said, reflecting on something he feels society is doing right now that will negatively affect the years to come. > >“There’s a lot of focus on all things America does wrong, but not enough on what America has done, both currently and historically,” he continued. “Which then causes people to lose faith in America. And then, I don’t know, we might fracture as a society and no longer be the United States of America.” 
Also, the US showed nothing but kindness to their enemies.  [Link](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1773477116979646691?s=20)
 [Link](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1768057534651269328)
Concerning
>“I don’t have a problem with the Palestinian flag – people can share whatever flag they like, but the people who post ‘no Zionists’ are basically saying ‘no Jews’. It’s what they think is an acceptable way of saying it,” he adds. > >“It’s like the signs that used to read: ‘No Blacks. No Jews. No Dogs. No Irish.’” Stephen says there are masses of Palestinian flags on Hinge, and he’s come across profiles of women who say: “No terfs, no Tories, free Palestine.” “It’s put me off opening the app.”
[I am begging you to put a chip in your own brain to try to cure your bad thoughts](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1763054266762121517)
I teach at a public high school for "profoundly gifted" kids, and work pretty much exclusively with 16+ students. They're all very smart, and range from libs to somewhat better than normal libs (we had one open ML, but he graduated a few years ago). They all think Trump is a fucking dumbass. As with every election, a big crop of our seniors is going to be eligible to vote for the first time this year. For the first time in the decade or so that I've worked here, pretty much every single one of them has said they don't intend to vote. They hate Biden almost as much as Trump, either because they condemn the genocide in Israel or just because they (correctly) believe that he has done nothing to actually benefit them. This is a population of kids who are *much* more politically engaged than your average teenager, and vote turnout in previous years has been high. I was actually very surprised at how many of them expressed contempt for the whole process this year, and indicated that they were totally uninterested in supporting Biden (and of course would not support Trump). I'm guessing this is part of a big trend that we're going to see this year, and I'm preparing myself for libs blaming young people--for whom Biden has done little but make their future demonstrably worse--for Democrats' loss. I'm trying to convince all of them to vote anyway, just for some third party that speaks to them. Yesterday, we talked about PSL, Cornel West, the Greens, and Afroman for a bit. It would be incredibly funny to see young people reject Biden/Trump, and yet turn out in record numbers anyway. The narrative that kids are just too addicted to their phones to vote would fall apart. I'll keep working on it. No real point here, just 
www.thecut.com
She ended up throwing a shoebox with $50,000 in cash into the window of a moving SUV in order to help the CIA get her a new social security number. Incredible levels of professional financial competence.