New York University
This account of life there reads like something from the Soviet Union:
This is daft, certainly. Even funny, in a macabre way. But it also raises a serious point: the university experience in America is now not one that will adequately prepare students for real life. In real-life democracy, people disagree — and normally they don’t die or suffer emotional injury because of it. In normal life, there’s no reason not to like someone with whom you disagree politically. On campus, opinions are often ontology: you are what you think. But this is dangerous logic: if I hate what you think, I must hate what you are.
Who is going to want to hire these people?
[Update a few minutes later]
“American higher ed is rapidly becoming a worldwide joke. What if the high-dollar foreign students stop coming?”
[Update a couple minutes later]
This seems related: Video shows that Millennials support socialism even if it results in starvation.
Totality
Here’s the difference between 99% and 100%.
This is the difference between 99% & 100% totality. Literally, night & day. So stoked I was able to capture this fleeting moment! #eclipse pic.twitter.com/v84kaug2gj
— Amy Ulivieri (@amyULo) August 22, 2017
[Friday-morning update]
“I’ve always thought eclipse chasers—these people who spend thousands of dollars flying around the world to spend two minutes looking at a solar eclipse—were a little nutty. I mean, that’s a little extreme, right? If you want to see what a solar eclipse looks like, type solar eclipse into Google.”
“I was wrong.”
Afghanistan
Trump has no strategy there.
But to be fair, he has no strategy in general. He’s more of a tactics kind of guy, which sometimes work, and often don’t.
[Update a few minutes later]
“We Will Fight In Afghanistan Until Victorious, Or I Change My Mind, Get Distracted, Look Bad, Or Get Bored.”
The “Pipeline” From Libertarianism To The “Alt-Right”
Nick Gillespie says it doesn’t exist.
[Afternoon update]
The real reason that libertarians become “fascists.”
Scientific “Consensus”
Why we should expect scientists to disagree. In general, science is much more complex than many people are comfortable with.
Apple And Google
Is there a libertarian case for reining them in?
The Dozenth Flight
I’m not going up to Vandenberg for the Formosat launch, but I’ll probably go to the beach (I’m assuming the marine layer will clear by then). I’d like to see SpaceX get to twenty flights this year, but I’d like even more to see them finally launch the heavy.
[Update a while later]
This is interesting, if true: Space will lose millions on this mission. Of course, it would have probably cost them a lot more to continue with the Falcon 1e. This is also the first time I’ve ever seen the marginal launch costs stated, at $37M. Also interesting, if correct.
Mass Hallucinations
Some thoughts from Scott Adams on both Trump and Obama derangement:
The first rule of communicating is that people only hear what they think you intend to say. They don’t hear what you actually say. If you think someone is a racist, you will perceive their disavowals of racism as too late and too inadequate. If you think someone is not a racist, you might see their statements as politically incorrect and nothing worse. This phenomenon is most pronounced when strong emotions are involved. The topic of racism stirs our strongest emotions. So according to everything we know about brains, we should expect the highest level of hallucinations when racism is the topic. And that is exactly what we observe.
To be clear, racism itself is very real. The hallucination is limited to seeing it under every bed and behind every couch.
It applies to anti-anti-Trump derangement, too. I don’t think that Trump is a racist, but I’m sure a lot of people imagine I do because I think he’s so terrible in many other ways.
Some Good Advice For Trump
That he’ll almost certainly not take.