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"I've thrown people like him out of bars" would win a general election here in VA.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—Noted
**Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez**: _Responding to Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL)_ : .#noted #2020-07-23
Is “Damn Lucky” the horse’s name?
**Comment of the Day**: Moving into life in an...
**Comment of the Day**: Moving into life in an Isaac Asimov novel of the 1950s: _Dilbert Dogbert_ : 'Nice that NZ has a plan. I have a plan. For the rest of my life I will be in isolation, partial. Wear a mask and gloves when going anywhere there are people not family. I am not sure I will change...
It seems to me like a company with a broken supply chain is worth less than a company with a good one. Lots of stocks should be worth less this week, apart from any macroeconomic forecasting that markets might do incidentally.
As of the end of February the stock market is...
As of the end of February the stock market is forecasting a very sharp, sudden recession in the probability of a recession from near zero a week ago to better-than-even today: that is the only way to make sense of the S&P 500 over the past week. Thus it is not too late to plan. It is, rather, tim...
Does computer-generated poetry look as decent to an expert on poetry? I've seen one informal survey where the experts had no trouble distinguishing the mechanical poets in a blind test.
**Scott Alexander**: _A Very Unlikely Chess Game_...
**Scott Alexander**: _A Very Unlikely Chess Game_ : 'Almost 25 years after Kasparov vs. Deep Blue, another seminal man vs. machine matchup. Neither competitor has much to be proud of here. White has a poor opening. Black screws up and loses his queen for no reason. A few moves later, white screws...
I wonder about this all the time. How does a farmer not starve when an army storms through his plot before harvest time?
**Note to Self**: What was the impact on the...
**Note to Self**: What was the impact on the French medieval economy of the Hundred Years' War? The Black Prince shows up in your neighborhood and begins one of his chevauchees—he sets his soldiers to march, loot, burn, rape, kill, and spoil in a (often fruitless) attempt to get the French knight...
Extinction as a murder mystery is a clever idea. I'm going to guess Colonel Brassica in the temperate rainforest with a stone-tipped spear.
**Note to Self**: A historical question I want...
**Note to Self**: A historical question I want answered: Some historical questions I want to find the answers to: What was the typical pre-agricultural density of hunter-gatherer populations? —— #economichistory #notetoself
My first reaction to Galaxy Quest was that when it pivoted on the line “But I know someone who does...” it became one of the best science fiction movies ever. I’m glad I’m in such distinguished company.
**Very Briefly Noted** 2019-12-06: 1. **Patrick...
**Very Briefly Noted** 2019-12-06: 1. **Patrick Stewart**: _Galaxy Quest_ : 'I had originally not wanted to see [Galaxy Quest] because I heard that it was making fun of Star Trek and then Jonathan Frakes rang me up and said "You must not miss this movie! See it on a Saturday night in a full theat...
Can we use the half-silver lining to recreate the Michaelson-Morley Experiment?
Unpredictable and chaotic work schedules are...
Unpredictable and chaotic work schedules are turning out to be an extra source of inequity that is, at least to me, surprisingly large. About the only half-silver lining is that Britain appears to be even worse: **Cesar Perez and Alix Gould-Werth**: _How U.S. Workers’ Just-In-Time Schedules Perpe...
Near big cities, the solution seems to be for an extended family of immigrants to buy the McMansions. As long as everybody has the same last name, it’s OK under our zoning laws.
260,000 people in Buncombe County, NC—Asheville....
260,000 people in Buncombe County, NC—Asheville. That is 60,000 households, low which perhaps 40 are in the nationwide top 0.1% with an income of 1.6 million a year or more. That is, I am told, the range in which one should perhaps start thinking about whether one wants an 8,000 square-foot house...
This is brilliant.
260,000 people in Buncombe County, NC—Asheville....
260,000 people in Buncombe County, NC—Asheville. That is 60,000 households, low which perhaps 40 are in the nationwide top 0.1% with an income of 1.6 million a year or more. That is, I am told, the range in which one should perhaps start thinking about whether one wants an 8,000 square-foot house...
Here in Virginia we see armed people in the grocery store, the Burger King, places like that. Haven’t noticed politeness as a conspicuous feature of their behavior.
The lady with a baby in her arms and a firearm on her hip, both in an identical shade of blue — that, I noticed.
Genetic counsellor Claude Mordan, an early...
Genetic counsellor Claude Mordan, an early Heinlein character, waxes enthusiastic about the real point of an armed society—ot improve the breed by killing off the unalert, the weak, the stupid, those who are not quick with their hands, and those who are not quick with their wits, and so improve t...
Remonstrances — that’s what we need!
As I have said, I have swung around to the point...
As I have said, I have swung around to the point of view that the _New York Times's_ bending over backwards to soft-pedal Trumps cruelty, lunacy, and mendacity is because the Sulzburgers like their tax cut. As one person said to me last week: "you have no idea how many rich old- and middle-aged m...
I was halfway ready to believe that. Good thing you put in the part about the mitre.
**Charles Johnson**: "[Trumpists] owning the libs...
**Charles Johnson**: "[Trumpists] owning the libs by laughing about how openly corrupt they are : **Mark Knoller**: 'Beginning speech to Concerned Women of America, Secretary Pompeo "this is such a beautiful hotel. The guy who owns it must gonna be successful along the way," he says, without ment...
Every time I use the Gino coefficient in a real-world situation, it comes out to be .40-.45. When all the qualitative estimates say a change is a big deal it’s my job to get upper management excited about a project. Gini just doesn’t do that.
**Note to Self**: Trying (without much success) to...
**Note to Self**: Trying (without much success) to gain some intuition with respect to what Gini coefficient _mean_: ---- #equitablegrowth #incomeinequality #notetoself
When I was a boy, I came across an IQ test from the 30s in my grandmother’s attic. The only question I could answer was the one that asked what was missing from a picture of a box labeled “vory soap”.
American Twentieth-Century Exceptionalism: An Outtake from "Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Long Twentieth Century 1870-2016"
### Sources of American Exceptionalism In 1870 the focus of economic growth crossed the Atlantic to America, where continent-wide scale, a flood of immigration, vast resources, and an open society that made inventors and entrepreneurs culture heroes welcomed economic growth. In the United State...
Five people is just about enough to fill that hole in the lineup.
Bruce Springsteen: You Never Can Tell: For the Weekend
**Bruce Springsteen**: _[You Never Can Tell (Leipzig 7/7/13) - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-Ds-FXGGQg)_: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-Ds-FXGGQg ---- #fortheweekend
Here we can see the superiority of the Modern Age: we can be both learned and lewd. We don’t have to choose.
Liveblogging: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: The Founding of Medhamsted
**The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle** (J.A. Giles and J. Ingram trans.): _Medhamsted_: "A.D. 656. This year was Peada slain; and Wulfhere, son of Penda, succeeded to the kingdom of the Mercians. In his time waxed the abbey of Medhamsted very rich, which his brother had begun. The king loved it much, fo...
There may not be a limit on how much I’d pay for a weed-killing, bug-sucking robot.
The labor requirements for this kind of farming...
The labor requirements for this kind of farming were already absurdly low. And one swallow does not make a spring. Nevertheless, the age of intelligent tools draws closer: **Ashley Robinson, Lydia Mulvany, and David Stringer**: _[Robots Take the Wheel as Autonomous Farm Machines Hit Fields](https...
This doesn’t mention the most insidious tentacle of the plutocracy. Not just US Democrats, but Gerhard Schröder and Nick Clegg were caught by it. If any left/liberal figure does get a share of power, there’s a million-a-year sinecure waiting for him after he leaves office — if he does the plutocracy’s bidding.
Is Plutocracy Really the Biggest Problem?: No Longer Fresh at Project Syndicate
**Project Syndicate**: _[Is Plutocracy Really the Biggest Problem?](https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/krugman-plutocracy-economic-policy-by-j-bradford-delong-2019-07)_: After the 2008 financial crisis, economic policymakers in the United States did enough to avert another Great Depre...
Hang on — JASON has been dissolved, but this program still exists?
After hanging out with Madeleine Albright last...
After hanging out with Madeleine Albright last week, I'm going to start calling all of this what it is: neo-fascism: **Annalee Newitz** (2008): _[Larry Niven Tells DHS to Spread Organ Harvesting Rumors](https://io9.gizmodo.com/larry-niven-tells-dhs-to-spread-organ-harvesting-rumors-370762)_: "The...
If the Democrats ever develop the will to impeach corrupt Justices, 15,000 counts of negligent homicide will go nicely in the articles.
These numbers on the human costs of the Supreme...
These numbers on the human costs of the Supreme Court's _NFIB vs. Sibelius_ decision are only about one-quarter of what I had feared: **Scott Lemieux**: _[Matters of Life and Death](http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2019/07/matters-of-life-and-death)_: "15,000 people died in three years because...
“Home invasion” again. A cop of my acquaintance assures me that a 99%-effective way to prevent home invasions is to stop selling drugs.
Francis Wilkinson: Gun Safety Takes a Back Seat to Gun Culture and Children Die: Weekend Reading
**Francis Wilkinson**: _[Gun Safety Takes a Back Seat to Gun Culture and Children Die](https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-07-17/gun-safety-takes-a-back-seat-to-gun-culture-and-children-die)_: "A mother stored a gun in her car to protect her children. It killed her daughter instead....
No mention of Hadrian’s Wall.
Liveblogging: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: The Slightly Later Church, and the Flavian and Antonine Empire
**The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle** (J.A. Giles and J. Ingram trans.): _[The Slightly Later Church, and the Flavian and Antonine Empire](https://read.amazon.com/notebook)_: "A.D. 81. This year Titus came to the empire, after Vespasian, who said that he considered the day lost in which he did no good....
Concerning Titus, the Winchester manuscript says “Titus Uespassianus sunu in Hierusalem ofslog Iudea .cxi þusenda.”.
111,000 casualties seems more credible.
Liveblogging: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: The Early Church and the Roman Empire
**The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle** (J.A. Giles and J. Ingram trans.): _[The Early Church and the Roman Empire](https://read.amazon.com/notebook)_: "A.D. 34. This year was St. Paul converted, and St. Stephen stoned... >...A.D. 35. This year the blessed Peter the apostle settled an episcopal see in th...
I’ve lost the flick, here. How is it that Clinton’s deficit reduction and Trump’s deficit expansion both stimulated the economy? Was the government “crowding out” in 1995?
More than Two Decades of Macroeconomic History Through the Lens of Four Key Components of Aggregate Demand
It is remarkable the extent to which you can tell the story of the U.S. macroeconomy over the past twenty-five years through the reactions of four components of aggregate demand to policies and shocks: 1. The dot-com boom unleashed by the Clinton deficit-reduction program and high-tech innovation...
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