Will Wilkinson has some comments about an article by Malcolm Gladwell from The New Yorker. I basically agree with him about Gladwell, but I’m bothered by the last paragraph: Now, there’s no point in saying things that will make your readers think you are an evilcrazy person, so I can understand why Gladwell wastes words… Continue reading Teachers, Quarterbacks, and Markets
Category: Politics
Bailouts Explained
As always, if you want penetrating analysis of the news, you need to go to a comedian. Jon Stewart explains why Congress is willing to bail out Wall Street, but not Detroit: The Daily Show With Jon StewartM – Th 11p / 10c Autoerotic Explanation Barack Obama InterviewJohn McCain Interview Sarah Palin VideoFunny Election Video… Continue reading Bailouts Explained
Science Is Interested in You
A few days ago, I complained again about the relative lack of science books in the New York Times “Notable Books of 2008” list. Yesterday, one of the big stories was CNN axing its entire science unit, such as it was, which drew comments from lots of blogs (and more whose links I can’t be… Continue reading Science Is Interested in You
Plaxico Burress and the Short Skirt Theory
Via Ezra Klein, Adam Serwer takes dim view of conservative attempts to blame the Mumbai attacks on Indian culture, specifically the relative lack of guns among the geenral population: This is a really strange and immature coping mechanism that manifests on the right in times of high profile tragedy. Rather than contemplate being a victim… Continue reading Plaxico Burress and the Short Skirt Theory
Leave the Swans Alone
I flagged this Matt Yglesias post about post-mortem examinations of the financial crisis as something to respond to. Matt writes: I was at an interesting discussion with an ideologically diverse group of people last night of the future of financial regulations. One thing that there was broad agreement on that hadn’t really snapped into focus… Continue reading Leave the Swans Alone
Best Blogging of the Year
Bora’s beating the drum for submissions to this year’s science blogging anthology. He doesn’t seem to be suffering from a lack of submissions, but if you’ve got something you would like to see re-printed in dead tree form, submit it before December 1. I’m not clear whether this will be going through Lulu again this… Continue reading Best Blogging of the Year
Negative Information Transfer
SteelyKid was a little bit fussy yesterday, and would only be quiet when carried in the “airplane” position. There are a limited number of ways to pass the time when doing this, so I had the tv on, and while channel-surfing past MSNBC, caught something saying that Obama would be giving his first news conference.… Continue reading Negative Information Transfer
RFK Jr.
Looking over my scheduled posts for today, I see that there isn’t anything stridently political. Not wanting to shock the systems of readers still coming down off the election, let me add my voice to the chorus of ScienceBloggers expressing concern over the idea of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as head of the Environmental Protection… Continue reading RFK Jr.
The Kids Are Alright
I’ve seen several people linking to Andrew Gelman’s analysis of voting in the election, which is generally good and interesting. I would like to quibble about one thing he says, though. After noting that young voters overwhelmingly went for Obama, he says: But there was no massive turnout among young voters. According to the exit… Continue reading The Kids Are Alright
It’s All About Timing
Slate (who, by the way, drive me up the freaking wall with their habit of giving each story about six different headlines, depending on where the link is) has hit the ground running with a panel of distinguished right-wing types discussing what the Republicans should do now. Jim Manzi gets the ball rolling with an… Continue reading It’s All About Timing