History

What an incredible structure this is. It provided shelter for bats, who repaid by eating malaria-carrying mosquitos. pic.twitter.com/xCZYL6u5aw

— Lukas Novotny (@LukasNovo89) August 26, 2021

 

An Insight

One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonized those who complain.

— Thomas Sowell (@ThomasSowell) August 31, 2021

I see wonderful things

Raised from the deep, #Rome’s deadly weapon - 200kg bronze battering rams from the naval battle of #Egadi were used by #Roman triremes to smash through #Carthage’s fleets, in what appears to have been head-on collisions.https://t.co/qjo5hMO6n5 #RomanArchaeology #Archaeology pic.twitter.com/TFi1tvLqtL

— Roman Archaeology News (@RomArchable) August 31, 2021

Offbeat Humor

 

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A wild ride into an alternate reality

A fascinating piece for what it reveals.  "Blue No Matter Who" Gets You Sinema by Freddie deBoer.  I have enjoyed deBoer's writings for 2-4 years now.  I don't recall exactly when I first came across him, perhaps even longer ago than that.  He is a self-identified Marxist who has used a capitalist system, specifically Substack, to carve out a financial security which had previously been pretty precarious.  His primary interest is in education but he covers the waterfront.  

He is both refreshingly insightful and quirky but also maddeningly self-contradictory and impervious to some views that are pretty mainstream.  He has had bouts of bi-polar episodes in his writing career which also makes it somewhat challenging to read him - Am I reading a considered piece by him or one which is too strongly affected by his illness?

His argument in this piece is pretty strong.  Hard leftists such as himself are not well served by a voting strategy of Blue No Matter Who.  He argues that from a hard left perspective, the Democratic party is simply too big an ideological tent.  While the DNC gets the voting support of hard leftists, it does not deliver policy outcomes that the hard left seeks.

True enough but I am not sure I would agree that the Democratic Party has been unresponsive to the hard left.  While Obamacare ended up being a costly failure (ideologically, politically and financially) it certainly was a major commitment of the Democratic Party to a central tenant of the hard left; socialized medicine.

Which highlights a nuance.  It seems as if deBoer is complaining that the Democratic Party has been unresponsive to the hard left when in fact I suspect the chief criticism is that the Democratic Party has been unsuccessful at delivering on hard left policies.  Perhaps the blame is with the Democratic Party.  Perhaps it is simply a reality that most hard left policies are not well regarded among the American electorate.

But what I found most fascinating in this piece is the cascade of highly contestable assertions from a smart man which form the basis of his conclusions.  You sort of know that those assumptions are there, but they are out in the open in this piece.  You are left thinking, "How could you think that?"

I think Kyrsten Sinema was sent to earth to illustrate the limits of identity politics. It turns out that quirky bisexuals who serve lewks can also be regressive prima donnas who stand in the way of progress, seemingly for no reason other than pique and ego. Pieces like this, and there have been many, have not aged well.

I have a critique of Democrats that is not uncommon to the radical left. The Democrats are a neoliberal capitalist party that is dedicated to imperialism, militarism, and the ceaseless expansion of market relationships in all things. They are also better on almost all issues than the Republicans, ranging from far better (such as on abortion), to somewhat better (immigration), to barely better (foreign policy). The issue is that “better than the Republicans” is a bar about as low as “better than slowly lowering your genitals into a blender.” The other issue is that the Democrats pursue their agenda with far less zeal, and frequently with worse political strategy, than the Republicans. 

[snip]

There’s an existential bloodlessness to the Democrats, an addiction to procedure and appearing “reasonable” that is very poorly suited for getting into the street fights that Republicans relish. Though it’s typical to call this a “center-right country,” the Democrats enjoy some serious structural advantages, the most obvious of which is that Democratic economic positions are consistently more popular than those of Republicans, and people vote according to their pocketbooks. (I concede, however, that the Senate and the Electoral College are powerful impediments.) But Democrats never seem to pursue their objectives with the same fanatical intent as the GOP. Some will say that it’s that fanatical intent that has made the Republican party a death cult, but one way or the other, there is little percentage in being the more restrained party when restraint is making you lose. I think this is exemplified in the presidency of Barack Obama, who appeared to be doggedly attached to appearing to be more reasonable than Congressional Republicans, never seeming to grasp that there was simply no advantage to having that laurel.

For those of you, like me, less cutting edge and less hip to the slang, a lewk is someone who presents themselves in a manner to draw attention to themselves.  I was unaware Kyrsten Sinema was bisexual, quirky or otherwise, and am not sure I see its relevance other than as a token to the Democratic inclination to obsess over identity.  Or as some sort of oblique intra-ideology dig.

Those paragraphs are just so chock-a-block full of assertions that it is hard to keep track.  So I'll list them out to see if individual assessments change the overall sense of delusion.

The Democrats are a neoliberal capitalist party - Reasonably true.

The Democrats are dedicated to imperialism - Pretty untrue.  Not imperialism per se but international engagement in general and a willingness to deploy military forces expansively.  More than Republicans?  The argument could be made but it is debatable.  Neither, it seems to me hunger for imperialism but both are prone to careless and ineffective use of military adventures.  

The Democrats are dedicated to militarism - Debatable.  Not dealing with nationalists or Prussians here.  Do they use the military inappropriately and carelessly?  Sure.  That scarcely makes them militarists.  Addicted to military spending in their districts.  Sure.  But that doesn't rise to the level of militarist.  

The Democrats are dedicated to the ceaseless expansion of market relationships in all things - Untrue.  Hard to imagine what the evidence is that might support this statement.  Keen enthusiasts for the regulatory state?  Sure.  Enthusiastic about public-private ventures?  Certainly.  But those are definitions of fascism, the usual end-state of Socialism/Marxism.  Keynesians perhaps but certainly not Friedmanites.  

The Democrats pursue their agenda with far less zeal than Republicans - Untrue.  This is the one which really pulled me up short.  There is no Republican analog to Occupy Wall Street, Antifa, Ferguson Riots, Floyd Riots, Court Packing threats, Intent to nuke the filibuster, Intent to "fundamentally remake America", racial identititarianism, etc.  Interestingly, one of the most common self-critiques among Republicans is that they do not exhibit the same energetic zeal and willingness to go to the mat as seen among Democrats.

 The Democrats pursue their agenda with worse political strategy than the Republicans - Debatable.  Any single Democratic policy goal, when polled independently, almost never approaches majority support.  Abortion, climate change policy, energy policy, Obamacare, identitarianism, universal basic income, catch and release, defund the police, sociailism, Marxism, Diversity/Equity/Inclusion, forgivable college loans, etc.  Democrats have advanced all these policies far above their latent popularity among citizens.  They seem to have been pretty effective at playing a losing hand in a winning fashion.  

 

The Democrats suffer an existential bloodlessness - Untrue.  If measured by street protests and abandonment of civic and legislative norms.

 

The Democrats suffer an addiction to procedure - Hard to assess what this even means.

 

The Democrats are addicted to appearing “reasonable” - Untrue.  I watched an interview of Nancy Pelosi last night in which she claimed that an addition of $3.5 trillion to the national debt did not cost anything because it would be paid for through increased taxes.  Hardly an addiction to reasonableness or clarity of language and concepts.  Their commitment to racializing people and segregation at universities, is clearly not readonable.  The list goes on.

 

The Democrats are very poorly suited for getting into the street fights that Republicans relish. Untrue.  Occupy Wall Street, Antifa, the old Acorn - all street fighters.  We have all seen dozens and hundreds of Democrats in street riots, led by Antifa.  Hundreds of buildings burned.  Where is the analog on the Republican side?  The mainstream media keep trying to invoke the idea of legions of neo-Nazis, KKK, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Boogaloo Boys, etc.  However whenever they are announced as having a protest or march, you at most see a few dozen sad figures, and little or no violence (see the recent January 6th march in DC where there were a couple of dozen fringe individuals surrounded by a couple of hundred journalists and a couple of thousand Homeland Security and FBI undercover agents.  It is pretty embarrassing when the only arrest in a heralded protest is an undercover agent of the government. 

 

The Democrats never seem to pursue their objectives with the same fanatical intent as the GOP Untrue.  See above.  The only way I can see this argument being constructed is around constancy.  Democrats do tend to flit from issue to issue over time, fanatical in the moment.  Republicans just keep being persistent (though not always consistent) about their range of issues - free market, civil rights, freedom of speech, property, equality before the law, rule of law, etc.  But I don't think that persistence can be equated with fanaticism.  

 

The Democrats are doggedly attached to appearing to be more reasonable than Congressional Republicans - Untrue.  See above.  The constant claim to be remaking America seems inconsistent with wanting to appear to be reasonable.  

deBoer's arguments do follow somewhat logically from what he believes to be true.  It is just not clear to me that what he appears to believes is actually true.  

Data Talks

The CDC was very wrong.

"[Vaxx-based immunity] had a 13X increased risk for breakthrough infection compared to those previously infected... Natural immunity confers longer-lasting and stronger protection against infection and hospitalization..."https://t.co/VgB0K3ZD7a pic.twitter.com/e0q9D6uPpa

— Aaron Ginn (@aginnt) August 25, 2021

 

Primrose Morn by Phil Greenwood (born 1943)

Primrose Morn by Phil Greenwood (born 1943) 

Click to enlarge.

We were a serious people with serious standards back then.

The Straw Hat Riot.

The Straw Hat Riot of 1922 was a riot that occurred in New York City, United States. Originating as a series of minor riots, it spread due to men wearing straw hats past the unofficial date that was deemed socially acceptable, September 15. It lasted eight days, leading to many arrests and some injuries.

Straw hats had appeared in the 19th century as summertime wear usually in connection to summer sporting events such as boating (hence the name boater). Soft Panama hats were likewise derived from tropical attire but began to be worn as informal summer attire. Initially it was not considered good form for men to wear these in big cities even at the height of summer (women's hats were different). By the early 20th century, straw boaters were considered acceptable day attire in North American cities at the height of summer even for businessmen, but there was an unwritten rule that one was not supposed to wear a straw hat past September 15 (which was known as "Felt Hat Day").

This date was arbitrary; earlier it had been September 1, but it eventually shifted to mid-month. It was socially acceptable for stockbrokers to destroy each other's hats, due to the fact that they were “companions”, but it was not acceptable for total strangers. If any man was seen wearing a straw hat, he was, at minimum, subjecting himself to ridicule, and it was a tradition for youths to knock straw hats off wearers' heads and stomp on them. This tradition became well established, and newspapers of the day would often warn people of the impending approach of the fifteenth, when men would have to switch to felt or silk hats. Hat bashing was only socially acceptable after September 15, but there were multiple occasions leading up to this date where the police had to intervene and stop teenagers.

The riot itself began on September 13, 1922, two days before the supposed unspoken date, when a group of youths decided to get an early jump on the tradition. This group began in the former "Mulberry Bend" area of Manhattan by removing and stomping hats worn by factory workers who were employed in the area. The more innocuous stomping turned into a brawl when the youths tried to stomp a group of dock workers' hats, and the dock workers fought back. The brawl soon stopped traffic on the Manhattan Bridge and was eventually broken up by police, leading to some arrests.

Although the initial brawl was broken up by police, the fights continued to escalate the next evening. Gangs of teenagers prowled the streets wielding large sticks, sometimes with a nail driven through the top, looking for pedestrians wearing straw hats and beating those who resisted. One man claimed that his hat was taken and the group who had taken his hat joined a mob of about 1,000 that was snatching hats all along Amsterdam Avenue. Several men were hospitalized from the beatings they received after resisting having their hats taken, and many arrests were made. Police were slow to respond to the riots, although several off-duty police officers found themselves caught up in the brawl when rioters attempted to snatch their hats. Two or three boys were accosted by pedestrians who said that their straw hats had been smashed; the boys were arrested.

History

This imposing Samnite helmet and neck guard is our #ArtefactOfTheDay!

Dating to 450 BCE, it is a unique bronze hybrid of Samnite and Chalcidian styles. The Samnites, an Italic people, fought with the Romans until their eventual subjugation.#Classics #Italian #Archaeology #War pic.twitter.com/GAHWVBUdVU

— The Classical Compendium 🏛️ (@TheClassicalCo) August 25, 2021

 

An Insight

Technocrats slowly awakening to find that no one is at the wheel https://t.co/G8I0OROthH

— Auron MacIntyre (@AuronMacintyre) August 31, 2021

 

On The Move by Ben Paterson

From On The Move by Ben Paterson.  From the album Blues For Oscar. 

Double click to enlarge.

I see wonderful things

The Waitomo Glow-worm Cave is home to thousands of glow-worms that light up the cave ceiling like a starry night sky. This species of glow-worm, Arachnocampa luminosa, which is found exclusively in New Zealand, emits a blue-green glow that illuminates the underground cave river. pic.twitter.com/XhcbUxMpyo

— Archaeo - Histories (@archeohistories) August 30, 2021

 

Offbeat Humor

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Data Talks

The WashDC area has doubled in population since 1980.

If the temperature data is adequately adjusted for the urban heat island effect, there's very little if any warming.https://t.co/CzZWFQK5Iz

— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) August 26, 2021

 

Data Talks

People "who trust science are more likely to believe false claims that contain scientific references than false claims that do not... reminding [people] of the value of critical evaluation reduces belief in false claims, whereas reminders of the value of trusting science do not." pic.twitter.com/YUDWLJNADz

— Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill) August 26, 2021

 

History

Panel of Black Dappled Horses, almost 4m long, c.25,000 years old, in Pech-Merle Cave, Lot, France. The head of the horse on the right is purposefully set within the natural contour of the rock. Black dots were applied within & around the horses, as well as 6 black hand stencils pic.twitter.com/2Gl7LR4AmA

— Bradshaw Foundation (@BradshawFND) August 25, 2021

 

An Insight

I'm old enough to remember when "historian" and "journalist" were not synonyms for "political activist."

The reduction of the former vocations to the latter amounts to a net loss of social goods.

— Scott R. Swain (@scottrswain) August 26, 2021

 

I see wonderful things

do i really have to get that damn cat again ? pic.twitter.com/ACXLlTT4nl

— Humor And Animals (@humorandanimals) August 30, 2021

 

Offbeat Humor

Moogle maps 😂pic.twitter.com/AmzMDxZPyb

— CCTV_IDIOTS (@cctv_idiots) August 26, 2021

 

Data Talks

A downside of remote work is that we can't casually learn from each other they way we could in an office. The effects of such interactions are huge: Lunch meetings between two salespeople where they discussed sales approaches boosted revenues for both by 24% for months after! pic.twitter.com/lPVUaB1YeH

— Ethan Mollick (@emollick) December 11, 2020

 

People saying: “It can’t be done,” are always being interrupted by somebody doing it.

From Puck magazine in December 1902.

Things move along so rapidly nowadays that people saying: “It can’t be done,” are always being interrupted by somebody doing it.

 

Nissaka on Tokaido Road by Kawase Hasui

Nissaka on Tokaido Road by Kawase Hasui

Click to enlarge.

Well, they want to feel earnest. Their ideas make them feel moral and yet don’t damage their position.

In 1899, Thorstein Veblen published The Theory of the Leisure Class, highlighting conspicuous consumption as a means of the wealthy and powerful to distinguish themselves from ordinary citizens.

Times change and the competitive market economy has been a boon to all classes since 1899.  We produce far more complex goods for much less than we did in the past.  Which creates a challenge for those wishing to signal their social status by the goods they consume.

Rob Henderson commented on this in ‘Luxury beliefs’ are the latest status symbol for rich Americans by Rob Henderson.

In the past, upper-class Americans used to display their social status with luxury goods. Today, they do it with luxury beliefs.

People care a lot about social status. In fact, research indicates that respect and admiration from our peers are even more important than money for our sense of well-being.

We feel pressure to display our status in new ways. This is why fashionable clothing always changes. But as trendy clothes and other products become more accessible and affordable, there is increasingly less status attached to luxury goods.

The upper classes have found a clever solution to this problem: luxury beliefs. These are ideas and opinions that confer status on the rich at very little cost, while taking a toll on the lower class.

One example of luxury belief is that all family structures are equal. This is not true. Evidence is clear that families with two married parents are the most beneficial for young children. And yet, affluent, educated people raised by two married parents are more likely than others to believe monogamy is outdated, marriage is a sham or that all families are the same.

Relaxed attitudes about marriage trickle down to the working class and the poor. In the 1960s, marriage rates between upper-class and lower-class Americans were nearly identical. But during this time, affluent Americans loosened social norms, expressing skepticism about marriage and monogamy.

This luxury belief contributed to the erosion of the family. Today, the marriage rates of affluent Americans are nearly the same as they were in the 1960s. But working-class people are far less likely to get married. Furthermore, out-of-wedlock birthrates are more than 10 times higher than they were in 1960, mostly among the poor and working class. Affluent people seldom have kids out of wedlock but are more likely than others to express the luxury belief that doing so is of no consequence. 

His is an attractive hypothesis and I substantially agree though I think there are a few wrinkles and nuances not yet explicated.

Interestingly though, Henderson points out that the idea was expressed at least as early as 1881 in Portrait of a Lady by Henry James.  In surprisingly specific language.

“Of whom are you speaking?”

“Well, I mean Lord Warburton and his friends—the radicals of the upper class. Of course I only know the way it strikes me. They talk about the changes, but I don’t think they quite realise. You and I, you know, we know what it is to have lived under democratic institutions: I always thought them very comfortable, but I was used to them from the first. And then I ain’t a lord; you’re a lady, my dear, but I ain’t a lord. Now over here I don’t think it quite comes home to them. It’s a matter of every day and every hour, and I don’t think many of them would find it as pleasant as what they’ve got. Of course if they want to try, it’s their own business; but I expect they won’t try very hard.”

“Don’t you think they’re sincere?” Isabel asked.

“Well, they want to feel earnest,” Mr. Touchett allowed; “but it seems as if they took it out in theories mostly. Their radical views are a kind of amusement; they’ve got to have some amusement, and they might have coarser tastes than that. You see they’re very luxurious, and these progressive ideas are about their biggest luxury. They make them feel moral and yet don’t damage their position. They think a great deal of their position; don’t let one of them ever persuade you he doesn’t, for if you were to proceed on that basis you’d be pulled up very short.”

Communism, Socialism, Universal Basic Income,  Equality of Outcomes, Blank Slatism, Deconstructionism, Socially Constructed Reality, Heredity Denialism, etc. - All luxury beliefs intended to foster as sense of earnestness among the privileged at the expense of the ordinary.  

History

A c. 2,000 year old Roman wooden toilet seat. An unexpected and very rare discovery during excavations in 2014 at Vindolanda Roman fort in Northumberland. It was remarkably well preserved due to the waterlogged soil conditions. #RomanFortThursday#Archaeology pic.twitter.com/jYbauWiXEH

— Alison Fisk (@AlisonFisk) August 26, 2021

 

An Insight

Constitutions are checks upon the hasty action of the majority. They are the self-imposed restraints of a whole people upon a majority of them to secure sober action and a respect for the rights of the minority. - William Howard Taft

— Cerebral Wisdom (@CerebralWisdom) August 26, 2021

 

I see wonderful things

These are the pupae of the Mechanitis polymnia butterfly

Appearing in dense forests as shafts of sunlight or drops of rain

reflecting their surroundings, and even if detected predators are startled at the reflection of their own movement
📹 https://t.co/YTOZ1GDk5t IG timtas1c pic.twitter.com/Zv0nzcybtL

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) August 30, 2021

 

Offbeat Humor

Click to enlarge.

Data Talks

5 yrs after /pol/ knows the truth, GMU knows the truth. 5 yrs after GMU knows it, SSC knows it. Once SSC knows, within 5yrs disagreeable leftists learn of it; and finally journalists will find out 20 yrs after /pol/, inshallah https://t.co/DvDeXuBg94

— tantum (@QuasLacrimas) August 24, 2021

Shaded From the Midday Sun by Orville Bulman

Shaded From the Midday Sun by Orville Bulman

Click to enlarge.

My Back Pages by Bob Dylan

Double click to enlarge.

My Back Pages  

by Bob Dylan

Crimson flames tied through my ears, rollin' high and mighty traps
Pounced with fire on flaming roads using ideas as my maps
"We'll meet on edges, soon, " said I, proud 'neath heated brow
Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now 

 

Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth, "rip down all hate, " I screamed
Lies that life is black and white spoke from my skull, I dreamed
Romantic facts of musketeers foundationed deep, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now 

 

Girls' faces formed the forward path from phony jealousy
To memorizing politics of ancient history
Flung down by corpse evangelists, unthought of, though somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then. I'm younger than that now 

 

A self-ordained professor's tongue too serious to fool
Spouted out that liberty is just equality in school
"Equality, " I spoke the word as if a wedding vow
Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now 

 

In a soldier's stance, I aimed my hand at the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not that I'd become my enemy in the instant that I preach
My existence led by confusion boats, mutiny from stern to bow
Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now 

 

Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking I had something to protect
Good and bad, I define these terms quite clear, no doubt, somehow

Ah, but I was so much older then I'm younger than that now
 

The Law of the Instrument

The Law of the Instrument

The law of the instrument, law of the hammer, Maslow's hammer (or gavel), or golden hammer[a] is a cognitive bias that involves an over-reliance on a familiar tool. As Abraham Maslow said in 1966, "I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail."

The concept is attributed both to Maslow and to Abraham Kaplan, although the hammer and nail line may not be original to either of them.

The English expression "a Birmingham screwdriver," meaning a hammer, refers to the practice of using the one tool for all purposes, and predates both Kaplan and Maslow by at least a century. 

 

History

Some of the Macedonian soldiers who crossed over the Hellespont into Asia in 334 BC with Alexander the Great were still fighting in armies c.20 years later. Despite some being in their 50s and 60s, they were still regarded as the most elite fighting force in the known world. pic.twitter.com/ibwls3eanZ

— Ancient History Hit (@HistoryHitRome) August 25, 2021

An Insight

Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man. There has never been a really good one, and even those that are most tolerable are arbitrary, cruel, grasping, and unintelligent. - H. L. Mencken

— Cerebral Wisdom (@CerebralWisdom) August 26, 2021

 

I see wonderful things

A rare sighting of the legendary goat tree 😂 pic.twitter.com/QgVmLoYpSi

— CCTV_IDIOTS (@cctv_idiots) August 29, 2021

 

Offbeat Humor

The 1980's era Soviet Jokes assembled by CIA staff for the Deputy Director, Central Intelligence were declassified in 2016

(No date for when they were written, but likely 1985-87 b/c of the Gorbachev / booze references, Gorby tried partial prohibition.)https://t.co/zJGjUOMCAW pic.twitter.com/gGPW5c8d45

— TheHuntForTomClancy (@HuntClancy) August 23, 2021

 

Data Talks

For obvious reasons a lot of attention focuses on China v. US competition. But China’s overhauling of Russia is a dramatic reversal of Eurasian balance. https://t.co/3EC6warasR pic.twitter.com/JeGmq5dE4D

— Adam Tooze (@adam_tooze) August 23, 2021

'Per strada', Belfast, 1968 photo by Mario Dondero

'Per strada', Belfast, 1968 photo by Mario Dondero

Click to enlarge.

History

The Sunken City of Baia, Italy. It was a Roman seaside resort on the Bay of Naples. Baiae was even more popular than Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Caprihttps://t.co/em60tarFT9 pic.twitter.com/5UEmSRzKmB

— Ancient Origins (@ancientorigins) August 24, 2021

 

An Insight

Mortality from #COVID19 differs more than a thousand-fold between the old and young. Focused protection is the compassionate approach that balances COVID risks and collateral damage to public health.https://t.co/63I0hcZK1J

— Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) August 23, 2021

 

College "Move-In Day"--Army Style

He had me in tears.  From College "Move-In Day"--Army Style by C. Bradley Thompson.  Worth reading.  

I see wonderful things

Ishtar Gate, built by Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II in Mesopotamia, 575 BC, was built using blue lapis lazuli and bricks containing strong asphalt. It contains inscriptions represents goddess Marduk and goddess Ishtar, symbol of love, beauty and war.

Pergamon Museum, Germany pic.twitter.com/5GVrci5GJp

— Archaeo - Histories (@archeohistories) August 29, 2021

 

Offbeat Humor

Meanwhile, in South Africa… pic.twitter.com/YjpsLzj3X0

— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) August 22, 2021

 

Data Talks

Interesting: People who score high in masculinity, whether men or women, are less prone to depression than those who score low. But people who score high in masculinity *and* femininity are the least prone. https://t.co/2Qji6dAyf7

— Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill) August 23, 2021

 

View, 2018 by Kevin Peterson

View, 2018 by Kevin Peterson

Click to enlarge.

History

Small toy wooden swords and daggers from the Roman fort of Vindolanda near Hadrian's Wall, a touching reminder of children and families that survived at the dangerous frontier of the empire; these toys likely played with by boys hoping to follow their fathers into the Roman army. pic.twitter.com/uRzGibqg5K

— Gareth Harney (@OptimoPrincipi) August 23, 2021

 

An Insight

Extinction Rebellion are basically middle class people trying to stop working class people get to work.

— C2DEs Anon. (@c2des) August 23, 2021

 

I see wonderful things

Each species of tiny peacock spider has a unique, dramatic abdomen and courtship display. https://t.co/elIiLRHiZi

— Discover Magazine (@DiscoverMag) August 26, 2021

 

Offbeat Humor

Dominion Voting Machine Really Starting To Regret Its 50,000 Votes For Biden https://t.co/hqdHjMCf0q

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) August 22, 2021

 

Data Talks

World Happiness Index 2021 https://t.co/VhUt53RT2M pic.twitter.com/J37hgGTKnn

— Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill) August 22, 2021

 

Women decorating porcelain Royal Copenhagen by Emma Meyer

Women decorating porcelain Royal Copenhagen by Emma Meyer

Click to enlarge.

It's the season, not the masks.

These pieces are published a week or so apart but I am seeing them within an hour of one another.  Following the science means, on balance, quite a degree of skepticism about masking.  It has been a good while since I have seen any sort of half way rigorous study supporting the utility and effectiveness of mass masking with cloth masks.  The preponderance of evidence suggests it simply doesn't have a measurable benefit.

So this report about a professor, apparently among several professors, in the University of Georgia system is interesting.  A science professor being strident about adherence to a policy with weak or negligible empirical evidence to support it.  From ‘Morale Is in the Ditch’: Distressed by Light Covid Precautions, Georgia Faculty Members Take Action by Emma Pettit.  Pettit, as a journalist and non-scientist, is sympathetic to his concerns and treats masking as an effective strategy as a given.

Joseph H.G. Fu knew he was breaking the rules.

In August, the University of Georgia mathematics professor told students that they must wear a mask to attend lectures or office hours, and that he reserved the right to cancel all in-person interactions and conduct them over Zoom.

That runs afoul of University System of Georgia policy. Instructors at the system’s 26 public colleges aren’t allowed to require masks or unilaterally change their course modality. The system also distributed a template to provosts for disciplining faculty members who move a class online without prior approval, or who miss a lecture without either prior approval or a “documentable illness.” The steps range from a verbal warning to suspension or a reduction in duties and pay, depending on the conduct. Consideration for dismissal “will commence according to USG and university policy,” the guidance says. (Lance Wallace, the system’s associate vice chancellor for communications, said in an email the disciplinary framework is intended to help institutions “fashion their own policy or procedure” and does not carry the authority of a policy.)

Teresa MacCartney, acting system chancellor, defended the system’s Covid plans at a recent Board of Regents meeting. She said that students and state leaders expect safe, in-person learning, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. “We continue to be in alignment with the governor’s expectations,” she noted. Gov. Brian P. Kemp, a Republican, opposes both mask and vaccine mandates. He has banned colleges and other state entities from requiring proof of vaccination, and also barred cities from requiring businesses to enforce local mask mandates, the Associated Press reported.

Yet Fu, like many faculty members across the state, doesn’t see the logic of those decisions. Fueled by the Delta variant, Covid hospitalizations across Georgia reached and then surpassed the levels of the winter peak. Meanwhile, vaccination rates lag. Faculty members are teaching to full classrooms in which they can only cajole students — some of whom are unvaccinated, as the system encourages vaccination but does not require it — to mask up. Some feel like their ability to determine what’s best for their students, and themselves, has been stripped. “Morale,” said Cindy Hahamovitch, president of the University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences’ Faculty Senate, “is in the ditch.”

The basic issue is that 1) Fu disagrees with the University System of Georgia policy and presumably the science on which they base it and 2) he wants them to accommodate his differing interpretation.  Fair enough.  Who has a better grasp of the science?

Apparently the University System of Georgia system.  From this thread of tweets.

And all without a mask mandate in the University System of Georgia! And this isn't unique to the Delta variant - we saw the same sharp rise and fall among college students last year as well. And before you blame lack of testing - test positivity also fell sharply at UGA. https://t.co/UpbUjOy50O

— Kelley K 😀 * covid-georgia.com (@KelleyKga) September 23, 2021

We've seen the same thing happen in K-12 schools as well, to the surprise of absolutely no one who has been paying attention. (Despite many "expert" predictions that school cases would continue rising exponentially without a major shift in strategy.) https://t.co/fVA86bB7lp

— Kelley K 😀 * covid-georgia.com (@KelleyKga) September 23, 2021

Click through for the thread.  

Case loads are being driven by seasons.  To the degree that masks make any difference (disputed),  it is so small a difference as to be dwarfed by the seasonality effect.  The summer/fall Covid peak hit in the South and is now fading.  Masks or no masks.

The masking campaign is built on personal opinions and not on the science.

Same thing is apparent with football games.  At peak cases a month or so ago, southern universities began to holding their football games in arenas of 50-100,000.  All those yelling, closely packed, enthusiastic unmasked fans in close contact for hours at a time?  Yet I have seen no reporting of any super spreader events.  

What is passionately believed by certain STEM professors does not necessarily have any grounding in reality.  It's the season, not the masks.

History

Pair of gold hoop earrings, from eastern Mediterranean culture for a deceased woman buried together with other precious ornaments in the Senone necropolis of Montefortino di Arcevia, at the end of the 2nd century BC.#archaeohistories pic.twitter.com/M1MOkQFfBp

— Archaeo - Histories (@archeohistories) August 23, 2021

 

An Insight

The strange superstition has arisen in the Western world that we can start all over again, remaking human nature, human society, and the possibilities of happiness; as though the knowledge and experience of our ancestors were now entirely irrelevant.

— Roger Scruton

— A New Radical Centrism (@a_centrism) August 24, 2021

 

I see wonderful things

This is a wolf spider carrying her babies.

The sparkles are their eyes..

many creatures that need to see well in dim light have a tapetum lucidum, it is a retroreflector. It reflects visible light back through the retina.

Unsettling or exciting?pic.twitter.com/lltzGfliG6

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) August 26, 2021

 

Sometimes we know we don't know

Being involved in our neighborhood association for the past few years has brought home to me just how poor some of data collection processes are in terms of some quite serious issues.  Crime is the easy example.  We have crime data from the Atlanta Police Department which shows increased crime but at a relatively low level.  Why?  Because they only show outcomes resulting in an arrest or a report of some obvious crime (car stolen, for example).

Then we have sources like Citizen (reports of incidents reported on the police dispatch system.)  Or Neighbors which are resident generated incident reports.  These numbers are much higher than APD's partly because it includes unverified crime but primarily because many people are reluctant to report to the police but are more comfortable reporting it on a social media app.  Also, APDs protocols preclude many crimes being reported.  For example, I am out on a morning walk and see a car with its window smashed in and robbed.  I call it in to APD but they won't dispatch on it because I am neither the vehicle owner nor did I witness the window smashing.  A crime has been committed but it is not in the numbers.

Then there is NextDoor, often dominated by Karens but still pretty useful because it covers things that slip through the APD cracks.  A homeless man stands on a corner, lunging and shouting at passersby.  He slips away before the police arrive.  No crime to report because the police weren't there to see it.  But there was an attempted crime non-the-less.  

So if you are interested in the real world prevalence of crime, what numbers do you use?  Do a survey?  APD numbers?  Citizen?  Neighbors?  NextDoor?  A synthesis of all of them together?

None of them is reliable or complete on its own.  Yet without good crime numbers, how do we allocate and manage scarce policing manpower?

Many social issues have the Achille's heel.  The problem is real.  We want to solve it.  The causal factors are ambiguous.  We don't have a holistic measure either of dimensions of the issue nor the process.  

This issue of consequential social issue undermine by poor measurement mechanisms is explored in There Are Far More Defensive Gun Uses Than Murders in America. Here's Why You Rarely Hear of Them. by John R. Lott Jr..

We have a reasonably good handle on the number deaths by murder and deaths by suicide per year.  What we are missing are the number of attempted crimes?  How many crimes were attempted but not completed?  And of those which were attempted, how many were abandoned based on victim response (physical attack, knife, gun, etc.)?  

There is a philosophical argument for citizen ownership of guns as represented in the Second Amendment and that is to ensure that the individual citizen can and does represent a constraint on government.  You can accept or reject the argument, but it is a valid argument.

But there is a pragmatic argument as well.  Does gun ownership reduce attempted crime?  Here is where the data is critical and so often absent.

These are just a few of the nearly 1,000 instances reported by the media so far this year in which gun owners have stopped mass shootings and other murderous acts, saving countless lives. And crime experts say such high-profile cases represent only a small fraction of the instances in which guns are used defensively. But the data are unclear, for a number of reasons, and this has political ramifications because it seems to undercut the claims of gun rights advocates that they need to possess firearms for personal protection -- an issue now before the Supreme Court.

Americans who look only at the daily headlines would be surprised to learn that, according to academic estimates, defensive gun uses — including instances when guns are simply shown to deter a crime — are four to five times more common than gun crimes, and far more frequent than the fewer than 20,000 murders each year, with or without a gun. But even when they prevent mass public shootings, defensive uses rarely get national news coverage. Those living in major news markets such as New York City, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles are unlikely to hear of such stories.

Lott then addresses other issues in the measurement of victim deterrence of criminals.  He then addresses what is known.  

The U.S. Department of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Survey indicates that around 100,000 defensive gun uses occur each year -- an estimate that, though it may seem like a lot, is actually much lower than 17 other surveys. They find between 760,000 defensive handgun uses and 3.6 million defensive uses of any type of gun per year, with an average of about 2 million.

The difference between these surveys arises from the screening questions. The National Crime Victimization Survey first asks a person if they have been a victim of a crime. Only respondents who answer “yes” are asked if they have ever used a gun defensively.

In contrast, the other surveys screen respondents by asking if they have been threatened with violence. That produces more self-acknowledged defensive gun users, since someone who successfully brandished a gun is less likely to self-characterize as a crime victim. Survey data indicate that in 95% of cases when people use guns defensively, they merely show the gun to make the criminal back off. Such defensive gun uses rarely make the news, though a few do.

About 75% of all (~20,000) murders per year are committed with guns.  Obviously a number we would want to reduce.

But how?  The obvious, instinctual response is gun control.  Keep guns out of the hands of citizens.  

But H.L. Mencken's 1917 observation kicks in.

There is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong.

Gun control, aside from its constitutionality and 2nd Amendment implications, is a solution, but is it a viable solution.

Does it reduce murders?  The evidence is unclear in the US whether that is the case.  What is rarely addressed is what Lott is addressing here.  Guns in the hands of criminals are used to commit murders.  But guns in the hands of law abiding citizens avert crime and death as well.

If a well armed populace suffers 15,000 gun murders a year, we do have to set that in the context of the number of murders which they may be used to avert.  That is hard to know.  Using the 2 million number used above, one might argue that guns in the hands of responsible citizens helps reduce murders.  But by how much?  If citizens use guns 2 million times a year to deter a crime being committed, how many of those might have been murders?  We don't know.  If all of them were averted murder attempts, then 2 million.  If 10%, 200,000.  If 1%, then 20,000.  

We don't have the data to be confident in the number.  It is not implausible that it is 1% or more, in which case, armed citizens may actually be an effective means of reducing gun deaths.  

But we don't know.  Just as with Covid-19 and just as with most other consequential social issues, our data definitions and data collection mechanisms are simply not up to answering the questions we most want answered.  Arguments then revert to quasi-religious convictions rather than actual evidence.  

Offbeat Humor

Read some contemporary Race “Scholarship”. You’ll find that this summary is not an exaggeration pic.twitter.com/FtqwgfykoI

— The Woke Temple (@WokeTemple) August 22, 2021

 

Data Talks

Effectiveness of masks by type via Univ. of Waterloo study:

Cloth masks - 9.8%
Blue surgical masks - 12.4%
KN95 - 46.3%
N95 - 60.2%

Please spare me the 'safety' argument regarding Disney when most of you are wearing a cloth mask with a picture of Mickey Mouse blowing a whistle.

— Disney Glimpses (@disneyglimpses) August 22, 2021

 

Balephuil Retreat by Dale Bissland

Balephuil Retreat by Dale Bissland

Click to enlarge.

A criticism that is way more broadly applicable than it should be.

From Michael Hart

Politicians are throwing money that they don’t have at a problem that doesn’t exist in order to finance solutions that make no difference.

A criticism that is way more broadly applicable than it should be. 

Thermopylae by C.P. Cavafy

Thermopylae

by C.P. Cavafy

Translated by David Connolly

Honour to those who in their lives 

resolved to defend some Thermopylae. 

Never wavering from duty; 

just and forthright in all their deeds, 

but with pity and compassion too; 

generous whenever rich, and when 

poor, still generous in smaller ways, 

still helping all they can; 

always speaking the truth, 

yet without hatred for those who lie. 

And still more honour is their due 

when they foresee (and many do foresee) 

that Ephialtes will eventually appear, 

and the Medes will, in the end, get through. 

Ancient mosaic panorama of Alexandria

From the Jerash Archaeological Museum in Jordan, a segment of the mosaic pavement in the church of St John the Baptist showing the urban landscape of 6th century AD Alexandria in Egypt.

Click to enlarge.

History

Chand Baori is one of largest stepwells in World.Built more than 1000 years ago in Abhaneri village of Rajasthan, India.
It's 64ft deep, 13 floors, and has 3,500 narrow steps. Stepwells were built in arid zones of Rajasthan to provide water all year through. #archaeohistories pic.twitter.com/tGl0AvbsB3

— Archaeo - Histories (@archeohistories) August 23, 2021

 

An Insight

"The phrase 'survival of the fittest' also fosters misconceptions...A gene or trait that increases reproduction will be selected for even if it causes suffering, increases risk of disease, or shortens life." pic.twitter.com/vGH4nH6j5v

— Rob Henderson (@robkhenderson) August 23, 2021

 

I see wonderful things

French citizens boycott vaccine passports by eating right in front of nearly empty, vaxx-only bars and restaurants.
Red pill news UK pic.twitter.com/B3MqUmpTsv

— Gary (@GaryJac34303792) August 25, 2021

 

Mare's nest

I haven't seen this phrase used in years.  Having been partly raised and educated in the UK, though American, it makes it difficult to determine whether this is due to differences in US-UK writing and language use or whether it reflects a decline in a word or phrase usage.   

mare's nest

/ˈmerz ˌnest/ 

 

noun

1.

a complex and difficult situation; a muddle.

"your desk is usually a mare's nest"

2.

an illusory discovery.

"the mare's nest of perfect safety"

Looking at Ngram viewer, it appears that "mare's nest" was more commonly used in the past in the UK than in the US, but that it is on a rising trend in the US in the past 20 years whereas it is declining in the UK.  So just another weird philological trend.  

British English

American English

Offbeat Humor

 

Click to enlarge.

Data Talks

Antarctic sea ice extent is well above average, and the total extent of sea ice on earth is higher than it was in 1990 when the UN IPCC @IPCC_CH wrote their first report predicting the demise of sea ice.https://t.co/Lmu35UO0Mb https://t.co/5cMLzjrxPP pic.twitter.com/opLg8cvnpX

— Tony Heller (@Tony__Heller) August 22, 2021

 

Autumn Evening on the Rhine by Jan Schüler

Autumn Evening on the Rhine by Jan Schüler 

Click to enlarge.

Into White by Cat Stevens

Double click to enlarge.

Into White

by Cat Stevens

I built my house

From barley rice

Green pepper walls

And water ice

Tables of paper wood

Windows of light

And everything emptyin'

Into white

A simple garden

With acres of sky

A brown-haired dogmouse

If one dropped by

Yellow Delanie

Would sleep well at night

With everything emptying

Into white

A sad blue-eyed drummer

Rehearses outside

A black spider dancin'

On top of his eye

Red legged chicken

Stands ready to strike

And everything emptying

Into white

I built my house

From barley rice

Green pepper walls

And water ice

And everything emptyin'

Into white

So true!

Old but evergreen meme.  And this one really sums up our current national dilemma.

Click to enlarge.

Dante

Sculpture can sometimes be such a compelling communication.  Love this Italian white marble bust of Dante from the mid 19th century.  

Click to enlarge. 

Louis IX of France had the structure rebuilt as the Castle of St. Louis, but it fell again, this time to the Mongols, in 1260

Separate from my news reading, I usually have 20-40 books going at any one time.  Part of that is due to a total lack of reading focus, the flip side of irrepressible curiosity.  I do justify it to myself, to a small extent, as a pattern of reading more likely to generate serendipitous connections, both between books and between books and news I am reading.

In a a continuing pitiable effort to weed out books, I am currently making my way through the many tall stacks of books on the floor of my library.  In doing so, I come across the Penguin Classics Joinville and Villehardouin Chronicles of the Crusades.  Joinville lived from around 1150-1218 and Villehardouin from 1224-1317.  They both accompanied their respective kings on their crusades and prepared accounts of their ventures.

I have been desultorily leafing through it, reading snatches here and there.  Wonderful material but not a compelling narrative drive.  

I see today in the news, reports of a recently excavated burial from this time.  From Mass Graves of 13th-Century Crusaders Reveal Brutality of Medieval Warfare by Livia Gershon.  

Archaeologists in Lebanon have unearthed two mass graves containing the remains of 25 Crusaders killed in the 13th century. The team found the skeletons of the young men and teenage boys in Sidon, on the Mediterranean coast, reports Ben Turner for Live Science.

All of the bones bear unhealed wounds from stabbing, slicing or blunt force trauma. Most of the injuries were to the fighters’ backs, suggesting they may have been killed while fleeing—possibly by adversaries on horseback, based on where the blows fell on their bodies. The archaeologists published their findings in the journal PLOS One.

“When we found so many weapon injuries on the bones as we excavated them, I knew we had made a special discovery,” says lead author Richard Mikulski, an archaeologist at Bournemouth University in England, in a statement.

Analysis of tooth isotopes and DNA showed that some of the deceased were born in Europe, while others were the offspring of European Crusaders who had children with locals in the Middle East, the Daily Mail’s Stacy Liberatore reports. The researchers also found European-style belt buckles and a Crusader coin, along with artifacts like fragments of Persian pottery and iron nails.

European forces captured Sidon—an important port city—in 1110 C.E., after the First Crusade, and held it for more than a century. But in 1253, Mamluk forces attacked and destroyed the fortress that the Crusaders were using to defend the city. The next year, Louis IX of France had the structure rebuilt as the Castle of St. Louis, but it fell again, this time to the Mongols, in 1260. The mass graves are located near the castle, and the researchers say it is “highly likely” that the Crusaders died in one of these two battles.

“Crusader records tell us that King Louis IX of France was on crusade in the Holy Land at the time of the attack on Sidon in 1253,” says study co-author Piers Mitchell, a biological anthropologist at the University of Cambridge, in the statement. “He went to the city after the battle and personally helped to bury the rotting corpses in mass graves such as these. Wouldn’t it be amazing if King Louis himself had helped to bury these bodies?”

 Mass Graves of 13th-Century Crusaders Reveal Brutality of Medieval Warfare by Livia Gershon stubbornly resides in the remain stack.  Not a page turner but a fascinating plate to serve from.  

From Villehardouin's account (Saida is Sidon):

As you know, the great host of Saracens assembled before Acre had not dared to fight against us nor against the men of Acre. When they heard the report (a true one) that the king had sent no more than a very small contingent of good men to fortify the city of Saida,1 they marched in that direction. Simon de Montbéliard, who was master of the king’s crossbowmen and in command of his Majesty’s forces in that city, no sooner heard that the Saracens were advancing than he withdrew to the fortress of Saida, which is very strong and surrounded on all sides by the sea. He did this because he was well aware that he had no power to resist the enemy. He took shelter in the castle with as many people as he could, but these were only a few, for space there was extremely limited.

The Saracens poured into Saida and met with no resistance, for the town was not completely surrounded by walls. They killed more than two thousand of our people, and then went off to Damascus with the booty they had gained in the town. When news of this reached the king he was deeply vexed. (Ah! if only he could have repaired the loss 1) The barons of the land, however, considered it a very fortunate occurrence, because the king had otherwise intended to go and fortify a piece of rising ground on the way from Jaffa to Jerusalem, on which an ancient fortress had stood since the days of the Maccabees.

The barons of Outremer did not think it advisable to have the walls of this old castle rebuilt, because it was five leagues from the sea so that no provisions could be sent there from the ports without the risk of their falling into the hands of the Saracens, who were stronger than we were. So when news of the destruction of Saida reached the camp, these men came to the king and told him that it would be more to his honour to re-fortify that town than to build a new fortress. The king agreed to follow their advice.

[snip]

The next day we returned to Saida, where the king was staying. We found that he had personally supervised the burying of the bodies of all the Christians whom the Saracens had killed when they destroyed the city. He himself had carried some of the rotting, evil-smelling corpses to the trenches to be buried, and that without ever holding his nose, as others had done. He had sent for workmen from all the country round, and had started to re-fortify the city with high walls and towers. When we arrived at the camp we found that he himself had seen to measuring out the sites where our tents were to be set up. He had allotted me a place near to the Comte d’Eu, because he knew that this young knight was fond of my company.