Exeter Cathedral, begun in 1114 and completed around 1350. The cathedral’s ceiling or ‘vault’ measures almost 100m, the longest continuous medieval stone vault in the world. pic.twitter.com/PyuED6TxWL
— Gareth Harney (@OptimoPrincipi) December 18, 2021
Blitzen considers ending it all after being fired from Santa’s sleigh. Then he remembers he can fly. pic.twitter.com/PPXQ5RRhmy
— Alan Cornett (@alancornett) December 14, 2021
We covered where he went to high school and college, his participation in the rationalist community, how he uses Twitter, how he came to be a go-to analyst of COVID, why he found advanced economics courses boring but he finds some economist bloggers interesting, and how he determines what sources to trust. It turns out that in a previous life he was a professional sports bettor and also a securities trader, so I was quite curious about that.During the question period, one participant asked him about the problem that his knowledge is not “legible” to many people. This is a really fundamental issue. Dr. Fauci has “legible” expertise (his credentials), but he is actually not very reliable by my standards. Zvi is more reliable, but you have to be able to follow his thought process and appreciate it in order to know that.
Universities are supposed to be bastions of critical thinking, reason and logic. But the Covid policies they have adopted—policies that have derailed two years of students’ education and threaten to upend the upcoming spring semester—have exposed them as nonsensical, anti-scientific and often downright cruel.Some of America’s most prestigious universities are leading the charge.At Georgetown University, fully vaccinated students are randomly tested for Covid every week. Using a PCR test, which can detect tiny amounts of dead virus, asymptomatic students who test positive are ordered to a room in a designated building where they spend 10 days in confinement. Food is dropped off once a day at the door.I spoke to several students who were holed up. One of them told me she would sometimes call a friend to come and wave at her through the window, just to see a human face. Another told me that the experience in quarantine “totally changed” her feelings about the school. “Everyone’s just fed up at this point,” she said. “People walk around the library and yell at you if you drink a sip of water. And it was during finals.” She told me she is thinking about “transferring to an SEC school just to have an in-person experience.”Given the fact that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recently changed the official quarantine period from from 10 days to five, I reached out to Georgetown’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Ranit Mishori. She told me that Georgetown is still using a 10-day quarantine.Students are the lowest risk population on planet Earth. Over the last six months, the risk of a person in the broader age group (15-24) dying of Covid or dying with Covid (the CDC does not clearly distinguish), was 0.001%. All or nearly all of those deaths were in a very specific subgroup: unvaccinated people with a medical comorbidity. But despite Georgetown’s strict vaccination, masking, testing, and quarantine requirements, the university announced late last month that “all University events, including meetings with visitors, will need to be held virtually or outdoors,” among many other restrictions.At Princeton University, fully vaccinated students are not allowed to leave the county unless they are on a sports team. They’re also testing all students twice a week, usurping the scarce testing supply from vulnerable communities so that low-risk, young people can use them.At Cornell, masks are still the rule—and even recommended outdoors. “Masks must be worn indoors at all times, unless in a private, non-shared space (e.g., dorm room or office); we strongly recommend masking outdoors when physical distancing is not possible,” the school announced in mid-December.At Amherst, students must double mask if they don’t use a KN95. In nearby Boston, at Emerson College, students are tested twice a week and have stay-in-room orders. The college instructs students to “only leave their residence halls or place of residence for testing, meals, medical appointments, necessary employment, or to get mail.” Seriously.At these institutions of higher learning and thousands more, science is supposedly held in the highest esteem. So where is the scientific support for masking outdoors? Where is the scientific support for constantly testing fully vaccinated young people? Where is the support for the confinement of asymptomatic, young people who test positive for a virus to which they are already immune on a campus of other immune people?The data simply do not justify any of it.
Buddhist adoption in Asia, Mahayana Buddhism spread through the Silk Road during the Kushan Era.
— Archaeo - Histories (@archeohistories) December 14, 2021
© The Archaeologist#archaeohistories pic.twitter.com/FaRjXQoE1M
As Eric Hobsbawm said, the bicycle was one of the transformative innovations of the 19th century. But I did not know about the ‘bicycle boom’ of 1895-1897.
— Adam Tooze (@adam_tooze) December 14, 2021
Fascinating! https://t.co/8JVRqXTdt8 pic.twitter.com/M7nRR8zhNS
Byzantine cross, 2nd half of 6th century. pic.twitter.com/6n1lteC0gJ
— Eastern Rome (@romebyzantium) January 7, 2022
But the problem of course is that libertarianism isn't political. It is kind of anti-political. It wants to take a lot of things out of the political arena. - P. J. O'Rourke https://t.co/IDreQJKB0U
— AnCap Quotes (@ancapquotes) December 14, 2021
Bust of Queen Nefertiti from Amarna, 1345 BC.
— Archaeo - Histories (@archeohistories) December 18, 2021
Neues Museum, Berlin.#archaeohistories pic.twitter.com/7BSQuKPJ14
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