Friday, August 18, 2017
No more nuts
SP’s Nuts & Candy, the store at 166 Church that you probably know as We Are Nuts About Nuts, is closing at the end of July. Word has quietly been going around, and now owner Michael Yeo has posted a sign in the window. He told me a couple of months ago that the landlord didn’t seem to want him to renew, and he had no interest in trying to relocate.I went there when I worked in the financial district and thought it was excellent. Alas, probably another bank replacing it.
Friday, August 04, 2017
Metamathematics
This is apparently a real thing!
Instead, metamathematics is a quest to be precise about what it is you already believe in, such that we can use ordinary mathematical reasoning about those principles to get to know interesting things about the limits of what one can hope to prove and how different choices of what to take on faith lead to different things you can prove. Or, in other words, the task is to use ordinary mathematical reasoning to build a mathematical model of ordinary mathematical reasoning itself, which we can use to study it.
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Harmful minimum wage
Thing is, there has been an awful lot more empirical research on the effects of minimum wage increases than this one paper by Card and Kreuger. The overwhelming balance of that research has found harmful employment effects, falling mainly on an especially disadvantaged population: young black males.Oops.
Labels: economics
Wednesday, June 07, 2017
Dickwolves
Not sure how I missed this controversy . . . which came up while reading a fascinating article on how communities online pretend to have rules and codes of conduct, but actually are dictatorships, of a sort.
Monday, April 10, 2017
Picard singing on the bridge
Feelings over facts, peak denial, etc.
Another day, another ridiculous "we don't really know when life begins" hot take, this time from Slate author Elissa Strauss:It's pretty gross.
Labels: prolife
Friday, February 17, 2017
Self-censorship
My friends, this started a long time ago.
This is how the muzzling starts: not with a boot on your neck, but with the fear of one that runs so deep that you muzzle yourself.I rarely speak my mind on political matters for fear of losing my job. Remember Brendan Eich?
Maybe it’s the story you decide against doing because it’s liable to provoke a press-bullying president to put the power of his office behind his attempt to destroy your reputation by falsely calling your journalism “fake.”
We no longer have to imagine it. We got a real-life example last week in San Antonio, where a PBS station sat atop the slippery slope toward censorship and then promptly started down it.
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Who else does this describe?
Mr. Trump’s speech and actions demonstrate an inability to tolerate views different from his own, leading to rage reactions. His words and behavior suggest a profound inability to empathize. Individuals with these traits distort reality to suit their psychological state, attacking facts and those who convey them (journalists, scientists).You could say the same thing about Planned Parenthood and their friends . . .
Labels: prolife
