Election polling
Michael Barone is one of the few poll analysts I can read with any patience. It's going to be a long season.
I have noticed something else that may be significant in the some recent polls: The number of undecided voters seems to be increasing, rather than decreasing as it tends to do when nominees are determined.
This could result from cross-pressures. Majorities of voters have unfavorable feelings toward both candidates, and probably a record share, about 25 percent, has unfavorable feelings toward both. Apparently some voters are having trouble deciding which repellent candidate to vote for.Bingo. Well, not to exaggerate: I'm not having trouble deciding, just trouble stomaching my decision.
$15 an Hour? How About "You're Fired"?
Carl's Jr. has a plan: automated machines to take your order, and a ten percent discount for using them.
Taco Bell had automated ordering kiosks at the 1996 Olympics. They were awesome, actually, because your order was never wrong. They were simple to operate touch-screens, and you could customize your orders to do all sorts of things without worrying about trying to explain what you wanted to a deaf 16-year-old. Since much of Taco Bell's menu is just different ways of putting together the same basic ingredients, the customization aspect worked very well.
I remember that I was very sad when they removed the kiosks after the Games were over. They represented a real improvement on the Taco Bell experience.
Automation is going to make most human labor obsolete.
Taco Bell had automated ordering kiosks at the 1996 Olympics. They were awesome, actually, because your order was never wrong. They were simple to operate touch-screens, and you could customize your orders to do all sorts of things without worrying about trying to explain what you wanted to a deaf 16-year-old. Since much of Taco Bell's menu is just different ways of putting together the same basic ingredients, the customization aspect worked very well.
I remember that I was very sad when they removed the kiosks after the Games were over. They represented a real improvement on the Taco Bell experience.
Automation is going to make most human labor obsolete.
Eric Blair, Call Your Office
A comment on why World War I games are too hot for the gaming industry, though WWII is one of its staples.
Well, except for flying games. Snoopy and the Red Baron is fun for everyone.
Well, except for flying games. Snoopy and the Red Baron is fun for everyone.
Divergent Interests
The invocation of Trump is just a means of making people excited about reading the article, which is ironic: the real critique is much more interesting than the lazy headline suggests.
This graphic gives a sense of it.
On the one hand, it's difficult to sympathize too much given that tenured academia is deeply insulated from competition compared to almost anyone, anywhere. On the other hand, competition for tenured positions has become very fierce in recent years. That seems to be what is driving this kind of thing.
There's another aspect, too, which is implied by the need to publish unlikely novel results before getting 'scooped.' If you're hanging your hopes on them, it's also necessary to defend their plausibility so you continue to be important as the discoverer of them. Thus, science becomes deformed not only because scientists are inclined no longer to carefully check unlikely results, but also because they have an interest in using anti-scientific strategies to defend implausible results long after they should be rejected. They might use rhetoric to try to silence criticism ("You're just opposed to my results because I'm [insert protected category]!"). Or, as the Michael Mann case suggests, they might even resort to legal strategies to defend highly questionable science.
After all, one's career is at stake. Or one's hope of ever having a career.
This graphic gives a sense of it.
On the one hand, it's difficult to sympathize too much given that tenured academia is deeply insulated from competition compared to almost anyone, anywhere. On the other hand, competition for tenured positions has become very fierce in recent years. That seems to be what is driving this kind of thing.
There's another aspect, too, which is implied by the need to publish unlikely novel results before getting 'scooped.' If you're hanging your hopes on them, it's also necessary to defend their plausibility so you continue to be important as the discoverer of them. Thus, science becomes deformed not only because scientists are inclined no longer to carefully check unlikely results, but also because they have an interest in using anti-scientific strategies to defend implausible results long after they should be rejected. They might use rhetoric to try to silence criticism ("You're just opposed to my results because I'm [insert protected category]!"). Or, as the Michael Mann case suggests, they might even resort to legal strategies to defend highly questionable science.
After all, one's career is at stake. Or one's hope of ever having a career.
Zimmerman Trolls the World
George Zimmerman is auctioning off the gun he shot Trayvon Martin with. Why, you ask?
Is this troll year in American politics? It must be troll year.
Proceeds from the sale, Zimmerman wrote, will be used to “fight [Black Lives Matter] violence against Law Enforcement officers, ensure the demise of [Zimmerman’s prosecuting attorney] Angela Correy’s [sic] persecution career and Hillary Clinton’s anti-firearm rhetoric.”I imagine he'll get a fair amount of money for that piece of junk he was carrying, given how much people will enjoy pulling those particular chains.
Is this troll year in American politics? It must be troll year.
Neutrality
Harvard women's groups claim that gender-neutral rule should be altered to only ban activities by men's groups.
At Harvard University, women are protesting the school's recent move to ban single-sex "final clubs," because the school didn't limit the ban to male clubs...
The Harvard women say that women's groups should be exempted from the new rule, because it was adopted as a response to claims that men-only groups foster rape.
The Citadel: No Hijabs
Needless to say, the decision appears to be leading to a lawsuit.
The woman's family is now considering legal action, citing the fact the Citadel is a public university, said Ibrahim Hooper with the Council on American-Islamic Relations.Not 'better than,' 'different from.' The US military has offered various accommodations. The Citadel never has.
"We believe that it's a constitutional obligation for a public institution to offer religious accommodation to students," he said.
Hooper says precedents for religious accommodation in the U.S. military contradict the Citadel's decision.
"Our U.S. military allows hijabs, beards, turbans, yarmulkes," he said. "It makes you wonder why the Citadel thinks they're somehow better than our nation's military."
Benghazi Again
F-16 pilots: "We were on standby." Turns out there was not the refueling issue that the administration has been claiming prevented sending them, either.
Brazil Says "Bye" To Socialist President
Brazil's Senate has voted to suspend its President from office. She is allegedly planning to step down given the vote.
It turns out this is actually business as usual in Brazil, where almost no Presidents finish their term in office. I have a certain jealousy for their capacity to remove corrupt officials, although not for the apparent surplus of corrupt officials they have to remove. Still, it's not as if we're lacking for them here. We just have less recourse.
It turns out this is actually business as usual in Brazil, where almost no Presidents finish their term in office. I have a certain jealousy for their capacity to remove corrupt officials, although not for the apparent surplus of corrupt officials they have to remove. Still, it's not as if we're lacking for them here. We just have less recourse.
What Are You Talking About?
This guy. I don't know what to say about him.
"All of the men, we're petrified to speak to women anymore.... There is nobody who respects women more than I do."Yeah, that's not true. No part of that is true.
Texas Independence Resolution to Get a Vote
Mother Jones reports.
The Texas Nationalist Movement, once considered a quixotic fringe group, has added hundreds of members in the years since the election of Barack Obama. According to the Houston Chronicle's Dylan Baddour, at least 10 county GOP chapters are coming to the convention supporting independence resolutions. But this will be the first time in the state's 171-year history that they will actually vote on one. It's very unlikely to win. Then again, that's what people said about Donald Trump.
Choctaw Bingo
Speaking of badass Hebrews, if you missed it this week was Holocaust Memorial Day, Israel's version of Memorial Day, and now their celebration of national independence. If you know any badass Hebrews, wish them well.
All Right, Fine
I can see where this is going.
But fine. Rule him not guilty by reason of failure of the government to prove its case. Turn him loose in Georgia. It'll sort itself out.
Attorneys for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed are calling on the judge and the entire prosecution team in Mohammed’s military commission at Guantánamo Bay to step down from the long-running case over what a member of the defense team called “at least the appearance of collusion” that led to the government apparently secretly destroying information relevant to the premier post-9/11 tribunal.These trials were always a stupid idea. All the Geneva Conventions required of us was a status hearing, and then we could shoot him as an unlawful combatant.
But fine. Rule him not guilty by reason of failure of the government to prove its case. Turn him loose in Georgia. It'll sort itself out.
Playboy's Guide for Voters
People keep sending me this, so I suppose I'll post it. Appropriate warnings: (a) It's from Playboy, so while there's no nudes there's plenty of profanity. (b) It may make some of you consider becoming Libertarians, though it reminds us that only the Republicans ever even talked about the problem of unconstrained immigration or the morality of abortion.
FBI Director: Yeah, "Security Inquiry" is Not A Thing
Today's good news: Director Comey confirms that this is a criminal investigation.
Yesterday's bad news: The Department of Justice's top employees have donated $75,000 to Hillary Clinton for this year's election.
That's quite an investment in her future.
An independent counsel would seem to be indicated as the only reasonable course of action.
Yesterday's bad news: The Department of Justice's top employees have donated $75,000 to Hillary Clinton for this year's election.
That's quite an investment in her future.
An independent counsel would seem to be indicated as the only reasonable course of action.
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