Link Fest 2017-02-03
What Better Way for the Marines to Prepare for Future Wars Than With Sci-Fi?
Max Brooks, the author of World War Z, helps the Marines.
Pantheon: Mapping Historical Cultural Production
I love this kind of data.
Nine questions those protesting against Donald Trump’s immigration ban must answer
An entirely reasonable set of questions.
The Islamic State is right about some things
Razib Khan talks more sense about Middle Eastern refugees than almost anyone else.
BD Sixsmith coins a new term. I also appreciate Pinker's argument, but I think Sixsmith is on to something.
Poor U.S. Scores in Health Care Don’t Measure Nobels and Innovation
This is over ten years old now, but I think it still holds up. There is something just *different* about the American economy yet. It produces more per capita, per worker, per anything, than anyone else. That could of course change. This dovetails with Random C. Analysis' argument that the US consumes about as much healthcare as you should expect, when you take into account how rich we really are.
The Non-Racism of American Evil
Spotted Toad makes the argument that the US does wrong at home and abroad without regard to whether racists are currently in charge.
The author of the Flight 93 theory of the 2016 US Presidential election now works for the Trump administration. I suspect this kind of thing engenders loyalty.
Today’s Progressive Christians are the Best Christians in History. Just Ask Them!
John Zmirak explains so much.
Hypnotists Flips Pro-Choicers to Pro-Life in Seconds (I explain how)
Scott Adams has made himself even more famous by analyzing the 2016 US Presidential election in terms of hypnotism. Adams claims that we are mostly [or entirely] non-rational, and that persuasion techniques prove it. Here, he shows how a pro-life activist uses...the Socratic method to make people doubt their pro-choice convictions. Adams proudly says that he only read current scientific non-fiction, which might be trolling, but I actually believe him. I think he plain doesn't know. This is also proof that almost anything worth thinking was first thought by Ionian Greeks.
I doubt the possibility of strong AI for philosophical reasons, but I am glad to see people with other reasons think the same.
What a Century of Research Reveals About Gifted Kids
Sometimes you come across a perfect storm of information. This article was one of those. There is a great summary of the last 100 years of research on unusual intelligence. Then, by chance, I happened to see three different postings online that dissented from this, that varied from positions I can respect, to those those that are laughably ignorant.
Bad sugar or bad journalism? An expert review of “The Case Against Sugar”.
Gary Taubes has gone too far.
Comments ()