Read it.

In September 2018, the linguist Ellen Jovin set up a table near an exit to the 72nd Street and Broadway subway station in New York City and invited passersby to ask her questions about grammar. Her first query, she writes in Rebel with a Clause, was a nasty “spousal apostrophe dispute.” Most people would have folded up their table and headed indoors after that, but Jovin and her husband Brandt took the show on the road. By now, they may have sparked spousal apostrophe disputes in Hawaii, Alaska, and Connecticut, too.

Rebel with a Clause is a useful primer in the parameters of correct usage, but it is also a state-of-the-nation report on the use of American English. Jovin noticed that, despite the divisions of politics, questions of language bring people together in civil and enjoyable exchanges. She also noticed that they have an awful lot of questions. Never mind heavy-duty stuff like direct objects, appositives, and the best way to use a semicolon. Most of her clients struggle with the basic stuff and are often embarrassed by their uncertainty.

Read it.

A split-second glance at two candidates’ faces is often enough to determine which one will win an election, according to a Princeton University study.

Princeton psychologist Alexander Todorov has demonstrated that quick facial judgments can accurately predict real-world election returns. Todorov has taken some of his previous research that showed that people unconsciously judge the competence of an unfamiliar face within a tenth of a second, and he has moved it to the political arena. His lab tests show that a rapid appraisal of the relative competence of two candidates’ faces was sufficient to predict the winner in about 70 percent of the races for U.S. senator and state governor in the 2006 elections.

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Shortly after Indiana passed a new law restricting abortion, Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly condemned the law and announced that it would seek to expand outside the state.

It’s widely argued that social conservative policy is bad for business. Is that actually true, as the Lilly statement would seem to suggest? At some level, yes. But the impact is less than some claim. Today, social policy is a relatively marginal factor in business location decisions.

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Apparently God hates California.

I wonder why?

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or the first time in Britain’s history, there are no white men in the three Great Offices of State. Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng is the son of Ghanaian immigrants, Suella Braverman follows Priti Patel as another home secretary of South Asian origin, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly was born in Lewisham to a midwife called Evelyn from Sierra Leone.

The rest of the Truss ministry also boasts senior politicians such as the Baghdad-born two-month chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, the daughter of Nigerian immigrants Kemi Badenoch, another minister with South Asian heritage in Ranil Jayawardena, and Alok Sharma, who was born in the Uttar Pradesh state of northern India and has remained in government because the “COP26 President” role still exists, for reasons that escape me and everyone I’ve asked.

I can imagine the email fired out of Labour HQ when the late-night ministerial announcements came trickling onto Twitter: “please, for the love of God, criticise the new appointments all you want, but do NOT mention race.” Additional warnings would have added that anyone using the term “coconut” or “oreo” would be swiftly defenestrated from Parliament and into the Thames.

Read it.

People who follow politics are familiar with the scenario. When a Republican “wave” appears likely, or a Republican presidential candidate develops a significant lead over the Democrat candidate, the media begin reporting “stories” that the wave is receding, and the Democrat is gaining ground.

Television networks prefer close races because it adds to ratings. For once influential newspapers, it used to help sales.

Are these claims true? It doesn’t matter to the media. A majority of journalists identify as liberals/Democrats. Neither does it matter how often polls are wrong. Like people who rely on psychics to tell them what they want to hear (“you will meet a tall, dark stranger”), accurate polls depend on the way the questions are asked, and the understanding people have about candidates and issues. They also depend on the size and political balance of the sample.

The most recent inaccurate polls occurred in the 2020 race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Pollsters had the largest margin of error in 40 years. In 1980, polls showed Jimmy Carter beating Ronald Reagan by six percentage points, according to a study by Vanderbilt University.

Now, the usual pro-Democrat newspapers, cable and broadcast networks are “reporting” on polls (in some cases commissioned by themselves) that show a red wave may not happen and Democrats might even produce a “miracle,” holding on to their slim congressional majority. Such polls also can have the effect of depressing Republican voter turnout. Why vote, goes the thinking, when it appears the result is already determined.

Read it.

The global economy is a biological system, and money is its nervous system. This is more than a mere analogy. Money is not just important; it is a system that conveys complex information that enables billions of actors to do what the world needs them to do in order to get what they want from the world.

As I wrote in Visible Capital, “At their core, economics and biology are the same science. And the actions observed by economists are, in essence, biological processes — organisms interacting selfishly with their environment in order to survive.” Money helps coordinate the actions of these organisms. It has always done so, but more forcefully and efficiently over the past few hundred years.

But money’s role is under question from several directions. Some question money’s ability to serve its original function. And some question the social cost of allowing money to continue to serve that same function — to serve as the preeminent driver of human action.

The price system is the information network that allows a complex economy to function. The first sin of socialism and other totalitarian systems is that, under such systems, prices (when they exist at all) are set artificially and so don’t reflect real-world conditions and preferences, hence such economies sooner or later (usually sooner) crash and burn. Semi-totalitarian wage and price ‘controls’ have the same flaw and suffer the same degenerative effect.

Read it.

Bees have managed to survive some 100 million years without the help of venture capitalists.

In recent years, however, with many populations of crucial species threatened, we’re increasingly recognizing how much ecosystems and agriculture rely on these extraordinary creatures. Investors, meanwhile, are finding that bee-related businesses can offer both environmental benefits and some potentially good returns.

The Beewise product line is truly amazing.

John Hinderaker at Power Line.

To Europe, anyway. Years of horrible decisions by European leaders have come home to roost, as Europeans now worry about how to heat their homes this winter. Reliance on a geopolitical enemy for much of their energy turned out to be a mistake, as Russia has now shut off gas supplies. Who could have predicted it? Other than anyone with a modicum of common sense? Which Europe’s governing class has lacked for many years.

Read it.

In Orange County, California, where the typical house sells for $1 million, Rep. Katie Porter’s four-bedroom, three-bath residence in a leafy subdivision on the University of California Irvine campus is a bargain.

The progressive Democrat and law professor, who has lamented the cost of housing in her district, purchased it in 2011 for $523,000, a below-market price secured through a program the university uses to lure academics who couldn’t otherwise afford to live in the affluent area. The only eligibility requirement was that she continue working for the school.

For Porter, this version of subsidized housing has outlasted her time in the classroom, now extending nearly four years after she first took unpaid leave from her $258,000-a-year teaching job to serve in the U.S. House.

But the ties go deeper, with at least one law school administrator, who was also a donor to her campaign, helping secure extensions of her tenure while she remained in Congress, according to university emails obtained by The Associated Press.

That has allowed Porter, a rising Democratic star and fundraising powerhouse whose own net worth is valued at as much as $2 million, to retain her home even as her return to the school remains in doubt.

Democrats: Party of Corruption since time out of mind.

Read it.

Leftists in the academy get very defensive when you charge them with killing the liberal arts, but today the Washington Post provides fairly damning evidence that this proposition is true. The subhed to their story on the “most-regretted majors” of college graduates, drawn from a Federal Reserve study, is: “Almost half of humanities and arts majors regret their choice — and enrollment in those disciplines is shrinking rapidly.” Who dominates the liberal arts in our colleges and universities? Leftists. QED.

Russia bans Sean Penn, Ben Stiller, more US senators from entering country  Would that we could do the same.

A sixth reactor at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is now off the grid (NPR)

Russia should not be branded terrorism sponsor, Biden says (Reuters) I guess he saves that for Trump supporters.

Russian Shelling Knocks Ukraine Nuclear Reactor ‘Off Grid’

Exiled Russian: Those Still in Country Should ‘Sabotage’ Putin’s War

Russia To Legalize Use Of Cryptocurrency In International Trade: Report

Moscow ‘Pauses’ Annexation Vote in Ukraine Amid Fightback

Ukraine Liberates Village in Kherson Counteroffensive, Raises Flag

Retired US General Tells Ukraine “Better To Negotiate Now Than Later”

UK Intel: Russia Won’t Meet Sept. 15 Donbas Deadline

India Denies Moral Duty to Boycott Moscow

Russia Is Buying North Korean Artillery, According to U.S. Intelligence (N.Y. Times)

Italy’s Salvini Breaks Ranks: ‘End Energy Sanctions Against Russia Because We Are On Our Knees’

6 In 10 UK Manufacturers At Risk Of Closure, Lobby Group Warns As Energy Prices Soar  Boy, those sanctions really work, don’t they.

US Expands With New Base In Oil & Gas Rich Syrian Province

The chips are down: Putin scrambles for high-tech parts as his arsenal goes up in smoke (Politico)

‘Nothing Has Really Changed’: In Moscow, the Fighting Is a World Away (N.Y. Times)

“Putin Has Pushed Europe Into An Inflationary Depression And Currency Collapse”

Russia Shuts Down Nord Stream Pipeline to Europe  Boy, those sanctions really work, don’ they.

Ukraine Offers Europe Gas To Curb Rising Prices, Asks For More Weapons

Video Report: Ukraine Launching Counteroffensive to Reclaim Territory

US Veteran: Russia’s Army Will ‘Continue to Weaken’

Europe’s Nightmare Scenario Comes True: Energy Bills To Rise By €2 Trillion, Will Reach 20% Of Disposable Income

Read it.

The five stages of grief are ingrained in our cultural consciousness as the natural progression of emotions one experiences after the death of a loved one. However, it turns out that this model is not science-based, does not well describe most people’s experiences, and was never even meant to apply to the bereaved.

Of course, cold-hearted bastards like myself don’t have a problem with it. People die. Shit happens. Life goes on.

Read it.

In The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962)—the most cited academic work across the humanities and social sciences in the 1970s—Thomas Kuhn claims that most academic work consists of puzzle solving. Researchers make incremental advances on well-defined problems within a discipline or sub-discipline. It’s rare for a thinker to successfully contest the underlying assumptions of an entire research program. Only the likes of Einstein or Crick and Watson break paradigms and reorient the research of entire fields.

Kuhn’s account, however, assumes the disciplinary prerogatives of the university. He doesn’t raise the possibility of a more fundamental type of disruption where the basic premises of knowledge production are questioned. But of course, knowledge has different functions at different times, as societies develop new priorities in response to new challenges. In this more-than-disciplinary sense we may ask whether the modern research university is structured to help us create a sustainable society.

You got a problem with that?

EU economics chief says bloc is not afraid of Putin, ready to react over halted Russian gas supplies (CNBC)

Gentiloni says EU expects Russia to respect energy contracts (Reuters) Good luck with that.

White House Asks Congress For $13.7B In Additional Ukraine-Related Funding

PARAMILITARY: The Two Koreas Learn Different Lessons

Darker & Colder: Europeans Warned Of “Unprecedented” Power Failures This Winter  Boy, those sanctions are really working, aren’t they.

Russia Delays Reopening of Nord Stream in Blow to Gas-Starved Europe  Boy, those sanctions really work, don’t they.

FBI, Homeland Security search alleged properties of Russian oligarch in New York and Florida (NBC)

Don’t wake the nuclear giant on our doorstep (CNN)

Putin Gives Army September Deadline to Take More Ukraine Land: Official (Newsweek)

Revealed: Putin’s New Deadline for a Major Victory in Ukraine (Daily Beast)

Zelenskyy Says Russia Wants World ‘to Forget About the War’

UN Takes Almost a Year To Say That China’s Genocide Could Be a Crime

Is China Using Cyberattacks To Maintain Its Rare Earth Dominance?

Iran Delivers Ukraine War ‘Peace Initiative’ From Europe To Moscow

Facing “Severe Manpower Shortages”, Russia Now Recruiting From Prisons: US Intelligence  There is nothing new under the sun.

Russia Vows To Halt All Oil Exports To Countries That Impose “Completely Absurd” Price-Cap  Boy, those sanctions really work, don’t they.

Ukraine Military: Russia Has Lost 2,009 Tanks Since Invasion

Iran Briefly Seizes 2 More US Sea Drones in Red Sea Amid Tensions

US Signs Deal To Give Israel 4 Refueling Planes Needed To Bomb Iran

Semi-fascist.

Full fascist.

Ukraine Situation Report: U.S. Says Some Russian Units Are “Falling Back” In Kherson

U.S. preparing more security assistance for Ukraine -White House (Reuters)

US Government Bans Export of Nvidia A100 and H100 GPUs to China and Russia

White House Alarmed India Joins Russian War Games Simultaneous To Participating In US Exercises

US Obtains Warrant to Seize Russian Energy Company’s Aircraft

The West’s Energy Disaster Worsens

Other States Eye Model Texas Law Blocking Chinese Wind Farm Near Air Force Base 

Escobar: Ukraine – Somewhere Between Afghanization And Syrianization

Europe Has No Real Alternatives To Russian Gas: Ex-Aramco EVP

LOGISTICS: What NATO Learned From Ukraine

US: Russian Military Facing ‘Severe Manpower Shortages’  More severe than the U.S. manpower shortages?

Taiwan Shoots Down Drone Off Chinese Coast For The First Time

Russian Top Oil Executive Dies, Reports Suggest Suicide  Maybe he had dirt on Hillary.

German Foreign Minister Says Support For Ukraine Will Continue “No Matter What Voters Think”

UN Team Arrives At Ukraine Nuclear Plant As Shelling Prompts Reactor Shutdown

Read it.

According to a recent survey of Americans who once traveled for business at least three times a year, 40 percent say they never expect to travel for business again and 12 percent say they don’t expect to travel for at least the next year. In France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, the share who say they never expect to travel for business again is 50 percent or more. “Business travel will never return to a pre-pandemic normal,” concludes the survey.

Joel Kotkin.

This reality has been unfolding for a generation. Asian and European nations have long prioritized their export industries, helping them gain dominance in many markets, from steel and cars to semiconductors. By contrast, big American capital, bolstered by cheerleaders in the corporate media, sacrificed our nation’s communities and the personal aspirations of countless workers for the sake of greater profits.

Munger cites imported semiconductors, smartphones, and other American-branded tech as big wins for our economy. This may be true for the investors who own piles of big tech stock. The technology is also cool for consumers, if sometimes very pricey. But what did this system produce for the overall U.S. economy and the health of its workforce? Google, Microsoft, and the other oligarchic firms make virtually nothing here. Apple may be “headquartered” in Cupertino, but more than 90 percent of iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks are made in China, albeit “designed in California.” Despite their endless virtue-signaling, these corporations are indifferent to the national economy. Instead, many have become China’s ultimate cheerleaders and enablers, with venture capital firms raising billions to fund new firms in the Middle Kingdom—in other words, subsidizing the competition.

The current position of Europe due to the Russia sanctions demonstrates the problems that can arise from dependencies based on the assumption that free trade is free and will always be available. There needs to be more thought and discussion about this.

Read it.

The current American ruling class is obsessed with the exact correct use of language. You can’t say China-virus and you need to know the exact pronouns towards whatever gender construct was made yesterday.

Then Trump comes along with his big New York accent; his funny hair; his golden yuge-sized ego; and his genuine love for the lifestyles and values of middle America. He is like a Crab clan Samurai with a funny northern accent talking about making money and drinking low-class tea with the peasants. (The crab clan are slightly larger members of Rokugan who are known for being uncouth but practical. They also love building large things to protect the borders of Rokugan.)

Above all, it is Trump’s unpleasantness of speech that so infuriates the NTers. Rob Long, Jonah Goldberg, JPod, David French, Sam Harris, Steve Pinker, William F. Buckley the younger, Charles Cook, and Kevin D. Williamson all make money from how good they are at words. I like most of what they write, heck I even quoted an article from Kevin D. Williamson a few paragraphs ago.

As for the political elites, the John McCain, Liz Cheney, and Bill Kristol types. Trump is simply an outsider who doesn’t have the right to rule. This makes his unpleasant language all the worse. Trump will never read as much as Victor Davis Hanson and he will never write with VDH’s clear and compelling prose so VDH doesn’t need to feel threatened. However, political and media mediocrities have every right to feel threatened.

Think of what propelled him to popularity. He spoke about trade imbalances, the poverty and hopelessness of the rust-belt, and illegal immigration. What all these positions had in common was that they were favored by the elite and talking about them was taboo. Trump promoted the opposite positions of the elite and defended them in a rude way.

If you don’t believe me, look at how the MSM treated George Dubya vs. Barack Obama. Obama often didn’t say anything of importance but he looked good and he said the pretty words that make you a good person. He was popular in the Noble Court. The policies on the little people outside L.A., New York, D.C., and all the other elite enclaves didn’t matter all that much. They are just little people after all, practically peasants.

Read it.

When the personal computer went from being a “bicycle for the mind” to a surveilled shopping mall.

…

The first mass market computers came from folks who understood marketing and consumer behaviors. These people imbued the machines with the mass market principles that define the industry today. It is no coincidence that many of today’s preeminent technology companies are really advertising companies (such as Meta and Google) or shopping malls (such as Amazon).

Read it.

We have the technology.

Read it.

If you’ve ever been left waiting to connect to a Microsoft Teams call and thought, “what might make this experience even more tedious?”, then you may just be in luck.

The video conferencing service has announced it will be adding hold music for users unlucky enough to have their call transferred.

When I her the words ‘microsoft teams’ I think of a bunch of dogs pulling a sled through the snow. (‘If you’re not the lead dog, the view never changes.’)

North American companies send in the robots, even as productivity slumps

Labor unions reach highest level of approval in US since 1965: Gallup

Connect the dots. We’ll wait.

Read it.

WebMD—and its imitators—are terrible. Often the first stop for health questions, WebMD bombards you with vague, unhelpful articles strewn with garish pharmaceutical ads—an ocean of “content” without substance.

And I’m not just some crank with an ax to grind—satisfaction with online health information is incredibly low, around 38%. What’s more, this satisfaction has been very stable over time—one study found that users in 2008 were just as unhappy with health information as they were in 2017!

Rightly done, a medical information site would concentrate on being up-to-date with all the latest research–a place where doctors themselves would go to find out the latest and greatest.

Do you think many doctors consult WebMD (or any of it many imitators)?

Didn’t think so.

Like much of the internet, the purpose of WebMD (and its many imitators) is not to provide a service–after all, it’s free; where’s the money in that?–but to monetize provided content. Nothing is more common than a web article about some otherwise-unimpressive-person who makes GAZILLIONS OF DOLLARS A MONTH OF PASSIVE INCOME, and when you look into it you find out that the way to wealth and fame on the internet is … monetized provided content.

Not providing a service–there’s no money in that; people expect the internet to be free, so if you charge for what you do, you’re left sitting in cyberspace whistling to yourself. This is why newspapers are so lame these days.

Read it.

Surveys over the past couple years show that at least 45% of college graduates are unable to find a job once they enter the private sector. Those that can find a job usually end up working outside the scope of their field of study. Keep in mind this is happening during a period of very low official unemployment.

The result? Four year or eight year degree holders end up working side-by-side with high school graduates in lower wage jobs. This is extremely common and is fueling a rise in worker discontent. Their fantasies of six-figure incomes and a life of prestige suddenly hit a wall called reality, and now these students are angry and in debt to the tune of $36,000 or more on average.

IAEA mission heads to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant near war frontline (Reuters)

United Nations nuclear agency will visit besieged Ukrainian power plant in the ‘next few days’ (Fox)

Ukraine On Edge As Shelling Near Europe’s Largest Nuclear Power Plant Continues (NBC)

Russian rockets hit cities near Ukraine nuclear plant, raising fears of catastrophe (N.Y. Post)

Russia’s war in Ukraine (CNN)

Russian Force Won’t Return From Mission Fearing Ukraine Deployment: Report (Newsweek)

Oligarch super yachts avoid international sanctions in neutral Turkey

What is Russia’s 3rd Army Corps? New Unit Moving to Front Lines: Intel (Newsweek)

Tentative Calm in Libyan Capital After Clashes Kill 32

Taliban Accuses Pakistan of Letting U.S. Drones Use Its Airspace

‘Slower burn.’ Russia dodges economic collapse but the decline has started (CNN)

America Imported Over $6 Billion In Goods From Russia Since Ukraine Invasion  Sanctions with benefits.

ARTILLERY: Recruiting Reluctant Civilians

PARAMILITARY: Russified Ukrainians Resist

Kremlin Says World Needs to Pressure Ukraine Over Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant

Ukraine reportedly begins advancing to liberate country’s south

Ukrainian forces begin ‘shaping’ battlefield for counteroffensive, senior US officials say (CNN)

IAEA Team Heads to Nuclear Plant, Ukraine Launches Offensive in South

Report: UK Energy Costs Will Double as Russia Cuts Gas Supply  Boy, those sanctions are really working, aren’t they.

Report: Pentagon Worried Ukraine Aid Might Deplete US Ammunitions

Read it.

A team of scientists in Beijing has announced they have achieved a complete recombination of the chromosomes of a mouse, a genetic engineering breakthrough that could pave the way for the design and creation of mammal species that do not exist in nature.

Read it.

Communism is the only political system to have created its own international brand of comedy. The standard interpretation is that communist jokes were a form of resistance. But they were also a safety valve for the regimes and jokes were told by the rulers as well as the ruled—even Stalin told some good ones.

Just what he’s always wanted for an inheritance – a rino’s butt.

Read it.

I guess Democrats can’t lie about this one.

John Hinderaker at Power Line.

I think it was John Edwards who popularized the “two Americas” theme. But Edwards had the categories wrong. There really are two Americas, and we can divide them in a number of ways. For example: one America consists of those who can cope, while the other America consists of wine moms, 25-year-olds who can’t tell what sex they are, and people who can’t manage personal finances.

Steve Sailer.

Congressional Democrats lately have chosen to raise a stink about how the Trump Administration responded to covid too urgently, not knowing it might open up a can of worms about how Pfizer halted its vaccine clinical trial from late October until the day after the election, which denied Trump his dreaded “October Surprise” of his vaccine-centric strategy against covid being vindicated.

Read it.

France is facing a widespread dearth of Dijon mustard, which news outlets wasted no time in attributing to the war in Ukraine. But the story is a whole lot spicier than that.

Next they’ll be telling us that there’s no Graham in a graham cracker.

The State of Play in Ukraine 6 Months After Russia Invaded

Battle for Kyiv: Ukrainian valor, Russian blunders combined to save the capital

‘Weary’ Europeans Must ‘Bear Consequences’ Of Ukraine War As Putin Will Eventually Blink: EU’s Borrell

FORCES: Mutual MiG Misery

TURKEY: Playing All Sides And Losing

Belgian PM Warns “Next 5-10 Winters Will Be Difficult” As Energy Crisis Worsens

Finland Braces For Rolling Blackouts This Winter

Boris Johnson Arrives in Kiev For 3rd Time, This Time Bearing Gifts

Air Force sees ‘incredibly’ large missile buildup by China