Time for something unrelated to politics… STRENGTH TRAINING AND WEIGHT LIFTING FOR SHORT MEN The square-cube law explains the relationship between the height, surface area, and volume of a shape. As you can see in the diagram, when you increase the height of a 2D shape, its area doesn’t increase linearly—it increases by the change… Continue reading Getting the square-cube law wrong

The stock market was up huge today (or as Trump would say, yuge), with the S&P 500 gaining 1.6% on top of .3% gains on Monday. This suggests the market isn’t concerned about the overblown tariffs and the possibility of a ‘trade war’, which I have argued is more about posturing and signaling than an… Continue reading Conveying action is as effective as action

Regarding yesterday’s post, a question that comes up is how does one reconcile biological determinism with free will and one’s ability to take personal responsibility? If some people are preordained to struggle due to poor genes in what has become an increasingly competitive economy, doesn’t it behoove society to help these people? The short answer… Continue reading Reconciling Free Will with Biological Determinism

As everyone is aware by now, Kevin Williamson was hired and then subsequently fired from The Atlantic. Making matters worse, he quit his lucrative gig at NRO, so he’s now worse-off than before unless NRO re-hires him. As I wrote many months ago, Kevin Williamson is pretty extreme, as his comments about abortion (but also… Continue reading Kevin Williamson’s cold dose of reality

I liken politics and news to a carousel, in that it’s the same stuff over and over in a loop. There is the illusion of action because there is displacement and movement, yet the path is fixed and predictable. One could take a newspaper from March 2017 and change the dates to March 2018 and… Continue reading The news carousel

Although misattributed quotes are very common online, if the above quote is actually from Jordan Peterson, that a very liberal thing to say, or dare I say postmodernist. In fact that is leftism (which is a more left-wing variant of liberalism, or something categorically different, because classical liberalism has little resemblance to left-wing liberalism in… Continue reading Interesting Jordan Peterson quote

This is one of those introspective, naval gazing type articles that tend to go viral easily Old Boomers Never Die Are boomers constitute a culture? I’m not so sure. Culture is something that is more specific than merely being an American between the age of 50-70 years old. Intellectualism culture, which is a culture I… Continue reading Centrism as a culture

Bunch of stories about Trump tariffs: Stocks mount huge rebound as Trump, China tariff threat appears to ease Trump Cheers on Trade War With China As Stocks Tumble A lot of people are wondering if tariffs and the specter of a trade war with China will hurt stocks and the U.S. economy. My take is,… Continue reading Tariffs: more analysis

Looks like James Woods, similar to Ann Coulter, is suffering from wall-itis: Dear Mr. President, your 2016 campaign and subsequent victory can be summed up in two words: The Wall. You haven’t delivered. Not one brick. I guarantee if you don’t #BuildTheWall, you won’t be re-elected. If you fail to do this ONE thing, you’re… Continue reading James Woods demands that wall be built, or Trump will lose. But will he?

Excellent article by Andrew Sullivan: Denying Genetics Isn’t Shutting Down Racism, It’s Fueling It Humans, in this view, are the only species on Earth largely unaffected by recent (or ancient) evolution, the only species where, for example, the natural division of labor between male and female has no salience at all, the only species, in… Continue reading Denying Genetics Isn’t Shutting Down Racism, It’s Fueling It: Andrew Sullivan