Here is the best summary I could find of the North Korea situation: North Korea Finalizing Test Missile Launches Aimed Toward Guam North Korea said Thursday it is finalizing a plan to launch a salvo of four ballistic missiles off the shores of the U.S. territory of Guam, the newest provocation in the war of… Continue reading Not Worried about North Korea

2017/08/08: James Damore and Jordan Peterson discuss the memo At about 9-10 minutes in, Damore says a month ago he published the memo to a ‘skeptics’ Google group, and then it went viral from there. I and probably others assumed that he sent the memo via his Google work email account to his work contacts,… Continue reading The Google Memo, Part 2: James Damore and Jordan Peterson discuss the memo

Because Silicon Valley is the news, Apple Is Basically a Small Country Now: No modern tech company has approached the value of trading companies of the 1700s, though, and the Dutch East India Company trumps them all. The shipping juggernaut was the world’s first publicly traded company. At its height, according to several estimates, it… Continue reading Will Silicon Valley’s Tech Fortunes Dissolve like the Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Vanderbilt Fortunes? No

Unfortunately but not surprisingly, James Damore got the boot and is exploring legal remedies. He could try to make the case that his memo was a work of satire that was misconstrued, but then that would mean repudiating the memo (and also his principles if he truly believes what he had written, but it could… Continue reading James Damore firing…what happens next

I’m sure by now everyone has heard of the the Google anti-diversity memo (it would be impossible not to). In years of blogging, never have I seen such a firestorm over a culture war story [2]…the amount of attention this memo has gotten is unprecedented. That in itself is noteworthy. Assuming it expresses the actual… Continue reading The Google Anti-Diversity Memo: Why is it such a big deal?

Classic Scott from 2010 Okay, we get it, you don’t like tyranny: (see “Government should fear the people…“, “Power always thinks…“, “Those who give up liberty for security…“, et cetera)   Yes, whoever would give up liberty for security deserves neither. Okay, government should fear the people rather than people the government. Sure, the tree… Continue reading Tyranny advances under the banner of freedom

America’s hidden philosophy This is not an issue for rational choice theory, which concerns cases where my identity is not at stake, such as choosing which brand of toothpaste to buy, or (usually) which candidate to vote for. But when rational choice theory becomes Cold War philosophy, it applies to everything, and everything about me… Continue reading America’s ‘Cold War Philosophy’

Bitcoin breaks $3,000 to reach new all-time high Been long bitcoin since 2013. Glad I ignored the headlines about bubbles. The news is useless, as are most forecasts. For every bubble the media calls correctly, they get 10-20 of them wrong. Bitcoin is like General Electric and PG&E…not only does it fill a specific niche/function,… Continue reading Bitcoin at $3,000

Trump is here to stay David Brooks thinks Donald Trump will be impeached. Don’t count on it.The New York Times columnist penned an entire column about preparing for “the post-Trump era,” concluding that “the guy will probably resign or be impeached within a year.” He’s not alone. On the left, filmmaker Michael Moore predicted on… Continue reading Trump is here to stay

From Slate Star Codex: GENDER IMBALANCES ARE MOSTLY NOT DUE TO OFFENSIVE ATTITUDES Donald Trump is not a poster child for respectful inclusiveness. He is on record saying that he likes to “grab women by the pussy” in what sure sounds like a nonconsenual manner. His sophistication on gender issues is generally somewhere around the… Continue reading Whose Sexism?