Nacirema The Island

Why do we sell Christmas ornaments in Halloween? Why do we sell Thanksgiving goods in the middle of October? Why do we start campaigning two years before an actual election? This man Marcus K. Dowling, as weird as some of his other thoughts  are , has hit the nail on what the next election will hang on: finding the lowest common denominator such as money and centrist appeal to satisfy America's desire for the bitter infighting we have seen lately in our politics. https://medium.com/@marcuskdowling/the-bull-moose-democrats-will-allow-for-trumps-2020-re-election-a5c0d616729f This is a Bull Moose by the way.

A little late, but I really enjoyed this article. It felt like my values were being represented in Congress again, and in the Republican Party! https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mitt-romney-the-president-shapes-the-public-character-of-the-nation-trumps-character-falls-short/2019/01/01/37a3c8c2-0d1a-11e9-8938-5898adc28fa2_story.html

:The manners of the Americans of the United States are, then, the real cause which renders that people the only one of the American nations that is able to support a democratic Government; and it is the influence of manners which produces the different degrees of order and of prosperity that may be distinguished in the several Anglo-American democracies. Thus the effect which the geographical position of a country may have upon the duration of democratic institutions is exaggerated in Europe. Too much importance is attributed to legislation, too little to manners. These three great causes serve, no doubt, to regulate and direct the American democracy; but if they were to be classed in their proper order, I should say that the physical circumstances are less efficient than the laws, and the laws very subordinate to the manners of the people. I am convinced that the most advantageous situation and the best possible laws can not maintain a constitution in spite of the manners of a co...

One hundred years ago, the first great advances in genetics, based on Mendel's work, were made. So were advances in physics, chemistry. All of these to me were pure, real science that really made leaps forward. These men knew their math, and basic chemistry so well, that they were nothing but precise. They, unlike us, who are dependant on their great stores of knowledge, had to stab in the dark in the right place, and they did so well, that we don't even think to thank them. Their biology classes did not have the information they pioneered for us today. They literally had to do guesswork to explain what they were seeing. We need to quit being so arrogant about the knowledge we so easily obtain today because of their hard efforts. For example: In 1900, when Mendel’s work was rediscovered and biologists began to apply his principles of heredity, the relation between genes and chromosomes was still unclear. The theory that genes are located on chromosomes (the chromosome t...

https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/12/25/the-welfare-state-is-committing-suicide-by-artificial-intelligence/

A great post. I once worked for an environmental group once. I was the token conservative in the group. Knowing me, you should know I'm not as bad as some people think we are. I wore a green camo Browning hoodie to a party. I was feeling lonely, as everybody was drinking. The leader of the group comes up. His name was Josh (name has been changed). He went up to me and said, "I used to be a hunter. I killed a few deer. But then I became vegan." My mind immediately went to tofu, and while he had tried in a nice way to be my friend, it still felt rather passive-aggressive, and I felt like I wasn't feeling very much a part of the group, considering how many people are vegan in your average environmental group. This story at the Business Insider is a good explanation of this phenomenon, and what people can do to change it. Making me feel bad about hunting and eating meat--which is non policy makes me less likely to vote in favor of environmental issues or climate change--w...

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6473365048088756225 The Economist recently released a video about competition in the Digital age..comparing Google's command of internet searches to Standard Oil's control of the oil industry 100 years ago at 86 percent. The more important part of the video is that it gives a good strategy for regulating these monopolies. You can't break up a technology platform Monopoly because it's in the cloud....it has to be the same accross all platforms anytime, anywhere. They suggest you prevent mergers of smaller companies that could provide a competitive advantage. That might work! It's the solution I have been looking for a long time.