Tag Archives: Education

As others have said in print and in the Fox broadcasts; “everything is going terrible.” Yeah kinda, there are issues. I do not believe anyone thought about the rapid collapse of Afghanistan happening. The die was cast when Trump and Pompeo bumbled their way through conversations with the Taliban. Someone was laughing afterwards. In spite of the collapse, the abandonment of Afghanistan is going rather well. As Kevin mentions the bloodshed is...

“Do Your Research” Is it my imagination, or do vax- and mask-hesitant people, reported in news stories about the Covid Divide, almost always say they “have done their research” or something like that?  The medical people and public health advocates that get interviewed rarely seem to use this phrase, at least not in the first person.  More research, more unhinged beliefs—how does that happen? There are many parts to this story, but one is...

Prof. Joel Eissenberg: “Zoonotic origin for SARS-CoV-2 remains the most plausible hypothesis” There’s a saying in research science: extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Given what we know about the origins of nearly all viral pandemics — that they resulted from a virus jumping from an animal to a human host (zoonotic infection)–the null hypothesis for the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic should be and was zoonotic. The competing...

by David Zetland Review: Shop Class as Soulcraft I can’t remember who recommended this 2009 book (subtitle an inquiry into the value of work) by Matthew B. Crawford, but I have been recommending to many people — whether they have rough or soft hands. The hook: Crawford got a PhD in political philosophy (U Chicago). After getting a job at a think tank, he decided that work was neither tangible nor useful. So he bought a motorcycle repair...

This is a picture of the beaver pond behind my old family home in western Massachusetts: You can’t tell from the picture, but the pond is at least a mile long and 1/4 mile wide, I think considerably bigger.  The land under the pond had been farmed and then forested before being flooded by beavers.  We know the land was farmed because there are stone walls that run into it, and we know it was reforested because when we first bought the land in the...

EconoSpeak: K-12 Schools Opening In July, Econospeak, Barkley Rosser, July 31, 2021 I long knew it was coming, but it has arrived.  I learned of this because some have closed due to heat and or the pandemic surging, K-12 schools.  This happened in Arizona.  They opened in July.  Really.  People in those districts may think this is fine, but I am horrified.  I view this as a situation where a frog has been in a pot of increasingly hot water that...

Professor Heather Cox Richardson, A history professor interested in the contrast between image and reality in American politics. I believe in American democracy, despite its frequent failures. “Letters from An American“ On Friday, as President Joe Biden signed “An Executive Order Promoting Competition in the American Economy,” he echoed the language of his predecessors. “[C]ompetition keeps the economy moving and keeps it growing,” he said. “Fair...

In a comment on my earlier post, Bill H. (run75441) mentioned that he thought at first this series on socially necessary labour time (SNLT) would be about Sydney Chapman’s theory. That comment stopped me short because I hadn’t thought about the connection between Marx’s analysis of SNLT and Chapman’s theory of hours. Recall that Chapman argued that competitive pressures would lead employers to prefer hours of work that were longer than optimal for...

“Getting to Yes: COVID Vaccine Edition,” Ken Haller, June 25, 2021 Pediatrician Dr. Ken Haller comes by way of AB Commenter and blogger Professor Joel Eissenberg. You can find Ken’s commentary on his site “Ken Haller.” Just follow the article title link or click on his name. If you have not been vaccinated yet, you putting your health and/or life in danger. Ken offers up a common sense discussion with two of his parents about their child and...

“Could it be a better result? By this, I mean should there really have been an extreme shortage and long lead times?” A fellow writer was an engineer at OnSemi. As he stated once, his job was watching the crystals (future “wafer material) grow. More coming on this comment shortly. You will not be experts (I am not either) in the process. Hopefully, you will understand why the issues associated with manufacturing semiconductors are questionable. I...