Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Adumbrations of Aducanumab. The FDA is a broken bureaucracy, "people are going to come away from this with some conclusion like 'wow, the FDA seemed really unprepared to handle COVID.' No. It's not that specific. Every single thing the FDA does is like this." (BTW "adumbrations" means reports or represents in outline. I had to look it up.)

- Xi Jinping's Tech Crackdown Ignores Bigger Problems Facing China.

- Something Money Can't Buy. "Your truth and the truth are not always the same thing. The truth is a fact. Your truth is just an opinion. Nobody values somebody who is honest about their opinions if their opinion always suck."

- Heh Heh

Quotes for Today

Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

"Develop into a lifelong self-learner through voracious reading; cultivate curiosity and strive to become a little wiser each day." - Charlie Munger 

"Science is interesting. If you disagree, you can fuck off." - Richard Dawkins

"I think in life you should work on yourself until the day you die." - Serena Williams

"A man who has committed a mistake and doesn't correct it, is committing another mistake." - Confucius

"Forbidden Fruit can get you into some Bad Jams." - Bumper Sticker

"I did not intend to get rich. I just wanted to get independent." - Charlie Munger

"The Spartans do not ask how many are the enemy, but where are they." - Plutarch

Life Advice

 

Quotes for Today

Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

"If you want to be a clear thinker, you cannot pay attention to politics. It will destroy your ability to think." - Naval Ravikant

"Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?" - Monty Python

"Character - the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life - is the source from which self-respect springs." - Joan Didion

"I have no idea what the Democratic Party stands for because they won't tell you." - Herschel Walker

"Some people ask you a question with their eyes begging you not to tell them the truth." - Nassim Taleb

"Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness." - Alejandro Jodorowsky

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." - Teddy Roosevelt

Farnam Street Knowledge

-  Niccolo Machiavelli and the Four Princes of Pragmatism

- The Buffett Formula: Going to Bed Smarter than When You Woke Up

- Why Math Class is Boring - And What to Do About It

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- VDH: Vaccination Weaponization

- Exhaustive study on origin of pandemic - "most scientists and media resist evidence when it challenges a zoonotic origin or supports a lab leak. These new results do both."

- AI recognizes racial identity in medical images. Not a "social construct" but an important factor in properly diagnosing and treating ailments.

- Matt Ridley: Playing the wild card

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Truly believe that NBA TV ratings have been declining for years in large part because seeing a game in person has become too expensive for the average fan. Is it any wonder that these fans lose interest in a sporting event they can't afford? And if average fans aren't bringing their kids to games - that just means fewer new fans in the future... NFL betting note for the upcoming season - despite a 5-11 record the Carolina Panthers only lost 2-games by 8 or more points. Carolina may be worth a few bucks if they are ever getting 7+ points this season (of course if Sam Darnold starts seeing ghosts then I may rethink this idea)... All Aboard Heaven's Choo-Choo... What ever happened to Beto O'Rourke? Remember when the media tried to make Beto a thing? Maybe open borders and taking people's guns wasn't such a good message from the DNC (Beto was poster boy for both issues)... Still say Portland should be re-named New Detroit... Cool news - Walter Isaacson is working on a biography on Elon Musk. Isaacson's past biography subject's included Leonardo Da Vinci, Ben Franklin, and Steve Jobs...  

Saratoga

 Up in Saratoga. Going to bet some money on the ponies. Wish me luck.

Farnam Street Knowledge

- The Observer Effect: Seeing is Changing

- Second-Order Thinking: What Smart People Use to Outperform

- The Meaning of History. (Recently read Will and Ariel Durant's The Lessons of History and was so impressed that I can tell that it's one of those books that get re-read.)

Quotes for Today

Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

"I got nothin' against mankind. It's people I can't stand." - Archie Bunker

"The first rule in handling conflict is don't hang around people who are constantly engaging in conflict." - Naval Ravikant

"Respect yourself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves you, or makes you happy." - Robert Tew

"...if we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future." - Winston Churchill

"A heuristic on whether you have control of your life: can you take naps?" - Nassim Taleb

"Little man whip a big man every time if the little man's in the right and keeps a' comin'." - Motto of the Texas Rangers

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Starlink's latest reported speeds are 97 Mbps down and 14 Mbps up.  Pretty good but the upload speeds may bot be acceptable for many applications.

- 4.5% of the general adult population are psychopaths. Yeah but are they vaccinated?

- I want this painting! 

- Article may be sensational but truth is getting accurate VAERS data is near impossible. And the question has to be asked - why is that? My guess is the true number of adverse reaction deaths to the vaccines will dwarf the number of elderly deaths in nursing homes. Skeptical about the high number of children being paralyzed though.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Wonder if a company like Aflac came out with an insurance policy against vaccine related negative side effects if that could work as an employer provided inducement for a company to reach 100% vaccination levels? On the flip side - if the insurance actuaries at Aflac say the risks of such policies are too great then what would that say about why the FDA hasn't approved the vaccines yet?... Love this quote from Machiavelli on the power of a good library or book... Does anyone remember last August when Stugis went ahead with Bike Week amid all the predictions of doom and despite over 500,000 people attending there was no super spreader event? The media tried to create one out of whole cloth but I believe there were only about 70 COVID cases and no deaths... Once you see it... Just a reminder - there is no vaccine for stupidity... 

One of My Favorite Venn Diagrams

 

More Linky Links

More stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Interesting - Cleveland Guardians trademark may be stuck in a roller derby jam.

- Matt Ridley: Environmentalists have got it wrong - we're not facing an insect apocalypse.

- Matt Taibbi - Vaccine Success, Media Misery: Is Good News Taboo in the Trump Age?

- Distrust of authorities, decline in tax revenues, and just overall frustration - why new lockdowns are increasingly unlikely in US

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- China Doubles Down on Coal Despite Global Push to Go Green. Complete double-standards for China versus the US from environmentalists.

- Reminder of what 2020 was like.

- Steven Pressfield: Coco Chanel's advice to writers.

- Fibonacci was an unsung hero of Western Civilization.

-  Interesting - A Billion Here, a Billion There: Crypto Remittances are Suddenly Real Money. "When foreign workers send money home, banks take a cut. Till crypto."  

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

If the White House were to announce Grima Wormtongue as the new Press Secretary - would that be an upgrade or a lateral move over the current one?... Change my mind: the hardest thing to do in sports is to score a goal in the 5-hole on a water polo goalie. Think about it... First or second chair?... Word of the day, "Akrasia" - Greek word that translates as a "weakness of will" but in practice means to know what should be done but still not doing it. I like this word... Donate Bloob... Reminder the culture of the Dallas Mavericks was a sexual harassment, #MeToo nightmare before going all-in on the Black Lives Matter movement. Perhaps if Harvey Weinstein said he was going all-in on BLM instead of promising to go after the NRA all would have been forgiven...  

Physics Joke

 

Johnny Appleseed

 

You don't hear this song nearly enough. Still miss Joe Strummer.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Interesting

-  VDH: Incompetence + Arrogance = Woke

- Right-leaning social media platform gets 1.5 million users in just 11 days. Intrigued by the proposed "tip" function. Also Parler seems to be rising from the ashes after the attempts by Big Tech to kill it.

- One does have to wonder if White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain is really running things.

- This is an important story that isn't going away. Although to be honest - I was distracted by the vaccinated Ted Cruz wearing a mask. What's up with that?

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

The Democratic Party really seems to be in a pickle. It is becoming increasingly clear that Joe Biden is cognitively not up for the job but also clear that Kamala Harris is so unpopular that she might become a boat anchor for the entire party. What to do? What to do?...  And I wrote the above before reading this article from Victor Davis Hanson. Perhaps great minds think alike (or maybe the problem is just that glaringly obvious despite what the media is not telling us)... I always wanted to visit Australia but after the latest lockdown - not so much anymore... McDonalds says all CUSTOMERS and employees in high COVID areas must wear masks no matter vaccination status. McDonalds stock down $8 since announcement ($244.69 on 8/2 and $236.00 on 8/3). Sure it's unrelated... Celebrity Death Match used to be a big show on MTV. I enjoyed it but today I'd really like to see a Celebrity Rascal Scooters Racing with the first match between Rob Reiner and Rosie O'Donnell. You'd watch that - wouldn't you?... I predicted a couple of weeks ago that failing or struggling brands would try to boost exposure or revenues by simply rebranding themselves by adding a "+" sign or the word "Plus" to the end of their name and shortly thereafter we saw Outside+ and the joke that is CNN+. Now we see the media trying to rebrand the Delta variant as the Delta Plus variant. What does that say about the seriousness of the variant and the lack of the public buying into new lockdowns?...