Week 13

See Ian Morris book

Exactly - so what is considered "conservatism"  by many is basically this goat-f...er culture, trying to outlive its past-due date.  But there is more: I argue all kinds of status-seeking mentality is tied to this agrarian era. The rich got richer becuase well, they could. One can have land, get more seeds, get more land, have bigger families.. Some are better at this than others, and it can grow.

Then the next step is having others working on your land - the big landowner with peasants toiling away on it - this would be everyone's dream job. Big landowner has higher status, others are simple peasants. This would create a certain type of status-seeking mentality, I believe today's signalers, or even people who are too conscious of such things are somehow mentally connected to this era, and its love of goats.

Of course then organized crime / mafia (call them Ottomans, Byzantium, Rome) comes in, because the situation is ripe for it,  these are simple barbarians offering "protection" to landowners. Their parasitic way is tax enough to feed army but not too much to kill the goose,  then "protect" more people this way, and copy this structure horizontally ad infinitum. Great racket.

But some also have more to fear now. These landowners with "high" status (prettier goats) have something to lose. Remember the Roman senator with the famous words "Carthage must be destroyed" at every Senate meeting? Those words are coming from someone who has something to lose - his land. His goat. He loves his goat. He doesn't want to lose it. A forager, being mobile, not tied to a particular location would not care about any of this. The senator does.

• When people talk about "ancient civilization" nowadays they usually mean this agrarian era. Go back 10,000 years this is what "civilization" was, pretty much nothing before that, only foragers, who had complex social structures but did not leave much behind. In order to build these grand structures the rich had to get richer, through big farming, or mafia business (headed by a pharaoh, sultan, Ceasar, capo, whatever). So when excited imbeciles look around and want to "see" stuff, this is what they "see". There is a building. I see it. Civilization. Not.

• A lot of the descendants of these goat loving "civilizations" who lost the "empire" are obsessed about their glory days. The agrarian culture was extremely conscious of status remember, so these people lost their capo, now they think they lost status. They want it back. China for example, is the descendants of the agrarian empire of the east, and they lost their empire to Western industrialists, they think they "lost" something they need to get back to. This is inbred thinking.

• When people spend too much time around single place, there is bickering as we are built for intermittent connectivity not constant connectivity, so naturally such people will become "neurotic". Turko, Greeks, Italians - my Greek friends in college from afar always looked like they were arguing, and fighting. When I asked my Greek buddy about it "why do you guys fight all the time?" he says "no, we are just talking". I am sure similar things can be said about others from that region.

• Early agrarians who sat on their ass for millenia (did not cross oceans, stayed around that little bathtub called the Mediterrenian) obviously had a lot of time on their hands, so they experimented with food. As a result they have "great" kitchen. Is it a coincidence both Italians and the Chinese invented noodles? Why? Because they sat on their ass for a millenia.

• I believe newer technologies (which are the only arbiters of what social structures can persist) are bringing back the forager / nomadic mentality. The smartphone, wireless communication, GPS, Internet, cheaper computation, vast storage - all favor the person who does not have to be tied down to anywhere. Govs can do more to ease the transition, at the very least take modernity to its ultimate conclusion (Partanen book ref) weakening the connection btw. the so-called "family structure" and the individual.

• One can argue we are biologically still foragers (see De Vany here). There are a lot of diets out there but the best one is eating a strong breakfast in the morning and eating nothing until the next day. This simulates a typical day of a forager, gets up, eats something for energy, goes out, maybe hunts something maybe not. Sometimes there is feasting, and he overeats (which is fine).

• All recent religions, without exception, are created / sent (depending on your POV) to combat the established agrarian structures. Moses vs. the frickin Phoroah (hello?), Jesus against Rome (not the Jews), Mohammad against the established nobles of his day. "Do not worship some old bones,  ancestors you dumb f..k" is pretty much the message. Getting people to think about an unseen creator,  an unseen structure, a hand that guides that can easily get people thinking about processes, structures, and cause/effect is their true gift to the world. The prophets were truly enlightened (or smart, depending on your POV).

• Catholicism, insofar it is the flag carrier of Rome, has nothing to offer to today's world (but the Jesuits seem to be fine, as they were created during Renaissance). The flag carriers of Byzantium, Ottomans, the Hans, similarly have zero future. Their culture, way of thinking will perish.

@math_rachel

Reminder: algorithms can be biased on variables that are not a part of the dataset.

Ex: Race is not an input variable to COMPAS recidivism algorithm, yet the results are racially biased.

YouTube doesn't use extremism as a variable, but its results are biased towards extremism.

Former conservative who always talked about "King Dollar" is now begging the Fed for easy money and US Dollar devaluation #sad pic.twitter.com/ZRrNo9IpPJ

— Keith McCullough (@KeithMcCullough) March 30, 2019

"Nearly 70% of Chinese who have bought an electric car regret it"

@wesmckinn

"There is a strange class of Americans who seem to believe that anyone who isn't working 40 hours a week for a corporation ought to be euthanized (or at least made to suffer greatly). Is this really where we are at as a society?

Underlying this feeling is a great deal of racism also"

@garrygolden

"Last ten days of China news on hydrogen fuel cells: Reduce BEV subsidy, keep #fuelcell; Snowman commits $600m; RONN Motor + CEDZ; Wuhan Grove car; Sinopec H2 stations; Foton bus orders. No mention by #energytwitter 'BEVs have won' crowd. Electric is motor folks. BEVs not end game"

That debt on the sheet is as good as fully monetized. Even $$ printed for biz credit is destroyed once it is paid back. Not this.

@ChrisMcCusker67

"Jacob Rees-Mogg’s Company Accounts show £103M profit over last 5 years, but paid ZERO UK corporation tax as the ultimate ownership is in the Cayman Islands. No contribution for schools, hospitals, roads, defense, public services, welfare etc."

@ChrisMcCusker67

"@Jacob_Rees_Mogg is now panicking that he won't wriggle out from under the new EU anti tax avoidance laws after all...so suddenly says he'll vote for Mays deal. The man is a true 'Selfservative' carpetbagging charlatan, and that's saying it nicely!"

What I should have learned in high school:

• Storytelling
• Personal finances
• Public speaking
• Narrative compression (TL;DR)
• Critical thinking
• Building mental models
• Networking
• Selling
• That there are no rules

If all Americans had guaranteed healthcare I think we would see a lot more open source development and entrepreneurship. Many people can't risk losing continuity of coverage they get via employment. Our system is very short-sighted

Another case in point: https://t.co/zOrXNeXBHE

— Wes McKinney (@wesmckinn) March 28, 2019

@markbspiegel

"Well, how about if we look at an auto company of similar market cap that sells massively more cars and-- unlike $TSLA-- even happens to be profitable? Like, say, $GM.'

@WallStCynic

"Non-Employee Board Compensation: $60 million ($TSLA) vs $3 million ($GM)"

Interesting that one of those of companies manufactured <500k the other 500 MILLION cars. Guess which.

Yes new coal plants in Asia are a problem. In the West u can "get off coal" easier, plants are old anyway, u just shut them off. In Asia they r built and ppl expect an ROI from that. Wout carbon capture they will pollute 4 a long time.

F..ing Sullo. Everybody looks like Sullo over here...

Elizabeth Warren Calls for a National Right-to-Repair Law for Tractors It would apply only to farm equipment, but Warren becomes the most powerful national politician to support a consumer's right to repair the things they own.

I am trying really hard not to talk in mock Italian while wildly gesticulating when answering ppl #venice

If you listen to the podcast with Carrie and I you will know I've been saying the Muller report was a bust from the start. But busts have consequences too. A nice piece in @VanityFair on Russian reaction to Muller suggests why: https://t.co/rczI33yiXo

— Mark Blyth (@MkBlyth) March 28, 2019

Some1 needs to go to these folks w carbon capture tech and install it for them. Most new ones are in China too, as brother Birol says, the new ones r the big problem.

Then there is methane..

@DriveH2

"This is a great reminder as to why we need to invest in #CleanAir initiatives. "In blow to climate, coal plants emitted more than ever in 2018." @washingtonpost"

@hodgestar

Essentially everything I've seen, heard or read since I was born is copyrighted and will remain so until after I die. The sum of my experiences, I am one giant walking unlicensed derivative work.

Weinstein saz bboomers created a bubble in all things; r. estate, stock market, media, and most of all, in physics. I was thinking the same a while back. Str. Thry is nuttin but a Ponzi scheme to lull more and more suckers in, as it grows, it seems even more import., n on n on..

What would it to design, mass produce foldable H2 kick scooter I wonder. The tank would be a little canister, fillable thru electrolysis from a wall plug, or exchangable canisters at gas stations..

@CodeWisdom

“As a software developer, you are your own worst enemy. The sooner you realize that, the better off you’ll be.” - Jeff Atwood

Counterpart cancelled - great. Show was dreary and ppl looked old as f--k. Another multiverse show bites the dust.

Android on PC -; I am fine with this. Termux changed everything.. Android everywhere is now palatable. If G. allowed multilang support for native app dev as well, it would be even better. Serving apps over Termux / Flask is fine 4 now, sayin just in case.

Link

It's times like this with Jack that I feel justified in my decision to not explain animal behaviour with stuff like insight, reasoning and higher-order cognitive processes.. pic.twitter.com/HpIFl5Ej1G

— Mark Haselgrove (@MarkHaselgrove) March 27, 2019

Sad

Back at the day job @bhgreeley and I grabbed a great interview with Bill Rhodes, the man behind the Rhodes Center for International Economics at Brown. He wrote the book on sov debt negotiations. So we talked Venezuela and what comes next. https://t.co/AgBQ18Xz7n

— Mark Blyth (@MkBlyth) March 27, 2019

"But see EU passed Article 13, it is censorship, we [UK] are getting out on time"

UK has nanny laws of its own, so u r in no better position outside than inside. You belong together in more ways than u know.

@SenSanders

The Senate Republican Budget:

• Throws 32 million off healthcare
• Cuts Medicare and Medicaid
• Kicks 175,000 kids off Head Start
• Denies nutrition assistance to 5 million pregnant moms and babies
• Provides more tax breaks to the Top 1%

"China’s Hydrogen Economy Is Coming"

Link

Gerbs is on cnbc, saying Apple is "relatively cheap".

@Andrew_Adonis

Striking similarity between end of poll tax & end of Brexit. In weeks before Thatcher’s fall ever more absurd & convoluted attempts were made to keep it alive. But only viable course was to scrap it entirely & remove Thatcher

Revoke Article 50. Remove May. It’s that simple

1000 km? Are you kidding me?

That means you could nearly cover Texas from one end to the other on a single tank.

"@grove_auto brand launched today with presentation of the Obsidian Development car. #hydrogenFuelCell mobility, >1,000 km range"

I'd ban referandums triggered by politicians using a Constitutional amendment.

Only people should be able to trigger a referandum, the way the recall election was triggered in California.

When pols trigger ref, they chose a time, the issue favorable to them. This is not democratic.

Public op is fickle. Plus ppl are morons on policy anyway, the way I am about dentistry or beekeeping.

Yang Shapiro debate on circums., not a good move for AY. Now u'll be associated with balls n dicks and n ass hair. I understand wanting to get publicity bit this is not a good one.

Golan recog; I dont care. It's already the status quo, Israel would never give it up short of a loss during a war anyway. It wouldnt be part of any Pal rel nego with these "swaps" we are hearing abt, so whatever. Syria is in no position to take it back, after yrs of civil war.

At my hotel room's wall

dubrovnik

Dubrovnik - nice town.