LinkFest 2016-04-15
Between traveling to my brother-in-law's wedding and getting sick after said wedding, posting has been light of late. So here is an extra huge linkfest for your reading pleasure.
Tom Wolfe applies his keen eye to Trump's campaign.
Wisconsin's New Politics of Resentment
I always enjoy fine-grained electoral analysis like this. Red state-blue state is a useful model, but you can miss a lot of interesting details if you don't look deeper at the patterns within each state.
Race and Suicide: Shifting Trends
Robert VerBruggen is a fine data analyst, and here is a great piece on how the odds of suicide varies dramatically by race.
The Global Vote of No Confidence in the Pax Americana
America *not* being the global security utility is probably a bad thing, on balance.
This is the kind of piece I enjoy reading precisely because it is to unfamiliar to me. I have never once felt that there was some kind of secret notebook compiled by people smarter than me. Probably because I am an asshole who thinks he is smarter than everyone. This is a flaw in my character, but it has its uses.
Ed West: London's Housing Issues are Really Driven by Taste
Modern architecture really is a conspiracy, perhaps the most expensive field where the taste of the masses means nothing.
Many of us really don't believe people can be awful because they like it.
What Women Really Want is the Patriarchy
A provocatively titled look at sexual attraction and masculinity. This is an area where I think common experience, and your lying eyes, are likely to be a far better guide than *any* published research, which is a morass of shoddy study design, small sample sizes, and ideological axe-grinding.
The Role of Intelligence in Modern Society
A really good survey article from 1995 on the state of the art in intelligence research. Unlike many critics of Murray and Hernstein's Bell Curve, Earl Hunt knew what he was talking about, and I think he made some good points worth discussing here.
A Revolutionary Discovery in China
I don't find it surprising that more diversity of opinion existed in Chinese thought before it was codified, but this is a valuable and interesting collection of texts.
Court Stops FCCs Latest Attempt to Lower Prison Phone Rates
Scott Alexander says this is one of the clearest and most black-and-white political issues around, and I agree with him.
The End of 'The Sopranos': How David Chase Played Us for Suckers
Ross Douthat suggests this is a good analysis of 'Girls' too.
Actually, read that Sopranos essay together w/@emilynussbaum on the female anti-hero. https://t.co/W2onbNd3MT Then you'll get "Girls":April 19, 2016
Difficult Women: "How Sex and the City" Lost its Good Name
It had a good name? I kid, but I've never been a huge fan of the anti-hero in any genre.
The New Religion of the Silicon Valley elite
Another from Ed West, who trolled me on Twitter once about behavioral genetics, and I fell for it. Short version, Mark Zuckerberg can't be trusted.
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