LinkFest 2015-09-30
Wow, it has been a long time since I did a LinkFest, so here is one delayed 7 weeks.
48 Hours on the Dark Side of Vegas
This reminds me of the hidden desperation in Tim Power's Last Call.
Is the U.S. behind Fethullah Gulen?
Not as newsworthy as it used to be, but a very interesting take from a Turk living in the US.
Why Trump Supporters Think He'll Win
Still very newsworthy.
Could Trump Be the 'Man's Man' America Wants?
After the popularity of the above article, David Frum wrote another on the same subject. Part of the appeal of Trump is that he hasn't got even a hint of the Ned Flanders vibe that turns many people away from other Republican candidates.
It turns out a famous explanation of the phenomenon may not be correct. Which hasn't stopped the engineers who design them.
Internaut day: The world's first public website went online 25 years ago today
Also out of date. I fondly remember the early days of the internet. Everything was more innocent then. No, really.
No Matter Who Wins The Presidency, The ‘Deep State’ Will Run Things
I'm not sure I believe this, but I think the argument is interesting.
America's birth rate is now a national emergency
PEG says there is no good reason the US, an empty country that grows lots of food and exports oil, should have a birth rate below replacement. I am inclined to agree with him.
Terry v. Ohio. Happy 50th Anniverary, Detective McFadden!
I enjoyed learning the history of the 'frisk'.
People forget how much of the money any company pulls in as revenue goes to its suppliers, which go to its suppliers, and so on.
What I learned as a hired consultant to autodidact physicists
In my opinion, the current trend of crank amateur physicists is entirely the fault of the direction that physics as a whole has taken. Lots of great progress has been made by applying mathematical theories in elegant ways, but the data that support those theories comes from a messy reality that is often obscured in the tales told about science [usually by science journalists and popularizers]. This is the story of a physicist who tried to bring a little reality to the amateurs.
Giving up alcohol opened my eyes to the infuriating truth about why women drink
The author seems like she lives in world that I've heard about, but never experienced. Getting sloshed sounds like an entirely human response to living that kind of life, but the bigger question is why would you want to? A good companion piece to the Jezebel article about binge drinking and how it contributes to women's dissatisfaction with their sex lives. There is a common thread here, and it isn't alcohol.
Psychologists have been trying to devoodoofy psychology for a long time.
What U. of Chicago Activists Are Complaining About
Trigger warnings are grossly overused, but this is a sympathetic look at the environment in an actual elite school. I still think Neal Stephenson got this all right thirty years ago.
I said the same thing the first time I watched Frozen.
Pondering Miracles, Medical and Religious
A breath of fresh air after all the nastiness from the atheist community before and during the canonization of Mother Theresa.
1. Okay, I have a couple of thoughts about this essay:https://t.co/ErOPmOe8KmSeptember 8, 2016
A brilliant series of Tweets from Ross Douthat on why Trumpism matters, no matter how much you hate Trump.
And of course, the essay that occasioned that Tweetstorm.
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