Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Topics - Jim Logajan

Pages: 1 ... 5 6 [7] 8 9
91
Spin Zone / Federal Court Rules Male-Only Draft Registration is Unconstitutional
« on: February 24, 2019, 03:27:47 PM »
Recent court decision on military draft registration:

http://reason.com/volokh/2019/02/24/federal-court-rules-male-only-draft-regi

The author mentions a couple possible resolutions should the decision be upheld: women are made to register for the draft, or  the draft (and registration for it) is abolished. The author (and I) would prefer abolition of the draft.

92
Spin Zone / Media Mischaracterizes Video of Covington Catholic Students Confrontation
« on: January 20, 2019, 04:47:11 PM »
"The Media Wildly Mischaracterized That Video of Covington Catholic Students Confronting a Native American Veteran"

http://reason.com/blog/2019/01/20/covington-catholic-nathan-phillips-video

Damage done and accomplished - bummer for the kids.

93
Spin Zone / A Very Libertarian Christmas
« on: December 21, 2018, 03:30:49 PM »
Hope you all get what you want! Or at least what you need!

Some self-deprecating humor from the folks at Reason.com:



94
Spin Zone / ASS Access from Down Under (of course!)
« on: September 05, 2018, 08:22:05 PM »
Be afraid...


95
Spin Zone / Flow chart for legal immigration to the U.S.
« on: July 05, 2018, 11:57:14 AM »

96
Spin Zone / U.S. Fertility Rate falls to 40-year low
« on: May 17, 2018, 03:27:51 PM »
Full story:
http://reason.com/blog/2018/05/17/hooray-us-fertility-rate-falls-to-40-yea

Excerpt (emphasis added):

The U.S. fertility rate has fallen to a 40-year low, according to the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "The 2017 provisional estimate of fertility for the entire U.S. indicates about 3.85 million births in 2017 and a total fertility rate of about 1.76 births per woman," the pro-natalist Institute for Family Studies (IFS) notes. "These are low numbers: births were as high as 4.31 million in 2007, and the total fertility rate was 2.08 kids back then." The last time fertility in the U.S. fell this low was in the 1970s, when it reached a nadir of 1.74 births per woman in 1976.

The decline in the U.S. total fertility rate (TFR) mirrors a global trend. The world TFR fell from 5.1 children per woman in 1964 to 2.4 in 2016. The U.S. rate is now about the same as TFRs in most European countries. It is well below the population replacement TFR, which is generally calculated as 2.1 children per woman. If the current TFR is sustained and immigration is halted, U.S. population will begin to fall later in this century.

97
Spin Zone / What Should Have Happened at the Facebook Hearing
« on: April 14, 2018, 04:48:41 PM »

98
Pilot Zone / Bill introduced to allow FlyteNow businesses
« on: April 11, 2018, 02:57:37 PM »
"A personal operator or a flight operated by a personal operator does not constitute a common carrier," reads part of the Aviation Empowerment Act, a bill introduced today by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). The legislation maintains the current prohibition on private pilots making a profit off flights offered via flight-sharing apps, but it would otherwise allow for the creation of digital billboards advertising trips.

Complete article, with link to the proposed "Aviation Empowerment Act" bill:

http://reason.com/blog/2018/04/11/clear-the-runway-the-fight-over-uber-for

(I added a comment to the commentary section to correct the author's misread of the regs.)

99
Spin Zone / Youtube shutting down gun mod videos
« on: March 23, 2018, 08:14:22 PM »
YouTube announced this week that it will soon begin taking down videos that violate its new policies on gun-related content. It will bar not just explicit sales of certain weapons but also videos that present "instructions on manufacturing a firearm, ammunition, high capacity magazine, homemade silencers/suppressors, or certain firearms accessories such as those listed above. This also includes instructions on how to convert a firearm to automatic or simulated automatic firing capabilities."

Complete story here:
http://reason.com/blog/2018/03/23/youtube-says-it-will-be-shutting-down-gu

Youtube has gone wonky lately; this is a video from the 1960s Smothers Brothers TV show showing Jefferson Airplane playing "White Rabbit":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WANNqr-vcx0

Yup - they added an age-restriction to a popular song! Here's a non-age-restricted copy (warning adult content! Ha - just kidding):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZtKjv1qDZM

Wankers.

Google owns Youtube. I've had an account on Vimeo for a few years - much more reasonable terms of service. Have also been using Bing for more of my net searches lately - will do that even more. Will also try duckduckgo, which I hadn't considered before.

100
Spin Zone / Libertarian Dad Jokes
« on: March 21, 2018, 01:54:44 PM »
Deadpan humor only libertarians will likely get.


101
Spin Zone / Mainstream media dubios coverage of science
« on: March 16, 2018, 01:41:15 PM »
Saw articles the other day claiming that NASA had confirmed that an extended stay in orbit had changed the DNA of an astronaut so that he was no longer considered the identical twin of his earth-bound brother. But on return to Earth about 93% of the changes eventually reverted, leaving 7% to persist.

That whole body DNA of any measurable amount would change was quite a shock to read. So I checked several of the stories, finding differences in wording that ended up making different claims. My paraphrase in the first paragraph was the kindest, since some reporters had changed the text to mean that 7% of the DNA of the astronaut had changed! That was absurd, so I tracked down what I thought was the NASA web site source for all these articles and found only highlights - that there were epigenetic changes (epigenetic roughly means the DNA doesn't change, but how it is read does change) causing gene expressions to change - some due to methylation (gunk gets stuck to portions of the DNA, making it unreadable.) The only direct DNA change mentioned was lengthening of the DNA telomeres (which shortened on return to Earth.) I concluded that some reporter misunderstood the preliminary report (released at the end of January) and all the subsequent media simply forwarded the misinformation on.

Later in the evening my wife asked if I had seen the articles about extended space travel changing DNA - she said it didn't make sense to her (she having a little more formal training in biology than I.) I said I had seen it but had looked into it and as far as I could tell it looked to me like someone got it wrong - it was changes in gene expressions - and the amount of expression changes wasn't terribly clear even on the NASA page.  But a 7% change of DNA (or the genetic expression) would be HUGE - like fatally so!

So this morning I am seeing retractions - some media are apologizing for getting the story terribly wrong. To paraphrase another saying: "Those who can, do, those who can't, try to report on those who do."

102
Spin Zone / Science of psychopaths and extreme altruists; solving the real problem.
« on: February 18, 2018, 05:57:34 PM »
Science is finding ways to identify psychopaths by examining their brain structure and that of "extreme altruists" via MRI scan. One difference has been found in the brain’s amygdala. National Geographic has an interesting story on the subject that highlights what is now known:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/08/science-good-evil-charlottesville/

Suppose that such brain scanning could indeed be reasonably relied on to ID those who are non-empathetic. Would it be right to use it to grant or deny rights? Or require medical treatment (assuming such could be found)? What about requiring it of police officers?

103
Spin Zone / Sevier County's Finest at work
« on: January 18, 2018, 05:51:32 PM »
There is body cam video in the following article of a deputy who has a panic attack and starts shooting wildly - watching it is downright disturbing (at least I found it so):

https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/crime/2017/10/16/sevier-deputy-suffered-panic-attack-while-armed-couple-charged-causing/759465001/

From Reason magazine's article on the incident:

http://reason.com/blog/2018/01/18/tennessee-deputy-who-suffered-panic-atta

104
Spin Zone / Stock market - where next?
« on: October 15, 2017, 08:06:13 PM »
One of the drifts on the "To football players..." thread touched on the stock market, which I think deserves its own thread.

Quote from: Anthony on October 15, 2017, 07:03:21 AM
The stock markets scare the hell out of me, and I still believe we have higher inflation than the government indexes are showing.

Quote from: Little Joe on October 15, 2017, 09:09:06 AM
The stock markets have been scaring the hell out of me for about the past 20 years.  Especially the period between around 2007 to 2011.  But my IRAs are now around 3 or 4 times what they were then.

Quote from: Lucifer on October 15, 2017, 09:50:40 AM
The stock market is nothing more than a casino.   Place your bets and hope to win. 

There is a major correction looming and when it hits the losses will be staggering. For the young investor who has time on his side he’ll ride it out, but retirees will take a huge hit.

Quote from: bflynn on October 15, 2017, 04:39:56 PM
I disagree - if you treat it as a casino then it will act like one.  But I have never known a casino where you could have a 30 year winning streak.  A correction is a test.  It is not the final exam.

Besides, there is always a major correction looming.  Sometimes the doomsayers get enough people be believe it and make it come true.

I agree with the last quote for one reason I consider fundamental:

Stocks are deeds of ownership of means of economic production. That implies a lot about their underlying value. As a result bull markets last five times longer than bear markets. And the trend has always been up.

Of course some metrics, like price to earnings  and price to revenue are well above historical average. So a trigger could come along to trigger a bear market. But on average bear markets last 18 months.

105
Spin Zone / Hours After Hurricane Irma, Miami-Dade County Tickets Residents For Code Violati
« on: September 19, 2017, 01:58:01 PM »
Not a joke...

http://reason.com/blog/2017/09/19/hours-after-hurricane-irma-miami-dade-co

Pages: 1 ... 5 6 [7] 8 9