I wish there were a Camille Paglia not stuck in 1990s pop culture, who could credibly think about Olivia Rodrigo, the memeplex, TikTok, social media in general, the disinformation economy, the staleness and stasis of our culture, and the exhaustion of the ideas of possibility and progress…I could go on.
There’s no one. She has not appeared. And goddamn do we ever need her now.
The first ten on today’s playlist:
Fed chair warns US inflation battle not over and hints at further rate rises.
Meanwhile, the “transitory” dipshits are declaring victory even though inflation has been persistently high for 52+ months and is still 50% above normal trend line for the past decade. And that’s using the official numbers, which are bullshit.
Lily James is so unbelievably good in this scene. And the editing, the cinematography, the unconventional shot choices…just a masterpiece in a little over three minutes.
The rest of the film is ok but this scene just nails everything so damn well.
Great cover. And the younger woman, Sophie Hanson, has epic Jenna Thiam hair too.
If you’re alive and buy anything, it’s obvious the inflation numbers are complete lies. Yes, I 100% understand how they are calculated. I’ve read at least two books substantially about how various CPIs and PCEs are computed.
That in fact has convinced me even more that how we calculate inflation bears little resemblance to how most people experience it. For the average person, cumulatively, inflation from 2020 to now has been about 75% I’d guess. Of course, inflation hits every person differently due to being in varying life stages and consuming a dissimilar bundle of goods. That’s why Kevin Drum’s “we should be able to have one canonical number for inflation” was so idiotic. It just does not and cannot work that way.
But the inflation numbers are clearly bogus, juiced, and anyone who believes they are legit is delusional.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive might yet surprise critics.
Against a dug-in well-fortified foe I’d expect a counteroffensive to take quite a long while — perhaps years. This is not surprising, but it is to generations raised on instant results and where anything that can’t be done with a tablet tap is deemed a failure.
Yes, calories in/calories out really is the key to weight loss.
Deny it all you want, but it just is. Things be how they be.
Oh no you’re not. If you’re in my field, you’re never off the help desk. No matter how high up you get, many people still see you as the “computer janitor.” I get paid big but I still end up asking people, “Are you sure it’s plugged in?” Half the time, it’s not. And that’s not even the worst of it.
The reality is that in my field, you’re always help desk because they keep making dumber users and due to lack of a real pipeline the techs aren’t so great anymore, either. So we senior people are never not help desk because more and more stuff makes it past the first three levels of support who now can’t troubleshoot a goddamn thing.
People believe math is the truth because it gives definite answers — definite answers which of course depend on the input. GIGO and all that. But math can’t even solve math. Those not smart enough for the humanities think math is the answer to everything, when most often it can’t even ask a question worth asking.
Don’t get me wrong — math is a useful tool. But it’s only a tool, and not anything else. STEM worship is a disease.
