Great thread. The EV revolution required both Tesla and government policy support. In all the story of cleantech success, it's always the same: The combination of policy and private sector innovation and competition have done the job. We need both. https://t.co/w6j4LJM4j5

— Ramez Naam (@ramez) May 20, 2022

Right. No Tesla, it would’ve been 20 years later for EVs. I know it’s cool to hate Musk now (and there are some good reasons to do so), but that doesn’t change the history at all. Most people understand nothing about anything.

It’s a complete triumph of corporate propaganda that even open source people believe that users being able to make their computers do what they want them to do is Bad. The best, most effective authoritarian is the one that lives always in your own soul.

You should know that if you’re in a relationship you’re really just dating an aged-up minor. Think about that and then turn yourself in to the police

— merritt k (@merrittk) May 19, 2022

I think a lot of this talk on the right and the left of everyone being pedophiles is just the desire to regress to childhood due to terror of sex and sexuality. Lately, the left frames any desire for sex as being some sort of pedophilic yearning. And the right of course is calling everyone and their sister “groomer” in the past few months, too. All of this emerges from the same place. Fear of and horror about sex is powering a lot of American cultural conversations now. See also:

Man idc about the “sex in movies” debate (if you don’t want to see sex in a movie there are plenty of sites that can warn you and you can not watch them) but I just saw a post that was “the characters can’t consent to us watching them” and man some people are on one

— nonbinary cardinal copia (@aardvarkwizard) May 18, 2022

I’d say about a 60% chance of a moderate recession in the next 3-6 months.

I had a cold recently (not Covid) and it took me about a week after I’d “recovered” to get fully better.

Did I have “Long Coldvid?”

I think about this Annie Dillard quote all. the. time. (And I think it applies way beyond writing.) pic.twitter.com/uFtUJN9KDm

— naomi gordon-loebl (@naomigloebl) May 18, 2022

Also one of my favorite Dillard quotes. Hoarding ideas and the good bits means they are lost, not that you’ve saved them for later. Put it all out there and more arise from below to take their place; you’re not helping the world or yourself by being parsimonious. Dillard is one of the very few writers whose works I read and think, I wish I could write like she does.

While it’s true you can lose *some* muscle in a caloric deficit, it’s:

1. A negligible amount

2. Easily prevented

As long as you stay in a smart caloric deficit (no more than 1000), eat enough protein (1g per pound) & continue training hard you won’t lose much if any muscle

— BowTiedOx | Chad Bodybuilder (@BowTiedOx) May 18, 2022

Absolutely correct. I love it because it’s true and because it makes the Fat Acceptance clowns cry. If you work out correctly and eat protein, even in a caloric deficit you will not lose muscle. Another FA myth.

it’s incredible how reading this feels like finally unlocking 100% of your brain

(via @christophepas) pic.twitter.com/nU6CblVZWT

— juan (@juanbuis) May 18, 2022

What the shit. That actually works. That might be the equivalent of putting spaces between words (Latin didn’t do that) as to ease of reading. I’d only want this for non-fiction stuff, though.

Also reminds me of how so many hit country songs now are just a list of cultural markers. People on both ends of the spectrum feel a need to constantly perform their values now.

— Audrey Goodson Kingo (@AudreyNGoodson) May 18, 2022

That’s a strange trend in country music. A bad one.

“The problem of distraction is usually discussed as a problem of technology.

It’s more fundamentally one of political economy: in a culture saturated with technologies for appropriating attention, our interior mental lives are laid bare as a resource to be harvested by others.”

— santi ruiz (@rSanti97) May 16, 2022

And philosophy is opposed and denigrated as “useless” because it’s all that can provide the framework to halt this.

To be clear, I don’t believe Long Covid is much of an issue and won’t be a huge societal problem. It’s mostly “medium” Covid and most of the “disabling” issues are very minor, and mostly temporary.

Yes, it’s real, just as it is for flu, RSV, etc. But it’s just not the thing many libs wish it were, no matter how many dubious papers they trot out. But time will tell, as it always does.

Obesity is already a bigger social burden than Long Covid will ever be, even in the Long Covid “doom” scenarios, but one of those we’re permitted to talk about as an enormous problem and the other one — the “everyone being the size of a house” one — we’re not supposed to discuss.

I think I see a problem here.

It’s sad to see how many people feel they have to kowtow to the Fat Acceptance movement or get eviscerated.

But I do not and will not. Fuck the Fat Acceptance movement and anyone who buys into their horseshit. What a bunch of deranged clowns.

‘Avatar’ Plot: Can You Remember It?

Blue people ride a dinosaur? I have no fucking idea. Utterly forgettable film.

Omicron caused spike in breathing condition in babies and toddlers, study finds.

Now do RSV. 🙂