Various web links I found to be of interest recently.
Duke researcher questions 15 years of his own work with a reexamination of functional MRI data
The problem is that the level of activity for any given person
probably won't be the same twice, and a measure that changes every
time it is collected cannot be applied to predict anyone's
future mental health or behavior.
...
Connectivity mapping - seeing how areas of the brain are connected
to address a task more than just what areas are active - is going
to be the way forward, Poldrack predicted. Hariri agreed that
identifying patterns of activity throughout the brain
rather than in one or two areas may improve reliability.
But while people's desire for valuable insight about race-related issues
is laudable, White Fragility cannot satisfy that need.
The book does not offer profound insight into the souls of white people.
Rather, White Fragility is religion masquerading as knowledge.
DiAngelo's conception of white fragility isn't hard won wisdom. It's an
unprovable and unfalsifiable theory, deceptively framed to convince
readers of their own guilt. DiAngelo relies on rhetorical tricks and
skewed interpretations of ambiguous events to deceive readers,
in the same way a zealot tries to gain converts.
...
In other words, if DiAngelo accuses you of fragility and you disagree
with her in any way-through argument, silence, or withdrawal-your
reaction is considered proof of your fragility. DiAngelo leaves white
readers with only two options. Either acknowledge your fragility,
which proves DiAngelo's theory, or deny your fragility, which
according to DiAngelo, also proves her theory. This is a logical
fallacy known as a
Kafkatrap.
The way he sees it, the venture industry is no longer as focused on finding small companies that might one day change the world but more on creating financial instruments for the wealthy - and that shift has real consequences.
Ben Shapiro's fans apparently think he is very smart. It is not clear why.
Let me tell you why Ben Shapiro actually aggravates me. It is not his voice or demeanor, though I understand why others find these characteristics grating. Nor is it the way he inserts references to first-year law school doctrines even when they aren't actually relevant. It is, rather, that Ben Shapiro is lying to his audience, by telling them that he is just a person concerned with the Truth, when the only thing he actually cares about is destroying the left. "Facts don't care about your feelings" is a fine mantra, albeit kind of a dickish one. But it's worthless if you're going to interpret every last fact in the way most favorable to your own preconceptions, if you're going to ignore evidence contrary to your position, and refuse to try to understand what your opponents actually believe. The New York Times actually quoted a sensible-sounding ex-Shapiro fan, who said he realized over time that Shapiro was just concerned with convincing other people he was right, rather than actually being right. Shapiro is annoying because he claims to love speech and discourse, to believe you should "get to know people... get to know their views...discuss," but if you're an Arab he's already convinced you're a secret anti-Semite, and if you're a poor black person he doesn't need to know you to know that you're culturally dysfunctional.
Poor White Americans report feeling "worse off" than poor Black Americans despite the persistent negative effects of racism on Black Americans. Additionally, some health issues are rising among White but not Black Americans. Across two representative samples, we test whether White = wealthy stereotypes lead White Americans to feel relatively worse off than their racial group and whether these perceptions have health consequences. ...
Neoclassical economics preaches that all is fair with the distribution of income. Income differences, the theory claims, stem from differences in productivity. As long as markets are competitive, people earn their 'marginal product'. And so there's no reason to redistribute income.
The reality is quite different. Income, I believe, is determined not by productivity, but instead largely by rank within a hierarchy. In other words, power begets income. The role of economics is to deny this uncomfortable reality. Economists reinforce hierarchies by denying their existence.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
If police don't do their jobs, a mainstream Democratic politician would tell you, the city could spiral into chaos. Crime would skyrocket. Property value would decline. The real estate and investor class would lose confidence in New York and stop investing their capital. Any pivot toward a model of social democratic urban planning-or even, at the minimum, a reduction in the NYPD's near $6 billion budget-would trigger this unraveling. De Blasio's appointment of Bratton, the Giuliani-era police commissioner, can be understood in this context. Bratton was a liberal mayor's concession to a business and real estate establishment he believed needed to be placated. It was a signal that his administration, no matter its reputation, would never veer too far left. De Blasio is of the belief that any progressive reform can't happen without police to maintain New York's low crime rate. Any spike will sap political capital for his projects.