Frederick Crews obituary

A literary critic, essayist and author, he was a leading voice among revisionist skeptics who saw Freud as a charlatan and psychoanalysis as a pseudoscience. --Frederick Crews, Withering Critic of Freud’s Legacy, Dies at 91

...As a young professor at Berkeley, Mr. Crews made a splash in 1963 with “The Pooh Perplex,” a best-selling collection of satirical essays lampooning popular schools of literary criticism of the time
...

Essentially, Professor Crews came to regard Freud as a charlatan. ... Professor Crews linked the charges against Mr. Sandusky to another of his notable targets, the recovered memory movement, which took hold in the 1990s and which he saw as stemming from the excesses of psychoanalytic theory.

...

“One of his great pleasures in life was skepticism,” Professor Pinsky said. “With vivid glee, he told me about recataloging and organizing the library in the summer camp where he was tennis instructor.That athletic, intellectual young man took pleasure in cataloging the Bible under fiction.” 🤡

такому некрологу можно только позавидовать

politics as usual

AIPAC Unleashes a Record $14.5 Million Bid to Defeat a Critic of Israel

граждане комментируют:

Gary E: I don't understand how more contributions automatically translates to winning an election. Don't the voters get a say with their votes?

товарищ не понимает 😂

а вот товарищи понимают:

Ronald: Foreign influence in American elections, pure and simple. But , hey, In America that is par for the course. And with money being able to buy elections, the control is absolute.

...
Tom Krebsbach: This is Democracy for sale, plain and simple. And a democracy for sale is not a democracy at all. It is plutocracy.

women becoming increasingly woke

Why are women becoming increasingly woke, and men increasingly conservative? I have some theories, but I'd like to hear what you think. @Ian Miles Cheong (график - из FT)

дискуссия там познавательная. среди прочего цитируют Оруэлла:

"It was always the women, and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers-out of unorthodoxy."

~ George Orwell, 1984

нет ли тут мизогинии? see also signs of genius

provoking the Protestant Reformation

Jerome Friedman has noted that “a New Christian [i.e., converso] problem affected not only Spain, but all of Europe,” and has suggested that the issue of Jewish conversion even played some role in provoking the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation and Jewish Antichristian Polemics.

via, еще там упоминается интересная книга Jews and the French Revolutions of 1789, 1830 and 1848, издана в 1970-м, цена на amazon $1,599.97. список литературы вообще увлекательный, вот еще: The Consuming Temple: Jews, Department Stores, and the Consumer Revolution in Germany, 1880–1940

Many contemporary political figures, misguided in retrospect, viewed the granting of political privileges to Jews as a means of ensuring control and accountability.

и дальше про Macaulay интересно. еще там выражение colonial halfway house

Nothing ever works as intended

If Justapedia’s Editorial Review Board works as intended, it should hopefully be able to prevent the political views of the site’s users from pushing the site into a similar ideological niche. --Introducing Justapedia

это предполагая, что Editorial Review Board works as intended, что крайне маловероятно. Nothing ever works as intended, если это не Murphy's Law, следует добавить. но такой есть, конечно:

Seay's Law: Nothing ever comes out as planned.

статья неплохая, познавательная, но автор, как ни странно, не чувствует, что с этой идеей Editorial Review Board круг замкнулся.

рассуждения по поводу Cyber Anakin просто смешны. а то, что он пишет про “knowledge panels”, вообще подрывает всякую надежду. ну там под конец много всякой ерунды.

Betty Wills, with her initial attempts to reform Wikipedia and her subsequent founding of a competitor, has stepped into the role of Martin Luther

это из статьи в Quilette by Shuichi Tezuka (pseudonym). у него есть еще одна большая статья там же Cognitive Distortions, тоже про Wiki and Its Discontents, там много про psychometry (psychometrics) и другие интимные подробности, и еще ссылка на его же Cognitive Creationism Compared to Young-Earth Creationism (published in Journal of Controversial Ideas). читать не перечитать в общем.

обе статьи очень убедительные, особенно вторая, Cognitive Distortions

борьба иудаизма с идолопоклонством

Toilet Found in 3,000-Year-Old Shrine Verifies Bible Stories Against Idol Worship - это Newsweek, но вот в Haarez подтверждают: Ancient Toilet Reveals the Unique Way the Judeans Fought Idol-worship. забавно, что в Haarez слово Bible избегают, как и слово Torah. это по результатам познавательной лекции одного Игоря Торика (говорящая фаммилия?) История иудаизма. Научный взгляд. [youtube]

там много интересного, не только про то, как с язычниками боролись с помощью сортиров. он там среди прочего упоминает цитату Историю пишут победители - это вовсе не Черчилль, а Дрекслер, хотя по смыслу похоже. но по близкому поводу отлично высказался Маск: историю пишут победители, а Википедию исправляют проигравшие

еще этот Игорь Торик упоминает Каро, Иосеф и Устный Закон, и всякие другие чудеса. я про это ничего не знал, надо почитать.

Smart fraction theory

The smart fraction theory argues that the fraction of very high IQ individuals in a society is especially important for a society achieving various positive valued outcomes (such as scientific progress, economic development, and government effectiveness). --Metapedia

The Fundamental Constant of Sociology - это небезызвестный Steve Sailer пишет, и в самом начале говорит: it’s worth calling attention to one of the most elegant statistical essayists of the 21st century, La Griffe du Lion.

via @NoahCarl90 Charles Darwin was an early proponent of smart fraction theory.

казалось бы очевидное утверждение

mood board

mood board - еще одна формулировочка. стенгазета по-русски. это из необъятной статьи про Kanye West Kanye and Adidas: Money, Misconduct and the Price of Appeasement. hit piece в данном случае - understatement, тянет на целую агитационную брошюру. но в данном случае ребята из NYT перестарались, местами это похоже на puff piece, ну или рекламу Adidas.

If a partner’s values don’t align with the company’s, Mr. Jakeman said, it inevitably becomes a problem, particularly if the issues are known or easily discoverable.

познавательная статейка. crimes & misdemeanors:

He declared his fervent support for Mr. Trump — “We are both dragon energy,” he tweeted — and embraced the conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has attacked the Black Lives Matter movement and urged Black voters to leave the Democratic Party.

That May, he set off an uproar, saying in a TMZ interview that 400 years of slavery “sounds like a choice” by generations of Black people.

не говоря уже про antisemitic beliefs, such as the claim that Jews control the world. картинки там тоже хорошие: Yeezy drop in Barcelona и рядом с ней Taiyuan, China. White Lives Matter тоже замечательное фото

Железный закон олигархии

Железный закон олигархии: любая форма социальной организации, вне зависимости от её первоначальной демократичности либо автократичности, неизбежно вырождается во власть немногих избранных — олигархию.

Как замечал Рональд Сайм: «Во все века, независимо от формы и названия правительства, будь то монархия, республика или демократия, за фасадом скрывается олигархия»

Iron law of oligarchy

see also The Populist Delusion

Vacuum Gases From the Sky

. U.S. to Fund a $1.2 Billion Effort to Vacuum Greenhouse Gases From the Sky - это не шутка

. Inflation Picks Up, but Details Under the Surface Are Encouraging - и это не шутка

. What Does Good Psychedelic Therapy Look Like? - а это лечение для тех, кто читает NYT

. FDA Drops Ivermectin Bombshell: Doctors are free to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID-19, a lawyer representing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said this week. (for Gray Lady this is not newsworthy)

. Man forced to ditch Ford EV truck during family road trip to Chicago: ‘biggest scam of modern times’ - comments are enlightening too

. South Africa's ex-President Jacob Zuma won't return to prison due to overcrowding - портрет его там годный

. Niger’s captive leader losing weight in inhumane conditions, daughter says

кислотные дожди и прочая хрень

First it was acid rain, then it was was the ozone layer disappearing, then it was global warming, then it was the ice caps are going to melt and now it’s climate change. And what’s the only thing that’s actually changed in that time? The amount of tax we pay to ‘combat’ this so called climate change. Mr Al Gore has made quite a lot of cash on the back of his fight against ‘climate change’. Obama told us that the sea will rise by 10ft because of ‘climate change’ when he was in office, yet he bought a waterfront property after he left office. Why would anyone do that if they knew sea levels were about to rise 10ft in the next decade? @backtolife_2023

в комментариях там немало интересного, в частности упоминается State of Fear by Michael Crichton, очень даже познавательная и увлекательная статья в Wiki. книгу читать не обязательно, достаточно статьи.

см. также Columnist Accuses Crichton of ‘Literary Hit-and-Run’ и вообще по crichton crowley много забавного

America's Second Crusade

Neutrality legislation, passed by overwhelming majorities in both houses of Congress and adopted in finally revised form on May 1, 1937, completely repudiated Wilson’s position.

The Act in its final form provided that “whenever the President shall find that there exists a state of war between or among two or more foreign states”, certain measures should automatically come into effect.

There was to be an embargo on the sale of arms, munitions, and implements of war to all belligerents. American citizens were forbidden to travel on belligerent ships and to buy or sell securities of warring powers. Such products as cotton, scrap iron, and oil could be sold to belligerents, but could not be transported in American ships. This was the so-called cash-and-carry arrangement.

начало тут. познавательная книга, цитировать можно без конца.

I give you my deep and unalterable conviction, based on years of experience as a worker in the field of international peace, that by the repeal of the embargo the United States will more probably remain at peace than if the law remains as it stands today.

more probably... highly likely...

That American sympathy is ninety-eight per cent with the Finns in their effort to stave off invasion of their own soil is by now axiomatic.

это почему же ninety-eight разрешите спросить

A president who cannot entrust the people with the truth betrays a certain lack of faith in the basic tenets of democracy. But because the masses are notoriously shortsighted and generally cannot see danger until it is at their throats our statesmen are forced to deceive them into an awareness of their own long run interests.

вот, собственно, и все, что нужно знать о демократии.

Stalin, who loved to practice the old maxim, Divide and Rule, could have wished nothing better. - интересно, где он этому научился? у хулиганов во дворе? ну и невозможно не процитировать

Churchill tried to reach a satisfactory separate agreement with Stalin. As is shown in another chapter, Churchill took the initiative in the dismemberment of Poland at Teheran. In an attempt to “ compensate" Poland for the territory which he wished to hand over to Stalin, the British Prime Minister threw the weight of his influence behind the idea of expelling millions of Germans from the eastern part of that country.

там дальше цитата из старины Черчилля как раз об этом.

на стр. 189 он пишет про разговор Хопкинса со Сталиным о Польше, упрекая Сталина во лжи. на самом деле нагло врет сам автор, Chamberlin. и по поводу второго фронта - скверное вранье и передергивание. ну не любит Chamberlin русских и Сталина, но передергивать-то зачем?

The Morgenthau Plan, which Roosevelt and Churchill had approved at Quebec, recommended “forced German labor outside Germany” as a form of reparations.

еще

Tiredness of life

Tiredness of life: the growing phenomenon in western society

In countries where euthanasia and assisted suicide are legal, doctors and researchers are debating whether tiredness of life meets the threshold for the sort of unceasing emotional suffering that grants people the right to euthanasia.

debating they are

Dr. Daniele Ganser

Dr. Daniele Ganser auf Russisch: Путч на Украине 2014 года - длинная лекция на youtube, почти два часа, май 2015, но звучит очень современно. прослушал от начала до конца, несмотря на мой short attention span.

этот Dr. Daniele Ganser присутствует на youtube и вообще в сети, профессиональный историк.

лекция очень содержательная, упоминает Ray McGovern, George Friedman, Иван Качановский ну и много кого еще.

он швейцарец, и швейцарское правительство не слишком им довольно: Историк Даниэле Ганзер и его бизнес на сомнении

вот, кстати, Дядя Сэм против Дон Кихота - практически на ту же тему 130 лет назад...

Ивана Великого

В сентябре—октябре 1812 года, когда армия Наполеона вошла в Москву, колокольня подверглась варварскому разграблению.
...
После того как основная армия французов покинула Москву, маршал Мортье по приказу Наполеона должен был уничтожить Кремль и монастыри. От взрыва «Ивана Великого» и арсенала остались груды развалившихся зданий с лежащими на них куполами. Но сама башня чудом уцелела. --История «Ивана Великого»

там много еще интересного

Wiki says though: According to a Russian source, they destroyed monasteries and blew up architectural monuments.

не подумайте плохого

Honi soit qui mal y pense

...a maxim in the Anglo-Norman language, a dialect of Old Norman French spoken by the medieval ruling class in England, meaning "shamed be whoever thinks ill of it"... In current French usage, the phrase may be used ironically to imply the presence of a hidden agenda or a conflict of interest.

...
King Edward III was dancing with Joan of Kent, his first cousin and daughter-in-law, at a ball held in Calais to celebrate the fall of the city after the Battle of Crécy. Her garter slipped down to her ankle, causing those around her to laugh at her humiliation. Edward placed the garter around his own leg, saying: "Honi soit qui mal y pense. Tel qui s'en rit aujourd'hui, s'honorera de la porter"

Not everyone was pleased.

Not everyone was pleased. The report Goldstine circulated had only the name of John von Neumann on its title page. Eckert and Mauchly, who were hoping to patent aspects of computer design, were furious. The ENIAC’s inventors accused von Neumann of inflating his contribution to the project and rehashing their work.

‘Johnny learned instantly, of course, as was his nature,’ Mauchly wrote. ‘But he chose to refer to the modules we had described as ‘organs’ and to substitute hypothetical ‘neurons’ for hypothetical vacuum tubes or other devices which could perform logical functions. It was clear that Johnny was rephrasing our logic, but it was still the SAME logic. Johnny did NOT alter the fundamental concepts which we had already formulated for the EDVAC.’

ну в общем как я и ожидал. не зря я решил дочитать The Man from the Future

дальше там на стр 125 тоже познавательно

see also Von Neumann the Fraud. это смутно мне напоминает Исайю Берлина. also John von Neumann: A Strange Kind of Bird

но есть нюанс

Support Grows to Have Russia Pay for Ukraine’s Rebuilding Although U.S. officials have cautioned against seizing Russia’s reserves in foreign banks, others say it’s “crazy” not to after Moscow’s war of aggression. - кто эти others, хочем знать. впрочем, дальше там сказано прямо и честно: a handful of Eastern European and Baltic nations. In principle, it is clear-cut... At the same time, he noted - кто-то сказал, что everything before the word but is horseshit. там много по тексту познавательного: Other top officials, in the United States and elsewhere, have sounded more skeptical. в общем - и хочется, и колется.

Прачечная

это из Два вида искусства. почему японцы не ценят укиёэ:

Можно провести самый примитивный эксперимент и изучить список «Национальных сокровищ Японии». Как вы думаете, сколько гравюр укиёэ включены в этот список? Правильно, ни одной. Нет там ни Хиросигэ, ни Хокусая. Как так, спросите вы?!

много интересного.

Midwit Effect

It is hard for some to believe, but intelligence is not superpower. If you have IQ 160 you don't get the keys to the world. Many other psychological traits *which don't correlate with IQ* matter for political/social success. This causes what I propose to call the Midwit Effect.

...
This is why critical literature on government policy, for example, is so much more intelligent than government policy itself. Plenty of people are more insightful than the Runners of Things, but they don't have the other qualities necessary to be in charge.

...
in academia I've noticed a key criterion for intellectual success (widely praised books, devoted students, well-regarded theories) is extraversion, which is probably negatively correlated with very high IQ. @eugyppius

комментарии там тоже заслуживают