The Washington Post reports that most book challenges come from a tiny number of activists: The majority of the 1,000-plus book challenges analyzed by The Post were filed by just 11 people. Each of these people brought 10 or more challenges against books in their school district; one man filed 92 challenges. Together, these serial ...continue reading "Book banning is a very, very niche activity"
One of the more mysterious aspects of the debt ceiling crisis is what happens if we actually go over the edge. There are two basic possibilities: Treasury simply pays bills on a first-come-first-serve basis. So if X-Day arrives on, say, June 1, and Treasury runs out of cash at 11 am, all the bills still ...continue reading "Who gets paid if the US defaults on its debt?"
I'm feeling back up to making charts, so I thought I'd show you one that clarifies my progress with the CAR-T infusion. This is just the crudest sort of extrapolation, so take it with a grain of salt. As it turns out, I've actually had three M-protein measurements. The first was several days before the ...continue reading "M-Protein update"
I am definitely on the mend. My counts are practically up to normal; the Bell's palsy is receding; my energy is slowly returning; and my appetite has improved. Everything is getting better. But the bigger news is that I finally got my first M-protein result. As you'll recall, this is a proxy for the total ...continue reading "Health update"
A few days ago, OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, testified that artificial intelligence posed significant dangers and ought to be regulated. Yesterday, though, he released a short brief on the subject and, remarkably, it turns out he doesn't want anything regulated at all. Not in practice, anyway. For starters, here's what he affirmatively does want regulated: ...continue reading "Should AI be regulated?"
Paul Krugman posted this chart today from the Fed's annual survey of economic well-being: There are two interesting things here. First, if you look at the top line it's nearly flat. This is people reporting on their own finances, and COVID-19 had almost no effect at all. None. There's even a slight uptick in 2021, ...continue reading "I’m OK, you’re not"
Today is the first day of the French Open. It's just qualies this week, but it's still technically the opening. In honor of this, here's a picture of the sculpture of Roland Garros at the front gate of the stadium. Garros was a World War I aviation pioneer after whom the stadium is named.
Matt Yglesias on Twitter: What I do think is true, though, is that: — Under any tactics, Biden would have ended up agreeing to meaningful cuts in discretionary spending. — The case *on the merits* for austerity budgeting is a much stronger today than it was in 2011 — Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) May 22, 2023 ...continue reading "Austerity budgeting? Really?"
I'm flummoxed by Joe Biden's latest on the debt ceiling: Mr. Biden said on Sunday that he believed he had the power to challenge the constitutionality of the nation’s borrowing limit, but that he did not believe such a challenge could succeed in time to avoid a default on federal debt if lawmakers did not ...continue reading "Challenging the debt ceiling"
In its simplest terms, the ongoing debt ceiling fiasco just continues to perplex me. At first, Joe Biden says explicitly that there will be no negotiations over the debt ceiling. The United States pays its bills and that's that. Fine. But the only way to do that is to instruct Treasury to keep paying bills ...continue reading "What’s up with the debt ceiling?"
Really, everything was very positive today. My counts are going steadily up; WBC and RBC are getting close to normal, ditto for platelets, which were all but zero a few days ago. It's hard to stay positive, but that's solely because of the extreme fatigue, which I was warned about and is totally expected. The ...continue reading "Health update"
This picture amuses me. It's Charlie with our lizard, but for some reason he's pretending to ignore it. He only did this for a few seconds before springing back into action, but I wonder what he was thinking? Trying to trick the lizard or something?
I was discharged from the hospital yesterday and we're now back in the hotel. It's nice to finally be untethered from the infusion machine and able to walk about freely. On the downside, discharge involved the prescription of an absolute mountain of meds. It's insane. Thank God Marian is here to help me keep track ...continue reading "Health update"
According to the signage, this is a specimen of hedychium at the Huntington Library. I don't know what kind, and it doesn't seem to match other pictures of hedychium, but there you have it.
Frustrating times for me. I'm just starting to recover enough energy to read the news, but not really deeply. On the surface, though, everything seems to be going bonkers. In New York we have this dude Daniel Penny who killed an annoying subway rider—and the entire right wing is backing him up. This comes a ...continue reading "Is the world really going nuts?"
A communications tower at Chiriaco Summit at dawn near Joshua Tree. I often stop here for gas or snacks on my way to the desert for astrophotography sessions.
Today's news was relatively good—with an emphasis on the relative. They've confirmed that my face droopiness wasn't caused by a stroke. There were no ischemic problems on the MRI. So what is it? A neurologist just came by and was generally pleased with everything, including the fact that my droopiness extended all the way up ...continue reading "Health Update"
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