Kevin Drum 🕸

Here's a quasi-philosophical question for your weekend amusement that's probably been studied but is just obscure enough that I can't find anything relevant when I search for it. Most philosophical systems assume that a life is a life, all equally valuable. This makes sense for any moral system that has to be universal, but in ...continue reading "How much do you value life?"

Over at Vox, Siobhan McDonough has a lengthy piece about a guaranteed income experiment being done in Georgia. The headline calls it "revolutionary," but I can't say I'm floored by the idea that giving poor people an extra $10,000 per year will vastly improve their lives. Of course it will. The drawback is that it ...continue reading "Americans both love and hate affirmative action"

The New York Times ran an editorial on Friday about "America's free speech problem," and naturally this has Twitter all atwitter. I myself find the whole "cancel culture" controversy exhausting, mainly because of the absolutism on both sides. My side denies the problem exists at all, while the Fox News set insists it's rampant. For ...continue reading "Cancel culture: A brief little listicle"

Here is Hilbert as the setting sun shines through our front window, lighting up his eyes magnificently. Is he aware that Charlie is photobombing him? His alert expression suggests "maybe."

After yesterday's post about the types of vehicles that are most involved in crashing into pedestrians, a regular readers suggests it would be interesting to see the total level of pedestrian crashes as context. Here it is: Nothing much to see here. Overall crashes involving pedestrians have been rock steady over the past 15 years. ...continue reading "Raw data: Pedestrians and bicyclists involved in motor vehicle crashes"

A few days ago I tried to buy something with my main credit card and was turned down. I paid with another credit card, and the next day the main card was fine, so I forgot the whole thing. But then it happened again. And once again, the next day the card was fine. Then ...continue reading "My Week"

A couple of researchers at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety have released a study of pedestrian crashes by type of vehicle. They've done this both nationally and for North Carolina. I don't know why North Carolina rates a separate study, and they didn't explain it, but let's take a look anyway: Big vehicles are ...continue reading "What kind of vehicles crash into pedestrians the most?"

As I'm sure you all know by now, Texas is under fire for rejecting a large number of mail-in ballots in its primary election a few weeks ago: According to an Associated Press analysis, the news isn’t great. For the March 1 primary, the state rejected almost 23,000 mail-in ballots, or close to 13 percent ...continue reading "The Texas mail ballot law probably isn’t a big deal"

This is a very typical view of a Louisiana marsh: swamp daisies on the floor and Spanish moss hanging all over the trees.

This is an oak tree silhouetted against a stormy sky a couple of weeks ago. As it happens, the stormy sky produced a few drizzles here and there but nothing more. We could use the water, so it was a missed chance.

A few years ago a friend of mine got cataract surgery. He had worn glasses since childhood, but after the surgery he had perfect 20/20 vision and great reading vision. That sounded awesome, and naturally I wanted this surgery too even though I didn't have cataracts. I grumbled a bit about that and then forgot ...continue reading "Health Update, High Tech Optics Edition"

I'm not sure why I've held onto this picture. It was taken in the town square in Tecate, Mexico, and this pigeon looks so awkward on takeoff that it tickles me. Do all birds look like this at the moment they're trying to get their first bit of lift? I don't think so. Just pigeons, ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

Not much blogging today, I'm afraid. But for a good reason! I'll tell you all about it tomorrow or Thursday.

This is the Seal Beach pier taken in late morning. There are lots of different ways of taking this picture, and I chose a long exposure without any adjustment for the background. The result is smooth, swirly water and a pure white background from overexposure. I tried a bunch of other variants, including some composites, ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

Always remember: pi is not just irrational. It's also transcendental. Omm.

The other day, for no real reason, I was thinking about metric measurements and how often we use them. I'm not thinking of scientific contexts, just everyday uses that most people in the United States accept without thinking much about it. For example: Grams: turntable counterweight, illicit drugs Kilograms: illicit drugs (kilos) Kilometers: army distance ...continue reading "The metric system in everyday American life"

Wikipedia used to confirm that my favorite proverb is "Amateurs study tactics; professionals study logistics," but I guess somebody must have removed it. Nonetheless, it still is my favorite, and it's apparently something that the Russian military should have paid more attention to: Thread: on why the Russian advance into Ukraine has bogged down—their logistics ...continue reading "Professionals study logistics. Apparently the Russian army isn’t very professional."

I know that measuring COVID cases is no longer considered especially useful, but case rates are still the best early warning metric we have. Here are the case rates for the US and a bunch of European countries: The US has the lowest case rate among all these countries and it has the lowest test ...continue reading "Raw data: Omicron is making a small comeback in Europe"

A few days ago I noted that Sen. Rick Scott¹ had released an "11 Point Plan to Rescue America" which included a proposal to ensure that everyone pays at least some federal income tax. He wants no more of those free riders who pay zero in taxes. As I mentioned, the problem with this is ...continue reading "Rick Scott wants to raise federal taxes by $1 trillion"

I mentioned yesterday that my new Pixel 6 Pro phone has not just a pretty good normal camera but also an awesome low-light camera. I'll show you an example. In the early hours of the morning everyone is asleep except me, and the only light in the bedroom is my reading lamp. I can tell ...continue reading "Low light photography with the Pixel 6 Pro"