Statuses
This Senator Is Hell-Bent on Getting Out the Truth About Trump and Russia | Mother Jones
Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden says the Obama administration should have released more information before the election.
Why Nobody Cares the President Is Lying | The New York Times
In the conservative media, we conditioned people not to trust facts or mainstream news outlets.
🔖 Why Boltzmann Brains Are Bad by Sean M. Carroll
Some modern cosmological models predict the appearance of Boltzmann Brains: observers who randomly fluctuate out of a thermal bath rather than naturally evolving from a low-entropy Big Bang. A theory in which most observers are of the Boltzmann Brain type is generally thought to be unacceptable, although opinions differ. I argue that such theories are indeed unacceptable: the real problem is with fluctuations into observers who are locally identical to ordinary observers, and their existence cannot be swept under the rug by a choice of probability distributions over observers. The issue is not that the existence of such observers is ruled out by data, but that the theories that predict them are cognitively unstable: they cannot simultaneously be true and justifiably believed.
Covering Trump the Reuters Way | Reuters
In a message to staff today, Reuters Editor-in-Chief Steve Adler wrote about covering President Trump the Reuters way.
Oval Office Cold Open – SNL
President Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) calls Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (Beck Bennett), Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto (Alex Moffat) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (Kate McKinnon).
Sean Spicer Press Conference (Melissa McCarthy) – SNL
White House press secretary Sean Spicer (Melissa McCarthy) and secretary of education nominee Betsy DeVos (Kate McKinnon) take questions from the press (Bobby Moynihan, Kristen Stewart, Cecily Strong, Vanessa Bayer, Alex Moffat, Mikey Day).
Hear The Epic of Gilgamesh Read in its Original Ancient Language, Akkadian
Hear The Epic of Gilgamesh Read in its Original Ancient Language, Akkadian http://bit.ly/2dF0SFZpic.twitter.com/sdgjcJX5ZK
Trump and Staff Rethink Tactics After Stumbles | The New York Times
One thing has become apparent to both the president’s allies as well as his opponents: When it comes to governing, speed does not always guarantee success.
Checkin 76 Gas Station
📖 On page 115 of 430 of Dealing with China by Henry M. Paulson, Jr.
Cleaning the Stables in Guangdong was interesting, but could have had some more details and data (or a better case study, given its potential value). Alas it was just a quick overview of two years of work, possibly because editors thought it might be overly boring, but really who is going to read this book, but people who want these types of details.
I find at times in the book, he becomes overly gracious and almost too complimentary which I take to mean that he is still ingratiating himself to colleagues and potential future relations.
The chapter on School for Success could itself have been a better and more in-depth case study, but was a short historical outline.
There are some occasional interesting tidbits hidden throughout the chapters which are generally illuminating, but I wish there were more useful insider tidbits of true value. So far I’m not reading anything much more valuable than could be found in overview newspaper articles covering some of the same topics.
📕 Finished reading Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
What a lovely little volume, though a bit sappier in the end than I would have liked or expected given the realities of the earlier portions.
I’ve an interesting thesis about what the book is really about. Details to come…
Checkin Mayor’s Bicentennial Park
Checkin Okanoue Library
Donald Trump’s Longtime Doctor Says President Takes Hair-Growth Drug | The New York Times
Dr. Harold N. Bornstein granted the interview after The New York Times asked him to discuss his past and possible future role in Mr. Trump’s care.