What’s funny is that Jimmy Wales, who has described himself as an objectivist, is far from “leftist” or “liberal” himself. But unlike this asshole, he is principled.

Farmhands warn of tractor automation as dark farmland future looms.

It will be exciting to see how he will also do absolutely nothing as the UK sleepwalks into a Reform-led fascist dystopia.

Okay, but why pretend your noble goal is to “prevent far-right parties taking control” when in fact you are now espousing the very same talking points they are and enthusiastically endorsing them?

Personifying a “country,” presuming it has a monolithic “cultural identity” that might be preserved and is under threat from “outsiders” is an ultranationalist, deeply xenophobic point of view.

Would it be “smart” for the Berlin government to only accept people with “needed skills” from Hamburg? Maybe, in some sense? But that’s not the point. The point is that a government shouldn’t use violence to restrict people’s freedoms unless they pose an immediate and direct threat.

What an oddly defeatist approach to policy. Like herding Jews into ghettos because Nazis would be worse. Shouldn’t policy be judged on its intrinsic merits rather than its supposed value for placating racists?

But being competent in your field doesn’t make you a good manager or leader.

Except it kind of does. Surviving in academia requires being able to sell yourself well, and to be able to network and set up collaborations with other groups. Stereotypes and some exceptions notwithstanding, professors usually have good social and management skills.

Well, the hiring process for professors varies by university, but usually other professors and the dean or similar role (typically also someone with an academic background) play important roles.

One of the positive aspects about a career in science is that HR essentially has no role in hiring decisions. The hiring is done mostly by professors, who are usually highly competent in their field.

This article is about some professors (and other supervisors) being toxic. The world of science is extremely cutthroat and competitive (much more so than the world of business), and the kind of people who survive in it long-term tend to be extreme workaholics. I was personally lucky with my supervisors during my time in science, but some of them can put a lot of pressure on grad students and postdocs and expect them to be the no-lifers that they themselves usually also are.

…that was a British colony.

Independent state or not, there certainly was no instance of a “Palestinian” people “govern[ing] themselves” (whatever that may mean - the majority of the world, including Israel/Palestine, has never had anything resembling a democratic government).

The Ottomans themselves were by definition a small dynastic elite that ruled over a multi-ethnic, multilingual empire. They didn’t give a shit about what “Palestinians” thought about the governance of this area except insofar as it suited their own perceived interests.

The Ottomans didn’t officially call this region “Palestine” in its own administrative divisions though that name existed as an unofficial designation for the rough area.

The Sykes-Picot borders were drawn from the rectums of some drunk European aristocrats who barely knew the region. On which sides of those borders people ended up is largely a historical accident.

It’s bullshit that countries should be able to deny entry to people arbitrarily, but your history is also a bit off. There never was a Palestinian nation state; there weren’t even nation states as we know them today hundreds of years ago (when Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire, and before that the Mamluk Sultanate).

European carmakers have dozens of EV models on the market, and they are dominating the EU market though selling poorly outside it.

While rapidly shrinking, the ICE market in the EU still accounts for about three quarters of the market. This is why some EU carmakers (notably Stellantis) have shifted to a Kodak strategy in an attempt to make short-term gains over the coming decade.

I didn’t really look into what this startup did, but it doesn’t surprise me. Elon Musk has a very similar kind of story, bullshitting his way to being a billionaire. The system is very heavily stacked in favour of dishonest people.

How is this guy a fucking CEO?

Wealthy background. Dropped out, got lucky with a startup and sold his stake for a decent sum, gaining enough momentum to keep failing upward.

The guy is absolutely clueless, which can be mathematically proven on the basis of the fact that he invested in a crypto firm.

Yes, by a broad definition. They can be considered democracies because elections, while not free and fair, are not directly rigged, opposition parties are allowed to contest them, and the press is partially free. Contrast this to a country like China or Russia, where elections are a sham, opposition is banned or controlled, and the press is tightly controlled by the government.

I will say though that both V-Dem and the Economist are being somewhat generous. Considering recent events in Hungary, one could argue both countries should really rank lower than Hungary.

It requires a broad definition of democracy to consider either of those democracies. The V-Dem Institute puts both in the second tier of “electoral democracy” behind the “true” democracies, termed “liberal democracy.”

From Wikipedia, the electoral democracies are those that:

Regimes that possess the bare minimum to be considered a democracy. They are “de-facto accountable to citizens through periodic elections”, but are not liberal democracies and lack further entrenched individual and minority rights beyond the electoral sphere. Basic electoral democracies may not possess a fully developed rule of law, legislative and judicial oversight of the executive branch, protections against the “tyranny of the majority”, and only minimal fulfillment of Robert Dahl’s institutional prerequisites for democracy.[13]

Both countries are also considered to be backsliding toward autocracy.

Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? “No,” says the man in Washington, “it belongs to the poor.” “No,” says the man in the Vatican, “it belongs to God.” “No,” says the man in Moscow, “it belongs to everyone.” I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different.

• Claude in the near future, probably

American voters are doing their part to “help,” crying about “high” fuel prices (less than half of what they are here) when one of the big issues is that undertaxation of petrol has led to underinvestment in alternatives.

Oh my bad, I interpreted the comment as saying it should be a general requirement.

ArXiv uses an endorsement system so that not everyone can post there. However, sometimes dubious “scientists” manage to slip through the cracks, which is why there is moderation for cases such as these.