My recent post at Ricochet: the results of FIRE’s recent study on the free speech climate at America’s universities, a view of Harvard from 1835 (which I posted here a while back), and some signs of pushback against academic credentialism.
Retrotech Event
The New England Wireless & Steam Museum is having its annual steam-up on Saturday, October 7. I’m hoping to make it this year, which I haven’t managed to do previously.
Related posts:
Machine tools and glassmaking – visiting the American Precision Museum and the Simon Pearce glassmaking facility.
A retrotech adventure – the Essex Steam Train and Riverboat.
Retrotech, revitalized – a triple-expansion steam engine, built for municipal water pumping, has been restored to operating condition.
Retrotech event, west coast edition – Bill Brandt visits a lumber mill from 1914.
The Tottering Colossus
We beat feet from cable for our nightly television viewing about ten years ago my, how the time flies when you are having fun. We went to various subscription services at a quarter the cost of the monthly cable bill. This came about when we realized that there were only a couple of channels or services provided by cable that we watched regularly; this last weekend, we racked our memories, trying to recall the last American broadcast TV program that we looked forward to and made a point of watching. (Castle, BTW, mostly because of Nathan Fillion … which had its last season in 2016.) We have lavished our screen-watching time ever since then on old, or foreign movies and series, of which there is a rich and entertaining selection everything from Blackadder, to the original Upstairs, Downstairs (Great Britain), to things like A Place to Call Home, 800 Words and Brokenwood Mysteries (Australia/New Zealand). Currently, the evening watching for us is The Durrells (BBC, and only minimal traces of wokery), while Wee Jamie seems to be fascinated by Alien TV (Australian), Grimmy and the Lemings (Canadian/French) and Masha and the Bear (Russian.)
What a “X” Platform Shadowban looks like
There has been a systematic effort by purportedly “Pro-Ukrainian” but Left/Democratic leaning X accounts to make support of Ukraine a Democrat versus Republican partisan political issue.
I am just one such account which has been targeted in what looks like “partisan battlefield preparation” for the 2024 election cycle.
Worthwhile Reading and Viewing
Allocation of IQ to thinking about relationships–different in men and women. So argues this article, which is linked and discussed in a thread by Rob Henderson at Twitter.
The Great Untethering–school choice and remote work.
East of the Mississippi–19th century American landscape photography.
How Allied mass production drove the victory over the Axis powers. A YouTube documentary, which I haven’t seen yet but which looks promising.
What kinds of people are attracted to mass movements? “(Eric) Hoffer emphasizes that creative people–those who experience creative flow–aren’t usually attracted to mass movements.” (Twitter) Makes sense, but is this really true? Seems to me that there were quite a few creative scientists and artists who were strongly attracted to Communism, and I can think of at least one supposedly-creative philosopher who was strongly attracted to Naziism.
The Real Roaring Twenties Was… the 1720s. So argues Anton Howes in this article. His Twitter feed is here.