Monday Mule Pack – Spiders, Humanists, Coffee, and the Robot Apocalypse
April 3, 2017
A weekly look at some of the more interesting articles from around the web.
The weird intersection of alcohol and fitness could be big business for both sides
Social psychologists speak of a “third place” as a location besides home and work where individuals feel a welcoming sense of comfort and community. Religious places often fit that category, as do pubs, coffeehouses and barbershops. And fitness facilities, with visions of becoming a lucrative third place, are recognizing that alcohol is a strong adhesive for social bonding.
MM: Everything is better with beer.
Clergy who don’t believe in organized religion? Humanists think 2017 is their time to grow.
These clergy without a God say that their movement is poised to grow dramatically right now, as American young adults report a lack of religious belief in higher numbers than ever before, but also yearn for communal ties and a sense of mission in a tumultuous time.
MM: Needed.
We’re so unprepared for the robot apocalypse
The latest study reveals that for manufacturing workers, the process of adjusting to technological change has been much slower and more painful than most experts thought. “We were looking at a span of 20 years, so in that timeframe, you would expect that manufacturing workers would be able to find other employment,” Restrepo said. Instead, not only did the factory jobs vanish, but other local jobs disappeared too. Acemoglu and Restrepo say that every industrial robot eliminated about three manufacturing positions, plus three more jobs from around town.
I gave up TV, then qualified for Olympic marathon trials and got my PhD
Surely there’s some good to television, as stress relief or to give our brains a break, isn’t there?
Spiders could theoretically eat every human on Earth in one year
The world’s spiders consume somewhere between 400 million and 800 million tons of prey in any given year. That means that spiders eat at least as much meat as all 7 billion humans on the planet combined, who the authors note consume about 400 million tons of meat and fish each year.
MM: !!!
Coal Country Is a State of Mind
Why does an industry that is no longer a major employer even in West Virginia retain such a hold on the region’s imagination, and lead its residents to vote overwhelmingly against their own interests?
Don’t Fight Their Lies With Lies of Your Own
We are not experiencing anything that resembles Stalinist state terror, but we are living through a period of mental hyperinflation: Ideas, prospects and spectacles go from unimaginable to ordinary in weeks or even days. A couple of months ago, the presence of the president’s daughter at top-level meetings was mind-boggling; now it barely scores a mention as Ivanka Trump, security clearance nearly in hand, prepares to settle into an office in the West Wing. The idea of an actual wall on the Mexican border once seemed too bizarre, too expensive, too self-defeating — and now that the government has begun soliciting design proposals, it doesn’t seem surprising.
Trump moves decisively to wipe out Obama’s climate-change record
The order sends an unmistakable signal that just as President Barack Obama sought to weave climate considerations into every aspect of the federal government, Trump is hoping to rip that approach out by its roots.
MM: I used to think that Trump wanted to be president to satisfy his narcissistic longing for a lasting legacy. But his utter disregard for our future seems to suggest otherwise. In hindsight, I think all he really cares about is money. And the Trump family is making a whole lot of money right now.
Trump has nothing but contempt for facts and reality-based policy. Now it’s backfiring.
But for now, it is hard to avoid viewing all of this in its larger context. As I’ve argued, the Trump White House has been infected from the outset with a kind of deep rot of bad faith — a contempt for legitimate process, fact-based debate and reality-based governing — that has bordered on all-corrosive. This low regard for science may well prove to be another data point illustrating this pattern.
Republicans for Single-Payer Health Care
Without a viable health care agenda of their own, Republicans now face a choice between two options: Obamacare and a gradual shift toward a single-payer system. The early signs suggest they will choose single payer.
MM: Let’s hope so.
Can Elephants Learn From Failure?
After the health care debacle, Republicans desperately need a win. Moreover, they are massively underestimating how hard tax reform is going to be.
…
Tax reform probably won’t survive if the Republicans try to do it the way they tried to do health care — staying within the lines of Republican orthodoxy while veering over to the extreme right in the hopes of winning the Freedom Caucus. Tax reform will probably only pass with bipartisan buy-in, if there are enough potential yes votes that you can afford to lose some off on the extremes.
Tax reform is one of the few issues where Republican and Democratic thinking overlaps. It’s one of the few ways to significantly boost growth. If Republicans can learn from their errors, they can get this done. If, on the other hand, tax reform fails, the G.O.P. majority is forfeit and Washington will descend to utter dysfunction.
The Most Caffeinated Coffee in the World Is Now Available in the US
Launched in 2016, Black Insomnia, a South Africa-based coffee company, is the most recent brand to claim that title, saying it has scientific proof that its blend is the most caffeinated in the world – with “dangerously high levels of caffeine” as the brand awkwardly boasts. And now, the king of caffeinated coffees is finally available in the US.
