Jill Lepore on Hard Fork

by liberal japonicus From here I actually just think the idea that this extraordinary leap in human knowledge and our capacity to explore the world of ideas and the natural world around us in our lifetimes could come about and then be hawked at us like the the cheapest like new pair of shoes, but … Read more

Demography

by liberal japonicus This Guardian article touches on a point that I think is interesting, why so many Latinos are involved on the enforcement side of ICE. The final graf is The lesson is that we should stop treating Latino support for anti-immigration politics as a paradox. To the contrary, this is a part of … Read more

your Inshallah open thread

by liberal japonicus I guess the big news is from the Michiganders and Abdul El-Sayed. I like Jamelle Bouie’s encapsulation of this, which is Vote Blue No Matter Who. If anyone has a more granular view of the race, please drop it in the thread and feel free to write about anything else.

Inaptonym watch

by liberal japonicus One thing I like is to note inaptonyms, like the hair salon named Tangles or the copy shop named Typos (the Philippine Roman Catholic cardinal Jaime Sin is often on the top of the list) and this story, about an investment fund called Situational Awareness, definitely deserves a place of honor. Any … Read more

A quick note

by liberal japonicus I’ve mentioned, from time to time, that I live in Kyushu and perhaps I mentioned that I live in Kumamoto, so this post is to let everyone know that me and mine are ok. It apparently wasn’t as bad as the one 10 years ago (I was presenting at a conference and … Read more

Frostadóttir Saga

by liberal japonicus Lots of things in this Rest of Politics interview with Kristrún Frostadóttir to comment on. The first thing that struck me was her accent. She went to grammar school in the UK and her graduate work in the US and her accent is 95% USaian. About at the 40 minute mark, Campbell … Read more

Your Odyssey thread

by liberal japonicus Apologies for the radio silence, been watching lots of discussion about Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey. I limit myself to full length youtube videos, and I avoid shorts like the plague, but here is your invitation to post anything related that you think might be interesting.

Real ID

by liberal japonicus I was discussing this article with some other people here in Japan, and I thought it might interesting for the great umatched wash here. It’s a substack article entitled The Digital Shadow: Why Half of Japan’s Youth Are Living Double Lives Online and I think it betrays a Western thinking about identity. … Read more