Tues Blogcast: Dr Leonard Sax; Columbia chaos; Robots coming for your job?

Students are out of control; College administrators are spineless

At Columbia, a few dozen masked students took over Hamilton Hall, which is the administrative building with the offices of deans, etc. This happened when I was a student there in the 1980s as well, though it didn't last long and I don't recall property damage. Every student in the building must be expelled. Every student that blocks entrance to Hamilton or any other building must be expelled. Students who otherwise violate rules must be suspended, at least.

As of this writing (about 7 AM MT on Tuesday) the police have not been called in. It's pretty quiet right in front of Hamilton at the moment, unlike last night, though there are still plenty of tents violating school policy on the lawn in front of Butler Library.

Meanwhile, here in Denver, Community College of Denver (located at the Auraria Campus) has moved all their classes online a week before the end of the semester. As for the student protesters, they remain morally confused. One such student, quoted in this article, says that being the "best student" means protesting -- and that's probably wrong but at least an interesting question -- but he goes on to say that being the best student also means disrupting classes. And that is unacceptable.

Community College of Denver cancels in-person classes | 9news.com

Maybe worst of all, the administration at Northwestern University (just outside of Chicago) caved into protester demands. They should have told the students that the university does not work for them. The university offers them a service that they can accept or not. The idea of having students on a university's investment committee is freakin' insane. And they say they'll pay the tuition for 5 Palestinian students. What about Israeli students?

The deal: agreement-on-deering-meadow.pdf (northwestern.edu)

Interesting that online comments (see Instagram link below...check the comments) suggest that the radical protesters don't like the deal simply because the school is willing to agree to it. Sure sounds a lot like Yasser Arafat's refusal to make peace with Israel even when offered something like 93% of all the land he had said the PLO wanted in return for peace: Northwestern University Strikes Deal With Pro-Palestinian Protesters (msn.com)

This is really good:

Just One Thing: Restaurant robots (coming sooner thanks to higher minimum wages)

Using automation to replace human workers has been going on for as long as men have been able to invent machines. There is always opposition, like the machine-breaking Luddites, but technology always wins because it usually lowers costs and usually improves quality. Of course, the incentive to replace a human with a machine is impacted by the cost of the human, and it’s especially true of low-skill humans, which is to say people who have jobs that don’t require lots of training or education. That’s why the constant raising of the minimum wage in leftist places like California and Denver will herald a more rapid incursion of robots into restaurants and similar businesses. Low-skilled workers will lose jobs and people will be reminded that the actual minimum wage is zero.

Today's blog picture (which you saw on the main webpage before clicking through to the blogcast) is of a restaurant robot in, of all places, the Iraqi city of Mosul. Apparently some of the technology for those robots was actually developed there. Mosul glides into the future with robot waiters (thenationalnews.com)

Now we have this, in California: Robot restaurant worker elicits customer smiles, employee anxiety - CBS San Francisco (cbsnews.com)

Today's Guest

Dr Leonard Sax is an MD and psychologist. He's written much (and well) about issues hurting the development of America's children (especially boys, who were much disfavored for a couple of decades). Today he joins us to talk about some of the backlash against some of the most extreme efforts of the pro-transgender crowd. There was a serious, credible, large study in the UK that found no scientific basis for some of the most aggressive treatments being applied to youth who "identify as" transgender. Based on the report, the UK is significantly changing their standards of care. The lady who wrote the study, Hilary Cass, says she's being hounded.

** I note that I am not "anti-transgender". People should lead the lives they want to lead (as long as they don't harm others.) My concern, and the concern of many others, is in the exceptionally difficult realm of making decisions for children that have either permanent or else difficult-to-reverse implications for the rest of their lives when they might simply be struggling with temporary psychological issues or some of the ordinary pressures of youth. That said, I disapprove of states making laws that absolutely prevent parents from making their best decisions for their own children and I find it rather ironic that the biggest pushers of this government interference into parenting is conservatives who, in every other situation, argue against government supplanting parents.

Leonard Sax MD PhD | Physician, Psychologist, and Author

The end of transgender craziness? (constantcontact.com)

Hilary Cass: I can’t travel on public transport after gender report (thetimes.co.uk)

Other Stuff

We saw this kind of thing in the Internet bubble too…it’s just how these cycles go: A.I. Start-Ups Face a Rough Financial Reality Check - Patabook News

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My theory is that in nature things smell bad (at least as far as how humans perceive them) for a reason: namely that they suggest illness or death. Therefore it seems to me like a stink on a person is some kind of message (I don't mean in a religious or spiritual way) to clean yourself. Even these people who virtue-signal about not showering still (mostly) seem to find ways to get clean, but -- call me crazy -- I'll stick with showering (even if I don't usually waste time washing my legs.)

There's no need to shower every day – here's why (bbc.com)

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This is a weird story: ChatGPT’s hallucinations draw EU privacy complaint – POLITICO

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I got caught up with a very juvenile conversation about gross-sounding words yesterday so I still owe you a bunch of stuff. (The next 4 items)

Retire at 65? It’s More Like 62. - WSJ

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(18) Ford Lost $65,272 For Every EV It Sold In 1Q24. Plus: 2.7M Views Of Juice, Mapping Whales & Wind Turbines, ARC Video, & Alma Jette’s New Album (substack.com)

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The (very) rich get (much) richer: Taylor Swift's 'Tortured Poets Department' debuts No. 1 on Billboard, hits largest streaming week ever (msn.com)

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This kind of story will keep haunting the GOP: ‘My Unborn Baby Was Dying. But I Couldn’t Get an Abortion.’ | The Free Press (thefp.com)

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Read the first paragraph: The Total Cost of Student Debt Cancellation-2024-04-29 (crfb.org)

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Potentially one of the biggest questions in the 2024 election: From whom does RFK Jr siphon the most support, Trump or Biden? I've thought the answer was Biden. One recent national poll suggested he hurts Trump slightly more. But this new poll of key swing states again says RFK hurts Biden more. Clearly, Dems think that's the case.

RFK Jr Hurting Joe Biden More Than Donald Trump In Five Battleground States (newsweek.com)

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There is good reason to believe that this drives down rents as a secondary effect but it's almost certainly true that it drives up the cost of homes and makes it harder, especially for first-time home buyers to get their part of the American Dream: Wall Street Has Spent Billions Buying Homes. A Crackdown Is Looming. - WSJ

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TikTok's parent company says they would rather let it shut down in the US than sell their algorithm. It's not surprising when you learn how much more money the company makes with a different website/platform in China:

There Is No TikTok in China, Only Douyin. Here’s What It Is. - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

ByteDance Profit Jumps 60%, Taking It Past Archrival Tencent (yahoo.com)

Exclusive: ByteDance prefers TikTok shutdown in US if legal options fail, sources say | Reuters

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If you're a birdwatcher (and maybe even if you're not) you'll find this interesting: ‘Mega-rare’ bird spotted in Oregon, first reported sighting in US history (msn.com)