Silicon Valley Continues to Invoke its Vague Guidelines to Clamp Down on Free Speech

Yes, I know. The First Amendment doesn't apply to private companies and social media are private companies. But consider also that 95% (or something like that) of our communications to each other are funneled through social media. When Youtube shuts down a journalist's coverage of a news-worthy event based on an absurd interpretation of its unilaterally imposed guidelines, it's something we should document and fix (I don't pretend to have an easy fix). Matt Taibbi tells the story here. It's part of a growing trend. This issue burst onto the national stage when Twitter shut down the New York Post's account over the Hunter Biden censorship story. Krystal Ball's tweet at The Rising sums up this latest incident:

Continue ReadingSilicon Valley Continues to Invoke its Vague Guidelines to Clamp Down on Free Speech

Chick Corea’s Inspiring Legacy

Rolling Stone issues this statement from Chick Corea's family: “Through his body of work and the decades he spent touring the world, he touched and inspired the lives of millions.” True words here. I was touched and inspired for decades. I'm playing Chick's music as I write this. His richly woven joyously executed musical phrases will continue to live in me for the rest of my days.

Is it too macabre to think that, within the severe constraint of a few decades on this planet, our task, for each of us, is to create a body of work that remains once we are dead? To spend our lives creating our something worth remembering? That's how I see it.

Once we are gone, what remains of us? If we are not careful, if we allow time to slip through our fingers, it might be difficult to find evidence that we ever existed. For others, our self-appointed task is to nurture those in our communities, including our children.

For yet others, the task is (also) to leave artistic treasures that might live on indefinitely. That is the silver lining about the death of jazz great Chick Corea. I didn't know him personally. I'd saddened for his family and I'm disappointed that he not be able to create new music. Yet he continues to be intensely and exhuberently alive in the many recordings of his performances. For that I am grateful.

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Abigail Shrier Discusses the Fact-Checking of her Opinion on White House Transgender Policy

Apparently, one can have a false opinion these days. Abigail Shrier explains in this Tweet Thread.

For the fallout, consider Shrier's additional tweets on this thread, including the following:

Continue ReadingAbigail Shrier Discusses the Fact-Checking of her Opinion on White House Transgender Policy

How Much Interest Can You Now Earn on Checking Accounts?

Fun with Numbers! Have you seen what many financial institutions are paying on checking accounts these days? Consider the chart below, which is from my credit union (which I love, BTW). The basic rate is .05% interest. If you pony up and deposit more than $1,500 into a “Priority II Checking Account,” you can DOUBLE your interest rate to .1%.

Let’s assume you deposited $10,000 into that "Priority II" checking account on Jan 1, 2021. At the end of one year, on December 31, you will have earned TEN DOLLARS. Even worse, if inflation runs at 2% for the year, you will end up with $10,010 that only has the spending power of $9809.80. How long will it take to double your money in that checking account? Using the “Rule of 72s,” the answer is 720 years.

Continue ReadingHow Much Interest Can You Now Earn on Checking Accounts?

A Few More Quotes to Ponder

I've made a habit of publishing pages of quotes every few months at DI. As one of my many sources, I sometimes visit The Quotations Page. Here are some of my favorites from from QP over the past few weeks:

"Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is."
William James (1842 - 1910)

"Acting is merely the art of keeping a large group of people from coughing."
Sir Ralph Richardson (1902 - 1983), quoted in New York Herald Tribune, May 19, 1946

"If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much."
Donald H. Rumsfeld (1932 - ), US Secretary of Defense

"You know that children are growing up when they start asking questions that have answers."
John J. Plomp

"Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim."
George Santayana (1863 - 1952), Life of Reason (1905) vol. 1, Introduction

"Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example."
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894)

"Any event, once it has occurred, can be made to appear inevitable by a competent historian."
Lee Simonson

"The deepest definition of youth is life as yet untouched by tragedy."
Alfred North Whitehead (1861 - 1947)

"It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument."
William G. McAdoo (1863 - 1941)

"Great men's errors are to be venerated as more fruitful than little men's truths."
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)

"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all."
Peter Drucker (1909 - 2005)

"A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things."
Herman Melville (1819 - 1891)

"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful."
Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784)

Continue ReadingA Few More Quotes to Ponder