Faisal’s Web Site
Wednesday, 29 November 2023
Can You Catch Covid Outside? Yes, You Can.
Jessica Wildfire: “That’s tied with measles, ‘the world’s most infectious viral disease.’ That was a year ago.”
Friday, 3 November 2023
Short-Form War
Scott Galloway: “Xi Jinping has described the Internet as ‘the main battlefield in the battle for public opinion,’ and in 2013 he said, ‘online public opinion work should be taken as the top priority of propaganda and ideological work.’”
Tuesday, 24 October 2023
The House GOP Is Not Pining For The Fjords
PeterR, emptywheel: “Either the two small parties will get together again — something that is increasingly unlikely — or the non-Jordan/Gaetz group will come to an agreement with the Democrats for a coalition to run the House. If it is the former, it is quite likely to be a very temporary arrangement, and we’ll be right back here again in short order.”
Sunday, 22 October 2023
Building a Valuable Business? It’s How You Spend It That Matters
Cedric Chin: “If all of this seems deceptively simple, that’s because I think that it is. I still don’t fully understand how it’s so difficult to do in practice.”
Tuesday, 10 October 2023
Western leftists have lost the plot
Noah Smith: “Hamas, in contrast, is a religious right-wing group, and its supporters explicitly use Nazi stylings. Leftists have fallen pretty low if that’s the best team they can find to cheer for. In fact, I think ‘fallen pretty low’ is actually the key here. The communist project of the 20th century failed spectacularly, as did follow-up efforts like Hugo Chavez. Decolonization happened, and the European empires vanished. Democratic socialism succeeded in Europe, but that success — which was ultimately driven by reformist progressive types rather than by revolution — doesn’t seem to admit much room for improvement. Swedish workers are not going to start a revolution, because Swedish social democracy is pretty damn nice.”
Monday, 2 October 2023
Webb spots a building block of life on Jupiter’s moon Europa
CBS News Baltimore: “Previously, the Hubble Space Telescope detected ocean-derived salt in the same region.”
Tuesday, 26 September 2023
What if Xi Jinping isn’t that competent?
Noah Smith: “Once that kind of leader achieves absolute dominance of his organization, he often starts purging his own loyalists, because they’re the only ones who are available to purge.”
This is what Earth’s continents will look like in 250 million years
Jonathan O’Callaghan, Nature: “It’s also not certain where Pangaea Ultima will form. Farnsworth’s modelling assumes it will coalesce in the warm tropics, but other scenarios suggest that it could form on top of the North Pole, leading to cooler conditions where life might fare better.”
Monday, 25 September 2023
Our climate change debates are out of date
Noah Smith: “I hate to post this chart yet again, and I understand if you’re annoyed, but it might be the most important chart in the world”
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Tuesday, 19 September 2023
“Going shopping” is dead
Whizy Kim, Vox: “Retail workers underscore the value of recognizing cause and effect, and how top-line business decisions trickle down to affect the everyday experience of picking up a few things from the mall.”