Utopia, you are standing in it!

In an increasingly woke New York Magazine, there are two breaths of fresh air: Andrew Sullivan and Jonathan Chait. Chait, like me, calls himself a liberal but spends a not inconsiderable amount of time excoriating the excesses of the Left, an endeavor he extends and explains in this week’s column (click on screenshot to read it):

Chait’s theme is based on a couple of examples of Authoritarian Left social-media hounding. Several involve something that seems to have become anathema to the Left: calling out those protestors, especially in antiracist demonstrations, who commit violence, arson, looting, and so on. Although nobody explicitly approves of this behavior, even mentioning it now brings a “yes but. . .” from certain segments of the Left. I myself have been criticized for decrying violence (mostly on the grounds that “it was minor and look at Trump on the other side”), and I won’t…

Harsh criticism, mainly from politicians and the travel industry has been expressed regarding the new government policy, according to which, and from 8 June, nearly all international arrivals at UK ports must quarantine for 14 days. It is surprising that very little has been said about the clear illegality of this policy, despite a very recent judicial review process that has been brought against the policy by a few airline companies. In this post it is argued that the quarantine policy is irrational, unreasonable and disproportionate – and therefore illegal. A preliminary note about the differences between rationality and reasonableness will be followed by applying rationality, reasonableness and proportionality to our case. 

Rationality and Reasonableness

Even though UK courts have been applying the concepts ‘rationality’ and ‘reasonableness’ indistinguishably, it is both conceptually possible and helpful to treat them as two separate grounds of review. Whereas ‘reasonableness’ is a…

Rob de Vries (Imperial College London) finds reasons to be uncertain about The Spirit Level’s claims on inequality.

In his earlier post discussing The Spirit Level, Ben said that we’d return to the subject of whether the books’ claims were actually true or not. It’s a highly fraught question, but with Wilkinson and Pickett saying they’ll no longer respond to non-peer reviewed critics, I may fearlessly address it, secure in the knowledge that they won’t contradict me.

by Roland Hirsch

Mass spectrometry is essential for research in climate science.

What use is it? That would be the obvious one, when better alternatives not requiring ludicrously high subsidies are readily available.
– – –
A new report from climate change think tank Ember reveals the cost of burning wood for power, with energy billpayers committed to subsidies of more than £13 billion, including £10bn at Drax power station alone.

In addition to the direct subsidy, we estimate biomass generators are receiving carbon tax breaks of £333 million a year.

The UK has now left the EU, and there’s an opportunity to reassess carbon pricing – including in the design of the UK emissions trading system.

In this research, we demonstrate why the UK should abandon the carbon tax break afforded to large power stations burning biomass (mostly wood in the form of pellets or chips).

The B-29 Superfortress was the most effective bomber flown by any nation in World War II and was the world’s first nuclear-delivery-capable aircraft. It was in service from 1944 until 1954 as a long-range/very-heavy bomber in combat in World War II and the Korean War. The F-13/RB-29 variants served as long-range reconnaissance aircraft from 1944 to 1956.

By the end of World War II, the USAAF had almost 1,500 B-29s in the western Pacific area. B-29s dropped the only atomic bombs used in combat, on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in August 1945.

The B-29 was developed for the USAAF as a long-range strategic bomber. It was a four-engine, streamlined aircraft with three pressurized compartments for the flight crew. The Norden bombsight and the AN/APQ-7 Eagle bomb-navigation radar were installed.

Standard defensive armament consisted of eight to ten .50-caliber machine guns in four remote-control turrets, the top forward…

The longest campaign of history’s most horrendous war was over. Although convoys and Coastal Command patrols continued for several weeks after VE Day, the danger was past. It had been one of the worst dangers Britain had ever faced with Churchill describing the U-boat menace as his greatest fear. He summarized the campaign:

The Battle of the Atlantic was the dominating factor all through the war. Never for one moment could we forget that everything happening elsewhere, on land, on sea, or in the air, depended ultimately on its outcome, and amid all other cares we viewed its changing fortunes day by day with hope or apprehension.

In contrast to Churchill’s assessment, American historian Blair asserts that ‘Contrary to the accepted wisdom or mythology, U-boats never even came close at any time to cutting the vital North Atlantic lifeline to the British Isles’. Such an assessment can be made only…

I have a chapter coming out on animal ethics and evolutionary psychology for the third volume of the SAGE Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology edited by Todd Shackelford. This volume on applications of evolutionary psychology will cover a wide range of topics that are rarely tackled from this perspective, like artificial intelligence, climate change, dangerous driving behavior, incarceration, meditation and cyberwarfare.

Animal Ethics and Evolutionary Psychology (read the whole chapter here) attempts to untangle some of the evolutionary reasons why have such inconsistent attitudes towards animals. Below I quote parts of the chapter- for full references, check out the original.

Ahead of Tuesday’sVirtual IHRParliaments, Politics and People seminar, we hear from Mark Frankel, a PhD candidate at the University of Birmingham. He will be responding to your questions about his research on Thomas Edmund Harvey on Zoom between 5:15 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on 23 June 2020. Details on how to join the discussion are available here or by contacting mspychal@histparl.ac.uk

This blog is based on Mark’s full-length seminar paper, ‘T. Edmund Harvey, politician of conscience’, which is available here. Alternatively you can listen to Mark reading his paper, either by downloading the MP3 (right click ‘save link as’) or streaming the audio from the player below:

T.Edmund Harvey (1875–1955) is a distinctive figure in the political history of…

Most of you have probably heard that HBO Max has decided to temporarily pull the famous movie “Gone With the Wind” from its streaming services, later to replace it with a version that has an explanatory introduction by University of Chicago Cinema and Media studies professor Jacqueline Stewart.

This New York Times article gives the details:

When I first saw this movie as a teenager, its racism was palpable: not only was slavery whitewashed, so to speak, with the slaves depicted as the usual “happy darkies” of that era, but the two black supporting actors, Butterfly McQueen and Hattie McDaniel (the latter winning an Oscar for her role) seemed to me stereotypical blacks as depicted in that era (1939), shown as groveling, happy-go-lucky, slow-witted toadies, though I have to admit that McDaniel had a bit of nuance in her role. (Another example is Stepin Fetchit, who starred with…

Many people are increasingly worried about the slow pace of school reopening in the UK. The focus has mainly been on the harms done to the welfare of children and their families. But there are also rising concerns about the wider impact on the economy. This blog summarises both the social and economic issues, and suggests some ballpark figures for the economic costs.

For most children, and their parents, the novelty of home schooling has long since worn off. On top of the deficit in formal education and structured routine, children are missing their friends and all the social and sporting activities that are part and parcel of normal school life. This is adding to worries about mental health and food insecurity. Many parents, especially working mothers, are having to take on an even larger burden and step in as teachers too.

What’s more, there is now a…