I recently read a book on the collapse of Nazi Germany. The content is not particularly relevant for this blog, but one comment by the author of that book is. He pointed out that the purpose of Hitler’s Germany was war. War was the chosen method of expanding the nation’s territory. Among people who romanticize… Continue reading Western Culture Lacks Aim and Purpose
Quite recently, a whole bunch of leftist journalists got downsized at esteemed news organizations such as Huffington Post or BuzzFeed. Those journalists then got a taste of their own medicine. While they arrogantly wrote articles in the past, suggesting that laid-off miners or manufacturing workers should “learn to code”, they now got the same advice.… Continue reading Why Journalists Should Learn to Code
We had an interesting exchange in the comment section the other day. As some of you may know, Brenton Tarrant, the self-declared “part-time kebab removalist” who cleared out two mosques in New Zealand left a manifesto. In it, he outlines the motivation behind the attack. This includes a section in which he discusses some alternatives… Continue reading Secession and the Fragility of the Rule of Law
Among the big tech companies, Facebook is arguably the shadiest one. Nary a month goes by that does not see them getting embroiled in yet another scandal. As suspected by some analysts, Facebook meddles with the numbers of active users. Some reports even suspect that as many as 50% of all accounts are fake or… Continue reading How Facebook Fakes its Active Users: The Fake Deactivation Request
Censorship can be carried out in a heavy-handed manner, which is all-too-obvious and yields you a bad reputation on the world stage. A much more subtle approach is underhanded censorship. Here is what recently happened in lovely Sweden when I wanted to get my hands on Joachim Fest’s Hitler biography. Let me start by reminding… Continue reading Political Censorship in Sweden: The Elusive Hitler Biography
Heiner Rindermann is one of the few social scientists that is not a staunch lefty. His research focuses on the not politically correct topic of intelligence. If you have ever looked into studies on IQ differences between nations or ethnicities, you may have come across his work. As I have read about a handful of… Continue reading Book Review: “Cognitive Capitalism: Human Capital and the Wellbeing of Nations” by Heiner Rindermann
Germany is often lauded as an economic powerhouse. I often encounter foreigners who have an almost comical perception of Germany. They praise German engineering, Germany’s leading role in European politics, the (currently) very low level of unemployment, and sometimes even stereotypically German character traits, such as being conscientious, hard-working, reliable, and punctual. Reality is a… Continue reading Book Review: Germany’s Hidden Crisis by Oliver Nachtwey
I’ve gotten quite some entertainment out of T.M. Scanlon’s book “Why Does Inequality Matter?”, as it so potently albeit involuntarily shows the utterly myopic thinking of the liberal white educated suburbanite. He cracked me up when he referred to a statement by a poor black woman (p. 30-31) about why she has to have luxury… Continue reading Why (Poor) People Buy Luxury Goods
One of the books I’m currently reading is T.M. Scanlon’s “Why Does Inequality Matter?”. That guy is supposedly one of the most eminent philosophers alive. Yet, the book is full of shoddy thinking. I don’t know, maybe that is a hallmark of contemporary academic philosophy. The issues you would wish him to probe into he… Continue reading Prejudices are Generally Correct
Back when I used to go out a lot, I sometimes ended up in conversations with random guys in clubs and bars. I won’t pretend that all of those were great conversations and that I did not excuse myself early on more often than not. However, sometimes you end up talking with someone who gives… Continue reading A Conversation with a Baby Boomer
I once dated a woman who had seemingly no financial literacy. She had a decent job, but at the end of the month, all her money was gone. Part of it was due to her downright absurd habit of going on an online shopping spree when there was “too much money” in her bank account,… Continue reading Fix your Finances in a Few Easy Steps
One of the more interesting books I recently read is Men Without Work: America’s Invisible Crisis (2016) by Nicholas Eberstadt who is associated with the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). In around 150 pages, Eberstadt thoroughly spreads out what should be a prime issue in US labor policy. Yet, as so often, the fate of men… Continue reading Book Review: Men Without Work by Nicholas Eberstadt
I am close to the halfway point of my life but probably a few years away still. I am far from being suicidal. Yet, as my age increases I do wonder how and when my life shall end. In my 20s, my rough plan was that I would take my exit when I am 50,… Continue reading The Dignity of Suicide
I am currently reading the book Cognitive Capitalism: Human Capital and the Wellbeing of Nations by Heiner Rindermann, which is a tour de force through the topic of differences in intelligence, as measured by IQ, in a global context. One of the more interesting points he raised is that there are countries where a supposedly… Continue reading The Decline of Collective Intelligence in Germany: Frankfurt Airport
One finding of big data, applied to the realm of dating, that is mentioned every now and again on my other blog is the infamous evidence dating site OKCupid provided for the unreasonable pickiness of women. While men rate women so that approximately a normal distribution emerges, where most women are average and very few… Continue reading Review: Dataclysm – Who We Are When We Think No One is Looking by Christian Rudder
