𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗

Writer of 1491, 1493, Wizard & The Prophet, etc. New: Everyday Abundance, podcast w/ @vpostrel on the history of things you didn't know even *had* a history.

[𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 @CharlesCMann]

Here's my 1st piece of overt political propaganda--the first of a series about the systems that undergird our daily lives, which are always one generation of inattention away from catastrophe. Message: they're important! Paywall is lifted, please pass on. https://t.co/qPregdgmFL

[𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 @CharlesCMann]

@manxykitty1968 Those kids are also overwhelmingly likely to have ridden in a car, been fed baby food, and worn cotton clothes. Blaming those factors for their deaths would be similarly absurd. Investigators have repeatedly looked at VAERS data and found very, very few real associations.

[𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 @CharlesCMann]

@manxykitty1968 You can't use VAERS data to do this. https://t.co/wnQkUFsaMy

[𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 @CharlesCMann]

@manxykitty1968 The great majority of those VAERS deaths are little kids. Kids have vaccines scheduled at birth, ~1–2 months, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 12–15 months, and 15–18 months. ANY death in that time is going to be close to a vaccine, so mere association tells you nothing.

[𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 @CharlesCMann]

@CharlesCMann

[𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 @CharlesCMann]

In Make American Healthy Again news, we're closing in on 1000 measles cases in Pennsylvania and the fifth person just died. Remember, measles has a near-unique ability to screw up victims' immune systems, so every case makes them more disease-prone in the future.

[𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 @CharlesCMann]

Source:
https://t.co/7wTFHMMwfC

[𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 @CharlesCMann]

Some of the claims made by the guy are bananas. He says the sieve was invented in medieval times by Islamic scholars. But baskets have been used as sieves for a long time all over the world (no exact dates, because baskets rarely are preserved for archaeologists to find).

[𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 @CharlesCMann]

Fascinating case study of how just-so stories get spread. Wikipedia editor uses bogus citations to mis-credit many small inventions to long-ago Islamic scholars, attributions which then end up in countless popular books, articles, etc. /v @mattwridley https://t.co/lytWqQ58dC

[𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 @CharlesCMann]

@jasoncrawford @mattwridley Of course XKCD was there first.

[𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 @CharlesCMann]

@outofofficeandy "Cool-looking" isn't the point--you don't see them. In renovating commercial buildings in-wall solutions with flexible form factors is really helpful. This isn't the only thing preventing wide-scale battery adoption in those spaces but it's a real issue in projects I see.

[𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 @CharlesCMann]

At least at first glance, this sounds like quite a good idea. https://t.co/zTvwlvv2rR

[𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 @CharlesCMann]

@outofofficeandy The form factor of battery packs now absolutely is an issue, especially with renovated buildings.

[𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 @CharlesCMann]

This article has one of the all-time great ledes.

[Caitlin Flanagan @CaitlinPacific]

https://t.co/JfRQJc1g3F

If you want to understand the legal structures by which fraternities indemnify themselves from their members’ conduct…

[Phalanx @davidclarkphel1]

@wesyang "Conquerors and governments pass before the people as dim rumors, as entertainment in a hospital ward." John Updike, The Coup, 1978

[𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 @CharlesCMann]

"Donald Trump has done something that decades of climate advocacy and international conferences have never achieved. [Due to high oil prices from his Iran war,] Global CO2 emissions look set to fall in 2026 by more than in any year since the pandemic." https://t.co/ikMP5LTgRw

[𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 @CharlesCMann]

TIL this amusing term. I found out it comes from a Greek tale about a cobbler who saw the artist Apelles had painted a sandal wrong. Apelles fixed the goof. The shoemaker started criticizing the leg. Apelles said, "Sutor, ne ultra crepidam" (Shoemaker, not beyond the shoe.)

[Todd Myers 🐟🌲🐝 @WAPolicyGreen]

@CharlesCMann One of my favorite words is “ultracrepidarian,” which means speaking on subjects in which you are not expert, believing that since you are an expert in one area, you are an expert in all areas.

[𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 @CharlesCMann]

...readily believed actors when they put on white lab coats and issued scientific-sounding pronouncements in advertisements. The FTC banned the practice on TV. Sometimes I wish it could be restricted in actual life.

[𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 @CharlesCMann]

He's quite correct, viz., Nobel-winning physicists issuing statements about population growth. A second branch of the issue is that ppl tend to believe these guys. A pal who worked at the FTC once told me it was called "the whitecoat syndrome" there, because TV viewers...

[Jonah Goldberg @JonahDispatch]

I don’t think he’s stupid. A major story of the last decade is of smart people who are ignorant about politics thinking their expertise and knowledge of other subjects has a transitive property that makes them smart about politics too. It’s the same category error that leads very smart people to argue that government should be run like a business. It’s among the most common stupid mistakes of smart people. That’s why he sounds so stupid. He “discovered” what was obvious to people with the relevant expertise a decade ago. It’s also why politicians seem so stupid to business people, scientists etc when they step out of their lanes.

[Nick Gillespie @nickgillespie]

Even Republicans want out of Trump's stupid, misconceived, and poorly prosecuted war with Iran. New @reason Roundtable is up, w @kmanguward @MattWelch @petersuderman and me. I recommend the Everyday Abundance podcast with @vpostrel and @CharlesCMann https://t.co/LESoNiyo6J

[Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair 🦥 @senatorshoshana]

.@nickgillespie so glad you like it!! :D @abundanceinst @vpostrel @CharlesCMann

[𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚜 𝙲. 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚗 @CharlesCMann]

I sympathize. It really sucks when people just grab up your work without credit or payment and use it as a shortcut to make a product that might put you out of business.