pam berkeley

Engineer, educator, entrepreneur. Cares more about how people treat people than what they claim is their ideology.

[pam berkeley @pmberkeley]

Twitter: the place where people you agree with 99% of the time lose their shit and block you over a single moderately different opinion.

[pam berkeley @pmberkeley]

Agreed

[Elaine @elbh]

The enthusiastic gloating over a the loss of a candidate whose entire campaign was simply to clean up his hometown is one the most disgusting displays of arrogance and ugliness I’ve ever seen in my life.

This is nothing short of political bullying. It’s abhorrent and it is increasingly why the ideal of American politics being of the people and for the people is being supplanted by professional grifters and communist activists.

Absolutely disgusted.

[pam berkeley @pmberkeley]

I bet this kind of "novel familiarity" had a lot to do with Disney's success.

[La China @ChinaNipona]

Disney nos vendió la misma animación durante años...

[pam berkeley @pmberkeley]

Fluoride gives me tinnitus. We don't need it in our water supply.

[Camus @newstart_2024]

RFK Jr. on Theo Von: “Would you rather have cavities… or lower IQ?”

He pointed out that fluoride in water is dose-dependently linked to reduced IQ according to the National Toxicology Program. The cavity-fighting benefit is purely topical (toothpaste does the job), while systemic exposure harms bone density and thyroid function. Most European countries have banned water fluoridation with no rise in cavities.

The 2025 NTP-linked meta-analysis of 74 studies found a statistically significant inverse association between higher fluoride exposure and children’s IQ (average drop of ~1.63 IQ points per 1 mg/L increase in urinary fluoride).

However, at the low levels used in U.S. community water fluoridation (~0.7 mg/L), recent high-quality studies have not found consistent negative effects on IQ. European countries largely avoid water fluoridation but maintain strong dental health through toothpaste, salt, and milk fluoridation.

Would you rather have fluoride in public water or not? Why?

[pam berkeley @pmberkeley]

This is very similar to the experience of being a woman in engineering (that is, it's similar to being a qualified Asian student from an Asian majority school).

[staysaasy @staysaasy]

I went to one of these schools, and literally know probably ~250+ people who attended one of them.

My wife went to a bay area public school that was pretty good but absolutely not a feeder. Suburban, high Asian population (largely first generation - country music, bud light, football and high SAT scores. No accents). Solid upper-middle class environment.

Her HS class sent ~10/400 to an ivy or equivalent like Stanford/MIT (applying a strict standard to equivalent - eg not even including Duke, Berkeley, JHU, other extremely good schools). My HS sent at least 50%. Not a typo.

I would say that her friends from high school are *significantly* smarter in average than the many hundreds that I know from these feeder schools. "Oh they aren't as well-rounded, that's why they didn't get in." This is totally false. They're more well-rounded, have more interesting hobbies, have wilder stories from college. They also work harder and are more ambitious - unclear if that's innate, or because they simply had to. They have better careers despite starting from behind.

I didn't have a strong opinion on all of this until I spent time with my wife and heard the stories, eg kids with perfect SAT scores getting rejected from 8 Ivys + Stanford. You hear that story and assume the guy is a total weirdo who pooped himself in front of the admissions team. Then you meet him and he's funny, cool, totally normal, interesting hobbies, lots of friends. It's radicalizing.

The skew of the Ivy admissions system is a straight up injustice and is bad for our nation, because we're filling so many of our most important launching pads with nepo babies.

[pam berkeley @pmberkeley]

@PKMerlott @robbysoave How does that look good to you? What are you seeing in it?

[pam berkeley @pmberkeley]

@MattSmi14872170 @robbysoave Are you referring to the classless toxic lunatic known as BJG? Good riddance, I can actually watch the show again.

[pam berkeley @pmberkeley]

@BrianFaughnan @robbysoave Nope, first and last cars are most dangerous, but especially the first car, since it's most affected by both collisions and derailments. Middle cars are safest.

[pam berkeley @pmberkeley]

@robbysoave For reference

https://t.co/hnYn7DwRDi

[pam berkeley @pmberkeley]

@robbysoave It is

[pam berkeley @pmberkeley]

@kkgg9540 @BradWilcoxIFS I'm disappointed by your lack of nuance, stranger.

[pam berkeley @pmberkeley]

1. Because instead of men having sex whenever they're horny, they're privately watching porn. Most women either don't know or don't care that this is why their over-the-threshold mate isn't having as much sex as they used to in prior generations. They often probably don't even know the husband is demanding/requesting/initiating sex more often. And, it may be "keeping the peace" in the relationship as a result, at the expense of lower birth rate.

2. You said it didn't decline among men, and yet men are having fewer children. Among women... no? I don't think my generation or younger was exposed to more negative messaging around children online. Can you give me a common example of what you're talking about?

[pam berkeley @pmberkeley]

@pmberkeley @BradWilcoxIFS 1. Why didn't divorce rate increase as explicit material is increasing

2. Isn't the pessimism in social media around having kids clear?
Having kids is much easier and safer now compared to the past, people should be even more optimistic..yet
Didn't the desire for kids decline?

[pam berkeley @pmberkeley]

I'm not following this second comment at all. But regarding the first, I don't think women and girls are receiving more negative messaging on having children than their foremothers. I'm not sure where you would get that idea they have, other than a manospheric concept of feminist indoctrination occurring and being anti natalist.

[pam berkeley @pmberkeley]

@Madz_Grant @GrapefruitPine1 It's the most fake thing about the image.

[pam berkeley @pmberkeley]

They have to correct stuff like this because they didn't know what they were talking about in the first place. Trust your instincts on what to feed babies. Humans have survived off this intuition since forever.

[CNN @CNN]

After the drastic change in guidance to no longer keep allergenic foods away from babies until 1 to 3 years of age and instead introduce them by 6 months of age, the prevalence of egg allergy among children fell by more than 17% in a new study published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. https://t.co/DAYqlFom8N

[pam berkeley @pmberkeley]

@thegenesisbl0ck My aunt and uncle gave my cousin avocados and paté for baby food. He was a very healthy and happy baby.

[pam berkeley @pmberkeley]

I know a couple that has since split, where one was white and the other *was* Muslim. But the Muslim one stopped wearing a hijab when she came out, and part of the reason they split was because the Muslim one wanted a baby and the white one didn't want any more.

But yeah, I don't think many lesbian Muslims wear hijabs while married.

[el gato malo @boriquagato]

"Researchers around the world are grappling with a vexing problem: why are so many young people developing cancers once considered the purview of old age?

The question was prominent at two of the world’s largest cancer meetings this year, and hypotheses abounded. Ultra-processed foods, obesity, microbial toxins and agricultural chemicals were all considered. But a clear answer remained elusive."

at what point are they finally going to look at the obvious thing here?

[pam berkeley @pmberkeley]

Fact: birth rate is down
Related facts: iPhone use correlates with birth rate going down

Discussion (yours): women want fewer kids and want to be single more, also are depressed

Discussion (mine): yeah, but men's increased use of porn means they have fewer unintended children and are less desirable to women as partners

Mine sounds more realistic and explanatory to my ears than women just out of the blue wanting to be single and have fewer kids

[pam berkeley @pmberkeley]

@kkgg9540 @BradWilcoxIFS This is the discussion section of the paper, if you will, the evidence isn't presented in this section.

[pam berkeley @pmberkeley]

Women who don't appreciate what Jessica Pin brings to the debate between the sexes are really missing out. (Men might be categorically too motivated to understand the points she's making, but hopefully at least a few of them appreciate her, too).

[Jessica Pin @jess_ann_pin]

@reddit_lies How long did he make her wait for sex?

If less than 5 dates, he’s a whore and shouldn’t be so judgmental.