Jews are always a little late. It’s a rule of our culture that if you’re going to a Jewish event, you have to expect that it’s going to start late, because there’s always going to be a crowd of people who need an extra ten minutes. The Jewish relationship with time is a complicated one.
In fact, I can think of lots of examples–Nazi Germany most notably–where the Jews were even late to realizing that someone was really serious about coming to kill us. We often figure out, only just as the mob is showing up at the synagogue door, that they weren’t kidding.
For a clever people, we are sometimes slow on the uptake.
In history’s narrative, the Jews are seldom the mob. You’d think we’d have figured out by now that we’re usually the ones the mob is coming to burn and kill with its torches and pitchforks.
because this and also because Jurassic Park–related advances in paleontology, et cetera, anyone who devalues the arts in favor of the sciences demonstrably has the wrong end of the stick
Science and Arts are not opposites, they are not rivals, they are the neglected siblings of the egotistical and over-indulged Sports and his best friend Money.
We, as scientist and artists, must unite. Science is an art, and art is a science. We hold hands and we make the world a much better place!
Science measures Facts. Art shares Meaning. There is nothing incompatible about these two, and they need each other to function.
Science gives you the tools to explore the natural world and learn about your kinship. Art gives you the tools to sort and express what you have learned, to build meaningful connections, either between thoughts or between people. People who are interested in pursuing one should have a reasonable interest in the other.
I saw one of those “you have 2 cows” things for American capitalism but I didn’t like it so I wrote an alternative:
You have 2 cows. You put them both in the bank, which loans them out to a businessperson. There are now 4 cows on the books, even though only two exist. The businessperson sells options on the cows’ milk production and also leases them to a milking conglomerate. There are now 87.5 cows recorded in the market.
The delivery date on milk production arrives and only 1 contract is fulfilled because the bank doesn’t have any idea how to care for cows and one died. The businessperson who had taken the loan of cows declares bankruptcy, which causes the bank to default and the FDIC steps in to reimburse you for the loss of your two deposited cows, which is fine for you but the 86 pension funds that took options on the cows all go under and a bunch of retirees can no longer afford medical care.
Meanwhile, as you’re trying to obtain your new replacement cows, a desperate poor man holds up the bank to try and get some milk for his kids. The police shoot the robber and the cows when they arrive, but the robber survives his injuries and is sentenced to 200 years in jail. You are given 2 dead cows and now you need to buy a chest freezer, which costs about as much as 4 cows at auction.
The businessperson who promised more contracts than he delivered and ruined you, a bank, and a bunch of pension funds retires to Costa Rica after his company is lightly fined for malfeasance.
I’ve been doing a newsletter where I share my expertise as an emerging disease virologist to help people navigate the pandemic and understand its emerging science.
While I do accept paid subscriptions, all the content so far (and all the content planned) is free.
If you’re interested, sign up! The more the merrier.
I also do recipes from time to time, and discuss other ways to cope with this horrible situation.
I decided to start a newsletter sharing my thoughts about the pandemic.
Getting this off the ground, so will need to promo it for awhile. Haven’t sent out the first issue yet, so if you sign up now, you haven’t missed anything.
9 months ago
