Sunday Review #165 (18Aug2024)


📖 What I’m Reading:

Robbins v. Lower Merion School District – Wikipedia

  • Why webcams have tape on them now.

The Rise of Neotoddlerism – Gurwinder

  • Many broad brushes but much good analysis. Juvenile protests abound across the world on both political extremes, and they represent a growing issue—”the grim irony is that, by believing the world is worse than it actually is, neotoddlers make the world worse.”

China Is Done With Global Carmakers: “Thanks For Coming” – Michael Dunne

  • China has historically imported tons of cars, including American cars. It was a status symbol for the Chinese and a boon for automakers. Now China produces most vehicles in-house. And they are approaching 50% electric.

☝️ Word of the Week:

tendentious (adj) tin-DIN-shuhs

Having or showing a definite tendency, bias, or purpose.

From Latin tendere (to extend outward, stretch, spread out, direct, aim).

“At their worst, the postwar social problem films were tendentious, preachy, and puffed up with their own virtuous motives.”

💬 Quote of the Week:

“There is perhaps no more reliable indicator of a society’s ripeness for a mass movement than the prevalence of unrelieved boredom. In almost all the descriptions of the periods preceding the rise of mass movements there is reference to vast ennui; and in their earliest stages mass movements are more likely to find sympathizers and support among the bored than among the exploited and oppressed.”

-Eric Hoffer

ps: Disney is evil, Exh. 16676935420 (X)

pps: TikTok is evil, Exh. 1823433913068610027 (X)

ppps: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard is a wild band. Last year they made a metal concept album about an environmental apocalypse. It was called “PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation.” Which is awesome, of course. This year they made a groovy, feel-good album that sounds like Steve Miller Band or the Doobie Brothers or something. Here’s a good track. (YouTube) (Spotify)

Thomas Tassin

Read more from Thomas Tassin

🏅 Tom’s 2025 Song of the Year: Damocles by Sleep Token (Spotify) Incredibly beautiful song on an otherwise dogshit album. Has drum fills that changed the way I think about cymbals (3:30-3:50). Also has bits: word painting on “harmony” (0:45) and tape record sounds at 2:10. Fun stuff. 2024 winner: Much Ado About Nothing by Waxahatchee Album of the Year: SWAG by Justin Bieber I’m not a Belieber. At least I wasn’t. But this album came out and blew me away. A lot of simple, catchy R&B songs that...

📖 What I’m Reading: How the 7-minute Louvre robbery unfolded – DailyMail Imagine holding something worth $100 million in your hands and dropping it and then just shrugging and getting on a scooter and scooting off into the crisp Parisian morning air. Inside tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s off-the-record lectures about the antichrist – The Guardian Obviously his arguments are unhinged and just plain wrong. (Why exactly are international agencies bad? Just because you think they’re “shadowy?”...

📖 What I’m Reading: Stanislov Petrov – Wikipedia My #1 most underrated historical figure and story. “An investigation later confirmed that the Soviet satellite warning system had indeed malfunctioned. Because his decision may have averted a retaliatory nuclear strike, Petrov is often credited as having ‘saved the world’.” Against Treating Chatbots as Conscious – Erik Hoel The new ethical frontier. Why the 5% Rule is the New 4% Rule – Nick Maggiulli New data on retirement spending. Book...