Links are at the end.
Stop hitting yourself
The first month of the House GOP leadership election is underway1. Hakeem Jeffries might ought to try picking off six Republican votes for giggles, maybe by offering committee chairs and good offices close to the floor. The National Republican Congressional Committee has been tweeting all morning about how radical Jeffries is, in a ludicrous attempt to take eyes off McCarthy’s travails.
We’re told that a Speaker election hasn’t gone three rounds since 1923, making William F. Cohen and Alton Frye the last surviving members, which explains their interest in a compromise with Democrats.2 Nobody wants to go through that twice, especially after the trauma of the World War.
While a dozen or two Republicans are happy to see McCarthy grovel, it’s hands off the entirely fictitious incoming Congressman George Santos.
What is the larger meaning of this strife? We have no idea and less concern. Are you not entertained? What if Republicans go for the record of 133 ballots? What then?
How The Universe Would Look if You Broke The Speed of Light
Physics elude us. We are not proud of this.3
[R]esearchers from the University of Warsaw in Poland and the National University of Singapore have now pushed the limits of relativity to come up with a system that doesn't run afoul of existing physics, and might even point the way to new theories.
What they've come up with is an "extension of special relativity" that combines three time dimensions with a single space dimension ("1+3 space-time"), as opposed to the three spatial dimensions and one time dimension that we're all used to.
Rather than creating any major logical inconsistencies, this new study adds more evidence to back up the idea that objects might well be able to go faster than light without completely breaking our current laws of physics.
"There is no fundamental reason why observers moving in relation to the described physical systems with speeds greater than the speed of light should not be subject to it," says physicist Andrzej Dragan, from the University of Warsaw in Poland.
Off to the stars, then. We predict that the first organic subject of FTL experimentation will be a tardigrade.4
How strong is your cognitive reserve?
Had we to guess, we’d’ve guessed a cognitive reserve is what you get from storing up cognition over a lifetime, which is to say, not thinking too much. We’ve been told we overthink things; now we have to overthink whether overthinking has interfered with the accumulation of a generous cognitive reserve.
The study found continuing to learn over the course of one’s life may help protect the brain. This held true even among people who had lower scores on cognitive tests in childhood, which is especially notable because earlier research indicates people with low scores in childhood are more likely to have a steeper cognitive decline as they age.
…
From a public health and societal perspective, there may be broad, long-term benefits in investing in high education, widening opportunities for leisure activities and providing cognitive challenging activities for people, especially those working in less skilled occupations,” adds Michal Schnaider Beeri, PhD, of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study.
We’re good then, if the body continues to support the brain. What a relief!
[T]hese findings may not reflect the general population.
Oh.
Last year we spent a lot of time talking about how poverty and overwork and other kinds of insecurities generate a lot of stress which contributes to physical and mental ailments of all stripes, which are obstacles to establishing what is referred to here as a cognitive reserve, as Dr. Beeri notes.
But these are artificial obstacles. It’s not that our society doesn’t have the money to relieve the stresses induced by social ills, and to give all of us the kind of free time and access to arts and culture or simple relaxation that help keep a mind lively; it’s just that the people running our society have different priorities, and to most of them most of us aren’t fully human.
We’re reminded of the U.S. education secretary’s recent statement on the purpose of education:
Every student should have access to an education that aligns with industry demands and evolves to meet the demands of tomorrow’s global workforce.5
This is an alleged progressive. Admit one drone to the global workforce.
What we listened to while writing this today
Of Montreal, “Innocence Reaches;”6 Horsegirl, “Versions of Modern Performance;”7 Camp Cope, "How to Socialize and Make Friends."8 Horsegirl was our favorite of the bunch but all three freed our mind.
And that, Comrades, is all we got.
Socialize the public sphere.
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Cardona must have deleted that stupid-ass tweet, because the link goes nowhere, which means he got enough pushback to be embarrassed by it. All to the good. UPDATE: my bad, it's still there. Must be the link. https://twitter.com/SecCardona/status/1603831119962570771