Serial State Line Crosser
@serialstatelinexer.bsky.social
My proverbs are 指鹿為馬/三人成虎
They, and people like them, made CA rich. SV is in CA for historically contingent reasons, and the current government is a parasite grown fat on its blood. With the highest income taxes in the country, it's already taken far more than "a little."
Looking forward to the exodus to a better state.
Looking forward to the exodus to a better state.
January 12, 2026 at 5:13 AM
They, and people like them, made CA rich. SV is in CA for historically contingent reasons, and the current government is a parasite grown fat on its blood. With the highest income taxes in the country, it's already taken far more than "a little."
Looking forward to the exodus to a better state.
Looking forward to the exodus to a better state.
They're often-studied, not well studied. I've read a lot of the research on this, and it's really very weak. Go ahead. Show me a paper that you think provides strong evidence that systemic racism is a major cause of low upward mobility in BIPOCs, and I'll explain why it doesn't.
February 4, 2025 at 4:27 AM
They're often-studied, not well studied. I've read a lot of the research on this, and it's really very weak. Go ahead. Show me a paper that you think provides strong evidence that systemic racism is a major cause of low upward mobility in BIPOCs, and I'll explain why it doesn't.
I'm familiar with the myth of the "Model Minority Myth." High-achieving minorites are a very real phenomenon that is very inconvenient for the systemic racism narrative, so there's an attempt to hand-wave it away with poorly-reasoned screeds about the "Model Minority Myth."
February 4, 2025 at 4:23 AM
I'm familiar with the myth of the "Model Minority Myth." High-achieving minorites are a very real phenomenon that is very inconvenient for the systemic racism narrative, so there's an attempt to hand-wave it away with poorly-reasoned screeds about the "Model Minority Myth."
How specifically do you think racism causes this? We know it's not parental income, and we know it's not school quality, because controlling for those things doesn't close the gaps.
February 4, 2025 at 4:13 AM
How specifically do you think racism causes this? We know it's not parental income, and we know it's not school quality, because controlling for those things doesn't close the gaps.
The underrepresentation of black Americans in academia and other high-SES occupations is not more than would be expected based on pre-market factors like high-school and undergraduate academic performance. Due to AA/DEI, it's almost certainly less.
February 4, 2025 at 3:51 AM
The underrepresentation of black Americans in academia and other high-SES occupations is not more than would be expected based on pre-market factors like high-school and undergraduate academic performance. Due to AA/DEI, it's almost certainly less.
But Jews and Asians were discriminated against as well, and they're now greatly overrepresented in high-status occupations. There isn't a lot of evidence that the effects of historical oppression persist for generations in modern economies. Catch-up mechanisms like public education are powerful.
February 4, 2025 at 3:49 AM
But Jews and Asians were discriminated against as well, and they're now greatly overrepresented in high-status occupations. There isn't a lot of evidence that the effects of historical oppression persist for generations in modern economies. Catch-up mechanisms like public education are powerful.
I think I understand your thinking here. Black people were historically discriminated against, and now they're underrepresented in high-status occupations, so that must be due to discrimination. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc.
February 4, 2025 at 3:47 AM
I think I understand your thinking here. Black people were historically discriminated against, and now they're underrepresented in high-status occupations, so that must be due to discrimination. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc.
SDoH research is generally of very poor quality due to low standards of methodological rigor. Naive regressions that fail to control for obvious and important confounders are the workhorse of the field.
GMGO: Garbage Methods, Garbage Out.
GMGO: Garbage Methods, Garbage Out.
February 4, 2025 at 3:13 AM
SDoH research is generally of very poor quality due to low standards of methodological rigor. Naive regressions that fail to control for obvious and important confounders are the workhorse of the field.
GMGO: Garbage Methods, Garbage Out.
GMGO: Garbage Methods, Garbage Out.
I was really disappointed with the way all the grown-ups in the room were quitting during Trump's first administration. They were the people we needed to have in the administration!
February 3, 2025 at 2:55 PM
I was really disappointed with the way all the grown-ups in the room were quitting during Trump's first administration. They were the people we needed to have in the administration!
I know this won't be a popular opinion on Bluesky, but I think that the appropriate number of obvious charlatans for a prestigious university to employ as professors is zero.
January 31, 2025 at 5:27 PM
I know this won't be a popular opinion on Bluesky, but I think that the appropriate number of obvious charlatans for a prestigious university to employ as professors is zero.
Imagine throwing chronic pain patients under the bus just to avoid admitting that the post-switch-in-time reading of the Commerce Clause is transparent nonsense.
January 29, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Imagine throwing chronic pain patients under the bus just to avoid admitting that the post-switch-in-time reading of the Commerce Clause is transparent nonsense.
If a Democrat had done this...what? It would have been prominently featured in ads by his opponent during his reelection campaign?
What it is it that you think would have happened mere days after a Democrat did this that hasn't happened in response to Donald Trump doing it?
What it is it that you think would have happened mere days after a Democrat did this that hasn't happened in response to Donald Trump doing it?
January 28, 2025 at 5:58 PM
If a Democrat had done this...what? It would have been prominently featured in ads by his opponent during his reelection campaign?
What it is it that you think would have happened mere days after a Democrat did this that hasn't happened in response to Donald Trump doing it?
What it is it that you think would have happened mere days after a Democrat did this that hasn't happened in response to Donald Trump doing it?
I got a 1600 on the SAT, first attempt, no coaching. I used a $20 paperback book for test prep.
It's not true that SAT scores are highly correlated with income; the correlation is about 0.3, and most of that is attributable to the lucrativeness and heritability of intelligence.
It's not true that SAT scores are highly correlated with income; the correlation is about 0.3, and most of that is attributable to the lucrativeness and heritability of intelligence.
January 28, 2025 at 5:53 PM
I got a 1600 on the SAT, first attempt, no coaching. I used a $20 paperback book for test prep.
It's not true that SAT scores are highly correlated with income; the correlation is about 0.3, and most of that is attributable to the lucrativeness and heritability of intelligence.
It's not true that SAT scores are highly correlated with income; the correlation is about 0.3, and most of that is attributable to the lucrativeness and heritability of intelligence.
"Latinx" was never even ostensibly an attempt to address racial inequality. Making the already situationally gender-neutral "Latino" more ostentatiously gender-neutral doesn't do anything to advance the interests of Latinos as a group. It was purely a feminist/TQ thing.
January 28, 2025 at 5:41 PM
"Latinx" was never even ostensibly an attempt to address racial inequality. Making the already situationally gender-neutral "Latino" more ostentatiously gender-neutral doesn't do anything to advance the interests of Latinos as a group. It was purely a feminist/TQ thing.
This is a conversation to have with Donald McNeil
January 28, 2025 at 5:19 PM
This is a conversation to have with Donald McNeil
You get that this is a real problem, though, don't you? Obviously DEI enthusiasts are going to keep doing DEI and try to conceal it, just like top universities kept their thinly-veiled racial quotas after the Supreme Court ruled that they violated the Civil Rights Act.
January 23, 2025 at 8:37 AM
You get that this is a real problem, though, don't you? Obviously DEI enthusiasts are going to keep doing DEI and try to conceal it, just like top universities kept their thinly-veiled racial quotas after the Supreme Court ruled that they violated the Civil Rights Act.
Originally a kilogram was 1024 grams, but during the Great Iron Shortage of 1813 the companies that made the weights to use on old-timey scales lobbied to have it rounded down to 1000 so they could save on materials costs.
January 18, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Originally a kilogram was 1024 grams, but during the Great Iron Shortage of 1813 the companies that made the weights to use on old-timey scales lobbied to have it rounded down to 1000 so they could save on materials costs.
I checked UHG's financials for 2023, and their revenue was $372 billion. Earnings from operations were $32.4B and pre-tax income was $29.1B.
Hard to tell what which of the latter two, if either, we're looking at in the chart.
Hard to tell what which of the latter two, if either, we're looking at in the chart.
January 17, 2025 at 5:37 PM
I checked UHG's financials for 2023, and their revenue was $372 billion. Earnings from operations were $32.4B and pre-tax income was $29.1B.
Hard to tell what which of the latter two, if either, we're looking at in the chart.
Hard to tell what which of the latter two, if either, we're looking at in the chart.
It's "net revenue," which I think is the same as gross profits, i.e. revenue minus COGS.
January 16, 2025 at 7:36 PM
It's "net revenue," which I think is the same as gross profits, i.e. revenue minus COGS.
It's not even true of NYC in general, just Manhattan. Queens has a population density of 8.5k/km^2, and Staten Island is under 4k, practically suburban.
January 16, 2025 at 2:16 PM
It's not even true of NYC in general, just Manhattan. Queens has a population density of 8.5k/km^2, and Staten Island is under 4k, practically suburban.
This is probably true even in cities, but the vacancies are generally frictional, rather than long-term. Housing vacant for repairs, or briefly vacant between tenants. You can't just throw homeless people in them without interfering with normal usage.
January 16, 2025 at 2:02 PM
This is probably true even in cities, but the vacancies are generally frictional, rather than long-term. Housing vacant for repairs, or briefly vacant between tenants. You can't just throw homeless people in them without interfering with normal usage.
Why do people hate developers but not, say, farmers?
"If you let farmers grow more food the greedy bastards will just grow luxury crops and the middle class won't be able to afford bread!"
"If you let farmers grow more food the greedy bastards will just grow luxury crops and the middle class won't be able to afford bread!"
January 16, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Why do people hate developers but not, say, farmers?
"If you let farmers grow more food the greedy bastards will just grow luxury crops and the middle class won't be able to afford bread!"
"If you let farmers grow more food the greedy bastards will just grow luxury crops and the middle class won't be able to afford bread!"
Sorry to hear about your inability to see red or green light.
January 16, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Sorry to hear about your inability to see red or green light.