May. 7th, 2026

birdwatcher: (Dore: Ogre)
nbcchicago.com -- Baby bald eagle is born in Chicago for first time in more than a century.
birdwatcher: (Professor Moriarty)
BBC (https://archive.is/DVhQ2) -- A French academic is under investigation for inventing a Nobel-style prize for philology in order that he could then go on to win it.
Then later that year the story reached a new level when Montaclair welcomed the celebrated US philosopher and linguist Noam Chomsky, then aged 88, at a ceremony in Brussels and awarded him an honorary gold medal from the International Society.
birdwatcher: (Default)
Sako Garabedian@mises.org -- The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Defend Broken Systems. There’s a flattering story we tell about smart people: that they’re more rational, less biased, better at following evidence wherever it leads. It’s mostly wrong. What high intelligence actually gives you is a better toolkit for rationalization. A dim man will defend a broken institution with bumper-sticker loyalty. A brilliant one will defend it with regressions, citations, and the borrowed vocabulary of whatever intellectual tradition his institution has colonized.