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John Fetterman and the Performance of Wellness [Jennifer Senior, The Atlantic]

By William McClain
In [The Atlantic]
February 18, 2023
269 views
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  • Senator John Fetterman announced he was undergoing treatment for depression, signaling a shift away from the days of secrets and shaming when it comes to mental health.
  • Fetterman’s office made a point of noting Fetterman’s struggle with depression even before his stroke. This signals a shift away from using physical illness to explain mental health.
  • As a politician, Fetterman was constantly performing a certain role in a very public and open environment, making it difficult for him to express his backstage self.
  • Fetterman’s experience brings to light the difficulty of managing a demanding job while struggling with physical and mental health issues.
  • The outcome of Fetterman’s story may serve as a test for how far we’ve come as a nation in understanding and responding to mental and physical health.

Published February 17, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read Jennifer Senior’s original post John Fetterman and the Performance of Wellness

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Why I Went to Iran [Mary Louise Kelly, The Atlantic]

By William McClain
In [The Free Press]
February 18, 2023
230 views
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  • Visas for American journalists to visit Iran are rare and typically granted for just a few days – This is key because it highlights the difficulty and rarity of journalists being able to visit Iran and report from within the country, which makes the trip even more valuable.
  • Talk to everyone we could find. Ask what’s on their mind – This is key because it emphasizes the importance of getting unbiased, accurate information from a variety of people in order to gain insight into the reality of the situation.
  • Many people were visibly frightened to talk with us – This is key because it reveals the truth that the Iranian government does not allow free speech and the reality of the climate of fear in the country.
  • Rampant inflation – This is key because it shows the economic suffering of the people, which is a major factor in the protests that have been taking place.
  • The government crackdown was swift and ferocious – This is key because it illustrates the severity and brutality of the Iranian regime’s response to the protests.
  • People still willing to speak out – This is key because it shows that despite the oppressive environment, people are still willing to risk their safety in order to tell their story and be heard.

Published February 17, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read Mary Louise Kelly’s original post Why I Went to Iran

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Declining Sperm Count: Much More Than You Wanted To Know [Scott Alexander, Astral Codex Ten]

By William McClain
In Scott Alexander [Astral Codex Ten]
February 17, 2023
290 views
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  • Is Sperm Count Declining? – People say it is, and Levine et al 2017 and 2022 find average sperm count has declined from 99 million sperm/ml to 47 million.
  • Is Declining Sperm Count Really “Imperiling The Future Of The Human Race”? – Swan’s point is that if sperm counts get too low, presumably it will be hard to have babies. A graph shows fertility rate plateaus around 30 million sperm, and average ejaculation is 3ml, so total sperm count is 3x sperm/ml. If Levine’s linear model is correct, we have 10-20 years before median reaches plateau’s edge, and 10 years after that before it reaches zero.
  • How Long Has This Been Going On? – The first recorded claim was Nelson & Bunge, 1974, and a few small studies suggest it may have started declining between 1951 and 1974.
  • How Sure Are We That This Is Even Real? – Not too sure. Levine et al do good statistics, but the data is very noisy and there are many confounders (different types of people giving sperm samples, changes in ejaculation frequency, aging population, etc). Auger et al find six studies that are well done and five of them show declining sperm counts. Fisch and the Harvard Gender Science Laboratory paper point out the difficulty in collecting sperm samples and measuring sperm quality and make a few other points, but Auger’s is the best source.
  • Did The Hypothesis Start By Mistake? – It seems like basically every person who proposed this hypothesis before Levine et al was mistaken, and had no right to conclude this from their small samples. Carlsen et al, the first to make it to the mainstream, should have found an increase, not a decrease, in sperm concentration.
  • Where Is The Decline Most Pronounced? – Levine et al don’t compare developed vs. developing world counts, but unofficially it looks like sperm count is declining faster in the developed than in the developing world.
  • Argued about it for the first forty years or so was working off of useless data, but by coincidence they happened to be right anyway – This is key to understanding the debate about declining sperm counts, as it shows how unreliable the data is.
  • Where Is The Decline Most Pronounced? – Studies have found that the decline is pronounced in different regions around the world, and some countries are more affected than others.
  • If Sperm Count Is Declining, What Could Be Causing This? – Possible causes of declining sperm count include plastics, pesticides, sunlight and circadian rhythm, diet and obesity, and porn.
  • What About Animals? – Studies of farm animals bred through artificial insemination show inconsistent results of declining sperm count.
  • Conclusions And Predictions – It is difficult to predict the future of sperm count, but some predictions include a consensus that sperm count is declining in 20 years, and that the most important factor is plastics or pesticides.

Published February 17, 2023
Visit Astral Codex Ten to read Scott Alexander’s original post Declining Sperm Count: Much More Than You Wanted To Know

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The Truth About Aliens Is Still Out There [John Hendrickson, The Atlantic]

By William McClain
In [The Atlantic]
February 17, 2023
255 views
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  • Believers in UFOs have gotten some tantalizing clues over the past few years. These clues include videos of zig-zagging, Tic Tac–like vessels and a New Yorker feature that explore the possibility of aliens existing.
  • UFO sightings are getting more frequent. This has sparked a lot of national conversation that has even led to a presidential address on the matter.
  • The government’s takedown of multiple aerial objects over North America recently has made people question whether they were aliens.
  • The president’s address did not explain the truth about UFOs. Instead, he talked about government transparency and the possibility that the objects were just surveillance vehicles.

Published February 16, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read John Hendrickson’s original post The Truth About Aliens Is Still Out There

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The Enduring Mystery of Friends [Freddie deBoer, Freddie deBoer’s Substack]

By William McClain
In Freddie deBoer
February 17, 2023
294 views
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  • Friends is a show set in the mid-90s with a bunch of twenty-somethings navigating their lives and relationships and hanging out in their favorite coffee shop, set in New York City.
  • The show does not reflect any definable generational sensibility, and the characters have seemingly no interest in the culture of the moment.
  • The clothing the characters wear is garish and make no particular fashion statement, and their coffee shop is an ugly and haphazard place.
  • The show is apolitical and exists outside of culture, making it a cultural object that is resistant to style, fashion and generational position.
  • Seinfeld is another NBC Thursday night show that takes advantage of New York and captures more of the city’s character, but it is too spiky and mannered to be as lacking in personality as Friends.
  • The success of Friends is due to its refusal to reflect on a specific cultural or generational experience, making a space for the widest possible audience.
  • The mystery of Friends’ success lies in its broad and repetitive humor and its endlessly recycled plotlines, making it comforting for viewers, like its classic, awful theme song.
  • My So-Called Life is a delicate portrayal of quintessentially late-Gen Xer characters, operating in a world that’s unmistakably of its era, reflecting the fashions and music and cultural id of its own time.

Published February 16, 2023
Visit Freddie deBoer’s Substack to read Freddie deBoer’s original post The Enduring Mystery of Friends

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The Contradictions of Ron DeSantis [Ronald Brownstein, The Atlantic]

By William McClain
In [The Atlantic]
February 17, 2023
282 views
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  • Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida hasn’t officially decided whether he’ll seek the 2024 GOP presidential nomination – But already the contradictions are sharpening between his prospective general-election strengths and his emerging strategy to win the Republican primaries.
  • DeSantis is pursuing an aggressive strategy of keeping Florida businesses and schools open during the pandemic – This strategy has enabled him to win about three-fifths of Florida’s college-educated white voters in a year when this demographic provided crucial support to Democrats in many other states.
  • DeSantis has ignited a series of culture-war firefights – Including censoring how schoolteachers talk about race, gender, and sexual orientation, and a potential ban on abortion after six weeks.
  • DeSantis’ agenda has found a receptive audience in Republican-controlled states – PEN is tracking copycat bills in many of the other 21 states where Republicans hold unified control of the state legislature and the governorship.
  • DeSantis’ agenda may be less appealing than the sum of its parts – Many polls show that a majority of voters worry less that kids are being taught values their parents don’t like than that culture-war fights are diverting schools from their real mission of educating students.
  • The whole of DeSantis’ agenda may be less appealing than the sum of its parts – Democrats see DeSantis embracing ideas that will cast him as a threat to the values held by the coalition that turned out in big numbers to resist the Trump-era GOP in each of the past three national elections.

Published February 16, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read Ronald Brownstein’s original post The Contradictions of Ron DeSantis

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The Booming Market for Backdoor Ozempic [Olivia Reingold, The Free Press]

By William McClain
In [The Free Press]
February 16, 2023
286 views
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  • Off-label Ozempic, a diabetes drug that also helps users lose weight, is being sold at med spas across the U.S.
  • The active ingredient, semaglutide, is being obtained from compounding pharmacies, which mix and combine active ingredients to create custom formulations.
  • Rich, connected people can get a prescription for Ozempic and Wegovy, its higher dose form, but it’s not cheap.
  • The drug has become the “magic bullet” for getting skinny, with celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Khloe Kardashian rumored to have used it.
  • Off-brand semaglutide, which is not FDA-approved and is of unknown origin, is being peddled by medical spas and telehealth clinics for about $300-$600/month.
  • Using off-brand semaglutide comes with a number of drawbacks, such as diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting, as well as the possibility of developing thyroid cancer.
  • The FDA has approved Wegovy for kids aged 12 and up, but there has been limited research on its effects on them.
  • New England Journal of Medicine had a pool of only about 200 participants, confirming the limited effectiveness of Wegovy for kids.
  • Calley Means, a healthcare entrepreneur, suggests the government invest in revamping school lunches to target the source of all obesity: diet.
  • The New York Times and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describe childhood obesity as “complicated” and impacted by “social determinants of health.”
  • The UK’s National Health Service states more clearly that “Obesity is generally caused by eating too much and moving too little.”
  • Body positivity messages have been around for years, but many of the loudest advocates lost weight when Ozempic came out.
  • Emily, a stay-at-home mom in Eastern Ohio, was 5 feet 5 and 189 pounds the day her doctor handed her semaglutide.
  • Kate Barone, an Atlanta salon owner, is itching to get back on semaglutide, saying “Everyone around me is getting skinnier.”

Published February 16, 2023
Visit The Free Press to read Olivia Reingold’s original post The Booming Market for Backdoor Ozempic

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How Google Ran Out of Ideas [Cory Doctorow, The Atlantic]

By William McClain
In [The Atlantic]
February 16, 2023
266 views
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  • Microsoft’s Desperate Move – Microsoft has sunk billions into equipping its search engine, Bing, with chatbot technology, ChatGPT, in an attempt to compete with Google Search.
  • Google’s Insecurity – Google has followed suit and is now incorporating chatbots into its products. This is likely due to its history of jumping on trends due to fear of being left behind, as evidenced by its entry into the Chinese market in 2006 and its subsequent attempts to close the social media gap with Facebook.
  • Google’s History – Google’s history has been characterized by follies such as cooperation with the Chinese Communist Party to censor search results, as well as its failed attempt to create a successful social media platform with Google Plus.
  • Google’s Real Business Model – Google’s most successful products are not ones they have created in-house, but rather ones they have acquired. Google’s attempt to integrate chatbots into search is likely an attempt to regain its reputation as an innovator.

Published February 16, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read Cory Doctorow’s original post How Google Ran Out of Ideas

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Progressives need to engage with the specific questions about youth gender care [Matthew Yglesias, Slow Boring]

By Spencer Chen
In [Slow Boring]
February 16, 2023
254 views
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• Jamelle Bouie wrote a powerful column titled “There Is No Dignity in This Kind of America” which examines conservative attacks on trans people in America.
• Bouie argues that the denial of dignity to one segment of the political community threatens the dignity of all, and calls for solidarity.
• Chris Hayes wrote a column urging Joe Biden to address America’s low and declining life expectancy, which is largely due to the opioid epidemic.
• The opioid epidemic was caused by pharmaceutical companies’ deceptive marketing of new opioid painkillers, and doctors’ overprescription of opioids.
• Mainstream liberal commentators are avoiding the details of the policy questions surrounding trans rights, such as the politicization of medical treatment for children, biological males competing in women’s sports, and physical transitioning at a young age.
• Affirmation of an equal right to human dignity does not determine a unique answer to all of these questions, and facts are important.
• NYT Opinion published the results of a focus group headlined “These 12 Transgender Americans Would Love You To Mind Your Own Business”, which highlights the need for trans people to be treated with dignity and respect.
• The focus group discussed the controversial issue of puberty-blocking medications, which are used off-label to treat gender dysphoria in minors.
• The current World Professional Association for Transgender Health recommendations say that hormones can be started at age 14 and some surgeries done at age 15 or 17.
• Reuters investigated gender clinics and found that most are comfortable prescribing puberty blockers or hormones based on the first visit, if there are no red flags and the child and parents are in agreement.
• Asking questions is important, but it must be done in good faith and with the aim of discovering answers grounded in facts.
• The rapid increase in the number of children identifying as trans raises questions about the extent to which gender-affirming medications have been clinically studied, the actual operation of clinics, and the concept of affirming children.
• There is also the question of why the increase is preponderantly among people with XX chromosomes.

Published February 16, 2023
Visit Slow Boring to read Matthew Yglesias’s original post Progressives need to engage with the specific questions about youth gender care

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How to Beat Trump in a Debate [Mehdi Hasan, The Atlantic]

By Spencer Chen
In [The Atlantic]
February 16, 2023
268 views
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• Donald Trump is an avid practitioner of the Gish Gallop, a debating method designed to defeat opponents by burying them in a torrent of incorrect, irrelevant, or idiotic arguments.
• The Gish Gallop was first used by Duane Tolbert Gish, a biochemist at the Institute for Creation Research, to win debates against evolutionists.
• The Gish Gallop is based on delivery over depth and exploits the fact that it takes more energy to refute bullshit than to produce it.
• Communication experts advise to pick your battle, call out the Gish Galloper, and don’t budge when they start spewing nonsense.
• Jonathan Swan’s interview with Trump in August 2020 revealed the president’s Gish Gallop for what it is: a deliberate strategy to deflect and distract.

Published February 16, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read Mehdi Hasan’s original post How to Beat Trump in a Debate

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