Jordan Peterson

What Peterson says about the crisis in higher education (around the 30-minute mark)--bloated administration, excessive costs, and a lack of a sense of mission--is right on.

Mother! ):

Mother has to be one of the most pointless movies I've ever seen. It has some good actors and a very promising beginning, but then, the promise isn't kept. It's just a series of vapid horror film scenes that don't add up to anything. I forced myself to watch it to the end and am promising myself never to make that decision again. Warning to all: There's no brilliant climactic close that will compensate you for the two lost hours of your life.

Where's the promised wage growth?

Drew Desilver has an interesting article on the lack of real wage growth in the last 40 years, despite the recent uptick in many economic indices.

Totenköpfchen

The ever-evolving bevy of excuses

Limerick

From Mad Kane...

Vlad Visit Interruptus? 

Over hosting old Vlad, Trump’s been heady.
 But the Kremlin says Putin’s not ready
 To say “Da” to a visit.
 A diss? Ain’t it, is it?
 Poor Trump hoped the two would go steady.

The Cultural Map

I've been reading Erin Meyers' book The Cultural Map and have been very impressed with it. So many of these top selling books introducing a field tend to be well-written but fluffy. This book, while very polished, does offer a lot of good insights. Best of all, when it veers into some area that I'm familiar with (e.g., East Asia), it does an excellent job, so my guess is that the entire books' insights are valid. One minor issue is with the author's description of the five bonds of Confucianism. Meyers describes the bonds between friends (the bond of trust) as being between an elder and younger friend. The Chinese has a single character for friends, so I don't know where the "elder and younger" assumption is coming from. My understanding of the passage is that the relationship between friends (unlike the other four bonds) isn't hierarchical. Does anyone have any insights on this they'd like to share?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders in Kansas

This is exactly where progressives should be campaigning. If their message doesn't resonate among the working class, it's time to change the message and transform the platform.