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Thursday Linkage

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By Robert Farley

On January 15, 2015

At 12:11 pm

In Robert Farley

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From around the inter-tubes:

It seems painfully obvious to me that Russian efforts to intimidate Finland will tend to push Helsinki in NATO’s direction, but mileage may vary.
A brief from Dmitry Gorenburg on the future of the Russian Navy.
I suppose we shouldn’t have let Loomis invest all of the donations in Bitcoin.
On the weaponization of Santa Claus.
Abolish West Point (and the rest of the military academies)? I think there’s a better case for this than abolishing the war colleges.
What do graduate students need to know about the philosophy of science?

Linnaeus

So Finland won’t Finlandize?
CJColucci

Just wait until Loomis weighs in on the Finns.
- Erik Loomis
  
  See here:
  
  http://lawyersgunsmon.wpengine.com/2011/09/are-finns-white
  - Pseudonym
    
    You really buried the lede there: LGM has apparently opened a sheepskin bomber jacket store!
    - Erik Loomis
      
      Anything to keep me supplied with bourbon.
      - Pseudonym
        
        What are your favorite varieties? I have this wonderful ketchup-infused vodka you really need to try.
njorl

In retrospect, I’m very grateful for the “Physics and Philosophy” course I took. It was roughly equal parts ethics and epistemology. I think it is important to educate students on these formally. If any other aspect of your education in your chosen field is lacking, it is easy to improve it with self study or in discussions with colleagues. With ethics, though, people tend to want to either avoid discussion or jump to accusations of wrongdoing. If you aren’t exposed to the notion that ethics can be complicated, you tend to get a bit manichean about them.
Srsly Dad Y

FSM, how I wish I’d majored in philosophy of social science in college. In hindsight, that’s so obviously what I was interested in but didn’t know it. (Took a smorgasbord social theory major instead.) And it’s what a plurality of my nonfiction reading has been about, one way or another, since. Youth is wasted &c.
Outside Counsel

Eliminating the Air Force Academy would be a good way to start winding down the AF. I’m not sure that West Point and Annapolis are really adding much value beyond what ROTC brings, but could see the merit in converting them into graduate level institutions.
- Major Kong
  
  We don’t have an Air Force Academy any more. It’s been turned into “Rocky Mountain Bible College” by the James Dobson crowd.
- patrick II
  
  Could we support a government sponsored “Peace College” to balance things a bit? Or is there one I don’t know about?
  - LFC
    
    Well, there’s the U.S. Institute of Peace. There’s no U.S. govt-sponsored Peace College of which I’m aware, but there are a number of ac. programs, centers, institutes etc on ‘peace and conflict resolution’ (or variants of that phrase). (There are also some v. well-known peace research institutes in other countries, which in some cases prob. get govt support, but that’s on a tangent to yr question.)
    - patrick II
      
      Thanks. Although I had assumed there were various programs and centers, etc.I didn’t know about the U.S. Institute of Peace. Nice touch by Reagan, creating an Institute for Peace while supporting an illegal war in South America. For a supposedly man of limited intelligence, he sure was a devious s.o.b..
      I was half kidding about a college of “peace”, but it just seems we have so many learning resources dedicated war, it would be nice to come a little closer to have better balance.
wengler

Some Finnish politicians want to join NATO. I’m sure NATO wants Finland. But the vast majority of Finns(75 percent) don’t want to join NATO. Finland will not be joining NATO anytime soon.
- Linnaeus
  
  I wonder if our resident Finn could weigh in on that.
Herr doktor bimler

Russian efforts to intimidate Finland

They worked so well last time!
Area Man

Re: The dolts at the Naval academy:

And they’re hardly, on average, the “best and the brightest.” In fact more than a quarter of the class has SAT scores below 600, and our average is lower than the nearby state school University of Maryland.

Can this really be correct? It’s been awhile since I took the SAT, but back then the maximum score was 1600, and a score of at least 800 is what you needed to have a realistic shot of getting into a decent college. A score below 600 would get you rejected from any school with admissions standards. Either this is a mistake on the author’s part, the SAT scoring system has changed (it appears that the maximum score is now 2400, which makes a 600 score far worse), or the service academies have no standards at all.
- wjts
  
  The Wikipedia tells me that the SAT is now three sections, each with a maximum score of 800 and (it seems) a minimum score of 200. If I’m understanding that last bit correctly, then it’s impossible to score under 600 on the test as a whole. So maybe the scores in question are under 600 on each of the three sections?
  - Area Man
    
    But 600 on each section would be an excellent score. I also thought that maybe the author meant 1600 and it was a typo. But 1600 (out of 2400) would be a good score too, equal to a 1067 under the previous scoring. Not a “best and brightest” score, but certainly indicative of college material, and having only 1/4 of students below this (assuming they’re just slightly below) would be pretty good.
    
    I’m inclined to think that the author is just sloppy, such as when he said that Navy football is joining the Big East (a conference that no longer exists for football). Doesn’t help things.
    - Jordan
      
      Well, Navy *is* joining the AAC, which is the vestigial Big East. So, yeah, kinda sloppy, but not a huge deal.
- njorl
  
  It’s a ridiculous thing to say. Why should the average student at Annapolis be among the “best and the brightest”? What is a middle-of-the-pack Annapolis grad going to do that requires such intellect?
  - mpowell
    
    Having an SAT average just below University of Maryland sounds just about right for Annapolis.
    - Area Man
      
      It sounds about right to me too, but it contradicts the academy’s projected image as a bastion of super-high achievers. However, it doesn’t jibe with the author’s contention that they’re a bunch of remedial C- students either, at least not without more info.
  - Lee Rudolph
    
    What is a middle-of-the-pack Annapolis grad going to do that requires such intellect?
    
    What, indeed?
    
    Actually, I have no idea how many of the “dozens” of bribees are middle-of-the-pack Annapolis grads. They may, for all the current news tells me, be among the best and the brightest!
The prophet Nostradumbass

Another link: Cast riots in Hollywood following Lego Movie Oscar snub.