People—teachers, students, parents—have been complaining for a century that memorization is pointless when ”you can just look it up“. This complaint predates AI, it predates Google, it predates this internet. But it’s wrong. Here’s Pauling on why he gave closed notes exams:

No need to believe in a soul to reject this ridiculous statement. Below is a good read on why machines cannot reason the way we do, because they cannot reason abductively:

James Gatz became Jay Gatsby. Theodor Capitani von Kurnatowski III became Theo. Rohit Khanna became Ro. Theo and I discuss what this says about the American story.

Life comes at you fast.

In 1973, a bipartisan Congress overrode Nixon's veto to pass the WPR. They stood up to the imperial presidency & the blank check of escalation in Vietnam. If only today's Congress had half the self respect in our own power & role.

The University of Washington is ranked #⃣8⃣ in the world and #⃣2⃣ among U.S. public universities by U.S. News & World Report’s 2025 Best Global Universities list just released this week. #GoHuskies | lnkd.in/giiku4_v

youtu.be/Oa5OmoneCkA?si… Really valuable video from a fine young philosopher at Cambridge. Come for the succinct but accurate history of thought, stay for the interesting take on how it sheds light on a core modern cultural division!

There have only been 2 catchers (Carlton Fisk-1985, Ivan Rodriguez-1999) in MLB history who have hit 33+ HRs, 70+ RBI, and stole 9+ bases in a season. Cal Raleigh has done it before the All-Star break.

I wrote about the lack of administrative support for the liberal arts in The New York Times. The standard story we hear is that students don't want it. But a darker reality is that even when it wins big with students and donors it loses with those in power. nytimes.com/2025/07/17/opi…

You're not American, and hence have no appreciation for the fact that the entire premise of America is that if you're here, you're an American. That's the whole game. The world's melting pot. Maybe take a US civics class before you spout off nativist bullshit like this

"Summer," by American artist, author, and Disney animator, Eyvind Earle, 1981.

Sports leagues need to wash their hands of sports betting immediately or irreparable damage will be done to their league when inevitably multiple players get exposed for throwing a game in a championship game/series cause of betting.

One of my pet peeves is when some people "recommend" Shakespeare by reducing him to entertaining stories, violence, puns, & sex jokes. If that had been all Shakespeare was, why have there been so many books analysing & interpreting the plays? Brainless.

Unironically, yes

Peter Kreeft:

Jason and the Argonauts (1963) It took 4½ months for Ray Harryhausen to animate this ground-breaking 3 minute scene. For the finale, 7 skeletons were thrown into the sea, never to be retrieved. They may still be at that location. This scared the hell out of me when I was a kid.

Big Grumper 👌

The big temptation of our age is the temptation to let your brain become mush. Read daily. Write your own words. Shun the machines that promise to do your thinking for you. Ten years from now when millions are suffering cognitive decline, you’ll be glad you kept your mind sharp.

Claire Lehmann Bethel McGrew 🎗 What’s wrong with choosing a boutique embryo to try to “optimize” our parenting experience? It ruins the parent-child relationship. The philosopher Michael Sandel made this case decisively here: theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…