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This week, we visit with Republican candidate for Senate in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Beth Lindstom, who’s running a valiant attempt to unseat someone by the name of Elizabeth Warren. No idea who she is. Then, our old friend Toby Young stops by to discuss his recent experience with the digital pitchfork and torch mob on the internet and what we ought to do about it (do read his fantastic essay on this topic on Quillette.com, The Public Humiliation Diet and buy his books that are discussed on the show). Also, the Cohen tapes, the roaring economy, and is there life on Mars? Hope so, because we feel like moving there.
Music from this week’s show: Life on Mars by David Bowie
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TFW you book and meticulously plan an entire hour plus long show, but most of the comments are about a throwaway topic at the very end of the podcast.
The bitter sweet?
I think its the stereotype of Jewish women who want to marry doctors. That was my understanding of the joke…
Yea, its at the 1:12 mark of the show.
See? You know your audience. We listened for 80 minutes for the one comment to spark a discussion…BTW was the Mars comment planned out in that the planet was actually making its closest approach soon? (July 31?)
Thanks. I thought it might be along those lines, but didn’t know it was a stereotype.
I could be wrong – but thats how the joke ‘worked’ for me … to be honest I didnt find it funny. I never much cared for Sarah Silverman’s humor. I found her to be a bit like David Letterman – bitter and cruel.
Lucky FOCCers!
And that stuff was going on while Elon Musk was still in elementary school.
1:12 is the very end of the show. All but 6 seconds.
The Sarah Silverman jokes are at 1:01.
Don’t even blame us for that. James REQUESTED it!
The word “only” should never be used in proximity to the words “$32 billion”. I don’t care what the subject is.
It’s all relative. But if “$32 billion” upsets you, you’ve got a LOT of ground to cover before you can get around to be worried about little ol’ that.
What’s really stupid is basically saying “Okay we’re basically wasting most of a $1 TRILLION deficit by extending unemployment etc, so we have to flush ALL of THAT down the toilet but draw the line THERE and not spend even $32 billion more on something that could greatly advance technology etc etc etc.” Ridiculous.
I’m not objecting to “$32 Billion”. I’m objecting to “only”.
In general agreement, but the idea that Apollo had much of anything to do with the semiconductor industry* other than as a very small customer (even for mil-spec and rad-hard versions of chips). I think the telephone network, cheap little radios from Japan, and whoever the guy in Hong Kong was who figured you could make a nice calculator from Intel’s first microprocessor had considerably more to do with it. None of those were headed for the moon. Nope, I don’t buy it.
It’s easy to see that the telcos and such were very big later customers that wound up a big part of making the semiconductor and microprocessor industries what they are now. But the telcos didn’t “inspire” that development to be done to start with, and that guy in Hong Kong isn’t the reason why Intel developed microprocessors, etc. It would be like saying that nuclear research was done because power companies wanted to build nuclear power plants. Nonsense. The Manhattan Project had an entirely different – and government-funded – goal, which later had much wider applications.
Compared to $1 Trillion especially, $32 billion IS “only.”
How about the Smithsonian?
https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/apollo-guidance-computer-and-first-silicon-chips
None of those chips that would drive the consumer electronic revolution from the mid 70s would have existed without the Apollo program acting as a proving ground for their functionality, reliability and durability.
The Apollo program computers relied on woven – hand-knitted! – memory assemblies too, for the on-board pre-programmed navigation routines etc. The Apollo program was a big impetus for development and improvement of solid-state/microchip memory systems too. So was the shuttle system, for that matter.
Yes this hand woven memory system was so heavy that it was wrapped around the bottom of the Apollo capsule for ballast, to ensure that it remained upright after landing in the ocean.
And even minor changes to the read-only program in that assembly, required re-weaving by hand. Yikes!
If you havent seen these “Moon Machines” documentaries on YouTube, I recommend them, each episode examines the development program of each component of the Saturn V and Apollo:
This should be the a play list of all 6 episodes.
Youtube quality isn’t very good, I have them all downloaded in very clean format/quality.
This is a good point. I had forgotten that.
Even if the deficit were TWO trillion $, it would still be a good idea to spend $32 billion/year on research, development, and new technologies that could maybe even wipe out not just the deficit, but the entire national debt. I really wonder about people who might think just sitting here on Earth is better than spending A WHOLE EXTRA $32 BILLION PER YEAR, OH NO!!!!