The Ever Elusive Normal
New Substack stories this week
I've got a few new posts up this week. Let's do a rundown.
The U.S. endured four record storms this week. The odds for each one hovered around .1 percent. And yet, the current administration is gutting everything from disaster relief funds to weather forecasting, while local politicians send more thoughts and prayers. If that weren't enough, the richest man in the world wasted billions of dollars building a Nazi robot that he insists "isn't racist." Nothing has felt normal for five years now, so let's just be weird.
We're Never Going to Feel Normal Again
A while back, psychologists at UVA locked people in a room and gave them two choices. They could sit and think for 15 minutes, or they could administer mild electric shocks to themselves. About 67 percent of the men chose the shocks, and so did 25 percent of the women. It explains a lot about the world.