Category Archives: Business

Business, Education, Law, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

“Blue-State Justice”

…is rarer than red:

On Thursday, Virginia Governor and Democratic candidate for president Terry McAuliffe issued a Task Force report on campus sexual assault organized by the state’s Democratic attorney general, Mark Herring. This 107-page report was perhaps most notable for what it did not include. It did not once mention the phrase “false accusations.” It appears being framed does not concern Virginia policymakers. Perhaps for that reason, this report, which discussed how Virginia colleges need to respond to sexual assault allegations didn’t mention the highest-profile rape allegation on a Virginia campus in recent years. Rolling Stone, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, or the false accuser “Jackie” were, it seems, not relevant to a discussion about campus rape claims in Virginia.

If you wanted to destroy academia, it would be harder to come up with better plans than these people have.

[Update a while later]

“We literally can’t afford to let the Title IX inquisition continue.”

Business, Economics, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

Space Access Update

4 Comments

The latest version is out, describing the current hijinks in Congress:

Full-throttle political support for full-funding Commercial Crew at the requested $1.24 billion is a top (if not the top) political priority for this year. Down-selecting to one vendor to save money over the next two years would add multiple unacceptable program risks and lead to long-term monopoly pricing. Successful flight before the end of 2017 already apparently involves optimistic assumptions about not needing the full $300 million in NASA-required-extras contingency funding. NASA says that any shortfall from the $1.24 billion level this year risks further program delays, and our look at the numbers seems to bear that out.

Yes, as Bolden said a few weeks ago, they can’t accelerate it with more money, but they can delay with less, and they seem determined to do so.

[Early evening update]

OK, here‘s an even more recent update.

Business, Education, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Feminists

7 Comments

…are too fragile to read:

My advice to potential faculty hires — or student applicants — at Northwestern: Go somewhere else. As law professor Jonathan Adler notes in The Washington Post, Northwestern threw academic freedom “under the bus.”

The good news is that Kipnis’ experience has generated a national wave of outrage. Even feminist website Jezebel wrote: “As feminist student activists fight to expand their circle of vulnerability in collegiate life, Title IX has gone from a law designed to protect college students from sexual misconduct and discrimination to a means by which professors are put on trial for their tweets.”

In New York magazine, Jonathan Chait observed: “I highly doubt that the inquiry against Kipnis will result in any important formal sanction. … But the slim possibility of actual administrative punishment is not the problem her story reveals. The problem is that a major body of progressive campus thought believes her publication of a dissenting column merits punishment.”

And at Reason,Robby Soave pointed out that bureaucrats whose power comes from an outrageously expansive reading of Title IX have expanded that interpretation to include a claim that “criticizing Title IX violates Title IX.”

Yes, Congress should have very public hearings about this. But they almost certainly won’t.

Business, Technology and Society

Kickstarter Tech Support

3 Comments

Rand Simberg

May 30, 4:46 PM

I tried to upload my video. It is an MP4, H.264, resolution 640×480, size of 23.5 Mb. When I upload, it says there is an “error,” but that’s the only information I get, so it’s hard to figure out what the problem is.

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Hi Rand,

Travis here with Kickstarter support—thanks for writing in. Sorry that you’re having trouble uploading your video.

Please double-check to make sure that your video meets these requirements:

Size: Project videos need to be 5GB or less. Video in updates can be up to 250MB.

File Format: We accept most major video formats but for best results upload one of our recommended file types: MOV, MP4 or WMV.
Tip: Converting your file into another file format may resolve playback issues.

Resolution: We take the video file you upload and create a 640×480 (4:3 ratio) version to display on your project page.

Compression: We accept most major video codecs, but for best results we recommend using WMV format in Windows and H.264 format on Mac. In both cases, the key variable is the “bit rate,” so look for that measurement. If it’s measured in kilobits per second (kbps), try 1500 to start. If it’s measured in megabits per second (Mbps), try 1.5. If the file is too big: Make that number smaller. If the quality seems bad: Make it bigger.

If all of this checks out and you’re still having trouble, please send me a screenshot or further details on what you’re seeing from your end. I hope this helps!

Best,
Travis

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This response is utterly useless. It contains no information that is not already on the web site (in fact, it looks like it was simply pasted from it). Did you even read what I wrote?