(no subject)

According to the WSJ, best US colleges are mostly in CA or MA.

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/wsj-best-colleges-2025-princeton-babson-stanford-52443de8

(no subject)

the characteristics of life are absolute self-enjoyment, creative activity, aim. Here 'aim' evidently involves the entertainment of the purely ideal so as to be directive of the creative process. Also the enjoyment belongs to the process and is not a characteristic of any static result. The aim is at the enjoyment belonging to the process.

...
It is nonsense to conceive of nature as a static fact, even for an instant devoid of duration. There is no nature apart from transition, and there is no transition apart from temporal duration. This is the reason why the notion of an instant of time, conceived as a primary simple fact, is nonsense.
( Read more... )

Whitehead. Nature Alive, 1938. Lecture 8.
https://brocku.ca/MeadProject/Whitehead/Whitehead_1938/1938_08.html

(no subject)

American institutions took major hits in just two decades:
1. Misguided, expensive wars in the Middle East.
2. The financial Crisis and the bailout.
3. Covid & vaccinations.

In the background we had globalization and major demographic changes that impacted jobs, voting patterns and racial relations. If Trump wins he'll try and at least partially succeed in further eroding public trust in American institutions.

Top U.S. officials shared a batch of evidence to support their claims that the Kremlin is engaged in an active and aggressive push to influence the vote in favor of Trump. In a rare move, the Justice Department disclosed internal Russian strategy meeting notes that U.S. intelligence agencies had obtained, which reveal granular details about the Kremlin’s strategy.

One Russian document listed “target audiences” including residents of swing states, such as Arizona and Pennsylvania, Hispanic and Jewish Americans, gamers, and users of the social-media site Reddit. It also detailed efforts to create online communities to unite voters who shared perceived Republican values.
https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/u-s-accuses-russia-of-spending-millions-to-influence-u-s-voters-be531b99