This and That---May 17, 2024 Edition

A few random observations, charts and factoids to provide some context on what is going on in the world.

The Two-Faces of Joe Biden

In 2019 Joe Biden criticized Donald Trump for imposing tariffs on Chinese goods entering the country.

He said a freshman econ student or a cashier at Target understood economics better than Trump.

Biden maintained that the tariffs would be paid by American consumers.

This is the 2024 version of Joe Biden who this week imposed import tariffs of 100% on electric vehicles and 50% on solar panels coming from China.

He is also implementing a 25% tariff on lithium batteries that are necessary for EV's and solar energy  storage and backup.

What is even more confusing about all of this is Biden wants to mandate that all Americans drive electric vehicles at the same time he is making them even more expensive.

The same goes for solar power---he wants to ban all coal, oil and natural gas energy sources in favor of renewables such as solar, at the same time he is making it all the more expensive for Americans.

Is it dementia, dishonesty or duplicity?

The A's Have It

We have reached the point where 40% of all names of newborn girls end with the letter "A".

100 years ago it was half of that.

Credit: https://twitter.com/protomemetic/status/1790621591107453302

The Social Security Administration recently published its list of the most popular girls and boys name for births in 2023.

8 of the most popular 10 female names end with "A" and 6 of the first 7.

Charlotte and Evelyn are the only names that do not end in "A" in the Top 10.

Source: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/

Male names are more evenly spread over the alphabet.

Is There Something In The Water?

On the subject of males and females, I thought this was an interesting  data comparing self-perception of men and women on their masculinity and femininity by generation.

90% of Boomer men say they are "completely/mostly" masculine, only 57% of Gen Z men do.

Almost all 65+ year old men say they feel masculine but only 57% of 17-27 year old Gen Z's do? 

Similarly, while 87% of Boomer women say they're "completely/mostly" feminine, only 67% of Gen Z women do.

Credit: https://twitter.com/data_depot/status/1788566547876950319

Are we doomed?

Is there something in the water?

Is it the education system?

The huge number of vaccines that have been introduced over the last 30 years?

Social media?

Is it a combination of a number of factors?

You have to wonder if what we are seeing in self-perception scores regarding one's gender are related to increasing levels of depressive symptoms in 8th, 10th and 12th graders in the United States.

Credit: https://twitter.com/SMTuffy/status/1790111370937090416

iPhone introduced in 2007.

Android phone introduced in 2008.

Instagram app for Android phones in 2012.

TikTok app released in 2017 in USA.

It might have more to do with smartphones and social media than the water or anything else.

Gold Medal Speed

There are four young men at a suburban Houston, Texas high school I am confident have no issues with self-perception relating to their masculinity,

The 4x100 meter relay team at Atascocita High School in Humble, Texas recently won the Texas 6A state championship with a time of 39.14 seconds.

That is less than an average of 10 seconds for the 100 meters for all four of the team members.

To put that in context, this team of four teenagers at one Texas high school had a time that would have won the 4x100 meter relay at the Big Ten track championship,

Another Texas high school, Duncanville, would have placed third at the Big Ten finals.

Here are the times of the top nine teams in the 6A Texas high school finals.

Source: https://www.gosanangelo.com/story/sports/high-school/2024/05/02/live-results-2023-uil-state-track-field-championships/73503467007/

 

Six other Texas high schools had faster times than Michigan State.

Source: https://twitter.com/Milosbets/status/1790067305021423933

Atascocita and Duncanville would have placed 1st and 2nd in the mens's ACC track finals.

Atascocita would have placed 2nd to USC at the PAC 12 finals. Duncanville would have captured third.

Keep in mind that these colleges can literally recruit anyone in the world to run for their schools.

Atascocita is confined to the boundaries to that of a high school district as are these other Texas track teams.

For additional context, here are the women's 4x100 meter relay times in the 2020 Olympic Games.

Source: https://olympics.com/en/olympic-games/tokyo-2020/results/athletics/women-s-4-x-100m-relay

Atascocita H.S. would have won the gold medal in the women's 4x100 by almost two seconds over the Jamaica national team.

Duncanville H.S. would have taken the silver medal.

North Shore H.S would have taken the bronze medal.

Even the 8th place team in the Texas high school track meet would have won the gold medal competing in the 2020 women's Olympic finals.

In fact, if the top eight Texas high schools were running in the women's 4x100, at the 2020 Olympics, they would have taken all spots from 1-8 in the finals.  The 8th team in the women's Olympic final (the Netherlands) did not finish.

Of course, we are told there are no physical differences between men and women.

The only thing that matters is how someone "identifies" in their own mind.

And men who identify as women should be allowed to compete in women's athletic despite the genetic differences.

Just ignore the fact that teenage boys at just eight high schools in Texas can run faster than the fastest, most elite women athletes in the world.

The woke policies of the liberal progressives are utter and complete insanity if you care anything about women's athletics.