May Day Morning Links

• All hail JS Bach, whose spirit dwells in practically every note written since his death. With supreme contrapuntal skill, Bach sculpts music of perfect form and balance, bestowing it with an emotional power that has echoed through the centuries. From the aching beauty of the cello suites and the bewildering ambition of the keyboard works to the dramatic force of the cantatas, no one has, and could possibly, come close to Bach's genius. [Classical Music]
  
• Institutions lean conservative except for academia. Liberals are louder, but when you average out political behavior over the past 5 years, conservatives engage about as much, and get better results given they dominate governments with less popular vote, they dominate the military and police, and they dominate the corporations. A better picture is this: roughly consistent with mutational load theory, that the right half of the political distribution dominates relative to the left half, because the right half is more functional. The left half only dominates the most dysfunctional, pointless, and powerless of the major institutions: academia. Leftists engage in louder, more non-logical political-looking behavior, with less results, probably owing to a mixture of mutational load associated traits, which as Hanania remarks, include being less happy, more mentally ill, and less likely to start families. The right half of the political distribution engages in more efficient and effective political behavior. [Joseph Bronski]
• Imperial and Exxon seem superior to Chevron at present valuations. Note that Exxon's business will shift more towards shale if (or when) the merger with Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) closes. Pioneer gives detail of its oil, NGL, and natural gas production volumes. In the fourth quarter of 2023 (release), oil volumes were 381k barrels per day, up 8.5% y/y. Capital expenditures in Q4 2023 were $1.18 billion versus $1.06 billion the year prior; up 11%. So, not too bad of a production shortfall, which is what we found when we were doing the Shale Treadmill research last year. [CBS] 
• This rule has garnered historic attention and the public comment period has yielded an immense amount of feedback, including from various elements of the civil rights and criminal justice movement. It’s clear that there are still more conversations to have, and that will take significantly more time. [HHS]
• Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in coordination with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), announced that the U.S. Marshals Service seized unauthorized e-cigarette products valued at more than $700,000. The e-cigarettes were located in a warehouse in Alhambra, CA, and are believed to be owned by several California-based distributors. The seized products were mostly flavored, disposable e-cigarette products, including youth-appealing brands such as Puff Bar/Puff, Elf Bar/EB Design, Esco Bar, Kuz, Smok, and Pixi. [FDA]
• I think the faux convenience of smaller devices has caused an underappreciation of the efficiency of desktop computing. Even wasting time is faster on a desktop, and feels more active. The true tabbed browser, not the goofy facsimile on a tablet or phone, remains the most powerful information consumption tool ever invented. Twenty news links can be launched into the background quickly, and disposed of just as quickly with keyboard shortcuts (Command-W on a Mac) to close and move on to the next tab. Technology with the highest possible information bandwidth is critical if one is attempting to be super productive and add a lot of value to the world while still working reasonable hours. [The Tom File]
• Even the most die hard “America First” right-winger would not publicly propose that the United States invade Canada, conquer it, and exploit its natural resources. Why not? Well, that’s the power of woke virtue signaling. For the vast majority of human history, invading a weaker neighboring state to steal its natural resources would be a no-brainer. But the contemporary United States of America isn’t going to do that because progressive high-mindedness has worked like a “mind virus” to create a more peaceful world. [Matthew Yglesias]