July 3, 2017
Here is that famous documentary on the Koch Brothers. I'll just put it here for you to watch and comment on.
July 3, 2017
This is disturbing, but since civilization is ending as we speak, I suppose it is not surprising. From the Washington Post:
Any resident in Florida can now challenge what kids learn in public schools, thanks to a new law that science education advocates worry will make it harder to teach evolution…
July 3, 2017
My father in law is an excellent amateur mixologist. I don't drink alcohol very often, but we're all up at the cabins, so last night I had a paper plane. And I believe this is what led to a night of strange and extensive dreams, and in my dreams was my recently deceased PhD adviser, Irv DeVore. (…
July 2, 2017
I got an Amazon Echo Dot for my birthday. This allows me to command a computer, using voice, to do things. The voice response on the echo is amazing. It does not get much wrong, and you can speak in a fairly normal voice from another room and the mysterious entity that apparently lives inside the…
July 2, 2017
I'm avoiding books that are recent so you can get a deal on price, and to bring books from the past that you didn't read but should have back into focus. Each of these, I've either read (most of them) or have a recommendation from top notch sources. You should be able to finish then all by the end…
July 1, 2017
Since reading this book, and listening to certain episodes of this podcast, I've been thinking about addiction now and then. Today, this came across my desk:
I've not read the original article, but it certainly looks interesting.
On the other hand it also brings up several difficult questions.…
July 1, 2017
I've made the point several times now. We live in a constitutional democracy, but many of the first line (and last line) protections are not enforceable laws, but rather, agreements made among people who all want to live in and respect a constitutional democracy.
But if a large enough cadre of…
June 29, 2017
Were you thinking that the Republicans in Congress want to get to the bottom of the Russians stealing our election? That was never true, you were always wrong, it is time to stop pretending.
The document below can be found in PDF form here.
Here is Rachel Maddow's take on it:
This is what…
June 29, 2017
MSNBC has added Bret Stephens, climate denier formerly of the WSJ, lately of the NYT, to their list of commenters. Shame on them.
Also, shame on Wikipedia and others for referring to Stephens as a journalist. He is no more a journalist than Anne Coulter. He is a commenter. (He's way better than…
June 29, 2017
Trump is reportedly pressuring public news media and other outlets to not distribute information about Obamacare, as they normally would, in an effort to sabotage the n-Law. This is what dictators do.
Trump's people in the "press" room have bullied the press to the point that they are finally…
June 29, 2017
This is from Parents magazine:
When you talk about “preexisting conditions,” you probably think of things like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. But the reality is that healthcare companies consider a whole slew of common health concerns preexisting conditions. Odds are, if you’re a mom, you…
June 29, 2017
Two items I know you'll want to check out.
The ‘intellectual’ debate Rick Perry says he wants is already over
Last week, Energy Secretary Rick Perry told CNBC he considers his skepticism towards climate data to be a sign of a “wise, intellectually engaged person.” Yesterday, at a press briefing at…
June 28, 2017
The press has had enough of being called liars by the liars. I'm not a big fan of MJ, but the very fact that MJ has quotable conversation about this is a change in how the world works.
Here's another thing dictators do: Make up accolades. Trump created a fake TIME magazine cover and hung it in…
June 27, 2017
There is no free lunch, but you can watch a normally unfree documentary for free on the usual streaming networks for a little while.
Click here to get to the NGS site
From Hollywood Reporter:
Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies, says, “Coal affects our lives and planet in…
June 27, 2017
These books are one or two books in kindle form right now, get 'em while they're still cheap:
Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science-and the World
Blind Ambition: The White House Years
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 6
June 27, 2017
The benefits of vaccines far outweigh the minuscule risks, but some parents still question their safety. John Oliver discusses why some people may still feel uncertainty about childhood vaccinations.
June 25, 2017
Today is the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the Harry Potter phenomenon.Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was published on this day in 1997, and Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, Harry Potter And The…
June 23, 2017
I know some of you cheapskates will want to pick up these books ... well, not really pick them up, but rather, instantiate them on your eReader. These are all 2 bucks or less for the Kindle version, at the moment, price presumably subject to change at any moment.
How the mind might or might not…
June 23, 2017
... or do the sheep lie?!?!?
Anyway, I need the brilliant and well informed people who read this blog to have a gander at this college transcript and interpret it. Place your comments below.
June 19, 2017
UPDATE (Aug 30th)
Irma is a new named storm in the Eastern Atlantic. See this post for details, eventually.
UPDATE (Aug 29th)
There is a system currently raining on Cabo Verde, off the West Coast of Africa (nee Cape Verde) that is expected to develop. It is on the verge of becoming a tropical…
June 19, 2017
Michael Mann, author of some of the best books on climate science (including The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy, The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines, and Dire Predictions, 2nd…
June 14, 2017
Short answer: No, we do not shoot them. But the argument that we don’t shoot them is not as simple as it seems.
Rand Paul: Shoot the CongressmanRight Wing: The purpose of the 2nd Amendment is to allow us to be armed, so we can shoot at the government when we need to. (This section has been heavily…
June 14, 2017
This is interesting.
It is a letter from Hachette Livre, a major international publisher, to Resolute Forest Products, the group that is trying to sue a number of environmental groups into submission. (See these posts: Taking The Axe To The Environmental Movement: Resolute v. Greenpeace and…
June 14, 2017
No, this is not about that.
I believe it is true that for decades, shooters and politically violent people (two overlapping categories) in the US were right wingers, almost always. Case in point: the white supremacists who have now all been handed (a little bit of) jail time for emptying a pistol…
June 11, 2017
... for the science literate or geek. It is hard to think up gifts at the last minute, so I'm passing on a few suggestions that have been mentioned lately in my presence.
Some Amazon Kindle e-readers are $20 off
A second monitor (or a third). I like this one.
A Darth Vader Pen Holder
Virtual…
June 9, 2017
ADDED, ANOTHER CHEAP BOOK YOU MIGHT WANT:Dune
The following random thought will eventually become a more carefully written blog post, but I want to get this out there sooner than later.
Mention electric cars, or solar panels, or any other kind of thing a person might buy and deploy to reduce their…
June 7, 2017
You've heard to story. I'm here to give you a little context.
A pretty typical early handaxe, made by a Homo erectus. This was a big flake made from a bigger rock. The big flake was subsequently flaked to make this handaxe. The word "handaxe" can be spelled about nine different ways.
But in case…
June 7, 2017
I can't give this a meaningful review because I don't have the setup to test it out, Coding iPhone Apps for Kids: A playful introduction to Swift by Gloria Winquist and Matt McCarthy looks like it is up to the high standards of this publisher and these authors, and might be just the thing for your…
June 6, 2017
Screw the so-called Federal Government, once part of a great democracy, now a great joke run by an insane clown and his posse.
Most of the hard work in the energy transition needs to be done at the levels of the state and the individual anyway. So, with Trump taking the so-called Federal Government…
June 6, 2017
I know you all loved Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power by Rachel Maddow, but perhaps some of you have not read it yet or, like me, Rachel gave you a physically real copy of it so you don't have the Kindle version. Now is your chance, since the Kindle version is $1.99 right now. I…
