The very best engineering finds innovative ways to do something in a simple, elegant, and surprisingly original way. To see something that’s done at great cost and complexity and think of a completely new way to do it for a tiny fraction of the cost and effort is a unique satisfaction for the engineer who [...]
Al Franken draws a very respectable map of the fifty US states from memory [1:20 video]. No doubt, it took some practice and a degree of skill at drawing, but one can’t help but wonder how most national politicians would do at even being able to name all fifty states.
(The linked video is sped-up without [...]
District Nine tells the all too familiar story of discrimination and oppression by the majority in an near-future human/alien (as in extraterrestrial aliens) context, set in Johannesburg it so happens. For fear of spoiling it I’ll just say it’s the best movie I’ve seen in recent memory, with cautionary note that it isn’t for the [...]
I’ve certainly been puzzled for some weeks about all the hubbub over healthcare reform – not that it’s controversial, but that the debate and tactics have strayed so far afield. This opinion piece gives some historical perspective that helps understand, and also highlights how are much-changed media pour gasoline on the fire of the crazies [...]
Errol Morris reveals illusive truths in his essay, Seven Lies About Lying.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation recently launched a nice service that monitors the legal terms of service and privacy policies of prominent web sites and tracks changes that may impact their users. These documents are universally “subject to change without notice” so having an RSS feed lets customers know when changes happen as they are made. [...]
The press is supposed to ensure fair and open exchange of information and opinions, but in recent times it seems to be serving a contrary purposes – information filtering and message control. Paul Krugman uses his excellent blog at the country’s biggest newspaper to make this point in very direct terms. Simply put, by doggedly [...]
According to Politico, the publisher of the Washington Post was planning to sell access to elite government officials and its reporters and editors to lobbyists. The event is now canceled after a flier leaked offering to deliver the paper’s “health care reporting and editorial staff.” Blame fell on the marketing department for “misrepresenting” the event [...]
A good article on the production & selection process explains why school textbooks are so lifeless and boring, and why Texas is so influential nationwide. Long, but well worth reading.
http://www.edutopia.org/textbook-publishing-controversy
Most surprising quote: “The books are done and we still don’t have an author!”
Bill Moyers Journal often has terrific guests who say things one doesn’t hear on mainstream media, but William K. Black was all this and more.
Well, the way that you do it is to make really bad loans, because they pay better. Then you grow extremely rapidly, in other words, you’re a Ponzi-like scheme. … It [...]
I note without really understanding an interesting new model where time is an emergent property rather than a fundamental feature of physics.
It is not reality that has a time flow, but our very approximate knowledge of reality. Time is the effect of our ignorance.
Time is so deeply fundamental to human experience that conceiving of reality [...]
Juan Cole suggests journalism at universities as an alternative to traditional print media that seems to be struggling to find a viable business model. His excellent Informed Comment blog provides excellent coverage on Middle East news and commentary not well covered in the mainstream media.
I like the idea a lot: news is very much a [...]