Thursday, September 25, 2008
There’s a new study out regarding the health care crisis and how to deal with it. Critical discussion of both the McCain and Obama plans ensues at Ezra Klein’s blog. The big takeaway from the McCain proposal: McCain’s health care plan would increase taxes on employer based health insurance and price 20 million plus Americans out of [...]
Thursday, September 25, 2008
I just discovered this interview with Scott Bakker, author of one of the three greatest fantasy epics of all time, The Prince of Nothing, as well as Neuropath, a near-future pyscho-thriller. In the interview Bakker mentions having had an email exchange with Richard K. Morgan regarding “the nihlistic implications of modern neuroscience.” Bakker says: There’s going to be people who deny this stuff come hell [...]
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
10tothe100 is Google’s new initiative. The idea: come up with an idea for helping as many people as possible. Submit the idea to Google by Oct 20th. People will then start voting on the ideas, narrow them down to five. And Google will spend 10 million on making those ideas work. I love Google because [...]
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
While we’re all trying to figure out just how great our contempt should be for the fucktards who played their parts in the current collapse, it’s good to keep the following in mind, from this short article: Resisting peer pressure isn’t pleasant. The banker who insisted on a 20% down payment for all mortgages got [...]
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
In the spirit of the other day’s entry on the differences between conservatives and liberals, which is really about the differences in how people think, and why some people appear to insist on thinking with some part of their bodies other than their brains, comes this nice discussion, with abundant links, on taking a neuroscience [...]
Monday, September 22, 2008
I don’t understand much about the big economic issues going on right now – especially the $700 billion taxpayer funded bailout of the fat-cats on Wall Street – but this article made me feel less dumb. These quotes in particular stood out but the whole thing was accessible to the layperson: Normally this would have [...]
Monday, September 22, 2008
For the righteous rage you get when you get to your cafe at 8am and find some toolbox sitting at the table by the window where you always sit.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Sometimes I get in the habit of thinking my life is very complicated. At those times it’s helpful to get another perspective: Tens of thousands of bare-breasted virgins competed for Swaziland King Mswati III’s eye on Monday in a traditional Reed Dance. Walking through the dense crowds in a leopard skin loin cloth, Sub-Saharan Africa’s [...]
Thursday, September 18, 2008
The electoral college is what Dan Barreiro might call a “sticky wicket.” I understand the importance of having a president with broad geographical and cultural appeal – they are supposed to represent the entire country not just the densely populated coastal enclaves – but it is hard to ignore the problems that arise when the [...]
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Harry at Crooked Timber discusses some new NEH grants for academics who develop classes on “enduring questions.” Except people aren’t happy: That said, most of their examples are questions that philosopher tackle every day, and are already covered and discussed in great detail in undergraduate courses in Philosophy in every University that has a philosophy [...]