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By Thoreau 1) Is there a liquid in the outer core of the earth? If so, do you know what sort of liquid it is? 2) True or false: The expansion of the universe, and the associated red shifts of distant galaxies, is due to the expansion of space itself. These questions are motivated by […] By Thoreau As a child, I loved Charlie Brown. Come to think of it, I still love the musical “You’re a good man, Charlie Brown.” Consequently, my grandfather gave me a nickname based on Charlie Brown: Charlie Brownguinea. He still uses it. Since my grandfather likes to be silly and sometimes makes up words, I […] By Thoreau I was unaware that the Coptic Christian Church has a ban on its followers traveling to Israel. I’m opposed to travel bans as a solution to political problems, because I think that people visiting and mingling with each other is the best way to find solutions. Still, since a sizable portion of the […] By Thoreau The Economist surveys commentary from the right and its detractors, and sums up with this insightful bit: Good luck with that, Mr Norquist. Voters shy from hard choices. Lexington’s bet is that Americans will never give the Republicans a clean mandate to drown the sort of state they have now. Like voters everywhere, […] By Thoreau As grading season approaches, academic bloggers start weighing in on grading policy. Personally, I think we have too many grades. I don’t know that I can establish a clear distinction between the B+ student and the B student. I think we could get by just fine with fewer grades. However, I would not […] By Thoreau I hate royalty. Were it up to me, Prescott Bush would have had a vasectomy, Hillary Clinton would be practicing law, and the entire Kennedy clan would have been entombed with JFK, Egyptian-style. In fact, I would have disqualified Arnold Schwarzenegger from the ballot just on the basis of his marriage to a […] By Thoreau Perhaps I’m being too pessimistic about asteroid mining, but I have serious doubts about the feasibility of extracting enough platinum or whatever from an asteroid to justify the expense. Then again, maybe I’m wrong, and this will actually work. However, a few points to ponder: 1) Forget about property rights for mining, what […] By Thoreau About 10 years ago I learned about the Implicit Association Test. I went online and took it. I was not blinded to the purpose of the study, so I was nervous about screwing up on questions that might show prejudice, and I was extra careful on those questions. Of course, taking longer on […] By Thoreau In the midst of a discussion of how to make wars harder to start and sustain, Jason Kuznick makes an interesting suggestion: Hold a vote before we can have a war. Now, there’s a number of predictable directions that this could go: Weasel direction #1: How do we distinguish a war from a […] By Thoreau 1) Forget the new sheriff in town, there’s a new gang in town. 2) I understand why some people consider street protest ineffective these days, but before we go off on how unseemly it is, recall that the revered Founders themselves enshrined the right to assemble to petition for a redress of grievances. […] |
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