How we’ve mischaracterized it.
I’ve noticed that in public-policy areas in which we do a crap job of risk assessment/tradeoffs, it is areas in which there are policy agendas independent of the actual issues.
Category Archives: General Science
Counting Calories Burned
This is interesting, and potentially useful research.
As the old saying goes, you can’t run away from a bad diet.
About That “SpaceX Rocket” That’s Going To Hit The Moon
It turns out that it’s probably Chinese.
But people wanted to believe it because SpaceX.
Calorie Restriction
First Light
I’m glad that Webb is working, but I continue to believe it was a mistake.
[Update a while later]
To clarify, I think it was a mistake to do it in the way it was done, but now that it’s operational, obviously it would be a mistake to abandon it now.
Electron Band Structure In Germanium
…my ass.
It’s an oldie, but a goodie.
Moonfall
Fact checking what sounds like a monumentally dumb flick.
The Zombie Argument
What does it say about human consciousness?
To Mars Or Not To Mars?
That is the question at this Oxford debate this evening (in a couple hours, sorry about the short notice).
[Update toward the end of the debate]
As I’ve noted in the past, debates like this are pointless, because they are a false choice based on a false premise. We don’t have to choose between populating Mars and saving the planet; we have abundant resources for both. The false premise is that this is going to be a collective decision whose outcome will be determined by an Oxford debate. People who go to Mars will be doing so with their own money, so people on Earth who oppose it are going to have to make it illegal to prevent it. There is a word for people like that: jailers.
Octopodes
Are they from outer space?