It seems unlikely he’s capable of learning.
Category Archives: Mathematics
Kickstarter Video
Try, try again. I’ve punched up the audio in this version, though it still sounds like I’m in an empty lecture hall.
[Update a while later]
I think I’m ready to launch the project (and Kickstarter says I can do it at any time), but here’s the draft page, if anyone wants to provide feedback before I do so.
Neil Stephenson
Discusses his new novel, and the role of science fiction.
He is one of the few authors whose books I always look forward to reading, though I was a little disappointed with Anathem. But this looks like a fun read.
I should also note that one of the points I make in my book (and in op-eds) since, is that our unwillingness to use the hardware we have on hand to get into space is an indicator of how utterly unimportant human spaceflight is (a point that is accentuated by the relatively poor sales of a well-reviewed book). Stephenson describes a scenario in which it suddenly becomes very important to become as spacefaring as possible, as soon as possible, and how society reacts.
Cholesterol
Matt Wridley has a brief history of how it’s not bad for you. And this is worth repeating in the context of climate “science”:
If challenged to show evidence for low-cholesterol advice, the medical and scientific profession has tended to argue from authority — by pointing to WHO guidelines or other such official compendia, and say “check the references in there”. But those references lead back to Keys and Framingham and other such dodgy dossiers. Thus does bad science get laundered into dogma. “One of the great commandments of science is ‘Mistrust arguments from authority’,” said Carl Sagan.
Similarly, mistrust people who talk about “consensus” and quote fake statistics on how many scientists believe something.
[Update a while later]
Sorry, link is fixed now.
Bill Nye, Climate Guy
Yes, obviously the Texas flooding is caused by our SUVs:
For climate scientists like Brenda Ekwurzel of the Union of Concerned Scientists, the link to a warming planet was obvious.
“When you have a warmer atmosphere, then you have the capability to hold more water vapor,” Ekwurzel explained. “When storms organize, there’s much more water you can wring out of the atmosphere compared to the past.”
So I guess that would explain all the recent flooding in California, too.
Oh, wait.
The Case Against Science
“Much of it, perhaps half, is untrue.”
The incentives are quite screwed up.
John Nash
He and his wife were killed in an auto accident. A tragic end to a tragic life, but one lived as well as possible.
A Question About Evolution
No, not the scientific theory, the email client.
It’s sending mail, but none of the sent mail for today is showing up in the “Sent” folder. Anyone know what’s going on, or how to trouble shoot?
[Saturday-afternoon update]
OK, mystery solved. The “Sent” folder I’ve been looking at is the one that mirrors the server, and I’m seeing older message there from this week that I was sending from the server, via Roundcube, because I was on my laptop on which I’ve not set up or synched Evolution. The new ones were sent from Evolution, and were stored in the generic “Sent” folder. So I haven’t lost them, but they’re in a different place.
Human-Caused Climate Change
Did it cause the war in Syria?
This is so stupid to me, that the question isn’t even worth asking.
Jeb Bush On Climate
I’m don’t want him to be the nominee, but I agree with what he said. Judith Curry has unearthed an essay from over a century ago that explains the current problem with climate science.