Category Archives: Science And Society

Business, Economics, Education, Mathematics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Social Commentary, Technology and Society

The Climate Wars

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The (rare) voices of reason:

10. Can we put the polarization genie back in the bottle, on climate or anything else? I really don’t know. But I do wonder how those advocating further radicalization of climate advocacy imagine any of this ends.

11. Making ever more radical demands might be a fine strategy were there someone to negotiate with. But by the reckoning of most prominent climate hawks, there isn’t.

12. Nor does it appear that a more inclusive climate coalition is likely to bring larger congressional majorities. Any Democrat-only climate strategy has to be predicated on not only winning but holding purple/red districts over multiple elections.

13. These are precisely the districts that radicalized climate rhetoric alienates culturally and the green policy agenda punishes economically. Since the failure of cap and trade in 2010, climate activists have taken rhetoric to 11, and what it got them was Trump.

And it will continue to.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Space, Technology and Society

A To-Do List For Bridenstine

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Some advice from Scott Hubbard. But here is the problem:

…the new administrator must provide NASA and the rest of the world much more clarity on the brief statement issued by Vice President Pence and the newly revived Space Council that the United States will “lead the return of humans to the Moon.” Studies of the future of human space exploration have for decades emphasized that Mars is the target of greatest interest for reasons of science and exploration.1–4 The last initiative that attempted to include both human landings on the Moon and eventually Mars, the so-called Constellation program, collapsed from its own budgetary (over) weight.

Two points: First, the assumption that human spaceflight is about “science and exploration.” I’ve written about this error at length. Second is the notion that Constellation collapsed because it was attempting to do both the Mars and moon. It wasn’t seriously trying to do either. NASA wasn’t seriously trying to do either.

Law, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society

Climate Change

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It has (finally) run its course:

A good indicator of why climate change as an issue is over can be found early in the text of the Paris Agreement. The “nonbinding” pact declares that climate action must include concern for “gender equality, empowerment of women, and intergenerational equity” as well as “the importance for some of the concept of ‘climate justice.’ ” Another is Sarah Myhre’s address at the most recent meeting of the American Geophysical Union, in which she proclaimed that climate change cannot fully be addressed without also grappling with the misogyny and social injustice that have perpetuated the problem for decades.

The descent of climate change into the abyss of social-justice identity politics represents the last gasp of a cause that has lost its vitality. Climate alarm is like a car alarm—a blaring noise people are tuning out.

On the other hand, next month will be the sixth anniversary of the blog post that Michael Mann is suing me for. It’s been almost a year and a half since we requested an en banc rehearing of our appeal in the case to the DC court of appeals, with no response.

Business, Economics, Health, Philosophy, Science And Society, Technology and Society

Reversing Aging

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The latest, and it looks promising. Humans aren’t rodents, but no reason in principle we shouldn’t be able to do similar things.

[Tuesday-evening update]

Intermittent fasting seems to help. I’ve been doing this as part of my weekday routine for a while. I go all day without eating until dinner time, other than coffee in the morning, but it’s mostly out of convenience rather than for health reasons. I’m glad to hear it might be good for me.

[Bumped]

Business, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Space, Technology and Society, War Commentary

The Latest Safety Insanity

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OK, so I read this, and the steam that shot out of my ears took the fresh paint off the wall of the kitchen on both sides of the room:

His committee recommended that NASA and the other ISS partners should plan for ways to operate the station with a reduced crew if commercial crew vehicles aren’t ready to enter service by the fall of 2019.

“Given these schedule risks, we recommend the partnership pursue plans to protect for a minimum crew capability to ensure ISS viability during the flight development phase,” he said. “NASA’s biggest priority is maintaining the U.S. presence on the ISS in case the commercial crew launch dates slip.”

One option he mentioned at the meeting is “providing training to Russian crewmembers on the USOS critical systems.” That training, he said, would be provided to cosmonauts scheduled to fly to the station on Soyuz missions in September 2019 and March 2020.

So, let me get this straight: In order to avoid any risk of loss of crew (and there is no way to do that), we are going to not only make ourselves more dependent on the Russians, but further reduce, if not eliminate any actual utility we’re going to get out of a facility in which we’ve invested over a hundred billion dollars and, as a bonus, put that facility at risk.

All because “safety is the highest priority.”

This is insane.

Business, Health, Law, Media Criticism, Philosophy, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Social Commentary, Technology and Society

Rejuvenation

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This seems like a very promising approach. First dogs, then use the revenue to do clinical trials on humans. I’m holding up pretty well for my age, but I’d really like to set the clock back.

[Update a few minutes later, after reading]

I’d note that one of the “diseases of aging” listed is diabetes. I think it’s pretty clear at this point that this is mostly a problem of poor diet, based on decades of criminally terrible nutrition recommendations, and can largely be reversed by simply going keto. In fact, they’ve found that it can even be an effective treatment for Type 1 (and it was, prior to the development of insulin).

[Thursday-morning update]

New at Analog: Can we reverse aging?

[Via Gary Hudson]

[Bumped]