I wish that more people could be this honest.

(And yes, before you email or comment, I am aware that The Onion is satire, thanks.)

Yesterday was kind of depressing, from an electoral standpoint, particularly in California, but there was one bright spot, for those who value science education.

And not just for Barbie. This article says that math problems are getting too big for our brains.

Well, that’s one of the thing that transhumanism is for. This part bothers me, though:

Math has been the only sure form of knowledge since the ancient Greeks, 2,500 years ago.

You can’t prove the sun will rise tomorrow, but you can prove two plus two equals four, always and everywhere.

This begs the definition of the words “knowledge” and “prove.” Two plus two can be proven, I suppose (inductively from one plus one equals two), but only within the confines of the mathematics that you’re using. It’s not “sure” or “knowledge” in any absolute sense.

What they really mean is that some of the tougher mathematical problems are not amenable to classic deductive analytical proofs, but are more reliant on brute-force computations, possible now because we have machines that can perform them in a useful amount of time.

Michael Crichton testified before the Senate last week on the politicization of scientific research.

Michael Crichton testified before the Senate last week on the politicization of scientific research.

Michael Crichton testified before the Senate last week on the politicization of scientific research.

Carl Zimmer has an interesting analogy for those who still don’t understand evolution, and instead prefer to jump from “gap” to “gap.”

An article in this week’s Economist says that hurricanes are getting worse. It doesn’t offer any particular support for the theory that this is a result of global warming, though. And the sample that it shows is only over the last third of a century, so it’s entirely possible (and even likely, if one goes back further for data) that this is a periodic phenomenon, not a secular one. We’re simply heading into a near-term period of increased activity. It’s not a propitious time to own real estate near the Florida coast (as we do).

Apparently, one loses one’s verbal inhibitions as one ages.

If this isn’t valid research, it oughtta be.

Jake Gyllenhaal says that “…every man goes through a period of thinking they’re attracted to another guy.”

That’s the problem with the homosexuality debate. Everyone takes their own sensibilities and projects them onto everyone else. For the record, I’ve never “gone through a period of thinking that I was attracted to another guy,” so here’s where Mr. Gyllenhaal’s theory falls to the ground. Much of the debate over the innateness of sexual attraction occurs among people who are to some degree bisexual (which is why so many think it’s a “choice,” since for them it is, and so they assume it is for everyone). But for me, and pure homosexuals, it is clearly not.