The latest, from The Economist.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
In Case You Weren’t Depressed About A Gingrich Candidacy
Read this, and this. It will cure what ails ya.
[Update a few minutes later]
On the other hand, there’s this: the return of Newt Skywalker.
The Failures Of Durban
Dennis Wingo has an essay over at Andrewthony Watt’s place on the flawed assumptions of the warm mongers.
Our Iowahawk Party Last Night
Looks like Amy Alkon had a good time. More at the Hawk’s Twitter feed. And yes, you bet your sweet bippie we’re counting the silverware.
Alec Baldwin
Tech moron. No, I am not surprised.
As a frequent American flyer I, like Josh Trevino, look forward with great anticipation to guaranteed Alec-Baldwin-free travel.
Biases Of Risk And Reward
An interesting article on human psychology. I may think about how this plays into issues of human spaceflight safety, for both professional and recreational space travelers, for a couple papers I’m working on.
[Via Geek Press]
What Really Happened To Air France 447?
It was pilot error. As the article notes, humans will always be fallible (it’s one of the defining characteristics) and you can never build a guaranteed safe system. There are probably lessons to be learned here for the design of space transports as well. But I don’t think that “automated systems will be safer” is one of them.
What Doesn’t Kill Christopher Hitchens
…doesn’t make him stronger. A mordant and sobering essay on his cancer treatment, and mortality. It remains tragic that we can’t do better than this in the second decade of the third millennium.
Righting An Old Tragic Wrong
As his hundredth birthday approaches, there is growing demand for a pardon for Alan Turing. His treatment really was barbarous.
Poisoning Cancer Cells
…with sugar:
The approach could ultimately spell doom for several types of cancer, including liver, lung, breast and blood. In mice, the treatment made aggressive human prostate cancer tumours virtually disappear within days.
Faster, please.