…may have terrible consequences.
Yes, yes it may.
Bidenomics
It was always insane to imagine that you could print money to pay people to be unproductive and not end up with inflation.
Lunar Exploration And Enduring National Interest
A long but interesting discussion with Scott Pace on space policy.
The Remaking Of America
A depressing litany of how far we’ve fallen in this century.
Your Daily Cuteness
American Journalism
Room-Temperature Superconductors
Plus, more thoughts on actual science from Megan McArdle.
[Afternoon update]
Varda has already replicated the result (presumably in El Segundo). I should go pay them a visit.
[Sunday-afternoon update]
The latest on the story from Ken Chang.
[Bumped]
The Atomic Bombs
Did they prevent Stalin from conquering all of Europe after the defeat of Nazi Germany?
Industrial Revolution
Why didn’t the Romans have one?
Before I read it, the first thing I thought was this: “How are engineers to do experiments and calculations without any concept of the experimental method, and without anything close to the mathematical tools that are available today to any fifth-grader?”
As he notes, they didn’t have Arabic numerals, they didn’t have zero, they didn’t have negative numbers, or complex numbers. They had no higher math, and no way to get to it with their numbering system. One of the foundations of the industrial revolution was the invention of calculus, and understanding of physics, including thermodynamics. That was all happening in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The other thing that was happening was the invention of capitalism in the coffee houses of London and Amsterdam (which wouldn’t have happened had coffee not become a thing in the wake of opening the New World). It’s not clear how, even had Rome not fallen, how they would have ever had those foundations.
[Update a while later]
Link is fixed now, sorry.
Bumper Bowling Into Adulthood
The problem is that the bumpers are keeping them from becoming adults, and sadly, many people (like those who demanded that “children” stay on their parents health plans until age twenty six) don’t want them to.