Philosophy of Science October 26, 2009

If you want a great twenty-minute introduction to this field, here’s the best one I’ve encountered:
I took a class on philosophy of science several years ago, and really enjoyed it. I think we actually discussed Deutsch’s variational theory of science in class, but unfortunately I’ve misplaced my notes and only remember that this stuff seems [...]

Climate Policy Lecture 4 October 11, 2009

This week’s lecture was delivered by an atmospheric scientist who specialized in the study of convective vortices (hurricanes, tornadoes, supercell thunderstorms, etc). He was obviously an expert in this field, but unfortunately, he seemed not to have thought very deeply about broader issues of climate science, and particularly climate policy. He breezed (ha) quickly through [...]

Education Reform, Cont’d October 6, 2009

I don’t know much about Secretary of Education Arne Duncan except that he’s from Chicago, he has a reputation as an effective superintendent of schools there and a good guy, and he plays basketball. I watched yesterday’s interview with him on the Colbert Report, and I didn’t learn much more about him than that. So [...]

Climate Policy Lectures 1-3 October 4, 2009

Three weeks ago, I started attending a weekly lecture series on climate policy. Since all of the speakers have been very informative, and because I form strong opinions easily, I have a lot to say about each of the talks so far. For some reason, it didn’t occur to me until today that I can [...]

More NPR Listening September 30, 2009

Here are two more NPR shows worth a listen.
The first is last week’s episode of the Diane Rehm Show on natural gas. It starts off with twenty minutes of interviews with a natural gas executive and two sympathetic experts, congratulating each other on the amazing progress and future prospects of natural gas as a [...]

Go tell that to the Indians August 14, 2009

I was planning on letting this sudden outbreak of national health care madness pass by without commenting, but now I have given in to the temptation to say something. I want to highlight a point that might be obvious to most people, but it wasn’t obvious to me for a while and I don’t hear [...]

64 Years Ago Today August 6, 2009

“They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they experience war any more.” – Isaiah 2:4

Some Comments on Government, Followed by Another Dialogue August 4, 2009

Congress is taking a recess for the month of August without yet having passed either health-care reform or legislation to address climate change. It’s still possible that one or both of these issues will be resolved this autumn in some way, but lots of progressives are getting frustrated. Matt Taibbi is always frustrated, but last [...]

Traffic Flow July 31, 2009

For the last month or so I’ve been wondering about traffic flow, or specifically, the question of how to maximize its efficiency.  I’ve been trying to decide between two models, which I will dub the American model and the Chinese model. In the American model there are a bunch of rules that are broadly obeyed, [...]

10000 Hours July 25, 2009

It’s an old rule of thumb that it takes 10000 hours of work to master a discipline. This sounds about right to me. A medical student takes four years to graduate, and can probably expect to work about 50-60 hours a week to reach their 10000 hours. A PhD student might take six years and [...]