While I normally write about politics, I sometimes write on education. Today I would like to point out a great series of Youtube videos that are very funny and educational (even if I’m generally knowledgeable in the subjects). Crash Course is hosted by the vlogbrothers, John and Hank Green, and puts subjects like World and …
Category Archive: Science
Jun 20 2012
On Oversimplification
I have for some time found a common human behaviour very disturbing. Michael Shermer describes it in his book The Believing Brain: Dr. Shermer also provides the neuroscience behind our beliefs. The brain is a belief engine. From sensory data flowing in through the senses the brain naturally begins to look for and find …
May 25 2012
On Plastic Bag Restrictions
Recently, the City of Los Angeles decided to ban the use of plastic grocery bags, ostensibly for the purposes of reducing litter and being good for the environment. Jay Beeber over at Reason.com explained clearly this week why it is a pointless regulation, other than to make some leftist enviromentalists feel better: There’s a crisis …
May 23 2012
On the West and the Rest
Last night, I viewed Part 1 of the new documentary from Niall Ferguson on PBS, titled “Civilization: The West and the Rest“. I have previously enjoyed books by Ferguson, so I was looking forward to this documentary. Before I provide my opinion on the program, I will given you a brief overview of his thesis. …
May 12 2012
On CO2 Emissions in the Oil Sands
In today’s National Post, John Ivison and Andrew Coyne provide an interesting dichotomy about the debta surrounding climate change, the oil sands, CO2 emissions and the politics of perception. Ivison starts by stating that Ottawa (i.e. the government of Canada) must act to reign in oil sands emissions, or else the critics will be proven correct …
Oct 24 2011
R.I.P. John McCarthy
Yesterday, John McCarthy, one of the fathers of modern computer programming passed away. John McCarthy may not have received as much notoriety among tech people as Steve Jobs did, but he was perhaps more influential. McCarthy developed LISP in 1959, based on Alonzo Church’s lambda calculus, for use in artificial intelligence research. My contact with …
Sep 29 2011
Spend the $5 Billion to mitigate Climate Change
Today, there was much in the news about the report by the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy, which says that the effects of global warming could cost Canada $5 Billion dollars a year by 2020. If you read my post of January 2010, this would be a great deal! We should embrace …
Jun 16 2011
Little Ice Age, redux?
At the American Astronomical Society (AAS) conference this week, three papers lead to the conclusions that Solar Cycle 24 is very weak and that Solar Cycle 25 may not really happen at all. This is bad news for our climate. The problem with a “quiet” sun, lacking sunspots, is that when it has happened before …
Jun 16 2011
IPCC fiction, again
Steve McIntyre has again identified that the UN IPCC is making things up, and publishing them as “facts” when there is no supporting evidence whatsoever. Further, he points out that this claim: Close to 80 percent of the world‘s energy supply could be met by renewables by mid-century if backed by the right enabling public …
Jun 07 2011
On Computer Simulations and Reality
Today, I was directed to a very good article, But It Worked in the Computer Model, on why complex computer models, of any subject, will usually contain errors and not provide a good analogue to reality without a lot of real world experimentation. It also explains, tangentially, why many students coming out of universities with …