Author Archives: alan

It’s a shame when those who claim to be “Fact Checking” resort to willful misinterpretations, distortions, and exaggerations of their own. For example this Fact Checker from The Washington Post starts with “We’re the cleanest economy in the entire world.” — Vance (False, … Continue reading →

People often ask questions like “Why does a mirror reverse things horizontally but not vertically?” – which is odd because a mirror does not always “reverse things horizontally but not vertically”. For example if it is lying on the ground (or … Continue reading →

I don’t actually think that the prospective nuclear standoff is any more dangerous than the first one. There are currently five nations with the capacity to build unmanned nuclear powered submarine launch platforms which could crawl undetectably to within just … Continue reading →

Both the citation of projected GDP increase as a justification for UBI and the use of carbon taxes to fund it strike me as wrongheaded. GDP is a poorly defined quantity with only a loose relationship to the more relevant … Continue reading →

The recently published results of the Altman-funded study on a limited trial of UBI by direct payment have been getting a lot of attention. My own take is similar to (but less polite than) that of Scott Santens (at https://www.scottsantens.com/did-sam-altman-basic-income-experiment-succeed-or-fail-ubi/?ref=scott-santens-newsletter). … Continue reading →

What is touted these days as AI (Artificial Intelligence) is not that at all. It’s actually AII (the Artificial Illusion of Intelligence) -something that is made painfully obvious by the ad being complained about in Shelly Palmer’s article below. Source: … Continue reading →

Roger Pielke Jr. has a long history of what some see as casting doubt on the need for prompt reduction of our CO2 emissions but which he categorizes just as exposing false and/or misleading claims (and sometimes even scientific malpractice) … Continue reading →

 In what way does Schrodinger’s cat experiment represent morality? Many people consider that an experiment which eventually kills half its subjects should not be performed on anything as cute as a ca Some suggest that it is not the experimental … Continue reading →

Much as I hate to admit it(*), and despite ongoing concerns about the possible risks even when gas extraction is not the objective, I have to agree that there is significant promise in the idea of using fracking technology to … Continue reading →

I side with those who feel they must agree with Elon Musk that Yann LeCun is full of shit when he claims that nothing that is not published counts as “science”. Among the respondents to a Quora answer that I … Continue reading →

Biden doesn’t need to drop out if Harris and her supporting team can be integrated into Biden’s core group in such a way that she can genuinely be seen as a co-leader ready to step in whenever Biden falters. (With … Continue reading →

This article seems to suggest that the author’s experience with academic philosophy has contributed nothing of value to his practice of doing philosophy in the real world. If so, I think it agrees with what the Harvard professor he quotes … Continue reading →

Robert Bryce likens his exposure of failure to make progress on the energy transition to the crowing of “Ball don’t lie!” by basketball player Rasheed Wallace when he sees failure of a free throw as justification of his claim to … Continue reading →

If I were looking for a way to convert excess nuclear power to a transportable fuel I think I’d look first at directly manufactured methane (via Sabatier process without going through the H2 intermediate step) since it is less prone … Continue reading →

Just testing

Objecting to the Israeli response is not the same as endorsing the horrors of Oct 7.  Mandana Rivka Dayani presents a fair response to supporters of Hamas, and especially of its action on Oct 7 2023. But most of the … Continue reading →

A Quora question asks: Why does it not make sense to say that 5 is a prime number and 8 is composite in this scenario: ‘There are 5 gallons of water in container A and 8 gallons of milk in … Continue reading →

Peter Rosenthal had a huge impact on my life. He taught mathematics not by showing us proofs, but by leading us through the process of discovering them for ourselves – and by doing that he led me to a rediscovered … Continue reading →

I think the Rolling Stones had a thing or two to say about this! Source: You can want things you don’t like and like things you don’t want | Psyche Ideas

Mo Husseini’s list of ‘50 Completely True Things‘ is an admirable attempt to bring some perspective (and humour?) to discussions of the current conflict in the Middle East. But leaving aside the question of whether 13th century Syria counts as … Continue reading →