Author Archives: alan

There is a pattern that often happens when people feel the need to change the behaviour of others, where for some reason those who want the change seem to see it as in some sense punitive and so actually make … Continue reading →

The subheading of this article claims that “Despite advances in molecular genetics, too many biologists think that natural selection is driven by random mutations”. Several examples in the article show how the random changes which natural selection acts upon do … Continue reading →

This  story reminded me of the fact that I have often been puzzled by premature references to the anthropocene as an epoch rather than an event. Source: Opinion | The ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ movie craze tells a dark story – … Continue reading →

It’s nice to know that Stephen Harper thinks of himself as a collaborator with Viktor Orban in the re-branding process: Nazi=National Socialist<=National Conservative<=”right-wing, conservative”<=”centre-right parties” On the other hand, I might be being unfair “Perhaps Harper was there to try … Continue reading →

It’s perfectly reasonable to prohibit the copying and embedding of content in a way that bypasses the revenue generation mechanisms that have been implemented by the owners of that content. But if you demand that the aggregators pay just for … Continue reading →

The existence of this article is proof that Emil Cioran (and perhaps to an even greater extent, Beckett) was in the end an abject failure in his goal of avoiding any hint of success. Source: Learning to be a loser: a … Continue reading →

For this story about Covid-Relief Money for US Colleges, the illustration shows a Canadian high school

I wrote earlier about how I found Jonathan Haidt’s claim “a bit offensive”, but the more I think about this the more irritating and offensive I find it. I just don’t buy the claim that ” Conservatives appear to endorse … Continue reading →

The role reversal in the ‘Roman Charity‘ story reminds me to some extent of that in Robert Munch’s delightful little tear jerker Love You Forever. The daughter’s adoption of a maternal role is especially apparent in representations like these two: Others … Continue reading →

There has been a lot of noise lately about alleged Chinese “interference” in recent Canadian elections, but the suggestion that anything has somehow compromised the actual vote counts is just a load of crap. Of course any kind of covert … Continue reading →

So… For any who have been wondering about the lack of posts recently, here’s a partial(*) explanation for the most recent gap. Back in the waning years of the last century, I became interested in the potential for web-based “applets” … Continue reading →

Not exactly in accord with Loyola, but consistent with the theories behind many educational movements – from “public” schools through Boy Scouts to Hitler Youth, Red Guards, and street gangs (and perhaps why the current fights over school curricula are … Continue reading →

Source: How to think about truth | Psyche Guides I am surprised to see it claimed that truth is a more basic concept than falsehood. In fact, it seems to me that the naive mind initially accepts any proposition at … Continue reading →

Source: On the advantages of believing that nothing is true | Aeon Essays The claim that “nothing is true” only makes sense if one has a well defined concept of what it means for something to be “true”. What makes … Continue reading →

I didn’t attend this seminar, but if I had I would have asked why the proposed system uses kiosks rather than service to arbitrary addresses within the safely drivable region. Restricting the routes to specific streets on which low speeds … Continue reading →

The most egregious failure of WHO is not that they took two years to say COVID is airborne, but that they made and then failed to quickly withdraw an announcement that it is NOT airborne! Misinformation is always, to me, … Continue reading →

They say “We need your feedback to understand how we can improve your experience on our website” Well here’s my response: The site sometimes allows BCid verification as an option and sometimes not. And when I try to use by … Continue reading →

It should be no surprise to either of my readers that I would be inclined to supplement these nine steps to net zero with a tenth – namely to explore the increased use of plastics as building materials. See also … Continue reading →

Something that really troubled me at the great BC climate marches of the last decade was the presence of a large and loud anti-site-C brigade. Source: The BC Government Tapes: Climate, Energy and Site C | The Tyee