Category Archives: technical issues

Why do people say race isn’t real? 

Posted on 2024-01-04 by alan

People who say “race isn’t real” do so because they are so unbelievably lazy that they are prepared to just spout a manifestly silly slogan rather than do the work of explaining what racists get wrong. They do this even … Continue reading →

Posted in biology, social issues | Tagged | Leave a comment

Energy, the Environment, and What We Can Do

Posted on 2012-04-09 by alan

John Baez gave a Google Tech Talk on the issue. The slides include links to more detailed arguments and his home page also links to the Azimuth Project wiki is collecting information and ideas from a larger group of participants.

Posted in sustainability | Leave a comment

Now We are Seven Billion! La, La, La

Posted on 2011-10-31 by alan

Despite the evident threat to the well being of our descendants some idiots keep asserting that the “Population bomb theory is a myth“. What complete nonsense! For one thing China’s “economic miracle” comes after 30 years of having a one … Continue reading →

Posted in climate, economics, social issues | Leave a comment

Selfish Blogger Syndrome

Posted on 2011-10-27 by alan

The Selfish Blogger. Well that could certainly be me! So I’ll stick to form and post my thoughts here rather than in Tony Bates‘s comment stream. I have not been following #Change11 except through the blogs of people I found … Continue reading →

Posted in education, social issues, web | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

No Liability for Linking

Posted on 2011-10-19 by alan

Michael Geist – Supreme Court of Canada Stands Up for the Internet: No Liability for Linking. Well, duh! In one sense it’s amazing how this could ever have been an issue, but on the other hand publishing a link/reference to something … Continue reading →

Posted in law, web | Leave a comment

Sustainable Energy Choices

Posted on 2011-06-29 by alan

Barry Brooks at ‘BraveNewClimate’ has made a brave effort at summing up the need for nuclear power as part of the CO2-free mix in a brief video, but parts of it still felt to me like “industry propaganda” – to the … Continue reading →

Posted in climate, sustainability | Tagged | Leave a comment

Twisted Language in Physics

Posted on 2011-06-22 by alan

From the discussion in Quantum Diaries, it seems that helicity is a property of motion and chirality a property of shape (where, in the case of an elementary particle, this might be represented by something like the shape of a level … Continue reading →

Posted in physics | Leave a comment

Creationism at the Royal Society

Posted on 2011-04-09 by alan

This would be old news but for the fact that the Royal Society’s president at the time was Martin Rees – who might now be seen by some as finally getting his reward for letting it happen.  On the other … Continue reading →

Posted in religion, science | Tagged | Leave a comment

Retail Internet Pricing – Without Slogans

Posted on 2011-04-07 by alan

All sides in the debate on “Usage Based Billing” are off base. The issue is quite complicated and not helped by the use of simplistic slogans which often either ask for the impossible or run counter to the interests of … Continue reading →

Posted in canada, web | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Legitimate Concerns and Overstated Rhetoric

Posted on 2011-04-02 by alan

Colin Macilwain has unfortunately marred a reasonably sensible article in Nature News by adding unsupported inflammatory rhetoric in the opening and closing paragraphs. In between these he refers approvingly to a much better article by Charles Ferguson which appeared a week earlier, and makes … Continue reading →

Posted in engineering, social issues | Tagged , | Leave a comment

UBB – How Should Cost and Price be Linked?

Posted on 2011-03-29 by alan

Michael Geist is concerned because internet service providers do not match price of service at all levels to its actual cost. But when a commodity is in short supply, selling at the cost price will lead to shortages. (In the … Continue reading →

Posted in canada, web | Tagged | Leave a comment

Anti-Nuclear Inflation

Posted on 2011-03-26 by alan

I was disappointed to see Geoff Olson’s citation  of a totally bogus figure for the number of deaths due to Chernobyl in his anti-nuclear panic piece in the Vancouver Courier on Friday. The particular figure, which he quoted fourth hand … Continue reading →

Posted in politics, technology | Tagged , | 1 Comment

And They have the guns!

Posted on 2011-03-25 by alan

From Discover Magazine:

Posted in canada, evolution, usa | Leave a comment

Moral Realism

Posted on 2011-03-24 by alan

Sean Carroll has taken issue with Richard Carrier over the latter’s position on Moral Realism. On reading Carrier  I think that his real point is (or should be) that realism and relativism are not in conflict. Moral values, like the economic … Continue reading →

Posted in psychology | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Don’t Stop Darlington

Posted on 2011-03-22 by alan

Here is my (slightly edited) version of the Greenpeace Letter. Dear Premier McGuinty: I’m writing to support your plan to maintain the nuclear option by continuing with the development of new  reactors at Darlington and to encourage you not to be … Continue reading →

Posted in canada, technical issues | Tagged | 1 Comment

no analytics, :-)   ;   no conversation, :-(

Posted on 2011-03-09 by alan

The blog blog analytics issue means little to me as I am here mainly to clarify my own thoughts rather than to find an audience, but D’Arcy Norman’s comment that “distributed blog conversation has basically vanished” disappoints me (especially in the … Continue reading →

Posted in social issues, web | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Flex in a Week video training | Adobe Developer Connection

Posted on 2011-02-28 by alan

I was using Flash back at the end of the second millennium when it was still called ‘FutureSplash’ (and was identified by the visionaries at CodeMonkey as a “Plugin that Sucks”). Now it is often buggy and crash-prone and Apple … Continue reading →

Posted in web | Tagged | Leave a comment

Algorithmic Babies and the Chinese Room

Posted on 2011-02-24 by alan

I commented at Stephen Downes’ website on Patricia Kuhl’s TED talk about “The Linguistic Genius of Babies”. My quibble was less with the content than with the sentimentalized headline, because, although the babies’ brains do appear to implement a sophisticated … Continue reading →

Posted in biology, neuroscience | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Defining Evolution

Posted on 2011-02-21 by alan

When I read the title of this piece (Theologians Lobby Successfully to Change Definition of Evolution | Cosmic Variance | Discover Magazine)I was prepared to get angry. But instead I am embarrassed on behalf of those who are complaining about … Continue reading →

Posted in evolution, religion | Leave a comment

“The Belief Instinct”

Posted on 2011-02-21 by alan

Jesse Bering’s “The Belief Instinct” is described as an exploration of possible sources of religion in cognitive tendencies towards a sense of being observed even when we have no evidence for it. To support this idea he reportedly both cites … Continue reading →

Posted in evolution, psychology, religion | Leave a comment