“… On Some Dark and Lonely Nights, You Can Still Hear the Howling of the Libertarians”
Cracked on the Kowloon Walled City:
Then, in 1948, the British went to clear the area, but failed so spectacularly that everybody, both English and Chinese alike, issued an official decree of "Screw that place." They agreed to let Kowloon be, but cut it off from all government services, which in communist China was pretty much everything: police, water, electricity, road maintenance, postal services and so on.
They basically Thunderdomed a whole city, and then just walked away.
And to everybody's mutual surprise, Kowloon absolutely thrived on the anarchy.
A counterexample to the theory that civilization requires government.
Does This Mean the Global Warming Crisis Is Over?
According to Energy Self-Reliant States, solar energy will become cheaper than conventional energy in most of the U.S. over the next decade or two. Does this mean, the potential danger from AGW will soon be over?
In particular, does this mean we can ignore Naomi Klein?
Or will this be another case of bait and switch? Will we be told that we don't need nuclear etc. because of cheap solar and then be told that we need to “rethink” capitalism when solar isn't enough?
A Brief Note on the War on Christmas
There might be a War on Christmas but the anti-Christmas side isn't even close to winning. It looks like the pro-Christmas side has mistaken the propaganda (“WE ARE THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE” and similar bulshytt) of the anti-Christmas side for reality.
Rating the Ten Plotlines
Io9 has a list of Ten plotlines you'll find in science fiction - over and over again:
- Robots
- Interstellar Travel
- Time Travel
- Superpowers
- Bodily Transformation
- Parallel Universe
- Alien Invasion
- Immortality
- The Post-Apocalyptic World
- Godlike Aliens
I would rate the likelihood of the ten tropes (from most likely to least likely) as follows:
- Robots
- Bodily Transformation
- Immortality
- Interstellar Travel
- The Post-Apocalyptic World
- Godlike Aliens
- Alien Invasion
- Superpowers
- Parallel Universe
- Time Travel
Parts of the above ordering are trivially obvious. For example, bodily transformation must be more likely than immortality or superpowers because either immortality or superpowers imply bodily transformation. Immortality is almost certainly more likely than interstellar travel because it will probably take longer than a current human lifespan to get from star to star. (This might not apply if it's ETs doing the traveling.) Alien invasion is less likely than interstellar travel, a post-apocalyptic world, or godlike aliens because aliens will need to be godlike to invade at the end of that long a supply line, because anything resembling a successful alien invasion will produce a post-apocalyptic world, and because aliens will need interstellar travel to get here.
Red Carpet Wanted
If the current trend toward anti-Christian lynch mobs in Islamic countries continues, we have the opportunity to get a wave of immigrants who know the Middle East from the inside and loathe the nuttier brands of Islam.
We are missing the opportunity, owing to the fact that immigration controls backed by alleged right-wingers have given the leftists currently in charge the ability to keep potential allies out.
As I have said before, we must remember the most useful question to ask when considering a proposed government activity: Would I trust my worst enemy with the power? We trusted governments with the power to keep people out and right now they're abusing it.
Addendum: This makes more sense than the cartoonist realized.
Will Desalinization Make the Sea Saltier?
According to at least one environmentalist:
Rivers are overdiverted, causing water shortages downstream. Aquifers are being overtapped. Where is the water to come from so as to safeguard the environment. If you say, "the ocean with desalination plants" that is NOT an answer either - not in the long run. Billions and billions of people...that is a lot of water to take from the ocean with the concomittent pile-up of vast salt extracts. What do you do with that? You cannpt add it back to the oceans because at this scale you begin to increase the salinity of the ocean which would devestate the life within it.
What do you think happens to the water you drink? Does it slosh around inside your body? If it doesn't come out, you will explode. Every last ounce of that water will eventually exit and make its way back to the ocean, where it will dilute all that nasty salt.
The same phenomena will occur with water used in irrigation, bathing, or anything else.
This Explains Mr. Creosote
According to the very latest research (i.e., stuff that will be reversed next year):
The sugar in sweet foods stimulates a reflex that expands your stomach, writes senior researcher Arnold Berstad and assistant doctor Jørgen Valeur from Lovisenberg Diakonale Hospital in the latest issue of The Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association.
And finally, a wafer thin mint…
And furthermore: This also explains why there's always room for Jell-O.
To Newt Gingrich
If you sound too much like the archetypal Democrat, Andrew Jackson, you're doing something wrong.
A Brief Note on “Miniver Cheevy”
“Miniver Cheevy” by Edwin Arlington Robinson starts:
Miniver Cheevy, child of scorn,
Grew lean while he assailed the seasons;
He wept that he was ever born,
And he had reasons.
Today, of course, he would be an anti-natalist.
Indbur II
Kim Jong-il has achieved room temperature. It remains to be seen whether he will leave a much-needed gap in world politics.
Financial Regulation via Chronophone
A few years ago, Eliezer Yudkowsky speculated about the effects of a chronophone:
Archimedes of Syracuse was the greatest mathematician and engineer of the ancient world. Imagine that Archimedes invented a temporal telephone ("chronophone" for short) which lets him talk to you, here in the 21st century. You can make suggestions! For purposes of the thought experiment, ignore the morality of altering history - just assume that it is proper to optimize post-Archimedean history as though it were simply the ordinary future. If so, it would seem that you are in a position to accomplish a great deal of good.
Unfortunately, Archimedes's chronophone comes with certain restrictions upon its use: It cannot transmit information that is, in a certain sense, "too anachronistic".
You cannot suggest, for example, that women should have the vote. Maybe you could persuade Archimedes of Syracuse of the issue, and maybe not; but it is a moot point, the chronophone will not transmit the advice. Or rather, it will transmit the advice, but it will come out as: "Install a tyrant of great personal virtue, such as Hiero II, under whose rule Syracuse experienced fifty years of peace and prosperity." That's how the chronophone avoids transmitting overly anachronistic information - it transmits cognitive strategies rather than words. If you follow the policy of "Check my brain's memory to see what my contemporary culture recommends as a wise form of political organization", what comes out of the chronophone is the result of Archimedes following the same policy of looking up in his brain what his era lauds as a wise form of political organization.
If we sent advice to increase financial regulation to politicians of a mere decade ago via this chronophone, what would it come out as? If we said “Make sure financial institutions only invest in the soundest securities,” it might come out as “Only invest in top-rated mortgage securities and European sovereign debt.” After all, the major worries of most of the naughties were that foreigners would compete with Americans and that a combination of wars and tax cuts would drive America bankrupt. (Clearly, we should only invest in industries that were immune to imports and off-shoring and only invest in sovereign debt from peaceful countries unafraid of taxes.)
A Brief Note on Net Neutrality
If net neutrality laws are passed, they will be written by the same people responsible for SOPA.
More Brains!
Studying to be a London taxi driver can increase the brain size of at least 39 people.
A few years ago, I would have taken a small study like this more seriously. Now it is, at best, an indication that a real study might be worthwhile.
Amazing News
Robin Hanson has admitted to being human.
As is often the case, a Robin Hanson post reminded me of R. A. Lafferty's SF. This time it wasn't the post, it was the anti-natalist commenters. There are Ouden worshipers out there.
“…and may holy Ouden reign for never and never.”
As for whether we should pay attention, if medical research stagnates the anti-natalists will disappear. On the other hand, if cryonics actually pays off we might have them to kick around forever. At first, they will be outvoted in elections and outbid in decision markets. Later they will be ignored completely as they become an infinitesimal fraction of the population. They won’t, however, disappear. Nonexistence is always for others.
As for whether we should pay attention to their argument … there is no argument. They appear to be basing their theories on the claim that causing pain is always wrong. I disagree with that premise and there is no rational way to establish it. In related news, I put chili powder and horseradish on my lunch and I have a dentist appointment on Wednesday.
Not Every Atheist Is a Darwinist
The subtitle of The Prime Directive is “Do not impose harm. Atheism – Anarchism – Antinatalism”. (The brand of anarchism is question is that which regards property rights as imposed by governments, earlier criticized here.)
In the other direction, not every Darwinist is an atheist.
Are Intellectuals More Arrogant Than Non-Intellectuals?
According to Arnold Kling:
Cognitive psychologist Daniel Kahneman's new book, Thinking Fast and Slow, is a capstone to a distinguished career spent documenting the systematic flaws in human reasoning. He finds it useful to describe us as having two systems for thinking.
System One, as he calls it, is quick, intuitive, and decisive. It may be described as often wrong but never in doubt. System One is always active and plays a role in every decision that we make because it operates rapidly and unconsciously.
System Two is deliberative and logical. In principle, System Two can detect and correct the errors of System One. However, System Two has limited capacity, and often we do not invoke it before arriving at a conclusion. Even worse, we may deploy System Two to rationalize the conclusions of System One, rather than to question those conclusions and suggest appropriate changes.
Intellectuals are supposed to use System Two. Now let's look at who's arrogant:
Suppose you were to ask yourself how well you understand the world around you. How accurate is your map of reality?
If you interrogate System Two, it might reply, “There are many phenomena about which I know little. In the grand scheme of things, I am just blindly groping through a world that is far too complex for me to possibly understand.”
However, if you were to interrogate System One, it might reply, “My map is terrific. Why, I am very nearly omniscient!”
System One is the more arrogant system here.
On the other hand, intellectuals don't always use System Two. I first noticed this in the course of SDI debates, in which scientists criticizing SDI would almost always say “I say this as a human being, not as a scientist.” I suspect that intellectuals make the least sense when they try using System One and fail.
In other words, I don't think intellectuals should stop trying to be smart. When they stop trying to be smart, they managed to sound even sillier than when they were using System Two.
Seen on a Bumper Sticker
PROUD TO BE AN EARTHLING
I disagree. That bumper sticker is UNFAIR TO MARTIANS!
How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You When You Know I've Been a Liar All My Life?
According to the latest research, sugar makes us sleepy and protein wakes us up. According to yesterday's theories, sugar was an energy food and protein contained sleep-inducing tryptophan. Apparently, today's research, based on indirect correlations in a complex field with lots of confounding factors, says that yesterday's similar research was bulshytt.
… and this time it's different.
Another Note on Marmite
I just realized that Marmite is, quite literally, the result of “scraping the bottom of the barrel.”
If This Is True, It Is Also False
According to The View from Hell:
The existence of an epistemic peer who holds a contrary belief is more devastating than any argument.
Since most people (and, presumably, most epistemic peers) disagree with this …
Similarly, if the second choice here is true, it is also false.
I Speak Nerd Fluently
Yes. The LOTR jokes are funny.
As for a sandwich containing Marmite, I've found that Marmite, mayonnaise, radicchio, and Edam cheese (and, of course, bread) go together. Marmite is also useful in perking up succotash (along with onions, garlic, chili powder, and horseradish).
Does This Count as Macroscopic?
Quantum entanglement has been found in objects big enough to see. Despite that, I don't think they count as macroscopic. 1016 carbon atoms is less than a Planck mass. Above a Planck mass, gravitational effects are greater than quantum effects. I think that means it's possible to tell where something is by its gravitational field. In other words, above a Planck mass, all objects are observed whether or not somebody is looking.
Are Atheists Trustworthy?
Robin Hanson recently discussed poll results that indicate many people distrust atheists. I saw the following quote in the resulting comment thread:
A growing body of social science research reveals that atheists, and non-religious people in general, are far from the unsavory beings many assume them to be. On basic questions of morality and human decency — issues such as governmental use of torture, the death penalty, punitive hitting of children, racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, environmental degradation or human rights — the irreligious tend to be more ethical than their religious peers, particularly compared with those who describe themselves as very religious.
In other words, we can trust atheists to adhere to atheist standards. (If you want to be really cynical, we can trust atheists to say they adhere to atheist standards.)
My stereotype of atheists, for what little is worth, isn't that they're “wild men.” (Maybe nothingists are “wild men.”) My stereotype of atheists is that they're self-congratulatory people patting themselves on the back for being more rational than anybody else.
Is It My Imagination?
Do the pro-“pickup artist” comments on right-wing blogs come mainly from anonymous commenters? (I was inspired by the comments here.)
If so, the rest of us should tell them that you're not a dominant male until you put your name (or at least a recognizable handle) to your posts.
Reading about Anarchist Peoples
While reading The Art of Not Being Governed by James C. Scott and thinking about the difficulties of states attempting to subdue anarchist peoples, I was reminded of the phrase “herding cats” … especially while reading about the Miaou people of southern China.
Two Quotes
From Eliezer Yudkowsky:
Creating a true child is the only moral and metaethical problem I know that is even harder than the shape of a Friendly AI.
From G. K. Chesterton:
If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.
The Chesterton quote makes the Yudkowsky quote look less wrong (a phrase that sounds familiar somehow).
Other Terms for “Illegal Aliens”
Mickey Kaus is asking for terms for “illegal aliens,” now that “undocumented immigrants” is becoming passé. I recommend “violators of a social contract in restraint of trade.” Since that's a bit of a mouthful, a shorter term might be “unwanted aliens” analogous to “unwanted children.”
Two Brief Notes on the Pepper-Spraying Cop
- The traditional method of handling riots isn't pepper spray; it's grape shot or worse:
Chinese journalist: “President Obama, how do you account for an American police officer using pepper spray on citizens?” Obama laughs: “Are you saying we should have used tanks?”
- For a few days before the pepper-spraying incident, there were numerous complaints (for example, here) about the destruction of a “people's library.” I don't recall hearing much about it since then. Did the library heal itself? Or were they looking for an excuse to complain and can only complain about one thing at a time. (The good news: The left wing cannot fight a two-front meme war.)
Indigent Marine Wildlife?
According to Compare Electricity Rates (seen via Greenie Watch):
In an effort to safeguard the sanctuary of indigent marine wildlife, the city of San Diego is set to enact laws that would ban birthday parties at local parks within the vicinity of said wildlife.
Poor fish.
Crickets?
According to Fark:
Conservatives: "The Occupy Protests are costing cities $13 million." OWS: "The bailouts cost the taxpayers $700 billion." Conservatives: *crickets*
Hel-lo! I ranted about the bailouts at the time. I have no reason to believe this is different from American conservatives in general.
A Possible Consequence of Polygamy
Fourth Checkraise is discussing the consequences of the legalization of polygamy:
On the other hand, one part of me mischievously wants polygamy to become legalized and widespread, since a society that has to effectively stomp down a quarter of its young males simply could not and thus would not be very liberal in most other aspects either, the realities of the zero-sum race undeniable to everyone who wants their children to have a good life.
One possible scenario: Parents who have some reason to believe their children won't be likely to get to the top of the heap might opt for only having daughters. (There might be a method of selecting sperm by then; I'd rather not recommend sex-selective abortion.) Since the poor outnumber the rich, there might be more women than men.
Right now, that seems unlikely; sex selection currently favors males. On the other hand, those parents willing to have daughters will be a disproportionate share of successful grandparents. We can expect sex selection to tilt in the other direction.
One way to look at this is that the resources devoted to raising boys and girls will be the same but divided among fewer boys.
The real problem will be signaling. People who aren't that talented but who try signaling talent anyway might insist on having sons.
Should the Police Spray Pepper at Demonstrators?
Why not horseradish or onions?
Celebrate diversity! Equal time for other spices!
There's No Official Evidence That Water Controls Dehydration
According to an EU regulation:
They applied for the right to state that “regular consumption of significant amounts of water can reduce the risk of development of dehydration” as well as preventing a decrease in performance.
However, last February, the European Food Standards Authority (EFSA) refused to approve the statement.
A meeting of 21 scientists in Parma, Italy, concluded that reduced water content in the body was a symptom of dehydration and not something that drinking water could subsequently control.
In a related story, a few years ago, an article in the British Medical Journal pointed out that:
As with many interventions intended to prevent ill health, the effectiveness of parachutes has not been subjected to rigorous evaluation by using randomised controlled trials.
I thought that was intended as a joke but now I'm not so sure.
Occupy Wall Street and a Marvin Minsky Quote
According to at least one OWS protester (around 4:40):
I'm more against private property rather than personal property.
According to Marvin Minsky:
No, no; your trouble is that you're confusing a thing with itself!
I was reminded somehow. The joke here may also be relevant.
The New York Stock Exchange Opened Today
Me to OWS: Nyaaaahhhh, nyaaaahhhh, nyaaaahhhh, nyaaaahhhh, phphphphtttt!!!!
Today's NYSE market volume: 1,024,669,206.
Yesterday's NYSE market volume: 918,719,737.
Debate Wanted
On the one hand, Amory Lovins, Joseph Romm, et al. assure us that we don’t need nuclear energy, that negawatts and solar will suffice and, on the other hand, Naomi Klein tells us that we must rethink capitalism instead.
Putting it together, they're claiming that solar, etc. beats nuclear fission and that totalitarianism beats solar … except that the claim that totalitarianism beats nuclear fission is obvious nonsense.
Tea Parties vs. OWS?
A warning from Bill Quick:
They foresee bands of black-masked Occupiers attacking and scattering any legally organized demonstrations the Tea Party may arrange for. The cops can't do it, but these new Obama Brown Shirts can, while the cops look the other way.
I doubt if that will succeed. They can turn out hordes of bodies but they have no ability at all to shoot deserters.
Please recall that the Other Side is full of bluffers. It was a bluff when they warned of a “long hot summer” full of urban riots if Reagan were elected. It was a bluff when they threatened to make the country ungovernable if Bush were re-elected. It was a bluff when they claimed the Israeli crackdown on Palestinians would intensify the terrorism.
Just in case they're not bluffing… One possible tactic is a combination of an international radiation symbol sticker, a recording of a Geiger counter, and watching the Other Side run away. Another possible tactic is using quarterstaffs.
Addendum: They don't sound that dangerous.
W. S. Gilbert on Sexual Harassment
From The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan:
Our great Mikado, virtuous man,
When he to rule our land began,
Resolved to try
A plan whereby
Young men might best be steadied.
So he decreed, in words succinct,
That all who flirted, leered or winked
(Unless connubially linked),
Should forthwith be beheaded …
The recent scandals of Herman Cain and Anthony Weiner reminded me of this somehow.
Paging Arkady Darrell
I'm sure Arkady Darrell (of Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov) could explain the problem with this tactic.
Panini Bread vs. Occupy Wall Street
According to The New York Post (seen via The Wall Street Journal):
She and her employees are terrified by the constant threats, which she said began after she demanded the protesters stop using her shop’s restroom as a place to bathe every day.
The final straw came about two weeks ago, when the demonstrators broke a bathroom sink, flooding the shop, and clogged the toilet -- setting her back $3,000 in damages.
Wait a moment… A month or two ago, I complained about a Federal regulation that prohibits off-label uses of toilet-bowl cleaners. If the OWS protesters are dirtying toilets, any use of a toilet-bowl cleaner to repel them would count as an on-label use and would thus be legal. So the next time they invade, the owner might take some bleach and toilet-bowl cleaner and strike back with a gas attack:
NaOCl (bleach) + 2 HCl (toilet-bowl cleaner) → NaCl + H2O + Cl2 (chlorine gas)
I disagree with The Wall Street Journal's headline
I disagree with The Wall Street Journal's headline:
This Is What Anarchy Looks Like
In an anarchy, potential victims would be much better armed.
Woody Allen on Occupy Wall Street
In days of yore, back when Woody Allen was still funny, he wrote an essay “A Brief Yet Helpful Guide to Civil Disobedience” that included:
Demonstration and Marches. The key point about a demonstration is that it must be seen. Hence the term "demonstration." If a person demonstrates privately in his own home, this is not technically a demonstration but merely "acting silly" or "behaving like an ass."
I'm reminded somehow.
Codex Seraphinianus
… is now online (seen via jwz (seen via TJIC's twitter)).
A question that must be asked: What drugs was Luigi Serafini on?
A Sociological Study That's Actually Needed
After reading about the latest nonsense from anti-vaccine parents, I wondered about the following questions:
- What drugs are they on?
- What drugs were they on in college?
- What universities did they attend?
- What did they major in?
- What companies do they work for?
- Did those companies need bail-outs?
The answers to the above questions might help us find out if there is higher-education bubble and, if there is one, where it's concentrated.
Addendum: They appear to be only high-school graduates. Maybe college is still worth something after all …
We're Standing on Zanzibar
Still no sign of eptification.
Karl Marx Compared His Followers to Occupy Wall Street
According to Karl Marx:
Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.
Groucho Marx on Occupy Wall Street
According to Groucho Marx:
Whatever it is, I'm against it!
Paying by Check …
… is not a right guaranteed by the Constitution. (I was reminded of that by the mouse-over text of this XKCD.)
This List of Nuclear Accidents Is Incomplete
A list of nuclear accidents somehow didn't include all the leaks in nuclear power plants that occur in restrooms.
The list in question has to be one of lamest excuses to suppress a technology I've ever seen. It includes the times a nuclear-power plant worker brought a porno magazine to work or accidentally shut down a reactor while cleaning the control room. It includes an “attack” on a nuclear-power plant by jellyfish and numerous instances of reactors being shut down by false alarms. A typical scenario can be summarized as “Some trivial problem occurred. The reactor shut down and was later restarted.” For example:
Nuclear Power's Dirty Little Secret
One June 17, 1970, an operator at the LaCrosse nuclear plant near Genoa, Wisconsin, used a dust cloth to clean the control room. The cloth snagged the identification tag attached to one of the key switches and moved it around to the OFF position. The repositioning of this single switch caused the reactor to automatically shut down.
To prevent this unfortunate event from happening again, the control room operators were instructed to use a feather duster when cleaning. [23]
The training program for operators consists of more than a year's worth of classroom instruction and simulator exercises. The proper techniques for feather-dusting are not covered during this otherwise comprehensive training.
Another scenario is that of becoming aware of a potential problem and fixing it:
Easy Doesn't Do It
In late May 1990, the Brunswick nuclear plant in North Carolina was shut down because the operators flunked their requalification exams. In early May, fourteen of 20 operators and three of four operating crews had failed the test. On May 19 20, all four crews and eight of 27 operators failed re-tests.
A spokesman for the plant attributed the failures to a change in the retraining program requested by the NRC. According to the spokesman: "The NRC exam is very difficult." [24]
Hopefully, nuclear power plants will only have easy accidents. Hard accidents can be so darned inconvenient.
Does that mean they fired Homer Simpson?
I Disagree with This Characterization of Washington, DC
According to Mike Church, Washington, DC is “Mordor on The Potomac River.”
The proper term is “Angband.”
Student-Loan Bankruptcy and the Signaling Model of Education
Matthew Yglesias points out:
But there’s something special about student loans. Two things, in fact. If you default on your mortgage, the bank gets to take your house. Same thing with an auto loan. And if you can’t pay your credit card bill, you can discharge the debt in bankruptcy. But the lender can’t repossess your degree, and the 2005 bankruptcy bill made it impossible to discharge the debt.
Wait a moment… Why can't a degree be repossessed? According to the signaling model of education (commonly found at EconLog and Overcoming Bias), college degrees are mainly an expensive way to signal a combination of intelligence and reliability. If someone defaults on a student loan, it makes sense for the degree to be revoked as his/her reliability is now in doubt.
In any case, prior to 1998 student loans were bankruptable. The very next year a long-dormant student protest movement came back from from the dead, filling a much-needed gap in political discourse. The non-bankruptable nature of student loans is a recent and regrettable innovation. It's not a traditional feature of capitalism.
My slogan for cutting off the oxygen supply of Occupy Wall Street: Forward to 1998!
Morton's Fork on “Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me”
A few minutes ago, I heard a classic example of Morton's Fork on the NPR news quiz “Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.” Approximate quote from memory:
A survey of our listeners showed that one fifth of you bought a lottery ticket in the past year. That means two things: One, four fifths of you are smart. You're not going to throw a dollar away on a bad bet. That means you must have money saved up you can donate to NPR. Two, one fifth of you are dreamers willing to take a wild chance. You should know there's a possibility NPR will pick a new radio host from its contributors and it could be you.
Warning: I was not taking notes and I'm too lazy to listen to it a second time, so I might have a detail or two wrong.
Who Is Responsible for Neutered and Lobotomized Chemistry Sets?
It's people who think like this.
Having It Both Ways
A few months ago, I said that some people claim that scarcity is inevitable and therefore capitalism is obsolete and that others claim that abundance is inevitable and therefore capitalism is obsolete. I have finally found someone who makes both claims.
Reinventing Conservatism?
According to one of the theorists reputed to be behind the recent Occupation of Wall Street:
The process is what scholars of anarchism call "direct action." For example, instead of petitioning the government to build a well, members of a community might simply build it themselves. It is an example of anarchism's philosophy, or what Mr. Graeber describes as "democracy without a government."
Wait a moment… Isn't doing something yourself instead of waiting for a government to do it also known as “capitalism”?
On the other hand, we also see:
Soon after the magazine Adbusters published an appeal to set up a "peaceful barricade" on Wall Street, Mr. Graeber spent six weeks in New York helping to plan the demonstrations before an initial march by protesters on September 17, which culminated in the occupation.
Does this mean they have no objection to a “peaceful barricade” around Zuccotti Park?
Bait and Switch
It looks like the Occupation of Wall Street is an example of bait and switch. They take a demonstration that is energized by people in a state of indentured servitude and use it to assert crackpot ideas.
By the way, the restrictions on development proposed will produce a poorer society where it's even harder to repay debts.
What If the Alps Didn't Exist?
Was the development of freedom in Western Civilization due to the Alps? Mountainous areas tend to have less government than lowlands but in most civilizations the mountains tend to be on the periphery, with the result that freer areas can be dismissed as populated by barbarians. (We have a little bit of this kind of reaction to the US and, within the US, to the western US.) In the case of the Alps, we have a mountain range in the middle of the civilization, which makes it harder to dismiss.
There was another effect of the Alps. In the fifteenth century, it looked like absolute monarchy would be the wave of the future. In the absence of the Alps, Francesco Sforza or Charles the Bold (or some other megalomaniac) would have been able to expand. In another century or two, Europe might have been wall-to-wall absolute monarchies.
There's another point: We can't expect history to work the same way on different planets. If we encounter extraterrestrials, they might model their reactions on their equivalent of Louis the XIVth.
If Student Loans Are Non-Bankruptable
If student loans are non-bankruptable, would they be an example of indentured servitude?
Meanwhile, an earlier bout of student activism was stopped by abolishing the draft. I suspect the current bout can be stopped by allowing student debts to be discharged. This might also discourage lenders from making loans to people studying bulshytt (as Neal Stephenson would put it).
Are Conservative White Males Are More Likely to Be Climate Skeptics?
Are conservative white males are more likely to be climate skeptics? (The original paper can be found here.) After all, everybody knows races are imaginary categories…
Addendum: Although this study doesn't qualify as a small-sample study, I noticed that the very first reference (which was needed to support their dubious interpretation of the results) was to the small-sample study I earlier discussed here.
Brideshead Revisited and the Third Amendment
It looks like part of the plot of Brideshead Revisited includes what would be a violation of the Third Amendment in the United States.
Lewis Carroll on Occupy Wall Street
According to Lewis Carroll:
A SURD is a radical whose meaning cannot be exactly ascertained. This class comprises a very large number of particles.
A Common Assumption on the Left
I've noticed what I think is a common assumption on the Left: The amount of government is approximately constant. As a result, political controversies can never be about the amount of government but only about who gets to be in charge.
This explains their beliefs that deregulation goes along with fascism, that anarchism goes along with socialism, or that corporations and property rights are necessarily creatures of government. It might even explain their belief (during the Cold War) that Amerikkka was just as totalitarian as the Soviets.
This might also explain their tendency to overemphasize the importance of regulations that they don't like. To take just one example, they will assume that the Price–Anderson Act was responsible for nuclear energy even though the cost of major nuclear accidents is around ⅕¢ per kilowatt-hour.
What Counts as Cyberbullying?
According to four [expletive deleted]s in the New York State Senate (seen via the Volokh Conspiracy):
AND YET, PROPONENTS OF A MORE REFINED FIRST AMENDMENT ARGUE THAT THIS FREEDOM SHOULD BE TREATED NOT AS A RIGHT BUT AS A PRIVILEGE — A SPECIAL ENTITLEMENT GRANTED BY THE STATE ON A CONDITIONAL BASIS THAT CAN BE REVOKED IF IT IS EVER ABUSED OR MALTREATED.
Remember, IF IT'S IN ALL-CAPS, IT'S TRUE!
I have a better idea. How about the following principle:
State formation should be treated not as a right but as a privilege — a special entitlement granted by potential rulers, subjects, or citizens on a conditional basis that can be revoked if it is ever abused or maltreated.
Yes, I think preventing bullying is an excellent idea. I also think such laws are more likely to be used by bullies against the rest of us.
Meanwhile, could a post like this be cited for violating anti-cyberbullying laws?
Almost certainly.
A Suggestion for Riot Control
There's a simple way to stop the “Occupation of Wall Street” without police brutality: Make it legal for motorists to run over rioters. This is in accordance with the “a pack not a herd” principle.
Open to an Inflated Self Image
On Small Sample Watch I posted a quote about research that purports to show that some people who take psychedelics become more “open.” When we look at the questions used to test openness, we find:
- I have a rich vocabulary.
- I have a vivid imagination.
- I have excellent ideas.
- I am quick to understand things.
- I use difficult words.
- I spend time reflecting on things.
- I am full of ideas.
- I am not interested in abstractions. (reversed)
- I do not have a good imagination. (reversed)
- I have difficulty understanding abstract ideas. (reversed)[31]
Maybe we can replace many of the above items with:
- I have an inflated self image.
The post you are looking for is here.
Small Sample Watch No. 1
After complaining about pathetically-small samples recently, I'm starting a new feature: Every time I see a news report of a social-“science” study with a pathetically-small sample that mainly serves to confirm standard prejudices, I'll post a link and sometimes a quote. The first example:
According to a new study at the University of St. Gallen seen by SPIEGEL, one contributing factor may be that stockbrokers' behavior is more reckless and manipulative than that of psychopaths. Researchers at the Swiss research university measured the readiness to cooperate and the egotism of 28 professional traders who took part in computer simulations and intelligence tests. The results, compared with the behavior of psychopaths, exceeded the expectations of the study's co-authors, forensic expert Pascal Scherrer, and Thomas Noll, a lead administrator at the Pöschwies prison north of Zürich.
28???
Addendum: I have decided that Small Sample Watch is worthy of its own blog.
All the Cool Nations Are Doing This …
One of the commonest arguments in favor of a wide variety of industrial policies is the “all the cool nations are doing this” argument. This argument is one of the best reasons for not imitating the allegedly-cool nations.
If nobody is doing X, it might make sense to try doing X just to see if it can be done (Example: the Manhattan project). If just one nation is doing X, it might make sense to follow them to prevent a monopoly. (Example: the space race). If everybody is doing X, then we can buy X (if it really is worthwhile) from a variety of sources. What's more, we'll be competing with lots of subsidized industries, which is a good way to lose money. (Example: solar panels.)
It's not a coincidence that Solyndra, a company in one of the coolest fields around, went bankrupt.
Debate Wanted
When the topic is free will, it is common to claim that minor influences show that free will doesn't exist.
When the topic is regulation, it is common to claim that “nudges” are a way to improve society without coercion.
Question: Are these “nudges” coercive or not?
Question 2: Do the investigators have free will or are they merely responding to unconscious nudges? (On the other hand, it may be dangerous to investigate that.)
Question 3: Is it my imagination or do the anti-free-will studies all seem to have pathetically-small sample sizes?
They Made Shark Tale about the Wrong Species
It looks like porpoises are the real sea thugs. (ObSF: Startide Rising by David Brin.)
The Squeegee Government
There used to be a common scam in Manhattan done by the squeegee men:
The usual procedure would involve groups of squeegee men surrounding cars stopped in traffic. Although some were merely providing a service, in other cases the windshield-washing would be carried out without asking, often perfunctory in nature, and then make demands for payment, sometimes with added threats of smashing the car's windshield if their demands were not.
In other words, someone does an unasked-for favor (sometimes even a useful one) and then charges for it.
In related news, Elizabeth Warren has been quoted as saying:
There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there -- good for you.
But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory.
Now look. You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea -- God bless! Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.
I was reminded somehow.
On the other hand, there is a simple way to test if the Elizabeth Warren story is correct. Let state governments make the investments that Ms. Warren regards as essential to wealth. (Most of their benefits won't cross state lines.) If expansive government is so important, we can expect that states with more government services will grow faster.
A Violation of the Second and Tenth Amendments
The label on my bottle of Lysol Power Toilet Bowl Cleaner says “It is a violation of Federal law to use this product in a manner inconsistent with its labeling.” Isn't such a law a violation of the Tenth Amendment? If I brought it across state lines, there might be a case for such a regulation to be constitutional but I didn't.
On the other hand, maybe they didn't want anybody performing the experiments in The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments. (“Okay kids. Now we'll learn how to make poison gas out of ordinary household cleaning supplies…”) Of course, that would also make this law a violation of the Second Amendment as well.
On the gripping hand, that still wouldn't be a Federal matter (even ignoring that pesky Second Amendment) unless said gas crossed a state line in toxic quantities. It doesn't make sense to ban a potentially-poisonous gas in nontoxic amounts or otherwise it would be illegal to break wind.
You can find other people commenting on this nonsense here, there, and yonder.
A Brief Note on a Palestinian State
If Palestine becomes an official state recognized by the United Nations (also known as the United Warts), then the West-Bank settlers will be illegal aliens and must therefore be defended. So if you ever wondered why I'm in favor of open borders…
Wait a moment, I forgot the Exception Clause.
Maybe She Thought She Was Doing That
In response to an article on youth unemployment, Partial Objects (seen via TJIC's Twitter) suggested about the lead example:
Maybe she should have studied something marketable.
On the other hand, she had a BA in Product Design. I suspect she was trying to study something marketable and figured the best way to do that was to study marketing. She may have seen the complaint that pharmaceutical companies spend more on marketing than on research and wanted part of the gravy train. She may have read about Emotional Intelligence or the Creative Class and actually believed it. (You can find my earlier comments on examples of this bulshytt here and there.)
Good Heavens
I not only live in a Congressional district represented by a Republican, I now work in one too.
I Am a Liberal Airhead
I am a liberal airhead according to the F-scale.
So when psychologists find neurological correlates with conservatism, I greet the news with some skepticism.
Don Quixote Disapproves
Spain is investing in wind power:
Spain's Castille-La Mancha region is working to install 6,000 MW of wind parks by 2015 in hopes to take the lead in the country's booming wind-power market.
“La Mancha” sounds familiar somehow…
In a related story…
Lawsuits Present and Future
Today's lawsuit:
NANUET, N.Y. - A 290-pound New York man is steaming mad at the White Castle fast-food chain, which he claims repeatedly broke promises to make the booths in his local eatery bigger, the New York Post reported Sunday.
Martin Kessman, 64, filed a lawsuit against the fast-food giant last week in Manhattan federal court, claiming that the uncomfortable booths violate the civil rights of fat people.
Next year, the seats will be expanded. The year after that, fast food restaurants will be forced to offer only smaller seats in order to discourage the morbidly obese from eating fattening food.
In today's society, everything not forbidden is compulsory and some things can be both.
Geoffrey Stock and Donald Rumsfeld
I've wondered if Donald Rumsfeld based his life on Geoffrey Stock (of “In a Good Cause” by Isaac Asimov). It would explain so much …
I Was Planning to Respond
I was planning to respond to the claim that the right wing in the United States is manipulated by billionaires but the Koch brothers aren't beaming anything into my head right now.
As a result, I am unable to point out that The Fountainhead was published when Charles Koch was eight and David Koch was three or that The Road to Serfdom was published a year later.
I can't even point out that this is their standard explanation about why anybody would disagree with them … except that it's a different manipulator each time.
It's Potatoman!
If being bitten by a radioactive spider can turn somebody into Spiderman, would eating radioactive potato chips turn somebody into Potatoman? (Superpower: the ability to mash evil-doers.)
New You Can Use
Potato chips are one of the most radioactive foods around, according to the FDA.
Fat Lot of Good That Did
I've been reading about earlier hurricanes on Long Island, for example, Hurricane Gloria of 1985:
In the immediate aftermath on Long Island, hundreds of thousands of residents were without power for nearly a week. The long duration without electricity led to a general disdain for the Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO). This increased further when the company left the $40 million (1985 USD) repair bill to the ratepayers, citing the company's lack of hurricane insurance. Citizens quickly protested LILCO's decision, and within years the publicly-owned Long Island Power Authority was formed.[14]
You are not going to make a monopoly more responsive by socializing it.
3D Appolonian Net
I have just uploaded a display of a three-dimensional Appolonian net to my Netcom/Earthlink site.
The Power Is Back On
…and there is great rejoicing.
I'd like to know why land-line phone service is so much more reliable than electric power. Is it because of competition? Is it because “wasteful duplication” is permitted? Is it because some of it is by EM waves?
Addendum: One of my neighbors has stronger opinions.
Apocalypse Irene
IT'S DEFINITELY A DISASTER!
My power went out Sunday morning and hasn't been back since. It's a bit hard to check on Instapundit by cell phone and I have to post this at work just before leaving.
Saaaay What????
According to The New Republic:
Liberals revere high SAT scores.
That's this week. Next week, the SAT and IQ tests will return to being culturally-biased meaningless tests.
As far as I can tell, liberals revere unverifiable claims of intellect. Adhering to verifiable standards increases the risk of allowing wingnuts into conservative-free zones.
Do Liberals Believe Scientific Data?
According to Jonathan Chait:
That does not mean liberalism is right. It just means, as Williamson says, that liberals are naturally more concerned with a belief in science. They want leaders will accept the scientific method and are amenable to data.
I am dubious about whether Jonathan Chait is an expert on judging scientific evidence.
By the way, I would like to ask politicians the following question: “There is evidence for the existence of a natural nuclear fission reactor on Earth two billion years ago based on the nuclear waste found in rocks of that age. Do you accept such evidence and what do you think of the implications of the fact that the waste did not move with respect to the surrounding rock (in particular, the implications for nuclear waste disposal)?”
Brave Muammar Ran Away
Bravely ran away, away.
When danger reared its ugly head,
he bravely turned his tail and fled.
Yes, brave Muammar turned about
and gallantly, he chickened out.
Bravely taking to his feet,
he beat a very brave retreat,
bravest of the brave, brave Muammar.
I Play Chess Like a Genius!
According to Henri Poincaré:
In the same way I should be but a poor chess-player; I would perceive that by a certain play I should expose myself to a certain danger; I would pass in review several other plays, rejecting them for other reasons, and then finally I should make the move first examined, having meantime forgotten the danger I had foreseen.
Yes, I play chess that well.
If Extraterrestrials Are Environmentalists…
… is it possible that environmentalism is due to extraterrestrial infiltrators? In “Occam's Razor” by Theodore Sturgeon, it was suggested that polluting industries were due to extraterrestrial infiltrators. The other way around makes at least as much sense.
This theory might even explain the drug culture. It would especially explain the connection between drugs and environmentalism.
What If It's the Other Way Around?
According to the Guardian, someone with too much free time at NASA has been warning us that aliens might be ready to DESTROY OUR PLANET if we don't stop emitting greenhouse gases:
It may not rank as the most compelling reason to curb greenhouse gases, but reducing our emissions might just save humanity from a pre-emptive alien attack, scientists claim.
Watching from afar, extraterrestrial beings might view changes in Earth's atmosphere as symptomatic of a civilisation growing out of control – and take drastic action to keep us from becoming a more serious threat, the researchers explain.
Even if we assume that these ETs just happen to have the same environmentalist ethical standards that we have acquired in the past 1/100 of 1% of human existence, they might regard greenhouse emitters as a rare ecological niche that must be preserved. The usual type of wildlife can be observed anywhere but this might be the only place in the Galaxy where soft coal or plutonium are used outside museums.
They might get really p---ed off if we stop.
Decision Fatigue
If decision fatigue is a problem:
Decision fatigue helps explain why ordinarily sensible people get angry at colleagues and families, splurge on clothes, buy junk food at the supermarket and can’t resist the dealer’s offer to rustproof their new car. No matter how rational and high-minded you try to be, you can’t make decision after decision without paying a biological price.
then decisions should be made by people who don't have to make that many decisions, i.e., consumers deciding for themselves or their families instead of bureaucrats or politicians who decide for everybody. This might explain why the EPA standard for radioactive iodine in drinking water is less radioactive (by a factor of several hundred) than orange juice.
I suspect the people who came up the the concept of decision fatigue would regard that as an undesirable conclusion.
But wait, there's more. We also see in the same article:
The results of the experiment were announced in January, during Heatherton’s speech accepting the leadership of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the world’s largest group of social psychologists. In his presidential address at the annual meeting in San Antonio, Heatherton reported that administering glucose completely reversed the brain changes wrought by depletion — a finding, he said, that thoroughly surprised him. Heatherton’s results did much more than provide additional confirmation that glucose is a vital part of willpower; they helped solve the puzzle over how glucose could work without global changes in the brain’s total energy use. Apparently ego depletion causes activity to rise in some parts of the brain and to decline in others. Your brain does not stop working when glucose is low. It stops doing some things and starts doing others. It responds more strongly to immediate rewards and pays less attention to long-term prospects.
Does that mean today's evil food (carbohydrates) can actually help you stay on a diet? I'll have the glazed sweet potatoes, please.
How to Back Date Evidence of a Resource Shortage
According to Paul Kedrosky (while discussing the well-known Simon–Ehrlich bet):
Simon famously offered to bet comers on any timeline longer than a year, and on any commodity, but the bet itself was over a decade, from 1980-1990. If you started the bet any year during the 1980s Simon won eight of the ten decadal start years. During the 1990s things changed, however, with Simon the decadal winners in four start years and Ehrlich winning six – 60% of the time. And if we extend the bet into the current decade, taking Simon at his word that he was happy to bet on any period from a year on up (we don’t have enough data to do a full 21st century decade), then Ehrlich won every start-year bet in the 2000s.
It looks like Paul Kedrosky managed to backdate a price rise that started in the mid-naughties back a decade by looking at ten-year bets, thereby making this price rise look like something long term instead of a reaction to funny money. As I predicted a few years ago:
The Malthusians will claim high commodities prices prove they were right after all. They will also claim unemployment is due to population growth outrunning job growth. (Isn't it amazing how they only seem to be right immediately after lots of funny money has been printed?)
On the other hand, maybe Simon was more willing to offer the bet because Paul Volcker had been appointed to the Federal Reserve.
Another Look at Ex Post Facto Civil Laws
A few years ago, I posted that we might need a Constitutional Amendment to ban ex post facto civil laws:
There were people who got married a few decades ago under the impression that marriage was until “death us do part” only to find their marriage vows had been changed into something temporary. The late Terri Schindler Schiavo said that she didn't want to be kept alive by extraordinary means followed by the Florida state legislature passing a law that changed the meaning of “extraordinary means.”
I just realized that the Constitutional clause banning Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts bans many ex post facto civil laws (at least on the state level).
What does this imply about no-fault divorce?
Why There Is a Drug War
At Pajamas Media, I read:
More to the point, I don’t believe that grown men and women should be ashamed of the legal things they enjoy.
Does this mean we can't criticize something until we pass a law against it?
This explains why many people think a Drug War is needed. If criticism of anything legal is read out of civil discourse, people will have to advocate bans simply in order to be heard.
The Babbage Society at Work?
Diesel, a clothing brand I had never heard of, has an ad campaign with the slogan Be Stupid (seen via James Lileks). I suspect it was originally supposed to be aimed at people patting themselves on the back for being so intelligent, until the ad people realized that self-congratulation was now in disrepute, so they went with the opposite.
On the other hand, maybe it was the Babbage Society. According to Country of the Blind by Michael Flynn, the Babbage Society was trying to foment stupidity by turning “wise guy” or “smarty” into insults.
A Suggestion on Stopping Riots
Take a car, put a beehive in the trunk, and put it in the path of the rioters.
Okay, I've said this before.
By the way, how did the French stop their riots of a few years ago?
Rumors of Technocracy
I suspect that “authoritarian high modernism” is based, not on engineering rationality, but on rumors of what engineering rationality is about. In the real world, engineers are unlikely to throw away precedent. They think about things that can go wrong with plans.
The other side of the rumors of technocracy, is that “They“ cover up disasters (with a lack of evidence). I suppose it's not astonishing that the same corner of the political system that insists on compelling people not to waste they own money is also suspicious of high technology.
Salon Miscounted
According to Salon:
In a 1994 Senate debate with Ted Kennedy, Mitt Romney revealed a startling chapter from his past: A close relative had died many years earlier in a botched illegal abortion, shaping Romney's stance in favor of safe and legal access to abortion for all women.
That should be “ Two close relatives had died many years earlier in a botched illegal abortion…”
A Possible Fusion Power System
According to Next Big Future, there are antiprotons orbiting the Earth and these could be used to catalyze fusion reactions:
A one gigawatt power system inside of an earth orbiting superconducting traps could produce 95 milligrams of antimatter per year.
………
One microgram of antihydrogen would be theoretically by enough to be the trigger for one kiloton antihydrogen bombs. By not having a nuclear fission trigger the amount of fallout is massively reduced.
In other words, a gigawatt could produce 95 megatons of low-fallout hydrogen bombs. Those bombs, if used in a nuclear-powered piston engine at 33% efficiency, would produce 4 gigawatts of power.
Are Sinuses Useless?
According to a discussion of apparently useless organs:
Doctors don't really know much about sinuses, only that we have a lot of them. Possibilities for their function range from insulating our eyes to changing the pitch and tone of our voice.
I say that you need a sinus like you need a hole in the head.
WordPerfect: Numenor
According to Kieran Healy, text editors can be compared to places in Lord of the Rings:
TextMate: Minas Tirith
BBEdit: The Shire
Emacs: Fangorn
vi: Moria
Microsoft Word: Barad-dur
WordPerfect is, of course, Numenor. Once the most civilized land on Middle-Earth, it has since sunk beneath the waves, leaving almost no trace.
I suppose that means WordStar can only be Beleriand…
The Spirit of the Little Red Schoolhouse
According to Freeman Dyson (seen via Engineer Poet):
The fundamental problem of the nuclear power industry is not reactor safety, not waste disposal, not the dangers of nuclear proliferation, real though all these problems are. The fundamental problem of the industry is that nobody any longer has any fun building reactors. It is inconceivable under present conditions that a group of enthusiasts could assemble in a schoolhouse and design, build, test, license and sell a reactor within three years. Sometime between 1960 and 1970, the fun went out of the business.
The adventurers, the experimenters, the inventors, were driven out, and the accountants and managers took control. Not only in the private industry but also in the government laboratories, at Los Alamos, Livermore, Oak Ridge and Argonne, the groups of bright young people who used to build and invent and experiment with a great variety of reactors were disbanded. The accountants and managers decided that it was not cost effective to let bright people play with weird reactors. So the weird reactors disappeared and with them the chance of any radical improvement beyond our existing systems.
We are left with a very small number of reactor types in operation, each of them frozen into a huge bureaucratic organization that makes any substantial change impossible, each of them in various ways technically unsatisfactory, each of them less safe than many possible alternative designs which have been discarded. Nobody builds reactors for fun anymore. The spirit of the little red schoolhouse is dead. That, in my opinion, is what went wrong with nuclear power.
The good news is: The spirit of the “little red schoolhouse” is back! You don't need “crony capitalism” to split atoms.
On a more serious note, some of the attempts to build nukes in the spirit of the little red schoolhouse might actually work.
An Early Program
My first home computer (not counting programmable calculators) was a Timex Sinclair 1000. I was able to make it print out but not display high-resolution graphics (256 pixels across). I have uploaded such a program to my Netcom/Earthlink site.
Good News!
Voters in the former People's Republic of Nassau County voted down a proposal to throw more money at a blatant example of socialism.
The real question: Why must a government own a sports stadium in the first place? Are free riders (sports fans who don't go to see the teams) that important for sports? What about us anti-free-riders? Some of us are annoyed when we tune into a radio and find that some flippin' sports event is taking precedence over a weather report. What about us?
Imagine!
The Virtues of a Lack of “Imagination” reminded me of the following ad in Larry Gore's Thing:
IMAGINE!
$150,000
A YEAR
IN YOUR
SPARE
TIME!
…Imagine making a fortune as an Inventor, as a famous Explorer, etc.
…Imagine retiring before you're 35, through shrewd investments.
|
MAIL THIS COUPON TODAY!
Dear Sir,
Yes, I'm interested in your exciting offer which can be mine for only $5.95. Please rush your booklet: “1,000 Great Subjects on Which To Day Dream.”
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Spell-Checker Problems
PhD Comics is pointing out a problem with spell checkers. This is not new. I recall WordPerfect 5.1 objecting to “Geophys.” and offering the following suggestions:
- gaffes
- gaffs
- gifts
- goofiest
- goofs
- guffaws
I don't think the program took Geophysics seriously.
Refuting Imaginary Theories
According to Tim Worstall, The Guardian is criticizing imaginary theories of economics, e.g., the theory that human beings act like “economic man,” a theory that is thought to be part of economics but only in the imaginations of non-economists. As I've said before:
It's as though they were rejecting modern physics on the grounds that not everything is relative or Darwin's explanation of evolution on the grounds that the fittest don't always survive.
Question: Is the theory that economics dictates that people act like “economic man” responsible for Steven Chu's belief that it's legitimate to force people to not waste their own money?
Why Didn't Breivik Shoot Muslims or Libertarians?
The answer is, of course, obvious: They would return fire.
On the other hand, maybe obviousness isn't much evidence…
An Example for a Philosophy Class
Recent events in Norway have shown that it's possible for a conclusion to be:
- bleeping obvious;
- wrong.
In other words, the British police were right to not jump to conclusions about how Amy Winehouse died.
A Slogan against Parental Licensing
… can be found here.
Last March, an Accident Waiting to Happen, Finally Happened
Last March, there was an explosion at a calcium carbide plant (seen via Classical Values) causing an acetylene shortage.
This sounds so much like a nuclear power accident that I anticipate a protest movement coming up, followed by claims that only “crony capitalism” made investment in something so obviously dangerous possible.
A Few Notes on the Norwegian Terror Attacks
Maybe we shouldn't jump to conclusions about the identity of a terrorist ahead of evidence.
According to Richard Pape, terrorist actions are frequently in response to a perceived occupation by foreigners. This fits the pattern, although it was someone from a different ignorant army this time.
One possible response is to tighten access to anything that might be used for an attack. If somebody starts a terror attack by using household cleaning supplies, will we ban bleach or ban rust remover?
Weather Update
The coconut oil in my kitchen melted. The house is air conditioned but with a limited amount of cooling ability.
Horse Manure
According to a comment on the transhumanism essay discussed here, The Age of Batshit Crazy Machines is “an excellent rebuttal to fascist techno-utopianism.” When I looked at it, I saw:
They dismiss their opponents as "luddites", but don't seem to grasp the position of the actual luddites: It was not an emotional reaction against scary new tools, nor was it about demanding better working conditions -- because before the industrial revolution they controlled their own working conditions and had no need to make "demands". We can't imagine the autonomy and competence of pre-industrial people who knew how to produce everything they needed with their own hands or the hands of their friends and family.
We are speaking here of horse manure. The essay is a load of horse manure and the working conditions before the industrial revolution usually involved shoveling horse manure. If you're not using steam etc. you're using the muscles of someone or something.
Two Unexpected Results
First: According to the European Space Agency (seen via Next Big Future):
Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity describes the properties of gravity and assumes that space is a smooth, continuous fabric. Yet quantum theory suggests that space should be grainy at the smallest scales, like sand on a beach.
GRB 041219A took place on 19 December 2004 and was immediately recognised as being in the top 1% of GRBs for brightness. It was so bright that Integral was able to measure the polarisation of its gamma rays accurately.
Dr Laurent and colleagues searched for differences in the polarisation at different energies, but found none to the accuracy limits of the data.
Some theories suggest that the quantum nature of space should manifest itself at the ‘Planck scale’: the minuscule 10-35 of a metre, where a millimetre is 10-3 m.
However, Integral’s observations are about 10 000 times more accurate than any previous and show that any quantum graininess must be at a level of 10-48 m or smaller.
“This is a very important result in fundamental physics and will rule out some string theories and quantum loop gravity theories,” says Dr Laurent.
It's well known that quantum mechanics and the General Theory of Relativity are incompatible at the smallest conceivable scales. Until now, it seemed clear that quantum mechanics must hold and GTR become an approximation. Now it looks like quantum mechanics must give. This has implications for, among other things, the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. MWI is based on a literal interpretation of the formalism of quantum mechanics. There might or might not be any room for it in the more complete theory.
Second: According to Eureka Alert:
What spreads the sea floors and moves the continents? What melts iron in the outer core and enables the Earth's magnetic field? Heat. Geologists have used temperature measurements from more than 20,000 boreholes around the world to estimate that some 44 terawatts (44 trillion watts) of heat continually flow from Earth's interior into space. Where does it come from?
………
KamLAND detected 841 candidate antineutrino events between March of 2002 and November of 2009, of which about 730 were reactor events or other background. The rest, about 111, were from radioactive decays of uranium and thorium in the Earth. These results were combined with data from the Borexino experiment at Gran Sasso in Italy to calculate the contribution of uranium and thorium to Earth's heat production. The answer was about 20 terawatts; based on models, another three terawatts were estimated to come from other isotope decays.
In other words, the Earth is giving off more than can be expected from the neutrino count. One conclusion is that my back of the envelope calculation of the amount of fissionable material on Earth was off. Another conclusion is that there might be an energy source down there we don't know about. Maybe the theory in “The Demon Under Hawaii” by Geoffrey Landis ( Analog, July 1992)—that an alien spacecraft is buried on Earth, still giving off heat from its dilithium crystals—is actually true.
Another Counterexample
There are other counterexamples to the theory that free societies are likely to found among islands, swamps, and mountains. For example, Polynesia was noted for islands being governed by absolute monarchs.
In Western Civilization, it was hard to establish a tyranny over an island because people could move to a neighboring island but it wasn't that easy for the king to conquer the neighboring island. <wild-guess>I suspect that in Polynesia the islands were too far apart for private citizens to escape.</wild-guess> Do I have any readers who might know something about Polynesian history?
If the above scenario is true (Polynesian islands were close enough for a government that could draw on the entire resources of an island to organize sea travel but it was beyond private means), that has implications for the future of freedom. In other words, we had better find cheaper ways to get off the planet.
On the other hand, if space travel is too easy, that might lead to scenario resembling Japan, in which the islands were close enough for a government to conquer the whole archipelago.
Why Some People Object to Transhumanism
I would like to call your attention to Entries 5, 6 and 7 here:
5. Responsible Reproduction: Having children will be framed almost exclusively in the light of responsibility. Human reproduction is, at the moment, not generally worthy of the term “procreation.” Procreation implies planned creation and conscientious rearing of a new human life. … Parental licensing may be part of the process; a liberalization of adoption and surrogate pregnancy laws certainly will be. …
6. My Body, My Choice: Legalization and regulation will be based on somatic rights. Substances that are ingested – cogno enhancers, recreational drugs, steroids, nanotech – become both one’s right and responsibility. Actions such as abortion, assisted suicide, voluntary amputation, gender reassignment, surrogate pregnancy, body modification, legal unions among adults of any number, and consenting sexual practices would be protected under law. …
7. Persons, not People: Rights discourse will shift to personhood instead of common humanity. I have argued we’re already beginning to see a social shift towards this mentality. Using a scaled system based on traits like sentience, empathy, self-awareness, tool use, problem solving, social behaviors, language use, and abstract reasoning, animals (including humans) will be granted rights based on varying degrees of personhood. …
Combining 5 and 6: You can do anything you want … provided we agree with it. (It's additional evidence that, as I've mentioned before, The Abolition of Man was not a straw-man argument.) Combining 6 and 7: If your brain is currently off, you have no rights … but don’t you dare take away my dope!
The really worrisome part of combining 6 and 7 is that they may claim that only drug users (of whatever drug happens to be trendy at the time) are truly human. It makes at least as much sense as the rest.
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