Well, we haven’t had a baby picture in a while, so… The shirt’s been around for a couple of weeks, the sunglasses are new today. She’s posed in the awesome “high chair” we got from Dave Loop–it just clamps on to the table wherever you are. Read more →
Year: 2005
I am old
Buying a house didn’t make me feel old Graduating and starting work full-time didn’t make me feel old. Going bald didn’t make me feel old. Turning 30 didn’t make me feel old. The first time I told a story about some hijinks I had pulled, and the story started with “Fifteen years ago…” I didn’t feel old (much). Becoming a… Read more →
Here there be macroeconomics
(If you were scared by some of my earlier posts following the US currency, you should stay away from this.) So, one of the interesting questions right now in the field of macroeconomics is: who is funding the US? Brad Setser has a great post outlining some of the aspects of this question. For example, we know that in 2003… Read more →
Krugman on Social Security
Once again, in his NY Times op-ed piece, our hero of the dismal science, Paul Krugman, brings a little sanity to an economic issue. This time it’s the Bush administration ‘Social Security Crisis’ talking point. With a tiny bit of math, and a lot of reasoning, Krugman takes apart the projections on which the Bush plan is based, reaching an… Read more →
Hope crushed
So, I was feeling a little hopeful after the recent decision regarding the evolution stickers. (And if you follow links in that earlier post, you can walk back through all my rants about this.) Well, that tiny bit of hope is crushed by the NY Times today: Evolution Takes a Back Seat in U.S. Classes In districts around the country,… Read more →
Just a few months left to build your DVR
What am I talking about? “Build my own DVR?” you say in the same way you would say “Make a radio from coconuts?” Well, here’s the two paragraph summary from the Electronic Frontier Foundation issue page on the ‘broadcast flag‘: Responding to pressure from Hollywood, the FCC has adopted a rule requiring future digital television (DTV) tuners to include “content… Read more →
Silence fear, engage brain
The thing about doing security analysis is that you really have to think about the threats, and you really have to look at your assumptions, and then you have to evaluate the costs of security measures against the threat reduction. It’s hard to do that while you are being terrified. For example, imagine two security systems A, and B, that… Read more →
It’s about time
Well, the CBC is reporting that things are finally rolling. (If you’ve been living in a cave for the past couple of years, you can catch up at the CBC Indepth page for this issue.) The Liberal government introduced its same-sex marriage bill in the House of Commons Tuesday, kicking off the next stage of a fierce debate that will… Read more →
Mr Bloody Africa
So, I have nothing but respect for Bob Geldof. ‘Diamond Smiles‘ is definitely one of my all-time favourite songs. ‘The Fine Art of Surfacing‘ is one of the best album titles ever. And ‘The Vegetarians of Love‘ is one of the most-played discs in my collection. Hell, I even read his autiobiography, and I don’t read biographies. And that’s not… Read more →
The Importance of Education Can Not Be Overemphasized
During many political arguments, my proposed solutions to The Big Problems are often extremely long-term solutions, predicated on the notion that education can be the cornerstone of a civilization–if it takes as its goal the production of citizens trained in critical thinking, rather than the production of employable units. I am frequently mocked for my view of education as a… Read more →
Locus Recommended Books
Locus has published their list of recommended books for last year. I’m doing pretty well on the novels. Science Fiction Novels The Life of the World to Come, Kage Baker (Tor) (got it, read it) The Algebraist, Iain M. Banks (Orbit)(got it, read it) Exultant, Stephen Baxter (Gollancz; Del Rey) Spondulix, Paul Di Filippo (Cambrian)(planning to get it) Eastern Standard… Read more →
Media Objectivity in the 21st century
If you’ve been paying attention, then you will have noticed that Dan Gillmor recently stopped writing for the old media and has set out to explore the idea of ‘grassroots journalism‘ in this new century. One of the things he’s rethinking is the notion of objectivity in the media, and he has a lot of interesting thoughts. For example: Fairness… Read more →
Cintra Wilson Interview
I generally enjoy Cintra Wilson‘s pop culture columns on Salon–enough that I picked up her essay collection, A Massive Swelling–so I am looking forward to seeing how she does as a novelist. Descriptions I have read of her novel, Colors Insulting To Nature, make it sound like a farce about our culture’s obsession with fame, which sounds like it could… Read more →
Edmund Burke wishes he could have written like this
This post will be a bunch of quotations from a great man. Words that I think are very important in these times when we seem to be suffering from a very dangerous lack of outrage. “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against… Read more →
I am full of bile
Several readers of this blog have asked me why I haven’t said anything about the tsunami. For the record, the answer is that I simply have nothing to say that isn’t obvious to everyone, and that wouldn’t sound incredibly trite. The other answer is that I am full of bile–it is killing me to see Americans so apparently full of… Read more →
