Category: Random

Here is a Facebook conspiracy theory. I thought it was amusing, even though it makes little sense. The author has forgotten that the first rule of capitalism is to make money. There is no need to appeal to exotic plans for how society should be organized when there is money at stake.

Population growth must stop. Regardless of what we believe the resource limit of the planet is, it is clear that there is a limit. If population growth continues, we will hit that limit. As the saying goes, anything which can not go on forever will stop. Fortunately, the rate of growth of population is slowing.…

A depressing article about some books about Iraq, written by soldiers and a journalist who were there during the initial invasion. Of course war has huge human costs, but it’s hard to be unmoved by these stories about a war of choice. And it’s very hard to reconcile them with our goals and our inability…

I watched the Democratic debate on Saturday night. There was a question about how things are going better in Iraq now, perhaps thanks to the surge, and what that meant to the candidates Iraq plans. There were some good answers, but I was surprised by an omission. Moktada al-Sadr, the head of the Mahdi army,…

Why don’t people routinely make appliances which work together? The refrigerator generates heat; this should be routed into the oven. The oven generates heat; this should be routed into the hot water heater. This is probably not significant energy usage compared to cars; is it not worth doing at all? We need to keep working…