The New Yorker on “Freakonomics” and Global Warming 15 Nov 2009 To be skeptical of climate models and credulous about things like carbon-eating trees and cloudmaking machinery and hoses that shoot sulfur into the sky is to replace a faith in science with a belief in science fiction. This is the turn that “SuperFreakonomics” takes, even as its authors repeatedly extoll their hard-headedness. All of which goes to show that, while some forms of horseshit are no longer a problem, others will always be with us. [Read more] General Science Politics
Evolution The World According to Genesis: Moral Knowledge 6 Jun 200724 Nov 2022 Like any middle eastern deity, YHWHW Elohim is a fairly petty individual. He doesn’t want competition from his creations, so he blocks access to the “Tree of Life”, which is a magical tree whose fruit can make you live forever. We have two magical trees, a corporeal deity of limited knowledge and good will, a snake that talks and has intentions like any trickster god to thwart the designs of the deity, and a justification for wearing clothes, which is not a matter just of shame, but of intended purpose. Read More
Politics Can we fix it? No, we can’t 9 Sep 2009 I’m not American, so I guess this doesn’t count as a betrayal for me. Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone speaks truth to power regarding the health care debacle in the US. It’s pretty clear that doing things the Washington way is so ingrained in US politics that it simply can’t… Read More
History Bastardising history in the service of dogma 11 Jun 2008 History is one of those things that the venal mine to serve their special interests, with no concern for truth or accuracy. But it takes real stupid to say this: Contrary to popular belief, as historian David Barton points out, the theory of evolution was around long before Charles Darwin…. Read More