June 22, 2019
June 20, 2019
June 17, 2019
Econ Wan Oh One
What will one pound be worth, post-Brexit, should Britain chose to stiff the EU for the costs it must bear for removing itself from the union? Asking for a friend.
June 16, 2019
The Future of the Future In End-Times Rhetoric
Jupiter is almost four times farther away from earth than the earth is from the sun. Neptune is about 28 times farther from earth than earth is from the sun. Neptune is far, far away. To arrive in good order at Neptune would be a prodigious achievement on the part of humanity. Who's to say it's achievable?
I find myself, even in my senescence, leaning pro-Neptune.
June 07, 2019
Of Which The Moon Is A Part
"I'll take, The sky seen from Mars for $4000, Alex," he said.
"No, I'm sorry, that would be, The Solar System … ah, wait, we have a judges' ruling that the Moon is unquestionably a part of the sky seen from Mars, so we'll allow that answer as well. Congratulations for playing Make Sense of THIS!"
June 06, 2019
June 03, 2019
Betterment
…
When men of science envisage a possibility of this kind, they are prone to a type of fallacy which is common also in other directions. They imagine that a reform inaugurated by men of science would be administered as men of science would wish, by men similar in outlook to those who have advocated it. In like manner women who advocated votes for women used to imagine that the woman voter of the future would resemble the ardent feminist who won her the vote; and socialist leaders imagine that a socialist State would be administered by idealistic reformers like themselves. These are, of course, delusions; a reform, once achieved, is handed over to the average citizen.
—Bertrand Russell, ICARUS or The Future of Science, 1924
And the average citizen, distracted by more immediate concerns, willingly passes administration of the reformed matter over to all the same people who cared enough to fight over the reform in the first place.
June 01, 2019
Yes, If You Were Asking, That's A War Crime
Duncan Hunter figures he killed hundreds of civilians in Fallujah.