A Call for Mandatory Universal Mind Broadcasting

Recently AI has been applied to decoding MRI brain scans. The researchers claim that it’s possible to reconstruct parts of what the scanned subjects are “thinking or seeing.” Despite a laundry list of caveats, and the tentative limited nature of these claims, the misleadia jumped all over this and declared, with bed-wetting urgency, that the … Continue reading A Call for Mandatory Universal Mind Broadcasting →

Sympathy for Ptolemaic Epicyclers

Histories of science tend to cast “old theory holdouts” as uncouth, backward, prejudiced, and stinky nitwits. If you don’t immediately jump on the shiny new science bandwagon you’re on the wrong side of history and doomed to a legacy of ridicule and disdain. Mind you, these just so histories fail to mention that most new … Continue reading Sympathy for Ptolemaic Epicyclers →

Some Modest Proposals for SVBish Bank Bailouts

Here we go again another criminal bank bailout. Don’t even try and argue that the SVB bailout isn’t a bailout. You can tell it’s a bailout from all the frantic explanations the Biden gang is pushing telling us how giving funds, way over FDIC deposit insurance limits, to deposit holders in 2023 fundamentally differs from … Continue reading Some Modest Proposals for SVBish Bank Bailouts →

How Many Authenticated Ancient Mathematical Artifacts are Known?

“How many authenticated ancient mathematical artifacts are known?” I recently asked myself this question while researching the history of mathematical proof. Ultimately, all historical theories must answer to the evidence. For mathematics, this means studying surviving parchment documents, cuneiform tablets, bamboo strips, bone markings, Stella inscriptions, calculating boards, and other objects, that inform our mathematical … Continue reading How Many Authenticated Ancient Mathematical Artifacts are Known? →

Ethanol is Excrement in the Gas Tank

Like many U.S. government programs, the blended corn ethanol mandate has done little to address its avowed goals, i.e., strengthen energy security, reduce carbon emissions, and lower prices for consumers. By some accounts it, consumes more energy than it produces, increases consumer prices, distorts food production, wastes vast tracts of arable land, and contributes to … Continue reading Ethanol is Excrement in the Gas Tank →