Skip to main content

Posts

CONTRARY BRIN: The war on expertise... How to fight and win...

CONTRARY BRIN: The war on expertise... And ways to navigate the m... :   == Again: How to defeat the War on All expertise == The Enlightenment Experiment absolutely depends upon training citizens - especially th... And the details: David Brin  said... My STANDARD PASTE-IN RE WAGER TERMS: Again, here’s my challenge of bets and wagers that reveal the utter cowardice of the fact-free MAGA rightwing, Limbaugh-dittohead blowhards. "Have your lawyer write to me confirmation that you’ve escrowed $10,000 for wagers on things like ocean acidification or party differences in fiscal responsibility (budget deficits), or rates of moral turpitude in red vs. blue states, or outcomes for capitalism. Or ratios of half-truths and lies versus verifiable assertions on Fox vs. Say CNN. "Again, if you are so certain of the accusations and denunciations and assertions you howl, after bobble-heading with Limbaugh or Hannity or Pirro then you should WANT a manly wager over those ‘facts!” You should w
Post a Comment
Read more
Recent posts

What technology does for politics

A short compendium of the ways humans have learned to take dominion over the earth and each other. Allows us to cater to the basest instincts of humans. It ain't pretty, it wasn't pretty, it won't be pretty unless we force it to be.  Hopefully we can make it pretty in the future. 10,000 BC Farming leads to feudalism Invention of bread allows humans to start exponential population growth. Domestication of plants and animals (and humans: slaves are indistinguishable from peasants.) 5000 BC Reading, writing lead to the codification of religions for the millennia They allow the creation of cities, taxes, mass fortifications, grand palaces, royalty. 0 AD Religion and huge empires gang up to reign over the earth. Religions invent sin for blackmail. Empires invest in mass death and invent citizenship as a reward. 1500 AD Printing - allowed the breakdown of the Catholic Church, the Protestants. The protestors. The Great Awakenings where anyone can publish a holy book about a
Post a Comment
Read more

The Singularity: Why the Nerd Rapture will happen.

 The very first singularity we know about was the Big Bang. According to Steven Hawking [1] , before the Big Bang there was no time and no space. That's a big singularity! What's the definition of a singularity? It's when a situation changes, when the equations that described what was happening no longer apply. Before the Big Bang, without time or space, there where no equations for physical parameters. Afterwards you could make measurements and devise equations to explain what was going on. That's a BIG singularity. This singularity is also reminiscent of phase changes which are well understood in physics (two recent Nobel prizes.) It's like water to ice. The average speed of the particles of water banging up against each other show off new forces depending on the temperature. What was hidden before is now exposed. The equations that describe how ice works are much, much different than the equations that describe how liquid water works. Physicists actually understa
Post a Comment
Read more

The Power of Trump

The Power of Trump. Why fascism is attractive to some voters. Why is religion attractive to some voters? Why are conspiracy theories attractive to some voters? Why is faith praised? Because it serves some human con man somewhere and unless you're the con man, the person it's serving ain't you.  So maybe you might try hiring the best con man around to represent you. You know he's a con man, but he promised to con everyone in your favor! We call that the long con. You join the con and you still get stiffed. Such is life. At least I'm conning everyone else more than I'm getting conned! I have never seen the attractiveness of living in a fascist state where the prosecutorial power of the state was run by a transactional plutocrat who's sole goal was to suck money out of you in return for 'favors.' The most common favor is not getting beaten up or arrested. The money is in the form of donations to the candidates or the parties (limited, attributed) or to
Post a Comment
Read more

A Modest Proposal for the Presidential Library of Donald J. Trump.

 I was reading the latest fiascos of Donald J. Trump and his aversion to showing reverence to the troops at cemeteries...when it gave me an idea that I think all red-blooded Americans can get behind and support. To set the stage, we need to go back in history and see how other presidential estates have been turned into libraries, or cemeteries . In particular, it's educational to learn about what happened to Robert E. Lee's  estate in Arlington, Virginia. He inherited this estate from George Washington's adopted grandson. After the civil war, the United States seized the land for non-payment of back taxes (they didn't pay their property tax during the civil war...) then they turned Lee's front porch into a war memorial and a military cemetery. And they wouldn't pardon him, either. Lee went to his deathbed still a fervent white supremacists to the ends of his days. And we rewarded him by taking away his land and turning it into a cemetery to honor those he had he
Post a Comment
Read more

What's Wrong With California? Utter Failure in Handling COVID-19 Pandemic in the US

China eradicated the virus in 90 days and it's economy is up and running again. South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and many other countries have eliminated the virus and restarted their economies.  Europe's death rate and case rate is continuing to go towards zero and it's economy has started to reopen. This is not the case in United States?  What is wrong with the United States? Is it the same thing that was wrong with Kansas ? [6] Even worse: what's wrong with California? Is it really too many Covidiots? Methinks the data speaks for itself. And the data says yes. COVID-19 Cases and Deaths in California [5] Since we ignored the obvious testing issues that would have allowed us to track, trace and isolate the virus into submission, we had to wait for a vaccine to have a hope of fixing it. Cases: Note July is the first peak, when this was written. Boy did Trump Fuck it up BIGLY. Deaths: And here's the deaths, Wow, did we screw this up big time. Everyt
Post a Comment
Read more