Here’s a graduation speech that won’t tax your time and, without taxing your brain, will remind you of what is worth remembering. In 2007, Thomas J. Sargent, one of the two winners of the 2011 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics,… Read More ›
Month: August 2020
Climate Change
I don’t believe that climate change does not matter at all. It does matter but it is not a yes-no question. It is a matter of trade-offs. The question is: how much does it matter relative to other things that… Read More ›
Hauled from the Archive: Cargo for Pakistan
Look here, now, I don’t have all day to sit around writing stuff on this blog, ok. 😉 So here’s what I’m going to do. Haul stuff out of the archive. Good stuff, mind you. Check out Cargo for Pakistan…. Read More ›
Lysander Spooner
The US presidential elections are on the horizon. Which brings to mind what Lysander Spooner said. “The principle that the majority have a right to rule the minority, practically resolves all government into a mere contest between two bodies of… Read More ›
Ganesh Chaturthi Greetings
So Sri Ganesh is back in town. वक्रतुण्ड महाकाय सूर्यकोटि समप्रभ । निर्विघ्नं कुरु मे देव सर्वकार्येषु सर्वदा ॥ Vakratunda Mahakaya Suryakoti Samaprabha | Nirvighnam Kuru Me Deva Sarva-Karyesu Sarvada || Translated, the prayer to Ganesh says: [One with the] curved trunk, immense body, and the splendor of a million… Read More ›
CO2
The human body (the same goes approximately for most other animals) is composed of 65% oxygen, 18.5% carbon, and 9.5% hydrogen by mass. Although hydrogen is less than 10% of the mass, 62% of the number of atoms in the… Read More ›
Astrology
Some of my friends take astrology seriously. I could never quite understand their fascination. I admit that I don’t know the foundational principles of astrology. Can they explain them to me? No, they can’t. They just believe that astrologers know… Read More ›
Pandemic and Power Grab
On a mailing list I was on someone asked if “this crisis going to increase Government role in society? That would be a terrible outcome!” That was back in April. My reply was the following. I am posting it here,… Read More ›
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
The internet is incredible in every sense of that word, defined variously as “so implausible as to elicit disbelief; not credible; astonishing, extraordinary; surpassing the possibility of belief as to what is possible; unimaginable; inconceivable; too extraordinary and improbable to… Read More ›
Delusions
Humans are endowed with a cognitive faculty unique among all animals — we have the ability to not only lie to others but we can also lie to ourselves. Self-delusion surely imposes a heavy cognitive burden but there must be… Read More ›
