Thorium as a fuel source

"If Barack Obama were to marshal America’s vast scientific and strategic resources behind a new Manhattan Project, he might reasonably hope to reinvent the global energy landscape and sketch an end to our dependence on fossil fuels within three to five years."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/7970619/Obama-could-kill-fossil-fuels-overnight-with-a-nuclear-dash-for-thorium.html

Sounds like a better use for federal funds than short term social programs.

Fiscal Conservatism

Optoon Cartoons (Click to Enlarge)




http://optoons.blogspot.com/2010/08/us-presidents-on-debt-click-image-to.html

How to look good with a bike

Try to get a bike that fits you, physically and symbolically

Commander in Chief

From Ann Althouse:

"That picture says so much: Obama is distracted by the trivial problems of taking his wife out somewhere expensive while the poor people of the Gulf are waiting and waiting for help. The disapproving glance of his wife gets more attention than the appeals of the hurricane victims. He's fortunate enough to have the kind of weather problem that can be solved by a simple umbrella, which wouldn't be any help at all in a hurricane. And yet his handling of an umbrella in a drizzle is incompetent, so how could he deal with a hurricane? The picture says: How can Obama understand/care/do anything about Katrina?"

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2010/08/drudge-is-giving-obama-hard-time-this.html

Go All Blacks

9/9/11-Start of the Rugby World Cup.

http://thebubble.msn.com/#/video/?id=606eccbd-b568-4e91-b68c-92f7034673a3

Education

I have a lot of problems with the educational system in this country. I tend to believe that teachers are overpaid (retiring with multi-million dollar pensions) and underqualified and seem to have no ability or desire to improve education. What changes have occurred in education in the last 200 years?

Bill Gates, richest man on earth, likes the FREE Khan Academy, a one man operation that places YouTube lectures on the internet for anyone, anywhere. When will educators start making use of technological advances?

Many students can be taught in self-paced computer-based learning programs, monitored by teaching aides, with some small group teacher supervised discussion groups. Perhaps guidance counselors, physical education, arts, etc, are the only teachers that we need.

http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/08/29/0456229/Bill-Gates-Enrolls-His-Kids-In-Khan-Academy

P.S. I am taking Yale classes through ITunes U for free. No credit but perhaps knowledge is more important than diplomas.

Oikophobia

Oikophobia is the word of the day. It is a combination of the word for home and the word for fear. It means fear of traditional values. We see examples of this constantly in media regarding the "Ground Zero Mosque", California Measure 8, Obama's comment about "clinging to guns and religion", etc.

It is one thing to seek improvement on the inherent problems with traditional values; it is another thing to simply be opposed to those values on the grounds that seems to be fear and to either be nihilistic or support a worse value system. To quote from Wikipedia: "The paradox of the oikophobe seems to be that any opposition directed at the theological and cultural tradition of the West is to be encouraged even if it is "significantly more parochial, exclusivist, patriarchal, and ethnocentric".

Solar Storm and Doom

"Astronomers are predicting that a massive solar storm, much bigger in potential than the one that caused spectacular light shows on Earth earlier this month, is to strike our planet in 2012 with a force of 100 million hydrogen bombs."

"Similar storms back in 1859 and 1921 caused worldwide chaos, wiping out telegraph wires on a massive scale. The 2012 storm has the potential to be even more disruptive."


http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20100826/981/tsc-massive-solar-storm-to-hit-earth-in_1.html

The Problem with Liberalism

In my Facebook profile, I describe myself as a "Liberal RWNJ". (RWNJ=Right Wing Nut Job) What I mean by this is that I tend to hold a liberal personal value system. However, as a social scientist and someone interested in political philosophy, I am concerned about public policies that actually work. Yes, I am in favor of greater equality in wealth, extensive immigration, sexual orientation equality, elimination of bigotry, and all those liberal agenda items.

For example, we have a long line of political philosophical thought from Socrates, Plato, Machiavelli, Hobbes, to Tocqueville, who have developed political systems that tend to work in the long term. While the idea of a philosopher king is appealing, that is only a short-term solution and the next philosopher king may not be quite as good. That is why I support systems of checks and balances, democratic inputs, etc. They limit and handcuff government but they also prevent abuse by those in power.

Similarly, I strongly believe that for a civilization to survive, you must have a moral tradition and appeal to cultural and social norms. A power elite that tries to progress faster than the culture will allow will result in a backlash. And a civilization that somehow rejects the moral traditions will have problems.

As to the social scientist, we have to be aware of not just the anticipated outcomes of a program but also the unintentioned consequences of our policies. People tend to react to policies in certain ways, based on their culture, social norms, and self interest.

The following article from the Economist (one of the most reliable magazines IMHO) illustrate the problem. In an attempt to open up home ownership and increase equality, the US embarked on series of policies which led to the current economic downturn. (And the current downturn is especially hard on the lower middle classes.)

"The problem, as often is the case with government policies, was not intent. It rarely is. But when lots of easy money pushed by a deep-pocketed government comes into contact with the profit motive of a sophisticated, competitive, and amoral financial sector, matters get taken far beyond the government’s intent."


http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2010/08/inequality_and_crash_0

Why Some Women Become Lesbians Later in Life - They meet the right woman, fall in love, then feel sexual desire

In his decision to overturn the voters' desires on marriage, the judge made the assertions that homosexuality was genetically based and not a matter of choice. He made this point on the basis of testimony that indicated that high percentages of gays and lesbians believed that they were born that way. Now, overlooking the fact that an opinion poll should in no way be considered the scientific proof, I questioned his conclusions. As a sociologist, I tend to believe that socialization has a lot of impact on our lifestyles. I have not studied the evidence recently and maybe the scientific evidence is piling up on the judge's side but I doubt it. For example, my gut feeling on lesbians agrees with this article: Women tend to seek love and affection and if another woman offers this love, a lesbian relationship will develop. Social needs trump genetics.

Why Some Women Become Lesbians Later in Life - They meet the right woman, fall in love, then feel sexual desire

Medicare Financing

Yesterday we heard reports that, because of Obamacare, Medicare was not much better off financially. The unwritten message was that all of those scare tactic articles about how Obamacare was going to bankrupt the country was misplaced. If you actually read the Medicare Trustee report you notice that the writers were the Secretaries of Labor, Treasury, Health Services and the head of Social Security. In other words, all the writers were political appointees of Obama.

However, the end of the report contains a letter from the actual Actuary of Medicare who basically stated that the projections used in the report are somewhat questionable and optimistic.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/08/consider-the-source/61096/

Media Matters

We live in troubling times. We just don't know who to turn to for the unvarnished truth. Or rather we have to do much more work than most of us would like to do or have the time to do.
Perhaps I am being naive here but I would hope that you have a reasonable expectation of reliable information from journalists, educators, and judges. These people are, I thought, in the objective information business. Then we discover that these people are as driven by idealogy as anyone else.

Of course they are not, in total. So, who can we trust? One would hope that maybe the slew of self-professed truth tellers out there balance the field. The FactCheck.org, Polifact, and Media Matters are three organizations dedicated, they say, to the truth. All three have made some goofy statements and seem to support a certain agenda.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/media-matters-shirley-sherrods-glenn-becks-co-hosts-with-edited-audio/

Digital Education vs. the Ruling Elite

I am very proud to have worked in an industry that basically phased itself out. A handful of people do the job that once employed thousands and yet the same job is being done. But teaching has hardly changed in hundreds of years. A classroom of 20-40 with a teacher. Have educators heard of the internet? Of computers? Self paced learning? There is a better way. A cheaper way. But we won't get there until there is more pressure to modernize.

Digital Education vs. the Ruling Elite

Updates:

UK has an Open University. Low cost, lectures on ITunes and the internet.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-10903088

Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008. Saving money on books. Why pay $200 for a textbook that probably can't be sold back because of some minor changes in a newer edition?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-08-07-college-textbooks_N.htm?csp=34news&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+usatoday-NewsTopStories+%28News+-+Top+Stories%29&utm_content=Google+Reader