Saturday, May 19, 2012 Dear Arizona, If Obama's Not American, Then Neither Are You (38 comments)
In a recent email exchange, Ken Bennett, Arizona's sitting Republican Secretary of State, dredged up a particularly malodorous scoop of political muck by stating that "if Hawaii can't or won't provide verification of the president's birth certificate, I will not put his name on the ballot."
Saturday, April 21, 2012 The Graveyard of Empires: The Debacle that is the US Mission in Afghanistan (3 comments)
In the long years since the US launched Operation Enduring Freedom, endless miscues have transformed the mission in Afghanistan from unprecedented early success into America's longest and, increasingly, messiest war.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012 The Monkey Wars: Tennessee's New Monkey Bill Attacks "Controversial Science" (2 comments)
The people who composed the New Monkey Bill, and the spineless governor who stood idly by as it became a law, are intent upon undermining science education. The Old Monkey Bill brazenly trumpeted its anti-scientific objectives where the New Monkey Bill is more subtle. Nevertheless, it is still designed to achieve precisely the same objective: privileging anti-science, and undermining science.
Thursday, April 12, 2012 Airlines Considering Plan to Charge Passengers by the Pound - Satire (1 comments)
(Satire)
Some major airlines, such as Universal Air, have begun considering plans to charge passengers by the pound in response to Allegiant Airline's recently-announced plan to charge up to $35 per carry-on bag.
"It's simple math," stated Howard Fine, a spokesperson for Universal Airlines, a rival of Allegiant Air. "Heavier passengers cost more to ship from point A to point B."
Wednesday, March 14, 2012 The New World Order: Rush Limbaugh vs. Empowered Women in the 21st Century (3 comments)
Perhaps it was due to the harshness of the terminology that Limbaugh used to excoriate Sandra Fluke that he ran afoul of his supporters. Truly, it is difficult to find humor in the profoundly stigmatizing labels that Limbaugh sought to apply to Sandra Fluke.
Monday, February 27, 2012 The Sacred and the Profane: Religion, Military Occupation, and Intolerance in the Age of Reason The Sacred and the Prof (2 comments)
As of February 25, 2012, the death toll in Afghanistan keeps climbing (28 killed in one week of rioting), but this time it's not because of terrorism, or because of some sneaky campaign by the Taliban or al Qaeda. No, on this occasion it's because some American troops accidentally--or, perhaps, intentionally--incinerated a number of Qur'ans, the sacred text of the Muslim faith.
Friday, February 17, 2012 Darwin Day: Celebrating the Scientist that People Love to Hate (3 comments)
Charles Darwin (February 12, 1809-1882) is without doubt one of the most important scientists who ever lived. He is also one of the most controversial. First published in 1859, Darwin's theory of evolution has proven to be one of the most groundbreaking achievements in the history of science.
Monday, February 13, 2012 Ayn Rand: The Blinkered Visionary (19 comments)
It is worth emphasizing at this point that arch free marketers, such as Ayn Rand, typically endorse a qualified view of "government interference." Since the modern nation-state is tasked with the responsibility of maintaining a monetary system, in spite of Rand's idyllic view of a 100% laissez faire business environment, it would be impossible for an economic system to function in total isolation from government intervention.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011 A Bungling Fox in the Henhouse: The Corporatization of Higher Education (11 comments)
Milton Friedman, who cooked up the modern-day version of free market mumbo jumbo (aka, neo-liberalism) that brought the global economy to its knees in 2008. Three cheers for Uncle Milty! May he rest in peace and may his reprehensible ideas remain in repose with him for a long, long time to come.
Sunday, November 13, 2011 Occupying America: Middle Class Outrage Finally Transforms into a Movement (1 comments)
The film, Inside Job, won the 2011 Academy Award for best documentary. Charles Ferguson the director of Inside Job kicked off his Oscar acceptance speech with the following statement, "Forgive me, I must start by pointing out that three years after our horrific financial crisis caused by financial fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail, and that's wrong."
Monday, November 7, 2011 Captain America, The All-American Drughead (1 comments)
So, how do we know that Captain America is a true, blue American? Well, for starters, Cap is wrapped in the flag from head to toe. There could hardly be a clearer message: this guy represents the USA. He's strong, he's fast, he's fearless, and he is all of these things because he is...( drum roll, please )...a drughead!
Friday, November 4, 2011 Science, Technology And The Future: The Promises And Pitfalls Of Elevated Thinking (6 comments)
As we assess the current state of global affairs, it is easy to become disheartened. Problems that have plagued human society--poverty, hunger, disease, conflict, etc.--seem to grow more serious with each passing year. Yet, humans have always confronted seemingly insoluble problems.
Sunday, October 30, 2011 Publication And Progress At The Speed Of Thought (1 comments)
Einstein once said that imagination was more important than knowledge. By that, Einstein meant that scientific innovation was more a product of groundbreaking leaps of imaginative insight than a ponderous accumulation of isolated facts. In his own career, Einstein demonstrated time and again that scientific progress is often predicated on breaking free from established modes of thought and replacing old ideas with revolutionar
Monday, October 10, 2011 Steve Jobs, the Internet, and Revolutions at the Speed of Thought (4 comments)
Einstein once said that imagination was more important than knowledge. By that, Einstein meant that scientific innovation was more a product of groundbreaking leaps of imaginative insight than a ponderous accumulation of isolated facts.
Sunday, October 2, 2011 Holy Megabucks, Batman! The Astounding Popularity of Superhero Movies (3 comments)
Ever since people invented anthropomorphic gods--such as Thor, the star of a recent superhero blockbuster--it's fair to say that humans have been fascinated with superhumans. The coolest thing about superhumans is that they are sublimely untroubled by the mundane problems that plague mere mortals. Compared to the gods, humans are puny, weak, and insignificant.
Thursday, September 15, 2011 Introduction to a New Book: Good Science (7 comments)
Science is a vehicle for change. Arguably, no human endeavor has ever altered the course of history more dramatically than science. Further, the effects of scientific inquiry on the earth and its inhabitants, though already substantial, are certain to increase in the future. Homo sapiens is fast becoming Homo scientia.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 Cajun Culture Wars: Another Victory for LouSEA Science Education (5 comments)
While at first blush the Louisiana Science Education Act (or LouSEA) appears to be an effort to promote science in the schools, a closer reading reveals that LouSEA is naught but a thinly-veiled attempt to subvert the federal ban on teaching religion in the public education system.
Saturday, July 23, 2011 Redefining Reality: Seeing is Disbelieving (1 comments)
Redefining reality is a process through which individuals can challenge inadequate paradigms through a combination of astute observation and an ingenious capacity for innovative cognition (i.e., agency).
Thursday, July 21, 2011 Good Science: An Evolutionary Theory of Truth (26 comments)
Thomas Kuhn argued that scientific revolutions take place when dominant paradigms are dislodged by emergent paradigms. Science undergoes such transitions when established paradigms fail to account for an increasing number of empirical anomalies. Though scientists are generally loath to admit it, the accumulation of scientific knowledge is a social enterprise and is, thus, replete with human shortcomings.
Thursday, July 21, 2011 Living the Dream: Transcending the Boundary between Sci-Fi and Reality (6 comments)
Ever since Star Trek hit the airwaves, enthusiasts have been determined to erase the boundary between the realm of Star Trek fantasy and the real world. Although many Trekkies have become submerged in what Baudrillard would characterize as a pointless simulation, others have derived sufficient motivation from Star Trek to successfully redefine reality.
Thursday, July 14, 2011 Agency vs. Determinism: Redefining Reality One Creative Idea at a Time (1 comments)
A surprising number of people believe that the universe is deterministic. Determinists believe that humans don't have any control over their lives, or the world around them. In contrast, I argue that humans have a capacity for agency--or a form of individual-level intellectual creativity that enables individuals to conceive original ideas and then act upon those inspirations.
Monday, July 4, 2011 Live Long and Prosper: The 100 Year Starship Project (1 comments)
The Defense Advanced Research Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently announced an extraordinary new project, the 100 Year Starship Study, http://www.100yss.org . Depending upon your perspective, this could either be the craziest or the coolest project ever undertaken by a US federal agency.
Friday, June 10, 2011 Conquering the Beast Within and Without: Maintaining a Sibling Rivalry with Big Brother (3 comments)
For his part, Hobbes was convinced that social control was the key to human progress. No matter how refined any individual may appear, Hobbes was convinced that a primitive beast lurked within. Yet, though Hobbes believed that a savage resided within every human heart, he also believed that it was possible to tame those internal beasts.
Thursday, June 9, 2011 Butchery vs. Surgery: A Political Health Plan for the Middle East (1 comments)
Even though I tend to be an advocate of peaceful diplomacy, I support the spirit of the US military intervention in Libya. Given the available alternatives, I would vastly prefer to see the US and NATO providing military support for Libyan rebels than standing idly by while Qaddafi exacts brutal revenge on his enemies.
Saturday, May 28, 2011 There Be Dragons: Science as the Realization of Fantasy (8 comments)
For centuries, dragons have animated the folklore of many cultures. Whereas, dark matter and energy remain conceptual constructs that are intelligible to only a small number of ivory tower scientists. As such, of the two fantasies, one could argue that fire-breathing dragons have a substantially stronger footing in reality.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011 If Obama's Not an American, Then Neither Are You (18 comments)
In the days since Osama Bin Laden's execution much of the hullabaloo surrounding Barack Obama's citizenship has quieted. Putting a bullet through Osama's brain did more to convince the public that Barack Obama is a true-blue American than any deluge of replica birth certificates ever could.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 iPad Delusions: The Curious Appeal of Workaround Computing (1 comments)
Don't get me wrong, I like Steve Jobs: he's a visionary who's done more to spearhead the personal computing revolution than anyone in history, and I hope he lives to be at least two hundred years old. Three cheers for Steve! But, that said, he's got this one wrong.
Saturday, May 7, 2011 Osama is Dead, But What Have We Learned? (2 comments)
As everyone knows, Osama became a household name when we was infamously identified as the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks. However, 9/11 was not Osama's first atrocity. Not by a long shot. In the 1990s, Osama orchestrated a sequence of bombings at US embassies in Africa. At the time, Bill Clinton's many detractors insisted that the President was wagging the dog when, in the midst the Lewinsky scandal, he mounted military op
Monday, May 2, 2011 A Prelude to Good Science (2 comments)
Although I believe it is possible to identify demonstrable improvements in the progression of scientific paradigms, I do not believe that any paradigm that humans ever have or will produce is an expression of "The Ultimate Truth." Nonetheless, the process of redefining reality is an expression of human agency. Agency can be understood as a unique quality of creative, sentient beings and it involves three key components.
Saturday, April 16, 2011 iUniversity: Building Bridges to the Future (1 comments)
If we want to blaze a path toward a better, brighter future, then we should do our best to ensure that every aspiring student has the necessary opportunities to access the innovation-inspiring environment of higher education. We may not know who the next Page, Brin or Zuckerberg will be, but the odds of producing the next generation of inspired geniuses will only increase by expanding access to higher education.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011 A New Energy Future: Obama's Sputnik Moment (1 comments)
Far-reaching as Barack Obama's new energy vision may be, the current plan has a number of glaring deficiencies. For one, where does renewable energy fit into the picture?
Tuesday, March 29, 2011 Nuclear Nightmares: Damned Lies about the World's "Safest" Energy Source (1 comments)
Implausible as it may seem, as the Fukushima Daiichi disaster has grown more cataclysmic, nuclear energy advocates have come out of the woodwork to tout the virtues of nuclear as a "safe" form of energy. Safe? Last night, rain containing measurable levels of radiation from Fukushima Daiichi fell on the east coast of the United States. If nuclear energy is safe, then Hitler was a charter member of the Anti-Defamation League.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011 AI and IQ: The Right Answer to the Wrong Question (1 comments)
In the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a group of truth-seekers entreats Deep Thought, an artificially-intelligent supercomputer, to reveal the answer to the most elusive question in existence, "What is the meaning of life, the universe and everything?"
Sunday, March 6, 2011 Pouring Gas on the Fire: Hugo Chavez Reaches out to Qaddafi (5 comments)
Sensing that his comrade might be in hot water, Hugo Chavez has offered to serve as a mediator between Qaddafi and Libya's fed-up citizenry. Let's see, what kind of special skills would Hugo Chavez bring to the negotiating table?
Sunday, March 6, 2011 Bill Gates is an Idiot: A Recipe for Educational Failure (9 comments)
Bill Gates should stick to what he does best: selling crappy software. As an education analyst he is a fish out of water. Software experts should run software companies. The more we rely on software experts to design educational policy, the greater the chance that we'll end up with Microsoft Vista-version of schooling.
Friday, March 4, 2011 We should spend more on education and less on... (1 comments)
In response to Governor Scott Walker's reprehensible proposal to slash $834 million from the state of Wisconsin's education budget, I would like to make a counter-proposal. We should spend more on education and less on...
Thursday, March 3, 2011 Artificial Intelligence: Is Watson the Real Thing? (1 comments)
Artificial intelligence represents a threshold in computing that may someday transform machines into human-like entities. In a world grown used to rapid technological progress, it hardly stretches the imagination to contemplate next-generation computers that are substantially smaller and more powerful than their predecessors. However, the goal of transforming computers into sentient beings is an entirely different matter.
Saturday, October 31, 2009 Welfare Cheats: Corporate America on the Dole (1 comments)
In the 1990s, Bill Clinton ended welfare as we know it. Ironically, in 2008, George W. Bush once again ended welfare as we knew it. Whereas welfare had once been a system of social safety nets designed to moderate distress among the poor, during 2008, the federal government retooled welfare to bail out an entirely new cohort of economic bunglers: corporate America.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009 A Waste of Space: Inspired Leadership and the Struggle for the Next Great Frontier
Why bother with space travel? Because, quite simply, the stars light the way to a brighter future. Space travel served as the path to Kennedy's New Frontier in the 1960s. If the US remains committed to accomplishing ever greater feats in the future, then we should look to the stars to light our way. Thus, space travel is not a distraction. Space travel represents the path to America's next Great Frontier.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009 Capitalism 101: The Money Tree (3 comments)
In the aftermath of the 2008 financial meltdown, Ben Bernanke, America's leading scholar of the Great Depression, has been credited with saving the nation's economy.
For the purposes of accomplishing his Miracle, Ben Bernanke suspended some of the most fundamental rules of capitalism.
