When I was younger (say, 8 to 15), I was fascinated by the paranormal books and magazines, like Omni, pyramid power, UFOs, etc. Later on (say, 12 to 15 or so) I became, and remain, more skeptical. In law school I helped co-found a local skeptics’ group, at first named Mid-South Skeptics Association, and later […]
Love this post by Bryan Caplan: Why T.V. is Great for the Family Yesterday my baby acquired a valuable life skill: He learned how to watch television. I’m thrilled for at least three reasons: 1. Television is fun. I don’t want my son to miss out on one of life’s great pleasures. 2. Television is […]
A friend passed this story on to me–Man Builds Computer Inside Computer Game. It reminded me of John Conway’s Game of Life, which I was fascinated with in grad school. This is a “cellular automaton” simulation invented by Cambridge mathematician John Conway. “This game became widely known when it was mentioned in an article published by […]
The Acton Institute is now offering Digital Downloads of the MP3 files of its Acton University Lectures–for only a couple bucks each! Wow!<sarcasm off> Contrast this to things like podcasting; iTunes U; and the Mises Institute’s wildly popular and successful 21st Century open-information approach (Doug French, “The Intellectual Revolution Is in Process“; Jeff Tucker, “A […]
I was trying to figure out the relative wattages of various Apple power adapters I have–for the MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro–to see which is compatible with other MacBooks. While doing this it occurred to me that it might be helpful to provide a quick little factoid/tutorial for non-EEs who get confused by the […]
Of course, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Segway guys sue them for patent infringement.
Last night I downloaded Magic Piano for iPad, by Smule (iTunes page; Smule page). This incredible app cost only $0.99. Several things about it startled me. First, the sound is very good–the imitation of piano sound, and the speakers on the iPad. Second, I didn’t realize the iPad’s multitouch allowed so many simultaneous touches to […]
Fundamentalist Christians are often “young earthers” who believe the Bible is literally true often think the earth and human history is only 6,000 to 10,000 years old–you get this by counting enumerated generations in the bible back to Adam and Eve. This leads to ridiculous theories about dinosaurs living contemporaneously with man, skepticism of carbon-dating […]
I’ve posted recently about Net Neutrality–see Net Neutrality Developments and A Libertarian Take on Net Neutrality. There’s an interesting discussion about this and related issues on the EconTalk podcast, between host Russ Roberts and Yochai Benkler of Harvard. Benkler really knows his stuff and it comes thru in this fascinating and informative discussion. As he […]
In recent years the “Net Neutrality” movement has gained steam. This is an effort by various statists, interventionists, do-gooders, meddlers, and techno-ignoramuses who seek to have the government forbid network providers (e.g. cable companies, telcos, and wireless carriers) from selectively blocking certain types of Internet use–for example, to require companies to give Web users equal […]
