Monthly Archives: November 2005

uncertainty and moral absolutes

Mark Kleiman unwittingly expresses a case for limiting government in general: This is a special case of an underappreciated general principle: the difficulty of judging consequences in advance means that we should pay more attention to means, relative to ends, … Continue reading

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Creative Destruction

Sameer Parekh writes: It appears that everytime I post to the blog, I start the post with, “it’s been a while since I’ve posted here.” No wonder I forgot that he has a blog!

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like illiteracy is a kind of literacy

Another thing I wouldn’t mind hearing less of: the word infamous used as an emphatic synonym for famous.

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wacky microgravity tricks

Does this really work?

Posted in cartoons, sciences | 1 Comment

any old papers please

Today’s assignment was in a building where I hadn’t worked before, so I didn’t know about the fascist gatekeeper. Luckily my Costco card has a picture of me. I oughta make a laminated card with my picture and a name … Continue reading

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flies on fire

It’s a fair bet that my readers include at least one Mutant Enemy fanatic. Got a couple of canon questions for ya. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, anyone seen smoking is either evil, under a spell or doomed. (There’s one … Continue reading

Posted in cinema | 1 Comment

refractin’ back atcha

A few of my Povray scenes include objects with negative indices of refraction; I’ve said of this one that three-quarters of it cannot exist in the real world. Now I read in The Economist that, because a negative-refractive slab could … Continue reading

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