The other day I realized some of the problem that people call the culture war. It occurred to me that the reason some people doubt science is because they do not know that what is written in scientific papers is not someone’s idea, it is the result of a lot of work to get to the facts of a situation. For those who believe in things – and by “believe” here, I mean in the absence of evidence – it…
I just want this out there: I bet investment in a cure for Monkey Pox will increase rapidly now that it is infecting people in the West. Now we care about Monkey Pox. At the moment we value lives differently depending upon a hierarchy. Here’s how I think it works, most valuable to least valuable: Yourself Your family People you know People who share your beliefs and your physical region People who share your physical region People who share your…
If you’re reading this, you’re probably a Christian or in a Christian-majority country. If so, this post is for you. If not, then I don’t know enough about your God to reject him so easily. In this post I want to set forth my reasons for not believing in the Christian / Jewish God. This includes the pantheon of Catholicism (Mary, God/Jesus, and the saints), as well as the newer Christianities that rely on the Old Testament / Torah and…
A thing that is hard for many people is that science is always improving. Scientists study a wide array of subjects and, as they continue to study things, they refine or improve their understanding of reality. As with almost all disciplines, the science of agriculture, farming, or gardening has made strides. Ploughing (US: plowing) or digging is now known to be a bad idea. It makes your plants grow less well and destroys the soil for a long period of…
I have made my last blog post into a video. It incorporates some extra information and utilizes the video format. See it below:
I never really liked Nigel Farage. He seemed like a guy I’d dislike if I met him in person. But as leader of UKIP, I believed that he believed what he said about sovereignty and about democracy. I didn’t see this evil being that the political left portrayed him as – instead I saw this man who was standing up to politicians who were obviously not listening to their voters because of a first-past-the-post system that doesn’t reflect the people’s…
There are two perspectives on life and after-life. “Only two?” you might reasonably wonder. I would argue that there are only two of all binary choices. You only have the choice between standing up and not standing up. If you choose to do anything other than standing up, you are choosing the other thing. There is subtlety here – you can do millions of things that aren’t standing up – but if the sets that you are working within are…
Senator Maggie Hassan (D. NH) wrote to subscribers to her newsletter to celebrate an extremely regressive and ill-advised policy by the Democratic administration. Here’s her email and my response: Maggie Hassan’s email Families are reeling from the impact of Putin’s war and supply chain challenges, and Granite Staters are paying the price at the pump. It’s clear that we need to take additional action to bring down costs for families. To help bring down high oil and gas prices, I…
This post is a little bit of prediction – pretending we can see the future clearly, and describing what it will be like. Specifically, I will make some predictions for the global economy in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, climate change, and the supply chain issues arising from COVID-19. How the economy will change: EU and Brexit Let’s get the elephant in the room packed up in his trunk and moved into another room which better suits its…
ArsTechnica has a thoroughly researched and very well-written article about how well the COVID-19 vaccines protect and whether they are worth getting if you have already been infected by any of the virus’s five variants: Read about the COVID-19 vaccine as at March 28th, 2022.