Category: Random

Population growth must stop. Regardless of what we believe the resource limit of the planet is, it is clear that there is a limit. If population growth continues, we will hit that limit. As the saying goes, anything which can not go on forever will stop. Fortunately, the rate of growth of population is slowing.…

A depressing article about some books about Iraq, written by soldiers and a journalist who were there during the initial invasion. Of course war has huge human costs, but it’s hard to be unmoved by these stories about a war of choice. And it’s very hard to reconcile them with our goals and our inability…

I watched the Democratic debate on Saturday night. There was a question about how things are going better in Iraq now, perhaps thanks to the surge, and what that meant to the candidates Iraq plans. There were some good answers, but I was surprised by an omission. Moktada al-Sadr, the head of the Mahdi army,…

Why don’t people routinely make appliances which work together? The refrigerator generates heat; this should be routed into the oven. The oven generates heat; this should be routed into the hot water heater. This is probably not significant energy usage compared to cars; is it not worth doing at all? We need to keep working…

I saw Kim Stanley Robinson speak today. He gave a good talk on climate change, which was of course the subject of this most recent trilogy of SF novels. He said a few things which I thought were interesting. He gave an interesting definition of ideology which unfortunately I don’t remember precisely. He said, quoting…