27 DEC 2016 by ideonexus
Moderate Progressive Politics
We would, though, like to suggest that in some key areas, the people who are defining themselves as the progressive wing of the Democratic Party — identified with Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — are embracing principles that are not genuinely progressive.
Specifically: They want to enlarge government entitlements and hand out the benefits as broadly as possible — free college, free health care, expanded Social Security — regardless of need or available r... 1 
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notes10 MAY 2016 by ideonexus
You Need More than Passion to Change the World
You have to go through life with more than just passion for change; you need a strategy. I'll repeat that. I want you to have passion, but you have to have a strategy. Not just awareness, but action. Not just hashtags, but votes.
[...]
But to bring about structural change, lasting change, awareness is not enough. It requires changes in law, changes in custom. If you care about mass incarceration, let me ask you: How are you pressuring members of Congress to pass the criminal justice ... 1 notes
notes31 MAY 2015 by ideonexus
The Evolving View of Science and Evil
Daedalus begins with an artillery bombardment on
the Western Front, the shell bursts nonchalantly annihilating
the human protagonists who are supposed to
be in charge of the battle. This opening scene epitomizes
Haldane's hard-headed view of war. And likewise
at the end, when the biologist in his laboratory, "just a
poor little scrubby underpaid man groping blindly amid
the mazes of the ultramicroscopic," is transfigured into
the mythical figure of Daedalus, "conscious of his
ghastly mission ... 1 notes
notes31 MAY 2015 by ideonexus
The Supercollider Was an Unreasonable Gamble`
Now particle physics in the United States is struggling
to survive the d isaster of the Supercond ucting
Supercollid er. The Supercollid er was a gigantic particle
accelerator project that was canceled in 1 993 after about
3 billion d ollars had alread y been spent on it. The
cancellation was a personal traged y for many of my
friend s who had d evoted the best years of their lives to
the project. But when I speak of the d isaster of the
Supercond ucting Supercollid er, I d o not mean the can...Folksonomies: socialism government funding
Folksonomies: socialism government funding
1 notes
notes13 FEB 2015 by ideonexus
Bypass Traditional Media to Avoid Divisions
There's no incentive for most members of Congress, on the House side at least, in congressional districts, to even bother trying to appeal. And a lot of it has to do with just unlimited money. So people are absorbing an entirely different reality when it comes to politics, even though the way they're living their lives and interacting with each other isn't that polarizing. So my advice to a future president is increasingly try to bypass the traditional venues that create divisions and try to...Folksonomies: new media
Folksonomies: new media
1 notes
notes02 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Human History is One of Neccessity VS Freedom
The history of mankind is one of continuous development from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom. This process is never-ending. In any society in which classes exist class struggle will never end. In classless society the struggle between the new and the old and between truth and falsehood will never end. In the fields of the struggle for production and scientific experiment, mankind makes constant progress and nature undergoes constant change, they never remain at the same level. ...
1 And science is the tool that brings us increasing freedom.
03 OCT 2013 by ideonexus
Specialization is the Way to Extinction
Now let us examine more closely what we know scientifically about
extinction. At the annual Congress of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science, as held approximately ten years ago in
Philadelphia, two papers were presented in widely-separated parts
of the Congress. One was presented in anthropology and the other
in biology, and though the two author-scientists knew nothing of
each other's efforts they were closely related. The one in
anthropology examined the case histories o... 1 notes
notesSpecialization comes at the cost of general adaptability. So when the environment changes, the highly-specialized go extinct.
29 MAY 2013 by ideonexus
Metric System Adoption Must be Emergent
Thanks for your petition.
There’s a lot of history here. Right after the Civil War, President Andrew Johnson signed legislation that made it "lawful throughout the United States of America to employ the weights and measures of the metric system in all contracts, dealings or court proceedings." In 1875, the United States was one of the original 17 nations to sign the Treaty of the Metre. Since the 1890s, U.S. customary units (the mile, pound, teaspoon, etc.) have all been defined in terms of... 1 notes
notesThe government can't impose it's adoption, and can only encourage and enable it. Switching to the metric system must begin at home.
19 JAN 2013 by ideonexus
History of the Fairness Doctrine and Rise of Media Relati...
The intellectual erosion of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, as science sat silently on the sidelines and anti-science rose to rule on both the left and the right, was greatly worsened in August of 1987 when, during the administration of President Ronald Reagan, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) abolished what was called the "fairness doctrine" in an historic 4-0 vote, severing one of the last ties to a common public foundation of knowledge and its cousin, the carefully researched publi... 1 notes
notesOnce the Doctrine was removed, the media turned to emotive appeals to bring in audiences and public discourse declined.
06 JAN 2013 by ideonexus
There's No Such Thing as a "One-Handed Scientist"
The rub, of course, is that everybody else thinks that science should provide the answers. Remember the Concorde? Back in the early 1970s, Congress was debating supersonic transport, trying to decide whether such aircraft would represent a danger when flown over the United States. Would their big engines flying high in the sky cut a hole in the ozone and let in solar radiation? Would the plane make sonic booms as it flew over people’s neighborhoods? And so on.
Senator Edmund Muskie (D-ME) ... 1 notes
notesScientists must consider all the evidence and factor nuance into their positions. This is illustrated with an interesting historical anecdote about a Congressional review concerning the safety of the Concord jet.
