At the moment the United States is THE world power, but that will change… China still has a lot of areas which need to and will be updated to the most modern technology. They will eventually have tractors for all farms, for example. Because of the potential there and the lower base they are starting [...]
Will we soon be able to engineer a new human species? Juan Enriquez, a writer, investor, and managing director of Excel Venture Management, thinks so. He wrote the book “As the Future Catches You: How Genomics & Other Forces Are Changing Your Life, Work, Health & Wealth, as well as the more recent, “Homo Evolutis: [...]
What is Weber’s Law, and why should you know about it? Ernst Heinrich Weber (1795–1878) studied human response to a physical stimulus in a quantitative fashion. In one experiment, he blindfolded a man and gradually increased the weight he was holding. The subject was told to respond as soon as he felt the increase. It [...]
What are self-correcting systems? They are processes which naturally return toward a “normal” state when they have moved away from that state by a significant distance. Flickr photo by eutrophication&hypoxia For example, when it gets too hot in the afternoons here in Colorado, the clouds form from the hot air rising up over the mountains [...]
Is there a connection between capitalism and morality? It is often assumed that capitalism and free market philosophies are justified on the basis of their effectiveness at creating wealth, jobs, or healthy economies. Though that is the common view, it is not the only basis for supporting “laissez faire” economic systems. In fact, some political [...]
I love to discover new ways of thinking about things. This is one of the reasons I like reading about the latest research in any of the many subject areas in which I have an interest. Flickr photo by Tripp An example is the study I recently read about in Shankar Vedantam’s book, The Hidden [...]
Yes, cars are almost certainly bad for the environment when looked at from most perspectives. But we should look at these things in context and with meaningful questions that get at the deeper issues. For an example, let’s ask this, “Bad for whose environment?” In other words, are we really entirely sure which environment is [...]
By Steve Gillman I am the rare people who has a subscription to Mother Jones and Forbes magazine at the same time. I like to read widely, and that (for me) means reading articles that come from many different perspectives and biases. Mother Jones has important stories that just don’t get covered elsewhere–that need to [...]
I once said here that to cut the cost of medical care in half we need only make health and medical insurance illegal. I wasn’t suggesting that we actually do that, but only that the result would be much cheaper medical care, and that this suggests something about the mixed blessings of the whole concept [...]
I recently changed the Unusual Ways (To Make and Save Money) newsletter from an autoresponder (never mind what that is – not important) to a real newsletter that I produce each week. As a result I had a collection of pages that used to be only for subscribers that are now public. They include the [...]
