Despite Republican obstructions, President Obama had a spectacular 2014

2014 was one of the most remarkable years in recent memory from an American President. Republicans in the United States like to call Obama a ‘dictator’ but, to the extent that’s true, it’s because the ‘people’s representatives’ in the U.S. congress failed to show up. Only a last minute burst of activity prevented the 113th…

A simple test to debunk stupid comspiracy theories

One of my absolute favorite YouTube channels is Kurzgesagt (which means “in a nutshell” in German). They do a great job of explaining complex concepts (usually science topics) in plain English with simple animations. This week they deviated from their normal heavy topics (time, space, energy etc) to take on one of my biggest pet…

Take a moment to read the messages on David Tennant’s desk in Gracepoint

For a few glorious years David Tennant was the Doctor, probably the best actor to play the role (at least until Peter Capaldi came along). This year Tennant is on American television in Gracepoint, which is a remake of the UK drama Broadchurch (which also featured Tenant in the exact same role). In Gracpoint, Tennant…

The GMO industry should stop fighting labels and focus on public education

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) have been around for a long time now. They were first introduced in the 1980s and since that time no significant evidence has emerged that they are harmful. Despite this, bans on GMOs and calls for labeling genetically modified products at the retail level continue to gain strength. Despite the fact…

Will all of our climate change action be undone by squirrels?

For the first time in forever people might be forgiven for feeling just a bit optimistic about stopping climate change. Although the deal is certainly not perfect and has many critics, an agreement was reached by a large number of countries in Lima, Peru a few days ago. It doesn’t do much but there is…

Even if the warnings by Musk and Hawking are valid, not much can be done to slow artificial intelligence

Recently two very intelligent and well known individuals, Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking, have made headlines by warning us about the ‘dangers’ of artificial intelligence (AI). While I hate to disagree with such brilliant people, I’m not as worried about the future of AI. However, even if I was, I know that there isn’t much…

Is American politics about to repeat the story arc of the West Wing? Ask Elizabeth Warren.

Photo by Tim Pierce In the West Wing, if you’ve never seen it or need a refresher, Marin Sheen played President Jed Bartlett. Bartlett, a former two-term governor, was best described as an idealistic pragmatist. He believed in the basic goodness of Americans and did his best to solve problems but was politically savvy and willing…

Traditional Values: Apparently getting drunk and making art predate humanity itself

It has been a busy couple of days in the study of mans early ancestors and it turns out that “man” discovered both alcohol and art long before we even became Homo sapiens. Conventional wisdom holds that man discovered alcohol at about the same time we learned to store food, approximately 9,000 years ago. However,…

Technology may not have revolutionized education yet, but it should have

There is a great deal of debate about whether or not technology will revolutionize education. To me the debate itself points out a problem. With the number of free and low-cost educational resources that technology has made available it should have, at least to an extent. The fact that it hasn’t points to a problem…