What, Why & How do we Know ?
Bumped into Michael in the Pick – my first night there in weeks, probably his last in months, and when I mentioned I’d been to the Athabasca Tar Sands in Alberta the week before last, he revealed that his father had developed and exploited a radio / radar based probe for surveying tar sand deposits … Continue reading “A Little More Synchronicity”
Cronies in Arms. This is a Common Dreams article (via Jorn) by Paul Krugman, describing Enron / Hallburton / Cheney / US-Arms situations in frightening detail. One powerful quote “When one top executive learned of millions in further losses, his e-mailed response summed up the whole strategy: Close a bigger deal. Hide the loss before … Continue reading “Cronies in Arms”
Mentioned earlier that Foucault & Quine (and many others) consistently warn against the “simplification” implicit in scientific method when arriving at descriptions of the world. Part of my thesis that “received rationality” is unwise in complex systems, and I’ve already used the thought of “Avoiding cutting one’s own throat with Occam’s Razor” in my original … Continue reading “Careful with that Razor, Occam !”
Normal Mailer on US Psyche and 9/11. Full text from the Times interview with Mailer, from Google (in two parts) via Jorn. Long interview on thoughts around the US Psyche, following 9/11 / Enron / Andersens / WorldCom etc and “why nobody loves us”. Powerful stuff about rationality, the complexity of life, and a reasonable … Continue reading “Normal Mailer on US Psyche and 9/11”
Web Services. The plumbing of XML. The Cape Science WebLog of tools and resources around web services, inlcudes background for the “neophyte”. Link also added to sidebar.
Bjorn Lomborg. Saw this guy do his “alternative” documentary on the Earth Summit last night on the beeb. Turning most global warming / natural resources / industrial polution / global economics received wisdom on its head. The individual mechanisms may well all be technically (scientifically) correct, but the long term emergent effects are much more … Continue reading “Bjorn Lomborg”
Still reading – been busy recently – not too much time to research / blog, but still reading. Excellent stuff on language and taxonomies, and the organic complexity involved – all relevant.
Decision Making Chaos at NASA. Dr W H Jones at SpaceRef.Com (via Jorn). Interesting observation that “political considerations” force rationalisation of immediate tangibles to justify investment, even where these bear no relation to the real long term goals. (As an aside – the long term goal is apparently to get us off the planet – … Continue reading “Decision Making Chaos at NASA”