"This was the voice of moderation until 13 Sept, 2025"
by liberal japonicus A podcast from the Freakonomics folks here asks why Japanese almost always buy a house, tear it down and build another one. It turns out that half of all homes in Japan are demolished within 38 years — compared to 100 years in the U.S. There is virtually no market for pre-owned homes … Read more
by liberal japonicus The open thread is still merrily rolling along, but I thought I'd toss another log on the fire. This article, about the lack of a J-shaped recovery in Japan hits me where I live, and I wonder what folks who actually understand economics think about it. The article mentions in passing something … Read more
by liberal japonicus I provide this link with the proviso that if you don't think this is interesting, you obviously are not treating the question of power generation seriously. Have at it.
by Doctor Science I said that I wasn’t sure it was a good idea for Bill Nye to debate Ken Ham. I’ve thought about it, and I know who *should* debate him: Fred Clark, the Slacktivist. Fred, an evangelical Christian (though of a liberal stripe), really understands where young-Earth creationism (YEC) like Ham’s is coming … Read more
by Doctor Science — they’ll just expose themselves to national embarrassment, while being used as a stalking-horse for out-of-state interests. You may have heard that the Kansas State House of Representatives just overwhelming passed a bill that, in the name of “religious freedom”, would permit any individual or entity — including government agents or agencies … Read more
by Doctor Science Performed by Ken Ham and Bill Nye: I didn’t watch the debate between Ken Ham and Bill Nye, I’ve been too busy working to devote 3 hours to writhing between embarrassment and rage. And I definitely fall (or fell) in the camp of scientists who thought Bill was just feeding the trolls … Read more
by Doctor Science — a text from Sprog the Younger this afternoon. Snow day again tomorrow. We haven’t had such a hard winter since the Fimbulwinter of 1993-94. For those of you who weren’t living in eastern North America at the time and may have forgotten it, that was the winter where e.g. New Jersey … Read more
by Doctor Science – occurred late in the spring semester of my senior year at college. I looked up from the paper I was writing, out the window to where the sky was lightening over Princeton with the dawn. I said to myself: “When you’re out there in the Real World™, you won’t be able … Read more
by Doctor Science Since I’m spending most of my time beating my head against code or doing other grownup stuff, here’s a short postette. As I’ve admitted before, I watch Teen Wolf. The show is in the second half of its third season, and by fannish calculation less than a year has passed and it’s … Read more
by liberal japonicus This article, by Jonathan Berger, the "Denning Family Provostial Professor in Music at Stanford University, where he teaches composition, music theory and cognition" (some of his research is here), about how music is able to alter our preceptions of time, was interesting, especially since it has excerpts from Schubert's String Quintet in C … Read more