Archive for December, 2009
Chrome for Mac is here!
Google has [finally!] released a beta of the Google Chrome web browser for Mac.
Huzzah!
Huzzah!
Huzzah!
Filed under Uncategorized : Comments (0) : Dec 9th, 2009
For the record. . .
I think our national debt is a problem. A big problem. But the sooner we can all admit that this problem transcends convenient partisan stereotypes, the sooner we can start to address the real issues.
Consider:
Quote:
For decades, we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children’s future for the temporary convenience of the present.”
— Ronald Reagan
Indeed, Mr. Reagan. Indeed.
Filed under Uncategorized : Comments (0) : Dec 7th, 2009
Speed Hump
Washington D.C. has a strange concept of the speed bump. (In case the phrase “speed hump” is unfamiliar, they include a convenient diagram)
Filed under Uncategorized : Comments (2) : Dec 5th, 2009
Is this a good thing?
I was dining at a great local Milwaukee restaurant when I found a hair pressed into the crust of my panini. (gross)
My appetite was zapped, and I showed the waitress when she stopped by to check on us. She did the right thing and took the sandwich off my bill. Nice.
Then the bill came and I noticed the comment was very specific. Which begs the question : is the “baked-in hair” so common that it has a dedicated button on their POS system? Yikes.
Filed under Milwaukee : Comments (2) : Dec 4th, 2009
Professional Ignorance
The mammogram kerfuffle over recommendations for middle aged women is but the latest data point in a disturbing trend : professional ignorance.
I define the term thusly :
Willful ignorance of subject matter experts and scientific data in favor of emotion-driven populism, especially in the practice of lawmakers and professional policy makers.
While it’s easy to hang the rise of professional ignorance on the Republican party in its current form, this is a cross-party problem that was around long before Palin and Bachman rose to public popularity. To be sure, the issue of mammograms for 40-year olds was “resolved” by a democratic amendment explicitly stating that medical professionals would be ignored when setting health care policy. Splendid!
The goal of health reform is to reduce health care costs. Eliminating medically unnecessary treatments (such as routine mammograms for 40-year old women) is a very obvious way to cut costs. Yet when presented with the opportunity, our brave legislators proudly ignore science and reason in favor of an emotional knee-jerk reaction. Do I smell truthiness?
The quintessential example of professional ignorance comes from our ongoing national debate over energy policy and climate change. It’s perfectly reasonable (expected, really) to have a vibrant debate over a subject to central to our daily lives. But as Alexis de Tocqueville observed,
“When we can’t agree on what the facts mean, what we have is vibrant debate; when we can’t agree on what the facts are, what we have is cognitive anarchy.”
When professionals in all levels of power reject overwhelming scientific evidence to justify their policy positions, we have a problem. We can’t possibly make wise policy decisions if we don’t start from a common view of the facts.
For better or worse, this trend of ignorance will subside. Either by natural forces (i.e. climate change) or by human forces (i.e. the collapse of the dollar) we will be educated and discover our folly. But maybe, just maybe, we can all agree to act like adults for awhile and reject ignorance.
(Fingers crossed.)
Filed under climate change, culture, politics : Comments (0) : Dec 3rd, 2009
