13–18 of 63 entries from the month of:

October 2007

Fugitive Pieces

October 26, 2007

in Books and literature, Writing

Anne Michaels’ Fugitive Pieces is too overwhelming a book for me: overwhelming with sadness, with detail, with history, and with language evocative of inescapable grief. As such, it took me many weeks to read. One passage does a particularly good job of succinctly encapsulated the inescapable historical anguish that makes this small book so heavy:
History [...]

{ 8 comments }

The foolishness of the International Space Station

October 25, 2007

in Bombs and rockets, Geek stuff, Politics, Rants, Science

On Tuesday, the space shuttle launched once again on a mission to add another piece to the International Space Station (ISS). As I have said before, it is a needlessly dangerous, unjustifiably expensive, and rather pointless venture. The science could be equally well done by robots, without risking human lives, and without spending about $1.3 [...]

{ 11 comments }

Securing against the wrong risk

October 24, 2007

in Geek stuff, Politics, Rants, Security

This week’s Economist includes an unusually poor article on security. It explains that the upcoming Swiss election will be using quantum cryptography to transmit the results from polling stations to central tabulation centres. It alleges that this makes the whole electoral process more secure. This is wrong.
What this is essentially saying is that there would [...]

{ 6 comments }

Three city tour

October 24, 2007

in Canada, Daily updates, Ottawa, Travel

During the next three weeks, I am doing a bit of a tour of eastern Canadian cities. From tonight until Sunday, I will be in Montreal. I will be busy with work until Friday, but should have the weekend to appreciate the city. Montreal is definitely one of the most interesting places in Canada. It [...]

{ 4 comments }

Computational rage

October 24, 2007

in Geek stuff, Internet matters, Rants

Only nerds and the nerd-tolerant should proceed past this point.

{ 12 comments }

Studies backing successive IPCC reports

October 23, 2007

in Science, The environment

While it is obvious that the 2007 Fourth Assessment Report (4AR) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was going to be more comprehensive than the 2001 Third Assessment Report (TAR), I was surprised to see the extent and the breakdown:
Sector - Studies assessed in TAR - Studies assessed in 4AR
Cryosphere: 23 - 59
Hydrology [...]

{ 1 comment }

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