1–6 of 317 entries categorized:

Rants

The Invention of Lying

February 2, 2010

in Films and movies, Geek stuff, Rants, Security, Writing

The film Ricky Gervais film The Invention of Lying is based around a fascinating central conceit, but ultimately fails to explore it in an interesting way. The film imagines a world in which people are simply incapable of telling falsehoods, and in which they automatically accept any statement from another person as true. While bits [...]

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Risk and reward

January 29, 2010

in Economics, Politics, Rants

Depressing fact: apparently, one third of global banks still offer multi-year guaranteed bonuses to new hires. It is fantastically absurd that they are still able to convince shareholders that such payments are justified by the need to acquire ‘top talent.’
One cannot escape the feeling that banks and bankers have come out of the credit crunch [...]

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Four instruments, to understand aerosols

January 28, 2010

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

One of the enduring uncertainties about climate change is the importance of aerosols. Their chemistry and effect on the climate is complex. Some of them reflect sunlight immediately back into space, having a net cooling effect on the planet; others (like black carbon have a warming effect. Some aerosols interact with one another, and with [...]

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Overreacting to fears of terrorism

January 27, 2010

in Bombs and rockets, Politics, Rants, Security

Writing for Salon.com, pilot Patrick Smith makes some excellent points about the breathless paranoia we now display about terrorism:

What has become of us? Are we really in such a confused and panicked state that a person haplessly walking through the wrong door can disrupt air travel nationwide, resulting in mass evacuations and long delays? “The [...]

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Primer on website security

January 22, 2010

in Geek stuff, Internet matters, Rants, Security

Smashing Magazine has put up a good article introducing some of the most common security vulnerabilities in websites. They are all things that site administrators should at least be aware of – including those who never actually touch code, but rely on something like WordPress to sort it out for them. Some of the attack [...]

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The 2035 glacier claim and the IPCC

January 21, 2010

in Politics, Rants, Science, The environment

Previously, I described an asymmetry between the approach of climate change deniers and climate scientists, with the latter unwilling to retract any claims no matter how poorly justified or effectively rebutted. I think the instance with the IPCC and ‘poorly substantiated’ Himalayan glacier data is illustrative.
A failure to properly vet some information has come to [...]

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