Interesting read about an even more interesting experiment.
There Is No Why Here
For some reason I find myself thinking of the famous quote by Italian Holocaust survivor Primo Levi: “there is no why here“. This was told to him as a child by an Auschwitz guard. Of course it was also a lie. There is always a “why” and often it is purposely hidden. Levi spent the rest of his life studying this “why”.
Levi was a scientist, and that is what scientists do. Unfortunately it is often the source of trouble for those asking the question. Science has always been under attack from people who dont like people who question their story and their rules. Science usually wins out, because the real world is the real world and the facts don’t go away. In non-scientific areas, the “why” becomes more difficult. No mathematical formula or repeatable experiment can answer these questions. But it is always important to ask “why?”. Even when the answer is a lie. Especially when the answer is a lie.
Life Lessons
I was fortunate to meet David Patterson at a conference here in Austin one Sunday a few years back. It wasn’t a big conference and I am still surprised someone of his stature in the field was there. Even more surprising was what an approachable person he was. It’s difficult to explain what a good impression he made in our short conversation. A good read, especially for younger people just starting out.
Life Lessons from the First Half-Century of My Career
Texas Border Smuggling
The new problem on the Texas border.
Texas border patrol stops 90+ people smuggling eggs from Mexico as prices soar
Double Facebook Ban
We are selling our house and getting rid of lots of stuff. Neither me nor my wife have a Facebook account, but we heard that Facebook Marketplace is the best place to advertise the sort of items we want to sell. My wife set up an account but was almost immediately banned. Her offense: she used a photo that wasn’t her face. Ok, kinda odd. So I set up an account and used a standard head shot of my face. I posted one item for sale and made a few postings and read my feed like any normal Facebook user. Today, several days after all of this I am banned. Except no reason given. I have contested just out of curiosity. I wonder what’s up at Facebook. I suspect they have a problem with “vandalism”. People unhappy with Facebooks political stance coming in and disrupting the platform. If this is the case and they are wholesale rejecting new users (jeez all I wanted to do was sell some furniture) then I don’t see a bright future for the platform.
African Maps
i love maps but can’t say I’m too familiar with Africa. There are interesting territorial quirks all over the world and they usually give an interesting of unusual look into the history of a place. A good article from Al Jazeera on unusual features of African map geography.
Ever wonder why Africa’s borders appear so strange?
Texas Renewables
The politics of Texas isnt much of a mystery. Oil and gas interests have always had a large influence, understandably. I don’t see this bit of progress being stopped. The economics of renewables is just too compelling.
Steven A. Guccione 