Sunday, January 22, 2006

Go Lady!

I'll always think of this video clip when I see fancy, expensive cars

Sunday, January 15, 2006

The origins of the Great War of 2007 - and how it could have been prevented

The origins of the Great War of 2007 - and how it could have been prevented: "Niall Ferguson"

Niall Ferguson writes about how the "Great War of 2007" was made certain by three causes:

1. increasing reliance on the Middle East as a source of petroleum
2. large increase in a younger population in the Middle East compared to Europe and North America.
3. increase in religious fervour in Middle East compared to Europe

It is also interesting how Ferguson notes that history is repeating itself.
As in the 1930s, an anti-Semitic demagogue broke his country's treaty obligations and armed for war. Having first tried appeasement, offering the Iranians economic incentives to desist, the West appealed to international agencies - the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United Nations Security Council. Thanks to China's veto, however, the UN produced nothing but empty resolutions and ineffectual sanctions, like the exclusion of Iran from the 2006 World Cup finals.
A risk of those change demographics are more people with an alternative view of the past. As discussed in "Failing the Stalin Test" by Sarah E. Mendelson and Theodore Gerber in Jan/Feb 2006 issue of Foreign Affairs, that most young people in Russia think that Stalin did a good job and about 20% said they would vote for him if he ran for president today.

How, without remembering and understanding the past will be able to avoid the same mistakes?

New Scientist Premium- Editorial: Methane emissions cause red faces all around - Editorial

New Scientist Premium- Editorial: Methane emissions cause red faces all around - Editorial

The New Scientist Magazine (subscription required to see entire article) reports that between 10 and 30 percent of all methane tha is routinely and continuously pumped into the atmosphere is that methane emitted by vegetation. This methane source has never been noticed before, nor is there understanding why plants make methane.

And we thought we understoond global warming.

iTunes Appears to be a "Hog" on my machine

I mentioned before that learned to really find Podcasting useful to me. See http://www.rmschneider.com/blogger/2005/08/podcasting-is-terrific-despite-first.html. However, I've also grown to notice that Apple iTunes, during Podcast update, seems to be the single biggest "hog" of resources on my machine. Why is it such a sluggish program?

Math Will Rock Your World

Math Will Rock Your World

My 13-year old son wonders what learning mathematics will do for him in the future. He's at the point in life where you make choices about the school courses you wish to take. He's required to continue with math which is good--even better is that he wants to continue. This Business Week cover-story will be of interest to him, I hope.