I just realized that one of the videos I embedded in my previous post, the counterintuitive paradoxes and metaparadoxes of choice, was the wrong video (which I had found by putting some appropriate keywords into youtube, but I didn't stop to make sure that was really the video I was thinking of ( Read more... )

These two TED Talks make the point that having more choices can often make us more miserable, instead of making us happier. The first one is mostly Western-culture specific, and the second takes a broader worldview; both are worth watching, and each complements the other. The second talk is a major tear jerker around the 14 minute mark ( Read more... )

As a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering who has been involved with outreach efforts to both junior high and high school students to try to encourage interest in science, math and engineering - and also someone who likes that whole Bill of Rights thing - this raises my hackles:

Science project prompts SD school evacuationUtterly ( Read more... )

While I don't regularly read selenite's political blog, called libertarianhawk, I do peer in from time to time. I disagree with him on a lot of issues, particularly foreign policy, but I found his post entitled The Real Threat to Our Freedom, which focuses on the so-called "War on Drugs" but touches on many other issues, truly eye-opening and thought provoking. It is a ( Read more... )