There have been a decent number of posts here recently on the importance of quality education as the underpinning of an effective democracy. Here’s an article readers may find interesting; it covers the value of growing up in a bilingual …
Category: Renewables – Science
Deprogramming Conservatives?
Apparently, some people are suggesting that those with extreme right-wing views need to be “deprogrammed,” that controversial idea normally associated with wresting a loved one from the jaws of some sort of cult. A few thoughts: • There is a …
Meeting Up with Alien Civilizations
“It not a question of if; it’s a question of when,” remarks an astrophysicist on the prospect of our finding extraterrestrial life. Here’s a wonderful article on a recent discovery, marking just one more data point in humankind’s quest to …
Karl Popper, the Philosophy of Science, and the Paradox of Tolerance
Karl Popper (pictured here) was a 20th Century philosopher of science, perhaps best known for his belief that if we are to call any idea a “scientific theory,” it needs to be falsifiable, i.e., that there needs to be a …
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Effective Teaching and the Use of Examples
I know I’ve mentioned that I tutor at the local schools and the junior college in Santa Barbara and that I, like anyone who’s had these experiences, learned quickly that there are effective and ineffective ways of getting certain concepts …
Tagged with: Effective Teaching
Political Protest Marchers Have a Certain Look
As someone who marches in favor of things like science in policy-making, Black Lives Matter, women’s rights, banning new oil pipelines, or whatever, this made me smile. There really is a certain look that compatriots and I have, and, correspondingly, …
EPA Finalizes Rules to Limit Use of Science
From Ars Technica: With the days counting down to the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, the Trump administration has been undertaking a series of actions that will make it more difficult for its replacements to reverse any of its policies …
Doing One’s Own “Research”
My cousin-in-law voted for Obama in ’08 and ’12. A few years later, after a short but steady diet of Fox News, she told my wife, “Obama is a terrorist,” and “Trump is making America great again.” My wife gently …
Marcus Aurelius, Stoic Philosopher: “Live a Good Life.”
At left we see why it’s hard to think of a figure in history more worthy of our admiration than Marcus Aurelius. The things we regret in life are not misfortunes, but our own failures to live up to the …
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Take a Cool Guess—The Fun Quiz on Renewable Energy and Environmental Sustainability. Today’s Topic: U.S. Coal Consumption
Question: 2019 was the first year the U.S. consumed more renewable energy than coal since what year? Answer: Can be found at Clean Energy Answers. Relevance: Hint: Burning wood was the main energy resource until the advent of electricity, at …
