Dear unexpected visitor:

This blog is currently trying to figure out what it wants to be when it grows up. It definitely isn't this :)

We know from google analytics that not many people come to this site so no big deal, but this is your heads up if you are one of those three people.

My betterologist.net (personal blog) and appwriter.com (programming blog) sites are reasonably popular, if that interests you.

Maybe by 2011 things will have settled down here and you can have something to return to. Read more »

Dead cyclists, scarred drivers

Riding a bicycles on streets with cars creates a mathematically predictable carnage which is too upsetting for people to accept, so the following two theories are typically invented and re-invented, as a defense mechanism.

1. Drivers are bad people for causing this carnage and not respecting cyclists. Until this changes, cyclists will be hopelessly slaughtered.
2. Cyclists are bad people for disrespect to the law and generally discourteous driving habits, and deserve the bad luck that befalls them.

Neither of these arguments makes the slightest mathematical sense. Their existence keeps people from addressing the real problem, which is the linear predictability of the event itself. Read more »

If you owned a hospital, what is the mathematical probability that you could count on the taxpayer funded ignorance to help you defray your expenses?

What follows is a very crude study hoping to demonstrate that there is a mathematical probability. It is not intended to be accurate, nor is that the point. Read more »

Latest polls from Pew Research show that the majority of Americans are against big government and for

• Social Security
• Medicare
• Strong National Defense

This is nonsensical.

You can't be against Big Government and for Social Security, Medicare, and a Strong National Defense. These three items define big government.

Evan Bayh's withdrawal is just the most publicized of many resignations and withdrawals of senators and congressmen no longer willing to fight the silly fight that represents our current form of politics. Read more »

What if the problem with health insurance wasn't about the government?

After watching months of mindless blathering about government bad vs government good and how it is saving or ruining our lives yada yada, it is refreshing to see at least one thoughtful and creative response to the health insurance crisis. Read more »

Wars and environmental challenges, minor issues such as these are the result of ignoring worldwide problems for long periods of time. It takes a lot of determination to ignore such large problems, because most solutions really want to be applied, and have to be held back with significant force.

This blog explores the idea that our differences might be much simpler to conceptualize than we are giving them credit for.

Is There A Magical Force Beyond Just Momentum ?

What is this force that causes people to go against their own impulses to fix things, and to ignore solutions that have been readily available for decades? Momentum often gets the blame, and I won't argue with that, but I'll propose that this force is much more magical than the mere momentum of human behaviors - there are underlying contracts. Read more »

This blog is being "re-purposed". That means everything that's not truly related to What If or Could Be issues is being moved to more appropriate locations.

Java: 

• http://appwriter.com

Personal:

• http://betterologist.net

Two years of content on this site will begin to migrate as 2010 approaches.  Read more »

America was founded on the separation of church and state, perhaps it should have been "religion" and state instead, and then we could avoid things like this meltdown that we are currently suffering from.

In my view, the cause of the meltdown was a simple confusion between the religion of free markets and the underlying fundamentals of free markets. Read more »