Mountain West road trip

In about ten hours, I will leave on a long trip in my car to explore lands from California to Utah, Colorado to Wyoming, Montana to Oregon. I expect to be on the road for three to four weeks, and hope to post descriptive reports from time to time.

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Manzi on global warming

While I am not an expert on global warming, the available literature seems to indicate that when everything is considered, the damage of global warming is probably not as high as the damage of the proposed solutions to global warming. That’s of course not to discount the danger or reality of the phenomenon — global [...]

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On mountains

I am supposed to be writing a paper but here I am browsing through the website of James Milne (famous mathematician) who has climbed many mountains. Particularly breathtaking is his account of his Everest attempt (he was 61, reached within 350 m of the summit before turning back). Go to this page and read the [...]

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It’s all about freedom, baby

Nicolas Sarkozy wants to outlaw the wearing of the burqa in public places in France:
The problem of the burka is not a religious problem. This is an issue of a woman’s freedom and dignity. This is not a religious symbol. It is a sign of subservience; it is a sign of lowering. I want to [...]

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Random notes

1. I am currently in Hawaii. It is most wonderful. And there is something truly special about doing math on the beach. Some day I hope to find out if it is as good as having sex on the beach.
2. I am in the final couple of months of my US stay. This is not [...]

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The extraordinary passion of belief and defiance

I had to share this. Politicians are generally fools, and Mausavi is probably only marginally better than his opponent, but there is no reason to doubt his assertion that “these masses were not brought by bus or by threat, they were not brought for potatoes; they came themselves.”

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