Nassim Nicholas Taleb explains why Bitcoin is not good for much except enriching early adopters and intermediaries.
Saturday, October 18, 2025
How Energy Transition Models Go Wrong
Gail Tvergberg explains why oil prices are likely to remain be lower than full costs, and how that undermines the move to cleaner energy.
The Politics of ‘Follow the Science’
How the ralllying cry of “Follow the science” is looking more and more like sloganeernig as opposed to best practice.
2:00PM Water Cooler 6/22/2021
~ Today’s Water Cooler ~
‘Managed Retreat’ from Climate Disasters Can Reinvent Cities So They’re Better for Everyone – and Avoid More Flooding, Heat and Fires
Managed retreat is a promising way to deal with rising seas…except it requires things we’re bad at, like planning and cooperation.
Is Another Military Coup Brewing in Peru, After Historic Electoral Victory for Leftist Candidate?
The threat should not be taken lightly, especially given Peru’s long history of coups d’états.
The Bullshit Economy: How Amazon Sidewalk Steals Your Bandwidth
How Amazon’s Sidewalk feature enhances their products at customers’ expense.
Decade Of Chaos Could Send Oil To $130 Per Barrel
Oil mavens are stymied at guessing what the commodity’s price trajectory might be.
Mindat: The Wikipedia for Minerologists, Miners, and “Rock Hounds” (Except Not)
Citizen science goes unreward by giant monopolists Wikipedia and Google.
2:00PM Water Cooler 6/21/2021
~ Today’s Water Cooler ~
How the Covid Pandemic Could Save Us
The Covid pandemic has created a hinge moment of change, in which governments and citizens have demonstrated their ability to undertake reforms which would have been impossible before the pandemic.
Summer Rerun: The Victory of Privilege
Privilege went from an idea discussed by a few activists to a mainstream concept. How does the idea work in practice? What is its history?
The Pandemic Is Us (But Now Mostly Them)
The pandemic is largely to be over in the Global North, at least among the vaccinated…or so it seems.
