We know that people have trouble evaluating risks. (To be more precise, people have trouble with conditional probability) One way this manifests itself is in society’s preoccupation with dramatic but minor threats (like terrorism) while less dramatic (or more abstract), but much more serious threats are ignored. Here are eight bona fide existential threats to [...]
Archive for May, 2009
The Party of Lincoln and the Party of Limbaugh
by Kavan Wolfe
Below is a short note I wrote to Megan McCain, the daughter of former presidential contender Jon McCain. I have a hunch that she will become very important over the next few years. Dear Megan, It seems to me that you are fixing to drag the Republican Party kicking and screaming into the 21st Century. [...]
Jessie Ventura for President
by Kavan Wolfe
The Central Theme of your Thesis (comic + comment)
by Kavan Wolfe
If you’ve gone to grad school, particularly for a PhD, this may ring true for you. The strange thing is, grad schools seem to be constructed around the assumption that grad students are desperately inept and have no idea what they want to do for their thesis or beyond. This premise has so profoundly affected [...]