A while back, I tried to explain why the world was so screwed up. I explained that the ubiquitous societal problems we experience (bad transit infrastructure, dependence on fossil fuels, unnecessary wars, etc.) stem from a fundamental problems with governance:
Laws imply the design of the systems that enact them
Lawmakers don’t know sweet fuck all about [...]
Recently someone told me I was a radical. With the minor qualification that ‘radical’ is not the same as crazy, I take this as a compliment. The existential threats humanity faces, and the fundamental problems with our social systems cannot possibly be solved by incremental thinking. Without radicals, we’re screwed.
Want evidence do I have? Well, [...]
Dear Prime Minister Harper,
I have recently read over the Investigative Powers for the 21st Century (IP21C) Act. Giving the police the power to take down online criminals is a virtuous enterprise; however, allowing police to view any internet communication information without a warrant is unacceptable. Bypassing the cheques and balances of the courts in this [...]
It is imperative for a sustainable future to stop buying so much stuff. It’s not just transportation that consumes resources, it’s also all the stuff taking up space in your house (and garage!). How many things do you own that you only use a few times a year? How many things do you not even [...]
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 [...]
“What do you wanna do tonight?”
“I dunno.”
What follows these two fateful lines is inevitably an enumeration of common pastimes, most of which aren’t really fun at all. We just keep doing them because we want to get out of the house, and we don’t know what else to do. We are creatures of habit. Here [...]
I recently had a discussion with a conservative acquaintance of mine about the nature of public assistance programs – him arguing that they are inherently evil, while I, of course, argued that they are absolutely necessary if a nation is to consider itself civilized. And of course, the issue that came up is what is [...]
After a week or so of computer woes, I’m back, ready to take aim at the American education model once more. A couple of weeks ago, I observed a few fundamental flaws in the way we teach our kids. Here’s a few more crucial ways we make our kids, and our adults, stupid.
4. Not everyone is [...]
Barrack Obama seems like a pretty competent guy, and if I were a US citizen, I would have voted for him. But now that his surreal inauguration is over, it’s time for a dose of reality. Much of the US populace have hung their hopes and dreams on this one man’s shoulders, but I can [...]
I hate Christmas. There, I said it. Here’s why.
1. Christians actually think Jesus was born in winter – half them don’t realize that Christmas was set to Dec. 25th to coincide with pagan winter solstice celebrations.
2. People eat like crazy and the gyms are closed.
3. If church and state are separate, why do businesses have [...]