5 Years

Five years ago tomorrow I started this blog. I was working at a job I didn't particularly like nor found mentally fulfilling, and the blog was intended to be a creative outlet. Blogging took a little getting used to. Honestly a sizable chunk of my first entries were blatant plagiarism of Gregg Easterbrook's Tuesday Morning Quarterback column. But it was something fun to do and I got better at it over the years. A couple or three entries had pictures...

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If A, Then B

WSJ Headline 1: Math, Science Popular Until Students Realize They’re Hard WSJ Headline 2: To Follow the Money, Study Engineering The conclusion isn't hard to dra...

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The Influence of Andrew Sullivan

Ross wonders if Andrew Sullivan is the most influential political writer of his generation. I humbly submit that my grandmother, who votes in every election, has never once in her life heard of Andrew Sullivan.I'm not going to argue that Sullivan hasn't been influential. Douthat and Tyler Cowen rightly point out that Sullivan's crusade for gay rights has been both effective and important. And in general terms he obviously is a popular writer, Obama even reads him.But outside the beltway...Sullivan's name and influence start to wane. And I have...

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America, June 2013 Edition

Never has the quote "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely" been more aptly applie...

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The Long Arcs of Human Existence

Imagine me, 16. I'm a junior in high school, this is October 1998. I'm on the sideline of a football field, in the blue and gold uniform of the Olathe South Falcons. It's a Friday night and we're playing our town rival, the Olathe North Hawks. And we're losing badly.Of course, I didn't normally dress varsity. I was a junior at a large school, so the odds were stacked against me just due to the sheer amount of talent available to the coach. But also I was pretty small, and not especially good at football. I played defensive back, along with about...

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Bill of Rights

First Amendment - Justice Department Secretly Obtained Phone Records of AP JournalistsSecond Amendment - Obama Administration Ignores Justice Department Researchers That Show Assault Weapons Ban Won't Decrease Gun ViolenceThird Amendment - FBI Uses Drones For Surveillance On U.S. SoilFourth Amendment - UN Torture Chief: Treatment of Bradley Manning Was Inhuman, CruelFifth Amendment - Obama Signs NDAA 2013: U.S. May Still Detain U.S. Citizens Indefinitely Without TrialSixth Amendment - John Walker Repeatedly Asked For Lawyer, Was Not Given OneSeventh...

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Electrical Engineer Unemployement Soars

My stance on immigration has always been one of open arms and open mind. That's all been tempered in the last couple years, as it became clear to me that many companies in the tech industry are pushing for the expansion of the H1B visa program solely so they can bring in cheaper workers and undermine the wages of degreed engineers already in the USA. R&D labor is expensive.So here's an interesting little article from Computerworld (back in April) talking about a recent surge in unemployment among electrical engineers. The article also mentions...

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Competing Interests in Environmental Friendliness

Bike lanes encourage cities to be more environmentally friendly. So do driverless cars. But to me they seem competing in interest. A city with bizarre bike lanes set ups will be inherently much more difficult for a driverless car to navigate. Further, a flow of bikers will represent a complex and fluid array of potential hazards the car's computer system will need to avoid.On the other hand, driverless cars, by their very nature, are way more fuel efficient than manually-controlled cars. And thus a city interested in protecting the environment...

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The Hypocritical Failings of Andrew Sullivan

OMG Andrew Sullivan. The worst kind of person is the one that when proven categorically wrong doubles down on his position. This is exactly what Andrew Sullivan openly loathed about right-wing pundits circa 2008-2011. This sociopathic behavior was one of his strongest criticisms of Sarah Palin. And thus, he has become exactly what he most loudly hated. But then, isn't that how it always goes?Seriously Andrew, can ANYTHING make you disappointed with Barack Obam...

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Privilege

Sully posted a link to this video of Tim Doner, a 17-year-old polyglot who can speak (to varying degrees) nearly 20 languages.It is barely mentioned in the video, but Tim attends The Dalton School. And to me that was the singularly most important detail about this boy, and we can draw so many conclusions from it.While its easy to celebrate Mr. Doner's accomplishments and truly I would be a jackass to not acknowledge that the kid is obviously brilliant, what would be equally egregious is if I didn't ask just how many languages he would have learned...

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Parenthood

Is way more fun than bloggin...

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American Capitalism

Capitalism is sort of like a game of poker, where people are all competing against one another. Everyone gets five cards, and if you are skillful and know how to bluff when you need to - and you get a lucky hand every now and then - you can win out.Now, American Capitalism is a little different. In American Capitalism, whoever comes to the table with the most money almost always wins. This happens because you can pay the dealer to give you extra cards. Or you can pay the dealer to withhold cards from your competitors.In American Capitalism, if...

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The Daily Dish - Andrew throws in the towel

Sullivan, this morning: "it remains unlikely that we will reach our target of $900,000 by the end of the year"He goes on, ironically: "But I didn’t start this blogging thing to be rich. I started it to be free."That's just the thing, Andrew. The internet wants to be free. When you enacted your paywall, you committed Internet Original Sin: you thought people would pay you for something they could get elsewhere for fre...

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TAE's Iron Man 3 Review

Obviously, don't read this if you don't want to be spoiled.First off, I was entertained. I'm not one of those pretentious people who expects The Best Movie Of All Time every time I walk into a theater. I rarely go to movies, and when I do I intentionally set a low bar so that I don't feel like my precious time and money were wasted. With that in mind, I very much enjoyed Iron Man 3 from start to finish.(stop reading if you don't want to be spoiled, last warning...)But....First, a bit of history. Since Tony Stark/Iron Man was debuted exactly 50...

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I promise to stop writing about STEM soon. Just not yet.

Imagine you are a tech company that makes widgets. You've gotten a factory in China to make the parts for the widgets for a tiny amount. You've got laborers working for minimum wage assembling the widgets. You've got salespeople making minimum wage selling the widgets.How can you possibly make the widgets cheaper?Perhaps the most obvious way is to pay the people doing R&D on the widgets minimum wage. Think about it: the R&D folks are still demanding $50-60k or more for their time. That's really expensive compared to a minimum wage assembler...

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STEM Graduate Surplus, Infighting Amongst Engineers

So I posted the Atlantic article on Reddit in an engineering sub, and the backlash was palpable. One /u/ in particular went after the data, pointing out that the "53.7% of engineering grads that found a job in the first 12 months after graduation" was from 2009, and "of course things were bad in 2009!"My response was "I'm not sure what would have occurred economically since 2009 to provide a STEM labor market correction? Unemployment nationwide...

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There is no STEM graduate shortage.

High school seniors: consider yourself warned.- In computer and information science and in engineering, U.S. colleges graduate 50 percent more students than are hired into those fields each year.- Wages have remained flat, with real wages hovering around their late 1990s levels.- Percentage of Engineering graduates that have a job within 12 months of graduation: 53.7%More her...

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Rampant Sexism in America IS Still A Thing

You need not go far to find a good example. Here's Business Insider's list of "30 Most Important Women Under 30 In Tech"Good luck finding a fat woman, or a pimply-faced woman in there. Which, while being obviously sexist, is DOUBLY so when you remember that this is "in tech...

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Polytheism, Monotheism, Atheism, and Space Aliens

What if, later this afternoon, an Intelligent alien race lands here on Earth and makes contact with us. What if they contact our leaders and after exchanging business cards, they ask "how advanced are you?"We humans interpret this as we can and respond "currently we can control nuclear fission but not nuclear fusion.""No, that's not what we mean," replies the Alien. "How advanced are you, as in are you polytheistic, monotheistic, or atheistic?"We respond "the majority of humans are monotheistic.""Oh, okay," replies the Alien. "See you in another...

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Modern Bomb Making In America

I don't condone blowing up innocent people. I don't recommend anyone build explosive devices. I hope the world is a peaceful one, and that my children grow up in comfort and security and without the fear of terrorism.That said, I want to correct something going around. Federal authorities and the media are latching on to the idea that the bombs used in Boston were "sophisticated" because they used "a battery pack and a circuitboard." I feel that I should point out that a Furby has a circuitboard and batteries. A solar-powered LED patio umbrella...

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An Update

True to my word, I've been writing. The word count stands at 32,158.For those keeping score, I've completed 4 of 15 planned chapter...

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David Merrick

So there I was, 14 years old, at Tall Oaks Camp and Conference Center for church camp. Which was hilarious because I didn't believe in all that God crap. I went because I was sent. I didn't need to believe in God; I had Science, and that was way better. Science I could explain. Science I could understand.Each evening we'd have a late service in the outdoor chapel. At each of these, one of the campers would give a testimonial. So I'm sitting there, about 8 pm on a hot summer night, bored out of my mind, packed onto a pew next to a couple friends....

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The Most Important Sentence In An Article About Robots

Is this: Nowadays when we see productivity increases, [the financial benefit] ends up at the top; it goes to the CEO, to the shareholders, but workers don’t get any of it.Read the rest, he...

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Young Idealism is Not Misguided, Ctd

Will MacAskill, please respon...

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The Flow Becomes A Trickle

My dear, dear readers,I have decided to write a book. Or at least try my hardest to write a book. It's a hard science fiction novel about wealth inequality and the Technological Singularity. Subseqently, much of the time I've spent in the past writing blog posts (or reading other blogs for things about which to rant on my blog) will now be devoted to long form. I'm not gone; I'm sure a blog post will pop up here and there. But my time is elsewhere.Wish me luck. I've never written anything long before. I've never felt the nee...

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Graphene Is Just This Decade's 'Carbon Nanotubes'

Graphene is the 2010's version of 2000's "carbon nanotube."I swear...I wish I had a dollar for every article announcing a new theoretical game-changing technology that relies on as-yet-unmanufacturable graphene sheets.In just the last 14 days:Graphene could make high-efficiency desalinization filterGraphene could work in transistors in high-frequency electronicsGraphene could transform DNA sequencingGraphene could efficiently transform light into powerGraphene antennas could yield high-power wi-fiGraphene could make batteries obsoleteGraphene could...

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Liberty Is Like A Butterfly

Once you rub its wings, even just a little...it can fly no more.Eric Holder won't assassinate me with a Hellfire missile fired from a predator drone while I am within the U.S. border......unless he really, really needs t...

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Love.

Says it so much better than I can.And this:Thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away. And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday: thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the mornin...

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Young Idealism is Still Not Misguided

The unfortunate truth about the Haiti earthquake is that we can't just throw money at these problems and expect them to get fixed. Aid money went mostly "to bandages," writes Jonathan Katz, author of the new book The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster. A friend of mine working as part of the State Department's ongoing effort to rebuild Haitian government tells me that the aid dollars have been in many ways the opposite of helpful. Aid money pays for free food and clothing for the people of Port...

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I Love You

Each and every one of you. Some of you are annoying. Some of you are despicable. Some of you are rude, arrogant, narcissistic, or egotistic. Some of you hang participles and some of you serially misuse the word "ironic." Some of you are careerists, and you are the worst of all. Human progress is what truly matters to me, and when you impede it to suit your personal goals you stretch the definition of shameless. And let's face it: most of you are blatant hypocrites.But I love all of you. Inside you there is the fire of Life, the unchecked ability...

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This Absurd Flap About Horse Meat

As I sat there, eating a McChicken Sandwich (containing whitish-pink paste that vaguely resembles chicken), I had to wonder why everyone is freaking out over horse meat in the other meat. Is the righteous indignation over the fact that poor widdle helpless horsies are getting ground up into burgers, or is it that we're eating something that is "one thing" but its actually "partially another thing?"Because let's face it folks, if there was one thing we could say about the First World Diet, it's that deception is the key to success. Nacho Cheese...

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That 3D Pen on Kickstarter

So a "pen" that writes in 3D is on Kickstarter right now, and everyone is freaking out because it raised 1,850% of its funding goal in about 24 hours. You can see it here.As someone with an extensive background in 3D printers, let me just say that the Reddit commenters put it perfectly:"all the gross, weak, wispy aspects of 3D printing with none of the automation!""Spend hours making 'close enough' art that can be completely destroyed by the slightest breeze!""so, it's a $75 hot glue gun?"The fact that "backers" are falling all over themselves...

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Facebook vs Medical Device Companies

As the head engineer at a medical device company, I groaned with chagrin when the government put a 2.3% tax on all medical device sales "to help pay for the PPACA." In addition to what I outlined there, here's the sad bottom line: we'll just increase our price to offset the tax. Don't blame us. We have to make ends meet. We don't have a free 2.3% margin (on gross revenue, not net profit...don't get me started) to give away.Meanwhile, Facebook appears to be on the other end of the Federal tax table, as they should get a $429 million dollar refund...

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Tesla Model S - NYT, Musk, and CNN

Many of us are now familiar with the NYT story claiming the Tesla S - and its Supercharger network - is not the gas-free revolution in cross-country travel that Tesla Motors had claimed it was. Let me explain. No, that would take too long. Let me sum up: Tesla built a car called the Tesla S, an all-electric car with a ~270 mile range. They have been building "Supercharger Stations" along the east and west coast so that you can recharge your Tesla S mid trip if you want to go a long ways. The NYT tested this and the reviewer, a guy named Broder,...

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The Pope

I heard the REAL reason the Pope is resigning is because he was ALSO duped into thinking his girlfriend was Lennay Keku...

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About That Medical Device Excise Tax

We have this term that we use in our company and I am sure a lot of other companies use as well: organic growth. I was hired via organic growth: our existing product line had borne enough profit to fund a full-time engineer to oversee the development of the products still in the pipeline. Essentially, rather than pocketing the profits, the company owners pour it into hiring and R&D.So, yes, Alec MacGillis, the medical device tax is a shitty idea. I appreciate that you found a couple medical device company owners to quote that happened to support...

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The Years Are Rolling By Me

It occurred to me a couple days ago that I am now the age that Hugh Jackman was when he filmed X-Men back in 1999.When did I get that ol...

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Engineers vs. Druids

Paul Saffo, at Edge.org (scroll way down):There are two kinds of fools: one who says this is old and therefore good, and the other who says this is new and therefore better. The argument between the two is as old as humanity itself, but technology's relentless exponential advance has made the divide deeper and more contentious than ever. My greatest fear is that this divide will frustrate the sensible application of technological innovation in the service of solving humankind's greatest challenges. The two camps forming this divide need a name,...

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Accelerando

User "graykat777" posted the image above to Reddit last night (click here for larger version). The user's local utility company is raising rates due to too many people practicing good energy conservation. While this seems psychotic, think of it this way: if it costs X dollars to run a power plant, plus Y dollars per kW/h to burn coal, then you can only cut out Y as usage drops. X is a constant (paying power plant workers, maintaining equipment,...

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In Which I Eat Lance-Flavored Crow

Here's what I wrote, back in June, 2012: As my friend Adam says "Lance Armstrong is either the greatest athlete of all time or the greatest liar of all time." Which is more likely? A ten year long conspiracy that foiled hundreds of blood tests, investigations and video surveillance...or he simply did not dope?Of course it is clear now that the former scenario turned out to be the right one. Despite the unlikelihood of it, Lance perpetrated a decade-long conspiracy involving hundreds of willing and unwilling accomplices, beat hundreds of blood tests,...

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Gun Control

With President Obama's announcement about whatever the administration plans to do in regards to gun control happening in 10 minutes*, the topic is hot on my mind. Especially because I have a five year old.Friday afternoon, I took off early and headed to a farm north of Lawrence, KS, to hunt deer. The weather was lovely, hot and humid and unseasonally warm for mid-January in Kansas. I hunkered down with a Remington Model 700 bolt-action rifle,...

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