The Book of the Shadows

Once again there is a fraying of nerves and tensions in the Middle East. Once again Iraq seems to be the center of that mess. And once again we have a number of people pushing the United States to once again go to war. You can probably guess what I think.

The test scores are out and guess what... the U.S isn't doing all that hot. The question is, should we start to panic, or is it time to take a step back and look again at what's going on.

Tomorrow, CNN will be airing a two hour documentary about nuclear power, and will follow that up with a half hour with Anderson Cooper, discussing some of the questions, issues, topics raised in the documentary. I encourage those who have the opportunity to watch it.

Sorry I missed my post on Friday, family stuff got in the way, but as you can see, I’m back and everything’s alright. So, back to the matter I left off with; my final estimation of the future of energy in the United States and around the world.

Continuing the discussion from yesterday, we’ve established the fact that nuclear energy is powerful. However, the current tech for it is highly controversial, and not terribly clean. And the potential for the “better” nuclear technology is still a matter of practical engineering challenge.

I always try to provide useful information and perspective to the various topics which I have some knowledge and interest in. I don't always have the time to cover everything. And sometimes there are more developments on stuff I've talked about already. Today I'll hit up some of those topics.

Tuesday was election day. It wasn't big E, big D, Election Day, but it was still a day for some people to go out and vote. I'm not gonna get into the politics of who won and who lost. But I do have something of an idea that might make it a little more meaningful when we do have the little E and D election days.

What gear do you start your car in? When you get in your car, put the key in the ignition – or press the button – and your car starts, what gear is your vehicle in? I don’t drive a stick, I drive an automatic, so my car is in Park. Sticks, if memory serves right, you would normally put them in neutral and engage the parking brake when you park so you start with the parking brake engaged and in neutral. Might start in 1 st , but definitely need that brake.

Continuing the technology discussion I’ve had going for the past couple weeks, today I will briefly touch on a popular sci-fi topic that has gained tremendous traction in popular, mainstream, science. Get ready for the fusion of man and machine.

Space travel is mindboggling to think about. Space is so utterly massive, the distances so unfathomably enormous, that our perception of speed is rendered stunted. Things we consider fast here on Earth become laughable when measured against the distances between stars.

I wanted to take a break from my planned post for today to speak for a moment about the looming expansion of the conflict in Syria. There’s always a conflict waiting to erupt somewhere around the world. The world is a complicated place and we don’t really get along so well. The justifications are diverse, but if one of your loved ones dies those words amount to a hill of beans. Now, we have the matter of Syria.

There are a copious number of possibilities awaiting humanity in space. Unfortunately, when most people look at space, the space program, they only see nothingness. They look up at the stars and say, “it looks nice, and it’s interesting, but that’s about it. No need to put too much effort for that”. That’s where space mining comes in.

I can’t say that I like Newt Gingrich. His politics and mine do not align. I think he holds a lot of responsibility for the corrosive strain of conservatism that dominates the Republican Party right now. But during the 2012 Republican primaries, I think he got a bad rap for an actual decent idea.

I read and watch a lot of science fiction material. That was one of my early theoretical career paths – astrophysics and theoretical physics. Put simply I’m better at creating theories than I am at proving them. One of the things I think about a lot, considering my chosen career, is how science fiction interacts with reality. Because, many things once thought only fiction cross over into the real world, and become fact.

The minimum wage debate is one of the most central, complex, and controversial economic debates in the United States. Part of the problem is that there is a lack of understanding of what the minimum wage is, where it comes from, and what it does. Another part of the problem is that the two sides of the debate tend to talk past each other. I want to try and lay out what this is all about.

The minimum wage debate is one of the most central, complex, and controversial economic debates in the United States. Part of the problem is that there is a lack of understanding of what the minimum wage is, where it comes from, and what it does. Another part of the problem is that the two sides of the debate tend to talk past each other. I want to try and lay out what this is all about.

It's about that time of year here int eh states, when K-12 students start heading back to school. I personally have long thought that the variance in the exact time of year was always quite odd. Primarily in the south is where schools start in early - mid August. The northeast waits until after Labor Day in September. At any rate, I think this is an appropriate time to share some thoughts on the state of the education system here in the U.S.