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One of the biggest questions in studying modern (post 1600) global history is why it was Europe and not China or India that became the dominant world power. From a purely statistical standpoint, the best money was on China up until even as late as 1800; it simply had greater…
Read More »As of now (8:07), both Channel 5 and WBZ are reporting that the worst of the storm along Route 2 is moving southeast, and therefore won’t hit Lowell. There are other storms in western Massachusetts, but none of them seem directed at Lowell based on Channel 5’s online radar map…
Read More »I personally despise the label “activist judge” and wish it would be struck from our public discourse. While definitions vary, it seems very obvious to me that “activist judge” means “a judge who I disagree with.” This position assumes, of course, that there is only one legitimate way of interpreting…
Read More »I’m afraid that, at this point, I’m quite confused about where the Republicans stand on deficits. Both President Reagan and President Bush grew massive deficits during their time in office, but ever since President Obama took office the Republicans seem to have finally discovered the need for a balanced budget.…
Read More »Last fall I took a class with Niall Ferguson, the historian who is easily the most prominent proponent of the use of counterfactual history. Counterfactuals are “what if”s: what if the British had spent the same amount of money fighting the American Revolution as the French (never mind Napoleon), what…
Read More »Last night, a reader’s comment caused to me provide an explanation of the greenhouse effect and how this shows us that human activity is primarily driving climate change. I was asked to repost that comment here. The scientific process is simple: state a hypothesis, test it, and analyze the results.…
Read More »Today I stumbled across this video about climate change and national security. From what I can tell, it’s part of a series of videos meant to debunk the claims of climate change deniers. This is a compilation of interviews with retired and active generals, admirals, and other national security figures.…
Read More »Yesterday, Gallop published a compilation of data from several recent USA Today/Gallop polls concerning the Tea Party movement, which can be found here. It’s a rather fascinating look at what the different sections of our political spectrum consider to be “extremely serious threats” to the future of the United States.…
Read More »A year ago, I made the decision to switch from studying history to evolutionary biology. I spent the entire summer weighing my options and considering the benefits of both degrees. Part of what I found appealing about biology, and science in general, is its absolute reliance on evidence; arguments from…
Read More »This is the eighth of a series of posts I will be doing on human evolution. The previous one can be found here. As always, please leave any questions you’d like to have answered. What makes our species unique? We are not the only species with culture, nor are we…
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