Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

H/T Megan McArdle Cross Posted at Power and Control

IBM is doing some great work in advancing carbon transistor technology. IBM Researchers today announced that they have demonstrated the operation of graphene field-effect transistors at GHz frequencies, claiming the highest frequencies reported so far using the non-silicon electronic material. IBM is a long-time proponent of graphene — a special form of graphite, consisting of…

So what does Obama really think about marijuana legalization? “President-elect Obama is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana.” Well he was for it before he was against it. To be fair to President-Elect Obama, he never pledged to legalize marijuana. Quite the contrary, during his Presidential campaign he backtracked from his previous comments…

This is pretty amazing stuff. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft, in an entirely under-reported November interview, claimed that he makes the best decisions “when I have a lot of morphine in my system.” Perhaps some one needs to talk to Obama about this. You can watch the 5 1/2 minute video of the interview at…

I got this video from Popular Science where you can read an interesting article on the subject. At Steampunk Fusion I have a look at whether this is a scam or could it really work. The short version: the engineering is very difficult but it could work. Cross Posted at Power and Control

In his new book, What Would Keith Do?, due out in May, Keith Richards says: I’ve never had a problem with drugs, only with policemen. H/T Buford Terrell via e-mail. Cross Posted at Power and Control

Governor Bill Richardson (D-New Mexico), Obama’s Commerce Secretary designate, is being investigated for a bit of commerce. New Mexico’s Gov. Bill Richardson, who is the newly named Secretary of Commerce in Obama’s about-to-be Cabinet, is also being investigated by a federal grand jury in his home state for possibly steering state bond business from the…

It’s Sarah Palin time. Every day for the next year. Especially if you buy the Sarah Palin 2009 Calendar. And this will come as a surprise: Instapundit says it is on the Amazon best seller list – for office products. I’m still trying to figure out what that means in terms of her political future.…

Obama’s choice for Education Secretary, Arne Duncan who is currently Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools, is presiding over one of the worst school systems in America. Anne Leary of Backyard Pundit has the scoop. Only 6 of 100 Chicago Public School students go on to get a bachelor’s degree by age 25.…

A new laboratory record in LED white light production has been reached. December 3, 2008–In the ongoing efficiency battle going on between the research labs of the leading high-power white-light LED makers, Cree (Durham, NC) has gained the highest ground, at least for now. The company just announced that it achieved an industry-best reported R&D…

Yes. Solar has a very bright future. A long as the subsidies keep coming. If estimates hold up, by 2030, 2000-GW-scale power plants will be necessary to meet new electricity demand, and a potential need will arise to replace a large number of obsolete power plants. Demand on this scale, coupled with industrial and consumer…

Laurie Anderson

As is probably obvious to most regular readers, I have had less than no time to blog lately. Major deferred-maintenance-style repairs plus Christmas issues in a very limited amount of time means that I can barely check email, much less write posts. However, I am unable to resist certain things, and Justin directed me to…

Here’s how it looks here:

There seems to be a lot of angst about wishing people a Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays seems to be in vogue. And of course we have The Holiday Season. I propose we put an end to this kind of non-sense once and for all. We should refer to the holiday by its original name. The…

Suzanne Willis sent me this e-mail. She was responding to something she read in the Dallas Morning News. If, as Mr. Schram says, drug violence is due to Americans’ appetite for drugs, drug violence would have begun when Americans began using drugs. It didn’t. Americans have used cocaine, morphine and marijuana since the first Europeans…

The speaker is Daniel J. Mitchell. He has written a book: Global Tax Revolution: The Rise of Tax Competition and the Battle to Defend It. You can also learn more at freedomandprosperity.org Cross Posted at Power and Control

Yesterday I was looking at oil prices and found something interesting. The price of WTI oil was about $7 or $8 below the price of the other two contracts listed. I asked if any of my readers could explain such a big difference in prices and reader Bill came to the rescue. Yes it is…

Meanwhile in Deetroit, this baby Aardvark was born: Story: The Detroit Zoo welcomed a baby aardvark this month. Zoo officials are awaiting DNA test results to determine the sex of its newborn aardvark, Amani (Swahili for “peace”), born at 1:05 a.m. Dec. 8 to mother Rachaael and father Mchimbaji. The 23-inch infant arrived hairless, weighing…

Locating breaks in buried water pipes is a major pain in the ass, but I spent a couple of days excavating a 20 foot trench three feet deep until I found the leak, then cut out and replaced the bad section (which was so clogged that I could see light through a tiny hold only…