For Hanukkah, via Mosaic. \u00a0Leo Strauss on the separate missions of the Jews and the Greeks. Yet our intention to speak of Jerusalem and Athens seems to compel us to go beyond the self-understanding of either. Or is there a notion, a word that points to the highest that both the Bible and the greatest […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

Behold the power of this fully-operational substation! Shimizu, a Japanese architectural and engineering firm, has a solution for the climate crisis: Simply build a\u00a0band of solar panels 400 kilometers (249 miles) wide\u00a0(pdf)\u00a0running all the way\u00a0around the Moon\u2019s 11,000-kilometer (6,835 mile) equator and beam the carbon-free energy back to Earth in the form of microwaves, which […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

A review of a new biography of The Greatest Victorian, written in the form of memoirs. \u00a0From what I’ve known of Bagehot, I’ve always liked him, now I have a better idea of why. Quoting from Bagehot\u2019s actual writings, which assert that free institutions thrive among dullards, Prochaska goes on, \u201cThe English are unrivalled in […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

Pricing electricity by demand saves consumers money and encourages more efficient usage: Sacramento Metropolitan Utilities District (SMUD) has decided that time-varying pricing makes sense. It saves the utility money because it doesn\u2019t have to buy as much expensive wholesale power during peak periods. And, it can pass these savings on to customers. It thus has […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

Practically nothing about quantum mechanics surprises me any more: In their proposed experimental set-up, the physicists show that a photon will travel through the left arm of an interferometer with 100% certainty, yet its polarization can be detected in the right arm, where there is 0% probability of the photon traveling. That is, the photon […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

It’s not what you think: Billionaire Tom Steyer plans to renew his fight against Keystone XL in Washington on Monday. NextGen Climate Action, founded by Steyer, will host a summit where participants will argue the Keystone XL pipeline proposed by TransCanada Corp. cannot pass President Obama’s climate test…. Steyer is opposed to the pipeline project […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

A cool interactive info-graphic from Visualizing.org. \u00a0In Colorado’s case, pretty partisan. If you’ve been listening to feminist propaganda about what the world would look like if women ran it, filter by Sex.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

First, Roger Pielke, Jr. notes the relatively constant rate of US hurricane landfalls over the last century, which has culminated in a record time between Category 3+ landfalls: The red line in the graph above shows a decrease in the number of US landfalls of more than 25% since (which given variability, may just be […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

Good to end the day with:<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

The paper that gave so much hope to anti-GMO luddites is being retracted by the journal in which it appeared: All of these criticisms of the study could have been incorporated into the original press coverage, except for the fact that the people behind the study\u00a0manipulated journalists\u00a0to ensure that they were unable to obtain any […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

The Solar Neighborhood, with locations, temperatures, and sizes of the nearest stars.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

So says a study showing a sales boost from removing DRM from music: According to Zhang, the 30% sales increase for lower-selling albums can be explained by the fact that DRM-free music makes it easier for consumers to share files and discover new music. The finding that removing DRM from top-selling albums has no effect […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n