Category Archives: Analysis
“Who are we?”
From ‘‘The physics community has never split like this’: row erupts over plans for new Large Hadron Collider’, The Guardian, March 29, 2025: However, if the FCC were given the go-ahead, it could lock up funds for decades and end … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Science
Tagged CERN, Future Circular Collider, Large Hadron Collider, Nirmalya Kajuri, particle physics, Sabine Hossenfelder, The Guardian
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Who funds quantum research?
An odd little detail in a Physics World piece on Microsoft’s claim to have made a working topological qubit: Regardless of the debate about the results and how they have been announced, researchers are supportive of the efforts at Microsoft to produce a … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Science
Tagged artificial intelligence, Bruce Schneier, Drew Weissman, drug development, Katalin Karikó, Majorana 1, Microsoft Research, mRNA vaccines, Nathan Sanders, Normal Eisen, Physical Review B, Physics World, public AI, public quantum, quantum computing, quantum technologies, topological qubit, Winfried Hensinger
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On the US FAA’s response to Falcon 9 debris
On February 1, SpaceX launched its Starlink 11-4 mission onboard a Falcon 9 rocket. The rocket’s reusable first stage returned safely to the ground and the second stage remained in orbit after deploying the Starlink satellites. It was to deorbit … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis
Tagged Commercial Spaceflight Federation, deorbiting, Donald Trump, end of launch, exercise of control, expendable launch vehicle, Falcon 9, NASA, orbital launch, space debris, SpaceX, Starlink 11-4 mission, uncontrolled reentry, US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act 2015, US Federal Aviation Administration
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The idea of doing right by the US
After US troops withdrew from Afghanistan after two decades in 2021, the Taliban returned to power. In its oppressive regime many groups of people, but especially women, girls, and minorities, have lost most of their civil rights. In this time, … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Culture
Tagged Afghanistan, COP29, Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, Malazan Book of the Fallen, Marzieh Hamidi, Steven Erikson, Taliban
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Do the poor want to be poor?
‘Justice Gavai’s comments on freebies overlook people’s struggle for survival: Brinda Karat’, The Hindu, February 14, 2025: CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat said the recent remarks on freebies by Supreme Court Judge Justice B.R. Gavai fails to recognise the … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis
Tagged Brinda Karat, cash transfer, destitution, direct benefit transfer, Justice BR Gavai, labour force participation, poverty alleviation, Social welfare, Supreme Court of India
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Subtracting from science funding
‘NavIC’s hurdles project govt’s reluctance to fund innovation’, Hindustan Times, February 7, 2025: India … chose a more cautious path. For decades, we’ve been telling ourselves that we’ll invest in science “when we’re economically better off.” It’s both prudent and a … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Science
Tagged defence spending, gross expenditure on research and development, Hindustan Times, Indian Space Research Organisation, NavIC, NVS-02 satellite
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On Gaiman and a logic of compassion
That Vulture piece. If you haven’t already, read it but be warned: it’s just as disturbing as everyone is saying it is. One paragraph in particular I found more unsettling than the rest — not because it presents one more … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Culture
Tagged #MeToo, Amanda Palmer, Klaus Beier, Neil Gaiman, paedophilia, Scarlett Pavlovich, sexual violence, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, therapy
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On Gaiman and a logic of compassion
That Vulture piece. If you haven’t already, read it but be warned: it’s just as disturbing as everyone is saying it is. One paragraph in particular I found more unsettling than the rest — not because it presents one more … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Culture
Tagged #MeToo, Amanda Palmer, Klaus Beier, Neil Gaiman, paedophilia, psychotherapy, sexual violence, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Vulture
Comments Off on On Gaiman and a logic of compassion