"More broadly, a simple dictum such as ‘listen to the experts’ isn’t going to work, precisely because our most powerful methods of generating new knowledge (viz. the sciences) are not so much based on listening to individual experts, as on including these experts (and many others) in broader social systems which expose them continually to the ideas of others and vice-versa. Designing (or – perhaps better- nurturing) such systems is hard to think about and hard to do – but it has to be the way forward."

"…Florida’s legislature recently debated a bill to remove licensing requirements from 20 occupations, including hair-braiding, interior design and teaching ballroom-dancing. For a while it looked as if the bill would sail through: Florida has been a centre of tea-party agitation and both chambers have Republican majorities. But the people who care most about this issue—the cartels of incumbents—lobbied the loudest. One predicted that unlicensed designers would use fabrics that might spread disease and cause 88,000 deaths a year. Another suggested, even more alarmingly, that clashing colour schemes might adversely affect “salivation”. In the early hours of May 7th the bill was defeated. If Republican majorities cannot pluck up the courage to challenge a cartel of interior designers when Florida’s unemployment rate is more than 10%, what hope has America? The Licence Raj may be here to stay."

"I mean, we all know that major labels are supposed to be venal masters of hiding money from artists, but they’re also supposed to be good at it, right? This figure wasn’t insulting because it was so small, it was insulting because it was so stupid."

"We are pleased to announce the publication of the third edition of our text, Introduction to Computer Simulation Methods by Harvey Gould, Jan Tobochnik, and Wolfgang Christian, Addison-Wesley (2006). The text introduces Java programming by example in the context of learning physics. It contains many novel applications, is accessible to a wide range of readers, develops good programming habits, and encourages student experimentation. Our goal is to teach students enough tools so that they can use computer simulations as a method of discovery in physics."

"WOB combines a database of bifurcation problems with a tutorial on nonlinear phenomena.

WOB is designed to be part of a virtual university. The approach is example-oriented and experimental. The emphasis is on examples that are application-oriented."

every one a keeper

"But enough of irony. Is this useful? I think it may be. You see, one of the great benefits of describing a problem as a Finite State Machine (FSM) is that you can complete the logic of the problem. That is, if you can enumerate the states and the events, then you know that the number of paths through the system is no larger than S * E. Or, rather, there are no more than S*E transitions from one state to another. More importantly, enumerating them is simply a matter of creating a transition for every combination of state and event.

One of the more persistent problems in BDD (and TDD for that matter) is knowing when you are done. That is, how do you know that you have written enough scenarios (tests). Perhaps there is some condition that you have forgotten to explore, some pathway through the system that you have not described."

Interesting prospect for Nudge applications

aka "Nothing is Miscellaneous"

"At the same time, of course, Disraeli could not and would not be pigeonholed as the representative of a minority. Instead, he made an asset of his supposed liability in two ways, as Adam Kirsch lucidly explains in his recent book about Disraeli and Jewish identity. First, Disraeli argued, in word and in deed, that there was no need to choose between Jewishness and Britishness—he could have both. Second, he hinted that his complexities and ambiguities of identity, his supposedly troubling "foreignness,'' would be of service to the nation. His exotic traits added up to a feature, not a bug. He could be both a British gentleman and a conjuror with skills beyond the ken of mere gentlemen."

Noted for reference in Nudge project