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Meet your death panel

For years, the Republican right suggested that if Obamacare passed, the result would be “Death Panels” which would choose whether or not individuals would get the healthcare they need. We all denounced those claims as specious; there was no such provision in the ACA. Now that the Republicans have control of the government, they’ve trotted…

The game “Set” rocks the mathematical world

You may have played the game “Set”: Invented in 1974, Set has a simple goal: to find special triples called “sets” within a deck of 81 cards. Each card displays a different design with four attributes—color (which can be red, purple or green), shape (oval, diamond or squiggle), shading (solid, striped or outlined) and number…

This is my America.

I believe in this dream of America: a place where no one profits from the misery of others, where the suffering of the smallest child matters as much as the glory of our captains and leaders. I believe in a place where we seek truth, where we treat disagreements with respect and patience, where honesty…

Genetics as information

This is ridiculously fascinating. I mean, just the basic premise is astonishing: no two cells in anybody’s brain have the same genetic code. We are not made up of a single genetic encoding; our bodies carry around literally billions of unique combinations of our genetic code. That’s a bit world-altering, at least for me. Also,…

Intriguing and revealing Breitbart article

Breitbart posted a piece today about the recently passed budget. The piece is fascinating and not a little disturbing. It’s fundamentally a “framing” piece; there’s not much content here, it’s mostly just positioning for the 2018 elections. But there are a couple of pretty fascinating nuggets. First, I think this offers an interesting glimpse into…