Monthly Archives: February 2012

A Civil Rights Victory in Canada

Posted on Wed, 22 Feb, 2012 by pmjones

The end of Canada’s long gun registry: Despite spending a whopping $2.7 billion on creating and running a long-gun registry, Canadians never reaped any benefits from the project. The legislation to end the program finally passed the Parliament on Wednesday. … Continue reading →

Posted in Civil Rights, Defense | Leave a comment

TEDx: The Gun As An Instrument To Improve The World

Posted on Mon, 20 Feb, 2012 by pmjones

This is a great talk.

Posted in Civil Rights, Defense | Leave a comment

Science and Pseudoscience: “Newton Was An Alchemist”

Posted on Thu, 16 Feb, 2012 by pmjones

We can all be both [scientist and pseudoscientist]. Newton was an alchemist. … {I]ndeed, the more you know, the more you fall for confirmation bias. Expertise gives you the tools to seek out the confirmations you need to buttress your … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Smart | Leave a comment

Trials and Errors: Why Science Is Failing Us

Posted on Thu, 16 Feb, 2012 by pmjones

This assumption—that understanding a system’s constituent parts means we also understand the causes within the system—is not limited to the pharmaceutical industry or even to biology. It defines modern science. … The problem with this assumption, however, is that causes … Continue reading →

Posted in Science | Leave a comment

Return-on-Investment of Lobbying Greater Than Entrepreneurship

Posted on Thu, 16 Feb, 2012 by pmjones

Wall Street can do math, and the math looks like this: Wall Street + Washington = Wild Profitability. Free enterprise? Entrepreneurship? Starting a business making and selling stuff behind some grimy little storefront? You’d have to be a fool. Better … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Government | Leave a comment

Taxes and Human Weakness

Posted on Thu, 16 Feb, 2012 by pmjones

When someone drops out of high school, overeats, or fails to exercise, you tell us that their behavior is only "human."  But if a conservative or libertarian objects to paying taxes to help people who make these choices, you get … Continue reading →

Posted in Liberty, Taxes | Leave a comment

Speaking at Dallas PHP

Posted on Thu, 16 Feb, 2012 by pmjones

I’ve been invited to speak at the Dallas PHP meeting on Tue 21 Feb. The topic will be Solving the N+1 Problem. If you’re in the area, be sure to come by! UPDATE: Originally I had 28 Feb, but it’s … Continue reading →

Posted in PHP, Programming | 2 Comments

Aura 1.0.0-beta2 Released

Posted on Wed, 15 Feb, 2012 by pmjones

(The Aura Project is a library of independent component packages for PHP 5.4.) Yesterday, we released 1.0.0-beta2 versions of all Aura component libraries: Aura.Autoload, a PSR-0 compliant autoloader Aura.Cli for command-line tooling Aura.Di, a dependency injection container Aura.Http, for generating … Continue reading →

Posted in Aura, PHP, Programming | 1 Comment

Do You Carry? Try “Starbucks Appreciation Day”

Posted on Tue, 14 Feb, 2012 by pmjones

I am going to declare February 14th Starbucks Appreciation Day, by encouraging gun owners to head to Starbucks to buy some of their fine coffee and pastry products. Apparently some anti-gun nuts are boycotting Starbucks today because the company does … Continue reading →

Posted in Civil Rights | 2 Comments

“For The Record, I Was Wrong”

Posted on Sun, 12 Feb, 2012 by pmjones

Words I am rarely heard to say. This is your chance to gloat. Warning: NSFW language, but lots of exploding coolness.

Posted in General | 3 Comments