Isn’t It Time Someone Invented a Peace Weapon?

Seriously. Instead of dropping a bomb on your nasty neighbor, you drop some gas that makes them happy. Laughing gas. Or an anti-depressant. Or some kind of wonder enlightenment tonic to drop in the water. Or could this be the worst weapon of all, because it could be a way to quell all resistance to invaders? Not Read More …

Teach the Math People Really Use: Probability and Statistics

Ever use that algebra and calculus you learned in high school? Most people don’t, I’ll bet. But every day we make decisions or encounter information involving odds and numerical evidence. Play poker? Buy a lottery ticket? Decide to fly or drive? Read a story about how married people live longer? Or how a drug cuts the risk of a rare Read More …

Homeland Heroes Day

We have days for honoring military heroes, but why not a holiday to honor other people who risked their lives to protect and save their fellow man? Police. Fire fighters. Transplant donors. Rescuers from accidents and disasters. Extend gratitude to doctors, teachers, parents, too. If as a society we’re not going to pay these people as well Read More …

Make Presidents More Accountable: Divide up the Job

The presidency’s too much for any one man. Or woman. So divide it up. Besides, the more responsibilities a leader has, the more failures are accepted, and the more elections focus on likeability instead of issues. So suppose there were multiple “presidents,” (or commissioners) each independent with only one problem-solving job: Improving education. Winning the war on drugs. Making Americans Read More …

Make Political Ads Admit Side-Effects

“Vote for Me! My ugly opponent’s pro-death and he wants to raise everybody’s taxes! This ad, brought to you by the Committee to Re-Elect Joe Jerkweed at Any Cost, not only just wasted $20,000 that could have gone for several children’s health-care premiums, but it may cause headaches, nausea, vomiting, gullibility, insensitivity, and major regret. Read More …

Negatrends: Reasons to Fear for the Future

OK, this is basically a packaging concept based on a pun. Megatrends was a fascinating bestseller that forecast the future and spawned a set of sequels. Being more of a pessimist than is healthy (and always a prankster), I thought: Why not Negatrends, a gathering of gloom-and-doom scenarios into one book? Global warming. Emergent diseases. Read More …