Yesterday, I spat in a tube, added a preservative solution, and mailed my saliva to 23andMe, a company that provides its customers with some of their genetic data. 23andMe does not sequence whole genomes — -that is still extremely expensive. Instead, they examine about 600,000 locations…

In a post on moral hazard in the banking system, Megan McArdle writes,

Nor do I find the central story of how the FDIC induced this moral hazard very compelling. Supposedly, ordinary depositors don’t bother to check the soundness of their banks because they don’t…

The transhumanist publication h+ Magazine has an article explaining Eight Ways In-Vitro Meat will Change Our Lives. It’s a fun read, if a little misleading at times. The author predicts that in vitro meat will be widely available, if not dominant, in 3–10 years. While…

A Serious Man

I have to admit I am perplexed by this film. This is unsurprising, given the theme of the movie, which is summarized by the…

The new Google Chrome extensions gallery looks nice, but if you’re on a Mac, Google won’t let you install the extensions, even if you’re using Chromium, which has extension support enabled. Not to worry, though; there is an easy way around this limitation.

If you use a Mac and the web interface to Gmail, check out gmailto. Otherwise, please ignore.

Up in the Air

This film is quite well done and sure to win awards. I saw it two days ago and I still can’t decide if I like it.

Avatar

The point of the film is that nature and scientists are good and corporations and all humans besides scientists are evil. To each his own, but…