While "appeal to authority" is often considered a logical fallacy there are times when it is a genuinely useful heuristic for a lay-audience. An interesting discussion of when that is and is not the case. Via @timoreilly
I've been skeptical of Pickens' plans to use Natural Gas to get us off foreign oil up till now. But now that I know he sees this as a bridge strategy until we can move off of fossil fuels all together, I'm more encouraged by it. Although a little hyper-sensitive about relying on foreign countries for energy, he offers a solid short-term plan for a cleaner liquid fuel for heavy-duty vehicles.
Zeke Emanuel is convinced that half-measures will not get the U.S. the health care system that we need. On the other hand, he is also not an advocate of a single-payer system. Emanuel lays out his reasoning and his recommendations for a new health care system. The Q&A session at the end of the talk is just as informative as the rest of his talk.
Tim talks about working on stuff that matters, and how we need to tackle big challenges if we wish to improve ourselves, rather than racking up small, inconsequential victories.
"When someone demands to know how we are going to replace newspapers, they are really demanding to be told that we are not living through a revolution. They are demanding to be told that old systems won’t break before new systems are in place.... They are demanding to be lied to."
Former CIA Operative and author of several books, Robert Baer talks from first-hand knowledge on Iran's transition from an irrational, revolutionary country bound for failure to a stable, rational actor in the Middle East - and why that's good news for the US.
A recent piece by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times reminded me of this more thoughtful and linkful piece that Tim O'Reilly wrote back in January. The thesis is essentially that the accepted norm of 'growth is good' for economies is coming to an end.
Doc Searls has long ties to the public radio community. He comments on the eroding viability of PBS and how it could reclaim its prominence and it audience by taking a page from NPR's playbook.
Terry Gross interviews Steven Waldman, founder of belief.net and author of Founding Faith. They talk about the confluence of religion and state from the founding of the American colonies to the early days of the United States, and how faith as a founding principle was not what many people suppose it was.
Rick Steves of PBS Television and Radio Host, gives a fascinating and even-handed talk to the Commonwealth Club of California about his 10-month stay in Iran to produce his new travel-documentary there.
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