Thanks, Robert. I wandered onto this site for the first time in months and noticed that you were discussing an interesting book that I read many years ago. As a Ph.D. in physics, I can tell you that quantum mechanics was an even larger paradigm shift than relativity. Einstein's famous "God does...

Keep in mind the cause of the deficit. There was a budget deficit throughout the Bush administration, mainly because of the Bush tax cuts. The economic collapse, the worst since the Great Depression, made the deficit skyrocket for two reasons: less tax revenue and increased social spending due to mo...

I'm pessimistic about the US ever being able to improve the situation in Afghanistan. After all, US troops have been there for a decade, and things have been stagnating for a while. Why would things turn around at this stage? Though I'm no fan of Islam, it's simplistic to blame Islam exclusively for...

As far as physics is concerned, I wonder if Kuhn is like a general preparing to fight the last war? There have been no real paradigm shifts as far as I am aware within physics since Einstein. Actually, there were two major paradigm shifts in the early 20th century: relativity and quantum mechanics....

Were liberals less willing to compromise, the country might be more divisive, but the resulting policies would be more ethical and the population would be better off. If only it were so. Unfortunately, when liberals refuse to compromise, and conservatives refuse to compromise, nothing gets done, wh...

I read Tana French's novel The Likeness a couple of years ago. I really enjoyed the first half of it, in terms of the writing and the situations she set up. The second half wasn't as good, but it's still worth reading. However, I wasn't enthusiastic enough to buy another of her novels.

I just finished The Coldest War, David Halmberstam's book about the Korean War. It's an excellent and well-written book, which is good since it's probably the only book I'll ever read on the subject.

The recent Republican comments about American exceptionalism were a response to the following statement of Obama's: "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism. I'm enormously proud of m...

Theoretical physics is based on some very abstract mathematical ideas. The concept of infinity is much simpler than many of the other mathematical formulations you need to grasp to understand advanced physics. To understand the Greene quote, consider the following statement. In any group of 400 peop...

Earlier today I found the following book in the bookstore. I've read two other books by Hochschild, both of which were excellent. To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 by Adam Hochschild http://www.amazon.com/End-All-Wars-Rebellion-1914-1918/dp/0618758283 World War I stands as...