Data centers are not yet a partisan issue. There is plenty here for conservative and liberal alike to hate. The writers of our reality have a way of, with time,… Read more If It’s Not Love, Then It’s the Data Center That Will Bring Us Together →
As we have learned, the Western Virginia Water Authority is an independent corporation, a monopoly, which can contract to sell our water to whomever it chooses, and can issue bonds—the interest of which is charged to consumers—and owes a fiduciary duty to its bond holders rather than to the residents of the counties of Roanoke, Franklin, and Botetourt. I failed to mention previously that its property, and its income both from supplying water, and from bond issues, are tax exempt pursuant to Va. Code § 15.2-5132. That’s an interesting set… Read more The Botetourt Data Center: a Bad Deal with a Scammy Cherry on Top →
The Botetourt data center is bad news, and some people are quite appropriately upset. Let’s not, however, allow our anger to preclude a little education. Here we have an excellent case study of how government in these United States works. When I learned that a decision of the Botetourt board of supervisors bid fair to drain dry Roanoke’s water supply, I wondered how one county could unilaterally make a decision for a public utility servicing multiple counties. Well, it can’t, but then it turns out that the Western Virginia Water… Read more The Botetourt Data Center, The Water Authority, and an Invitation to Corruption →
It’s odd returning to old writing, I wrote what follows more than a decade ago, and I hardly recognize myself. Still, I think it holds up pretty well. It was intended to be chapter 2 or 3 of a book of Virginia lawyer stories. Here it is: In law school I met one of my good friends, Dave. While I am a Southerner of mostly Irish descent, and have consequently never enjoyed a tranquil day in my life, Dave is half Scottish and half British, and is generally composed and… Read more Wythe County →
Since writing about memory reconsolidation here, I’ve learned to explain it more simply, as follows. Your brain is a prediction machine. If one of its predictions fails, a four to five hour window opens, in which you may install a new one. To do so, repeat the prediction error, in this time frame, at least three times. You can try this at home. This exercise is for those of us gummed up with nastiness from childhood. Sit or lie down in a comfortable place, close your eyes, and listen to… Read more Memory Reconsolidation: An Exercise →
The brain is a prediction machine, and its predictions powerfully govern our very perceptions. Mark Solms writes in The Hidden Spring: Most people don’t realize that our here-and-now perceptions are constantly guided by predictions, generated mainly from long-term memory. But they are. That is why far fewer neurons propagate signals from the external sense organs to the internal memory systems than the other way round. For example, the ratio of incoming connections to outgoing ones in the lateral geniculate body (which relays information from the eyes to the visual cortex… Read more Predictions, ADHD, Electricity →
Scott Adams’ Reframe Your Brain is, by all accounts, a useful book. In the spirit of “the purpose of science is to confirm the commonplace,” let’s shallowly dip our toes… Read more Reframing Reframe Your Brain: Memory Reconsolidation →
The “perpetually incomplete and insecure,” find in fundamentalist doctrine protection from a complex and ambiguous world. They will sacrifice reality for this security, and will just as readily sacrifice the… Read more Religion, Fundamentalism, Gnosticism, Part XIII: The Scapegoat →