Page 1 of Shan-ul-Hai's writing

1. Decide Based On Credentials... Not Faces Back in February 2007, USA Today/Gallup asked Americans the following question: "Between now and the 2008 political conventions, there will be discussion about the qualifications of presidential candidates -- their education, age, religion... (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 3 years 339 days ago.)

2. The Supreme Court has “legacies?” I saw an article today in USA Today suggesting that the legacy of Sandra Day O'Connor, America's first female Supreme Court justice, has been fading since she retired in January 2006 (after a tenure of over two decades). The article mentions... (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 3 years 351 days ago.)

3. Howard Dean: A Window into Obama's Future It's common for a Presidential nominee to replace the chair of his party with one of his own people. Although Barack Obama's recent decision to keep Howard Dean as the DNC chair was minor news at best, I think it's much more important than the... (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 3 years 356 days ago.)

4. Why do we care? There are plenty of social issues that are important in politics these days. Everybody seems to be highly concerned with what everybody else is doing. With these issues, I like to ask myself "is it really worth the effort to oppose an issue... (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 3 years 357 days ago.)

5. Fixing Mistakes: The Failing War on Drugs "Fixing Mistakes" will be a new series where I talk about how our society can learn from its mistakes and correct its own problems... but we can only do it if we're willing to think outside the box. We have spent countless amounts of money... (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 3 years 357 days ago.)

6. Encouraging Isolationism: Americans and Geography Plenty of us have heard that over 60% of Americans aged 18-24 couldn't find Iraq on a map of the Middle East (yes, a map of the Middle East not even a map of the world) in a 2006 survey (that's three years after the start of the war). I just... (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 3 years 360 days ago.)

7. English Around the World I read a great article today in which a bunch of experts gather together to talk about what globalization will do to world languages . Here are some excerpts, in case you don't want to read the whole thing. Of course, my comments are at the... (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 3 years 363 days ago.)

8. Another Insight into Hillary's Mind Hillary Clinton's latest (of many) ridiculous comments really gives us an insight into her mind. People have said that they want to look past her slip-ups, but when we're selecting a President, I think it's very important to analyze these small... (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 4 years 1 day ago.)

9. Informed Voting: A thing of the past? In a campaign full of pointless buzzwords and endless political maneuvering, I was not surprised to read that Hillary Clinton is now telling her supporters to "turn off the TV." Her suggestion was, as one would expect, met with applause... (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 4 years 12 days ago.)

10. Nominal Breakthroughs: Beating corruption This is the first post in the "Nominal Breakthroughs" series, which will talk about news that is farcically touted as groundbreaking. The fight against political corruption is one of the most important tasks confronting many of... (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 4 years 14 days ago.)

11. Digital Dogtags 2: Yes, bartender, I’m 21 You can count on the Japanese to top the British GPS-based radio show that I wrote about in the first installment of "Digital Dogtags". The Tokyo-based Fujitaka Company is seeking approval for a new system which will determine a person's age... (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 4 years 15 days ago.)

12. Politics and Semantics: “Working Class” Isn't it about time that we stop getting angry at people for stating the obvious? After "Bittergate," I think I might have lost hope in our ability to ever recover from our tendency to make a big deal every time somebody says something... (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 4 years 15 days ago.)

13. And the Most Influential Republican Is... Not Bush or McCain (not by a longshot), but Rush Limbaugh. Recently, 235 right-leaning bloggers voted on the 25 most influential conservatives in US politics. The rankings are interesting: #25) Mark Levin: 6 votes #21) Hugh Hewitt: 7 #21)... (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 4 years 18 days ago.)

14. Rise and Fall If you do a Google search for "rise and fall of the empire" , you'll get lots of results about the British and Roman empires, and maybe about the Third Reich. You might also see something about the great post-medieval empires, such as... (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 4 years 19 days ago.)

15. Worst job in the world: Al-Qaeda leader Many of my friends are young/uneducated enough so that they still work (miserably) at fast food restaurants or other low-paying unrewarding locations. But today, after reading that yet another top-ranking al Qaeda official has been arrested... (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 4 years 19 days ago.)

16. Is Jeremiah Wright worse than Pat Robertson? Everybody involved with American politics has been hearing a lot recently about Jeremiah Wright, the radical leftist pastor at Barack Obama's church. What I ask is this… why is it that these sorts of statements are a major issue, but we don't care... (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 4 years 20 days ago.)

17. Your Personal Digital Dogtag Anybody who has seen futuristic movies such as Minority Report has wondered if - or, rather, when - we will actually start to see those personal identification systems. We always get ideas about a time when every person's identity will... (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 4 years 20 days ago.)

18. Hunger Watch: Food Riots About a week ago, I wrote about how humanity seems to be disturbingly close to the mass die-off that Thomas Malthus predicted 200 years ago. In that last week, I've come across a huge amount of additional evidence suggesting that this... (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 4 years 20 days ago.)

19. Hillary Doesn't Need Economists! A few days ago, Hillary Clinton decided that economists are wrong about the potential effect of a gas tax rebate. Her exact words: "I'm not g (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 4 years 20 days ago.)

20. Examining Causality: Why Are Conservatives Happier Than Liberals? I recently read (in The Economist ) about a study showing that over the course of the last 30 years, conservatives have consistently claimed to be "very happy" more often than liberals. Many people try to use this data to say that conservatism... (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 4 years 26 days ago.)

21. How NOT to treat your enemies Today, Israeli forces attacked a Hamas leader's house and killed his 14-year old daughter, among other civilians. This is a few days after Hamas offered Israel a 6-month cease-fire, which Israel is planning on rejecting because they... (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 4 years 27 days ago.)

22. On the Brink of a Malthusian Catastrophe About 200 years ago, the mathematician Thomas Robert Malthus famously wrote an equation predicting that the human population would soon reach the planet's ecological carrying capacity, causing many of us to die off because of the lack of food and... (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 4 years 27 days ago.)

23. 4 Ways To Foster Scientific Innovation Yesterday, I wrote about how we're incentivizing scientists to stop innovating. In that post, I promised to suggest some solutions today. Here are some things we can do to foster increased scientific innovation: We should require... (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 4 years 27 days ago.)

24. 8 Ways That We're Incenvitizing Scientists To Stop Innovating In today's world, a culture of innovation is integral to advancement at the same rate that we've seen in the past century, especially in the medical field. Unfortunately, some scientists have done a few unethical things in the past; because of... (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 4 years 27 days ago.)

25. The American Dream The spirit of the American Dream is dying and I think we should save it maybe even try to spread it around the world (read the first paragraph of this article if you don't know what the American Dream is). The traditional American success... (posted by Shan-ul-Hai 4 years 31 days ago.)