Nathan Taylor

So where are all the aliens?

So where are all the aliens? Possible answers: a) there are no aliens, b) alien civilizations self destruct, c) aliens are hiding, d) aliens are all microbes so they can’t leave home. In last week’s post on the early solar system I spent a paragraph arguing for option d, microbes. So this week I wanted… Continue reading So where are all the aliens?

Life on Wet Planets

About 4 billion years ago, Venus (far left), Earth (middle), and Mars (far right), all had water. The relative planet sizes above are roughly to scale, though how they looked that long ago is speculation. But just knowing a time existed when we had three planets in our own solar system with liquid water is… Continue reading Life on Wet Planets

Digital Economics: TV and cord cutting

This is a multipart series on digital economics. More here. So what about the future of TV? There’s a lot of talk of “cord cutters”, people who don’t subscribe to Cable or Satellite, but get their TV from broadcast over the air and internet video. And long term that certainly makes sense. But it’s less clear exactly… Continue reading Digital Economics: TV and cord cutting

Digital Economics: Movies

This is a multipart series on digital economics. More here. It seems like movies have been through a lot of traumatic change in recent decades: VCRs, DVDs, streaming, pirating, the collapse of movie theater attendance. So the movie industry seems like a great candidate for reviewing how digital economics disrupts industries. But what’s surprising is the movie industry… Continue reading Digital Economics: Movies

Digital Economics: The Zero Marginal Cost Economy

This is a multipart series on digital economics. More here. The economics of digital products are odd because once you’ve produced the product the cost of making copies is nearly zero. For example it may cost some fixed money up front to record a song, but once you’ve got the final track it’s nearly zero added cost to make duplicates.… Continue reading Digital Economics: The Zero Marginal Cost Economy

10 Predictions for 2013

I’ve always had a soft spot for year end predictions, even though they usually turn out to be wrong. My favorite style is a mix of well researched topics with some whimsy. Plus the pundit is honest enough to go back and score previous years predictions (which most don’t). So my model would be someone… Continue reading 10 Predictions for 2013

The Long View on Violence and Gun Control

One of my favorite books from 2012 was Steven Pinker’s “The Better Angels of our Nature: Why violence has declined.” His book has two parallel lines of discussion: 1) data showing the unappreciated and massive drop in violence over centuries, and 2) explanations as to why this drop happened. Let’s tie Pinker’s book to the gun control… Continue reading The Long View on Violence and Gun Control

Digital Economics: The Hollow Middle

This is a multipart series on digital economics. More here. Markets have been pushing us more and more towards a bi-polar world, where products are either superstar successes or lonely niche players. What I’d like to do in this post is write up what’s behind this trend. So fair warning, this post is just a laundry… Continue reading Digital Economics: The Hollow Middle

Why is Christmas music terrible? Answer: 1950’s television.

Note: this 2012 post is obsolete, you should instead read my newer 2020 much improved version here. Question: Why is Christmas music terrible? Answer: television. But not today’s television. We’re talking 1950’s television. As always, xkcd is on the case. Below is the great xkcd chart showing when currently popular Christmas songs were first released. Note the… Continue reading Why is Christmas music terrible? Answer: 1950’s television.

Advice on home stereo gear

I wanted to talk about home stereo gear. Especially since this gives me an excuse to post the classic 1980’s Maxell advertisement above. Of course music gear is a matter of personal taste, so hard core music fans won’t need this advice. But for most people I’d argue your stereo gear options are simpler than… Continue reading Advice on home stereo gear