Daniel Goldman
Bio
Visit my homepage. I am a polymath and a rōnin scholar with interests in many areas, including political science, economics, history, and philosophy. I've been writing about all of these topics, and others, for the past two decades.
Stories (71/0)
Systemic Racism vs Residual Race Dynamics
Everyone knows that there is systemic racism against blacks in America. Except, that may not actually be the case. While racism does exist, and racism needs to be addressed, such racism is expressed by individuals, not the system. Instead, what first appears to be systemic racism is actually residual race dynamics. These two phenomena are extremely different, and how we deal with these two problems is just as dissimilar.
By Daniel Goldman4 years ago in The Swamp
Looking out my Window, and Creating What I Want to See
I live in Goshen, a semi-rural town, in Orange County New York. Technically the town is a suburb of New York City. But it's a lot more peaceful than NYC generally is. Maybe peaceful isn't the right word for it. There's been a name for this town, that's stuck around for many decades: "slow motion Goshen." Even the village itself is slow. But I live outside the village, so there aren't too many buildings in the area.
By Daniel Goldman4 years ago in Wander
Three Underrated Anime Series Worth Watching
I watch a lot of anime. It's a diverse genre with many different art forms, covering just about every kind of story that people have conceived, from comedy and slice of life, to psychological horror. Anime isn't just for children. Indeed, many anime, including some very interesting, though quite disturbing, horror shows, would probably leave a child scarred.
By Daniel Goldman4 years ago in Geeks
Sipping on a Long Pepper Cocktail
Spices are wonderful additions to any cocktail bar. They make useful garnishes, but they can be part of the base flavor of a cocktail as well. One spice that I always have on hand is the long pepper. This relative of black pepper has a distinct sweet aroma and flavor, and adds a unique touch to cocktails.
By Daniel Goldman4 years ago in Proof
- Top Story - May 2020
Looking Forward to Getting Back to Normal
I'm somewhat of an introvert, but I like being able to go out if and when I choose to do so. Not being in control of my environment is what troubles me the most. That's why I like bars. I can choose how social I want to be. If I want to strike up a conversation with someone at the bar, it's usually pretty easy to do. Most people are willing to chat with others who are sitting near them. I'm not sure why. There's just something more communal about sitting at a bar.
By Daniel Goldman4 years ago in Feast
Is China Overplaying its Hand?
Modern technology has made the world's economies more global than ever before. As a result, we're very much dependent on each other for our survival. To an extent, socioeconomic interdependence is a good thing. It helps foster peace. It also creates a more efficient economy, in general. But there are some down sides.
By Daniel Goldman4 years ago in The Swamp
An 'Infection Weather Report'
COVID-19 is changing how we live our lives. It's done so in an extreme way. But we should always be concerned about the threat of infections that surround us. Unfortunately, to this day, there is no reasonable general purpose reporting system in place to help us make decisions to avoid these threats. Why not? Does it make sense that in an era of data availability that the population must remain generally ignorant about the level of risk from infectious diseases?
By Daniel Goldman4 years ago in Longevity
Don't Come Crying to Me About The Pandemic
Dear Readers, I hope that you'll allow me to do some venting. While I'll admit that even I was blindsided by the timing of the COVID-19 pandemic, I'm really not at all surprised that it happened. I was expecting something like it. Hell, I'm still expecting something far worse. I've warned about such things for some time, and I've written about my warnings here and elsewhere.
By Daniel Goldman4 years ago in Longevity
Forget Science; This is COVID-19 We're Dealing With!
Ignoring Years Lost and Quality of Life Lost While raw mortality figures get the most headlines, not all deaths are equal. I mentioned this idea in "The Cost of Saving a Life." It sounds harsh, but at the same time, we also think this way when someone young dies: "it's a shame that they died so young." Why? It's because there's a lot of life potential lost when someone dies. They had their whole lives ahead of them. On the other hand, someone who's 90 has already won the lotto, so to speak, by significantly outliving the average person.
By Daniel Goldman4 years ago in Longevity
The Cost of Saving a Life
The Trolley Problem is a classic problem in the philosophy of ethics. The idea of the Trolley Problem is simple. Imagine a trolley is heading for a group of five people tied to the tracks. Your only option to save their lives is to switch the track. But there's one person tied to that other track. Switching the train will save those five people, but you will cause that one person to die. Or you could do nothing, and let the five people die, sparing the person on the side track.
By Daniel Goldman4 years ago in Longevity
Creating a Public Health System that can Better Respond to a Crisis
The public health system needs a lot of work, and there are so many different ways to improve it. I've mentioned improving practices in the past, but now I'd like to focus on how the public health system responds, or fails to respond, to crises, and how we can improve the system as a whole. Some of these ideas will be easy to implement, while others could take years, or even generations, but we need to start somewhere. While there are many areas of interest for reform, a large portion of this article focuses on improving efficiency.
By Daniel Goldman4 years ago in Longevity