Keeping accurate time has been a problem for humanity for basically our entire existence. All civilizations have constructed varied objects and buildings, out of communal resources, to keep track of the time. We do this because keeping track of the time is useful in an incredible variety of ways, from cooking, to industrial processes, to appointments, etc., most of which we’re now accustomed to given the transparent ease with which we can check the time these days.

I’d like to break down that transparency a bit, to talk about how we actually got our modern clocks, and what it says about our nigh-instinctual priorities as a species. This post is running against some word limit issues (this part is a mere ~2500 words), hence the two parts, but I do want to talk a little bit about timekeeping, time signals in our modern era, and then use that as a broader analogy for the costs and benefits of public services. To get there, though, I’m gonna have to lead you through a bit of the history of how humanity actually started keeping track of time in the first place.

Read more “Time Signals and Services, Part 1: The History of Timekeeping”

Generally, no, but that clickbait title actually has a point. I was thinking about a combination of things over the last few weeks, and I think I’ve stumbled on something a little concerning: I believe there is a completely Constitutional way for the party that controls the incoming House of Representatives to steal the Presidential election, and/or cause a major Constitutional crisis. I arrived at this conclusion thinking about Kevin McCarthy’s election to the Speakership, the Jan 6 riot and machinations beforehand, and the 2022 partial reform of the Electoral Count Act.

The idea seems really complicated (how do all those bits link together?), and there are details that are admittedly still quite fuzzy, but it actually boils down to one simple principle: Congress actually has to exist to count the electoral votes (and thus, elect the President) – and I think there’s a way where they don’t. My first post since launching a substack, so of course it’s gonna be ~5500 words long, but this essay was done first so here we go.

Read more “Can Congress Count?”