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Ross Williams

Ross Williams's picture
Grand Rapids, MN
Commenter for
5 years 13 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 12/13/12 at 11:43 am in response to 'Whoa,' say Ely officials to MnDOT plan that would create a 'one-stoplight town'

We need to fire everyone at MNDOT and start over. Its not a transportation agency. Its a highway engineering firm whose business model depends on increasing dependency on automobiles. Pedestrians and bicyclists are the enemy and access to businesses and services is something to be "managed" rather than enhanced.

The idea that increasing mobility by getting vehicles through Ely efficiently is a primary value is absurd. The primary reason people are in Ely is to access the services...

Posted on 08/27/12 at 11:03 am in response to More evidence that diet, not lack of exercise, is fueling obesity epidemic

"In other words, we’re not getting fat because we’re less physically active, but because we’re eating too much energy-dense foods, particularly foods high in sugar."

I don't think there is much evidence to support this hypothesis either. Instead the problem is that people eat too much. Whether its protein, fat or sugar may not matter.

The most likely explanation for why people are eating more is convenience. It used to be that eating had barriers. At home, one had to buy the...

Posted on 08/27/12 at 02:11 pm in response to More evidence that diet, not lack of exercise, is fueling obesity epidemic

"'You cannot get fat eating protein."

You can't get fat eating just sugar either, you will die from lack of nutrition. Same with just fat.

But we are considering obesity. If you eat 3600 extra calories in a week, it doesn't really matter whether they were protein, sugar or fat. They will all be stored by the body as a pound of fat.

I would be very careful of the current pop culture science around diet, whatever the current pop culture or its source. You need to...

Posted on 08/27/12 at 10:46 am in response to Twin Cities schools use creative financing to pay for athletic fees

If athletics and other extra-curricular activities are legitimate parts of a public education, we shouldn't be charging anyone to participate. I think they may be one of the most important parts of an education and we ought to be encouraging kids to participate. Instead of setting up barriers, we ought to make participation as universal as possible.

But these fees show the real problem with "needs tests" in general for public benefits. Kids whose parents meet the needs test...

Posted on 08/27/12 at 03:31 pm in response to Twin Cities schools use creative financing to pay for athletic fees

Because a well-rounded education includes a variety of activities, not just academic information. Its like asking why have discussion, just have kids memorize facts.

There is a difference between intramural activities and highly competitive sports and other extra-curricular activities. They both have value and there is no reason, other than cost, not to offer both.

Posted on 08/27/12 at 10:21 am in response to Itasca’s killer app could transform higher ed

We are plagued with people who have made careers out of highly creative failures in public policy.

Government has used civil service tests as part of their hiring process for a long time. And we use standardized tests for licensing in some professions. But I know of few, if any, private businesses that have adopted this model where it wasn't required by regulation. While businesses rarely use standardized tests to evaluate people to hire, we continue to believe we can use those tests...

Posted on 08/24/12 at 10:12 am in response to Do private school vouchers help? New study offers data

The most important issue would seem to be scalablity. This is often ignored by people who don't recognize that the privileges they have are possible only because they are limited to a small number of people. Not everyone can go to Harvard or it wouldn't be Harvard.

The proponents of choice intuitively understand this. Which is why they don't propose abolishing the public education system and just give every student a voucher for a private school. They are counting on a group if...

Posted on 08/24/12 at 09:43 am in response to Golden age of design: Things 'just work'

Anyone who has used the typical web site understands that we definitely do NOT live in a "golden age of design".

And the reason can be found in this video's critique of elevator buttons. Design is more than an intellectual exercise, it requires observation of how human beings actual behave and interact with the world. And a lot of techies are always surprised at that.

Stop and consider how elevator buttons are actually used. Imagine your annoyance when you pushed the button...

Posted on 08/23/12 at 11:15 am in response to Campaign coverage so far: mostly negative

Put another way, the 2008 and 2000 campaigns, where there was no incumbent running, were less negative than the two campaigns where there was an incumbent in the race. Is this really surprising?

Posted on 08/22/12 at 09:51 am in response to Why today's seniors should object to the dissolution of Medicare

Lets be clear. The debt is entirely a function of failing to collect taxes from current taxpayers for current expenses and passing the bill on the future taxpayers. This has been the result of something pitched as "tax cuts" by the proponents, but were in fact simply tax increases on future taxpayers for the benefit of the folks getting the immediate "tax cut".

There is no such thing as a "tax cut". Any cut in taxes for one person means someone else has to pay more. The only way to...