Word: myhrvold
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Still, Levitt and Dubner do tackle one legitimately controversial topic, one that I think could benefit from a somewhat contrarian perspective: geoengineering, or using technology to directly cool the earth to compensate for man-made climate change. The authors visit Nathan Myhrvold, the brilliant former chief technology officer of Microsoft and co-founder of Intellectual Ventures, a private think tank. Myhrvold and his staff have the idea to build a giant "garden hose to the sky" that would pump liquefied sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. Scientists know that increasing SO2 in the air deflects sunlight, which cools down the earth...
...point out, we don't know what the potential side effects of geoengineering might be or whether the entire operation would backfire badly. Geoengineering might be a cheaper option, but followed out to at least one logical conclusion, it could be a pitfall. Say we try to use Myhrvold's giant-garden-hose scheme (after hopefully giving it a better name) without reducing carbon emissions. We could end up in a situation in which we can't abandon geoengineering without risking sudden, disastrous warming due to unchecked CO2 emissions. Then, what was meant to be a quick, cheap fix would...
...models of complex phenomena such as the global economy or, in this case, the global climate. Mainly, though, it's an excuse to tout the mind-blowing ideas for combatting global warming that he and Dubner learned about while hanging out with former Microsoft chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold and his merry band of inventors (Myhrvold is a big Freakonomics fan). Like a hose 18 miles (29 km) long that would spew sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere. That's not economics. But it is freaky...
...automatically issue injunctions against infringers, as they do now in most cases. eBay wants judges to have more discretion, which could weaken patent holders' bargaining power. "The only thing that will bring a major company to the table is that in the end they have to [negotiate]," says Nathan Myhrvold, former chief technology officer for Microsoft, who runs a patent-acquisition shop and knows a bit about how big companies wield power...
TIME reported last week that Microsoft chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold's leave of absence was, according to some sources at the company, engineered by president Steve Ballmer. Myhrvold, who has occasionally written for TIME, assures us--and other Microsoft executives agree--that his leave was his own choice and that he has not been spending half his time on his own outside interests. We did not mean to spoil the joy of his well-earned leave...