Category Archives: uncategorized

This is an Emergency!

Shortly after the conclusion of the Liberal leadership vote today Justin Trudeau will probably submit his resignation as Prime Minister to Governor General Mary Simon. The purpose of this message is to engage as many Canadians as possible in urging … Continue reading

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Wrong Reasons

One of my pet peeves is failure to reject false arguments for a conclusion one believes to be true. And climate change is very much a case in point. While it may seem reasonable to “follow the evidence”, I have … Continue reading

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BanX

YES!!! Source: X Threatens Our Democracy. Canada Should Ban It | The Tyee

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Friendly Fire?

This story  about a Jewish man in Miami who shot at two Israeli tourists whom he mistook for Palestinians (and who then posted “Death to Arabs” on social media due to the same misperception) makes me wonder whether ten years from … Continue reading

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Black Hole Fantasy

A black hole has been spotted heading towards Earth, and we have 200 years before it arrives. Does our species have a chance of survival? Perhaps. But not on Earth. (Assuming any kind of astronomically plausible black hole, there is … Continue reading

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False Arguments Undermine What They Claim To Support

Even just the title of the article linked to in the post below should make it clear that Prussian Blue stains were NOT found in the homicidal gas chambers but only in the de-lousing ones. And the whole purpose of … Continue reading

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Social and Physical Determinism

Sorry Jim Baggott, but I do not for a moment believe that soviet communist philosophy shaped postwar quantum theory . While I can believe that some believers in social determinism felt threatened by the inherent uncertainties of quantum mechanics I can’t … Continue reading

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Sex is not Binary

Note: This is not a work of scholarship so I have included no references, but all of the claims that follow are true – as can easily be verified by using google searches on the terms used to find links … Continue reading

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Tax All Gifts as well as Inheritances!

This avoidance scheme described below is a good part of the reason why I have always advocated that the value of all gifts should be taxed as income in the year received. Source: (1001) Colin Riegels’s answer to How do … Continue reading

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I Prefer Text

When I was little I enjoyed being read to – or listening to stories being read on the radio. And the performance of a raconteur still has its appeal for what it adds by way of  expression. It can also … Continue reading

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Primary Care Solution?

Source: Kingston ‘health homes’ put Jane Philpott’s vision of primary care to the test – The Globe and Mail

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Why “Woke” is not PC for Me

The word “woke” is either real or imagined Afro-American “slang” for figuratively having awakened from a previous state of sleepwalking through life unaware (or in denial) of differences of privilege between ourselves and others. As such its use by me … Continue reading

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Silver’s Model Blown Out of Water!

Nate Silver is crowing that his model predicted the actual outcome as “most likely” but that’s a bit like saying that exactly 50 heads is the most likely outcome in a series of 100 coin tosses (which it is) despite … Continue reading

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COPE History

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Micropayments Revisited

At the end of an unrelated article, Steven Levy responds to a question from one of his readers (not actually me despite the name coincidence) Ask Me One Thing Alan asks, “Why can’t we choose how to pay for online … Continue reading

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Watermarks for Truth

There is a lot of talk these days about encouraging creators of AI tools to tag the work they produce so people will know that it is fake; but the idea that this would prevent the spread of misinformation is … Continue reading

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proZionism can be antiSemitic

We are frequently asked these days to confirm that the state of Israel has a “right to exist”. Well, I’m afraid that I have to say NO! No state has the right to exist because states don’t have rights. People … Continue reading

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Two Prizes for AI (and None for Physics)

Yes! AlphaFold does appear (at least to this non-expert) to actually advance Chemistry. But I have seen nothing that I would call evidence that Hinton’s work on the “Boltzmann machine” has contributed anything to understanding of the physical models that … Continue reading

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Bergson vs Einstein 

After reading this article twice, and yet again the paragraph where the author purports to show that “it’s wrong to think that Bergson’s idea of duration can be assimilated into the idea of psychological time”, I am still unable to … Continue reading

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Checking the Fact Checker

It’s a shame when those who claim to be “Fact Checking” resort to willful misinterpretations, distortions, and exaggerations of their own. For example this Fact Checker from The Washington Post starts with “We’re the cleanest economy in the entire world.” — Vance (False, … Continue reading

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