Category Archives: uncategorized

Source: How to think about truth | Psyche Guides I am surprised to see it claimed that truth is a more basic concept than falsehood. In fact, it seems to me that the naive mind initially accepts any proposition at … Continue reading →

Source: On the advantages of believing that nothing is true | Aeon Essays The claim that “nothing is true” only makes sense if one has a well defined concept of what it means for something to be “true”. What makes … Continue reading →

I didn’t attend this seminar, but if I had I would have asked why the proposed system uses kiosks rather than service to arbitrary addresses within the safely drivable region. Restricting the routes to specific streets on which low speeds … Continue reading →

The most egregious failure of WHO is not that they took two years to say COVID is airborne, but that they made and then failed to quickly withdraw an announcement that it is NOT airborne! Misinformation is always, to me, … Continue reading →

They say “We need your feedback to understand how we can improve your experience on our website” Well here’s my response: The site sometimes allows BCid verification as an option and sometimes not. And when I try to use by … Continue reading →

It should be no surprise to either of my readers that I would be inclined to supplement these nine steps to net zero with a tenth – namely to explore the increased use of plastics as building materials. See also … Continue reading →

Something that really troubled me at the great BC climate marches of the last decade was the presence of a large and loud anti-site-C brigade. Source: The BC Government Tapes: Climate, Energy and Site C | The Tyee

The examples in this article are just the tip of the iceberg. And appeals to “the science” in support of whatever action plan one has in mind are unfortunately, I think, a big contributor to public skepticism about things that … Continue reading →

This is a direct copy for my own easy reference from this page at ars-nova.com Why doesn’t “do-re-mi” start on A? Question: We can recite the notes as either DO, RE, MI etc, or as A, B, C, etc. Why doesn’t … Continue reading →

A recent Quora question, asks “Is Noam Chomsky’s comment that ‘NATO should not have moved an inch east of Germany’ ignoring the desires of the eastern European states?” The use of direct quotes there is dishonest unless Chomsky actually said … Continue reading →

Source: It’s not Russia that’s pushed Ukraine to the brink of war | Seumas Milne | The Guardian

Probably never. The idea of any person or ethnic group as being “inherently evil” seems to run counter to the basic ideas of Critical Race Theory. And the idea of teaching anything as sophisticated as actual CRT directly to elementary … Continue reading →

My response to the philosophers’ zombie argument is usually to do a kind of “reverse Turing test” – ie to challenge the philosopher to prove to himself (and to me) that I am not a zombie. If there was anything … Continue reading →

My comment on ‘Moral molecules’ – a new theory of what goodness is made of | Psyche Ideas was as follows: The idea of trying to identify various moral positions as combinations of just a few basic elements is interesting. … Continue reading →

One can, of course, change the meaning of words, but it may be counterproductive to expect that others will understand and agree. In Some medical devices don’t mean to be racist, but they are | Psyche Ideas, the authors say … Continue reading →

I like this guy’s videos and certainly endorse the ideas expressed in this one: But despite his byline he sometimes puts slickness ahead of veritacity and the bit about the astronaut selection model is unfortunately misleading. In the model both … Continue reading →

The animatronic moose twitched the skin of its flank, and as the flies buzzed off, water drops dripped from the hairs on its belly. Four days into a seven day circuit of the Bowron Lakes, we were in a swampy … Continue reading →

Quora: Alan Cooper’s answer to What is scientism? Why was Lewis against it? The word “scientism” by its structure should refer to the belief system of a scientist, but it has been dishonestly appropriated by a bunch of religious philosophers … Continue reading →

According to the New York Times’ Book Review of ‘Time for Socialism,’ by Thomas Piketty , Piketty calls for a “universal capital endowment” for all citizens beginning at birth, funded by taxes on wealth and inheritances. and Though provocative, none … Continue reading →