Category Archives: uncategorized

I actually thought it was a pretty good movie, but in her review of The Imitation Game: A Smart Person’s Fantasy, Emma Green at The Atlantic encourages the reader to confound fantasy and reality. The creators of a movie, presented as … Continue reading →

I have been wondering about the possibility of using small rfid tags on fingernails to enable fingertip tracking by a computer or tablet so that free hand signals (and maybe even sign language) could be used for input. This set … Continue reading →

3quarksdaily links today to a two year old article by Massimo Pigliucci objecting to a 1998 book by E.O.Wilson. But anyone who could say “Epistemic reductionism is obviously false”, at least on the basis of only the feeble grounds provided … Continue reading →

Note: This rant is more about the evils of headline writers and professional C&M types than about the substance of the proposed study (which I think is very interesting): The University of Washington is rightly proud of the fact that … Continue reading →

The answer provided by a professional philosopher (at AskPhilosophers.org) to the question “If we have no free will, then is the entire legal system redundant since no one can be held accountable for anything since no one has control over … Continue reading →

Ophelia Benson is often proudly childish in giving vent to her emotions, but rarely falls into the kind of childish pride with which Peter Boghossian asserts the “adult” nature of his comments. I don’t know if Tim Cook really meant … Continue reading →

I’m of two minds about this article by Massimo Pigliucci. While I continue to be dismissive of the claim that there is anything of substance in the Gettier examples I can agree that there may be progress in the game … Continue reading →

Briggs is right to complain that “natural variability” is an ambiguous and easily abused term, but what I would be most inclined to use it for is different from either of the usages that he identifies. He notes that some … Continue reading →

Briggs, points out a very important real issue here – though I wouldn’t call the confusion between group and individual differences a matter of “exaggeration” exactly. No matter how carefully one tries to express a claim about population differences, the … Continue reading →

OneTab shared tabs.

On reading the comments on this old Tyee article I was struck by one particular exchange which follows a pattern that is sadly all too common. When commenter Chris Abel made the claim that “NOBODY was harmed by radiations at … Continue reading →

David Barash apparently thinks it appropriate to discuss religion in his Biology class. But his understanding of both religion and biology are flawed (ie not in accord with my own).

Adam Lee thinks that Dawkins Needs Better Defenders after having (again) posted a series of tweets that undermine his credibility as a serious thinker. But so far as I can see, it’s not better “defenders” that he needs, but better *friends* – … Continue reading →

James Fallows at The Atlantic congratulates his friend and colleague David Frum  for finally apologizing (a whole week later despite prompt and incontrovertible correction from several other reliable sources) to one of the four slandered photographers (and none of the traumatized victims). … Continue reading →

Tony Bates on Learning theories(via Stephen Downes)

This set of OneTab shared tabs collects some recent blog activity on the measurement process in Quantum Mechanics. This reminds me of the fact that once as a graduate student (in the ’70s), on hearing once too often that the … Continue reading →

GMO advocate Keith Kloor has recently been reporting (in his blog at  DiscoverMagazine.com) about the activities of a particularly insane anti-GMO activist whom I will not stoop to identify or link to.  Such vitriol does need to be called out (at least … Continue reading →

Apparently, as one of the winners in Matt Briggs’  Rename “Global Warming” Contest, I have the option of writing an essay on “What I learned from Global Warming”. This is a bit of a challenge since it presumes the existence of something … Continue reading →

Recent events in Vancouver civic politics echo similar stories from four and thirty years ago!

At Templeton’s BQO site, Alfred Mele asks What Are the Implications of the Free Will Debate for Individuals and Society? But before looking at the content, let me comment on that title. Sometimes titles are imposed by editors, but the chance that … Continue reading →