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Category Archives: social issues
PLENK Week 1
Week 1 of the #PLENK2010 course on Personal Learning Environments, Networks and Knowledge is devoted mainly to getting used to the terminology.
Save the Long Gun Registry
In Canada, there is a law requiring the registration of all firearms, with a period of amnesty having been provided for failure to register hunting rifles and other “long guns”. The amnesty period is due to expire in May, and … Continue reading
Nothing to Apologize for?
Maher Arar, in ‘Muslims have nothing to apologize for‘ (Vancouver Sun Sept9) exemplifies the pattern identified in recent studies which show that members of identifiable groups are more inclined to notice criticism of their own group than that of others. … Continue reading
Who Needs Saving?
It is disappointing to see a supposedly sophisticated voice of religion still so literalistic.
Posted in christianity, religion, science
Tagged comte-sponville, cottingham, johnston
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Freedom from Rationality
Quinn O’Neill at 3quarksdaily has commented on both tone and content of the reason vs religion “debate”, suggesting, among other things, that freedom of religion requires that all views be treated with respect and tolerance.
Who’s a Dick?
In his writings[1] Dick Feynman was never a dick (except perhaps in the eyes of those responsible for security during the Manhattan Project), and Dick Dawkins is not usually a dick but sometimes he comes close. I suspect that I … Continue reading
Data Sharing Speeds Research
An article in the NYTimes (coming to me via Michael Geist) reports progress in Alzheimer’s research coming as a result of researchers adopting the principle of open data.
The Rigor of Love and The Love of Rigour
Even — and indeed especially — those who are denominationally faithless can have an experience of faith. The above quote comes from Simon Critchley’s recent article about Kierkegaard, The Rigor of Love, that appeared in the NYTimes’ Opinionator Blog on … Continue reading
‘Tea Party North’ fires an EMP
Tyee gets it. What Harper is doing to StatsCan and the census is classic military strategy. First blind the enemy. Cut off his communication lines, fill the air with smoke, or in modern times, knock out his systems with a … Continue reading
Posted in canada, politics, social issues
Tagged Canada, Harper, statistics, Tea Party
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CRTC consultation on Obligation to Serve
For what it’s worth, here is the main point I made in my submission today: with regard to the question about ensuring access for all Canadians, I said: CRTC should set national rate caps for broadband access via both telephone … Continue reading
Posted in canada, web
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@maferarenas on microblogging and learning
My linking to this is evidence for @Downes of more real interesting learning from #CritLit2010. But it’s not just the shape of the network that’s important here; it’s also the semantic content of what we are linking about. (If we … Continue reading
Pascal’s Wager and the Value of Truth
Pascal’s Wager has been cited, and the value of ‘truth’ has been questioned, in a rather curious Guardian article by Harriet Baber who has been trashed by PZMeyers who has been called out by ‘Siris’ (with John S Wilkins agreeing … Continue reading
Is Google Evil?
No this isn’t about the Verizon thing; it’s something completely different. I was looking at both Feedblitz and Google’s Feedburner as tools for offering email subscription service, but despite claims in the help files on both sites that Google is … Continue reading
Posted in social issues, web
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Assessing Learning in #CritLit2010
Stephen Downes post on Semantics at Half an Hour: Having Reasons is devoted largely to the issue of how to establish the well-foundedness aspect of knowledge as well-founded true belief. A large part of the discussion was devoted to the … Continue reading
Ulop’s Theory
In the follow-up to #CritLit2010, Ulop OTaat (whoever he may be) has expressed a theory about what the educational theory called “Connectivism” is (or is not). Basically he appears skeptical of its value as more than just a new lingo … Continue reading
CritLit2010
#CritLit2010 is now over. I enrolled in this largely out of curiosity about what it would entail and in the knowledge that my travel plans for subsequent weeks would make it difficult to devote much time to it. I was … Continue reading
Categories, Links, and Tags
Both Heli Nurmi and MCMorgan have commented on the CritLit2010 week 4 reading from Clay Shirky Shirky: Ontology is Overrated — Categories, Links, and Tags. I can’t help feeling that the idea that search based on content and tags will … Continue reading
Selfish Altruism
‘Psychological Altruism’ is just a special case of ‘Biological Altruism’ and the “gene” for either is the most selfish of all. Of course the concept of genes for actual characteristics all being in one-to-one correspondence with discrete sequences of DNA … Continue reading
Posted in evolution, psychology, religion
Tagged altruism, evolution, genetics, PhilosophyTalk
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Collateral Murder
Arrest over leaked video of US gunship attack – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). The video really is shocking – especially since nothing I could see (except the camera) looked remotely like a weapon to me. But the former soldier … Continue reading
Brain Scans as Lie Detectors
BBC News – Brain scans being misused as lie detectors, experts say. And of course those who claim to interpret the scans will also call themselves experts. (Which leads us off to another conversation entirely) I am troubled by the … Continue reading
Posted in psychology, social issues, technical issues
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