Monthly Archives: March 2015

Unpacking Books

Still unpacking boxes of books. It’s curious that, whether I packed the boxes, or the moving service’s packers packed the boxes, you’d think that boxes would be packed and stacked in a relative order to what was on the shelves. … Continue reading

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Jordan Ellenberg, How Not to Be Wrong, Post 3

Subtitled: The Power of Mathematical Thinking. Third post (after this and then this) about this fascinating book, an examination of several basic principles (linearity, inference, expectation, regression, and existence) and how they apply to every-day, real world situations, situations that … Continue reading

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Link and Comments: Common Core

I don’t have a horse in this race, at least not yet, but I’m fascinated by how conservative resistance to the Common Core educational standards have swung 180 degrees since the Obama administration signed on to them. Common Core standards … Continue reading

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Link and Comments: Slate on Rejection of Modernity

Catching up on several items today. First, interesting article at Slate by Brad Allenby: The Return to Medievalism: Why is the world so troubled right now? Rejection of modernity and technology may be to blame. This consolidates many of my … Continue reading

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Links and Comments: Pale Blue Dot; 10 Commandments; Evolution; Tribalistic thinking; Answers for Creationists

I have a batch of links with notes from almost a month ago that I never got around to posting. Let me catch up. On the theme in recent posts of awe-inspiring graphics or videos, here’s a piece by Phil … Continue reading

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Links and Comments: Fox News; Jonathan Haidt; Scientology; Paul Krugman; US and Israel

First, an essay at Salon not just about Fox News and Bill O’Reilly but about Why the pundit’s fabrications are almost beside the point. Key point: there isn’t enough ‘real’ news to sustain a 24-hour new network. That is, the … Continue reading

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Links and Comments: Powers of Ten; Nineteen Eighty-Four doublespeak; Climate change; Failed conservative predictions of doom

Today’s persusing of websites. (I have more links and comments from newspapers and magazines, but not the time at this moment to post…) First, to complement yesterday’s link to Vox’s 40 maps that explain outer space, here is the earliest, … Continue reading

Posted in Astronomy, Culture, Thinking | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Powers of Ten; Nineteen Eighty-Four doublespeak; Climate change; Failed conservative predictions of doom

Links and Comments: The Universe; Narratives and Conservatives; PW reviews; the Right-Wing Myth

Catching up from the past week. First, refining the Provisional Conclusions, I’ve switched the order of the first two, and of the last two. This shifts the entire list to a more positive, rather than negative, spin, I think. \\ … Continue reading

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Links and Comments: Perceiving Reality; Controlling the Narrative

Several key posts from last week, that I want to capture before I’m on the road for another couple days. First, the viral dress thing is possibly the most widely circulated example ever of how you can’t always believe what … Continue reading

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More about SF/F/H

The distinctions I suggested yesterday aren’t prescriptions; they’re characterizations or descriptions. In the broad field of SF and fantasy literature, there are deep-seated conventions about whether a given story is SF or fantasy (or horror), depending on its topic. Many … Continue reading

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