Monthly Archives: March 2017

Links and Comments: Religious Intellectuals; Lawrence Krauss; Daniel Dennett

Jerry Coyne asks, Are religious people a bit thick?. He disagrees with someone who claims that many very smart people are also religious. Look at it this way: if someone spent much of their lives worshiping Santa, elves, fairies, or … Continue reading

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Links and Comments: Conservative Cruelty; Blue Lies

Chauncey DeVega at Alternet: Why Are Republicans So Relentlessly Cruel to the Poor?. Subtitle: “Paul Ryan has dreamed of slashing Medicaid since his keg-party days—and that blithe hostility is widespread”. Because conservatives are more inclined to think that poor people … Continue reading

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Kurt Eichenwald on the Bible

This 2014 long article from Newsweek was being linked by some of my Fb friends; I don’t recall having seen it before. The Bible: So Misunderstood It’s a Sin It covers first the familiar points that believers, even evangelicals, are … Continue reading

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E.O. Wilson on the Ephemerality of Life

In discussing the human advantage of long-term memory [in the book I’ll post notes about shortly], enabling us to plan and imagine possible futures, he reflects that, with every death, an entire library of experience is lost. He recalls his … Continue reading

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Media Bubbles and Fake News

There was a fascinating piece on NPR’s Morning Edition Tuesday morning, about an analysis of news media sites shared on Facebook and Twitter during the election campaign, aligned by allegiance to Trump or Clinton. The researchers stressed how neutral they … Continue reading

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Winter Comes to Water As Well As Land: Gene Wolfe’s “The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories”

Gene Wolfe, “The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories” (1970) (~15 pp) Winter comes to water as well as land, though there are no leaves to fall. The waves that were a bright, hard blue yesterday under a fading … Continue reading

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Stuart Brand Quote: The Only News

A thought against the daily onslaught of political news (never mind the weather, local crime, and traffic accidents that comprise the everyday local TV news) — in the big picture of human history (and progress), almost none of that matters; … Continue reading

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Science News

Jerry Coyne comments on an article about where to find the best science reporting, with a nice graphic aligning evidence-based vs. ideologically driven, and compelling reads vs not so much. Where do you find the best science reporting? I’m a … Continue reading

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Links and Comments: Distrust of Science; Trump’s conviction; Global society; a Two State solution

This subject is everywhere — the rejection of reality by the current administration — and I don’t collect very many of these links, but here are a few more. Tom Nichols at Scientific American, via Salon: Don’t go with your … Continue reading

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Links and Comments: Radiohead; Originalism; Principia; Trump brain rot; Homeschooling; Art v Religion

Catching up on links saved over the past week or so. Vox: Radiohead and sadness: a data analysis. Fascinating. \\\ Vox: Judicial originalism as myth It’s always struck me that Judicial originalism — the idea that nothing can be inferred … Continue reading

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