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Why the Pseudonym?
It seems that Jerry Coyne has banned me from commenting at his Why Evolution is True website (see how civil I am? I didn’t even call it a “blog”) because I am criticizing his arguments on my own blog...
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The ACLU defends Christians
I stumbled upon a useful list (by way of the Friendly Atheist), and I thought I should throw it up here so I can find it when I want it. The ACLU Fights for Christians. My father, who is a devout...
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Fun with Spontaneous Combustion
Steven Novella has a nice post up on spontaneous human combustion. This is an area of crankery that I’ve never paid much attention to, but I’ll probably add it to the list next time I teach my...
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Best of Pharyngula
Just some handy links to some of the better posts on Pharyngula. Might Christianity be both true and terrible? Dear Emma B. (A beautiful letter to child corrupted by Ken Ham. Message: Don’t ask “Were...
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No More Google Reader
Google is shutting down its reader, so I guess I’m going to have to find a new RSS reader. According to this post the best options are Netvibes, NewBlur, and Feedly. Not today. But before July 1,...
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Of Philosophy and Science
There’s been a bit of a buzz in the blogosphere lately about the merits of philosophy, and whether it has anything to offer science or scientists. I’m guessing that some of it might be motivated by a...
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Zombie Flow Chart
No time to write up an explanation of the argument, but I wanted to post this flow chart I threw together (below the fold). Fuller text version of the argument coming soon. (Click to enlarge.)
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Where does the Schrödinger Equation come from?
This looks like an interesting paper on the mathematical structure that makes the Schrödinger equation linear, and how it’s related to the classical (nonlinear) Hamilton-Jacobi equation. I’d be...
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Subway Pop Fiddles
First saw this (via the Mad Biologist) at the Boston Magazine. Today I saw it on Huff Po. Rhett Price and Josh Knowles seem to be going places. Hope to hear them in person one of these days at a T...
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Spacetime Singularities and the Origin of the Universe
There’s been some fun down in the comments section, so I thought I’d bring a bit of it above the fold to make it easier to find and read. Someone going by the ‘nym OnceAnAtheist objects to my claim...
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Now Jerry wants to understand compatibilism?
Even though Jerry Coyne banned be from his “Why Evolution is True” website, I still occasionally pop over there when I’ve run out of other blogs to procrastinate on. Today I find that he’s posed a few...
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Exciting Times: A drop of pitch is about to fall
I’ve written before about the pitch-drop experiment. Eighty-six years ago, a professor started an experiment to show that pitch is an extremely viscous fluid, and that it actually does flow. So he...
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The “If I Don’t Know . . . ” Fallacy
If I don’t know, . . . then neither do you. The Friendly Atheist draws my attention to a piece by Andrew Brown based on an interview with Dan Dennett. Brown’s argument reminded me of other arguments...
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Big Brother is watching you drive
The other week I was waiting for a take-out order with my god-mother-in-law, when I noticed a Boston police car driving along with two scanner-camera thingies mounted on its trunk. Wondering what the...
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Big Brother is watching your snail mail
The NYT reports today that US Post Office is recording the “meta-data” (that is, a photograph of the outside of the envelope) for all of our snail mail. Gotta say, they’re spending lots of time,...
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Homeowners Foreclose on Bank
This is a couple years old, but I only just stumbled on it — and it’s a great story: A couple in Naples, Fla., have “foreclosed” on a Bank of America branch after the bank managed to foreclose on their...
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Defining “Terrorism”
There’s been a bit of skirmish between Andrew Sullivan (on the conservative side) and Glenn Greenwald (on the liberal side) about whether the beheading of a British soldier in London should be labeled...
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It’s not a person; it’s a program.
Here’s a great short film starring a friend of my brother’s. (Yes, I’ve gotten to hang out with Pee Wee.) When does a simulation count as a person? Fun for philosophy of mind.
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Wealth inequality in America
A nice visual representation (the accuracy of which I can’t personally vouch for): The image says it was made by G. William Domhoff of US Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is where I grew up, but the only...
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