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Tag: "Recommended Reading/Films/Sites"

9

Counterknowledge and the Web

I stumbled onto this excellent column by Damian Thompson about the modern proliferation of pseudo-information. That is, the way various formerly obscure conspiracy cults (UFO’s, moon landing hoaxers, second-shooters, 9/11 Truthers, Flat Earthers, Young Earthers, Inflating Earthers, etc) manage to disseminate their beliefs convincingly to wide and gullible audiences.
Before Gutenberg, only reliable, church-approved texts could [...]

4

The Making of the Fittest

I’ve just read a good book about genetics. The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution by Sean B. Carroll. There is much food for thought in this book. One reviewer called it “A Primer of Evolutionary Theory for Beginners”, and this is accurate. One doesn’t need to know chemistry [...]

5

The Devil In Memphis

I received the following from a friend of mine, who sent it to his local paper as well. I’ve asked his permission to post it here, in its entirety. It concerns an issue which, while we may hope represents an unfortunate part of our history long outgrown, still rears its viperous and virulent [...]

8

Feminism, Aliens, and James Tiptree jr.

One of the things that sends me straight up a wall to paw helplessly and violently at ceilings comprised of crushed glass, old nails, and asbestos fibers is when I hear a young woman blithely claim that she isn’t a Feminist and, in fact, “wouldn’t want to be one.” They make this claim with all [...]

6

Conservative Conscience Redux

According to this article, Barry Goldwater’s book, The Conscience of a Conservative, is being reissued. Timely reading? Depends on what audience at which this is aimed.
I seriously doubt conservatives of the Rove/Norquist stripe will have much sympathy with Goldwater, who now seems admirable and even iconic compared to the dunces dancing to the tune of [...]

7

With Strings Attached

Not nearly enough, I think, has been posted on DI about things which I consider just as important as politics, economics, and social issues.  That’s all well and good–DI offers a necessary forum for viewpoints which, while becoming more available in the public discourse, nevertheless need all the voices it can find.  But if we’re [...]

5

Book Review: The End of Iraq

Summary: A scathing, informative chronicle of the Bush administration’s failures in Iraq, yet one that speaks with compelling plausibility of all the missed opportunities to turn things around.
Former U.S. diplomat and ambassador Peter Galbraith has been deeply and personally involved with the affairs of Iraq for over twenty years. In his new book The End [...]

3

Happy Pi Day (and Einstein’s Birthday)

March 14th, (3/14), is International Pi day for a somewhat obvious reason. Visit this old site to hear Pi spoken in French (or many other languages) to hundreds of digits, plus links to much pi stuff.
Here’s the wiki for pi day.
Albert Einstein was born on Pi Day 1879, and later redefined the way space curves.

2

Poop song

I’ve previously written about the enormous number of synonyms for poop, speculating on why there are so many synonyms. I don’t know if my suggestions were convincing to others, but the issue still intrigues me.
As an epilogue to that earlier post, I offer this video, one of many elaborate musical numbers comprising a truly [...]

3

Stop Writing?

Below is a link to a blog called 101 Reasons to Stop Writing.  It is a blog about writing and actually does have a list of reasons to stop, which, when one considers the amount of verbiage being generated by the human race, might seem like an impossible challenge.  Those of us with presumptions to [...]

6
Cow and Boy is not Calvin and Hobbes, but…

Cow and Boy is not Calvin and Hobbes, but…

This Comic strip often takes a pointed view of popular perceptions.
For example, today’s Cow and Boy strip:

This seems all too familiar. One side framing an issue for debate, and the other sidestepping the frame because it doesn’t fit their world-view. We see a lot of this out in the blogosphere, and in the media, and [...]

0

Freethinker quotes of the day

I noticed this quote at Freedom from Religion Foundation:
“The God of the Christians is a father who is a great deal more concerned about his apples than he is about his children.”
– Diderot, French writer, philosopher (1713-1784), Addition aux Pensees philosophiques, c. 1762
FFRF is a site that is loaded with good information.  They offer numerous [...]

0

They rule. Really.

To say that the corrupted interests of massive corporations have twisted and perverted the social and political system into a flimsy chessboard sounds, of course, paranoid and highly cynical. No wonder then that casual observers of the democratic process scoff at claims of widespread corporate corruption as an outlandish conspiracy theory. It does often prove [...]