July 2018: This page isn’t up to date, but might still serve as a useful page to search.
| Saturday, December 31, 2016 | George Michael | links to YouTube videos, with lyric quotes, of two favorite songs |
| Thursday, December 29, 2016 | Rereading Robert Silverberg, 1 | an introduction; comments and summaries of specific stories to follow |
| Tuesday, December 13, 2016 | Our New Post-Fact World | are conservatives living in a post-factual world any different than believing in religious myths? |
| Wednesday, November 9, 2016 | The Election | quoting comments from David Remnick and Paul Krugman |
| Friday, October 21, 2016 | 2016 European Tour, Days 11-15: Genoa, Florence, Pisa, Rome | |
| Thursday, October 13, 2016 | 2016 European Tour, Day 10: Monte-Carlo | |
| Thursday, October 13, 2016 | 2016 European Tour, Day 9: Marseille | |
| Wednesday, October 12, 2016 | 2016 European Tour, Day 8: Barcelona | |
| Tuesday, October 11, 2016 | 2016 European Tour, Day 7: Palma de Mallorca, and Further Sundry Observations | |
| Sunday, October 9, 2016 | 2016 European Tour, Day 6: Alicante; Sundry Observations | |
| Friday, October 7, 2016 | 2016 European Tour, Days 4-5: On the Boat; Cádiz; Málaga | |
| Wednesday, October 5, 2016 | 2016 European Tour, Day 3: Lisbon: The Tour, the Tower, the Castle, and Dinner | |
| Tuesday, October 4, 2016 | 2016 European Tour Days 1-2: Lisbon | |
| Monday, September 26, 2016 | Links and Comments: Cognitive Biases, Trump, and Reality | a cognitive bias codex; how this relates to Trump; and again, why people who think the world is worse off are wrong |
| Friday, September 9, 2016 | Obduction, 2 | and its abrupt conclusion |
| Wednesday, September 7, 2016 | Obduction, 1 | about the video game |
| Wednesday, August 17, 2016 | Philip Roth, INDIGNATION | about both the film and the book |
| Wednesday, August 17, 2016 | Links and Comments: World maps; religions as movies; movie physics; flat-earthers; Trump and his followers; webs v walls; wrong about the future; negativity bias | from WaPo, Adam-Troy Castro, The New Yorker, Friedman, Jim Holt on Chuck Klosterman’s book, and Adam Lee–this last more about why people feel badly even though the world is better than ever before |
| Saturday, August 6, 2016 | 522+135+6 | more about The Witness, and its ‘challenge’ |
| Friday, August 5, 2016 | You Will Love This One | about the Crowded House song |
| Wednesday, July 27, 2016 | The Witness | about the video game, which has been preoccupying me for some weeks |
| Tuesday, July 5, 2016 | Links and Comments: Academia, Creationists, Christians and Trump, Plait on the GOP, Evil, Victims | why there are not more conservatives in academia; why Christians in particular hate evolution; crackpot Phil Robertson; why Christians support Trump; Plait on GOP denial of science; the subject of evil; why conservatives blame victims, cf Haidt |
| Thursday, June 30, 2016 | 15 Ways of Buying a Book, Part 1 | personal history that illustrates the pace of change; 2nd part forthcoming, as of jan2017 |
| Friday, June 24, 2016 | Thomas Paine, THE AGE OF REASON (1796) | review/summary of the book |
| Wednesday, June 22, 2016 | Links and Comments: Friedman on historical change, why evangelicals like Trump, Paulos on math and biography, Gawande on science, the case against reality | why people feel worse off even though this is the best time in history to be alive; Tarico; Paulos; Gawande’s great summary of how science works; religion’s worst ideas; how humans don’t perceive reality because evolution |
| Tuesday, June 21, 2016 | Reading In and Around the Bible: Three More NT Epistles; Revelation | |
| Monday, June 20, 2016 | Reading In and Around the Bible: Hebrews, James | |
| Friday, June 17, 2016 | Reading In and Around the Bible: Colossians, Ephesians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy | |
| Thursday, June 16, 2016 | Reading In and Around the Bible: Romans | |
| Wednesday, June 15, 2016 | The Orlando Shooter and the Evil of Religious Fundamentalism | animus toward minitorities inherent in religious tribalism |
| Sunday, June 12, 2016 | Family & Personal History, 2016/1 | entry on project to scan old photos and record family history |
| Wednesday, June 8, 2016 | Never Be the Same Again | the Darren Hayes song |
| Tuesday, June 7, 2016 | Carl Sagan, THE VARIETIES OF SCIENTIFIC EXPERIENCE (2006): History is a battle of inadequate myths | review of the book |
| Tuesday, June 7, 2016 | Growing Up with Books | personal essay on the books I grew up with in my household |
| Tuesday, June 7, 2016 | Reading In and Around the Bible: Genesis, part 2 | |
| Saturday, June 4, 2016 | Two Interviews about Current Books, about Reproductive Technologies and Social Cohesion | Greely on the end of sex; Junger on tribes |
| Friday, June 3, 2016 | Sean Carroll, THE BIG PICTURE | review of the CalTech physicist’s foundational book |
| Thursday, June 2, 2016 | Personal History: The Radio at Sunset | recalling a radio broadcast song of the Lord’s Prayer |
| Thursday, June 2, 2016 | Reading In and Around the Bible: Genesis, part 1 | |
| Wednesday, June 1, 2016 | Links and Comments: The Literary Canon and the Bible; Americans Compared to the Rest of the World; Rush | flaws of the literary canon; the ways in which America is not the greatest; ignoring Rush Limbaugh |
| Sunday, May 29, 2016 | Equus, part 1 | a key passage from that play/film; there are others which I’ll follow up on |
| Thursday, May 26, 2016 | Links and Comments: Luck; Facebook and social bubbles; being openly secular | Robert H. Frank on how success is largely about luck; Bruni on Facebook; coming out as secular |
| Thursday, May 26, 2016 | Links and Comments: Innovation, Optimism, Conspiracy Theories, and Liberals | life in the 19th century; why optimism is uncool despite times being better than ever; George Johnson; why educated people are liberal |
| Thursday, May 19, 2016 | Dan Barker on Meaning without Divine Dictates, and the Slave Mentality | review of his book LIFE DRIVEN PURPOSE |
| Tuesday, May 17, 2016 | James A. Lindsay on the Obsolescence of Theism | review of book EVERYBODY IS WRONG ABOUT GOD, about which I was not terribly impressed |
| Wednesday, May 11, 2016 | Ehrman, JESUS BEFORE THE GOSPELS: Memories, Stories, and the Gospels | review of the book |
| Sunday, May 8, 2016 | Links and Comments: Two from Today’s NYT | Trump’s contradictions; and Kristof on ‘liberal intolerance’, about which I am skeptical |
| Sunday, May 8, 2016 | Reading In and Around the Bible: Epistles of Paul, 2 | |
| Sunday, May 8, 2016 | Reading In and Around the Bible: Epistles of Paul, 1 | |
| Sunday, May 8, 2016 | Religious Liberty and Christian Theology | how religious liberty is about privileging Christianity |
| Sunday, May 8, 2016 | Sean Carroll Interview | the scientific worldview, and how not every effect has a cause |
| Saturday, April 30, 2016 | Links and Comments: Truth and Slavery | in retrospect, about early signs of the ‘post-fact’ era deployed by conservatives; comments about Cruz and David Barton |
| Thursday, April 21, 2016 | Reading In and Around the Bible: Acts | |
| Monday, April 18, 2016 | Reading In and Around the Bible: Divorce and Homosexuality | passages from Louis Crompton’s book on homosexuality throughout history |
| Saturday, April 9, 2016 | Links and Comments: Irrational Voters; Republicans and Gays; Religious Liberty v Progress | Robert Sapolsky, Frank Bruni, Timothy Egan, Jesse Bering |
| Friday, April 8, 2016 | Reading In and Around the Bible, 5: John | |
| Friday, April 8, 2016 | Founding Father Thomas Paine and the Bible | an essay about his views in Free Inquiry |
| Friday, April 8, 2016 | Trump, Abortion, Conservatives, and Guns | how Trump’s suggestion that women be punished for abortion upset everyone–why?; as with guns, conservative irrationality |
| Wednesday, April 6, 2016 | Paul Kalanithi, WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR | review of a shortish, moving, book |
| Wednesday, April 6, 2016 | Oliver Sacks, GRATITUDE | review of another short book |
| Wednesday, April 6, 2016 | Carlo Rovelli, SEVEN BRIEF LESSONS ON PHYSICS | review of the short book |
| Friday, April 1, 2016 | Links and Comments: the mystery of monogamy; why people cannot live with doubt | Barash on monogamy; Linker on doubt |
| Friday, April 1, 2016 | Reading Around the Bible, 4: Luke | |
| Thursday, March 31, 2016 | Links and Comments: Historical Jesus; God’s Plan; Sagan on religion v science | the non-historical Jesus; reading New Testament in order; religious archetypes; another ten commandments; etc. |
| Thursday, March 24, 2016 | Links and Comments: Terrorists and Threats | Fiore and Kristof; why people are afraid of the wrong things |
| Wednesday, March 23, 2016 | Reading Around the Bible, 3: Mark | |
| Monday, March 21, 2016 | Allen Steele, ARKWRIGHT | review of the novel |
| Monday, March 21, 2016 | Reading Around the Bible, 2: Matthew | |
| Saturday, March 19, 2016 | Links and Comments: Trump; Democrats v Republicans; American exceptionalism; government regulations | Trump and how people who are racist, misogynist, hyper-religious, and anti-science, are virtually all Republicans; Rubio’s complaint about Obama; Kristof on regulations |
| Sunday, March 13, 2016 | Links and Comments: Trump; Magic; Scalia and science; Cruz; God of the gap | Trump is a racist reaction to Obama; the supposed disappearance of magic in the world; Scalia’s hatred of science; etc |
| Wednesday, March 9, 2016 | Reading Around the Bible, 1 | first in a series |
| Tuesday, March 1, 2016 | Rereading HOW TO READ A BOOK | a foundation title |
| Saturday, February 27, 2016 | Thoughts on Jo Walton’s WHAT MAKES THIS BOOK SO GREAT | |
| Thursday, February 25, 2016 | Gilovich, 2, part 2 | |
| Wednesday, February 24, 2016 | Gilovich, 2, part 1 | and his new book, THE WISEST ONE IN THE ROOM |
| Tuesday, February 23, 2016 | Gilovich, 1 | review of HOW WE KNOW WHAT ISN’T SO |
| Wednesday, February 17, 2016 | Review: Woody Allen’s Magic in the Moonlight | the film about a stage magician, a debunker of psychics, who suspects he might be wrong |
| Saturday, February 13, 2016 | NYRoB on PKD’s The Man in the High Castle | a relatively unsnobbish review in the New York Review of Books, about sf |
| Tuesday, February 9, 2016 | Links and Comments: Susan Jacoby; Erasure; Boars and the Sixth Extinction; Jerry Brown and Jean-Pierre Dupuy | American pandering to religion; how news can be erased from history; more on extinction; enlightened doomsaying |
| Friday, February 5, 2016 | Links and Comments: Living in the Real World | the cluelessness of some college students; flat-earthers; Republicans appeal to the radical right by denying science |
| Thursday, February 4, 2016 | Item’s from Sunday’s New York Times: Pace of Change; Criticism; Religion in Politics; Creative Children | has the pace of change slowed? AO Scott on criticism; etc |
| Thursday, January 28, 2016 | On Trying to Read 100 Books a Year | keeping lists, etc. |
| Monday, January 25, 2016 | Syllabuses and Sfadb.com rankings | an online resource, and a sketch of plans for sfadb rankings |
| Saturday, January 23, 2016 | My memories of David G. Hartwell | who had just died |
| Saturday, January 23, 2016 | EO Wilson, Consilience, 3 | (I never did finish writing up notes and blogging about this book) |
| Saturday, January 23, 2016 | Links and Comments: Narrative; the Limits of Rationality | more on narrative; self-help groups to be less wrong |
| Monday, January 18, 2016 | Film Review: JOY | |
| Saturday, January 16, 2016 | EO Wilson, Consilience, 2 | |
| Wednesday, January 13, 2016 | EO Wilson, Consilience, 1 | |
| Links and Comments: Fear, Terrorism, Fear, and Religion | the Krauss essay again; Rubio’s allegiance to religion above all else | |
| Tuesday, January 12, 2016 | Review: The Outsider Test for Faith | the book by John W. Loftus |
| Sunday, January 10, 2016 | Film review: THE REVENANT | |
| Friday, January 8, 2016 | Links and Comments: Conspiracy Theories, Cognitive Biases; Changing Minds; All Stories | comments from book reviews; what has made you change your mind?; two essays about narratives v reality |
| Thursday, January 7, 2016 | Film Review: Room | |
| Wednesday, January 6, 2016 | Link and Comment: Terrorism and Republican Fear-Mongering | an essay by Lawrence Krauss |
| Wednesday, January 6, 2016 | Link and Comment: The Year in Religion, and Adults | comment of Jeffrey Tayler’s that echoes mine |
| Wednesday, January 6, 2016 | Review of David Silverman | his book FIGHTING GOD |
| Sunday, January 3, 2016 | Film review: BRIDGE OF SPIES | |
| Saturday, January 2, 2016 | Film review: THE BIG SHORT | |
| Thursday, December 31, 2015 | Science Fiction As a Prism in the Dawn | subtitle for my book? (allusion to sagan) |
| Thursday, December 31, 2015 | Review of “The Danish Girl” | the film |
| Thursday, December 31, 2015 | The Yearning for the Golden Past | the persistent conservative narrative is the struggle to return to a golden past — how it has always been so |
| Thursday, December 31, 2015 | Review of “Carol” | the film |
| Monday, December 28, 2015 | The Narrative of Narratives | how the idea of ‘narrative’ is becoming a cultural meme |
| Tuesday, December 22, 2015 | Refining My Thesis | about sf v fantasy v horror |
| Tuesday, December 22, 2015 | Sean Carroll’s Reading List | that he’s using for his forthcoming book |
| Tuesday, December 22, 2015 | Alan Lightman on Cosmology and Human Meaning | from a Harper’s essay |
| Monday, December 21, 2015 | Links and Comments: Science and Math and Religion | survival traits; magical thinking; fear of god |
| Monday, December 21, 2015 | Links and Comments: Politics and Religion | essays by Jeffrey Tayler; conservatives and false narratives; apologists for Islam |
| Sunday, December 20, 2015 | On Seeing The Nutcracker ballet | |
| Sunday, December 20, 2015 | Elizabeth Kolbert on Climate Change and Florida | from an essay in The New Yorker |
| Friday, December 18, 2015 | Chris Mooney’s THE REPUBLICAN BRAIN | review of the book |
| Tuesday, December 15, 2015 | Links and Comments from Sunday’s New York Times | politicians who lie; Bible v Quran; Douthat on Islam |
| Monday, December 14, 2015 | Spotlight | review of the film |
| Friday, December 11, 2015 | Harper’s on Environmentalism, etc. | about “rethinking extinction” |
| Friday, December 11, 2015 | John Crowley on Narrative | from an essay in Harper’s |
| Thursday, December 10, 2015 | Links and Comments from last Sunday’s New York Times | how people are easily conned, and other psychological matters |
| Wednesday, December 9, 2015 | Jonathan Haidt’s THE RIGHTEOUS MIND: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, 3 | |
| Tuesday, December 8, 2015 | More notes and comments about Haidt’s THE RIGHTEOUS MIND | |
| Friday, December 4, 2015 | Jonathan Haidt’s THE RIGHTEOUS MIND: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, 1 | |
| Monday, November 30, 2015 | Sunday’s New York Times: Links and Comments | about the inevitability of climate change; reviews of books by Lisa Randall and Matt Ridley |
| Tuesday, November 24, 2015 | Links and Comments: Sacred truths, Catholic priorities, and Santorum advice, vs. Individualism and the arc of moral history | |
| Friday, November 20, 2015 | Links and Comments: Haidt, Krugman, Cruz and Swanson, Evolution v Creationism and Iowa Home-Schoolers | |
| Thursday, November 19, 2015 | Links and Comments: Bruni on Cruz; Flip-flopping presidents are most effective; political persuasion; Republicans’ economic narrative; Lisa Randall, a new Trek | |
| Saturday, November 14, 2015 | Review of Alastair Reynolds’ SLOW BULLETS | |
| Friday, November 13, 2015 | The World’s Young: a review of Robert Charles Wilson’s THE AFFINITIES | |
| Thursday, November 12, 2015 | Reading Haidt, arcs of history, false balance, how liberal views are closer to the truth, and science fiction | comments about first part of Haidt’s book; op-ed about universities need more conservatives, and letter in response, how sf is a heuristic for stepping around mental biases |
| Tuesday, November 10, 2015 | Links and Comments: Raising kids with or without faith; Benford hosts evolution debate; Lake Wobegon effect | Slate article on how some nonbelieving parents nevertheless feel need to raise kids with faith; quote from NYRSF about Benford hosting debate between Rose and Johnson; Ira Flatow and guest about Lake Wobegon effect (seld-enhancement bias) |
| Monday, November 9, 2015 | Rereading Early Heinlein, part 3: If This Goes On | summary of story and what this says about american temptation to succumb to theocracy, e.g. Cruz and Santorum; quotes from his description of story never written about Nehemiah Scudder |
| Sunday, November 8, 2015 | Tayler, Bruni, et al [long title] | Tayler on Carson’s religion and confusing faith with rationality; Bruni on repeat of civil rights law in Houston; essay by Lee McINtyre on denialism and how beliefs should be based on evidence; how Einstein’s relativity was resisted on political grounds |
| Saturday, November 7, 2015 | Ben Carson and the range of human psychology; Michael Shermer and the perception of the real world | New Republic piece about how Ben Carson is example of how smart people can believe crazy things, as Shermer explored in 1997 book; Mooney and Haidt books and the range of human psychology, and presumed reasons for why the entire range exists…because the mind evolved to facilite survival, not perceive reality; does this matter? new item by Shermer on exactly this point. |
| Friday, November 6, 2015 | Rereading Early Heinlein, part 2 | the stories in The Green Hills of Earth |
| Tuesday, November 3, 2015 | Narrative vs Reality | republican politics truly dangerous; Rubio? No, he speaks well but perpetuates discredited claims about Hillary (i.e. he’s lying) |
| Tuesday, November 3, 2015 | The 2015 Republican Clown Circus | other advanced countries rolling their eyes? Trump, Carson, and the three attending a kill-the-gays rally in Iowa; Carson welcomes the apocalypse, and building an ark; why there isn’t really a liberal media conspiracy |
| Sunday, November 1, 2015 | The Bay Area and the California Dream | living in the bay area, radio interview about how california is changing |
| Sunday, November 1, 2015 | Infrastructre: New Pages | adding Links and Comments and SF Examples |
| Sunday, November 1, 2015 | Links and Comments | Zuckerman on how religion corresponds inversely to societal well-being, around the world and among the states; more murders in Bangladesh of those critical of religion |
| Friday, October 30, 2015 | Links and Comments: This Week’s American Politics; …Heinlein | the crazy remarks of Ben Carson; Mencken quote; GOP’s problem with the truth; Tyson on how voters themselves are the problem; Barton’s junk history (and narrative and self-enhancement); Tayler on how GOP wants a theocracy |
| Monday, October 26, 2015 | Rereading Early Heinlein, part 1 | some background, and then Orphans of the Sky and generation starship stories |
| Sunday, October 25, 2015 | Links and Comments from Today’s NYT | as traditional religion fades in Norway, belief in ghosts rises; Bruni on the catholic church and what family really means; how resistance to GMOs is as bad in europe as in US, with aside about bananas; about the NPR voice |
| Sunday, October 25, 2015 | Philip Glass: Naqoyqatsi: Religion | best track from that film score |
| Thursday, October 22, 2015 | Sfadb progress | adding more citations and anthology reprints |
| Thursday, October 22, 2015 | Contemplating a Lost in Space Rewatch | how most early favorite TV shows I’ve only seen in reruns, and thus incompletely; how LIS got awful but had some genuinely wondrous moments early on |
| Thursday, October 22, 2015 | Sundry Links and Comments | PW on book about transforming human perception; Coyne on a world where beliefs are proportional to evidence; how tweaking the brain affects belief in god and prejudice toward immigrants; how ‘politically incorrect’ is used to excuse any kind of bad behavior |
| Wednesday, October 21, 2015 | Rereading Isaac Asimov, part 4 | longish comments about Nightfall, The Dead Past, The Last Question, The Ugly Little Boy |
| Monday, October 19, 2015 | My Father’s Books: and Cambridge, Illinois | about a book called Tomorrow’s House, published in 1946; how my father’s sister declined his offer to design their house |
| Monday, October 19, 2015 | Links and Comments from Sunday’s NYT | Indian writers protest government silence on violence; George Johnson on the gambler’s fallacy; Q&A w/Matt Ridley, including best books and worst (the Bible); Mlodinow reviews two books on sense and predictions |
| Friday, October 16, 2015 | Jonny Quest rewatch | summary, history, points, favorite episodes |
| Thursday, October 15, 2015 | Lost in Space, Season 4 | a list of episode descriptions I found in my files from years ago… |
| Thursday, October 8, 2015 | Sean Carroll on everything | his forthcoming book, and links to his one equation and a video of his best arguments |
| Monday, October 5, 2015 | The Martian, the movie | short review from Fb |
| Wednesday, September 30, 2015 | Lying with Phony Graphs | about an absurd chart the anti-abortion people think means something (is the right intellectually incompetent?) |
| Wednesday, September 30, 2015 | Lawrence M. Krauss on Ben Carson | Nykr essay, in which Krauss spells out Carson’s misconceptions, with comment from Coyne on how science is not faith |
| Tuesday, September 29, 2015 | The Atlantic on triggers warnings; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the war on reason | how trigger warnings are a kind of conservative resistance to ideas that would challenge orthodoxy; Abdul-Jabbar on conservative resistance and the biological culprits |
| Monday, September 28, 2015 | Politics: Religion vs. Rationality | Tayler on how journalists defer to religious pieties |
| Monday, September 28, 2015 | Evolution and the Teenaged Brian | Kolbert review of 2 bks about why teenagers take risks and how this makes sense evolutionarily |
| Monday, September 28, 2015 | Oliver Sacks on SF | paragraph discussing Forster’s “The Machine Stops” |
| Monday, September 28, 2015 | David Brooks: American Exceptionalism vs Conservatism | how America’s founders were exception in building something for the future; today’s conservatives yearn for a lost past that never existed, and fears the future; evidence that immigrants are a good thing |
| Monday, September 28, 2015 | Salman Rushdie, two quotes | one about faith and reason; one about examining the stories inside which we live, including nation, family, religion… |
| Monday, September 28, 2015 | Ben Carson follow-up | why people don’t “believe” in science–because social bonds are more important than acknowledging reality, for survival; Carson and Huckabee share the values of their followers |
| Thursday, September 24, 2015 | About Ben Carson | Phil Plait and Jerry Coyne point out the evidence of evolution and dismantle creationist canards; how someone can be so smart and so dumb |
| Monday, September 21, 2015 | Rereading Isaac Asimov, part 3 | about “Reason”, the creationist robot; how it illustrates that what one believes isn’t always relevant; story is a parody of self-centered human creationists (like Ben Carson) |
| Saturday, September 19, 2015 | We Are in a Post-Reality [Science-Fictional!] World | the first republican debate and untrue assertions about the economy, Fiorina’s business record; why is this happening? Internet enables reality bubbles? How 9/11 assaulted americans’ presumed exceptionalism, perhaps |
| Friday, September 18, 2015 | Rereading Wollheim’s The Universe Makers | long review/summary including the 8-point cosmogony |
| Wednesday, September 16, 2015 | Robinson’s SF of the 20th Century | summary and review |
| Tuesday, September 15, 2015 | links and comments | links on scale of the universe; io9 link to sf books taught in colleges |
| Sunday, September 13, 2015 | links and comments | whether there will ever be a theory of everything; whether western values are losing their sway; Tayler on Ted Cruz whose theocracy would threaten the rule of law, and fundamentalist fantasy history |
| Saturday, September 12, 2015 | links and comments | the religious right and Kim Davis; Vox on how The Village is a masterpiece; essay on how fear motivates anti-vaxxers; links |
| Friday, September 11, 2015 | Rereading Isaac Asimov, part 2 | summary of reading, bullet points, list of best stories |
| Wednesday, September 9, 2015 | links and comments | Krauss essay on how scientists s/b militant atheists; Huckabee’s demagoguery and Kim Davis; how Santorum lies about climate change |
| Tuesday, September 8, 2015 | links and comments | Tayler on how O’Reilly’s misperceptions of ‘nihilism’ and atheism; NYT on the alarm over scientific studies that aren’t replicated |
| Tuesday, September 1, 2015 | Puppygate and the Progressive Nature of Science Fiction | quoting Gary K. Wolfe’s account in Chicago Tribune |
| Tuesday, September 1, 2015 | links and comments | example of how religious groups reject education; animated map of how major religions have spread across the world; Tyson explains the universe |
| Friday, August 28, 2015 | Rereading Isaac Asimov, part 1 | the pulpy prose, quotes from I, Robot |
| Wednesday, August 26, 2015 | links and comments | hand-picked truths: NYT George Johnson on religious traditionalists and those who understand science; Adam Lee on how religion is slow to act when it comes to moral progress |
| Tuesday, August 25, 2015 | links and comments | Salon calls out David Barton, the ‘Tea Party’s evangelical quack’; (narrative!); Tayler on how religious con artists are using religion for evil |
| Tuesday, August 25, 2015 | links and comments | B&N links to 8 dated sf novels, and the paradox of SF as being about the future, while overtaken by history; New Statesman piece about reading the ‘100 best’ sf/f novels and finding them shockingly offensive; links to several summaries about Hugo results and the puppygate kerfuffle; Asimov’s “Reason”; Gaiman/Ishiguro conversation about Chinese acceptance of SF |
| Friday, August 21, 2015 | links and comments | mostly uncommented links: Connor Wood on how reason won’t save the world; Tarioco on why atheists are as moral as anyone else; a PDF teacher’s guide for the Wesleyan Anthology of SF; io9 link to a timeline of future SF; Onion on God’s plan to wean humans off religion; Jeffrey Tayler on how faith is a character flaw (great quotes as always) |
| Wednesday, August 19, 2015 | The Methodical, Cheerful, Bluntness of Isaac Asimov | about his book The Roving Mind, with essays about the religious radicals, and why SF authors don’t ‘believe’ is flying saucers, et al; example of his thinking in essay about idea of telepathy |
| Tuesday, August 18, 2015 | links and comments: Derek Muller and the Beauty of Nihilism | lovely video about the author visiting Chernobyl, and his insights about permanence and decay, and how ‘nihilism’, the idea of ultimate meaninglessnes, is liberating and emboldening |
| Tuesday, August 18, 2015 | links and comments | autism and the perception of reality; Florida tries to ban Mark Haddon’s book, because the autistic character matter-of-factly rejects god; Time Mag essay on autism; Silberman’s book NeuroTribes; Atlantic essay on trigger warnings |
| Monday, August 17, 2015 | PvC Bibliographies | about adding a bibliography page beneath Provisional Conclusions; and about resorting my shelves of sf/f nonfiction |
| Monday, August 17, 2015 | Bay Heat | warm weekend; smoke from fires 100 miles north; attending surprise birthday party for friends |
| Wednesday, August 12, 2015 | Ken MacLeod on science fiction | MacLeod essay about ‘science fiction: taking science personally’; how SF is a way about thinking about the world; great quotes |
| Monday, August 10, 2015 | James Morrow: The Madonna and the Starship | review, with a couple quotes |
| Monday, August 10, 2015 | links and comments | Dennis Overbye on the Fermi Paradox, with a take by Nick Bostrom; comment about Brian Attebery book ‘Stories about Stories’; Slate review of book by Wilczek about nature’s deep design; a Bangladesh blogger hacked to death; how Huckabee makes up science to support his worldview |
| Sunday, August 9, 2015 | The Lottery and Jim and Mary G | comments, quotes, about these two stories, and what relates them |
| Friday, August 7, 2015 | Stephen King, Revival | review with quotes |
| Monday, August 3, 2015 | links and comments | Adam Lee on how progressives can’t maintain fealty to the Bible, and the ‘Manhattan Option’, Christians withdrawing into insular communities; an essay about about the film 2001 was wildly over-optimisic; Sean Carroll on why the universe is so big; cool NdG Tyson video that explains the universe in 8 minutes |
| Thursday, July 30, 2015 | Andy Weir, The Martian | brief comments about the book |
| Wednesday, July 29, 2015 | Cixin Liu, The Three-Body Problem | summary, review, qualms |
| Monday, July 27, 2015 | Follow-up thought about KSR’s Aurora | how I don’t *necessarily* agree; human history shows a pattern of overcoming things once thought impossible |
| Thursday, July 23, 2015 | Kim Stanley Robinson, Aurora | Fb post, review, how KSR might be my favorite SF author; comments and a quote |
| Tuesday, July 21, 2015 | links and comments | NYT’s charts about changing attitudes about civil rights; how a professor resigned from Bryan College rather than sign its statement of faith |
| Wednesday, July 15, 2015 | The Irish Need Not Apply | NYT Timothy Egan challenges Trump’s comments about Mexican immigrants, with quotes from the 1850s that demonized Irish immigrant, on similar grounds |
| Monday, July 13, 2015 | links and comments | Weinberg essay with his famous quote; Slate on Trek v Wars; Vox on how the world is getting better; Skeptic.com on how God is such a terrible writer, and if the Bible really were the word of God, it should have been so much better |
| Monday, July 13, 2015 | Steven Weinberg, To Explain the World | summary, with one quote |
| Wednesday, July 8, 2015 | links and comments | NPR interview on how human psychology is affecting criminal justice, especially the unreliability of eye-witness testimony; LAT op-ed about how evangelicals were once as opposed to divorce as they now are about same-sex marriage; Bruni about RF Kennedy and his anti-vax stance, Jim Carrey, Phil Plait in response; Anthony Doerr on favorite science books; Tayler on the Supreme Court, the End Times, the changing definition of marriage; NYT graphs on changing acceptance of social issues |
| Sunday, July 5, 2015 | A Just Ended (perhaps) Arc of History | about the confederate flags coming down, in southern states; the film Selma |
| Thursday, July 2, 2015 | Lewis Thomas, Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler’s Ninth Symphony | summary with many profound quotes |
| Wednesday, July 1, 2015 | links and comments | Adam Lee’s statement of principles, and Lee on why the religious right is against government social programs; quote about narrative; Jeffrey Tayler on Scalia, who rejects science and the law for religion (FDS: faith-derangement syndrome); also Tayler on the laughable bad Christian movies that prey on the gullible; Atlantic on why religious conflict won’t end |
| Tuesday, June 30, 2015 | Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction | summary with quotes |
| Friday, June 26, 2015 | Lewis Thomas, The Lives of a Cell | brief notes, quoting first two para’s [did not reread the entire book] |
| Friday, June 26, 2015 | The Arc of History: The Expansion of Marriage | the Supreme Court decision, and how it supports my PvC, with a Matt Baume video about the range of historical ideas of marriage |
| Friday, June 26, 2015 | Rereading Carl Sagan’s The Cosmic Connection | summary with many great quotes |
| Wednesday, June 24, 2015 | links and comments | NYT George Johnson on ‘lucky numbers’ (universal parameters); how the paleo diet isn’t relevant to modern humanity; anti-intellectualism and how people interpret events in the context of personal narratives, and how religious scolds see every tornado as due to something they personally disapprove of; Pinker interview about how capitalism is killing war, and how to understand the media |
| Wednesday, June 24, 2015 | James Morrow: We’re not tourists on this planet, we’re citizens | quotes from Morrow Locus interview, about the enlightenment, his new novel, Gould and Bryan |
| Wednesday, June 24, 2015 | Alan Lightman, The Accidental Universe | summary and quotes |
| Monday, June 22, 2015 | The Human Impact on Earth; About Book Culling | Slate link to photos of human impact on earth, and video link at end (astronauts, the overview effect), why I must have culled that book |
| Monday, June 22, 2015 | The Sixth Extinction and the Pope’s Encyclical | several links about this issue; the pope statement avoids the issue of population; Krauss quote |
| Thursday, June 18, 2015 | Bible System Updates | quotes from New Yorker humor about version updates to the Bible |
| Thursday, June 18, 2015 | Narrativium and Lies-to-Children | Pratchett/Stewart/Cohen’s brilliant Science of Discworld, with recurrent themes about narrative and how big questions are simplified for children; many quotes |
| Thursday, June 11, 2015 | links and comments | Coyne Q&A w/NatGeo; links about Louisiana teaching creationism, Santorum and J’Witnesses about avoiding education; how Max Planck managed to change his mind; human progress pro and con; theology of atheism; Egan on the arrogance of Jeb; telescopes in Hawaii; Pinker on how capitalism is killing war; Game of Thrones and climate change; outsider test for the right faith |
| Monday, June 8, 2015 | links and comments | NYT essay be Frank and Gleiser about crisis in physics, whether modern ‘theories’ are proper; Sapolsky on the evolution of embracing strangers (his son graduates high school); a North Korean who defected and who then realized his homosexuality, and a parallel story about realizing the idea of transgender — ideas which totalitarian, and religious, societies suppress; Kolbert on the idea of colonizing Mars |
| Tuesday, June 2, 2015 | Upon returning from a wedding | essay about rethinking pvc’s based on returning from wedding in Tennessee |
| Tuesday, May 26, 2015 | links about comments | about religious parents shielding their children from reality: behind the scenes reports about the Duggars TV show; Atlantic article about habits that will become unthinkable, including home-schooling; Slate article about a creationist kid determined not to learn about evolution |
| Monday, May 25, 2015 | How science works, concerning the retracting gay marriage study, and the ironies | general issue of studies that can’t be replicated, and how the study about changing peoples’ minds about gay marriage was revealed to be a fraud — this is how science works; Huckabee *defends* the Duggars, i.e. some people *never* change their minds; but populations do, as Ireland approves same-sex marriage |
| Sunday, May 24, 2015 | Bodega Bay and The Birds | the drive, the film, links to sites about movie locations |
| Friday, May 22, 2015 | links and comments | about the Duggars, one son charged with molestation, and the irony of the fundamentalist family accusing gays of being child molesters, with Mark Joseph Stern on how they’re a cult; Coyne’s recommended books; Dennett on the end of religion; commentary about Dawkins, and my disagreement; Tayler on politicians’ professions of faith, especially Obama’s national day of prayer |
| Thursday, May 21, 2015 | Instant Insanity | about that puzzle; personal history |
| Wednesday, May 20, 2015 | links and comments | Slate on how presidents *should* change their minds (flip-flop); Coyne’s new book and summary at New Scientist, with quote; article about how all fiction follows six basic storylines (narrative!); trigger warnings and Coyne on how literature *should* be triggering |
| Monday, May 18, 2015 | links and comments | links to news about the decline of religion in the US; Mlodinow on how common narratives about famous scientific discoveries are over-simplifications (narrative); NPR on how TV show finales affect the stock market (narrative!) |
| Tuesday, May 12, 2015 | Bad Astronomy, 1 | comments about Plait’s book, in particular how our perceptions often conflict with reality |
| Monday, May 11, 2015 | links and comments | contrast the imaginary war on religion with the very real war on abortion; LAT on the end of Mad Men, how obsession about shows goes back to Star Trek, what this says about the need for narrative; review of book about Supreme Court and gay marriage; links about X Minus One, a christian comedian, latest Jeffrey Tayler |
| Thursday, May 7, 2015 | Natalie Angier, The Canon | summary, comments about her odd style |
| Wednesday, May 6, 2015 | links and comments | Vox, channeling Krugman, on why balancing the budget has intuitive appeal but isn’t actually advisable; link to piece about why atheists are an existential threat to believers |
| Tuesday, May 5, 2015 | links and comments | Dennett interview about why religions are cracking; Atlantic piece about how autism correlates with nonbelief in god, while high social skills correlate with narcissism and gullibility to charlatans (mind!); worst predictions of all time; Tayler essay on Ted Cruz and responding to dumb critique from Matt Barber |
| Monday, May 4, 2015 | links and comments | how the american economy does worse under Republicans, because of their ideology; NPR report about study of how to change peoples’ minds about gay marriage and abortions [a study later debunked for fraud] |
| Friday, May 1, 2015 | a month’s worth of linkes and comments | everything is available on the internet, but there are no renaissance people anymore; job-stealing immigrants are a myth; Luhrmann on faith vs facts, different kinds of mental creatures?; Coyne on two readers who say evolution helped them give up religion; Dennett on why the future of religion is bleak; … |
| ditto | 5 ways the world could end; resource links about history and homosexuality; how religious right and big business are dumbing down America (the history of american anti-intellectualism; Cruz, Rubio; Asimov quote); Tayler essay also quotes Asimov, about reading the Bible; Gerrold quote on the problem with claiming morals are from a holy book; Marcotte on 10 myths about atheists, including the moral code thing again; … | |
| ditto | article about how christianity invented children [arc of history]; letter to Dan Savage about medieval attitudes about sex [ditto]; Nykr on how religious zealots *kill* atheist bloggers and satirical journalists; Hutson on the science of superstition; more uncommented links; Bruni on how christians prioritize ancient texts over everything mankind has learned since they were written; Santorum quote | |
| Monday, April 27, 2015 | interesting items from Sunday’s new york times | Bruni imagines what Jindal and Bush would say if asked whether they would attend a gay wedding; Wm Eskridge anticipates argument before Supreme Court on same-sex marriage, compared to previous civil rights battles resisted by the church; how revealing a story or film is suspenseful destroys the suspense (narrative); Dowd and Garland on Ex Machina |
| Friday, April 24, 2015 | Naïve Physics | article about why anti-vaxxers *know* they’re right; what this says about how people form beliefs, or ‘naïve theories’ |
| Thursday, April 23, 2015 | links and comments | two links about the vastness of space; Sean Carroll on how the laws underlying the physics of everyday life are completely understood; Steven Weinberg’s best science books; Slate on why creationists pray we never discover alien life [we wouldn’t be *special*!] |
| Thursday, April 23, 2015 | links and comments | Tayler on Bill O’Reilly and the rank stupidity of their religion, with long quotes; how nonbelievers are longer keeping silent with their ridicule of preposterous beliefs; the war is between rationalists and the faithful “cleaving to fatuous fables…”; and a second Tayler essay on Rubio, Cruz, and others as God-fearing clowns, including Hillary; would like to ask them if they endorse all those horrible passages in Leviticus |
| Monday, April 20, 2015 | Settle in, Catching up, Puppygate | unpacking etc; how the worst puppy is racist, homophobic, and christian |
| Thursday, April 9, 2015 | links and comments | wrong-headed Republican analogies to anti-gay discrimination (Ted Cruz!); what’s happening in science fiction with the puppy slates for the Hugo awards, and how the core members are extreme religious zealots; comment from Rock and Ledge; they should find another line of work if they can’t serve everyone |
| Friday, April 3, 2015 | links and comments | about various ‘religious freedom’ laws, obviously intended to discriminate against gays and lesbians; how christians can’t get along with others; Nathaniel Frank essay on how christians are concerned only about this one issue, not the ability to stone adulterers |
| Friday, March 20, 2015 | unpacking books | |
| Thursday, March 19, 2015 | ellenberg, part 3 | |
| Wednesday, March 18, 2015 | links and comments | Common Core techniques and why conservatives rotely reject them |
| Wednesday, March 18, 2015 | link and comments | Slate on rejection of modernity, ISIS, Toffler |
| Friday, March 13, 2015 | links and comments | Plait on Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot; Steve Shives video on five stupid things about the 10 commandments; NYT on how conservative politicians abroad are more accepting of evolution, and how evangelicals simply don’t understand it; Achenbach on believing science and tribalism; Plait’s answers for creationists; Bryant Fischer |
| Thursday, March 12, 2015 | links and comments | Fox news makes stuff up because there isn’t enough real news to sustain 24 hours; link to TED talk by Haidt on moral roots; Lawrence Wright on how scientology is similar to mormonism; Krugman on how Republican warnings of inflation have never happened; Bruni spells how how US support of Israel is driven by Christian prophecy |
| Tuesday, March 10, 2015 | links and comments | Powers of 10 video link; how Florida is banning the term ‘climate change’ (Orwell!); how insurance industry knows better (follow the money); how right-wing predictions of doom for obamacare have not come true |
| Monday, March 9, 2015 | links and comments | Vox link to maps about space; Brandeis quote; Salon on motives behind climate denial; another narrative challenged in how AA doesn’t actually work very often; 4 steps to becoming conservative; Salon excerpt from bk about finding God in reality; two PW reviews; Dan Savage on the right-wing myth that progress is always too risky, and debunks it |
| Wednesday, March 4, 2015 | links and comments | links at Vox about the viral dress (how you can’t believe what you see); essay on why some christians will never accept same-sex marriage (a creepy, mystical narrative); salon essay about the right’s fear of education, and santorum, examples of controlling the narrative |
| Wednesday, March 4, 2015 | more about sf/f/h | |
| Tuesday, March 3, 2015 | musings about sf, f, and horror | |
| Tuesday, March 3, 2015 | link and comment | language creationists: are there any? Prob not because that issue doesn’t affect human vanity the way evolution does |
| Monday, March 2, 2015 | link and comment | The Fed: NYT essay on how the 2008 financial crisis shook writer to the core, like the loss of certainty without god |
| Wednesday, February 25, 2015 | links and comments | Slate and Quora identify humanism as the philosophical position of Star Trek; Cleese on why it’s so easy to make fun of organised churches |
| Tuesday, February 24, 2015 | links and comments | Oliver Sacks on facing death; 1830 example of a pious American against trains; Tayler on the need to offend religion |
| Friday, February 20, 2015 | film: Boyhood | what might have been |
| Wednesday, February 18, 2015 | links and comments | Bukowski quote; Wells quote; why GOP rejects evolution; skeptic vs denier; another state banning history that challenges american exceptionalism |
| Tuesday, February 17, 2015 | song: Beck, Turn Away | |
| Friday, February 13, 2015 | links and comments | Adam Gopnik on Obama and critics, how there is no moral high ground, because we’re all still climbing |
| Thursday, February 12, 2015 | links and comments | robert wright on brian wms (fallible memory is perhaps a feature, not a bug); Marcotte on criticism of that obama speech, and how the religious *lie* by invoking religious itself as justification; new study that shows kids of gay parents are just fine; how republican denial of evolution is a way of saying “i am one of you…” |
| Wednesday, February 11, 2015 | ellenberg, part 2 | |
| Wednesday, February 11, 2015 | links and comments | anti-vaxxers motivated by fear?; link to an ‘anti-braker’, who asks the comments be kept respectful (ha ha) |
| Tuesday, February 10, 2015 | provisional conclusions | restoring the original page, slightly edited |
| Tuesday, February 10, 2015 | links and comments | Brian Williams and how memory is fallible, with links to Slate and NYT; Saletan on reactions to Obama’s speech on religious violence — how republic critics are inadvertantly aiding the islamic right |
| Monday, February 9, 2015 | links and comments | how the internet lets everyone see the right-wingers ranting against the gays, et al; Bruni takes on Santorum and Huckabee and others; RWW on film Light Win; Salon’s Tayler on not defering to religion; Morford on EO Wilson; Achenbach at NaGeo on why reasonable people doubt science |
| Sunday, February 8, 2015 | Jordan Ellenberg, How Not to Be Wrong | review: first part of summary and discussion |
| Saturday, February 7, 2015 | links and comments | NPR on what’s firmly known about the size and age of the universe; Plait on claim you can fit all the planets between earth and moon, with video |
| Thursday, February 5, 2015 | links and comments | david brooks reaction to zuckerman’s book is dimwitted, and dennet responds with a letter, quoted; how anti-vaxxer beliefs imply some huge conspiracy, and only a few non-scientists know the truth; Michelle Malkin demonizes a 6th grader; Tarico on why christian heaven would actually be hell |
| Wednesday, February 4, 2015 | links and quotes | letter by david p. barash about leon wieseltier essay against science; op ed about how kids turn out fine, whatever parenting philosophy is used; how right-wing attacks on history are another example of the importance of narrative (david barton!) |
| Wednesday, February 4, 2015 | links and comments about vaccine denial | quotes and links from Frank Bruni, Shankar Vedantam, Phil Plait, others; how all this is about narrative over evidence |
| Monday, February 2, 2015 | new blog title and header pic | |
| Monday, February 2, 2015 | links and comments | Shermer on KQED and interviewed by Harris; Krauss in New Yorker refuting WSJ editorial; jehovah’s witness guy rants against higher education [of course]; salon excerpt of book on how no ‘soul’ exists independent of the brain |
| Sunday, January 25, 2015 | 10 Provisional Conclusion about Life, the Universe, and Everything, subject, of course, to revision based on evidence | initial set |
| Saturday, January 24, 2015 | A Secular Ten Non-Commandments | from the bayer/figdor book, plus reader ideas, adam lee’s set |
| Wednesday, January 21, 2015 | narrative as reality; reality as narrative | krugman on how evidence doesn’t matter to many; they just get angry; my comment on how narrative matters more |
| Monday, January 19, 2015 | links and quotes: Shermer, McEwan | from the moral arc; mcewan essay on fb and homepage |
| Monday, January 19, 2015 | links and comments | Bruni on Jeb and religious liberty; cases of bakeries refusing to make cakes; Zuckerman how godless kids turn out fine; Tarico notes that if the bible were law, most people you know would qualify for death; phil plait on ted cruz overseeing NASA; Pinker on a line from shakespeare [quote this]; io9 two links about logical fallacies and arguments for god |
| Saturday, January 17, 2015 | packing books | with thoughts about why people keep so many books, even knowing they’ll never read all of them (answer: because you never know which ones you’ll want to read next month, or next year) |
| Friday, January 16, 2015 | passages by benford | from his story ‘lady with fox’, and letter to nyrsf about how science is liberating |
| Friday, January 16, 2015 | song: Hero | from Boyhood |
| Thursday, January 15, 2015 | sean carroll on afterlife, life, death, happiness, our place in the universe | video, summary and quotes, including point about 2nd law of thermo |
| Wednesday, January 14, 2015 | links and comments | space suite video (link this); asapscience on how nice guys finish first; Fidalgo on myths–narrative matters most; article about europeans asking american why is the US crazy? |
| Sunday, January 11, 2015 | bradbury’s house torn down, I understand why | because no one wants old homes, they want new ones |
| Friday, January 9, 2015 | religious evolution and obsolescence | how conservative policy does in fact evolve; Jeb Bush plays the religious liberty card to oppose gay civil rights; do politicians actually not understand the constitution? Salon’s Tayler on needing to laugh at religion; comments on what religion has accomplished, but how they are basically tribal; how christians are intent on defining themselves as people who cannot get along with people unlike themselves |
| Thursday, January 8, 2015 | Elves | lines from ‘Boyhood’ |
| Wednesday, January 7, 2015 | links and comments, mostly about evils of religion | classic Hitchens essay on mocking religion; a web comic about how to ‘suck’ at your religion; excerpt from ‘how god works’ about why people pray when it obviously doesn’t work; adam lee on peace and atheism; coyne on how babies are assumed to be the religion of their parents; newsweek article on how the bible is misunderstood… (many basic, but excellent, points) |
| more: Tarico on how stories of Jesus became more magical over time; salon article on how few smart people are religious; why do I care about all these subjects? Good as You on Erick Erickson, and how he won’t bother covering certain people any more, they’re irrelevant | ||
| Monday, January 5, 2015 | links and comments | pinker & mack on how world is not falling apart (though people think it is); Nyr on 12 lessons for 2015; 7 cultural concepts US doesn’t have; thermodynamic theory of life’s origin (and PZ on why creationists won’t care; they don’t underestand basic anything); Kraus replies to WSJ editorial about science proving god; |
| more: Dennett on free will; Mehta, Christina on death; Osteen quote about not letting facts get in the way of fiction; jeffrey tayler on reza aslan | ||
| Monday, January 5, 2015 | The Imitation Game | film review (another Fb post) |
| Monday, January 5, 2015 | Chef | film review (another Fb post) |
| Monday, January 5, 2015 | Birdman | film review (Fb post about the film) |
| Saturday, January 4, 2014 | It’s a Wonderful Life | how long it takes him to realize he’s in a different place–an idea unfamiliar when the film was made; different now? |
| Sunday, January 4, 2015 | song: John Legend, Save the night | |
| Monday, December 22, 2014 | Zuckerman, Living the Secular Life | summary, plus own comments about how morality obviously does not derive from religion |
| Wednesday, December 17, 2014 | hawking’s theory of everything | about The Grand Design |
| Tuesday, December 16, 2014 | hitchens’ 10 commandments | |
| Tuesday, December 16, 2014 | prothero on why liberals win america’s culture wars | summary of video talk |
| Wednesday, December 10, 2014 | links and comments | how to talk to antigay relatives about same-sex marriage; why evangelicals are against obamacare and civil rights (because they expect the world to end); dawkins on how evolution s/not be a guide to social policy; video spoofing darwin and ‘jibbers crabst’; quote by orzel about doing science every day; xkcd on bizarre physics |
| Wednesday, December 10, 2014 | the science of interstellar | notes about the book by Kip Thorne |
| Friday, December 5, 2014 | links and comments… | NYT on fallibility of memory; how Hollywood characterizes math geniuses; Paul Fidalgo on Rick Santorum’s paranoia; Daylight Atheism on how the right-wing welcome Russia’s brutal anti-gay laws (!); Salon reviews a book about hate mail from Christians to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation; Adam Lee on Joel Osteen; Right Wing Watch about David Barton, yet again; Salon on Jefferson’s Bible; Salon on the Bible’s origins; Salon on the right-wing brain, with Chris Mooney; a Christian pastor in Arizona who wants to execute all the gays; a video about a creationist woman who ridicules exhibits in the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History |
| Wednesday, December 3, 2014 | EO Wilson, Meaning of Human Existence, part 5 | last post about this book, chapters 13 through 15, with many fine quotes |
| Tuesday, December 2, 2014 | EO Wilson, Meaning of Human Existence, part 4 | chapters 11 and 12, with quotes about commonalities of human nature and the human preference for views |
| Monday, December 1, 2014 | Interstellar | review of film; allusions to 2001; problems; summary |
| Monday, December 1, 2014 | EO Wilson, Meaning of Human Existence, part 3 | chapters 7 through 10, with quote about why Ets could never invade Earth — or humans settle on an alien planet |
| Sunday, November 23, 2014 | Inherit the Wind | rewatching the movie; key passage; fun facts and asides |
| Wednesday, November 19, 2014 | resuming sfadb development | progress and ultimate goals [perhaps too much detail] |
| Tuesday, November 18, 2014 | scientific fidelity vs narrative; anti-gay bigotry and socialism; the ecology of faith; Valerie Tarico on religion; Hans Zimmer and conceptual breakthough | Slate on not nitpicking the science in Interstellar–and how to me this is evidence of the value of narrative over reality; Towleroad on an Arizona anti-gay politcian, and how the science does *not* show what she claims; Jerry Coyne on what makes societies religious, and how the worse off a society is, the more religious it is; two article by Valerie Tarico, about how religion does more bad than good, and how religion is ‘going down’; finally, a Hans Zimmer track from The Da Vince Code, a great artistic depiction of conceptual breakthrough |
| Monday, November 17, 2014 | EO Wilson, Meaning of Human Existence, part 2 | chapters 4 through 6 |
| Thursday, November 13, 2014 | EO Wilson, Meaning of Human Existence, part 1 | summary of early chapters, with many great quotes |
| Thursday, November 13, 2014 | Hans Zimmer and Interstellar, again | Slate’s J. Bryan Lowder on the brilliant of Zimmer’s score |
| Tuesday, November 11, 2014 | And the moon rose over an open field | Simon & Garfunkel songs: America, Scarborough Fair; Bridge over Troubled Water |
| Tuesday, November 11, 2014 | Interstellar… Music | gary westfahl’s reviews; thoughts about criticisms of Hans Zimmer’s music; without having yet seen this film |
| Monday, November 10, 2014 | sibelius 1 and mahler 6 | |
| Thursday, November 6, 2014 | fundamentalist beliefs, the real world, and science fiction | video about a fundamentalist pastor visiting sweden and denmark, mind-boggled about how people there don’t share his beliefs; how he doesn’t get out much, intellectually; how most people live out their lives; about how SF and EO Wilson strive to address the wider universe |
| Wednesday, November 5, 2014 | the meaning of human existence | fb post plugging EO Wilson’s new book |
| Wednesday, November 5, 2014 | conservatives, liberals, disgust, social progress | why innate tendencies, two steps forward one step back; Frank Bruni on Repulicans resistance of science; how the divide is a function of ‘disgust’ ; with speculation about visceral reactions against homosexuality… |
| Tuesday, November 4, 2014 | education and faith; reza aslan and religious apologists | Psych Today about how education corrodes religious faith — of course!; Jeffrey Tayler at Salon responds to Reza Aslan, about how “Major religions all contain macabre fables, explicit injunctions for vile behavior no civilized person should accept” |
| Tuesday, November 4, 2014 | apophenia, religious apologists, no true scotsman | Slate on apophenia, the tendency to see patterns in random events.. As an element of creativity; how Obama and others dismiss ISIS as not being ‘true Islam’; how *ideas* should always be open to criticism |
| Tuesday, November 4, 2014 | weekend in oakland | looking at houses, party at Emily & Jeff’s, hike along Skyline |
| Thursday, October 30, 2014 | sfadb bug fixed, with a hyphen | details of the bug fixed; example of how these issues can always be solved |
| Wednesday, October 29, 2014 | arthur c. clarke: two religious explorations | discussion of The Nine Billion Names of God, and The Star, with hidden spoilers; how these stories illustrate the implications of traditional religious faiths |
| Tuesday, October 28, 2014 | heroic individuals and magical thinking | dennis overbye on film ‘the theory of everything’ and how it over-simplifies hawking’s life; NYT essay on magical thinking affecting us all |
| Monday, October 27, 2014 | journey to the beginning of time | discussion of 1960s movie I saw then–about kids going back in time on a rowboat in central park |
| Friday, October 24, 2014 | right wing paranoia; conservative propoganda; coming out smart like coming out gay | how the religious right’s dire predictions have not come true (of course); how conservatives opt for propagand over reality; cute video about how coming out smart would be like coming out gay |
| Thursday, October 23, 2014 | skiffy flix: assignment outer space | discussion of older films, and of this one |
| Tuesday, October 21, 2014 | the most beautiful unknown music | recalling preisner, and then linking video of kilar’s music for the portrait of a lady |
| Thursday, October 16, 2014 | song: savage garden, you can still be free | including comments on earlier vs later albums; quotes from other savage garden songs |
| Wednesday, October 15, 2014 | why christian films are so bad; lgbt issues; the superiotiy of atheist values and ethics | christian movies are bad because…; how atheist/freethinkers note gay issues; PZ Myers on how atheist values are superior |
| Saturday, September 20, 2014 | education, inculcation, smart kids, evolution and religion, value voter summit | Frank Bruni on banned books week, and what education is about — my comment: the smart kids figure it out; david p. barash on the talk he gives his biology students about evolution v beliefs; value voters summit, about Erick Erickson thinking people who believe in evolution are “dumb and jealous” |
| Thursday, September 18, 2014 | links and comments… | Slate on ‘apophenia’ (Jesus in a tortilla, etc); ISIS and No True Scotsman, comment by Jerry Coyne; why 10 commandments are not inspiration for US laws; Ed Brayton ridicules David Barton; Sean Carroll on science v religious beliefs (nice quote about the non-necessity of god) |
| Thursday, September 18, 2014 | EO Wilson on human existence | Andrew Sullivan quoting his book, especially about how individual selection favors sin, group selection favors virtue… |
| Sunday, August 17, 2014 | latest bug | sfadb bug; how you can always figure out programming errors; overloading css tags |
| Friday, August 15, 2014 | links and comments: do you believe in blue? | pinker on evolutionary significance of music; dennett on free will; PW review of bk about ‘flying dinosaurs’; article about why evolution is not about ‘belief’ but about ‘understanding’ |
| ditto | right-wing backlash against nd tyson, and andrew leonard on the war against the nerds; greta christina on evidence against intelligent design; | |
| ditto | Coyne on the outsider’s test for everything; The Atlantic on the christian *need* to feel persecuted; Salon on conservative perception of hostility, and the Chris Mooney bk; Donald Prothero on science denial; Salon about man who rethinks faith when he adopts a child; about parenting godless children; | |
| ditto | Dan Savage on definitions of marriage; that quote about right-wing boycotts; Mark Joseph Stern on surrogacy and the Christian right; David Barton; Fox News’ fear of atheists | |
| Thursday, July 24, 2014 | links and comments… | reviews of Dinesh’s movie lashing out at howard zinn; PZ Myers on john c. wright and his ideas about how people should live their lives and how sex is *only* for reproductive |
| Thursday, July 24, 2014 | links and comments… | ken ham thinks aliens would be consigned to hell (aside about sf that addresses religion); timothy egan on how conflicts around the world are faith-driven; valerie tarico on evil things christians do; adam frank on how religious apologists are always about *their* religion; nathaniel frank on mark regnerus |
| Tuesday, July 15, 2014 | sfadb; Mahler 5 | about the introspective passage in mahler 5; video of bernstein performance |
| Tuesday, July 15, 2014 | song: the boxer | |
| Wednesday, July 9, 2014 | odds and ends… | NYT on conservative rejection of science; Jerry Coyne; how christians feel persecuted by gays (!); how Dinesh Di’Souza thinks the whole world is against him |
| Wednesday, July 9, 2014 | sam harris on morality and the christian god | quotes from a sam harris audio about how christian morality is actually despicable; how it builds on a tradition of human sacrifice. |
| Tuesday, July 8, 2014 | another apologetic | reaction to essay about atheism on slate — how such apologetics invariably defend *their own* religion, ignoring all others; and how they claim sophisticated theologians don’t cling to fundamentalist myths — despite the vast population who do |
| Tuesday, July 8, 2014 | literary sf authors | thought: aside from outsiders, do more literary writers genreally write short fiction? |
| Monday, July 7, 2014 | parents and children | about study showing kids raised by same-sex parents healthier and happier…; mark joseph stern on how such kids are hurt by their parents so much as by the animus of conservatives (nice quote); my observations about there being *two* parents; kids and sex; my thoughts about the irony of gays in straight marriages that therefore propogate gay genes! and how gays are having children anyway; so there. |
| Sunday, July 6, 2014 | we’ll ride on the rain… we’ll worship the wind | about song “if you go away”, several versions… |
| Sunday, July 6, 2014 | grayling on ehrenreich | grayling on ehrenreich bk Living with a Wild God, about her mystical experience. |
| Sunday, July 6, 2014 | prothero on the unpersuadables | review of bk by Will Storr, with quotes |
| Thursday, July 3, 2014 | rereading wolfe’s fifth head of cerberus | summary, quotes, conclusions |
| Wednesday, July 2, 2014 | two books to look forward to | wilson meaning of human existence; pinker sense of style |
| Wednesday, July 2, 2014 | nature’s god | LAT review of bk by Matthew Stewart on nature’s god and how america wsa not founded as a christian nation |
| Wednesday, July 2, 2014 | lies and false witness | salon on david barton; christian persecution and another christian movie; alternet on religious freedom meaning forcing faith on others |
| Friday, June 27, 2014 | primitive values, mature ethics, failure of religious texts | a-unicornist: nothing in the bible that couldn’t have been written by ordinary people; examples of what might have been |
| Friday, June 27, 2014 | another ten commandments – actually, two | valerie tarico on how the bible as two sets; golden rule; her set, in biblical language |
| Monday, June 23, 2014 | ann druyan on cosmos | partially repeating earlier post! Oops! |
| Monday, June 23, 2014 | sf and the perception of a greater truth | quote from edgar pangborn; discovering the world is not what your church said it was |
| Friday, June 20, 2014 | links, quotes, comments | amanda marcotte on the right’s abandonment of science and rationality; NOM’s failed rally in DC; David Horsey cartoon on Obama; two io9 posts on pseduo-science (toxins) and misused scientific ideas |
| Thursday, June 19, 2014 | mahler 6 | |
| Thursday, June 19, 2014 | ann druyan on cosmos | o’hehir interviews her; science and spirituality, how science is more spiritually satisfying; her rereading of the garden of eden |
| Monday, June 16, 2014 | links and quotes.. | charles blow on religious poll; krugman on climate change denial; slate on politics and DNA; Coyne on a Grayling essays; Alternate on the right’s embrace of ignorance; Lev Grossman on being a father; Salon on bk by Steve Jones; Christian love; Benford on values and morality; Wired on heaven movies |
| Monday, June 16, 2014 | notes on adam lee | summary and comments. |
| Saturday, June 14, 2014 | notes on peter boghossian | summary and comments; also link to brin on political bestiary |
| Friday, June 13, 2014 | notes on greta christina | long quote about why she’s angry; list of questions she anticipates; list of top ten reasons I don’t believe in god |
| Thursday, June 12, 2014 | notes on grayling’s case against religion and for humanism | summary w/notes, quote first para again; more great quotes |
| Monday, June 9, 2014 | unafraid of the dark; highlights from last ep of cosmos | nice quote re exceptionalism; pale blue dot video; summary of principles |
| Monday, June 9, 2014 | salon on cosmos, Neil deGrasse Tyson, science, denialism | 5 important lessons; piketty and chris mooney; conservative resistance to any kind of scientific conclusions; conservative attemps to discredit science; mention of gleiser book |
| Monday, June 9, 2014 | mathematics and economics | more on ellenberg; quotes |
| Saturday, June 7, 2014 | Clarke, childhood’s end, part 3 | quotes and passages; summary about what the best sf does… |
| Friday, June 6, 2014 | Clarke, childhood’s end, part 2 | themes |
| Friday, June 6, 2014 | mathematics and reality | interview, excerpts, ellenberg’s new book how not to be wrong |
| Friday, June 6, 2014 | no one can be an expert on everything | andrew sullivan on how we know anything; how certain fundamentalist beliefs are actively dangerous |
| Saturday, May 31, 2014 | Clarke, childhood’s end, part 1 | history and summary |
| Saturday, May 31, 2014 | sean carroll: the meaning the life | video and long quote |
| Friday, May 30, 2014 | believers, the bible, the internet, humanity’s future | a-unicornist on why theists won’t admit their wrong when evidence is presented to dispute their beliefs; instead they change the subject |
| Friday, May 30, 2014 | kalam, infinities, and intellectual honesty | adam lee on arguments for existence of god; how wm lane craig uses ideas of infinities refute them; math; and doesn’t craig understand the points his critics make? Hypocrisy |
| Tuesday, May 27, 2014 | assorted links and quotes | mcelwee on cosmos and how religious right denies enlightenment values; bar ehrman on atheists in the bible belt (you can’t persuade fundamentalists); pz myers on how any document can prove anything; mark joseph stern on fox news (low-rent in literally every way); NYT on neuroscience (calculations of brain cells and connections) |
| Sunday, May 25, 2014 | cosmos and the future of humanity | cosmos ep 11; climate change and how our economic systems are all short term |
| Sunday, May 25, 2014 | noah and science | brin explores idea of noah vs genetic diversity on earth |
| Sunday, May 25, 2014 | it’s in the DNA | NYT on Bryan college issue, quote implying they believe in DNA too, Coyne pointing out irony |
| Friday, May 23, 2014 | a handy list of bible verses that christians tend to ignore | six items |
| Friday, May 23, 2014 | the perception of patterns in nature | george johnson in NYT; evidence of designer? Wm paley |
| Friday, May 23, 2014 | what would make someone change their mind | more about how people don’t change their minds; maybe possible by changing people’s attitudes about themselves |
| Friday, May 23, 2014 | my sect is right and yours is wrong – obviously | reaction to comment about church showed kids examples of weird beliefs of *other* religions… |
| Friday, May 23, 2014 | thoughts about family pics | changed mind about value of taking photos of family, rather than landscapes |
| Monday, May 19, 2014 | philip kitcher: soft atheism? | how he rejects religious doctrines but finds religious traditions valuable; comment–but most people cling to literal religious doctrines |
| Monday, May 19, 2014 | mining family history | slides |
| Saturday, May 17, 2014 | climate change, denialism, and history’s judgment: with a prediction | and prediction, based on mental biases: nothing will happen until it’s too late |
| Saturday, May 17, 2014 | song: natalie merchant | one of two links disabled |
| Saturday, May 17, 2014 | personal history, part 3 | photos of felixstowe; |
| Friday, May 16, 2014 | personal history, part 2 | moving to apple valley; |
| Friday, May 16, 2014 | thoughts about the legal profession | jury duty; party lines; christian prayers; string of federal judge decision re same-sex marriage |
| Wednesday, May 14, 2014 | personal history, part 1 | birth, england |
| Wednesday, May 14, 2014 | ACE and false witness | someone’s essay quoting ACE’s philosophy of education, items so lame you have to wonder if they are dumb, or lying |
| Wednesday, May 14, 2014 | varieties of homophobic experience | someone’s study of types of homophobia in the caribbean; quotes about Type G and Type R |
| Wednesday, May 14, 2014 | rainbows and the afterlife | my metaphor about life and rainbow; no afterlives. ; and how the bible is a mere collection of letters — rough estimate of number of molecules in brain vs words in bible |
| Wednesday, May 14, 2014 | trek vs wars | long Gerrold quote about the differences, which I endorse |
| Wednesday, May 14, 2014 | passage from clarke, 1 | lion of comarre, anticipating the ipod |
| Sunday, May 11, 2014 | what the bible says about homosexuality | matthew vines link |
| Monday, May 5, 2014 | song: blessed are | and how ‘blessed’ is heavily used in certain social contexts (as a way of bragging about being special?) |
| Sunday, May 4, 2014 | hike to parker mesa overlook | (my link to photo has been suppressed) |
| Sunday, May 4, 2014 | song: john grant, where dreams go to die | plus ted talk by someone about subjunctivity |
| Sunday, May 4, 2014 | goonan quotes | about teaching sf; about brain/mind/consciousness; how we are our whole bodies, not just our brain |
| Friday, April 4, 2014 | another revised ten commandments | a sarcastic example in a facebook photo — yet the ideas do reflect underlying motivations, esp #8; click the link to see photo |
| Saturday, May 3, 2014 | amateur astronomy and cultural mythology | more on dipper full of stars; on dawkins’ the magic of reality |
| Thursday, May 1, 2014 | cosmos and my amateur astronomy | cosmos and constellations; reading a dipper full of stars, etc. |
| Tuesday, April 29, 2014 | the range of human perception | chris mooney on another study showing conservatives’ world is scary and threatening; link to asapscience graphic on limitations of human perception |
| Monday, April 28, 2014 | american christianity and conservatism | andrew sullivan on sarah palin’s approval of torture (thus anti-christian); krugman on why conservatives really behind cliven bundy; adam lee on 10 things he’s learned from atlas shrugged |
| Sunday, April 27, 2014 | Dignity of our Lives: “I burst into tears” | rob watson on what a couple tv commercials with gay families meant to him |
| Thursday, April 24, 2014 | cosmos so far | better at describing evidence, political pushback, upsetting creationists |
| Thursday, April 24, 2014 | song: mercy street | |
| Tuesday, April 22, 2014 | christian boycotts | joe my god: when christians do it vs when gay folks do it |
| Tuesday, April 22, 2014 | kalam cosmological argument | simple rebuttals linked; the premise is assumed; how appealing to god begs the question; appealing to 2nd law of thermo.; if anyone had really proven these issues, we wouldn’t still be debating them |
| Tuesday, April 22, 2014 | the reality of sexuality | andrew sullivan on further animals studies that challenge ‘natural law’ idea of simple heterosexuality |
| Sunday, April 20, 2014 | bunnies, eggs, spring | two links about the inconsistencies between the gospels |
| Sunday, April 20, 2014 | There is only one where this one was | more on Civil Wars opera |
| Thursday, April 17, 2014 | And only another unknown horseman; there are some things I just will not eat | about LA Phil performance of Civil Wars |
| Sunday, April 13, 2014 | interesting links | tv show on your inner fish; science v religion and wm jennings bryan; how science is not about authority; no bible msg about same sex marriage |
| Saturday, April 12, 2014 | mind/brain and mathematical intelligence | concerning a book about a brain injury made a guy a mathematical marvel; implications; mind and brain are one; perhaps truly advanced intelligence would find higher math obvious |
| Friday, April 11, 2014 | song: mr little jeans, good mistake | link now invalid |
| Friday, April 11, 2014 | diversity in sf, two examples | walter on an essay by macfarlane attacked by correia, who says sf authors must pander to conservative bigotry to be commercial; ballard review of clarke |
| Thursday, April 10, 2014 | song: dj koze, homewick | the “hee hee” song |
| Wednesday, April 9, 2014 | the need to feel special | re a documentary supporting geocentrism; the need to feel special, ideas that appeal to human vanity |
| Monday, April 7, 2014 | Bring her back to me | Frank Ocean’s “Pyramids”; link to video no longer works |
| Monday, April 7, 2014 | The water’s clear and innocent | song: Radiohead’s Codex, and about Convict Lake |
| Saturday, April 5, 2014 | song: lykke li, no rest for the wicked | |
| Thursday, April 3, 2014 | creation myths | about the many other creation myths cosmos is also not covering |
| Thursday, April 3, 2014 | creationists and flat-earthers | someone pointing out biblical lines implying flat earth |
| Thursday, April 3, 2014 | a telescope is a time machine | cosmos on speed of light and looking back in time; how people watch populat SF with no idea of anything means; examples, including LIS, Trek, SW, various issues |
| Wednesday, April 2, 2014 | gopnik on legitimate forms of knowledge and increasing prosperity | calmly stating the things that we know; observing how as incomes go up, steeples come down |
| Wednesday, April 2, 2014 | deGrasse Tyson on new ideas vs old, and battles against ignorance | tyson on how older ideas are almost never better than newer ones; how sagan thought certain battles had been one, that now are not |
| Tuesday, April 1, 2014 | noah and the advance of civilization | about the film noah; lewis dartnell on the interdependence of civilization [cf his book] |
| Saturday, March 29, 2014 | the greatest generation | in contrast to things ‘better in the old days’, a column about how maybe this generation may be the best. |
| Wednesday, March 26, 2014 | georges delerue | listening to CDs; video link to the day of the dolphin |
| Tuesday, March 25, 2014 | eternal verities, not | slate piece about how evangelical attitudes about abortion have changed since the 60s (so much for eternal truths) |
| Tuesday, March 25, 2014 | cosmos and creationism | someone pointing out that nd tyson actually does pay a lot of attention to creationist ideas, e.g. the eyeball |
| Tuesday, March 25, 2014 | religion and science, natural or not | connor wood on the robert mccauley bk Why Religion is Natural and Science is Not |
| Tuesday, March 25, 2014 | sam harris’ upcoming waking up | about what might replace organized religion |
| Sunday, March 23, 2014 | lucius shepard, RIP; readerly notice | how many sf writers get taken for granted |
| Friday, March 21, 2014 | the cozy cosmos vs growing up | adam lee on cosmos; my comments about why shouldn’t the universe be flat and domed, and then the analogy about a child discovering the world |
| Thursday, March 20, 2014 | sophisticated theology, proofs of god, humanism, religious persecution, morality | coyne on new bk by david bentley hart; his own list of bks to read about atheism (before you criticize it); humorous list of 7 things that prove god read; stephen fry videos; what religious persecution really is; coyne on a survey about religion and morality |
| Tuesday, March 18, 2014 | same-sex marriage, context, and the pursuit of happiness | about online debates among several; my own history about the idea of marriage; how sf by le guin and delany explored unconventional relationships; an essay called ‘the arc of history’ and how moral positions evolve as ‘new information and possibilities become available; and that anonymous commentator to dan savage |
| Monday, March 17, 2014 | st joshi work habits; the only common-sense position | 9-5 schedule; and how because academics take atheism to be a given, it’s up to amateurs to make the public case |
| Monday, March 17, 2014 | changing my mind | I used to think you could change people’s minds based on evidence; salon review of book called ‘the unpersuadables’ |
| Monday, March 17, 2014 | evolutionary politics | an analysis of how conservatives and liberals reflect different strategies for transmitting dna… |
| Monday, March 17, 2014 | big bang evidence | phil plait commenting on why anyone should care |
| Monday, March 17, 2014 | god and morality | US is outlier in beliving morality derives from God; as are southern states; whereas prosperity has inverse realtionship |
| Monday, March 17, 2014 | truth-claims? | sam harris’ characterization of Christianity |
| Friday, March 14, 2014 | political parties, religion, individualism | great quotes from connor wood about how religion succeeds through minimizing cognitive overload, how individualism doesn’t exist outside wealthy democracies… |
| Thursday, March 13, 2014 | a fellow heir of carl sagan | how someone lost their faith for lack of evidence, and science, in contrast to his fundamentalist childhood home |
| Wednesday, March 12, 2014 | steven pinker: work habits | working seven days a week sometimes until 3am, until the book is done; also link to MIT video of Pinker |
| Wednesday, March 12, 2014 | fox, certainty, arrogance, evidence, and cosmos | follow up to guy who’s father lost to fox news; how certainty is dangerous; the idea that science is arrogant for drawing conclusions that challenge faith. Quote from sam harris |
| Tuesday, March 11, 2014 | hidebound, unreflecting, blind | andrew sullivan on christians who feel persecuted for not approving of same-sex marriage — because they focus on a few lines in a book that talks about so much else. |
| Tuesday, March 11, 2014 | Religion vs Cosmos | andrew leonard on criticism of cosmos |
| Monday, March 10, 2014 | cosmos is great so far, but it’s missing something | needs more bg about *why* scientists believe all these things |
| Sunday, March 9, 2014 | billy budd | seeing the opera in LA, with YouTube link to an earlier performance |
| Sunday, March 9, 2014 | agnotology, science denialism, and joan slonczewski | tobacco industry => antivaxxers; quote from joan s about how deniers are being manipulated |
| Saturday, March 8, 2014 | from bible stories to science fiction | Morford on the christian movie son of god; philip pullman as example of sf/f on religious themes/ cf sfe |
| Saturday, March 8, 2014 | being wrong over and over again | quote from o’hehir about film about higgs boson |
| Friday, March 7, 2014 | song: turn away | link no longer works |
| Friday, March 7, 2014 | more links | just a comment that I’ve added links to the sidebar |
| Thursday, March 6, 2014 | hollywood, god, stories, and cosmos | coyne, krauss on why hollywood doesn’t make movies about atheists; need for narrative; being ‘atheist’ is sorta negative, try to emphasize the positive, as sagan did |
| Wednesday, March 5, 2014 | new links | consolidating links |
| Tuesday, March 4, 2014 | regenerus, same-sex marriage, and false witness | how do their reconcile their actions with their commandment? Are they dimwits, or hypocrites? |
| Tuesday, March 4, 2014 | coyne on bryan’s myth, vs reality | Coyne on how Bryan College is forcing faculty to swear to historical existence of adam and eve |
| Monday, March 3, 2014 | cosmos and beyond | looking forward to the new series; Smithsonian on carl sagan’s universe, my own; link to book about atheists and how reality is more awesome than religion |
| Monday, March 3, 2014 | anti-vaxxers and irrationality | you can’t change their minds |
| Monday, March 3, 2014 | education vs indoctrination | Bray college making faculty sign pledges to teach 6-day creation |
| Sunday, March 2, 2014 | frozen and its supposed gay agenda | and wondering why some critics are so obsessed about the gays |
| Friday, February 28, 2014 | panic and alarm, part two | dwindling christian right lashes out at civil rights |
| Thursday, February 27, 2014 | panic and alarm (and why this is about SF) | Salon essay about someone whose father “disappeared into the paranoid, outraged worldview of Fox News”, with my essay on how science fiction evolved and what it means (later put on the ‘about science fiction’ page) |
| Thursday, February 27, 2014 | why the world is this way rather than that way | Sean Carroll on why the world is not the way you’d expect if theism were true [parallels theme in richard carrier book] |
| Tuesday, February 25, 2014 | Uganda, scott lively, arizona, mark regnerus, gay denialism | how christianity seems to align with anti-homosexuality; Scott Lively’s vicious african campaign; the discredited Regnerus; Stern on a bizarre denial of gay existence; with a big FOOTNOTE with my thoughts about why people object to homosexuality |
| Tuesday, February 25, 2014 | Josh Barro | links by Barro about how there are two americas and one is better; about pat robertson |
| Sunday, February 23, 2014 | A Better World | daniel dennett would educate children — but can never work because parents |
| Friday, February 21, 2014 | Debates about science, creationism, accommodationism | mcelwee and saletan debate about whether a creationist can be a scientist |
| Friday, February 21, 2014 | wishful thinking vs what we know about how the world works | sean carroll on the soul; link to his laws of physics entirely understood |
| Monday, February 17, 2014 | the passing of blind obedience to decaying creeds | Adam Lee and a rival blogger who deleted his comments rather than replying |
| Thursday, February 13, 2014 | prothero and vick on that debate | again, how the question asked by creationists weren’t serious; they betray a lack of desire to understand the real world |
| Thursday, February 13, 2014 | how god works | how god always agrees with you; slave holders thought so |
| Thursday, February 13, 2014 | sam family values | saletan on how michael sam’s family will be better than his father’s |
| Thursday, February 13, 2014 | conservative values | motivated by fear, of the unknown, of the other, of rational engagement with the real world |
| Wednesday, February 12, 2014 | natural selection; family values | Darwin Day and the problem with calling evolution ‘darwinism’ |
| Tuesday, February 11, 2014 | science and fundamentalist | Connor Wood on how both sides should adjust their stances |
| Monday, February 10, 2014 | for creationists, intellectual inquiry is a sin | Stern on a TV doc about darwin; the fear that if there is no god, there are no rules; creationists reject the enlightenment, human ability to reason |
| Monday, February 10, 2014 | creationists and curiosity | if creationists really cared about these issues, they could find the evidence easily enough; but curiosity has been associated with excessive pride |
| Saturday, February 8, 2014 | song: down in thehole | |
| Saturday, February 8, 2014 | song: ghost of tom joad | link no longer works |
| Saturday, February 8, 2014 | mooney on our not-to-scientific minds | link to article by mooney at mother jones, including 7 reasons why it’s easier for humans to believe in god than evolution |
| Friday, February 7, 2014 | more questions and answers | coyne wonders if creationists truly think science is a big conspiracy; another blogger with exasperated replies to dumb creationist questions |
| Thursday, February 6, 2014 | answers for creationists | phil plait doing a buzzfeed thing |
| Wednesday, February 5, 2014 | the narcissism of today’s homophobia | re: the song “same thing” and grammy awards; christians can’t wrap their minds around the idea that some people are different; how dare they be happy |
| Wednesday, February 5, 2014 | five reasons why secular humanism is winning | evidence and reason leads to naturalism |
| Wednesday, February 5, 2014 | comments about ham/nye debate | some people think, others believe; examples of the closed system of creation; how debates don’t change people’s minds; quotes from Castro, Coyne, Stern, Stoker, McElwee, Plait |
| Sunday, February 2, 2014 | bruckner 8 | |
| Sunday, February 2, 2014 | Nebraska | film review |
| Saturday, January 25, 2014 | link dump: sites and resources | evil bible, one true god, logical fallacies, etc |
| Saturday, January 25, 2014 | further on up the road | springsteen song |
| Friday, January 24, 2014 | fundamentalist curricula | about ACE; how a high school student discovered it was lying about evolution |
| Friday, January 24, 2014 | are some folks beyond rational thinking? | how some people are beyond rational thinking; how yet it doesn’t matter what people believe |
| Monday, January 20, 2014 | A-Unicornist | references to books about atheism; books nd tyson recommends |
| Monday, January 20, 2014 | deciding what is true | The Atlantic on Rush Limbaugh; Coyne on how americans would cling to religion even if belief proven untrue; humans not rational |
| Monday, January 20, 2014 | review of Dallas Buyers Club | repost from Fb |
| Thursday, January 16, 2014 | I Visit You in Another Dream | song: Springsteen, paradise |
| Thursday, January 16, 2014 | Vast universe | quote from Max Tegmark, who has a new book |
| Thursday, January 16, 2014 | homosexuality and morality | people who think homosexuality is immoral really mean they think it’s icky; reference to Corvino |
| Tuesday, January 14, 2014 | age of ignorance | list of nonsense some people believe in; santorum and home schooling |
| Monday, January 13, 2014 | Debate Consternation | whether Bill Nye should do that debate |
| Thursday, January 9, 2014 | atheism as luxury? | Connor Wood: because ritual and conformance are easy |
| Thursday, January 9, 2014 | Why Religion is oppressive | religious morals are based on values of primitive societies; not applicable to modern society |
| Thursday, January 9, 2014 | Why Drugs are expensive | sullivan on how “drugs are expensive because the science of drug discovery is hard”; capitalism and what is the alternative? |
| Thursday, January 9, 2014 | Two posts about Christians and gays | two gay brothers who grew up in a christian bubble; response from the mother of lance bass |
| Monday, January 6, 2014 | Her | review of film |
| Saturday, January 4, 2014 | end of 2013 links and comments | signs fundamentalism is going down; science is word of the year; graphic about the known world; remembrance of Ian Barbour with quote about beliefs in evolution, “evidence is overwhelming” |
| Saturday, January 4, 2014 | your brain on religion | excerpts at Salon of a book by DF Swaab; question isn’t whether god exists but why people are religious, with 10,000 religions all convinced theirs is the one true faith |
| Friday, December 27, 2013 | two interesting articles | adam lee on conservative resistance (how they fear obama); science on religion on anthropomorphism (we are our brains; religion is about the tendency for our brains to see persons in the world around us) |
| Monday, December 23, 2013 | sin against mankind | quote from Grayling by W.K. Clifford: how belief from childhood, upon insufficient evidence, is a sin |
| Monday, December 23, 2013 | links and quotes about that duck guy | Barro on how there are two americas, and one is better than the other; sullivan on robertson’s ranking of sins; slate on imposing religious worldview on others; how robertson just hates gays; my opinion that the bible is *irrelevant* |
| Monday, December 23, 2013 | yesterday’s favorite song | song: Moby, Almost home |
| Friday, December 20, 2013 | new ten commandments | adam lee’s ten commandments, sensible and admirable |
| Wednesday, December 18, 2013 | Hitchens and the speculative end of religion | coyne, tayler criticizing mcelwee, on hitchens’ take on the eradication of religion; my take on AC Clarke’s optimism about how religious superstition would fade |
| Wednesday, December 18, 2013 | Awe | awesome scenery attributed to god: magical thinking; perceiving patterns in the world; and about why certain observations, and not disgusting ones, induce perception of god |
| Wednesday, December 18, 2013 | Aggressive atheist steps down | Martin S. Pribble decides to focus on the positive rather than the negative; comments about how it doesn’t matter what you ‘believe’ in |
| Sunday, December 8, 2013 | Getting along without knowing | Patricia Churchland interview about the distress of realizing we are functions of our brains |
| Saturday, December 7, 2013 | song: Wake Me Up | it’s credited to Avicii, but he’s the producer, like Moby is the producer of his albums; the singer is Aloe Blacc |
| Tuesday, November 26, 2013 | Families | brief link to NYT science section on families, with profiles about, among others, a gay couples in their 50s and 60s who’ve adopted 6 kids -! |
| Monday, November 25, 2013 | Ineffability, God thereof | The Dish on the ineffability of god; reader responses |
| Monday, November 25, 2013 | A Celebration of Human Ingenuity | The Dish quotes Ian McEwan on art and science |
| Sunday, November 24, 2013 | The Trolley Problem | nytbr review of 2 books on trolley problem |
| Tuesday, November 19, 2013 | David McRaney 2, Gravity, Haiyan, GRR Martin | second comments on McRaney’s second books, about narrative bias, normalcy bias, and especially the self-enhancement bias; and GRRM story “The Way of Cross and Dragon” |
| Tuesday, November 19, 2013 | Why science is not about faith | coyne on why science is not about faith |
| Tuesday, November 19, 2013 | why people believe in conspiracies | slate article about conspiracy theories and cognitive biases |
| Monday, November 11, 2013 | Another Fermi Paradox idea | Sean Carroll on fermi paradox |
| Tuesday, October 29, 2013 | To put matters at their simplest | opening of AC Grayling’s God Argument |
| Monday, October 21, 2013 | Man in the Sky | quote from The dish, about embracing the void |
| Monday, October 21, 2013 | 12 Years a Slave | movie review |
| Friday, October 18, 2013 | connor wood on atheists | how atheists have lower social attachments; they are largely single white males; are analytical and logical; how atheists and believers are both adaptive |
| Friday, October 18, 2013 | rights are social contracts | links to articles about why the right is obsessed with a revisionist history.. David barton; reality checks |
| Monday, October 14, 2013 | Review of David McRaney’s You Are Now Less Dumb, part 1 | examples, and how he deliberately avoids discussion of religion or faith; two key essays here, first and last chapters, are about narrative and self-enhancement |
| Monday, October 14, 2013 | Review of David McRaney’s You Are Not So Smart | cognitive biases, heuristics, and logical fallacies; many familiar: confirmation bias, argument from authority, the straw man fallacy, the ad hominem fallacy. |
| Monday, October 14, 2013 | TNT for 2 | Neil Finn/ Pajama Club song; link no longer works |
| Sunday, October 6, 2013 | Links and comments | Andrew Sullivan on tea party voters; texas evangelicals want to teach garden of eden in science classes; 2014 forecasts; fake Christian quotes; adam lee on shutdown blues; john scalzi on how ACA matters to writers; slate describes shutdown as if happening in another country; epic propaganda; how california is american exceptionalism |
| Sunday, October 6, 2013 | Gravity | FB post review of the film |
| Monday, September 30, 2013 | Gone with inherit the wind | item about protest that a religious college would stage the play |
| Saturday, September 28, 2013 | is the younger generation turning away from organized religion? | how the internet affects shifts; how evangelicals are doubling down |
| Saturday, September 28, 2013 | Thoughts of a Thursday afternoon: after the apocalypse | foundational essay about what would happen after an apocalypse: humanity would rebuild, with similar but not identical religions, languages, etc, but the same science, eventually |
| Saturday, September 28, 2013 | motivated reasoning and religion | how motivated reasoning works; no one believes all the tenants of their faith; how to build your own religion |
| Monday, September 23, 2013 | Odds and ends | Shermer on his own struggle; Hutson on magical thinking; sullivan on sunk cost; io9 on magical puzzles |
| Tuesday, September 17, 2013 | Review of Cory Doctorow’s Homeland | with quotes about politics and how the system work |
| Monday, September 16, 2013 | Law v. science | Jesse Bering on age of consent laws, how they illustrate law v science |
| Monday, September 16, 2013 | matthew shepard and confirmation bias | is the matthew shepard story an example of conf bias? Like the narrative of the iraq war? |
| Sunday, September 15, 2013 | Sunday links and comments | Chris Mooney on republican brain; Gunn interview on how sf can save the world; Salon on rantings of pat robertson; Slate on improving life expectancy; Atlantic on survival value of fiction |
| Sunday, September 15, 2013 | Resource: the dummy’s guide to the one true god | link to someone’s chart showing how varying are different beliefs about god |
| Thursday, September 12, 2013 | The one book I’d have every college student read | Howard Kahane’s Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric |
| Sunday, September 8, 2013 | Sunday links and commentary | pz myers on atheist v. sf cons; Essay by a fundamentalist on how he lost his religion; Coyne on how science is not a belief system; Slate on life expectancy; Salon on how politics and math are incompatible; Pareene on republicans and twitter |
| Saturday, September 7, 2013 | David Barton, just this once | crazy things the discredited historian says |
| Friday, September 6, 2013 | song: Alive (Empire of the Sun) | |
| Friday, September 6, 2013 | song: Mr Little Jeans | |
| Thursday, September 5, 2013 | religion and community | Connor Wood on how religion is tribalism, and increases happiness within groups even as it promotes violence against other groups; other believers vs atheists |
| Wednesday, September 4, 2013 | Progressives and regressives | robert reich on why progressives live in coastal cities and ports, conservatives in rural areas; my cmt about why more university profs are liberal |
| Wednesday, September 4, 2013 | Conservatives and liberals, and why we need both | Connor Wood about how conservatives are at the core of culture, liberals at the edges; the former are happier |
| Tuesday, September 3, 2013 | Frederik Pohl | on his death, my recollection of his sea change in the mid-70s |
| Tuesday, September 3, 2013 | does anyone ever change their minds about anything? | how even your best arguments never work; self-enhancement and self-affirmation; confirmation bias |
| Sunday, September 1, 2013 | Endeavour | visit to museum to see the space shuttle, with photos |
| Wednesday, August 28, 2013 | Respectful Insolence on the anti-vaxxers; the healthcare crisis | how anti-vaxxers think–are scientists engaged in some vast conspiracy? And why complaints about big pharma seem misplaced |
| Tuesday, August 27, 2013 | Coyne reponds to Frank; Religion becoming obsolete?; Dawkins’ response | Coyne responds to Adam Frank about science illiteracy, how the problem is religion; HuffPo on religion becoming obsolete; Dawkins on how few Muslims have won nobel prizes |
| Tuesday, August 27, 2013 | An Irish Poem | a Yeats poem about human vanity and how other animals would presume god is in their image; and how some internet commentor thinks it’s about pantheism |
| Saturday, August 24, 2013 | more ireland pics | Dublin, Trinity College; drive to cliffs of moher |
| Saturday, August 24, 2013 | Dublin notes and pics | about our Dublin trip back in April; pics of cliffs of moher |
| Friday, August 23, 2013 | stuff christian culture likes | interesting items from a website of that name: bible verses, africa, kirk cameron, homeschooling, etc etc |
| Thursday, August 22, 2013 | Adam Frank, PZ Myers, Hendrik Hertzberg | NYT op ed on science denial; PZ Myers on how Muslim fundamentalists are just as assertive as christians are about the bible; item by HH in Nykr about contradictory ideas of god; mention of how I might write a bk |
| Wednesday, August 21, 2013 | How to be a successful prophet: applying the jack smith rule | named after a long-time LA Times columnist; just predict the opposite of whatever a psychic or fundamentalist doomsayer predicts, and you’ll always be right |
| Wednesday, August 21, 2013 | Donald Prothero on science illiteracy, the Dunning-Kruger effect | about his book ‘reality check’ and how the ignorant and unskilled are more sure of themselves than actual experts |
| Monday, August 19, 2013 | Steven Pinkter, Carl Zimmer, Anti-Intellect, History Chart, Weigel on Card | Pinker essay on scientism in new republic; Zimmer in NatGeo on evolution denialists; item on belief by ‘Anti-Intellect’; cool history chart linked from Slate; David Weigel on OS Card’s political paranoia |
| Saturday, August 10, 2013 | Review of Lauren Beukes’ The Shining Girls | with hidden spoiler discussion |
| Friday, August 9, 2013 | Stories, Narratives, Facts | Salon quote from McRaney’s forthcoming book |
| Thursday, August 8, 2013 | Review of McDevitt & Resnick’s The Cassandra Project | with hidden spoiler discussion |
| Wednesday, July 24, 2013 | Notes on Daniel Dennett, 1 | with list of a dozen general tools, including e.g ‘intuition pump’, of which I think SF is one |
| Monday, July 22, 2013 | Twitter so far | comments about using it so far |
| Monday, July 22, 2013 | Today’s Pet Peeve | people who pronounced the T is often |
| Wednesday, July 17, 2013 | song: Moby, a Case for shame | |
| Sunday, July 14, 2013 | Cory Doctorow on Father’s Day, and scientific method | you can’t trust your memory or your senses… |
| Friday, July 12, 2013 | More Views | this blog is sequel to what was the Locus Online editorial blog |
