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- Yeah, in a Minute... is the personal dumping grounds of Paul Landry:
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- "Paul" / "he–him–his"
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News Gathering vs. Confirmation Bias
- Remember, if you do not have at least one source of news that you turn to regularly, with which you routinely disagree, then you are not practicing news gathering! You are practicing [confirmation bias].
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Science
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[S]cience is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.
The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.
— Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (New York: Ballantine Books, 1996) at p.32.
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[S]cience is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.
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Author Archives: Paul
Why Glengarry Glen Ross’ Alec Baldwin scene is so unusual
My wife and I re-watched Glengarry Glen Ross this past weekend, and I am always struck by the Alec Baldwin scene. Alec Baldwin only appears in Glengarry Glen Ross for something on the order of five or six minutes, but arguably, his scene not only makes the whole movie, but he turns in perhaps the […]
Tagged awesome, entertainment, movies
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Foundation Beyond Belief teams with Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for Light the Night Walk
I caught team captain Todd Stiefel on the Penn’s Sunday School podcast talking about the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and specifically their upcoming Light the Night Walk. Foundation Beyond Belief is hoping to make a big splash this year by raising over a million dollars, which is an awesome goal. The idea being that atheists, […]
Tagged charity, freethought, giving, pennssundayschool, podcast
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Ebert: Don’t tear down that wall!
Roger Ebert gets the separation of Church and State; unfortunately, many, many Americans don’t. Writing at his Chicago Sun-Times site “Roger Ebert’s Journal”: And make no mistake: it is a principle we’re discussing here. If I believe my church’s teachings are correct, my obvious course should be to convert you to my church, not pass […]
Tagged constitution, government, politics, reason, religion
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Random find on Twitter: Bragging about paying 13% in taxes
Guy Endore-Kaiser (@GuyEndoreKaiser): Bragging about paying 13% in taxes is like wanting an award because you threw a can at a homeless person that bounced into a recycling bin.
Tagged government, humor, politics
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I hate the word homophobia.
I see that this is not a verified account, and as a general rule I loath these “parody” accounts, but this tweet was so damned “spot-on” I just had to share it everywhere possible and with everyone possible… Morgan Freeman (unverified) writing on Twitter: I hate the word homophobia. It’s not a phobia. You are […]
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Religiosity on the decline, atheism on the rise
A new global survey on faith and atheism, released by WIN-Gallup International, and based on interviews with more than 50,000 people selected from 57 countries — asked participants, “irrespective of whether they attended a place of worship, if they considered themselves to be religious, not religious, or an atheist.” Dominique Mosbergen writing at the Huffington […]
Chick-fil-A and free speech
Teller (@MrTeller) on Twitter: A clear little essay on Chick-fil-A and the 1st Amendment in Boston. In addition to dealing with what the Mayor of Boston, and others such as certain Chicago Aldermen, have said on the matter, the linked piece is actually a clear and concise primer on Chick-fil-A and the First Amendment, and […]
Tagged freespeech, government, reason, religion, society
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‘A Perfect and Beautiful Machine’: What Darwin’s Theory of Evolution Reveals About Artificial Intelligence
Daniel C. Dennett writing at The Atlantic: Charles Darwin and Alan Turing, in their different ways, both homed in on the same idea: the existence of competence without comprehension. As a career software engineer, and a longtime fan of the sciences, I find this essay fascinating. Of course, Turing was right. Speaking only for myself, […]
Tagged computers, evolution, history, science, software development
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Why are believers ignorant about atheists?
Greta Christina writing at AlterNet.org (via Salon.com): It’s important to remember that most atheists were once believers. We’re familiar with religion because we’ve believed it ourselves. And it’s important to remember that, in most of the world, religious belief is the dominant culture. Atheists have to be familiar with it. It’s shoved in our face […]
Tagged freethought, reason, religion
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Daylight Savings Time is Senseless
I understand and appreciate its historical significance during the WWI and WWII eras, but the practicalities that necessitated it during those bygone days haven’t existed for at least two generations. Plus, it’s backwards: why move the clock forward at the point of the year when the days are naturally “growing longer”? I can’t help but […]
Tagged bullshit, government, history, misc
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