I’ve just watched the video of Phil Plait’s “Don’t be a dick” talk at TAM8. This talk has spurred a lot of discussion and a lot of strong feelings around the place. It’s probably spurred varying degrees of reflection by sceptics on our own behaviour. Personally I know it’s made me think more about...
More wonderful Stephen Fry. This half hour video is well worth watching – repeatedly. STEPHEN FRY: WHAT I WISH I’D KNOWN WHEN I WAS 18 from Peter Samuelson on Vimeo.
Magic. Ghosts. Spirits. These are things that pop up in fairy tales and in children’s stories and tv shows & films. Sometimes even they’re debunked – for example in Scooby Doo (though I personally have never liked it) it’s always some guy with a mask and a clever contraption and some flashy chemistry –...
“Matter flows from place to place, and momentarily comes together to be you” …. Some things Richard Dawkins says I like. Some I don’t – for instance his indifference to Bill Maher’s anti-science woo-loving anti-vax nuttiness, because he made an anti-religion film, so it’s all ok. Also for instance – and it’s the instance that makes...
I’m appalled. Saddened and appalled. Some time last year I heard that there was a plan to introduce ethics classes into public schools. I thought that was a great idea. It was a bittersweet moment, as it went along with finding out that there was religious instruction in public schools – which coming from...
