My theory, based on research in social psychology, is that the infighting surrounding Atheism & Skepticism is a clear indication that intelligent design/creationism is no longer a serious threat. Continue reading “When your nemesis falls…”
Look!
To my American eyes, the media reporting and political discussion around the Bailey[1] Sexualization Report pretty much looks like this:
Which is pretty much the same way the US media and politicians treat issues that don’t involve making hard decisions about national direction and goals.
NOTES
- Who knew that mothers were unionized here in the UK? Shhh, don’t tell Dr. Mrs. Rugbyologist.
Best letter response. . .EVER
Charles Bennett has a beef with the wording of an article title in Science: “At long last, Gravity Probe B satellite proves Einstein right”.
I find myself frequently repeating to students and the public that science doesn’t “prove” theories. Scientific measurements can only disprove theories or be consistent with them.
Instead of going on about the philosophy of science at length, let’s just quote the spot-on quote from their response:
Bennett is completely correct. It’s an important conceptual point, and we blew it.
Bravo!
Market forces
Based on my sluggish reading of The Inheritance of Rome, I’ve realized that ancient markets were about the acquisition of non-local goods, while modern markets claim to be about the acquisition of local goods, while ironically believing that they are traditional.
Decancelliation
I imagine that very few species would consider not having to worry about leopard attacks a bad thing. The enthusiasm for any story claiming that human beings continue to being driven upwards and onwards by natural selection suggests that we pine for those halcyon days of yore when being eaten alive by jungle cats was a major source of morbidity[1]. We worry about a lack of selection for things like good eye-sight and gobble up cheap, pop evolutionary psychology[2] stories of adaptive behavior.
We really want to know are human beings still evolving and how can reclaim the benefits of natural selection without feeding our offspring to leopards?
The Finch and Pea 