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Monthly Archives: March 2013
Error and Uncertainty Lead to Confidence
Article by Davis Jacobson
“Doubt is our product, since it is the best means of competing with the ‘body of fact’ that exists in the minds of the general public. It is also the means of establishing a controversy.”
–Brown and Williamson, 1969 (internal memorandum, found here)
It is often lamented that there are misunderstandings of scientific findings in the general public. There’s no … Read more
Posted in The Science-Minded Citizen
Tagged accuracy, confidence, confusion, doubt, error, interval, mathematical, measurements, precision, scientific, uncertainty
1 Comment
Why Atheists Stop Believing
Good writing and clear thinking don’t always go hand in hand. It’s a pleasure, then, to find both in a book about going it alone–using rationality rather than supernatural entities to face reality–titled 50 Voices of Disbelief: Why We Are Atheists.
In one volume, edited by Russell Blackford and Udo Schuklenk, idiosyncratic essays by a range of atheists are featured, from science fiction authors … Read more
Posted in A Rational Woman
Tagged atheists, books, Doctor Who, essays, shermer, skeptics, writers
3 Comments
Thinking Critically for Life
Article by Ken Kilgore
“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”
─ Derek Bok
I majored in Biology in college, but it wasn’t till I read Carl Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1996) years later that I consciously developed a consistent and rigorous critical thinking process that applies to life in general. In his book, Sagan devotes a … Read more
Posted in Umwelt Utahpia
Tagged Carl Sagan, critical thinking, Kangen, leukemia, neighbors, scam, tools, water
2 Comments
Are We Less Violent Than in the Past?
Steven Pinker is a major modern thinker and atheist, so when I got a paperback copy of his new book, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, I read it seriously. All 700 pages of it (add another 100 for notes, references, and index).
Could it really be true that human societies are less, rather than more, violent than at previous … Read more
Posted in A Rational Woman
Tagged baby boomers, crime, empathy, human nature, Middle East, optimism, peace, reading, reason, skepticism, Steven Pinker, violence, war
3 Comments
Parking Perplexity
Article by Davis Jacobson
Who wants to waste time walking if you could just drive? If only there were a perfect way to find a parking space in a big lot….
Spoiler alert: There isn’t! But there are glimmers of ways that are reliably not as bad as the worst you could do! It turns out that this problem fits within a category called … Read more
“Not For the Body or Belly”
“And again, hot drinks are not for the body or belly.”
─ Doctrine & Covenants 89:9
My wife Ptarmi comes from a close-knit family, the Stones. Unlike the Kilgores, the Stones family is large in number and deeply religious, with membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) going back several generations. The Stones visit each other often and get together … Read more
Posted in Umwelt Utahpia
Tagged coffee, dietary restrictions, Doctrines and Covenants, LDS, liqueur, nutrition, rational, religious, words of wisdom
3 Comments
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