Around and about

I can't tell you how I got to these sites, but they all made it into the favourites, so at least at the point I arrived in them, I thought they were interesting.

Massimo is a sceptic. I have mixed feelings about sceptics (after all, it's all too easy to make a religion out of being irreligious), but Massimo has plenty of interesting things to say. He doesn't like intelligent design, which I suppose is how I found him, but other aspects of his kindly humanism really appealed to me.

More philosophy on offer through David Chalmers’ philosophy papers on the web (his page, not his papers!). This is not easygoing stuff. I think most, if not all, of these people are working philosophers, and they don't seem to be generalists. If you want hard thinking, these are worth dipping into, but it's very fractured, and you'll have to dig for jewels.

On Chalmers' list is Alan Sokal, a legendary soldier in the battle between "theory" and rationalism ("theory" is what the "critical studies" establishment thinks it is doing -- in plain English we call it bullshitting on). The article in Social Text that he wrote was a hoax on the "theorists", creating something of a furore -- known as the Sokal affair. You have to read the article really to appreciate the joke. Sokal builds up block by block to suggesting that science liberate itself by removing the science. Social Text thought he meant it.

More useful scepticism -- and plenty of really good astronomy -- is available at Bad Astronomy, which debunks the Apollo moon hoax conspiracy among others. I love a site that makes learning fun. The Bitesize Astronomy stuff is red hot, too. If you love looking up at the stars and wondering, there's something here for you.

Talking of the Moon, you may have wondered why it seems so big when it hangs low. The "Moon illusion" is explained here. Okay, I totally didn't understand it either. Something to do with a Ponzi illusion.

A conspiracy theory, if you can call it that, that I have never come across before, but one of immense interest to me, is the idea that Asperger syndrome (and other disorders of attention and socialisation) might be caused by Neanderthal genes. My understanding was that we had no Neanderthal genes, that as different species we were unable to create fertile offspring. But this guy has put a lot into showing that it did happen. It's a fascinating idea. I wonder whether anyone will ever do the analysis to check it out.

Talking of Neanderthals... here is a huge collection of funny Bush pix. Maybe we shouldn't laugh at the leader of the free world, but what else can you do with a man who says "the jury's out on evolution"?

A few blogs that have caught my eye:
Thoughts arguments rants is an excellent philosophy-based blog. The guy's not always right -- he's not always trying to be right -- but he always gives you plenty to chew on. The discussion on "if... then" led me into interesting byways -- the Iatridou paper is absolutely superb -- which reminded me why I ever bothered with a degree in linguistics.

Scary Duck is not scary and he's not a duck. His wry take on life is usually good reading though. I know he's won awards, so he's not a discovery or anything.

Picking fake blogs is a bit of a sport at the moment. I mentioned previously that there is some controversy over Belle de Jour. The Bottle Shop is another very dodgy blog. It's supposed to be the journal of a bottle shop manager with a psychotic girlfriend. It reads like fiction. I noted that we don't call offlicences bottle shops here in the UK. The author is quite probably an Aussie. Not that that's a bad thing.

posted by Dr Zen @ 8:05 am