Hop, skip and link

I'm in a giving mood, so I'm blogging a few of my favourites. I don't claim that I'm the first to find these or anything. They're just ones I have loved.

Simple but wonderful, this whole world clock could be a godsend for anyone, like me, who has relatives in other timezones who resent being rung at three in the AM. I love the way you can watch not only your life ticking by, but those of people like you in exotic places.

Even more time can be had from the what time is it in Chickpea? list. I have no idea why you'd want to know, but if you did, it's here. Curiously, it linked to an ebay search for Samoa. I was a little disappointed to find that I could not bid on the Pacific island, but there are some nice stamps going for a song, if stamps ring your bell.

As a lover of things linguistic, I find these language miniatures amusing if not profound. The author's take on quirks, myths and bits and pieces of language is always well written and, if this kind of thing interests you, interesting.

Those who have an interest in logic, and with Zero's recent intervention in my comments, I doubt many remain, might enjoy this rundown of logical failings and fallacies. This will help you spot what method your correspondent is using to snow you. It might amuse regular readers of this blog, should such beasts exist, to try to find one Zero has not used this month.

Richard Carrier is the arsekickingmost sceptic money can buy. He is fearsomely intellectual but remains readable. He kicks seven bells out of intelligent design and other creationist nonsense. His discussions of Islamicist claims of astronomical predictions in the Qu'ran are the apogee of his cogent rationalist style.

As I've said before, I'm not keen on the muscular scepticism that tries to make out that believing is a bad thing, but I am nonetheless a disbeliever. I wouldn't make much of a crusader. The sceptic bible, if I can call it that, would probably look like the Skeptic's Dictionary, which has many interesting essays on pseudoscience and some of the quacks who feed off credulity.


Once you have rid yourself of infestations of the mind, you might want to clean your PC. I'm a bit slack with viruses, so Panda Activescan is a godsend. You'll need to dl the control it uses, but it looks legit. It found a virus tonight, so I've got more than my money's worth out of it.

posted by Dr Zen @ 4:38 am