reading
These are the books I’m currently reading:
On Ch. 7 of God Delusion…
See more books at my Google Books Library.
The most recent online items I’ve shared are in my Google Shared Items:
- Do you get it now, Prime Minister? - Richard Dawkins - New Statesmanposted on December 14th, 2011 at 6:36 AMoriginal post from RichardDawkins.net - All ContentAn open letter to the Rt Hon David Cameron MP from the New Statesman’s Christmas 2011 guest editor, Richard Dawkins.
Richard Dawkins at the New Statesman offices. Dear Prime Minister,
Merry Christmas! I mean it. All that "Happy Holiday Season" stuff, with "holiday" cards and "holiday" presents, is a tiresome import from the US, where it has long been fostered more by rival religions than by atheists. A cultural Anglican (whose family has been part of the Chipping Norton Set since 1727, as you'll see if you look around you in the parish church), I recoil from secular carols such as "White Christmas", "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and the loathsome "Jingle Bells", but I'm happy to sing real carols, and in the unlikely event that anyone wants me to read a lesson I'll gladly oblige - only from the King James Version, of course. Token objections to cribs and carols are not just silly, they distract vital attention from the real domination of our culture and politics that religion still gets away with, in (tax-free) spades. There's an important difference between traditions freely embraced by individuals and traditions enforced by government edict. Imagine the outcry if your government were to require every family to celebrate Christmas in a religious way. You wouldn't dream of abusing your power like that. And yet your government, like its predecessors, does force religion on our society, in ways whose very familiarity disarms us. Setting aside the 26 bishops in the House of Lords, passing lightly over the smooth inside track on which the Charity Commission accelerates faith-based charities to tax-free status while others (quite rightly) have to jump through hoops, the most obvious and most dangerous way in which governments impose religion on our society is through faith schools - as Rabbi Jonathan Romain reminds us on page 27.
Read more - Careers in psychologyposted on October 20th, 2011 at 2:57 AMoriginal post from www.apa.orgEvolutionary psychologists study how evolutionary principles such as mutation, adaptation, and selective fitness influence human thought, feeling, and behavior. Because of their focus on genetically shaped behaviors that influence an organism's chances of survival, evolutionary psychologists study mating, aggression, helping behavior, and communication. Evolutionary psychologists are particularly interested in paradoxes and problems of evolution. For example, some behaviors that were highly adaptive in our evolutionary past may no longer be adaptive in the modern world.
- Anthropometric correlates of human angerposted on October 19th, 2011 at 12:23 AMoriginal post from www.ehbonline.orgHot angry bitches?positive correlations between...physical attractiveness and anger levels in females
- Evolutionary Psychology - Ethologyposted on October 16th, 2011 at 3:13 PMoriginal post from psychologydegree.lifetips.comFrom "The God Deliusion": in our ancestral past, our greatest challenge in our environment came from each other...Evolutionary Psychology refers to the distant biological heritage that still affects us cognitively, emotionally and behaviorally. It is more a term, rather than a distinct discipline within Psychology. Evolutionary Psychology may be used to explain such phenomena as the flight-or-flight response, as a popular example; a biological function inherited from our ancestors who sought to either fight with, or flee from, a saber-toothed tiger. As a Psychology, it is limited in scope since human thought, feelings and behaviors have likely become more complex over the eons. Yet, it is often considered to be an important aspect of understanding such questions as the nature of altruism, human aggression, gender roles and sexuality.
- DirecTV Nomad transfers recorded shows to other devicesposted on October 11th, 2011 at 2:02 PMoriginal post from news.consumerreports.orgbummer.Other reports have also noted that the Nomad device isn't a true streaming set-top box: Nomad can't send shows to your iPhone while you're waiting at an airport, for example.
- Council for Secular Humanismposted on September 25th, 2011 at 2:51 PMoriginal post from www.secularhumanism.orgDid Jesus exist? Possibly not—and if he did, surely he bore scant resemblance to the legendary figure of the Christian Gospels. Regarding his birth, we can be less equivocal. So steeped in pagan lore are the dueling accounts of Matthew and Luke, so reflective of the politics of the early Church rather than of any possible history, and so wholly contradictory in their details, that when it comes to the Nativity, Christianity’s foremost sources tell us quite literally nothing at all.
- Brain Waves Surge Moments Before Death : Discovery Newsposted on September 24th, 2011 at 2:50 PMoriginal post from news.discovery.comWriting in the October issue of the Journal of Palliative Medicine, the doctors theorize that the brain surges may be tied to widely reported near-death experiences which typically involve spiritual or religious attributes.
- BBC News - Speed-of-light experiments give baffling result at Cernposted on September 22nd, 2011 at 5:52 PMoriginal post from www.bbc.co.ukPuzzling results from Cern, home of the LHC, have confounded physicists - because it appears subatomic particles have exceeded the speed of light.
- Transcripts | Faith And Doubt At Ground Zero | FRONTLINE | PBSposted on September 22nd, 2011 at 2:42 PMoriginal post from www.pbs.orgpowerful.What was creepier and stranger about the people who flew into the buildings on September 11th was that this level of fanaticism had been maintained on a calm and even plane over a whole number of years. These were middle-class people. They had families. They had money. They had all the seeming advantages. They lived in the heart of what America thinks of as its great, fat, happy middle. They went to the malls. They ordered pizza. They were in bars. They lived this life for years. And still, on the day, they got on the plane, checked their bags and knew they were never getting off that plane and that they were going to kill themselves to do it. And they carried it through. The change in my idea of what fanatic meant, at that point, my sense of the power of deep-burning absolutism and hatred shifted and became scarier because I was used to the crazy teenager who blows himself up, but the calculating person who understands- you know, learns how to fly a 747, understands the dynamics of aviation fuel, knows what the structural requirements of the World Trade Center are, goes through all of this and then sits like a ticking time bomb for a year and a half, is a whole different order of absolutism, a whole different order of fervor. You think of fervor itself as something ignitable, volatile, but the cold-bloodedness of this operation was shocking.
- Living Witness - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaposted on September 18th, 2011 at 6:06 PMoriginal post from en.wikipedia.orgI think of this whenever I read about what paleontologists discover.
- Hidden Wi-Fi Diagnostics Application In OS X Lionposted on September 7th, 2011 at 10:54 PMoriginal post from Slashdot: AppleWankerWeasel writes "The latest version of Apple's operating system, OS X 10.7 Lion, has a hidden Wi-Fi Diagnostics application that allows the user to view information about their wireless network performance, record performance and also capture raw frames. Hidden away in the System folder the application is meant for Apple tech diagnostic use but is also very useful for any user interested in diagnosing wi-fi problems or checking network performance." Read more of this story at Slashdot.
- iPhone DFU mode explained, and how to enter DFU mode on your iPhoneposted on September 7th, 2011 at 9:40 PMoriginal post from osxdaily.comOK.DFU stands for Device Firmware Update.
- iOS jailbreaking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaposted on September 7th, 2011 at 9:27 PMoriginal post from en.wikipedia.orgOK.A tethered jailbreak requires the device to be connected to a computer each time it's booted.An untethered jailbreak allows the device to be powered off, powered up, and rebooted without the assistance of a computer.
- Testing without specs: Unblurring the fuzzy corners of Perception-based Designposted on August 25th, 2011 at 7:12 AMoriginal post from testwarrior.blogspot.comThoughts on how to test in an Agile-based spec-less world…
- Difference Between OOP and Procedural Programming | Difference Between | OOP vs Procedural Programmingposted on August 15th, 2011 at 10:45 PMoriginal post from www.differencebetween.netLest we forget and start writing procedural code in an object-oriented system… You know who you are…Procedural programming is based on a sequential execution of instructions. Object-Oriented Programming is made of a number of entities referred to as objects. An object has a behavior and a purpose associated with it.
- First life: The search for the first replicator - life - 15 August 2011 - New Scientistposted on August 15th, 2011 at 8:26 PMoriginal post from www.newscientist.comAnd if RNA molecules couldn't form spontaneously, how could self-replicating RNA molecules arise? Did some other replicator come first? If so, what was it? The answer is finally beginning to emerge.
- 9 Things The Rich Don't Want You To Know About Taxes | Economy | AltWeeklies.composted on August 11th, 2011 at 3:54 PMoriginal post from www.altweeklies.comNo shit! I'm wage-stagnant, bitch!since Reagan, only the wealthy have gained significant income
- Millionaires Don't Pay Taxes? 1,470 of America's Richest Didn't, According to IRS - Los Angeles News - The Informerposted on August 11th, 2011 at 3:53 PMoriginal post from blogs.laweekly.comSucks.According to a recently released IRS report (PDF), 1,470 millionaires and billionaires paid zero taxes in 2009.
- The 400 Richest Americans Pay An 18% Tax Rate - Robert Lenzner - StreetTalk - Forbesposted on July 28th, 2011 at 3:33 PMoriginal post from blogs.forbes.comWho can believe a liberal media outlet like Forbes?The 400 richest Americans used to pay 30% of their income on the average to Uncle Sam. Today, they pay 18% on the average, according to Steve Rattner, a Wall Street financier, who just presented these figures on Mornings With Joe,MSNBC. The main reason for the drop in their tax rate [...]
- Difference Between IPA and Pale Ale | Difference Between | IPA vs Pale Aleposted on July 13th, 2011 at 1:02 PMoriginal post from www.differencebetween.netIPA FTW!IPA vs Pale Ale Beer styles are words used to differentiate and classify beers according to their origin, flavor, color, mixture, strength, and production