By BaS, on May 25th, 2008%
This is a TED video from 2006, but I just now watched it. Michael Shermer talks about cognitive bias, pareidolia, and other interesting ways we fool ourselves.
Michael Shermer at TED.com: Why people believe strange things
It’s a delightful 12 minute refutation . . . → Read More: Why we believe strange things
By BaS, on April 4th, 2008%
The willful manipulation of an audience in propaganda and debate is a depressing fact of life to me.
I am interested in full understanding of an issue; best gained by rational discourse, scientific inquiry, and criticism.
I am also a fairly rabid supporter of freedom of expression.
I am most strongly an advocate of critical thinking skills as a . . . → Read More: A strong influence on the weak mind
By BaS, on March 10th, 2008%
(Photo credit: the gordons)
I spent rather a long time contemplating the creation of this site. There seem to be many good reasons not to bother, including but not limited to:
- What do I have to say that merits reading; hasn’t everything of value been expressed before, by my intellectual and literary superiors?
- Aren’t I setting myself up for failure and facing an inevitable fate of blog-atrophy? Untended sites bleach lonely in the sun, soon colonized and eventually overgrown by spam comments. Abandoned pages linger in their decrepitude, the forlorn message of their prime lost to the entropy of an uncaring internet.
- Won’t people read the above bullet-point and think “What a pretentious git, thinks he can write all fancy..” ?
- What if my opinions anger people, and they burn down my internet?
- For that matter, who are these alleged people? Will anyone in fact find this site and stay long enough to care? Why are you here, if you are at all?
I’ll try not to be pretentious, and as for my writing I will consider it a victory if I can communicate without you dosing off or becoming irate too often.
Continue reading Why are we here
