“A weekend in Warsaw made me think about Cambridge at night. In Cambridge after 6pm the city centre empties ready for the only true night time economy: binge drinking. The Market Square alive with stall holders and shoppers at 5pm magically transforms into a ghostly empty space one hour later. It is a Cinderella midnight moment that never fails to astonish. By dusk the Cambridge ball is over and the Prince has gone home to watch T.V. Only a lonely burger van takes up residence creating a sad and soulless image that realist painter Edward Hopper could capture.” Yeah, it’s crap. (tags: night-lifedrinkingalcoholnightcambridgewarsaw)
…unless you want to contribute towards evangelical Christian evangelising, of course. But apparently some schools in the UK are collecting shoeboxes of gifts for the Samaritan’s Purse organisation without fully realising what they’re about. (tags: religionsamaritans-pursechristianitychristmas-childchristmasevangelism)
“Scientists like to think of science as self-correcting. To an alarming degree, it is not.” Talks about the problems with reproducing research. (tags: economistjournalsresearchstatisticsscience)
Thomas Nagel wrote a short outline of his book "Mind and Cosmos" for the New York Times. He attributes a lot of the criticism he’s been getting to people worried that he’s giving comfort to theism. If so, that reflects badly on the critics, because arguments are not soldiers, etc. etc. Via Massimo Pigliucci. (tags: nagelphilosophyconsciousnessthomas-nagelscience)
Peter Hurford’s summary of his beliefs, which links to a lot of his interesting essays. I should do myself one of these, I reckon. (tags: religionbeliefphilosophyepistemologyscience)
If you drive at the average speed of the traffic and leave a gap in front of you, you can alleviate traffic jams, apparently. (tags: trafficwavescarsdriving)
An American Christian on why they’re losing their youth. Obviously, they’re not going to say "because it’s all lies", but I don’t think an atheist has to support the idea that all de-converts thought very hard about it and left on rational grounds. (tags: religionchristianityde-conversionatheism)
Jo and Kevin recap a course they did a couple of years ago, which has some of the same material they taught in Cambridge recently, but in a Charleston context. (tags: dancingcharlestonlindy)
"The amazing influence of unconscious cues is among the most fascinating discoveries of our time—that is, if it’s true." Attempts to replicate some of the classic experiments in psychological priming have failed. Interesting article about the role of reputations in science (as well as about priming). (tags: primingpsychologyscience)
Nice song, cool lindy in the video (almost all lead and followed apparently, there’s no choreography apart from one tiny bit) illustrating that it’s not all about the aerials. (tags: musiclindylindyhopdance)
Gay atheist Alex Gabriel went to Soul Survivor, a charismatic Christian festival, and blogged about it (the link is to part one of the series). I went in about 1998, shit was so crazy (to my conservative evangelical eyes) but bits of it were inspirational, and indeed, Alex does find some good things to say about it, but mostly worries about people converting for the wrong reasons (i.e. no reasons at all). (tags: festivalconversionalex gabrielcharismaticchristianitysoul-survivorsoul survivor)
“To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Structure, I’m posting an edited version of my write-up of Kuhn in The End of Science (Addison Wesley, 1996), which draws heavily on my meeting with him. I hope that this profile—which is longer and more critical of Kuhn than “Reluctant Revolutionary,” my May 1991 profile for Scientific American—provides insights into the complicated views of this complicated man.” (tags: epistemologyparadigmscienceKuhnphilosophy)
“Very often we atheists are dismissed as ignorant of serious theology and theistic metaphysics or as picking on theologically unsophisticated versions of Christianity because it’s simply an easier target than trying to refute the more profound religious philosophers. In what follows, I will cut to the core of what traditional Roman Catholicism since Thomas Aquinas genuinely thinks is going on philosophically, and not merely metaphorically, when they talk about God’s goodness.” (tags: theodicymetaethicsevilgoodcatholicismcatholicphilosophythomistaquinas)
mattghg is the source of my bus farrago links, so here’s a link to his post, where he argues that ex-gay therapy might work and that there are free speech concerns with Boris banning the ads. (tags: mattghgex-gayadvertsadvertisingbusreligionhomosexuality)
Peter Ould again, this time on the retraction of the main paper people quote as evidence that homosexuals can change orientation. (tags: scienceex-gaypsychologyhomosexualitypeter-ould)
“People are asking me about Robert Spitzer’s reported desire to retract his study of 200 people who claimed to have experience change of their sexual orientation. “ (tags: homosexualitypsychology)
David Albert, a professor of philosophy at Columbia who also has a physics PhD, points out that Krauss hasn’t really explained why there’s something rather than nothing by . Via Jerry Coyne. (tags: theologyphilosophyreligionkrausssciencequantumuniverse)