Monthly Archives: April 2010
Half-baked ideas
I’m rereading Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth with my daughter and rediscovering what a delight it is. The whimsy and wordplay just get better with time, as the reader returns to the story armed with more vocabulary and experience; and … Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
Death by abalone shells, cont’d.
I find it interesting that my rant on librarian stereotypes, “Better than being flayed to death with abalone shells, but still,” has, to date, received the most number of views on my blog. The title, of course, refers to Hypatia: … Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
Savage humanism
Adam Savage, that is. He and Jamie Hyneman, co-hosts of the urban-legend-debunking show MythBusters, have recently been awarded the Annual Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism by the Harvard Secular Society. His entire speech is marvelous and can be … Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
Science is real
Here’s science journalist Michael Specter on denialism: We’ve lost faith in institutions, in authority, and sometimes in science itself, and there’s no reason we shouldn’t have. You can just say a few names and people will understand. Chernobyl, Bhopal, the … Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
Best environmental anthem ever
From Tim Minchin, my favorite Australian pianist-singer-songwriter-atheist-comedian. Update: Here’s a better-filmed live version. Another great live performance here. And the slicked-up music-video version here. Happy Earth Day!
Filed under Uncategorized
Wisdom and foolishness
Our daughter’s sensei is poetry in motion. He tumbles and kicks, gives way and stands unmovable, turns his opponents’ power against themselves, flashes his fists at the speed of thought. He exhibits absolute control of the kinetic forces within and … Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
Can science answer moral questions? cont’d.
Here’s PZ Myers’s take on the issue: Can science provide a morality to change the world? NO. Science merely describes what is, not what should be, and it also takes a rather universal view: science as science takes no sides … Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
A poem
Because it’s National Poetry Month, and because you don’t really need a reason for a good poem. (Image credit: Garrett Cheen) Another Reason Why I Don’t Keep a Gun in the House Billy Collins The neighbors’ dog will not stop … Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
On being skeptical of skeptics, cont’d.
There must be something in the air. In a recent New York Times op-ed, Stanley Fish writes that the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, former defender of Enlightenment rationality, has turned around and joined those criticizing it; his latest project, a … Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
Happy National Library Week!
As I’ve said before and will probably say again, libraries and librarians are awesome. But don’t take it from me; take it from Neil Gaiman. Go check out a book today. Happy reading. (Image credit: Graeme Robertson, via The Guardian)
Filed under Uncategorized
