Links With Your Coffee - Tuesday
- How Baboons Think (Yes, Think) - New York Times
- Language Log: Shooting down "amateur grammar nazis"
- Voiceless Iguanas
Marine iguanas in the Galapagos Islands, which sun themselves in rocky crannies and so have trouble spotting the hungry hawks that swoop down on them several times a day, have a secret emergency warning system.
- Pharyngula: Letter to a non-atheist New Atheist
You say that using the term "atheism" is a mistake, and that "Attaching a label to something carries real liabilities" … and that atheism is entirely negative. You say that accepting that label means we are agreeing to be "viewed as a cranky sub-culture".
.
You say you never thought of yourself as an atheist before. And there, I think, is the major rebuttal to your own thesis. It doesn't matter that you don't call yourself an atheist. Sam, they're going to call you an atheist anyway - Logic Puzzles
- virtual philosopher: Who Says Science and Religion Don't Conflict?
A professor at London's Institute of Education, Michael Reiss, wants science teachers to handle questions about Creationism sensitively. This seems harmless. But may not be. It depends how this is interpreted. If a pupil from a religious background who believes in Creationism questions Darwinism when it is taught, then of course that pupil needs answers. Science teachers need to answer the student's questions - and no doubt would answer without having read Reiss's book. But there is surely not an obligation to give much time to discussing the ideas or treat them as scientifically respectable in any way. These are science lessons. If we go down this route, then we may end up needing to include some alchemy in Chemistry lessons as a serious alternative to empirical science. The real danger here is that this will be seen as an admission that Creationism (or alchemy) is a theory that merits discussion in a scientific context...something that has proved disastrous in the US educational context.
- Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog: Destroying Public Education in Texas: The Texas Taliban Never Rest
- Ezra Klein: The Chessboard And The Waterboard
- The Lady is a Tramp
And another moral leader turns out to be a corrupt hypocrite. How shocking. But this time he's just stealing his University blind while it's the wife who seems to be getting all the perv action:
- SNL's Marathon "Weekend Update"
- Bill Moyers Journal . Watch & Listen | PBS
Perspectives on Christian Zionism Bill Moyers talks with Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of TIKKUN, a Jewish journal of politics, culture, and spirituality, and Dr. Timothy P. Weber, author of ON THE ROAD TO ARMAGEDDON: HOW EVANGELICALS BECAME ISRAEL'S BEST FRIEND.
(tip to Joshua)
Comments
I didn't catch the misspelt foreign either.
Effect, affect? The distinction between "bring" and "take" is disappearing. Infer/imply, flaunt/flout, this is vocabulary more than glamour (sic). Or is it idiom? I like Ebonic glamour . It's better than standing on line. Or speaking to a subject (instead of about one).
It seems to my friends and I that these damn foriegners are taking over the public radio, the advertising, even the medias.
Borat, et al.
New ass/uu'uuquatsinee.
Alas. It effects me like mosquito bites.
I think I got the answer for the logic puzzle, but I'm not sure. I don't want to spoil it for anybody who wants to figure it out on their own, but if you could let me know if I got it wrong, I'd appreciate it. Link to my solution.
I agree with Harris. I doubt it is going to change anything, but I think "atheism" alienates -people. Let the media call us atheists all they want. Lets focus on issues, and never shut about about them. Using the word "atheism" sparingly disarms some of their rhetoric. So Stalin was an atheist, what does that have to do with my argument? Then they are forced to actually look at the argument and not Stalin.
There's a better way to shoot down "grammar Nazis": Use good grammar. You don't have to memorize every rule of usage; just keep a dictionary and a style manual nearby. (I recommend the Associated Press style manual.) Another trick is to cut and paste your text into Microsoft Word before posting. This method isn't foolproof, but I have caught many of my own bungles using this technique. But the most important approach is to assume there is a misspelling or misuse in everything you right, er, write, and then challenge yourself to find it. You'll never catch them all, but your writing will improve dramatically. I cannot tell you how many times I've wanted to link to something but decided against it because somebody wrote, "suffice it to say..." instead of "suffice to say" or some other equally aggravating offense, like "your" instead of "you're;" or "there" instead of "their," etc. Grammar is important. The purpose of grammar is to facilitate communication, and if what you're attempting to communicate is the slightest bit controversial, bad grammar provides an easy escape route for those who oppose you.
As Richard Dawkins says, we don't need a term for people who reject astrology. Why, then, should we need a term for people who reject religion?
http://beta.redlasso.com/Community/ClipPlayer.aspx?i=01fe4a20-90b3-4df0-95e8-781bc8b21097
Stephen Colbert and sychophant Diane Sawyer (I can't for the life of me think of one redeemable quality in Ms. Sawyer)
Doobie:
You do realize the answer is lower down on the page, don't you?
I have to shoot myself again regarding the grammar Nazi-the-forest-for-the-trees: Yesterdee I counted over 10 gratuitously doubled ises in the space (i.e., time) of a bout acouple of 20 min. radio segments.
The thing is, is "is" to be reduplicated for a meaning, or just as a verbal tick/echo-stutter? It is getting epidemic. The thing is is, is "the thing" even necessary? The extra is is truly a phenomenahhh....(n?). Maybe it's an unconscious homage to Clinton. Or an uh substitute.
OK, a teapot-, thimble-tempest.
Big Daddy wears an expensive suit. Money can't buy.
Ah crap. Totally didn't see that. Thanks Willey.
@ONE EVO EMO:
Big daddy?
They've corrected the spelling mistake on xkcd :)
I don't get it. I guess I'm we-tod-did.
Post a comment