A real scientist / humanist heading up the BHA who doesn’t necessarily see science as the be-all and end-all of humanism. Progress, BHA.
Congrats to Jim Al-Khalili
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December 14, 2012 at 11:10am
by Psybertron
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Tom Peters’ 2012 Reading List
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December 13, 2012 at 2:39pm
by Psybertron
Interesting collection. Much of the predictable “singularity” stuff, starting with Ray Kurzweil, and going through all the apps and devices taking over our lives, but some good stuff in there. A few for me … The Shareholder Value Myth: How Putting Shareholders First Harms Investors, Corporations, and the Public — Lynn Stout The Social Conquest of [...]
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Another Great Edition of IOT #b01p7dcv
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December 13, 2012 at 2:00pm
by Psybertron
BBC R4′s In Our Time today, another fine example of something about which I knew nothing before the programme. The ancient Shahnameh or Persian Book of Kings – a single continuous poem of rhyming couplets, longer than the Odyssey and Iliad together – written by Ferdowski. Interesting after commenting on the Seven Pillars of Wisdom [...]
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Sport – a Moral Vacuum
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December 11, 2012 at 11:52am
by Psybertron
Interesting – I was in the habit of posting football (soccer) stories for their moral value – especially Chelski, as a morality tale all of its own, but also on football supporter forums where people’s “support” for events displays fascinating turns between loyalty and pure hatred.
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Seven Pillars in Iraq
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December 10, 2012 at 11:48am
by Psybertron
Interesting listening to the excellent BBC R4 documentary “Lawrence of Arabia – Man and Myth“ by Allan Little. I’m a long time fan of TEL as a humanist moral philosopher and poet, but amazing to hear that his opus Seven Pillars of Wisdom was regularly used by the Americans in Iraq, Gen Petraeus no less, [...]
The Nile Population
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December 6, 2012 at 5:25pm
by Psybertron
Saw the main (first) image in this set earlier and was intrigued how dense the light population of the Nile appears. I see in this collection the Nile is in fact now highlighted in a separate image. The relative intensity is amazing. [Comparing Seoul / S.Korea with N.Korea is also telling, and China with N.Korea too.]
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Software UI Engagement
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December 6, 2012 at 3:28pm
by Psybertron
Plausible analysis of why Angry Birds is an engaging user experience. No idea how “scientific” the fact gathering actually was or how the hypotheses / conclusions were actually tested – but plausible and interesting. Might be worth sharing on current project – using response (waiting) times to provide user with opportunity to enlarge their “schema” [...]
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Extreme Reaction
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November 27, 2012 at 4:29pm
by Psybertron
A bit much maybe, to turn to born-again bible-bashing for spiritual guidance as a young teenager earning £200K a week, but you always felt for the too-worldly-wise 10 year old Angus T Jones playing alongside Charlie Sheen in 2.5 Men for all those years.
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These are not “clashes”
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November 22, 2012 at 10:12am
by Psybertron
The “clashes” headline reads like rival fans bumping into each other. In fact it’s premeditated fascist attacks. 100 Lazio “Ultras” attacking Spurs fans in Rome …Â armed with knives, baseball bats, and knuckle dusters. Gaza or Rome, what’s the difference ? [Like I said "attempted murder" is not "rival fans clashing" - get a grip BBC.]
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Green Soup
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November 22, 2012 at 8:57am
by Psybertron
Yes that really is water at the bottom of this “Baori” or step-well. The Chand Baori near Jaipur, India photographed by BldgBlog (hat tip to BifRiv). Fascinating “building” – one of many in a fascinating blog – recall their post on Nottingham Caves a couple of months ago – have a browse.
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Sensible Theologian ?
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November 21, 2012 at 8:56am
by Psybertron
I’m often mentioning “theologians talking sense”, but Sentamu is not one of them. Totally incoherent in his response to questions on the Today programme this morning – just denial.
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Pregnant Jumbo
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November 21, 2012 at 8:37am
by Psybertron
Nice, but Airbus and the US Army have been doing this for decades.
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RIP John Sutherland
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November 20, 2012 at 5:35pm
by Psybertron
The side-kick to Robert Pirsig on the 1968 road trip that was Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Quite a character by all accounts; I met him just once in 2008 at the old Pirsig house in St.Paul where he regaled us with stories of bike rides and musical parties in the 60′s. Sad to hear [...]
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Why Read a Book
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November 17, 2012 at 11:51am
by Psybertron
Great collection from Buzzfeed via BifRiv. I like this one, but they’re all good.
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Pirsig Chautauqua
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November 6, 2012 at 2:01am
by Psybertron
Big Pirsig event coming up at MSU, first week in December. Sadly, despite efforts, it doesn’t look like I will be able to be there, just too many other work & travel demands this quarter. Good luck to organizer Chas Pinkava and all involved.
Karakoram again.
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November 5, 2012 at 8:41am
by Psybertron
The Karakoram Highway has been on my wish list for some time – mentioned earlier. Here it’s No.1 on a list of 5 of the world’s most extreme highways.
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Catholic Teaching
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November 5, 2012 at 8:23am
by Psybertron
A recurring theme that wise consideration of governance often turns to catholicism. Here business and policy management looking for social ethical rules in catholic teachings; referencing Aristotle, Aquinas, etc, but it’s more than that I believe. Just a holding post for the story reference.
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Theme Update Needed
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November 4, 2012 at 11:28pm
by Psybertron
I see the side-bar archive links have all failed … no plug-in update seems to fix it, been unable to find alternative plug-in which gives me both the yearly and monthly collapsability with individual posts visible at the monthly level. Still can’t. Also need to sort out recent post / recent comment links. Still Twitter, [...]
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Science Body Politic
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October 30, 2012 at 11:03pm
by Psybertron
Interesting link from Sam (at Elizaphanian) by Judith Curry “Climate Change – no consensus on consensus“. The issue is to escape the denial, and simply recognize the big science decisions – to agree or criticize with “findings” are not scientific, they are political, tactical, strategic, etc … value-based. The key IPCC consensus finding from its [...]
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17 days no post
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October 28, 2012 at 7:38pm
by Psybertron
That’s some hiatus, due mainly to travel and work pressures. New York, San Diego, Washington, now Brisbane and next Perth … Out on the streets, in a bar, seeing a band on only one night in the whole – PiL at the Hammerstein NYC. Been reading a lot in travel time – though not as [...]
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Reinventing the Sacred
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October 11, 2012 at 9:21am
by Psybertron
Mentioned earlier I was reading Stuart Kauffman, and was impressed by his extending the story of life beyond the ubiquitous focus on DNA and genes. After that it’s been a bit of a roller-coaster, as this biologist covers psychology, philosophy and fundamental physics in his quest of Reinventing the Sacred – a common fault I [...]
