- Good And Bad Reasons For Believing : Richard Dawkins – Dawkins provides some elegant words about why people believe the things that they do. Here’s an excerpt:
Dear Juliet,
Now that you are ten, I want to write to you about something that is importantto me. Have you ever wondered how we know the things that we know? How dowe know, for instance, that the stars, which look like tiny pinpricks inthe sky, are really huge balls of fire like the sun and are very far away?And how do we know that Earth is a smaller ball whirling round one of thosestars, the sun?
The answer to these questions is “evidence.” Sometimes evidence means actuallyseeing ( or hearing, feeling, smelling….. ) that something is true. Astronautshave travelled far enough from earth to see with their own eyes that it isround. Sometimes our eyes need help. The “evening star” looks like a brighttwinkle in the sky, but with a telescope, you can see that it is a beautifulball – the planet we call Venus. Something that you learn by direct seeing( or hearing or feeling….. ) is called an observation.
- BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Science faces ‘dangerous times’ – Highlights from one of my links yesterday from the head of the Royal Society on why some people believe things that are unsubstantiated, and how this can be a problem.
Personal and Blog Stats for the End of November 2005
This is the end of the first month for which I have logged my personal stats, those lovely updates you see almost daily at the bottom of my blog. Here’s a plot of everything I recorded (except work hours).
You’ll probably want to view a larger version. The last day (the 30th) is of course not complete. Maybe I should do this on the first day of the following month from now on. This has been really good for me. It helps me to keep track of when I’m doing too much of some things, and when I’m doing too little of others. Furthermore, after I get more consistent in my data recording, I plan on running regressions of each parameter compared with hours of productive, lab-related work. That’s where the motivation for this originated. I want to see what makes me more productive, and what hinders my productivity. I also want to see if beginning and ends of months, seasons, weather, national disasters and so on have any interesting effects. I doubt that these pursuits will initially be statistically sound. However, if I manage to perservere in my recording, I may eventually apply some more rigorous controls and analyses.
Here’s some info I’ve gleaned from another type of statistics — Google Analytics. Using Flock’s blog editor, I’ve recently started adding Technorati tags to my entries. You may have seen them at the bottom of the posts. Within a few days, Technorati has become a major referrer for my site. Check it out:
Technorati is the second-largest, yellow-orange wedge if you don’t want to zoom in. That’s incredible! This has convinced me to continue using Technorati tags for now.
technorati tags: statistics, lifehacks, logging, google analytics, technorati, referrals, logs, tags, mindfulness, statistics
Tech News for the End of November 2005
Some good and bad news today in the tech sector:
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There are a lot of exciting things in store for Google Talk in the coming months and we thought the best way to tell you about them was to create a blog. We’ll keep you posted on new features, happenings in the community, and progress towards our goal of enabling customer choice in Internet communications through open standards and interoperability.
- Firefox 1.5 Final Now Available – you’re not using it… why?
- Microsoft Open Document Standard Not So Open – Is anyone surprised about this? Comments, Mr.Scoble?
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I’m working on a mobile (wap or xhtml-mp) theme, so please step by in a couple months, I hope I’ll have something ready by then.
Virtually Shocking » Blog Archive » Back to Bloglines
I was extremely impressed to find a comment from the author of Gregarius regarding my recent complaints. As I said, I think it has a lot of potential, and I’m going to check back in a few months to see where things have gone. It’s not currently ready to handle my style(s) of feed-perusal.
technorati tags: firefox, gregarius, microsoft, office, opendocument, google, instant messaging, IM, google talk, blogs, scoble
New Orleans Recovery News for the End of November 2005
Some good news, some bad:
- New Orleans to Deploy Free Wi-Fi City Wide – as I have already mentioned, the WiFi is being deployed. It’s already up in some places
- NOLA Municipal Wi-Fi – There’s a picture of an access point on a street lamp post from Will here.
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The cost estimates are still fuzzy, but the work would easily cost more than $32 billion, state officials say, and could take decades to complete.
The huge expense of a safer New Orleans – Americas – International Herald Tribune
$32 billion. wow. I’m suspecting that’s not going to happen. What then?
technorati tags: New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina, Katrina, WiFi, wireless, networking, levees, hurricanes, wetlands
Religious Issues for the End of November 2005
More interesting items than in science news. Disturbing, yes?
- ID Becoming Mandatory in Kansas? – Kansas continues to lead the nation in falling behind.
- Schools Sued for Not Using This Garbage – Christian schools are upset that religious courses are not counted for credit by some universities. (title not mine)
- Royal Society President Warns of Fundamentalism – It’s not the best thing going for the world right now. On the other hand, the Royal Society is not exactly progressive lately (see my previous post).
- The Rapture Index – Good for a laugh, or a cry, depending on whether you’re a half-empty or half-full glass type person.
That’s enough of that.
technorati tags: religion, fundamentalism, royal society, rapture, intelligent design, kansas, education