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Kingston Police Doubles Down on Power Balance
Published on 2012-05-11 21:05:52
The amount of disappointment I have towards the decisions of the Kingston Polices choice to promote Power Balance is hard to match, but the overwhelming condemnation of their choice should inspire a lot of hope that at least next time they will do a background check into products they put on their website and spend uniformed time selling. > read more
Kingston Police Selling Power Balance Wristbands
Published on 2012-05-10 15:29:32
I was aghast as Cost-Co on the weekend, and it had nothing to do with low prices or 50 lbs. bags of dog food. As I was entering the store I saw a strange union set up at a table beside where the cards were flashed to gain entrance. I blinked and took a second look, but, unfortunately, it only made the picture more clear. The Kingston police were selling Power Balance wristbands. I looked around for the same disbelief that must have sat registered on my face smeared on anyone else, but I didn [..] > read more
Jesusaurus Rex FC
Published on 2012-04-14 14:13:53
Rape Baby Morality
Published on 2012-02-29 15:55:06
Rick Santorum is quite the news maker and I love and hate the guy. It would be hard for me to find anyone I disagreed with more than Rick, but he talks honestly, forgoing the usual political speech that clouds what someones true view are. He even backs up what he believes with why he believes it rather than say something vague. I think he at least deserves credit for that. Yet, pretty much everything he says makes me shake my head, and if I had the chance to talk to him I don't think we could [..] > read more
What Does the Earth Want?
Published on 2012-02-24 01:30:29
This seems to be the fundamental question of environmentalism and it's often ignored, assumed, or not even asked. I feel like Camus, who first really put the emphasis on whether life was worth living, and put forth a fundamental question that should have been answered or at least defined before people went to work on solving problems. The cart is years ahead of the horse, and people trying to upgrade the cart to see if they can make it work better. Now it may be argued, correctly even, that a [..] > read more
Is There a Social Need for Violence?
Published on 2012-02-18 00:50:23
I have a weekend class, and a group was presenting about the problem of concussions in sports...a much better/more interesting topic than I got to present on, but three times during their presentation they insinuated that there was a social need for violence. It wasn't the type of presentation where the audience felt welcome to talk during so I wasn't sure the question would be addressed, but as they ended they had discussion questions, and they had a question framed as it is titled in this pos [..] > read more
The Biological Spandrel
Published on 2012-02-09 10:05:25
In 1979, Stephen J. Gould and Richard C. Lewontin saw a growing problem in the field of biology. To combat and point out the problem they saw they co-authored the paper entitled, "The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme" which is now a classic and somewhat controversial paper in the field of biology. Gould say's in I Have Landed that it's his second most referenced paper behind only his paper with Eldredge on punctuated equilibrium. T [..] > read more
Anton's Syndrome and Religion
Published on 2012-01-20 11:32:42
I just learned a of a new and interesting rare problem that a few people suffer from and think that it applies well to religious people and specifically how they prefer to answer one type of question, but I'll get to that later. The idea to write this came from David Eagleman's book Incognito, so I'll just plug it for a second. It's a book that expands on the idea I talked about in my last post, about how the mind constructs reality the importance of the subconscious, so if I haven't jaded you f [..] > read more
Thomas Berry - Philosophy and Evolution
Published on 2012-01-20 11:29:49
I was assigned to read Thomas Berry's The Viable Human, which was then a person/essay, I've never heard of so I wasn't sure what to expect. Well it didn't take me long into reading his essay before I could probably guess that I was going to disagree with almost everything he had to say, except for his overall conclusion. People should take a more active stance on how they see the environment and their place within it, but Berry gets there only through misunderstanding, mysticism and idealism. [..] > read more
Cee Lo Green - Stupid or Just Religious?
Published on 2012-01-09 14:18:03
First of all I know that the title is a false dilemma, so if your here just to point that out, congratulations for being so clever. This is my first post in a while, but I've been busy moving, getting ready for my masters program and hibernating (It's cold in Canada). Anyway, I was getting ready to break out of the new years slump when I heard about Cee Lo Green's New Years Eve performance where he changed the words to John Lennon's song Imagine. Now I'm not a huge Beatles fan, but I don't m [..] > read more
A New Fallacy? The Infallible Person
Published on 2011-10-25 21:22:22
I'm not sure if this fallacy has been talked about before in the depth that I'm about to talk about it or even if it is correctly identified as a new fallacy. What is clear is that it is an error in reasoning that hinders many peoples thinking without them even realizing they are making a mistake. That error is thinking that the mind works perfectly and is a perfect translator of external events to sensory information to rational understanding to memory retention and recall. Which could be encom [..] > read more
Margarine, Cheez Whiz and Plastic - Turning Gold Into Lead
Published on 2011-09-27 20:14:43
Well, doesn't that sound appetizing. It almost doesn't matter if the claim is true or not because, as soon as a product can be linked to imagery so unappealing as plastic than the damage is already done. This is the rare kind of reverse branding of a product, where something is linked to an idea that is unappealing, food to non-food. This of course is opposed to the normal branding where beer (or any other product) is linked to a lifestyle of being around beautiful women, which as many be [..] > read more
Rebbeca Watson, Richard Dawkins, and The Mountain of Molehills
Published on 2011-07-23 17:36:34
This is a topic that came up in the skeptical community between to people I respect, and after listening to the latest SGU felt compelled to write about. There really was two incidents. The first was a video Rebbecca Watson made where she made what was really a off the cuff remark about one night when she was doing an event and talked about sexism in the skeptical movement, which can be a problem, and then went out for drinks afterwords. Which led to her being proposition in an elevator at 4 am [..] > read more
Taking Something Away vs. Not Doing Something
Published on 2011-06-29 22:08:02
I while ago I read Sam Harris's book, The Moral Landscape, which I have referenced a couple times in previous posts. Harris, at one point, talks about how taking away something is viewed as worse then not doing something, and gives an example > read more
Sighting in A Field
Published on 2011-06-17 18:59:50
Well, congraz to the Bruins and shame on the premeditated riot. Anyway, onwards and upwards to some skepticism about a local 'sighting'. A friend of mine has a field camera set up to catch pictures of wildlife, and got some pictures that were quite u > read more
3 Stories from Nature: Don't look to Nature for Morality
Published on 2011-05-11 14:42:02
Well, I think that my last post was the most widely read post that I've written to date, so to capitalize on that momentum I've waited a few weeks and made sure the previous interest has waned. Now it is often said that humanity shows a truly u > read more
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Published on 2011-04-24 09:24:38
Well, it's finally time to writing what I have been putting off for no good reason. I think of myself as someone pretty environmentally aware and conscious, and like most people I had heard that, "There is a garbage patch the size of Texas in the Pac > read more
Wouldn't A More Appropriate Response be to Burn the Bible?
Published on 2011-04-05 11:30:02
In the spirit of the Canadian Election and politics in general I will once again put off writing about the Great Pacific Garbage patch and instead concentrate on a hot button political topic, making the environment, as usual, wait its turn behind sen > read more
Mental Juggling
Published on 2011-03-30 13:24:07
I was going to post about, the plastic formation the size of Texas in the Pacific known as 'The Great Pacific Garbage Patch," but that will have wait until my next post. This delay happened because I've been reading a fair bit of Steven Pinker and wa > read more
A Showcase of Egoism
Published on 2011-03-17 06:04:00
Thanks for those who commented on my last post. I'm taking a step back from the outside world, and I'm going to talk about a personal pet peeve, two types of statements that get under my skin. I'll try to convey what those statements are, and why the > read more
Judging Computer Autonomy
Published on 2011-03-02 11:32:56
Well I can say that I was satisfied with the content of my last post, but I did let a couple of issues slide past that I would have liked to address. I really let Ray have his way due to the time constraint of having to go to work. Damn work r > read more
And Along Came Watson
Published on 2011-02-16 14:50:17
I, like a lot of other people, have been a very interested bystander in Jeopardy this week and for good reason. For those of you who haven't been watching, an AI named Watson has been playing agianst the two most successful Jeopardy contestant > read more
Church in the Pub?
Published on 2011-02-02 20:42:24
People who are even semi active in the community of skepticism will have known about different Skeptics in the Pub going on, as they are successfully taking place in numerous cities all over the globe. If imitation is the greatest act of flatte > read more
The Case of Plastic in the Microwave
Published on 2011-01-26 13:18:03
It's been a busy and strange last couple months where I've been doing a lot more reading than posting, but this topic didn't arise from anything I've read. It instead was brought up when I was working in a youths with disabilities program and it > read more
An Exploration of Speciesism Continued
Published on 2011-01-19 13:19:53
In my last post I gave a brief overview of speciesism and showed how we are all speciesists. This post will pick up where the last one left off. People treat different species differently, which is fine to an extent, but it can also go too far in eit > read more
Speciesism: Everyone is a Speciesist
Published on 2010-12-15 14:46:05
Happy holidays to all the Speciesist's out there, which refers to everyone as we are all Speciesists. Yet, the term speciesist isn't often used, even though it applies universally to everyone and it's really a poorly understood and underused concept. > read more
A Competency Test for Government Officials Is Needed
Published on 2010-12-07 15:58:17
In the recent past two examples come to mind that make it readily apparent that governmental positions may be held by people with little or no competency in the positions they hold. This isn't a US, or Canadian thing, but a systematic problem > read more
Horrible Fishing Laws are Made Without Evolutionary Consideration
Published on 2010-11-28 19:29:03
When fishing the ultimate goal, for most anglers, is to catch the biggest fish of the species you are fishing for. It's always exciting to reel in that lunker that you've been fighting for 10 minutes and not so much so to get a glimpse of a small fis > read more
Two Funerals and An Atheist: Part 3
Published on 2010-11-24 17:17:11
This will be my last post on this memory, and I'll move onto my more regular and less personal topics. The first post detailed the death and funeral of my Grandfather Charlie, while the second detailed the deathbed happenings surrounding Grandp > read more
A Tale of Two Funerals and an Skeptical Atheist: Part 2
Published on 2010-11-08 23:38:42
Well the previous post dealt with my feelings from the death of Grandpa Charlie. It ran on longer than expected so this is the second part of the story and the second death I had to deal with. Instead of being a passive observer in what was going on > read more
A Tale of Two Funerals and an Skeptical Atheist
Published on 2010-10-28 15:33:53
While, with my last post I briefly mentioned that there had been a couple deaths in my immediate family, I didn't really talk about them at all. I was saving it all for one post that will be a lot more intimate then my other posts (two parts). Now, w > read more
The Results of a Poll About Theft in the Workplace and Job Interviews
Published on 2010-10-05 15:46:22
I'm back after a long break, due to two deaths in my intimidate family. Those deaths could be foreseen in taking place, but even then it is hard to prepare for it actually happening. I have some experiences surrounding those events that I will talk a > read more