In the distant past (for the internet), I thought through and modified my worldview by blogging. Since I stopped blogging about politics and philosophy my views have changed some more. Now I would like to review some of those views and open them up to challenge by others on the internet. It seems to me that, to paraphrase a famous passage, there are some things all humans should be able to agree upon: All people, regardless of gender, race, education,…
There are some concerns about the COVID-19 vaccines. Some of these concerns are legitimate (myocarditis in young men) and some are based on conspiracy theories that are demonstrably nonsense (tracking chips in the vaccine, or its supposed links to Satan). The myocarditis one is particularly interesting and, unfortunately, provides fuel to the blanket anti-vaxxers who are responsible for recent outbreaks of the previously-controlled, measles, and the current continuation of the global pandemic which has cost 1/500 Americans their lives. As…
I am reading The Selfish Gene at the moment. It’s a very good book, and beautifully written, as you would expect from Dawkins. This pair of sentences, though, stood out for their disappointing relevance to anti-vaccination, anti-mask, and otherwise anti-scientific individuals’ behavior. In the next paragraph, “ESS” means “evolutionary stable strategy”. In (too simple a summary), ESS means the strategy that evolution ‘settles upon’ which is most effective at reproducing the genes that regulate that strategy. “It is possible for…
Football, as it’s called everywhere (soccer only in the USA), has a rule that is a little vague, but I think it’s currently interpreted in a way that makes the game less interesting to watch, have fewer goals, and is, overall, less sporting. Here’s the rule so you can know what I am talking about (from the FA): Impeding the progress of an opponent means moving into the opponent’s path to obstruct, block, slow down or force a change of…
Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Nebula, Curiosity Stream, Amazon Prime, Peacock, and many other services are now vying for our money. Once we have parted with our hard-earned cash, though, we rely on word of mouth, algorithms, or just dumb luck to find great shows on the services. So here’s a list of the gems you might have missed on some of the above services: Kim’s Convenience (Netflix) A highly successful Canadian sit-com, it still hasn’t penetrated the zeitgeist, despite being…
If you believe in the Christian God, it would be evil of you not to evangelize. The alternative is to allow someone you know (and should love) to go to the hell you believe in. But what should you avoid? This article lists some of the things Christians often do, which will always fail to reach the hearts of unbelievers. Trivializing Avoid saying the following: “All you have to do is…” Those of us who do not believe there is…