“A fundamental treachery to intellectual integrity is to hold a belief true because you think it useful and not because you believe it to be true.”
Bertrand Russell
Category: Skepticism
Michael Shermer Blasts Lack of Ideological Diversity in Social Sciences
His article in Sci-Am is worth a read.
Shermer begins with saying the insanity taking place on college campuses can be laid at the feet of having no other ideologies to act as a reality balance. Locked in an echo chamber, it’s a race to the extremes – kind of like a primary race.
Then Shermer lays out that bias affects not only the descriptive terms used during studies (conservative values as indicators of mental disorders), but in how the data is interpreted.
RTWT
Friday Quote – Richard Feynman
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
Richard Feynman, from the Rogers Commission Report on the Challenger disaster
Friday Quote – Carl Sagan
Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved?
Carl Sagan
Perhaps the Most Glorious Scientific Paper Written
https://isotropic.org/papers/chicken.pdf
Doug Zongker of University of Washington, you are my hero!
P.S. There’s even a PowerPoint!
Friday Quote- Richard Feynman
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself.
Dr. Richard Feynman
Friday Quote – James Randi
No amount of belief makes something a fact.
James Randi
Perception Is A Funny Thing
So, I’m at the gas station for my weekly fill-up. As usual, I’m doing my normal pan-and-scan of my surroundings.
Then, I see motion and my mind says “OSTRICH!” It wasn’t. Just some lady who was picking her gas cap off the top of the pump.
It’s a funny story, but what if my mind had screamed “ATTACK!” instead of a zoo animal? I don’t know if I have the perfect answer, but it’s something I’m going to be working on.
Friday Quote – Tim Minchin
Throughout history, every mystery ever solved, has turned out to be not magic.
Tim Minchin
Friday Quote – Will Spencer
I could never be a conspiracy theorist; conspiracy theorists believe in government competence.
Will Spencer
H/t Miguel on the Book of Face