Blog Archives
The Gnuz and Lynx Roundup for Caturday, 2013/03/23
English: Profile Photo of Kylie Sturgess (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
G’day, peeps! This Caturday marks the first time in a bit that I’m on my own even with my evil feline masters pulling my puppet strings…
There’s a family gathering up north, and I’ve opted to stay home to take care of the plants, my own cats, and to feed the little furry beggars that stop by for kibble and cheeseburger or the equivalent thereof. Study has come along nicely, and I’ve plans to sign up for online courses at a local college during the summer.
I expect that I should do well, though it’ll be a bit before I decide on a major and get into a full-fledged Uni. Blog-hopping has seen a few changes, with my favorite Token Skeptic, Kylie Sturgess relocating to Patheos blogs this week, and I plan on keeping up with her posts on a regular basis. Hmmm, I’ll have to update all bookmarks linked to her old site to the new venue, but that shouldn’t be a worry.
I’ve been getting a bit more personable on Twitter, which is a good sign, as I’m no social beast and don’t chat up easily, but I need to build and maintain regular interaction with other rationalists, my nonbeliever and skeptic friends, book bloggers and writers, and those more prominent members of the online rationalist community I keep up on. Most of my tweeting I now do on Tweet Deck, and I have been making heavy use of Facebook, which somewhat less activity on Pinterest and Tumblr.
———–Bloggy Lynx———–
- Ideas
- eBook Review: In Memoriam by S.A. Barton
- Why can’t we see evidence of alien life?
- Timeless Man
- Belief…
- Fractals of the Week: Resistance is Fractal – You will be Assimilated!
- Caturday’s Astronomy Pix for 2013/03/17-23
———Others’ Bloggies———
- GLAM — Open Library
- Guest Post: Dawkins at the Philomathean Society Annual Oration
- Superstition by QualiaSoup
- Always by D.M. Yates
- The Rape Blame Game
- Teleology, Destiny and a Life of Purpose
- Socrates, Unafraid
————-Odd & Doubtful Stuff————-
- Big cat sighting near Dursley but no other evidence noted
- Sheep attacked. Chupacabras, of course.
- Doctors miss the point. It comes out three years later.
- ‘Male enhancement’ herbals contain undisclosed, possibly dangerous ingredients.
- Mass death of Prawns create pink tide in Chile.
- Bart Simpson on trial with your honor, Mr Burns
- Oh, those shifty Secret Service alien agents!
- Caution needed on autism “epidemic”
———-Bloggy Stats———-
- 125,214 steely gazes cast here since 2008/12/28m
- 1821 comments approved – Please keep them coming!
- 2032 posts, including this one,
- 188 WordPress subscribers – Thank you…You make this blog worth posting on!
- 1969 Twitter fellows,
- 19 likes on Facebook… Much appreciated!
———-The Randi Show – Coincidence———-
The Weekly Gnuz and Lynx Roundup for September 21, 2012
G’day! As of this Odin’s Wife’s Day, I’ve had a good week, spending some time as a night owl while working on study notes into the wee hours of the morning for the past few days and on this post as well. It feels awesome to actually get something useful done… I suppose that’s just my brain chemically rewarding me for adaptive behavior, but let’s not get too self-congratulatory…
There has been much podcast watching and listening going on, with my review of Kylie Sturgess‘ program, Token Skeptic, posted this Sunday. DO check out her show — she’s got a good combination of great topics and interesting guests. I’ve also been listening to The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe, and the New York City Skeptics’ show and the blog Rationally Speaking, both worth separate entries of their own — Soon, soon my pretties, I shall post something on them… BwaHaHaHa!
Despicable Me (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Lecture-watching and note-taking is finally completed for my Critical Reasoning course, so I’ll be going back over those in study on the weekend. Time was also spent working on the images and screenshots of the Mandelbulber setting tabs for a tutorial planned for next week, though I apologize for not getting off my backside and finishing the redux of the How to Argue post I’ve got pending. I still must complete the logic tables and full text for that one, and then arrange both so I don’t run into the glaring completeness problems of the first release — Not very reader-friendly, I’ll say!
There’s writing to be done this weekend, so that and study shall occupy much of my available time, though I’ll try to squeeze in a bit of work on my online projects as well. I’ve engaged in a bit of silliness by watching Despicable Me, which was… entertaining… despite being a kid’s movie — I suspect some of the humor in the cultural references would go over many children though, especially the ’70s disco stuff.
On my friend Kate’s blog was posted Why I’m happy to keep destroying the joint…, and CatDog Thursday,
At Left Hemispheres, there’s Geological Timescale for Creationists and Jesus Had A Wife? Prompts a Random Quote of Irony,
Also posted on various sites there is,
A Bit of Homeopathy Nonsense in the BMJ
Eve, Pandora, and the Afterthought Woman
Politics & Public Opinion: David W. Moore on Pollsters
How Are We Supposed to Reason with These People?
30 Renowned Authors Inspired by Cats
Why Futurama Hasn’t Jumped the Shark
Koro Syndrome: The Irrational Fear of Lethal Genital Shrinkage
Warp Drives may be More Realistic Than Previously Thought — Maybe…We’ll see…
Gaze Upon the Most Disturbing My Little Pony ever Made
Hundreds flock to 3-year old healer in Cambodian village
Undead Threat: Zombie Scenario to be Used as a Training Tool at Counter-Terrorism Summit
Teller, the rose, its shadow, and the honor system
Inciting hate with deception: Is the blasphemous film a hoax?
Tales of a Siberian lake-monster: Speculation engaged, bring on the tourists
Meteors May Add Methane to Alien Planet Atmospheres
UFO mothership claim reflects badly
Teaching the History of Pseudoscience
Pascal’s Wager: It’s always a Bad Bet
Experiment Corrects Prediction in Quantum Theory
Ravi: State needs a Science Policy
Climate Change Skeptic No Longer Doubts Human Role in Global Warming
Conspiracy believers apt to deny warming
Dr Pepper’s Evolution Ad strikes a Nerve with Some Christians
Stat updates for this week:
- 1850 posts published, including this one,
- 1558 comments approved,
- 174 WordPress and eMail subscribers,
- 1731 Twitter fellowers, and…
- 112,662 steely gazes worth of page views.
Favorite Podcasts: Token Skeptic
English: Profile Photo of Kylie Sturgess (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Last Caturday, I was doing some long and serious thinking about whether to stay with skeptical activism, or give it up and retool this blog for another purpose. I’ve meandered a bit on this blog over the last several months, but I decided to catch up on my podcasts and give things another try.
After listening to two back episodes of the Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe (the subject for a post in its own right) I listened to Kylie Sturgess’ show, Token Skeptic, episode 136, and was blown away by the discussion she had in it with her guest.
A common idea, almost cliche in my view, is that whether you’re talking about resolve of any sort, trying it by serious thinking and honest doubt can make it more robust or invalidate it.
It has been a while since I’ve seriously dealt with skeptical issues on this blog with any real interest, but after exchanging a few tweets with Ms. Sturgess about her podcast, I decided to change that and involve myself in the community more, recluse that I’ve been.
Here goes.
Token Skeptic is the first solo podcast hosted by a woman, and Cthulhu knows, we need to involve more women in a demographic often much overrepresented by white males of the nerdish sort. the description on the Token Skeptic site’s “about” page starts with this, with linkies:
Token Skeptic – Why do we believe weird things? What does feminine intuition really mean? How do you become an effective activist for science and reason? Are you ready for a fortnightly show that poses these questions and more?
Tune into the Token Skeptic for a slightly more skeptical look at stories in the news, urban legends, good science, pseudoscience, and what makes popular culture pop.
This show features on Science for Skeptics on the 99.1FM station in Wisconsin and on Skeptical Sundays for WPRR 1680AM Public Reality Radio in Michigan.
Kylie’s show puts a good perspective on women’s issues and topics in skepticism, though she doesn’t do this exclusively, and in her recent blog post, Atheist Books 101 With Embiggen Books, she begins,
Just had a fun chat with Warren of Embiggen Books in Melbourne – and if you’re wanting a damned great recommendation list? This is the episode to enjoy.
I recommend checking out both Kylie’s blog and Embiggen ( I love that word…It just sounds so cromulent!) Books’ site and browsing the titles available, both from well-known and less well-known authors on topics relating to atheism, secularism, and religion. I’ve bookmarked the site, and I’ll be frequenting it quite a bit in future.
I’ll also be joining the science-based book club discussed in the podcast, and I recommend it highly for the intellectually badass.
So, take a listen to Token Skeptic, or watch the occasional vodcast episode of the show, and broaden your take on what it means to be a supporter of science and reason in a world with a real need for both.
You can find the show in the social sciences category on iTunes, and at other outlets linked to on this page.
If the show is your cup of tea, feel free to email Kylie, and tell her the sorts of things you’d like to see discussed on the show in future episodes.
What’s the harm? 
