by Carl Howard | Jun 16, 2010 | Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, Charity and Philanthropy, Science and Skepticism
About 8 months ago I did a post about World Food Day where I mentioned microfinance (especially Kiva.org) as a great way of doing more useful things with donor funds. Skeptical fail: I applied an abysmal level of critical thinking to the area of charities/development....
by Carl Howard | Jun 15, 2010 | Blog Topics, Ethics, Evolution and Biology, Philosophy
[This post is a follow-up to my 5 min challenge to readers I posted last week. To get the most out of it, please do the challenge first.] In the last post, I presented a disturbing video of cow/calf abuse at a dairy farm. The context was not to see it in terms of...
by Carl Howard | Jun 8, 2010 | Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, Ethics, Evolution and Biology, Philosophy
The 5 min challenge that I would like everyone to take is to watch this video in its entirety and note your reactions. It’s only about 3.5 mins long so not a burden. But, do not switch tabs or open any windows, just give it your full attention: YouTube link...
by Carl Howard | May 14, 2010 | Atheism and Religion, Blog Topics, Evolution and Biology, Medicine, Philosophy
Via Pharyngula, here’s an amazing video of an elephant’s birth which I invite you to watch before reading on. (If you’re reading this by email the video won’t render so here’s a link to it on YouTube) Let’s forget the drama of the calf appearing lifeless at first and...
by Carl Howard | May 3, 2010 | Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, Charity and Philanthropy, Mind, Psychology and Consciousness, Science and Skepticism
I think the most famous quote from Stalin, or at least the one most famous outside the Russian-speaking world is “The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic”. This looks to be an urban legend but the sentiment is certainly true. We are...
by Carl Howard | Apr 22, 2010 | Blog Topics, Ethics, Evolution and Biology, Philosophy, Society
This past Saturday I was in lovely Kiama and decided to go for a wander through the cliffs past the Kiama blowhole. Just before the path to the cliffs, the council put up a sign to the effect of: “Warning! This is risky business. Going past this sign places in you in...