by Carl Howard | Aug 15, 2011 | Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, Charity and Philanthropy, Mind, Psychology and Consciousness, Resources, Food and Environment, Science and Skepticism
In 2009 I set up a recurring (monthly) donation to the World Food Program. In mid 2010, I decided that I’d be quitting my job in early 2011 and taking a year off. As part of that I began to wind down some expenses to save up a bit more. One of the things to go was...
by Carl Howard | Jun 1, 2011 | Blog Topics, Resources, Food and Environment, Science and Skepticism
Every year, Edge.org asks the same question to about 100-150 scientists, philosophers, public intellectuals (and alas in a few cases, cranks) and publishes them. It makes the rounds on the interwebs every year and with good reason: often it’s fascinating reading. I’ve...
by Carl Howard | Apr 6, 2011 | Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, Charity and Philanthropy, Resources, Food and Environment
One of my Facebook friends recently posted this status: “if there was as much enthusiasm for curing cancer or ending child poverty as there is for the latest gadgets the world would be a better place”. My gut reaction was to agree. I mean, it’s probably a feeling most...
by Carl Howard | Feb 17, 2011 | Blog Topics, Charity and Philanthropy, Ethics, Philosophy, Resources, Food and Environment
I’ve noticed that with social causes people often passionately and vehemently support improvements that are marginal/token at best. At the same time, they might be [obliviously?] engaging in actions that are contributing to the problem much more than their token...
by Carl Howard | Sep 12, 2010 | Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, Charity and Philanthropy, Resources, Food and Environment, Society
Before I mention the chart, a quick little reader experiment: Commit to an estimate of how many people in the UK die each year from falling off ladders. Try to avoid calculations, just go with your gut. Check your answer Commit to an estimate of how many children...
by Carl Howard | Sep 1, 2010 | Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, Feminism and LGBT, Resources, Food and Environment
’m still busily thesising so posting will continue at a homeopathic rate over the next 2-3 weeks. In the meantime, here is another exercise, this time taking about half an hour. The first part is to watch this talk (which is interesting enough regardless of my post)...
