Daily Archives: January 20, 2010

OMG, Cognitive Daily is No More!

Cognitive Daily, the blog, is one of the blogs that made science blogs (both in general and at scienceblogs.com) a legitimate, valid enterprise instead of a bunch of random jackasses screwing around on the Internet. Like a nice hat on a man who could be part scoundrel or a great pair of shoes on a woman with ill intention, Cognitive Daily made the rest of us look … valid. Like we shouldn’t be taken off the air. Like we had a reason to call ourselves important.

But Cognitive Daily is now gone. Greta and Dave wrote their last post today, just a few minutes ago.

Crap. Now what are we going to do? And you think I’m joking but I’m not.

WTF. Go say good-bye.

Ethics and morality sans religion

You probably don’t know that I went to Harvard, because I rarely mention it, but I did, and when I was there I literally worked and studied around the Divinity school. The lab I worked in was on one side of the Div School, and the Peabody Museum (home of the Anthro Dept) was on the other side of the Div School, which was, in turn, half surrounded, like a morsel of food about to be eaten by a voracious amoeba, by the Biology Building.

And, I was amused to learn that the Harvard Div School was a hotbed of atheism. Or so I was told. But I did not pay much attention.

Continue reading Ethics and morality sans religion

You can help promote skeptical thinking

Last Fourth of July Weekend, I attended Skepchicon, which is a “track” at a “con” (where a con is a thing where everyone dresses up like Darth Vader or a Twilight character or whatever). I was on the panel for a couple of sessions and participated in others, and had a blast.

The most interesting thing that those of us involved noticed, on later reflection, is the sophistication of the audience. This is not a case of capturing the interest of a few hundred crazy woo-meisters and trying to talk them into science. Rather, the audience largely consisted of skeptical type people who wanted to advance their understanding of science and skepticism, and brainstorm about how to spread such heretical thinking more broadly.

I want to do this again, but there is a little problem with money. Here’s where you come in…

Continue reading You can help promote skeptical thinking

Skepticism and Race

On the next episode of Skeptically Speaking, a panel discussion on skepticism and race. Is the face of modern skepticism really as monochrome as it appears? How do we make our message appeal to a broader, more diverse audience? And how do racial demographics influence belief in pseudoscience and the paranormal?

Our panel includes LaVerne Knight-West, Stephanie Zvan, and Girl 6.

This Friday!
Details here.