Over at Pharyngula, PZ pokes at the simulation hypothesis and finds it wanting.
I’ve never understood how it’s gotten so much traction, anyway. As PZ Says: “That is the wrong question. He asserts The odds we’re in base reality is one in billions.
Instead we should ask, “what simulated ass did you pull those odds out of?”, because he’s got no rational justification for that claim.”
Are you tired of hearing about Email servers, yet? And Email leaks?
I sure as hell am; that’s the background music of my entire professional career. Once more unto the breach, dear friends…
Jean Meslier
The apologists of religion repeat to us every day that the passions alone create unbelievers. “It is,” they say, “pride, and a desire to distinguish themselves, that make atheists; they seek also to efface the idea of God from their minds, because they have reason to fear His rigorous judgments.”
(Content Warning: war, death)
I’m going to begin today’s sermon with a transcript from a podcast I recently heard. It’s David Wood, speaking at Politics and Prose on “What Have We Done: The Moral Injury of Our Longest Wars.” Wood’s view is that wars can cause “Moral Injury” – a sort of post-traumatic stress disorder to our sense of right and wrong. The bit that stuck in my mind, which I went back and replayed and bookmarked, was an example that he gave – an example that is very typical of the experiences of many soldiers:
Turn this up so you get as good a sound-space as your gear allows:
Sometimes, you get large, carefully-wrapped packages!!!
I thought “no way someone’d send me 30lbs of ammonium nitrate, so it’s gotta be something else!”
I saw “Arrival” thursday night, and I loved it. Some spoilers may follow:
The book “Stalin’s Spy: Richard Sorge and the Tokyo Spy Ring” is worth reading for those of you who are interested in spy-craft. He has nothing to do with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and therefore everything to do with the American’s failure to listen to their signals intelligence analysts who had cracked the Japanese PURPLE code system and were desperately trying to warn the state department that something was coming over the horizon.
I first heard this during a filksing at Balticon in 1980. There was a local group called “Clam Chowder” that used to perform twice a night at the con; it’s where I learned the words to “The Band Played Waltzing Matilda” – a song which had a lot to do with turning me anti-war.
Every December 7, the US’ ultranationalists make a point of beating the war-drums and waving the bloody shirts. “We must never be surprised again!” they argue. [Read more…]