The Wall Street Journal called the Supreme Court’s DOMA ruling a “historic win for gay marriage”. The ruling sparked celebrations all over the country. Here in Ann Arbor, there were cars driving down Main Street waving flags and honking horns.…
Month: June 2013
Google Changes its Stripes for DOMA Decision
I just did a Google search looking for the Supreme Court’s official DOMA decision document, and when I clicked search, Google change it’s skin. Well done, Google.
Joe Klein and Religious Bigotry in TIME Magazine
In a cover story for TIME Magazine, political columnist Joe Klein takes a gratuitous and factually incorrect swipe at secular humanists.
Pascal’s Wager, a Special Pony, and Belief
Blaise Pascal was a towering intellect of the 17th century; there is no doubt about that. But with regard to his famous wager, I have my doubts—Pascal’s analysis, and thus his conclusion itself, is derived from faith.
Navenna Shine: Living on Light, Dying on YouTube
Seattle resident, Navenna Shine may very well be dying. Dying slowly of a self-imposed starvation. But Navenna is not on a hunger strike; she’s not protesting anything. Rather, she is doing a “controlled experiment” by which she hopes to demonstrate…
Were you there?
For a couple years now, creationist like Ken Ham have been delighting in teaching little kids to challenge scientific claims regarding the age of the Earth or the universe with the clever, albeit disingenuous, response: “How do you know? Were…
Louisiana Legislators and Science Literacy (or Lack Thereof)
We can choose to ignore, misrepresent, or deny the nature of reality—as the Louisiana legislators are currently demonstrating—but doing so is an act of sheer folly that will have actual, negative, and often avoidable consequences.
Help Me Beta Test Slim Surveys
I’m helping to beta test a new online survey tool called Slim Surveys. The silly little survey below was created using the beta version. If you have a minute, please: Take the survey below (there are only four questions) so…
It’s All About Abstraction
I started writing a new post this morning about one of my favorite topics: levels of abstraction. While looking for references, I ran across this post I wrote for Google+ on January 6, 2012. So, with the author’s permission, I’ll…
How to Interview a Software Developer
Yesterday, I stumbled across a four year old blog post that made me laugh, A Brief, Incomplete, and Mostly Wrong History of Programming Languages. When I mentioned this online, my friend and fellow software conspirator, Scott Rehorn, made a brilliant…