After reading how an EastSouthWestNorth: Associate Professor was angrily suing China Blog because a user had posted something bad about him, I got curious about whether any of my students had posted anything — good or bad — about me. I googled my own name using several spellings and while I discovered there are several people “Gordon” who are being discussed online, I am not one of them. There was a mere one hit that had anything to do with me: an announcement of professors promoted in March included my name and educational background. Whew. Update: Lime says she’s googled …
Category: ASIDES
The Viridian Design Movement
As usual, the latest Viridian Note by Bruce Sterling is worth a read. It’s mainly about a piece by Al Gore published in Salon. One very funny, but sadly necessary, link in the Note is to this article in the New Yorker, which mocks the moronic Intelligent Design hokum that is so popular in America.
Simon Singh’s Site
For readers from the reality-based community, SimonSingh.net is a pretty interesting place full of fun bits of science- and math-reporting.
OhmyNews International
While I still don’t have a lot of sympathy for those caught for teaching in Korea illegally, OhMyNew International’s carrying a story called Prison Diary of an English Teacher which at least has me thinking that the way people are handled after being caught leaves much to be desired. But of course, it’s not the first time a ridiculous incarceration has happened in Korea — see the section of the documentary “If You Were Me” dealing with the story of Chandra Gurung, a Nepalese woman who spent over half a decade in a mental institution in South Korea because (a) …
Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy?
For all you would-be SF authors (like me), here’s a guide. (nabbed from BoingBoing)
Wired 13.11: The Mystery of the Green Menace
So this guy named Ted Breaux reverse engineered old samples of absinthe from before it was banned. Microbiologist guy, proved it wasn’t toxic in ways previously believed. you know, stuff like that.
Sounds Like Me
Caring for Your Introvert is a good article on why staying home alone on Saturday nights isn’t some sign of something bad or wrong after all. via Weird is Relative.
Asking What Nobody Else Dares
On his website, Why Does God Hate Amputees?, Marshall Brain takes the theodicy to a whole new, personal level. While some of his criticisms depend upon a rather unsophisticated form of belief — assuming the Bible is the literal writing of God — he does raise some questions which I think most Biblical literalists would have a lot of trouble answering without sounding crazy.
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Can you trust Wikipedia?
None of the contributors to this Guardian Article, Can you trust Wikipedia? seem to get that Wikipedia’s merit is that a person like them, with the knowledge, can edit the thing, contirbuting in some small way to the repair of the encyclopedia. It’s not just currently a draft version, but it is conceivably a continually improvable version, of the encyclopedia. Of course, it would be nice if Wikipedia could afford to pay experts to spend a year going through all subjects in their speciality, but even as it is now, it’s a pretty good starting point for background information on …
Timing is Everything
epiphany in c has an interesting blip linking to an article about how timing and time-perception seem to work in the human brain.