skeptic.za.org Blogroll

[LimbicNutrition Weblog] The Rushdie Gambit

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:55:00 GMT

In a previous post (“Killing the chicken to frighten the monkey“) I discussed Richard Fernandez’s analyis of the attempted murder of Danish “Muhammed cartoons” cartoonist Henryk M. Broder in his own home by an axe wielding Somali who ended up being shot dead by Danish police. Its seems that Swedish cartoonist Lars Viks narrowly missed the [...]

[Lenny Says] Photo# 12: Monster spliff

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 14:54:00 GMT

This morning, on my way back from a meeting I had yesterday in Polokwane (formerly Pietersburg) in the Limpopo Province, I saw these huge bundles of grass scattered about on either side of the main highway. It appeared as if the long grass along the roadside had been freshly cut and rolled up into huge cylinders by some sort [...]

[Nathan Bond's TART Remarks] Klaas Hendrikse se beker yswater

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 04:55:00 GMT

Julian Müller dink oor Klaas Hendrikse 13 Maart 2010. Julian Müller maak my gereeld moerig. Sy goed is vir my vertorend en verdollend vaagskerp – opslagbal-analise en wydloper-afloop; filosofiese coitus interruptus. Oor Müller se goed voel ek soos Churchill oor Rusland: “… a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”. Maar ek meen Müller maak [...]

[Timbuktu Chronicles] Sustainable Bug Architecture

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:37:00 GMT

New Scientist reports:

In the heart of Africa's savannah lies a city that is a model of sustainable development. Its buttressed towers are built entirely from natural, biodegradable materials. Its inhabitants live and work in quarters that are air-conditioned and humidity-regulated, without consuming a single watt of electricity. Water comes from wells that dip deep into the earth, and food is cultivated self-sufficiently in gardens within its walls. This metropolis is not just eco-friendly: with its curved walls and graceful arches, it is rather beautiful too.
This is no human city, of course. It is a termite mound...[continue reading]

Image courtesy of the New Scientist

[Synapses] Utter awesomeness from Rev. Peasboro

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:20:00 GMT

Reverend Jim Peasboro alerts us to the frightening possibility that our PC's (he doesn't mention Mac's, so you trendoids are perhaps safe) may be possessed by demons.

[pickledbushman.com] Solidarity supports rape and sexual violence.

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:36:00 GMT

Yeah, those Apartheid-missing prudes at Solidarity seem to be on an intense campaign to support violence and rape against woman and children. It’s a well known fact to anyone with a basic education can see a correlation between rape and porn, however, its only those with a higher education that can that the correlation is that the more porn there is, the less sexual violence there is. The good nats at Solidarity have taken us another step backwards towards Apartheid as they push their Calvinistic religious prudency onto the rest of the population. Im guessing all members who were against the MultiChoice DSTV porn channel must be hectic porn addicts as well. I mean… if it’s a matter of just not wanting to watch the porn… you wouldn’t watch ... or subscribe to the service. Since these “people” have such an issue with the porn channel I can only assume that they are sexual addicts and would not be able to control their own urges to not watch the porn. After this religious fanatical crusade by Solidarity I have lost all respect for them and their causes. I cant trust anything that they say and do after their latest attempt to pervert freedom of expression and choice and their blatant promotion of sexual violence and rape against woman and kids. Its very clear that Solidarity is still stuck in the 1980`s and so desperately wants to claw us back to a time period where our porn magazines had more stars than the Milky Way. Just so you know I am not talking crap and they are, here are a couple of links to educate you: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-14795-SLO-Headlines-Examiner~y2009m7d4-More-porn-means-less-rape http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/57169/ http://www.slate.com/id/2152487/ http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=913013 To the people at Solidarity, please stop taking us back towards Apartheid and their fked up morality. Its twisted and wrong. If you do not like porn.. dont watch it? Yeah.. it really is that easy, and to make things even easier.. dont subscribe to it! Stop taking away other peoples rights and freedoms for your religious hangups. UPDATE: There are lots of angry people all over the Internet that are really angry at those people with religious hangups (a very vocal and rancid minority known as "Helping Hand"... a religious cartel that is involved with Solidarity) and their subversion of our rights. In response to the attack on our freedoms and choices many people online have started their own petition. To remove religious programming from DSTV. I ask all readers and members of this site please to voice your opinion at the following petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/sdr00001/petition.html to get all religious programming removed from DSTV. It is well known fact that religion has killed, maimed and destroyed more peoples lives than porn ever could.

[The Skeptic Blacksheep] Simply Slim Skips Interview With Carte Blanche Consumer

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:09:00 GMT

I was not surprised at all that Simply Slim decided not to do the interview with Carte Blanche Consumer. This was the perfect opportunity for them to speak to their consumers and explain what happened, but instead they chose to cancel their interview at the last moment. Sorry guys, but that move makes you all [...]

[Amanuensis] The Joy of Nastiness

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:22:00 GMT

Schadenfreude, taking pleasure in someone else's pain or misfortune, seems to appear a normal thing to most people. It occurs in literature, comedy, our every day lives. But what do Economics and Social Psychology have to say about it? We know from previous research by Simon Gaechter, Benedikt Herrmann and several others that people display 'anti-social preferences' - they punish people who contribute more than they do to a public good. Now, a recent experimental paper, 'The pleasure of being nasty' by Klaus Abbink and Abdolkarim Sadrieh, tries to take some of this work forward, they investigate a game in which players can destroy the output of others without reaping any benefit from the destruction, or without incurring any cost for doing so. What do you think people might do?

Abbink and Sadrieh nested an experiment that allowed players to destroy the output of others in an experiment in which subjects were asked to evaluate adverts for a marketing campaign. They then had the option to 'destroy' the production of another person who was doing a similar evaluation. The destruction treatment came in two forms: in the first treatment (open) subjects could destroy the produce of their partner and the information was shared perfectly, in the second treatment (hidden) the information was shared imperfectly because a random amount would be destroyed. The procedure was repeated ten times. The incidence of nastiness for the two treatments differed substantially (see Fig. 1 adjacent) and people evidently took advantage of the opportunity to destroy their partner's production more when there was less chance of being found out.

So, when there is no benefit to destroying, people destroy anyway. When there is less risk of being found out by your counterpart - even though they could retaliate - people destroy a bit. Moreover, the subjects tendency to destroy did not correlate with whether they had experienced their produce being destroyed in previous rounds. Also, the subjects did not seem to be driven by inequity aversion because they often destroyed their counterpart's produce even their counterpart had the same as or less than they did. Abbink and Sadrieh make the point that we need to reconcile these results of nastiness with the many results we have about prosociality, cooperation, inequity aversion and others. The view also needs to be reconciled with our conception of rational homo economicus which might say that no rational individual would just destroy things without a pecuniary benefit. So, because I take pleasure in the misfortunes of homo economicus, I'll end by linking to the song schadenfreude from Avenue Q - 'Cos when I see how sad you are, it sorta makes me happy!'

[ASSAF Blog] Earth’s axis moved in Chile quake, claims NASA researcher

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:24:00 GMT

Nasa reports that one of their Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory research scientists, Richard Gross, has calculated that Chile’s 8.8 magnitude earthquake of 27 February 2010 may have shifted the Earth’s axis by about 8 centimeters and made days a bit shorter. Using a complex model Gross has come up with a preliminary calculation suggesting this [...]

[Timbuktu Chronicles] Jean Pierre Nshimyimana-Water Engineer

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:09:00 GMT

Jean Pierre Nshimyimana initiator of the LifeEngine Clean Water Project, is developing a business that will provide clean water and green energy technologies and environmental engineering consultancy to provide superior services, designs, knowledge, and green energy solutions to community-based initiatives in Rwanda-Legatum

Jean Pierre Speaks at Harvard from Sean Clauson on Vimeo.