osianh.blogspot.com
Reason most absurd: Selfish genes and the meaning of life
http://osianh.blogspot.com/2012/07/selfish-genes-and-meaning-of-life.html
A blog about things I find interesting - skepticism, atheism, music, books, art, science, life in general. Tuesday, 31 July 2012. Selfish genes and the meaning of life. Using selfish genes to ponder the meaning of life, and what the alternatives might be. Some time ago, I wrote about the meaning of life. This post addresses both points. What is it all about? Attempting to answer such questions has driven many branches of science, in order to try and understand the world and our place in it - from a geolo...
osianh.blogspot.com
Reason most absurd: Uncountably many
http://osianh.blogspot.com/2012/06/uncountably-many.html
A blog about things I find interesting - skepticism, atheism, music, books, art, science, life in general. Sunday, 10 June 2012. Reflections on the incomprehensibly large number of people that exist. Not actually taken from a train. obviously. 10 June 2012 at 14:20. Imagine traveling through the interstices of your body, noting each of the bacteria, an order of magnitude more than the number of humans who have ever lived. Then slip out through the galaxy, counting the stars and planets. Then on t...Yet w...
osianh.blogspot.com
Reason most absurd: March 2012
http://osianh.blogspot.com/2012_03_01_archive.html
A blog about things I find interesting - skepticism, atheism, music, books, art, science, life in general. Friday, 30 March 2012. This idea is something I've been thinking about for a while, and tried to express to a friend recently, but didn't make my point particularly coherently. We were discussing the internet at the time (which I'll come back to later) but the idea is more general than that. I'm not saying, of course, that everything is currently fine for all, or even most people; but even those who...
osianh.blogspot.com
Reason most absurd: Untangling the media
http://osianh.blogspot.com/2012/06/untangling-media.html
A blog about things I find interesting - skepticism, atheism, music, books, art, science, life in general. Wednesday, 13 June 2012. Reflections on the state of traditional, online, and social media, and on attempts to understand them. As we consume more and more media, it becomes not just a way of finding out about what's happening elsewhere: it is. These issues were discussed at a lecture. I attended a few weeks ago, hosted by the University of Bristol. Justin Lewis. I must admit though, I do have some ...
osianh.blogspot.com
Reason most absurd: August 2012
http://osianh.blogspot.com/2012_08_01_archive.html
A blog about things I find interesting - skepticism, atheism, music, books, art, science, life in general. Friday, 24 August 2012. Some remarks about Neal Stephenson. So it makes an interesting contrast to the carefully designed and planned nature of large projects today. Massive cock-ups: haven't we got beyond this yet? The list goes on. The space programme is dead". No it isn't. But this argument that Stephenson made was more than just about the slowdown of technological growth: it was about ambition a...
osianh.blogspot.com
Reason most absurd: I Prefer Reality (Part 2)
http://osianh.blogspot.com/2012/06/i-prefer-reality-part-2.html
A blog about things I find interesting - skepticism, atheism, music, books, art, science, life in general. Thursday, 14 June 2012. I Prefer Reality (Part 2). Further joy at religious versions of reality being untrue. A month or two ago, I wrote about. But for all the suffering that humans might endure, on the larger scale of the universe, this is not really of much significance. What are the lives and deaths of a few score billion people, in the vast cold depths of the universe? And it's not just the Ear...
osianh.blogspot.com
Reason most absurd: Foundation and Patriarchy
http://osianh.blogspot.com/2012/07/foundation-and-patriarchy.html
A blog about things I find interesting - skepticism, atheism, music, books, art, science, life in general. Sunday, 29 July 2012. This post is about Isaac Asimov and the Foundation series. Before I go further I'll point out that I like Asimov, and greatly value what he has done for science fiction, as well as his contributions to science, science popularisation, skepticism and humanism. If I appear to become quite critical, bear that in mind. Also, Spoiler Alert. And regarded the education of women. No I ...
osianh.blogspot.com
Reason most absurd: Some remarks about Neal Stephenson
http://osianh.blogspot.com/2012/08/some-remarks-about-neal-stephenson.html
A blog about things I find interesting - skepticism, atheism, music, books, art, science, life in general. Friday, 24 August 2012. Some remarks about Neal Stephenson. So it makes an interesting contrast to the carefully designed and planned nature of large projects today. Massive cock-ups: haven't we got beyond this yet? The list goes on. The space programme is dead". No it isn't. But this argument that Stephenson made was more than just about the slowdown of technological growth: it was about ambition a...
osianh.blogspot.com
Reason most absurd: May 2012
http://osianh.blogspot.com/2012_05_01_archive.html
A blog about things I find interesting - skepticism, atheism, music, books, art, science, life in general. Friday, 25 May 2012. Houston, it looks like we got us a Dragon by the tail". Well that was amazing: I just watched the live video feed from NASA of the SpaceX Dragon capsule docking (well, being grabbed by a robot arm) with the International Space Station. This is a pretty important moment: it's the first time a privately funded mission has made it to space and linked up with NASA. Of course, today'...
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