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- Yeah, in a Minute... is the personal dumping grounds of Paul Landry:
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- "Paul" / "he–him–his"
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News Gathering vs. Confirmation Bias
- Remember, if you do not have at least one source of news that you turn to regularly, with which you routinely disagree, then you are not practicing news gathering! You are practicing [confirmation bias].
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Science
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[S]cience is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.
The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.
— Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (New York: Ballantine Books, 1996) at p.32.
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[S]cience is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.
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Author Archives: Paul
Scouts Honor: Inside a Marching Brotherhood
Sizzle Reel for the upcoming documentary Scouts Honor: Inside a Marching Brotherhood about the Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps, a corps I had the honor of marching with way back in 1982. Often referred to as “marching band on steroids”, drum and bugle corps takes the marching arts to the next level, and one […]
Tagged awesome, entertainment, family, music
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BusinessWeek: Listen Up Apple-Haters
Eric Chemi writing at BusinessWeek, “Listen Up Apple-Haters: IPhone (sic) Sales Eclipse Microsoft and Amazon Revenue” The iPhone 5s and 5c sold a record 9 million units during the first weekend after its launch. Consider this: The brand’s sales haul over the last four reported quarters eclipses that of such companies as Home Depot (HD), […]
Misery Loves Comedy
If you’re a fan of stand-up comedy, and those who perform it, you’re no doubt aware that a staggering percentage are truly miserable. KickStarter project by Kevin Pollak. Looks great — so great, that I’ve backed it. Check it out.
Tagged entertainment, movies
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Nate Silver and FiveThirtyEight Join ESPN and ABC
ESPN Media Zone: Silver will serve as the editor-in-chief of the site and will build a team of journalists, editors, analysts and contributors in the coming months. Much like Grantland, which ESPN launched in 2011, the site will retain an independent brand sensibility and editorial point-of-view, while interfacing with other websites in the ESPN and […]
Tagged politics, statistics
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AP: Gay Marriage Ruling Already in Use in Other Cases
Interracial marriage still was illegal in 16 states in 1967 before the high court outlawed race-based state marriage bans. It is rather amazing — and shocking — to read accounts from the 50s and 60s regarding interracial marriage. What’s most shocking is the realization that the arguments used, and used effectively – for decades, by […]
Tagged family, government, opinion, politics, reason
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WSJ: NSA Monitoring Includes Three Major Phone Companies, as Well as Online Activity
Honestly, I don’t know why so many people are getting so upset about this. Let me rephrase that: I honestly don’t know why so many people are just now getting so upset about this! Unless you’ve been practicing willful ignorance — for political or other reasons — then you’ve known full well about (or at […]
Tagged bullshit, government, opinion, politics, reason, skepticism
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Cream always rises to the top: Van Halen’s A Different Kind of Truth
Recently in a fit of nostalgia — or maybe it was because I happened to catch David Lee Roth on Jay Mohr‘s podcast — I bought last year’s Van Halen A Different Kind of Truth. Plus, what the hell — I’ve already got the rest of the Van Halen catalog (and the David Lee Roth […]
Tagged awesome, entertainment, memories, music, opinion
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Remembering the Great Nashville Flood of 2010: We are Nashville
Three years ago today began what would come to be described by the Army Corps of Engineers as a “1000-year flood.” In Nashville, the two-day rain totals were nearly 20 inches. In the days following those events of 2010, I was quite taken — as were many Middle Tennesseans — with the words so eloquently […]
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David Lee Roth: Always, at any given time, have a song that you’re listening to over and over again
Always at any given time have a song that you’re listening to over and over again. It can be brand new – it can be the latest Keisha single – it can be an old Stones song that you just rediscovered – hey, “Tumbling Dice” – I’ve been listening to it for the last two […]
Independence Day, Rain and Neighbors…
Today’s forecast: 4-6 inches of rain over the next 24 hours! Say what you will, but over the last couple years I’ve come to love it when it rains on the 4th of July, and so does my homeowners insurance carrier (ba-doom-ching). That’s because the people who live on our cul-de-sac (and the neighboring streets, […]
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