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- Yeah, in a Minute... is the personal dumping grounds of Paul Landry:
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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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Tag Archives: documentary
NOVA: Rise of the Drones
NOVA’s “Rise of the Drones.” Amazing and terrifying. Available to stream on Netflix.
Also tagged government, politics
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Terms and Conditions May Apply
You know, it occurred to me several years ago, that if I could “Like” something on Facebook from another website, then Facebook was tracking me. I log in and out–even on my iPhone–every time I use Facebook (or Google, for that matter)… If you don’t, or don’t know why you should, you may want to […]
‘Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey’ Will Breathe New Life Into Sagan’s Vision
Phil Plait (@BadAstronomer on Twitter): “For those questioning the idea of #Cosmos airing on Fox and not PBS, please read this.” We live in a time when the denial of reality is as prevalent (or more) than the acceptance of it. Much of that denial comes from a provincial view of the Universe, a narrowly […]
An Inventor, Two Magicians, and a 350-Year-Old Mystery
This film as been getting some very impressive notices on the festival circuit. Can’t wait to see it. Directed by Teller (his feature debut) and produced and narrated by Penn Jillette, the documentary “Tim’s Vermeer” tells the true story of Tim Jenison, an inventor who created digital editing and computer animation tools that helped revolutionize […]
Also tagged entertainment, movies
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Kirby Ferguson: Embracing the remix
TED Talk by Kirby Ferguson. Great artists steal, except from me! Excellent talk, except for one inaccuracy: popular myth has it that Apple “stole” the original Mac’s features from Xerox PARC, but the fact of the matter is that Apple purchased “engineering visits” to PARC in exchange for selling Xerox 100k shares of pre-IPO stock […]
Also tagged apple, entertainment, history, movies, ted/tedtalks
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Revenge of the Electric Car
New film by the director of ‘Who Killed the Electric Car?’ reviewed at plugincars.com: It’s been five years since Chris Paine’s cult classic documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?” ignited a sentiment of lost opportunity and anger at those who would rob a future filled with plug-in cars from consumers. In that time the car […]
Also tagged cars, entertainment, movies
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Vivian Maier
If you haven’t heard of Vivian Maier, or her remarkable photography, then you should follow the link and read a little about her. It’s really a remarkable story. The story of this nanny who has now wowed the world with her photography, and who incidentally recorded some of the most interesting marvels and peculiarities of […]
Also tagged photography
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If I Leave Here Tomorrow: Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Ronnie Van Zant on Gun Control
If I Leave Here Tomorrow: A Film About Lynyrd Skynyrd (Passion Pictures/Showtime 2018) at 51:21: Interviewer: ‘Saturday Night Special’ is a song that deals with a very real and dangerous subject in today’s America. Our interview of Lynyrd Skynyrd focuses on this now. Ronnie Van Zant: ‘Saturday Night Special’, we’d just known some friends, that, […]
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