Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
The Google logo declares that today is the day. Exactly 50 years ago on 12th April 1961 he became the first human to journey into outer space when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth.
To help with a bit of an insight, his elder daughter Elena gave her first ever interview about her father to Andrea Rose of the British Council. This is the complete transcript. Here are a couple of surprising details …
Bill O’Reilly (of Fox News) is running a poll (No don’t panic, I’ve not gone over to the dark side of the force, so hang in with me here). Its a poll all about Glenn Beck and asks if you will miss him on Fox News now that he is departing. Well lets think about … Read more
Christopher Hitchers latest Slate article goes into my “Must read” category. In it he distills his thoughts on both the burning of the Quran by Pastor Stupid in Florida, and the utterly insane (but predictable) reaction within some quarters of the Islamic world. To make it easy, I’ve distilled out a few key points … … Read more
Just when the thought crosses your mind that “Nobody could possible be ‘that’ stupid”, somebody comes along to prove you wrong. Today’s example is all about an Italian history professor, Roberto De Mattei, who has made the claim that … “The collapse of the Roman Empire and the arrival of the Barbarians was due to … Read more
Jon Butterworth has written an article in today’s Guardian that is truly a fabulous piece. I applaud it, not simply because of the pure facts, but also because he has demonstrated scientific integrity at its very best. First, the core of the story itself is this … This week the CDF experiment at the Tevatron … Read more
How much of the mainstream media do you believe to be credible? (I’m talking Time, Post, etc, I’m not thinking about the stuff that pretends to be factual such as Fox News, but never is). Personally, I’ve accepted much, but there is a question I’ve been challenged over, specifically:
If you believe the media and popular opinion, then its because we can’t tolerate the slaughter of innocent people by a tyrant. Up until now, I’ve foolishly accepted this without giving it too much thought. The problem is that if I had applied a bit of critical thinking, I’d have quickly realised that there was something wrong with that statement. What has enabled me to change my mind is an article written by Johann Hari. In it he quite rightly points out …