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Tag: General
Anthrax
My building seems to be involved in an Anthrax scare.
So much to say, so hoping it isn’t paranoia…
So, the terrorism-related charges in New Zealand, eh?
Pretty nasty.
If I were a paranoid man I would be linking these charges with a whole host of other things going on in the background of what we pithily call a ‘democracy.’ Things such as revisions to our existing terrorism legislation, et al. If I were a worldly man I’d recall several of the Conspiracy Theories around the Oklahoma City Bombings, where it was claimed it was the BAFT who orchestrated the bombing (but failed to stop it) to salvage their reputation after the David Koresh ‘incident;’ certainly the police here do need some high profile ‘success’ (qualified or unqualified) to repair their falling reputation.
One of the problems with writing on Conspiracy Theories is that, eventually, something happens to you, or to your friends, that forces you to comment on recent events in a manner akin to a conspiracist. You lose the objectivity and rationality you have carefully cultivated and your quite interesting, erudite study becomes ‘yet another example of the loony left.’
So, for the time being, I’m leaving this issue alone. Friends and family know what I think. Anyway, why focus on the events of yesterday when there’s so much to catch up on?
Answers on a postcard.
Permalink to the 95bFM interview
Listen to it here. My speech defect seems awfully prevalent (to my ears) but it all sounds intelligible and intelligent, which is good.
The Monday Wire Interview, 95bFM
An article about me and the JREF Scholarship appeared in Te Waha Nui last week. You can read it here.
Anyway, I was interviewed[1] yesterday by José Barbosa of the ‘The Monday Wire,’ 95bFM’s current affairs/news show. It’s a pre-record for Monday’s (the 10th) show, so break out your old transistor radio and set your alarms to ‘Fun!’
Oh, that was a bad paraphrase of ‘The Simpsons.’ I’ll slink off now.
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1. I’m curious to hear how I sound; it was all improv-ed and I had no idea whatsoever what the next question was going to be. I suspect that I probably sounded more strident about some matters than I am and that other times I probably could have make stronger claims than I actually did. Oh well, Monday will out.
More on the Skeptic article
The Skeptic article might not be off the cards after all; Michael Shermer has suggested that I update it to reflect some recent comments made by Freeman Dyson (most notably from his book ‘The Scientist as Rebel’ and from an article he wrote on Climate Change for ‘The Edge’).
My latest pass at the piece has ‘streamlined’ it by 200 words and made it less jargony. Which is good, because as I’m now forced to put in a new introduction it gives me more room to play around with the central conceit of the piece, that fundamentalist scepticism is bad, but so is Dyson’s worldview.
If my rewrite works out (I’ve yet to look at ‘The Scientist as Rebel’ as my interloan request has not come through yet) then I’ve been given an assurance that this time round I will be given a definite date of publication and the piece won’t be left to stagnant and go out of date.
In other news: Here is my new Lord and Master on the subject of critical thinking and atheism.