Sunday, August 31, 2008

Links and stuff

Don't know if you've noticed, but I've been sneaking quite a few new links into the lists on the right. Been meaning to get round to introducing them, but got sidetracked many, many times for many, many reasons. I guess now's as good a time as any:

AnthroVlog and Digital Ethnography came to my attention from a fascinating Youtube video regarding anthropology and the growth of Youtube. Both are relevant to my interests in studying the impact of the Net on society at large and have quite a few worthwhile articles and reports. Well, most of the time. One of the papers I downloaded suffered from a painful lack of scientific method and consisted entirely of a so-called "Phd" engaging in dozens of interviews, no quantitative methods, not much qualitative methods and nothing even vaguely resembling a concrete conclusion. Suffice it to say that I'm still a bit bitter about wasting a couple of hours of my life wading through garbage and finding sodall. But really, do take a look at the video if you've an hour or so to spare.

TUFTS Centre for Cognitive Studies is the site of philosopher of science Daniel Denett's department in TUFTS University. Lots of goodies, mostly pertaining to cognitive studies, including this detailed thesis on memetics that I'm currently reading.

Panda's Thumb came to my attention due to its role in the ongoing extermination of the Creationist movement. It should be point out that it is in fact many other things, and in its own words:

"First, it is an example of jury-rigged evolutionary adaptation made famous by the late Stephen Jay Gould in an essay of the same name. Second, it is the legendary virtual bar serving the community of the legendary virtual University of Ediacara somewhere in the Ediacaran hills of southern Australia, growing out of the lore of the Usenet talk.origins newsgroup. And now it is a weblog giving another voice for the defenders of the integrity of science, the patrons of “The Panda’s Thumb”.

Much as in any tavern serving a university community, you can expect to hear a variety of levels of discussion, ranging from the picayune to the pedantic. The authors are people associated with the virtual University of Ediacara (and thus the talk.origins newsgroup), and various web sites critical of the antievolution movement, such as the TalkOrigins Archive, TalkDesign, and Antievolution.org."

On a more upbeat note, Kakiseni is the place to go when you need information on what's fun in Malaysia. No, really, there's lotsa good stuff going on in this country, despite anything those dirty little rags that pass as newspapers here have to say. If you're visiting Malaysia, make sure you check out this site first.

Call me a geek, but the only CSI I'd give a toss about is the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, a veritable bastion in the conflict between reason and superstition. I think of it as a more intellectual Mythbusters. Energy healing, qi punches, ghost sightings, UFOs, holy "relics" and of course religion all fall under the purview of Skeptical Inquirer and are given the thorough debunking they deserve.

And that's it from me for now. I'm a-go check out the papers and see just what those arseholes who run M'sia have been doing to put the 'merde' in Merdeka...

1 comment:

Starmandala said...

Hi! You sound pretty much Alive & Well, my friend! Thanks for linking my blog - I don't know how you managed to mix a Chinese character with western font. What does the word mean? It's been so long since I studied Chinese at age 10...

If you reside in Malaysia, it would be fun to meet at some point. Feel free to establish email contact: magickriver(at)gmail(dot)com

It would also be sweet to have a name/face to go with your blog. I can see you have a somewhat syncretic mind and are open to different ways of being. That's excellent! :-)