Pared Down

Link dump for the week of November 16-22nd, 2009.

• A while ago, a friend recommended a BBC documentary called The Atheism Tapes. It’s a series of interviews with several philosophers and scientists. The first interview is with the philosopher Colin McGinn. The second interview is with the physicist Steven Weinberg. The third is with the playwright Arthur Miller. The fourth is with the biologist Richard Dawkins. The fifth is with the theologian Denys Turner. The final interview is with the philosopher Daniel Dennett.
• In a similar vein, check out the first three episodes of The Power of Myth, an interview by Bill Moyers with the comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell.  The first part is The Hero’s Adventure. The second part is The Message of Myth. The third is The First Storytellers.

Link dump for the week of November 9-13th, 2009.

• The Catholic Church gives D.C. an ultimatum: we’ll shutdown our social service programs if the big, mean politicians won’t let us discriminate against gays and lesbians. Here’s a joke. The set-up: “How do we help people?” The punchline: “Faith-based initiatives.” Queue everyone laughing. Especially the homeless.
• Filed under: “Wait. What?” Rupert Murdoch whines about Google indexing NewsCorp content in its search results. He owns multiple newspapers and a cable news channel. Wonder why they’re such rancid turd-piles? Now you know.
• Kirk Cameron plans to subvert Darwin. He will save us from science one stupid person at a time.

Link dump for the week of November 2-8th, 2009.

• Our [digital] rights continue to erode thanks to the ACTA. Sad times. Stay frosty, stay informed.
• I finished reading Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. Great read though I wish it was longer. I read it in conjunction with Freakonomics. It’s also a great read.
• I spent some time as a web developer.  Apparently there’s a merit badge for those of us who are full stack. Who’s cool now, boy-scouts? That’s what I thought!
• I filed this under ‘I Love This Man’ – Jon Stewart’s Perfect-Pitch Glenn Beck Impression.