Letters Remain

  • Another Example of Middle-East Ignorance

    Dunkin’ Donuts removes ‘terror scarf’ ad – The US chain Dunkin’ Donuts has pulled an advert following complaints that the scarf worn by a celebrity chef offered symbolic support for Islamic extremism.

    She was wearing a black-and-white checked scarf around her neck that resembled a traditional Arab keffiyeh.

    This fashion choice incensed at least one prominent conservative blogger, who said it evoked extremist videos.

    The blogger called the garment “a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos”.

    People really do need to get more educated on these issues. Do the majority of people not realise that there is a difference between Arabs and Muslims – let alone Muslims and extremists?

    As a white middle classer who has recently decided to learn Arabic, I get a lot of odd, angry stares when I (attempt to) talk to the local Arab immigrants. However, I just ignore these ignorant people… just like Dunkin’ Donuts should have.

    Edit: Here is the blog post from said “prominent conservative blogger”. Watch out, it’s scary over there!

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    Lloyd Morgan

  • Suing in the Name of God

    Soon it’s going to be illegal to see into the future; contact the deceased; and find out what’s inside closed envelopes. Well, probably…

    New laws are about to criminalise clairvoyants who fail to note on their advertisements that their services ‘are not subject to scientific proof’.

    Obviously, I’d like to think that the more intelligent among us realise that most of this “clairvoyance” is just a combination of Forer effects, confirmation bias and self-delusion, but I’m a positivist.

    I can’t wait to see my first case:

    “Madame Arcati, you have been convicted of preying upon stupid and gullible people by purporting to see into the future, and to communicate with the dead, without warning them in writing that your art is tosh”.
    “But Sir, that’s what we of the spiritual trade have been doing for centuries. Surely the stupid and gullible should be allowed their illusions?”
    “And another thing, Sir: If I am to be punished for this, what about the Vicar? He can’t prove his claims any more then poor little I can. What about wrinkle cream makers?”

    This has also been in the news previously. I do wonder, though, if it will be stretched to cover the many instances of popular pseudoscience.

    via The Magistrate’s Blog

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    Lloyd Morgan

  • Breaking Records with Firefox 3

    The release of Firefox 3 is imminent, and to celebrate its launch, the Mozilla Foundation is organising Download Day 2008 – an attempt to break set the record for the most software downloads in a 24 hour period.

    As I’ll be downloading this soon after release for both my home and work computer, I have decided that I might as well join in the merriment. Come, join us.

    Download Day 2008

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    Lloyd Morgan

  • Creating Indexed Users

    When it was live, I used to look forward to the next instalment of Creating Passionate Users; a blog on doing business in the IT sector where the writers were “all passionate about the brain and meta-cognition”. The entries were comical and the accompanying graphs were simple, elegant, and really were worth a thousand words.

    Under regrettable circumstances it was closed indefinitely in April 2007, but luckily it’s still ‘up’, and for a good overview check out the last post which is a collection of all the greats.

    It reminds me a lot of Indexed.

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    Lloyd Morgan

  • The Placebo Effect – Once More With Feeling

    I’ve just written a post on one of my favourite topics; the placebo effect.

    Triggered by the article Placebo is not what you think, it touches on the use of placebos by medical professionals (currently a banned practice) and the informed use of placebos by heroin addicts. Strangely enough, in the latter case the use by addicts is self-medicated:

    Furthermore, studies done in the 1970s showed that when heroin users inject water (sometimes done deliberately to alleviate cravings when drugs are in short supply), they can experience drug-like euphoria and have been observed to show opiate-like physiological signs such as pupil constriction.

    This last point also demonstrates that placebo is not solely about expectancy, belief or ‘being fooled’, as the heroin users knew they were injecting themselves with water. Conditioned responses play a role.

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    Lloyd Morgan

  • Aristotle’s Moral Virtues and Vices

    In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, moral virtues and their extremes are discussed. That is to say, personal characteristics and the extremes thereof. These extremes – or vices – are two of the three pillars of virtue, the third of which is The Golden Mean, or the Virtuous Mean. This mean is the position on the ‘scale’ where a well-balanced, morally virtuous person would lie.

    Here’s that scale:

    Vice of Deficiency Virtuous Mean Vice of Excess
    Cowardice Courage Rashness
    Insensibility Temperance Intemperance
    Illiberality Liberality Prodigality
    Pettiness Munificence Vulgarity
    Humble-mindedness High-mindedness Vain-gloriness
    Want of Ambition Right Ambition Over-ambition
    Spiritlessness Good Temper Irascibility
    Surliness Friendly Civility Obsequiousness
    Ironical Depreciation Sincerity Boastfulness
    Boorishness Wittiness Buffoonery
    Shamelessness Modesty Bashfulness
    Callousness Just Resentment Spitefulness

    Adapted from the Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy’s General Introduction to Aristotle.

    An abridged version of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics is available from Squashed Philosophers; a site I’ve written about previously.

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    Lloyd Morgan

  • Books That Will Induce a Mindf**k

    Trying to keep this site family-friendly (bring the kids… I’ll play with them) I thought a couple of asterisks would come in handy for my most recent find:

    The den of iniquity that is Everything2 (I waste spend way too much time there) has a pearl of wisdom in Pseudomancer’s Books That Will Induce a Mindf**k.

    By this it means books that give you thoughts so divine and perfect, they could almost be described as carnal. They excite you, they turn you on, they make you think beyond your present beliefs, they make you change your panties. I’ve read a few on the list, all of which I would recommend… a good list to look into, maybe?

    (Above I’ve linked to the printable version of this page. I’ve done this as it was the only version I could find that gave me the full list!)

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    Lloyd Morgan

  • Interview With a Blind Homeless Man

    Interview With a Blind Homeless Man, by Bobby “Revellian” Revell:

    I don’t get upset when someone calls me old, stupid or whatever because I don’t know what it really means when describing a person.

    This great post reads almost like what I call the doctrine of the atheists; morals and ethics come from within. This short story shows that religion – to some – can act as a free-pass to acting immoral and antithetical to what they’ve been taught.

    No my friend, you are the lucky one. If you could see, you’d know why people are cruel and treat others based solely on what they look like. People who see, live their lives based on it.

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    Lloyd Morgan

  • Travelling Light

    I’ve had Tim Ferriss’ post on How to travel the World with 10 Pounds or Less (that’s lbs, not £s) bookmarked for a while now, waiting for a good reason to post it here.  One has now arisen.

    An NPR story called How to Pack Everything You Own in One Bag has created a slew of articles on travelling light, many of which are really quite useful. However, one shines above all the others with its list of great links…

    Lifehacker on, How to Cram All Your Travel Gear in One Bag.

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    Lloyd Morgan

  • Ask Y Combinator – The Archive

    I’ve written about Y Combinator before, and if you followed the link you’ll have realised by now that ‘Y Combinator‘ is analogous to ‘Grade A Columbian Nose Candy‘.

    Well get ready for another binge on the dandy candy, as the Startups Wiki has now produced the Ask YC Archive – a site highlighting the best ‘Ask YC’ posts from Y Combinator’s Hacker News site.

    via Lifehack

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    Lloyd Morgan