Category Archives: Books

150 years of natural selection… well, you know what I mean

By thecodepounder | Published November 24, 2009

Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was first published 150 years ago today.

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Darwin goes digital: Rare drafts go online

By thecodepounder | Published November 23, 2009

The Darwin Manuscripts Project has digitized not only drafts of the seminal “On the Origin of Species”, but also notebooks and scientific writings from the time Darwin spent on the HMS Beagle, among other writings.

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Will secret copyright treaty restrict your digital rights?

By thecodepounder | Published November 22, 2009

Most Americans expect that their laws are only passed after some period of public debate between Republicans and Democrats or their news-channel proxies. However, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) may be an exception to this rule, and if it is signed, many United States laws concerning the Internet and ownership of data may become substantively [...]

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iPhone 3G S launch day

By thecodepounder | Published June 19, 2009

Well, for me it’s all up to FedEx now.  Might be early, might be late, but at least I won’t have to head across town to wait in line at the Apple Store…

Also posted in Apple, Can't Wait!, Entertainment, Games and Gaming, Movies, Music, Personal, Podcast, Technology, Television, iPod / iPhone / iTunes | | Tagged | Leave a comment

Fake list of books Palin sought to ban as mayor

By thecodepounder | Published September 11, 2008

I’m not going to link to it, but I came across the “list of books Palin tried to have banned” at librarian.net last night. Someone, and that someone shall remain nameless (because I’ve searched and searched this morning and can’t find the article, post, or tweet that I read last night), was linking to [...]

Also posted in Freedoms / Rights, Politics, Skepticism / Rational-Critical Thought, Social Commentary, Wacky Shit | | Leave a comment

What happened to the American Christian ministry?

By thecodepounder | Published August 8, 2008

What the hell happened to the American Christian ministry?  When exactly did “liberty” take a back seat to “everyone must live their lives according to what I believe”?
Liberty is the soul’s right to breathe, and when it cannot take a long breath, laws are girdled too tight. Without liberty man is in a syncope.
Henry [...]

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“Scientific theory” vs. “just a theory”

By thecodepounder | Published August 7, 2008

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS):
Terms Used in Describing the Nature of Science
Fact: In science, an observation that has been repeatedly confirmed and for all practical purposes is accepted as “true.” Truth in science, however, is never final, and what is accepted as a fact today may be modified or even discarded tomorrow.
Hypothesis: A tentative [...]

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The Bible as a human creation

By thecodepounder | Published July 16, 2008

Guest post on Atheist Revolution by Bill Carson. His conclusions support what I’ve said for many, many years: the worst thing a Christian can do for (or to) her faith is to read the whole fucking bible! If your most cherished beliefs are more important to you than reality, then you’d better not [...]

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The Dover Debacle: creationism and rationalism

By thecodepounder | Published July 16, 2008

Paul Gross, writing in eSkeptic, Lying for God: The Dover Debacle, reviews the book The Devil in Dover by Lauri Lebo. The article recounts the trial, of course, but also makes a few apt observations, namely, summarizing the essence of the problem each of the two “sides” (for lack of a better term) [...]

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Socratic Skepticism

By thecodepounder | Published June 25, 2008

Pricilla Sakezles, writing in eSkeptic:
“All I know is that I know nothing” is not an expression of skepticism, but of dogmatism. It asserts that I do in fact have positive knowledge of one and only one truth: that I do not have knowledge of any truths. This is obviously self-contradictory, and is a mistake often [...]

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This raises again the insistent question

By thecodepounder | Published June 18, 2008

This raises again the insistent question: who but a slave thanks his master for what his master has decided to do without bothering to consult him?
Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great, New York:Twelve/Warner (2007) at p.20.

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Controversies exist, but not those the Disco Institute is pushing

By thecodepounder | Published May 8, 2008

We’re all familiar with the Discovery Institute (and anyone who’s not need only follow this link to see search results from the National Center for Science Education).
PZ Meyers makes an apt observation:
There’s a clumsy little two-step move creationists like to make: first, point to dissent in the scientific community over real and often interesting issues [...]

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