Dennis Prager Advocates Harmful and Immoral Opinions About Morality | Vol. 4 / No. 21.2

March 21, 2017March 22, 2017 RFB Atheism

Dennis Prager is a talk show host, and a religiously conservative one at that. I wouldn’t normally talk about such things on this blog, but the American Humanist Association’s Facebook page today shared one of his videos (mostly as a “here’s what we’re up against” kind of thing), and as far as I’m concerned it advocates for a poorly-considered line of reasoning that actively aids discrimination against atheists in America.
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“Kissing Your Sister,” or, Musings on the Fitness Consequences of Consanguineous Mating | Vol. 4 / No. 20.3

March 15, 2017 RFB not creationism again

Ah, Biblical literalism.
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“All I Know Is What’s On The Internet” | Vol. 4 / No. 12.5

January 20, 2017 RFB Thinking Out Loud

A few thoughts about writing for this blog after today.
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The Pink Salt Taste Test | Vol. 3 / No. 50.2

October 11, 2016 RFB opinion

Alright, so after some comments on last week’s post about “Himalayan salt” flavoured potato chips, I decided to do a little taste test. I’m a big fan of iodized salt because I don’t eat a ton of fish and I’m lactose intolerant and so iodized salt is the easiest place to get iodine (and because nobody’s a fan of goiters). Now, I can tell you for certain that there aren’t any health benefits to pink salt over not-pink salt, and that anyone who tells you pink salt is better for you is either lying to you or just plain old run-of-the-mill wrong.

But.

People say there are differences in the taste of different salts. I was skeptical, but willing to see for myself, so here we go: a barely exploratory mostly unscientific n=1 one-subject single-blind (technically single blindfold) taste test of three kinds of salt.

Self-Driving Cars Must Take Part In The Social Contract Governing Roads | Vol. 3 / No. 48.2

September 27, 2016 RFB Thinking Out Loud

No! Bad train! Bad! | Photo: Louise Docker, CC BY 2.0 Every time the conversation steers toward self-driving cars, if the conversation goes on for long enough, someone brings up the trolley problem. Here’s one variant, […]

Mars is to Martian as Earth is to… Tellurian? | Vol. 3 / No. 44.4

September 1, 2016 RFB Thinking Out Loud

If you’re from here, you might be a Tellurian (someday) | Image: Kevin Gill, CC BY-SA 2.0 Earthy? Earthling? Terran? Tellurian? If someone or something is from or on Mars, we call it “Martian,” but […]

On Being A Linguistic Canute | Vol. 3 / No. 43.3

August 24, 2016August 24, 2016 RFB Thinking Out Loud

“Addictive” is to “addicting” as “explosive” is to “exploding” | Image: This Week In Tomorrow, CC BY-SA 2.0 Perhaps you’ve heard the story of King Cnut (often written as “King Canute”). The gist of it […]

Market Competition and Healthcare in America | Vol. 3 / No. 42.4

August 18, 2016 RFB Thinking Out Loud

The economics of incentives | Photo: Ken Teegardin, CC BY-SA 2.0 *** Just yesterday, I posted two stories to the Facebook page that had to do with market competition — one about Google expanding its […]

Why Are We Afraid Of Improving Humanity? | Vol. 3 / No. 40.4

August 4, 2016 RFB Thinking Out Loud

Better, faster, stronger | Photo: U.S. Army RDECOM, CC BY 2.0 A recent study out by Pew has announced that “Americans are more worried than enthusiastic about using gene editing, brain chip implants and synthetic […]

Flossing | Vol. 3 / No. 40.3

August 3, 2016 RFB Thinking Out Loud

Photo: keatssycamore, CC BY-SA 2.0 Given that I’m literally heading to the dentist later today for a rather overdue appointment (it’s been over a year… shut up I know) I find it somewhere between curious […]