Is your university really undergoing a fiscal crisis? 27 Oct 2009 I have friends who are forced to do five days’ teaching and research work in four days a week, ostensibly because of the Global Financial Crisis. It turns out, this is often not the real reason why… Education
Creationism and Intelligent Design Are creationists rational? 28 Apr 2009 My Synthese essay has finally been published [paywall], in which I argue that on the basis of the more realistic notion of rationality devised by Herbert Simon, called “bounded rationality”, certain heuristics are liable to lead people to rationally choose to believe in creationism under the right conditions. It’s a… Read More
Education How immigration restrictions are starting to hurt academic research 1 Nov 2009 Jorge Cham of PhD Comics was nearly deported from the UK recently. His story is most interesting, and somewhat scary: From here. Part one here. Who doesn’t believe that we allowed terrorism to win? Read More
Education Dicks, niceness and evil: a rant 29 Aug 2010 The ongoing blogbattle over whether to be nice or a dick skeptic continues. Phil Plait gave a speech suggesting that niceness works better. There was blowback, of course, which he discusses here and here. The Great Tone Debate seems to resolve down to those who think that minds are changed… Read More