never agree to debate a creationist. (Facebook 10/8/12)

"Never agree to debate a creationist." (a election debate insight)

October 8, 2012 at 9:43pm

 

... something I read online long ago.  Why not agree to debate a creationist?  Because it automatically elevates his ideas to parity with yours.  And in this kind of venue, he has everything to gain, but you can only lose stature.  You think it's a given that your facts are superior to his conjectures, but you won't be able to prove it to the satisfaction of his audience.  Perhaps, if you were a master in the art of debating, you might be able to destroy the guy - but it's not likely.

Looking back to Wednesday night, it seems that something very much like this happened to Obama.  Obama came armed with facts - but in this kind of venue, Romney's "facts" could seem just as credible as Obama's.  The only way Obama could have "won," would have been by devastating Romney.  But apparently, he didn't think he needed to do that.

comments from a developer of anti-virus software (Facebook 3/20/12)

comments from a developer of anti-virus software

March 20, 2012 at 6:15pm

So far, ClamWin does not have on-access scanner, so you need to be careful and scan a suspicious file before opening it. 

If you do that, you will be as safe as with a commercial antivirus. User awareness is sometimes better than automatic protection, as it may be easier to break the automatic protection than to fool an educated user.

However, for an average user with little knowledge about online and computer security, the on-access component is a must, and the ClamWin should be used only as a complimentary scanner. We are developing it and will release it in the next major version update.

20 years ago in Israel/Palestine (Facebook 11/4/11)

November 4, 2011 at 2:16am

http://www.palestineonlinestore.com/books/palestine.htm

I got my political education from comic books... Journalist/cartoonist Joe Sacco depicts incidents of torture during Israeli detention - as they were doing it back in 1991/2. Compare conditions, the Palestinian and the Israeli attitudes back then with what you know about the present. Some things have not changed. "Palestine"; 288 pages; introduction by Edward Said; ninth printing March 2007.  Sacco covers a lot of ground, mostly letting people speak for themselves. Near the end, he offers an illustrated comment of his own:

...and I remember another time in Jerusalem, a month later. a group of Israeli soldiers stopped a Palestinian youth of 12 or 13...

The soldiers took cover under an awning and they made the boy remove his kaffiyeh and pointed to where he should stand - in the rain...

Perhaps for the boy it was one of dozens of humiliations, bad enough in his personal scheme of things, but no worse than others he'd experienced... I don't know...

and I'd come for the occupation and I'd found what I came to find, and here it was again, and something else, too...

The boy stood there and answered their questions, and what choice did he have? But what was he thinking?

Was it, one day it will be a better world and these soldiers and I will greet each other as neighbors? or was it simply, 'one day - one day!'

and beyond the particular abuses of this time and place, beyond the really big questions - the status of Jerusalem, the future of the settlements, the return of the refugees, etc. - which much be raised and then hurdled if there is ever to be peace here, is something else-

a boy standing in the rain, and what is he thinking? and if I'd guessed before I got here, and found with little astonishment once I'd arrived,
what can happen to someone who thinks he has all the power, what of this- 
what becomes of someone when he believes he has none?

no more conspiracy theories? (Facebook 10/19/11)

October 19, 2011 at 11:31pm (updated 1/28/14)

For the sake of better communication and understanding, I propose we change the term Conspiracy Theory to Superior Theory.

In that way, 1) the targets of our criticism will feel more respected, and 2) they won't be able to confuse our critique for a denial of the concept of "conspiracy".

e.g., "Your superior theory s__ks, because..."

occupying our Constitutional Rights (Facebook 9/28/1)

September 28, 2011 at 12:25pm

RF: How much longer will this go on? There has to be action to protect the constitutional rights of the people protesting. Where are those protections?

LL: Which constitutional right are you talking about?
- The constitutional right to have a demonstration anywhere you want even if the cops say no? 
- Or the constitutional right not to be attacked by police supervisors going berserk in front of dozens of cameras?

California dreamin (Facebook 9/5/11)

September 5, 2011 at 8:07pm

"...on such a winter's day," sing the Mammas & Poppas on the sound system in this way-north coastal California coffee house. 

Must have read my mind.  It's 9/5, but winter-chilly fog overcast outside.  Also winter-chilly inside, because when I walked in both doors were wide open.  (The staff are hot-behind-the-counter.) 

And I'm dreamin' of findin' a warmer California dreamin' coffee house - because my legs are getting cold.

how we deal with the 9/11 conspiracy (Facebook 9/2/11)

September 3, 2011 at 1:52pm

WK: I haven't had a lot of time to consider conspiracy theories. Sometimes the obvious explanation is good enough. People flew airplanes into the buildings and they collapsed.

LL: Yes, this explanation works for me, too, but that's largely because I have a paranoid mistrust of architects and construction companies.

"The explanatory power of an American conspiracy is, I think, rather low, because all this might easily have occurred without an American conspiracy." (Wayne Kraft)

"Whenever possible, substitute constructions out of known entities for inferences to unknown entities." (Bertrand Russell)

"Never ascribe to conspiracy that which can be adequately explained by incompetence." (Hanlon's Razor)