paralepsis

Added: Wow, this post got long. It's like kairosfocus gives everything he touches a proximate case of his own logorrhea. Warning: do not read this post. It is by definition without consequence, as it's about a character what goes by the name kairosfocus , whose blog, though astonishingly voluminous, is even less important than mine . Although his own blog is but a filibuster in an empty room, kairosfocus also spends a lot of time posting on other (mainly Christian) blogs. As Jon Rowe puts it , he's in the habit of writing "book-length ponderous posts" in strident defense of his strange views. kairosfocus typically doesn't really win an argument. He simply wears his opponent out. In the process, he inevitably accuses them of some combination of the following: "selective hyperskepticism" ad hominem red herrings strawmen These accusations are often couched as painful observations and noted with a characteristic "sadly." But there...

My brother lives in Singapore, where I spent a lovely Christmas. We're twins, so we look alike (except that he's in shape, so I look like my brother in a funhouse mirror). He's been learning Chinese and singing Chinese songs in Singapore karaoke bars. Here is is singing an acoustic version of the pop song Xiao Wei : Also, if you don't know it, tune in to Radio Otherfunk . Their Darwin Day episode was my first contact, but I've been catching up on previous broadcasts since I heard it. Fantastic stuff: worth the time.

Welcome, Uncommon Descent members ! For the record, I don't ban users or arguments (I will delete threats and suchlike.) As long as you're here, you might check out the reality behind ICON-RIDS (if you haven't heard about this before). A letter to GilDodgen, responding to this : I, Hermagoras, am banned at Uncommon Descent but apparently still discussion-worthy. Indeed, a whole post devoted to refuting someone (me) who is not allowed to respond. You guys are certainly committed to fair debate! I was trying to make a fairly simple point, which I would have thought IDers agree with: that all observations and all "facts" are theory-laden. It's simple enough. I elaborated it in a post which Dembski apparently thought was off-topic and led him [to] ban me in precisely the terms I previously discussed on my blog . Hilarious. Then continued discussion (again I can't respond) about how I'm trying to be the clever one . Nothing in my banned posts ...

"Pixie is no longer with us." That's a comment on Uncommon Descent , the intelligent design (and global warming denialist) blog. Apparently the user "Pixie" was kicked off the comment board for saying terrible things like this : Tribune [another commenter], there is some ambiguity in both those cases; we do not know for certain why Gonzales failed to get tenure (maybe Iowa State did want anyone associated with anti-science, rather than someone who criticised evolution). Micheal Behe, Granville Sewell and Michael Denton still hold university positions despite their criticisms of evolution. Larry, why do you think it is the teacher? Do teachers often have to write lines on the blackboard in your experience? A general comment: Why should we suppose from this cartoon that there is a “Church of the Living Darwin”? Is a rejection of any and all criticism a distinguishing feature of religion? No longer with us . The kind of thing you say when someone has died, or y...

Just following up on the previous post: the first parody comment on Dembski's link seems to have made it past the censors (though really, it's hard to tell what's not parody). I thought I'd link to it here before Dembski et al. erase it along with the whole embarrassing episode. The poster calls him/herself "NoeticGuru," and writes : Heh, long time lurker, first time poster here. But I’m glad that organizations like ICON-RIDS are showing up, and that proponents of ID are taking notice of them. I think that it will help show that ID isn’t a single religious doctrine since it can incorporate so many different non-materialistic philosophies. ICON-RIDS, for example, will probably attract a lot of followers with its ethical philosophy (you’ll probably need to scroll down a bit to get to his Transparadigmic Pleasurian socio-ethical paradigm, but it’s worth a read). Since I’m also a dabbler in mathematics, I’ve been particularly impressed with Dr. Brookfi...

From time to time, I surf over to Uncommon Descent to keep tracks on the intelligent design folks. They're an odd bunch over there: constantly proclaiming that this or that study is the stake in the heart of Darwinist Orthodoxy TM -- but then, nothing changes, and so a new stake must be discovered next week. I commented there for a while but then I got banned, I guess -- anyway, my comments stopped showing up. I guess they were considered too snarky: this at a site where Dembski actually began a post by comparing the face of Jerry Coyne with Herman Munster. What. An. Asshole. Today Dembski posts the following : It will be interesting to see how the National Center for Science Education Selling Evolution deals with the growing number of non-religious ID proponents. Check out the following link: icon-rids.blogspot.com . Yes, very interesting. No doubt the NCSE will be shaking with fear at this guy : I don't hold any degrees from any university of any kind. My job as a citize...

Check out this picture from a Flickr set of the creationist museum. Then look at the first comment. I got the giggles and just could not stop.