Gallup's Mirror

@_Robert_ Sunday school today is awash with stories of how Amerika is bucking traditional conservative values.

At the editorial meeting this morning I decided to tone down “the politics”. No-one disagreed with me 🙂

But you comment got me thinking. I started to answer it and somehow ended up with the following so I will publish it and be…[Read more]

Thanks, Reg!!

Have a great week folks!

“Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for critical thinking.”

– Leo Tolstoy.

Lear’s business license has been revoked for violating city ordinances, which include a provision that requires security personnel uniforms be clearly and visibly marked with the word “Security,” Sergeant Reneau said.

Re the badges video, what caught my attention first was that it looked like they were wearing black shirts.

I too had forgotten about Natan Sharansky.  It is good to read a different perspective, especially when it is from someone whose life experience gives it a weighting that basement pundits can never attain.

TheEncogitationer wrote:
I’m not character assasinating the Left. The Left is already nihilisticly suicidal. I’m just providing them the cigarettes, Jagermeister, and fat back to do it to themselves.

Character assassination is trending, alongside digression from the original or most productive topic. It’s a Bannon/Trump political (and aut…[Read more]

Who are you and where are your badges?

A letter in the Free Press.

@Enco, no problem, thanks. I devised a simple routine to see if I could catch Chatgpt out. I think I have made A.I. look a bit dumb. I will post later…..

@Enco –  You might want to do your own spell-checking instead of farming it out. It would be a better loving example to people you want to teach Critical Thinking.

I did. Liar and lair are both considered correct by any spell checker. It was a typo on my behalf and it was in the Sunday School post.But thanks for the rather snide comment.

Wordle 1,346 3/6*

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Bayes in action!!

Introduction to formal and informal fallacies.

Here is a more detailed explanation of Bayes Theory. Don’t be put off by the Math as the concept is more important if you are new to it.

I guess I should allow for the word “belief” and not just “understanding” as I think we all know the I don’t mean religious belief, i.e. belief that is not open to revision.

Another example:

Think of Bayes’ T…[Read more]

@ Unseen – The point you make about Columbus can be used as a basic example of Bayes Theory.  If he had being given new objective information about the location then he could have updated his understanding of what he had discovered. It would have changed his reality.  That is the essence of how Bayes works. It is not “shattering a belief”. It is d…[Read more]

Thanks Simon, Bayesian thinking is all about checking out new ideas. We don’t want kids to hold beliefs, we want them to have “understandings”. Then when a new idea (information) comes along, they will have the skills to reason through it and adapt their understanding accordingly.

Bayesian reasoning, logic, and fallacy recognition would do more…[Read more]

The United States sent $50 million in condoms to Hamas. Diversity programs caused a plane crash. China controls the Panama Canal. Ukraine started the war with Russia.

Except, no. None of that is true. Not that it stops President Trump. In the first month since he returned to power, he has demonstrated once again a brazen willingness to advance…[Read more]

I have more to add but decided to start  with this. Let’s see how it develops.