Gregg R Thomas

@Simon, – The coordinated flight of birds or the efficiency of an ant colony are examples of true emergence. It is complex order arising from simple, local rules. Each agent behaves independently, yet their interactions create a collective intelligence without any central plan or higher consciousness.

It’s legitimate emergence because the…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
The problem in colleges isn’t indoctrination. It’s a lack of ideological diversity.

The right seems to be on a mission to expose universities as centers of leftist indoctrination. Too often we professors waved away the charge. We called these assertions naive at best, Trumpy at worst. Students, we rightly noted, are…

[Read more]

Thanks for the comment Jake. I was also thinking that old age is wasted on the not-so-young, to twist G.B. Shaw’s line for when people mistake religiosity for wisdom. Needing a comfort blanket against existential fear doesn’t make you wise; it just means you’re still afraid.

Real wisdom comes from remembering what it felt like to be young — cur…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
It sounds plausible, even scientific, but it doesn’t predict, measure, or model anything.

But surely the behaviour of flocks of birds – organisation – emerges from the behaviour of single birds, following a few simple behavioural rules, and the organised behaviour of ant colonies emerge from ants, which have a l…[Read more]

Re the second long read post above; The word “emergence,” when used uncritically, inherits the same intellectual vice as theism. It offers comfort where explanation is difficult. It sounds plausible, even scientific, but it doesn’t predict, measure, or model anything. It stops being a descriptor and starts being a substitute for under…[Read more]

Thanks Reg!

Have a great week!!

I was jogging in the park recently. I passed an older man on a bench for the 3rd time in a row (I do 6 laps – 5k). He quipped….’you are in 4th place’. No, I replied, “I am winning because I am still in the race”. On the next pass he was still grinning. It got me thinking……

Atheism, when treated not as mere disbelief but…[Read more]

was414x736 = viewed on an iphone.

PopeBeanie wrote:
I’ve been experimenting with youtube shorts, which is why you’ll see the “was#x#” underneath each of my video shorts, in case I need to change the dimensions to fit on different screens.

I looked underneath the video and didn’t see that code. Am I missing something?

The original video won’t give me an embed code, so I’m trying the code it offered me to use for sharing. Let’s see if it works any better:
https://youtube.com/shorts/lVpaaTCAetw?si=tvUc_p27IUIlBFys

Well, not for me.

I’m running ChromeOS, but since links I put up (normal ones, not shorts or verticals) tend to work okay, the issue seems…[Read more]

@Jakelafort – the ‘stopped clock’  cartoon in the current edition of the satirical Private Eye would agree with you 🙂

I am not great at website dev. but I did a little digging.

To include a thumbnail, you have to use the embed code instead of the standard YouTube link, since only the HTML embed triggers the thumbnail preview. Unfortunately, WordPress restricts HTML for non-moderators, so only moderators can post embeds that actually render the video.

For…[Read more]

@Reg – I can view the link, but there’s no “youtube” image on the AZ page.

Simon and Unseen – I can view the link without any problems. I am viewing on a Windows 11 laptop (Winver 25H2) and using Firefox. The Frog protest against ICE in Portland.

No

Will it work if you Share it?  https://youtube.com/shorts/lVpaaTCAetw?si=_gv1RpU3rNqNubvC

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lVpaaTCAetw

Why won’t this display? Any ideas?

Ah yes, of course Jake, how could I have been so blind? The benevolent freedom fighters of Hamas, guardians of justice, protectors of women’s rights, LGBTQ+ citizens, and interfaith harmony everywhere. Their tireless work in turning Gaza into a beacon of pluralism and technological innovation over the last 20 years with no help from Israel c…[Read more]