Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Decent Review of the Skeptical Environmental

I've been looking for a nice, concise little review of the notorious book for a while. It's by Frank Ackerman; type hit ctrl-f and then type "Tree-Huggers" and you'll find it.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

The damage of cell phone radiation

Recently the press has been all over this article; a doctor's interpretation of current research into cell phones and conclusion that they are harmful. This claim has been made by experts previously; similarly, a scientific study found that cell phone masts [pdf] did seem to increase cancer rates.

Now there's a study that has found a direct relationship between cellphone radiation and tissue changes. I found out about it through Mercola, but the science comes from BioMedCentral, the premier open-access biology journal. While I still use my mobile phone, I'll likely be using a landline more when I settle down for a reasonably long time. The cost of using a landline for most of my calls is not that high.

Monday, April 07, 2008

Hume Didn't Discover the Problem of Induction

I noticed that Hume's insight into the problem of induction was not so original as philosophers like to claim when I took Ancient Philosophy. Good to see that the philosophical literature has raised the point as well. The same applies to just about all philosophical literature, I imagine -- which makes me wonder whether philosophy has been just a distraction from real knowledge all along. The Greeks set not only the foundation -- they may have built a good sturdy building, as well, and instead of letting it lie and giving it its due recognition, we tear it out down out of a need to publish. Adding more words to a world which is already drowning in them seems like a problem to me.