Philosophy/Religion

Is Walters a Jewish Surname?

Some Jews question your Jewishness if you don’t have a traditional European sounding name. Barbara Walters was born in Boston to two Jewish parents. Her father’s name was Louis Walters (born Louis Abrahams); he was commonly referred to by just “Lou”.  Barbara Walters’ paternal grandfather, Isaac Abrahams, was born in ?ód?, Poland, and emigrated to England, changing his name to ... Read More »

The pot calling the kettle black (Chopra/Dawkins)

Richard Dawkins, emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, is an atheist and humanist. He came to prominence with his 1976 book “The Selfish Gene”, which popularized the gene-centered view of evolution and introduced the term meme. He is well known for his criticism of creationism and intelligent design, and he promotes the “Out Campaign”, where Atheists proudly display a scarlet-A ... Read More »

Crop Circles – From the Ridiculous to the Sublime

Last week, I had a little fun researching crop circles (better called “crop formations” because they are not all circular).  I find their shapes mysterious and hypnotic. The first thing you need to know is that there are actually companies that you can commission to create a crop circle for you.   The Firefox man-made crop circle was 220 feet in ... Read More »

The Singularity Institute

Video from the folks at “The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence” Keyword: recursively self-improving systems Speakers on the above video include: 1) Eliezer Yudkowsky – SIAI Research Fellow http://yudkowsky.net/ Read More »