Although, ostensibly, you could vote Yes or No – in reality the No vote was never presented (or explained) as an option. Everybody knew what would happen with a Yes vote; the constitution would pass, and we’d move along, etc – but nobody ever bothered to investigate or discuss what a No vote would entail. Would the whole constitution be re-written? Would only certain articles be written?
The conversation going on right now in Egypt, whether it’s on twitter, or in a cab, or on a supposedly well-respected television show – has mostly been bereft of all logic and reason. I really can’t be bothered to go through all the cognitive biases that people commonly succumb to (and that our media lately has been almost relying on), but this is a short sample of some biases, with brief introductions taken mostly from Wikipedia, and with each one, I’ve tried to attach examples that are, let’s say, a bit more…local. Enjoy. This is not comprehensive, and certainly not exhaustive, and my examples might certainly exhibit some of the biases I’m warning people about, but then again, that is the Blind Spot Bias… Please Note: These biases obviously exist in all people world-wide, the main object of this exercise is to see how strong a part they play in some of the conversations...
As a listener – as audience – I am driven towards media that I like. I am infotropic, so to speak. Some data, some information, some inherent artistic or intellectual order manifests to me through songs, books, movies, and various other forms of media. Wanting this information is as basic to my spiritual/intellectual/cultural self as water is to my biological. In that sense, it feels like more than a want, it feels like a morally justifiable right. I want to pay for the stuff I like, in fact – proud to pay for it when it’s easy to, and when the compensation requested is within my budget. However, it seems that withholding the data, on condition of compensation is somehow contrary to the essence of information itself, to a moral imperative inherent in information – to the very fact that information seems to want to spread. It is self-reproducing. As a...
One can only hope that the title of the ‘news’ article ‘Creativity older than thought’ was intended as a bad pun. Otherwise, well… In any case, the article goes on to claim that due to the discovery of very early forms of jewelry, the ‘modern’ mind as we know it must’ve existed for a much longer time than scientists have previously assumed. Now… I have no doubt at all that the ‘modern’ mind a) is a mis-nomer, and b) has existed much longer than scientists would ever dare think…However, the logic of the argument elaborated in the article is just pathetic. Examine, for instance, this quotation: “If people were using beads, they were using them to convey a message about themselves,” Professor Stringer said. “I believe that implies there was language, which does much the same thing.” – The...
BBC NEWS | Americas | Guantanamo suicides ‘acts of war’ “The camp commander said the two Saudis and a Yemeni were ‘committed’ and had killed themselves in ‘an act of asymmetric warfare waged against us’.” Right. THEY KILLED THEMSELVES AT US! ‘Nuff Said.