Monthly Archives: April 2011

SETI Telescope Array Set to Close

It was with great disappointment that I learned that due to diminished funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the state of California,  SETI Institute’s search for extraterrestrial life is facing financial problems.  The Allen Telescope Array (ATA) has … Continue reading

4 Comments

Filed under In the News

I Like Stovies Too.

Ok.. this is neither science nor superstition but just a really funny video. The reason I am posting it is that I have always thought that my colleague and collaborator Alan Leslie at Rutgers has more than a passing resemblance … Continue reading

4 Comments

Filed under General Thoughts

Watering the Flowers

I just got back from Dobbies Garden World in Shepton Mallet, Somerset which is amazing … and I am not one for frequenting gardening centres. This is chain of mega garden stores that started up in Midloathian, Scotland from what … Continue reading

5 Comments

Filed under General Thoughts

Soar Like An Eagleman

Every spring the Festival of Ideas in Bristol brings some of the finest thinkers and writers to our fair city. Last week it was Sam Harris. The week before it  was another neuroscientist, David Eagleman who came to talk about … Continue reading

5 Comments

Filed under In the News

Sam the Man

I have just come back from Sam Harris’s talk in Bristol abut his new book, “The Moral Landscape.” Apart from admiring Sam for his eloquent writing and brilliance at debate and argument, he name-checked me and SuperSense in the latest … Continue reading

13 Comments

Filed under In the News

How to Create a Storm

Here is a wonderful labour of love. Apparently when Tracy King and Dan Turner first heard Tim Minchin perform his beat poem “Storm” they were both struck with the clarity and simplicity of how it conveyed their skeptics frustration of … Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under In the News

Seize the Moment

Today at the Sunday Times Literary Festival in Oxford, something very unusual happened for the very first time. I have been giving the same old SuperSense talk for about two years now and have pretty much got used to all the … Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under book publicity, General Thoughts

Sacred Sport

One of the ideas I have for another book down the road is one on superstition and sport. After religion, sport comes pretty high up on the list of human activities that evoke magical thinking. We all know about all … Continue reading

8 Comments

Filed under In the News, supernatural