Only Foreword
The Great Sperm Race
The Discovery Channel here in Canada — boom di yah dah — last night ran an innovative little special via the UK’s Channel 4. It was called The Great Sperm Race and any science-minded parent with a flare for allegory, metaphor, and “suggestive themes” should track down a copy and watch it.
What I enjoyed most was not that it made science quote-FUN-AND-COOL-unquote — because that rarely works and it’s a bit of a pet-peeve of mine — but rather that it made science EPIC. Yes, epic science. No really. You need to watch it.
The Great Sperm Race tells the story of human conception as it’s never been told before. With 250 million competitors, it is the most extreme race on earth and there can only be one winner. [1]
With the use of many, many actors dressed full-on in white (and some respectable special effects) the documentary chronicled the journey of a mass of male gametes towards the lone egg in the depths of fallopian tubes, but there was a twist: each sperm was represented (at scale) by a full sized human being. Huh? Imagine this: the sperm army storming the mountain pass that is the vaginal canal, doing pitch battle against the numerous obstacles and defense forces guarding the female reproductive system, and navigating a course that seemingly works counter to the mission of the invaders towards a single, monumental, life-creating goal. Imagine that to the scale of mountain ranges and cityscapes, fields of death and ladders ascending into clouds, and you can likely picture the — yes, epic — visual impact of the show.
In fact, if I was still teaching biology, I’d probably be hunting down a copy of it on DVD right now instead of blogging about it here. You can thank me later.
[1] http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-great-sperm-race
Everyone Loves Resurch
Don’t mind me while I take a moment to gush. Everyone seems to be liking RESURCH+ORG these days. And between keeping up with that and building a sandbox for the girl in the backyard, I haven’t had much time to write here.
And I’ve recorded thirty-six hundred hits to that particular site in the last twelve hours. Why, you ask?
It’s a good thing the poor little site has a relatively small digital footprint. Phil Plait, of Bad Astronomy, tagged the link list this morning saying:
“Here’s an idea: read Skepdad’s Epic Reading List. It really is. Epic, I mean: he’s put a bazillion links in various categories, including blogs, podcasts, thinkers, topic-specific, and so on. I’ve looked it over and it’s a pretty good list if you’re looking to find ways to blow off that big project that’s already overdue. I’m actually a little afraid to delve into more deeply, as I can see my already-neutron-star-dense schedule getting even more tightly squeezed… and that can only have one outcome. A calendrical black hole.”
Nice. I guess I now have a line at TAM in a couple week. “Hey, Phil…”
Encouraging Stupid
Leave it up to the National Post to put a review of this so-called “book” in the arts section. The story, albeit a few weeks old now, was sent to me by a co-worker.
This isn’t a rant about genre or culture.
This is a rant about the misuse of fame. Kanye West releases something he calls a book — though more of a pamphlet from what I discern from the article — and tells the world: “I am a proud non-reader of books. I like to get information from doing stuff like actually talking to people and living real life.”
So everything he knows — at least, wants to know — is derived from what he learns in a narrow social context, and from talking to people? And he’s are encouraging the idea of an aural culture? Like pre-history aural culture? Or what? Mr West, clear that up for us would you. (Try to end the confusion. I wouldn’t want to paraphrase you incorrectly.)
The funny thing about books is that they hold a lot more information than we as humans can ever really hope to retain in our little brains. Do I need evidence to back that up? Readers should go ahead and recite to me from rote memory the last two novels they read while I go look for some research.
I wonder if it ever occurs to these folks that they are abusing their fame and celebrity in defense of ignorance, widening the gap of knowledge and understanding within their fan base, and generally lowering the bar of society and art (which I assume they hold dear) not to mention science and innovation.
I’m thinking that if everyone were to adopt a similar attitude towards the general acquisition of knowledge as does Mr. West, we as a society would quickly descend into a fairly banal state of exsitence. Heck, forget the progressive and stepwise achievement of most every kind of science, culture, art, innovation, philosophy and political stripe we’d achieved as a species and instead let’s bank on making it up anew as we churn our way through life. I just hope we remember to tell each other the details at the next party.
A Bit of Resurch: My Companion Site
Time for some shameless self-promotion.
I’ve been picking away for a few weeks adding links and information to a one-pager directory of many of my skeptical resources. I’m sure there are better ways to do this, but whatever. Hopefully such a collection is useful for other folks out there. The directory contains — or at least it will when I’ve completed it — a fairly comprehensive collection of skeptical, education, parenting, science, and other miscellaneous blogs, sites, directories, and portals that I’ve come across at various points in my efforts to build the SkepDad Blog. I’ve also started building a bit of a reading list — and your own opinion on that may vary as my choice of books is completely subjective.
Check out RESURCH.ORG over the next few weeks as I continue filling it with information.
1000 Rational Thoughts #3
0423) It seems to me that proper travel — the kind of travel that involves stepping off the cruise ship excursion itinerary, adventuring beyond the hotel courtyard, or dining outside the familiar menus of franchised fast food — and visiting places both new and different from one’s own day-to-day reality is an almost perfect metaphor for cognitive dissonance. After all, isn’t overcoming culture shock an exercise in rationally reconciling what we see with what we thought we knew?
0372) It seems to me that exercise and fitness are not rational things. By this I mostly mean that they are seemingly rational solutions to completely irrational problems. Why do we create such imbalances between our lives and our bodies that we need to allocate units of time, energy, and resources to try to correct those imbalances?
0002) It seems to me that many the Skeptics and other critical thinkers I’ve met are generally disappointed at the lack of credible evidence for paranormal, magical, alien, or the otherwise inexplicable phenomena of the world. These are not people who turn up their noses at the thought of such things. Instead, many Skeptics — while far too logical to accept what they’ve seen on the evidence they’ve been given — seem anxious to witness something altogether awesome and simultaneously provable.
0811) It seems to me that true democracy, while still one of the best systems we as a society have devised to date, remains something of an exercise in irrational political risk, at least so much as the individual is concerned. True, the alternatives offer little better in that respect. But it is something of a gamble, after all, to suppose that the will of the many will always represent the best interest of the many.
0572) It seems to me that there is a lot of literature, both fiction and fact, devoted to telling the story of otherwise peaceful folks driven to violence through logic and stepwise rational decisions.
Your turn… altercate, argue, bounce off, canvass, compare notes, confabulate, confer, consider, consult with, contend, contest, converse, debate, deliberate, descant, discept, discourse about, discuss, dispute, examine, exchange views on, explain, figure, get together, go into, groupthink, hash over, hold forth, jaw, kick about, knock around, moot, reason about, review, sift, take up, thrash out, toss around and/or otherwise weigh in in the comments below.
Slide Pride
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about independence. And still, no matter how much I ponder the idea, I’m still not sure I can put my finger on a tangible notion of the thing. Sure, there are definitions, but there are kinds of independence — gradients, shapes, flavours, tones — in the word, and it can be tough to pin down exactly what one means when one speaks of it.
I was thinking about independence yesterday, for example, when I was playing in the backyard with The Girl. We recently split the cost of a play set with her grandparents. It is nothing fancy: a wooden swing set with a plastic slide attachment. She can speed, climb, dangle, whirl, twist, and even swing and slide, all in the quartered supervision of our fenced yard. (It makes it easier for dad to get some yard-work done, or just sit nearby with a book, than going out to the local playground every time.) And the reason I was thinking about independence in the context of this new swing set is marginally related to just that: The Girl is physically big enough, strong enough, and coordinated enough to use the toy herself (and the equipment is just safe enough, too.) But, emotionally and mentally she’s still a little unsure.
Continue Reading…
Sciencey-Type Toys
This is not an endorsement. (Honest. I try not to do that kind of thing with services I’ve just discovered ten minutes ago. Maybe someday though.) I was just indirectly directed over to an interesting site based out of Rhode Island (I think) selling “games and toys inspired by Darwin.” No, really. Check out the link at www.charliesplayhouse.com and see for yourself.
Promising are the explanations of some of their products as science approved, FAQ-type answers stating that with one item, for example, they had “indexed [it] to the National Science Education Standards and the Benchmarks for Scientific Literacy.” (Nice!) And even more in tune with this skepdad’s philosophy is the little science-based learning blog they’ve tied in with their site — even if it is mostly about endorsing their products.
From a skeptical perspective I’d want to have a look at any claims these toys are making. Those who read this blog regularly likely already know my stance on toys and other products that claim to carry some torch for education, particularly when they spout off about some grand “learning objectives” for items that are just, well, toys. I flush most of those concerns down the pipe, however, when there is some real attempt to merge education and fun. (Which seems to be the case here.) And I’m even less critical when the primary audience for a product seems to be teachers to use as a supplement to structured lessons.
And the t-shirts look fun, too.
I don’t know what the demand for these products might be — fairly big, I’d hope — but I suppose if there are folks out there who’d keep a business like this one — or others — afloat they’re likely reading The Skepdad Blog.
New Crossing… Number 8, In Fact
Blake sent out an email reminding everyone that the latest edition of the Skeptical Parent Crossing blog carnival is up at Babylicious.
I missed the boat.
No excuses, I know. But, life being what it is lately, I forgot to submit something. *sigh* I’ll need to add a reminder into my calendar for next month. But in the meantime, check out some of the great posts in this, the eighth iteration of the carnival. That link again? It’s at Babylicious.
1000 Rational Thoughts #2
0722) It seems to me that a good imagination is a complement to critical thinking. Those that cannot imagine things any other way could have a hard time looking for better explanations of why they are that way to begin with.
0707) It seems to me that what influences one’s ability to think critically about a situation is the real or perceived personal impact of that situation. The scale of one’s ability to detach oneself from anything requiring critical analysis is, probably then, directly related to the final value of that analysis. But then that is a really long way of saying that emotional detachment from a problem tends to improve the outcome of the solution.
0258) It seems to me that nearly everyone wants to be considered a rational thinker, and in doing so frames their analysis of the world in such a way that they hope encourages others see them so. But, that said, it also seems that not everyone realizes the ultimate judge of what is rational and what is irrational is not an internal and/or a subjective measure, but an external and objective one.
0199) It seems to me that fame can be bad for critical debate. As a simple example look at the disproportion of voices when someone famous becomes a public figure on a social networking website. In these cases, very often, the person who is famous listens to the ideas of few but broadcasts their ideas to many. Critical debate of any value needs to take place on a scale of some equality, but fame unbalances that scale.
0510) It seems to me that if machines were to ever become (so-called) “intelligent” we would have no concrete way of proving or disproving it. Very few of us are able to prove that we are intelligent ourselves. But that said, I’ll start seriously considering the possibility that machine intelligence is close-at-hand when an artificial mind does something human-like, such as making a really bad decision despite having access to really good information.
Your turn… altercate, argue, bounce off, canvass, compare notes, confabulate, confer, consider, consult with, contend, contest, converse, debate, deliberate, descant, discept, discourse about, discuss, dispute, examine, exchange views on, explain, figure, get together, go into, groupthink, hash over, hold forth, jaw, kick about, knock around, moot, reason about, review, sift, take up, thrash out, toss around and/or otherwise weigh in in the comments below.
Just Memorizing: ABCDE…R…T…T…T…
The message one gets as a parent in this, our modern world, is one filled with the trivial little facts that we as adults take for granted. Take the alphabet for example: I haven’t been teaching the alphabet, but The Girl is picking it up somewhere. Wherever she happens to be — in the bathtub, eating dinner, riding in the car, or out for a walk — she seems inclined to rattle off random letters. But then I’ve always been a little skeptical as to the value of filling a little brain with facts — as opposed to filling it with thoughts.
Is there a difference?
Now, as important as I think the alphabet to be — I am something of a writer after all — I am dubious its value for a less-than-two-year-old child. And I am particularly dubious because — similar to her ability to count from five to ten — I seem to get the feeling that she is not learning the alphabet. Instead, I have the feeling that she is doing little more than memorizing the sounds. Repeating words. Singing a little song that happens to start with “ay – bee – see – dee…” and so on.
Now, as un-scientific as my little observations have been, I’d like to tell readers about a little experiment I very recently performed to confirm this. And that said, I should add that it is not even that much of an experiment. Definitely not science. And actually more of — merely — a little substitution game. In fact what I tried was simply this:
1) I’d been listening to the Girl when she sang her little alphabet song, and realized that she was mostly picking up on little cues from what I said so she’d be able to sing the next letters — or “verses”, really — as we played.
2) I’ve also noticed that she has become a recent convert to the cult of Sesame Street, particularly one (annoying) little, red monster.
3) As I’ve sang the alphabet more often in the last few months than I’d care to admit, many times at her prompting, I’ve noticed that some of the “verses” sound like other words. For example, “L-M-N-O-P” sounds kinda like “Elmo has to Pee.” (Mature, I know. My wife has reminded me of that a few times already.)
4) And finally, I’ve discovered that if I just out (of the blue) say aloud “Elmo has to Pee” is a bit of a sing-song voice then the Girl quickly replies with a “Q… R… S…” and a sidelong grin in my direction.
Conclusion: I have none, really. Other than little games like this bend me towards the proposition that she’s not so much learning the letters as she is just memorizing sounds. Is that a bad thing? Subjectively, who cares. We’re playing, talking, interacting. Should I expect anything more from her at that age? Unlikely.
Slimmed Down Skepdad?
I’ve been feeling a little guilty for not updating lately. It’s been… well… a busy couple of months at work and home. And while I most definitely classify my parenting duties as a job — albeit an unpaid (unless you consider unfiltered adoration of a little girl payment) one — I still do consider the SkepDad Blog a hobby.
(By the way, if someone wants to correct that situation, please do contact me. I work for Canadian currency, so it’s pretty cheap labour!)
I’ve been thinking on it and while I appreciate the generous support and heartfelt input I routinely receive about my often in-depth writings on these topics, I can’t find as many hours in the day as I used to. Generating useful articles is starting to become a full time job. And as I just mentioned, it can’t be. Nor do I feel right slackening on the research and thought required for each article. So, I’ve been putting it off. I’ve been letting the blog go stale, watching it sit there in my bookmarks list while I fret over quickly aging content. And at the moment, it’s starting to make me wonder if I should keep going.
But I’d like to keep going.
And the compromise to pulling the site offline and walking away is this: a reduced and slimmed down version of the blog. Rather than lengthy articles, I’m going to try and post more routinely with the type of entries you’ve seen here over the past few days. I’m going to aim for something relevant posted — a link or a bit of news — between two and four times per week — maybe more if it’s raining or if I’m stuck inside with nothing to do. And then maybe too, for good measure, I’ll still find time for the occasional in depth article.
If you’d like to comment, please do. If you’d like a more in depth explanation, find me a TAM and buy me a beer — and I’ll explain it all.
Free Range Kids Blog
I’ve been meaning to drop a note about this for a couple weeks. I came across a sweet little article in the April 21, 2009 edition of the Globe and Mail discussing the fall-out from the FreeRangeKids blog author — a mom — and certainly some kind of skeptical parent.
A columnist for the New York Times (wow, two references to print media today!), Ms. Skenazy committed the so-called-sin of allowing her nine-year-old son a modicum of independence, challenged the notions of the deadly stranger waiting around each corner to pounce on every unguarded child, and sent the young boy off with a mission: get home on the New York subway. Alone.
I’ve never been on the New York Subway. I’ve never been to New York. But, reallly: Good for her.
Now a year later — after holding back a tide of both negative publicity and overwhelmingly positive support — she writes on the topic. And if you are a skeptical parent like me, you see the blog for exactly what it is: a skeptical analysis of the quivering assertions of a frightened society. She’s just published a book. I’d like to read it. And I thought readers of this blog might enjoy it as well.
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THE SKEPDAD BLOG is a place for rational, science-minded fathers to express their thoughts, opinions, and ideas about bringing up kids to be critical thinking adults in a world filled with superstition, mysticism, and pseudoscience.
- MINIBLOG: A Thousand Rational Thoughts - I heard a story on the radio about some guy who wrote a blog with a thousand positive things. He got a book deal. I’m not worried about the book, but I thought it might be useful to do something similar for ‘rational things.’
COMMENTS: Comments - MINIBLOG: Intense Debate - Your input on an important matter is required!
COMMENTS: Comments - MINIBLOG: Eleven Thousand - Wonk for stats that I am, I had to share that the spam filter here just caught it’s eleven-thousandth spam comment. Now, if only we could mobilize that kind of bot-net for good…
COMMENTS: Comments - MINIBLOG: Skeptical Radio - It looks like our beloved Q-Transmissions is transforming into “Skeptically Speaking” — http://twitter.com/SkepticalRadio
COMMENTS: Comments - TWITTER: skepdad Happy Canada Day everyone...! >>
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Brad adds: As of October 2007, I'm soliciting interest for skeptics in the Edmonton, Alberta, Canada area who are interested in forming a skeptical society to contact me. Please do so through this blog or via Facebook (through the Edmonton Skeptical Society Group).
Or visit our new website: www.edmontonskeptics.org - Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.- Sir Martin Rees
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