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Some Books on Critical Thinking

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 15:45:23 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

There are hundreds of books on thinking and how to improve it, ranging from airport junk to turgid academic treatises. Here is a short list of some of the best, focusing on critical thinking

Cialdini, R. B. (1984). Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

Giere, R. N. (1996). Understanding Scientific Reasoning

Heuer, R. J. (1999). Psychology of Intelligence Analysis.

Kepner, C. H., & Tregoe, B. B. (1997). The New Rational Manager

Minto, B. (1995). The Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing and Thinking.

Myers, D. G. (2002). Intuition: Its Powers and Perils.

Paul, R. W., & Elder, L. (2002). Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life

Piatelli-Palmarini, M. (1994). Inevitable Illusions: How Mistakes of Reason Rule our Minds.

Salmon, M. (1989). Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking

Spence, G. (1995). How to Argue and Win Every Time

Whyte, J. (2004) Crimes Against Logic

Tags: books, book, literature, help, start, thinking, critical, critical thinking, skepticism, skeptic, academic, logic, science, psychology

The real reason why no one reads your (my) blog.

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 22:54:18 GMT

clipped by: copireich

Clip Source: blindcopy.blogspot.com

The real reason why no one reads your (my) blog.

Ever wonder why the traffic to your blog is so terrible? I too am concerned about increasing my readership, so I decided to gather some information to help me decipher why my traffic sucks.

What I found wasn’t encouraging.

Consider the following facts:

There are approximately 6.5 billion people in the world.

Only 16%of the world’s population (1 billion people) have internet access.

16% of the world’s population is illiterate, which leaves only 840 million readers.

Of that, only 20% of the world’s population speaks English, leaving 168 million readers.

Only 30% of internet users read blogs, leaving 50 million readers.

50 million people, sounds like a lot right? Wrong!

Technorati is currently tracking around 50 million blogs.

That’s pretty simple math, 50 million blogs for 50 million readers.

Therefore, with an average of only 1 reader per blog, then who’s reading your blog?

That’s right, just you. Depressing, ain’t it?

Tags: blog, readers

Soldiers At Walter Reed told to Keep Quiet

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 17:17:08 GMT

clipped by: sydneycat

Clip Source: www.airforcetimes.com

It is unusual for soldiers to have daily inspections after Basic Training.

Walter Reed patients told to keep quiet

Soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Medical Hold Unit say they have been told they will wake up at 6 a.m. every morning and have their rooms ready for inspection at 7 a.m., and that they must not speak to the media.

“Some soldiers believe this is a form of punishment for the trouble soldiers caused by talking to the media,” one Medical Hold Unit soldier said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

They were also told they would be moving out of Building 18 to Building 14 within the next couple of weeks. Building 14 is a barracks that houses the administrative offices for the Medical Hold Unit and was renovated in 2006. It’s also located on the Walter Reed Campus, where reporters must be escorted by public affairs personnel. Building 18 is located just off campus and is easy to access.

Tags: military, va, disgrace, soldiers, bush administration

Lost tomb publicity stunt

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 16:00:05 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Leading archaeologists in Israel and the United States yesterday denounced the purported discovery of the tomb of Jesus as a publicity stunt.

"I'm not a Christian. I'm not a believer. I don't have a dog in this fight," said William G. Dever, who has been excavating ancient sites in Israel for 50 years and is widely considered the dean of biblical archaeology among U.S. scholars. "I just think it's a shame the way this story is being hyped and manipulated."

"It's a publicity stunt, and it will make these guys very rich, and it will upset millions of innocent people because they don't know enough to separate fact from fiction."

Israeli scholars, Amos Kloner, who originally excavated the tomb, and Joe Zias, former curator of archaeology at the Israeli Antiquities Authority. Kloner told the Jerusalem Post that the documentary is "nonsense." Zias described it in an e-mail to The Washington Post as a "hyped up film which is intellectually and scientifically dishonest."

Tags: science, religion, archaeology, discovery, christianity, jesus