Eating vegetables kills animals, according to research by Steven Davis. I could go on about what this means for vegetarians, but Maddox does a much better job than I could.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Links at 5:38 PM EST

1 Comment »

This news story sounds too good to be true. From the description, it sounds as though Reverend Lee Rayfield told the congregation at a carol service this story, about the scientific impossibility of Santa Claus. Somehow he didn’t realise there were children as young as five in the church. Their parents weren’t too happy about their fairy story being ruined by a man of God. Now they have to explain to their kids that not everything the Reverend says is true.

Perhaps these kids will learn something of critical thinking from the experience. With luck, they’ll start to question other things that Reverend Rayfield and their parents tell them. Maybe they’ll even apply the same scientific reasoning from the Santa story to the nonsense in the Bible. Oh the irony!

Posted by Rob Fisher as Imaginary Friends at 2:43 PM EST

2 Comments »

There’s a problem with ignoring rules, even stupid ones. Take, for example, a road near where I live, where there is a 30mph speed limit. The road is wide, there are few hazards, and most people ignore the speed limit. There’s no danger in this, the speed limit is stupid, it is safe to go faster. I rarely break urban speed limits, however, partly because I once got caught doing 40mph in a 30mph zone and have learnt from that mistake, and partly because it doesn’t really make much difference to your journey time. Most people find my unwillingness to break the speed limit along that road annoying. I can tell they are annoyed because they drive very close behind me (which is dangerous, but that is not my point).

My point is that instead of protesting en-masse to the local authorities for wasting our time by putting up ridiculous speed limits, they are ignoring them. Or worse, protesting to people like me who are obeying the rules. The stupid rules don’t get changed, and people still get into trouble for disobeying stupid rules.

In a similar vein, many people I know who have not yet embraced the world of free software like Linux are making illegal copies of the software they do use. One of the major disadvantages of proprietary software is the cost, so by copying it for free, these people don’t see why they should switch to Linux.

The problem with ignoring the rules is that it’s a quick fix, not the real solution. Lobbying to get speed limits set sensibly is the real solution. Using free software is the real solution. Sooner or later breaking the rules won’t be an option any more. Software will have to be registered before it will work. We’ll all have Big Brother in our cars preventing us from driving faster. Maybe then people will start trying to change the rules instead of just ignoring them.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Introspection at 1:01 PM EST

1 Comment »