Overcoming Bias
Rated • 2 reviews • economics, philosophy, reasoning, psychology, blog • typepad.com
This is a group blog about bias and ways to ameliorate it. It is one of the finest blogs I have yet seen, and it gets my highest recommendation.
- Stumble >
-
Antinomy
Last seen: 25 months ago
Bill is a 42 year old guy from Rural, Michigan, USA
del.icio.us page, last.fm page, online hangout, another online hangout, LiveJournal, Furl page, GooglePage, pseudonymous nonsense
-
-
Manhattan Institute Scholar | Theodore Dalrymple
Rated • 1 review • journalism, western civilization • manhattan-institute.org
Theodore Dalrymple is an able chronicler of the decline of civilization, and here is a page of links to many of his articles.
-
Power Structure Research
Rated • 2 reviews • politics, sociology, ruling class, network analysis, power structure • uoregon.edu
This is a nice primer about power structure research, that is, research on the ruling class. The site contains many links to other sites useful for said research.
-
Other Publications
Rated • 3 reviews • psychology, iq testing, iq • udel.edu
Dr. Gottfredson is an expert in IQ, IQ testing, and the ramifications of IQ for everyday life, especially career choice and success. This site makes a generous selection of her papers available to the web. She communicates clearly, and an educated layperson should be able to follow most of what she writes.
-
http://phoenixmotorcars.com/
Rated • 10 reviews • cars, electric vehicles, science, automobiles, battery operated vehicles • phoenixmotorcars.com
This is an interesting looking electric vehicle. The times, they are a changing.
-
File Dorm - Free image, video and media host
Rated • 1 review • stats, demographics, population trends • filedorm.com
Estimates from the Census Burea of U. S. population now and in the future.
-
http://www.furl.net/members/Eldritch_Crank
Rated • 1 review • internet, recommended websites • furl.net
This is my Furl page. I am far more likely to recommend single web pages there than I am on StumbleUpon, which I try to reserve for whole sites.
-
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/7069/ifflinks.html
Rated • 1 review • mystery novels, fiction, detective stories, weirdness • geocities.com
Aleister Crowley wrote detective stories.
Some years ago, I read Aleister Crowley's novel Moonchild, not because I was a disciple of magic(k), but because I saw it on a list of recommended fantasy. It's not bad. I give it a B+.
Lately, I've been reading The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft, and it mentions that Crowley wrote a series of detective stories featuring an important character from the novel, Simon Iff. So I did a bit of Googling, and some good citizens have posted most of them to the Web; see here and here. Beware, they are not listed in internal chronological order on either site, and the later ones do contain spoilers to the earlier ones. My guess is that the first two are "What's in a Name" and "The Pasquaney Puzzle."
I've been finding them interesting. Wikipedia says they were written in 1919. Crowley, of course, was considered a great radical for his time and place. Simon Iff, portrayed as a wise old man, likes cocaine and hashish. He approves of prostitutes and premarital sex. Also, he doesn't spell it out, but it is clear from the context that Crowley thought the racism in the United States' was horrible.
On the other hand, nowadays Crowley would be considered horribly anti-Semitic and sexist. There are harsh little cracks about Jews sprinkled throughout the stories I've read so far, and Simon Iff likes his women to be young, pretty, and respectful. Older women are almost always described negatively, hag being a typical term for them.
The Simon Iff tales have other flaws. Some of the solutions to the mysteries are absurd. Simon occasionally uses Latin, which most contemporary readers, including me, can't follow. Some of the slang is so old that it is baffling. I suspect that contemporary readers won't find some of the motivations of the characters realistic.
Crowley, though, was a true wit. His send-ups of excessive Christians, especially, are still funny. The off-color puns aren't mistakes. If something can be read as a double entendre, one should do so.
If you are going to read them, here are some hints. A basic knowledge of Freudianism will help. Wikipedia should be enough to get you up to speed there. Assume all straight, thin objects are meant to be phallic symbols and all cup shaped objects are meant to be vaginal symbols. If the dialog suddenly seems to turn digressive, assume the characters are talking about sex and interpret accordingly. Sex was still a big taboo in 1919. Mercury was used to treat syphilis in pre-antibiotic days. Claudine refers to the Colette character. Divorce, in Crowley's time and place, was considered scandalous. There were many more newspapers per capita, and some of the strange names, e.g., The Screeching Buzzard, are meant to be jocular references to newspapers or newsweeklies. Don't hesitate to Google unknown words. Finally, either Crowley or his transcribers were inconsistent about leaving the quotes open for dialog that continues on to a new paragraph. Don't assume that the speaker is changing at the closed quote.
-
The Investigations of Simon Iff
Rated • 3 reviews • mystery novels, fiction, detective stories, weirdness • hermetic.com
Aleister Crowley wrote detective stories.
-
The American Conservative -- Size Matters
Rated • 1 review • politics, foreign affairs, military policy, public policy, intenational news • amconmag.com
I seldom use StumbleUpon to list individual articles. This one, however, is an important dose of sanity. Gregory Cochran is smarter than you are and knows more history. I suggest you read what he has to say.
