Author Archive for JCE

Step Away From the Book!

Published
by
JCE
on February 12, 2009
.
If Authors Guild executive director, Paul Aitken has his way, soon reading out loud will be considered a copyright violation. As reported over on CNet yesterday, copyright holders are kicking up a stink about the newly introduced speech synthesis capability added to the second-generation Kindle ebook reader from Amazon. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, the executive director of the Authors Guild, Paul Aitken, made the claim that by reading the book out loud Amazon was claiming “an audio...

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Step Away From the Book!

Published
by
JCE
on February 12, 2009
.
If Authors Guild executive director, Paul Aitken has his way, soon reading out loud will be considered a copyright violation. As reported over on CNet yesterday, copyright holders are kicking up a stink about the newly introduced speech synthesis capability added to the second-generation Kindle ebook reader from Amazon. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, the executive director of the Authors Guild, Paul Aitken, made the claim that by reading the book out loud Amazon was claiming “an audio...

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Kids Are Talking – Are We Listening?

Published
by
JCE
on February 9, 2009
.
This past weekend I attended a meeting to discuss Kids and Atheism. It is a vast topic and became apparent during the meeting that more discussion is needed on the subject. The nature of Atheism does not lend itself to community connectivity and parents struggle when facing the task of managing outside religious influences while raising children. My own children are ages 14 and 20 so the issues that affect them have changed significantly. Where I once made an effort to limit the pressure...

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Kids Are Talking – Are We Listening?

Published
by
JCE
on February 9, 2009
.
This past weekend I attended a meeting to discuss Kids and Atheism. It is a vast topic and became apparent during the meeting that more discussion is needed on the subject. The nature of Atheism does not lend itself to community connectivity and parents struggle when facing the task of managing outside religious influences while raising children. My own children are ages 14 and 20 so the issues that affect them have changed significantly. Where I once made an effort to limit the pressure...

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Jimmy Carter: A Better Man

Published
by
JCE
on January 30, 2009
.
Catching up on Daily Shows, I watched the episode from January 27, which included former President Jimmy Carter as the guest. Mr. Carter is now 84 but remains the soft-spoken gentleman I remember from my childhood. As president, he faced a mountain of problems and upon leaving office he was considered one of our more ineffective leaders. He has since proven otherwise. Watching the segment with Jon Stewart a few things jumped out at me: First, Mr. Carter may not (or may) have known at the...

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Jimmy Carter: A Better Man

Published
by
JCE
on January 30, 2009
.
Catching up on Daily Shows, I watched the episode from January 27, which included former President Jimmy Carter as the guest. Mr. Carter is now 84 but remains the soft-spoken gentleman I remember from my childhood. As president, he faced a mountain of problems and upon leaving office he was considered one of our more ineffective leaders. He has since proven otherwise. Watching the segment with Jon Stewart a few things jumped out at me: First, Mr. Carter may not (or may) have known at the...

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Support Your Local Weatherperson

Published
by
JCE
on January 27, 2009
.
Time and time again I hear local weatherpersons disparaged as having a dream job: They get to be wrong and still collect a huge salary. (This may have shifted a bit given recent economic events and the dream job may now belong to Wall Street CEO's.) While I can understand the frustration that goes along with inaccurate weather predictions it does always stun me a little that many of these people willingly equate meteorologists with psychics and never consider the science behind either. ...

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Support Your Local Weatherperson

Published
by
JCE
on January 27, 2009
.
Time and time again I hear local weatherpersons disparaged as having a dream job: They get to be wrong and still collect a huge salary. (This may have shifted a bit given recent economic events and the dream job may now belong to Wall Street CEO's.) While I can understand the frustration that goes along with inaccurate weather predictions it does always stun me a little that many of these people willingly equate meteorologists with psychics and never consider the science behind either. ...

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Why Believers are Ethically Bankrupt

Published
by
JCE
on January 19, 2009
.
Last month a delightful article by Ben Shaprio pontificated on why atheism is morally bankrupt. His reasoning was simple: There’s only one problem: without God, there can be no moral choice. Without God, there is no capacity for free will. Sadly for Mr. Shaprio this reasoning is wrong - millions of people are considered to have excellent morals without god and since the concept of free will is derived specifically from religion it does not apply to the issue of atheism. On the other hand, it...

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Why Believers are Ethically Bankrupt

Published
by
JCE
on January 19, 2009
.
Last month a delightful article by Ben Shaprio pontificated on why atheism is morally bankrupt. His reasoning was simple: There’s only one problem: without God, there can be no moral choice. Without God, there is no capacity for free will. Sadly for Mr. Shaprio this reasoning is wrong - millions of people are considered to have excellent morals without god and since the concept of free will is derived specifically from religion it does not apply to the issue of atheism. On the other hand, it...

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Living In Fear

Published
by
JCE
on January 13, 2009
.
Without exception, all of us are controllable by fear. Through the history of human-kind leaders have utilized this fact to their advantage and it is still used today. We respond to fear, we make decisions based on fear, we allow fear to guide our lives. And in every single instance we are wrong for doing so. Advertisers attempt to convince us that unless we purchase Product A our lives will be less meaningful, our self-worth diminished and we will be judged negatively by our family and...

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Living In Fear

Published
by
JCE
on January 13, 2009
.
Without exception, all of us are controllable by fear. Through the history of human-kind leaders have utilized this fact to their advantage and it is still used today. We respond to fear, we make decisions based on fear, we allow fear to guide our lives. And in every single instance we are wrong for doing so. Advertisers attempt to convince us that unless we purchase Product A our lives will be less meaningful, our self-worth diminished and we will be judged negatively by our family and...

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Bad Science

Published
by
JCE
on January 5, 2009
.
*** Apparently someone at the Vatican discovered how to use Google over the holidays and unearthed an old study on contraceptives in public water sources, took it for a bit of a spin and promptly belched out this bit of 'news': Contraceptive Pill is Polluting Environment The problems with this are many but the thing that bothers me the most is the silence from the science community. The science community stands to benefit the most by encouraging skepticism in the face of such stories and had I...

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Bad Science

Published
by
JCE
on January 5, 2009
.
*** Apparently someone at the Vatican discovered how to use Google over the holidays and unearthed an old study on contraceptives in public water sources, took it for a bit of a spin and promptly belched out this bit of 'news': Contraceptive Pill is Polluting Environment The problems with this are many but the thing that bothers me the most is the silence from the science community. The science community stands to benefit the most by encouraging skepticism in the face of such stories and had I...

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Michael Flatley Can Dance But Still Unable To Think

Published
by
JCE
on January 1, 2009
.
*** Famed step-dancer Michael Flatley is crediting his miraculous recovery to his 'energy healer': Doctors were unable to identify the virus and weeks of rest did not cure Mr. Flatley’s fatigue and muscle pain. But he told The Independent he had been treated by Michael O’Doherty, whose Plexus Bio-Energy Clinic specializes in “rebalancing the life-force energy within and around the body,” according to plexusbio-energy.com, its Web site.Uh huh. First of all, the phrasing 'rebalancing the...

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Michael Flatley Can Dance But Still Unable To Think

Published
by
JCE
on January 1, 2009
.
*** Famed step-dancer Michael Flatley is crediting his miraculous recovery to his 'energy healer': Doctors were unable to identify the virus and weeks of rest did not cure Mr. Flatley’s fatigue and muscle pain. But he told The Independent he had been treated by Michael O’Doherty, whose Plexus Bio-Energy Clinic specializes in “rebalancing the life-force energy within and around the body,” according to plexusbio-energy.com, its Web site.Uh huh. First of all, the phrasing 'rebalancing the...

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