Nina Mazar and Chen-Bo Zhong on the link between ethics and behaviour

“…people tend to be strongly motivated to engage in prosocial and ethical behaviors if their moral self is threatened by a recent transgression; they are least likely to scrutinize the moral implications of their behaviors and to regulate their behaviors right after their moral self has experienced a boost from a good deed. This implies [...] http://bit.ly/ck2mQW

Why critical thinking? An introduction to the importance of critical thinking

Why critical thinking? This critical thinking video on the the importance of critical thinking explains why: . See also: Regression to the mean and the insanity of “magical thinking” http://bit.ly/cehErT

Conservation failure: who is responsible for failing to make humanity sustainable?

In an article entitled World failing on every environmental issue: an op-ed for Earth Day, environmental journalist Jeremy Hance recently made the following observation about the failure of conservation thus far: “…we—the human species—are failing on every major environmental problem, including those I highlight below: biodiversity, oceans, deforestation, food and water, population and consumption, and climate change. Our [...] http://bit.ly/d9wawo

Rachel Cooke on anonymous internet abuse, Wikipedia on ?poison pen? hate mail and ?Another Proud RVC Man? on me as a�person

“As for cowardice, yes, of course anonymous posters are cowards. It’s pathetic. The honourable thing to do is to put your name to bad reviews and all the other stuff, and if this makes your social life awkward – as it sometimes does for me – the upside is that, in future, you will think [...] http://bit.ly/c4oUuD

Morally suspect financial crutches: Just how dependent are small animal vets on the diseases of pedigree dogs?

The BBC has suggested that pedigree dogs “cost their owners over £10m in vets’ fees each week.” I don’t know how much of this is routine treatments or emergency first aid, or indeed whether this figure is accurate or not, but it has made me think about how much of a financial crutch the diseases [...] http://bit.ly/9CNkow

Some remarks on the inverse relationship between evidence and faith

As far as I’m concerned, the real problem with faith is the assumed omniscience. To generate certainty the faithful must assume they know, but that’s circular logic of the very highest order. Early philosophers decided planet Earth was flat for example. They decided a massive three dimensional globe was actually a massive two dimensional pancake and they were quite [...] http://bit.ly/cjHWVR

Colin Campbell (head of the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre) on the theory of peak oil

“It’s quite a simple theory and one that any beer drinker understands. The glass starts full and ends empty and the faster you drink it the quicker it’s gone.” Source » See also: Peak wood, peak whale, peak coal, peak oil and peak energy http://bit.ly/cfl4wq