nameandnature

The Battle of Bamber Bridge – by Ian Leslie – The Ruffian

Detailed article on the gunfight between black and white GIs at Bamber Bridge in England during World War II.
(tags: history racism military america war)

Originally posted at Name and Nature. You can comment there (where there are currently comments) or here.

The Cursed Computer Iceberg Meme

This is fun if you’re a computer geek.
(tags: history culture programming computers)

Originally posted at Name and Nature. You can comment there (where there are currently comments) or here.

‘We May Have to Shoot Down This Aircraft’ – POLITICO Magazine

Oral history of the events of 9/11. Odd that the USAF doesn’t seem to have the equivalent of the RAF’s QRA fighters (although there’s clearly a lot more country to cover).
(tags: hijacking 911 transcript history)

Originally posted at Name and Nature. You can comment there. There are currently comments.

The Influence of ULTRA in the Second World War

“In 1993 Sir Harry Hinsley kindly agreed to speak about Bletchley Park, where he worked during the Second World War. Sir Harry Hinsley is a distinguished historian who during the Second World War worked at Bletchley Park, where much of the allied forces code-breaking effort took place.” A transcript of the talk.
(tags: bletchley-park world-war-II encryption enigma history)

Originally posted at Name and Nature. You can comment there. There are currently comments.

World War Three, by Mistake – The New Yorker

The author of “Command and Control” on the cheery topic of the degradation of the USA’s control systems and the possibility of cyber attacks. Also touches on Trump/Putin.
(tags: war history nuclear ICBM donald-trump vladimir-putin cold-war)

Originally posted at Name and Nature. You can comment there. There are currently comments.

I assert that God is omnipotent, omniscient, but also all-Evil. How would you disprove this contention? : DebateAChristian

Someone takes Law’s Evil God Challenge over to /r/DebateAChristian, and makes a pretty good showing of it. Amusing for all the Thomists complaining that the poster doesn’t get it, without quite being able to say what it is OP doesn’t get.
(tags: theodicy stephen-law theology philosophy god good evil thomist aquinas)

Peter Loggins – On The Importance Of Learning Other Dances Aside From The Lindy Hop : Atilio Menéndez : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

Loggins on how to dance at a real jazz club where most people are there to listen, and some history related to the old time ballrooms. Plus some advocacy for learning stuff other than lindy (maybe I should brush up my rusty ballroom skills).
(tags: ballroom dancing etiquette jazz lindy lindy-hop history)

Trevor Copp and Jeff Fox: Ballroom dance that breaks gender roles | TED Talk | TED.com

A couple of ballroom dancers who have developed various ways of switching lead/follow during the dance.
(tags: dance ballroom gender dancing waltz salsa)

Originally posted at Name and Nature. You can comment there. There are currently comments.

We only hire the trendiest

More efficient hiring and better tools are cheaper than competing for candidates from the top universities.
(tags: tech programming hiring recruiters google)

Critically Examining the doctrine of gender identity – YouTube

A presentation by Rebecca Reilly-Cooper for Coventry Skeptics. The Q&A; (linked from the description) is interesting too.

A concept of gender identity which is entirely exhausted by “I am what I say I am” doesn’t stand up to the scrutiny of a professional philosopher like Reilly-Cooper, and I hadn’t realised that people were saying things like “my penis is a female sex organ, because I am female” (as opposed to saying “it’s a woman’s, because I am a woman”).

I do wonder how much harm is being done by people believing wacky things in this case, though: is it common for males to cynically claiming to be women in order to harass women?
(tags: gender sex feminism identity identity-politics biology philosophy)

Libertarian Social Justice Warrior: A Surprisingly Coherent Position | Thing of Things

“As far as I am aware, “libertarian social justice warrior” is a niche very rarely filled. This is annoying to me, because a really good case can be made for the social justice libertarian.”
(tags: social-justice libertarianism sjw basic-income economics welfare)

Infographic: Taking Easter Seriously – Jericho Brisance

“Many Christians read the Easter stories year upon year, as I did for several decades, yet we never compare them in detail. As a consequence, we often do not realize that they are not telling the same story. There are indeed contradictions in the texts, but it is very important to move beyond “mere contradiction” – the issues with our gospels are far more extensive than that. Comparison against the historical record and assessing the gospels for trends of legend development are probably far more crucial. As with many non-believers, I left Christianity specifically because of the Bible, and because I considered and examined its content very seriously indeed.”
(tags: bible easter crucifixion contradictions history Christianity Religion)

Sealioning

Not quite the original comic. Makes a good point though. Via andrewducker.
(tags: comic sealioning)

Originally posted at Name and Nature. You can comment there. There are currently comments.

Whig Party | Britain’s original progressive political party is back

Crikey. It’s like a Neal Stephenson novel: “The Whigs are returning to British politics. We are going into the 2015 General Election to provide a fresh choice to the British people, and to show that everyone can get involved in politics. Our campaign will be positive and optimistic, both online and in the streets. The Whigs are back. Come and join the party.”
(tags: whig politics election history uk general-election)

David Hume and the sensible knave | Ask a Philosopher

Is there a response to Hume’s “sensible knave”, who does evil only when he can be reasonably sure of not getting found out?
(tags: david-hume hume morality knave philosophy glaucon)

Why I Don’t Read The News Anymore | Thing of Things

I don’t, either, for roughly the same reasons.
(tags: news ozymandias psychology availability politics)

A fixed-term hung Parliament? | British Government and the Constitution

Prof Adam Tomkins explains the Fixed Term Parliaments Act. Points out that, while a defeat which is not a motion of no confidence does not allow an early election, nothing compels a Prime Minister to stay in office: Labour could hold the threat of Milliband’s resignation (and the Tories being invited to form a government) over the SNP in order to pass a budget, for example.
(tags: constitution government politics election confidence)

The British press has lost it – POLITICO

Even the broadsheets don’t bother to hide the fact that they’re rooting for the Tories because their oligarch owners told them to (except the Graun, of course). No one in my liberal bubble actually reads print newspapers, they just share links to the Graun’s “Comment is Dumb” section on Facebook. Still, I might not be typical, so it’s all a bit worrying.
(tags: press newspapers journalism politics britain election)

Originally posted at Name and Nature. You can comment there. There are currently comments.

I had a couple drinks and woke up with 1,000 nerds (This really touched me)

Nostalgia overload as a bloke sets up a Linux box and gives his friends (and then randoms from the Internet) accounts, like what we did with our college Internet connections in the mid 90s.Remember Pine?
(tags: unix tilde community history)

Originally posted at Name and Nature. You can comment there. There are currently comments.

Why I’m speaking up for Islam against the loudmouths who have hijacked it | Maajid Nawaz | Comment is free | The Guardian

“I tweeted a cartoon of Jesus and Mo. My aim was to carve out a space where Muslims can be heard without fearing the blasphemy charge.”
(tags: mohammed islam jesus cartoon twitter maajid-nawaz liberal-democrats)

The Philosophers’ Mail

It’s the Daily Mail as if written by philosophers: “We look at the stories of the mass media, then put our own philosophical gloss on them, in the direction of truth, wisdom and complexity.” I’m not sure how long they’ll be able to keep it up, but currently it’s pretty good.
(tags: mail philosophy stoicism paparazzi daily-mail)

Disharmony at Bletchley Park | Gareth Halfacree

All is not well at Bletchley, it appears, with tensions between the two museums on the site and between the guides (who are excellent) and the management of Bletchley Park Trust. What a shame, it’s a great place to visit.
(tags: bletchley charity uk computing history museum)

Originally posted at Name and Nature. You can comment there. There are currently comments.