NZ blog ranks – March ’09

OK – this is the result of my attempt at ranking NZ blogs using the methods described in Ranking methods for NZ blogs. Besides an overall aggregate rating using 10 statistical measures I have also provided aggregate ranks for three criteria:

Ranking statistics	Linking statistics	RSS feed subscriptions
Alexa Rank	Alexa Links	Google Reader
Alexa NZ Rank	Google Blog Links
Technorati Rank	Google Web links
Google Page Rank	Yahoo Links
	All the Web Links

At this stage I have included only 85 blogs (taken from those rating in first 60 of Tumeke and Half Done lists, plus a few extra of personal interest). I am also only reporting here the top 70 of these. For a full list and full ranking details for each of the 10 statistical measures download NZ Blog Rankings March 09.pdf.

So have fun comparing your rank below with those determined by by Tumeke and Halfdone. Don’t forget each survey uses different methods so results will differ and should be interpreted intelligently.

Ranking methods for NZ blogs

I had a go at ranking New Zealand blogs at the end of February (see Rating NZ blogs). A month later I think I will try again. But first – let’s check out the ranking method I am using.

This is similar to that used in the Atheist Blog Ranking which ranks each available statistics and then aggregates these ranks to produce an over all rank. Hopefully the procedure evens out the quirks inevitable in ranking using individual statistical measures.

Saturn opposes Uranus

Recently resolutions were tabled in the Oklahama State Legislature attempting to prevent Richard Dawkins from speaking at The University of Oklahama. This has been followed by an official “investigation” of the University and Dawkins presentation by  of one of the representatives (see Oklahoma Legislature Investigates Richard Dawkins’ Free Speech).  I guess most people thought this was just a storm in a teacup – indicating the survival of intolerance and bigotry in the USA. Perhaps harking back to the McCarthyist era.

So I was somehwhat surprised to see that there were other ways to explain this incident. (I mean apart from those by creationist organisations like the Discovery Institute will have their own justifications for this persecution.)

But what about this from  Learning Curve on the Ecliptic. Apparently the whole incident can be explained by:

“Saturn (the legislature of Oklahoma) opposing Uranus (the relatively modern theories of Dawkins, i.e. evolution).”

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New Zealand popular science books

Last December The Royal Society of New Zealand, our national science academy, established a prize for popular science books. The first winner will be announced by Richard Dawkins in a live  video link at the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival on Friday 15 May 2009.

Here are the five short-listed titles:

Babies and bathwater

When society rejects a practice considered repugnant sometimes we throw out the baby with the bathwater. This was brought home to me recently while watching the BBC Documentary “Darwin’s Dangerous Idea.”

It’s hard hitting – dealing with the way terms like  “social Darwinism”, “natural selection” and “survival of the fittest” have been used to advocate inhumane social policies. Of course the justifications have been purely opportunist and erroneous. One such social policy the documentary discusses (in Part 2: Body and Soul) was eugenics.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the Viability of Hope

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is one  of my heroes. (Or should that be heroines? I don’t know what the terminology is these days). I recommend everyone to read her book Infidel. And certainly watch any videos where she is lecturing or being interviewed.

I watched Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the Viability of  Hope recently. It’s excellent. She gives a brief description of her life experiences, her movement from Islam to atheism and her thoughts on the current problems presented by radical Islam and how to counter them.

The video is of an on-stage interview at American Jewish Council Conference (a situation interesting in itself).

I particularly liked her analysis of left/right politics.

And something to look forward to. She is currently working on a new book – a fictional discussion between Mohammed and several great western thinkers. The book should be out at the end of this year, or next year. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for that.

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Out of touch with reality

Have a look at this Herald Cartoon: Out of touch with reality.

“He might be in touch with God but he’s definitely not in touch with reality.”

Mind you – I think that it’s safe to assume that anyone who claims they are in touch with God, is out of touch with reality.

And what’s this about the Pope condemning “sorcery and withccraft?” Isn’t this a case of pots and kettles?

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Stalinist behaviour at creationist blogs

One of the most dishonest creationist campaigns is the “academic freedom” one. It can be a very effective “when are you going to stop beating your wife” type of argument as non-one wants to oppose academic freedom, do they? Of course, the creationists really mean freedom from evidence. They want to promote bronze age myths as scientific and to do that they have to remove the evidence requirement that science demands.

However, you would have thought that they would be careful to moderate their own behaviour if they are going to promote this “freedom” mantra. I am reminded of this hypocrisy by the recent banning of a commenter from the local creationist “Thinking Matters” blog. I was also banned there a while back. Many of us have experienced banning from local creationist blogs – and the major US creationist/intelligent design blogs like Uncommon Descent.

“Scientific” debate on the internet

In her post incoming woo – ‘stabilised liquid oxygen’ & other nonsense Alison discusses some of the pseudo science rubbish that gets published in newspapers. Particularly in the “Letters to the Editor” columns. Andre Picard discussed the same phenomena occurring on the internet (The Internet has changed the nature of scientific debate). He says:

“Interfaith” blindness

There is a strange attitude towards religion in New Zealand. US President Obama can acknowledge that the pluralistic society includes people of various faiths and people with no faith (the non-religious). However our main political parties (National and Labour) seem unwilling to face that reality. At least, that’s how it appears in their interaction with the country’s “interfaith” movement.