9 Dec 2008

News and Resources

Resources

Lumosity. Brain Games and Brain Training with free trial.

Erowid. Erowid is a member-supported organization providing access to reliable, non-judgmental information about psychoactive plants and chemicals and related issues.

Atheism Quotes website

Welcome to the one of the largest collection of atheist quotes, atheism quotes, and atheist shirts on the net! Browse the entire collection of atheist quotes from famous atheists and intellectuals throughout the ages, or search for your favorite personality or subject! It's all here for you! We're guessing if the atheist shirts had been available when some of these thinkers were alive, they would have worn one too!

Well, everyone has to support their site in some way, and having quotes on a T-shirt beats advertising some corporate designer!

3 Dec 2008

Scholarpedia

Welcome to Scholarpedia, the peer-reviewed open-access encyclopedia written by scholars from all around the world.

Scholarpedia feels and looks like Wikipedia -- the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Indeed, both are powered by the same program -- MediaWiki. Both allow visitors to review and modify articles simply by clicking on the edit this article link.

However, Scholarpedia differs from Wikipedia in some very important ways:

  • Each article is written by an expert (elected by the public or invited by Scholarpedia editors).
  • Each article is anonymously peer reviewed to ensure accurate and reliable information.
  • Each article has a curator -- typically its author -- who is responsible for its content.
  • Any modification of the article needs to be approved by the curator before it appears in the final, approved version.

Herein also lies the greatest difference between Scholarpedia and traditional print media: although the initial authorship and review are similar to a print journal so that Scholarpedia articles could be cited, articles are not frozen and outdated, but dynamic, subject to an ongoing process of improvement moderated by their curators. This allows Scholarpedia to be up-to-date, yet maintain the highest quality of content.

The approach of Scholarpedia does not compete with, but rather complements, that of Wikipedia: instead of covering a broad range of topics, Scholarpedia covers a few narrow fields, but does that exhaustively.

Currently, Scholarpedia hosts Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience, Encyclopedia of Dynamical Systems, Encyclopedia of Computational Intelligence, and Encyclopedia of Astrophysics. There has also been added the Encyclopedia of Cognitive Neuroscience.

2 Dec 2008

American Atheist seeks new Editor

American Atheist, a monthly journal of atheist news and thought, is seeking a new Editor.

Applicants must be Atheists with a history of expression of Atheist thought and activism and must be in agreement with the
following statement:

American Atheists, Inc. is a nonprofit, nonpolitical, educational organization dedicated to the complete and absolute separation of state and church, accepting the explanation of Thomas Jefferson that the First Amendment to
the Constitution of the United States was meant to create a “wall of separation” between state and church.

All this sounds fine, but the list of skills needed seemed to me slightly bizarre. I hope they are not listed in order of importance because at the top we find:
(1) Mastery of English grammar and spelling.
(2) Knowledge of and ability to use style manuals such as The Chicago Manual Of Style or similar
publications.
(3) Knowledge of foreign phrases and words commonly used in educated English prose.

Number 3 is especially strange and slightly antiquated. I would be more daunted if they required the editor to be able to read the outpourings of the Vatican in their original Latin or even the Italian Osservatore Romano. But, as stated, it seems enough to know what je ne sais quoi means and shrug one's shoulders meaningfully. However, applicants should at least brush up on the difference between pantheism, pandeism and pandemonium.

Application guidelines here at American Atheist.

AAKOM