Principles of Applied Epistemology (APPLIED EPISTEMOLOGY)

[Pete Jones]

"While timorous knowledge stands considering, audacious ignorance hath done the deed."

---English poet and historian Samuel Daniel.

[Mick Harper]

For years I assumed audiobooks were for the infirm. I now realise it is a completely different medium. Books you might ordinarily reject for all kinds of reasons--from unfamiliar genre to tedium--when reading, you will listen to with great pleasure.

However, this is not widely appreciated. It is like driving. Journeys that you would forswear if you had to drive, can be undertaken happily if you're in the passenger seat.

[Mick Harper]

The Tyranny of Large Numbers ran headlong into the Immoveable Political Stereotype the other day.

Nobody knows how many Russians died in the Second World War, and the Russians have always kept firm control of the data required for making accurate assessments. For several decades it was 'twenty million'. Then suddenly, for no obvious reason, the figure became 'twenty-seven million' and that remained the unvarying number for the decades since.

The other day, presumably because of the Ukraine War, a western commentator uttered the fateful words 'twenty-five to twenty-seven million'.