Skepticism is a movement that says "show me" and that "extraordinary
claims require extraordinary proof."
Ockham's Razor (Occam's Razor)
Non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem ("entities should not be multiplied
beyond necessity")
--William of Ockham (Occam) (a late medieval Scholastic, b. c. 1285, probably Surrey, d.
probably 1349, Munich)
(Most influential 14th century Scholastic philosopher, founder of the Nominalist school.
Also known as Occam's Razor, the Law of Parsimony, or the Law of Economy.
Hume's Razor:
Hume (Of Miracles, 1748) advanced the following principle which --echoing
Okham --has been called Hume's Razor:
"No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle unless that testimony be of such a
kind that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavours to
establish."
--William Grey, Philosophy and the Paranormal. Part 2: Skepticism, Miracles, and
Knowledge. Skeptical Inquirer 1994; 18(3):288-294.
Conover's Razor
Whosoever touts new medical "discoveries" based solely on testimonials and
without any controlled studies, and whosoever markets such discoveries, most likely are
guilty of fraud (or if unknowing, of attempting to lead others into the dark of their own
ignorance) and should be ignored.
--me
Skepticism is the disposition, or art, of matching belief to evidence.
There is at present no convenient antonym for "skeptic." For convenience, I
propose to revive the archaic expression "credulist" to serve this role. A
credulist can be understood as someone who is apt to accept claims without sufficient
evidence, that is to say, someone whose epistemic standards are too low.
--William Grey, Philosophy and the Paranormal. Part 2: Skepticism, Miracles, and
Knowledge. Skeptical Inquirer 1994; 18(3):288-294.
If I am fool, it is, at least, a doubting one; and I envy no one the
certainty of his self-approved wisdom.
-- Lord Byron
The Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of
the Paranormal -- Ghost-, Guru-, and Quack-Busters
Paris WebMuseum, local U.S. access -- great
art education entertainment
Current
afternoon weather map from The Weather Channel -- simple and to-the-point
MapQuest -- interactive map browser
Four11 White Page Directory -- one of many
Bartlett's
Familiar Quotations -- online
Hypertext Webster Interface --
online dictionary
Roget's
Thesaurus - online
Shakespeare -- online from MIT
Project
Gutenberg Home Page -- putting all books online
Internet Public Library (U Mich) -- good
reference starting point
according to InfoWorld, May 12, 1997, this is the best
way to search the Web; I now use it more than any other search method.
Profusion is
another "meta" search engine -- with recent good reviews. It certainly gives
MetaCrawler a run for the money (except of course that like Metacrawler it's free).
Alta Vista -- big, fast keyword search
Lycos -- best-organized reporting, keyword search
Yahoo -- best if searching by hierarchy
rather than keywords
This isn't exactly free, and isn't exactly an information SEARCH
utility -- but certainly may be an excellent resource when you're trying to find out
something obscure.
Bachri's Home Page -- Indonesian
spices and sauces by mail, also used to have a good local Middle Eastern/Indonesian
restaurant in the Pittsburgh area -- and we can't wait until they open a new restaurant. 
Amazon Books -- lotsabookstobuy online. There are other
bookstores online, but for my money none is better than Amazon
Potomac Appalachian Trail Club
(PATC)
Back to Keith's Home Page