Mike Huben
From Huben's Wiki
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| + | |I read omnivorously in science, politics, and philosophy, but I've always read a LOT of SF and Fantasy. My favorite has long been comic fantasy, especially the [[Diskworld]] and [[Dresden Files]] series. My taste in films is much more varied. | ||
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| − | ||- | + | |One of my true loves has always been [[Entomology]]. I used to specialize in [[Acarology]] (the study of mites), and built a collection of a thousand slide-mounted specimens (and who knows how many more in alcohol that I've never mounted.) I've got a substantial number of colorful mite photographs that I've always wanted to publish, photographed by my friends in the New York Microscopical Society and me. After my last sabbatical collecting insects in Ecuador (1988), I finally settled on my current specialization, the [[Evaniidae]] (a family of wasps that parasitize cockroach egg cases.) I study these at the [http://www.mcz.harvard.edu/ Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology] on an unofficial basis. I'm also a member of the [http://entclub.org/ Cambridge Entomological Club]. |
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| + | |My philosophical ideas spring from skepticism, relativism, positivism, pragmatism, and humanism. When evaluating ideas, I work with the assumption that theories ought to match reality -- it is surprising how much theory matches reality badly. This tends to produce a preference for ideas that are valid (ie. work well) rather than theoretically correct (without working well.) | ||
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| + | Lately, I've concentrated on libertarianism, and run the only site I know of dedicated to [http://world.std.com/~mhuben/libindex.html Critiques Of Libertarianism]. This features my [http://world.std.com/~mhuben/faq.html Non-Libertarian FAQ] as well as a host of related materials I've been able to find. I enjoy writing witty responses to some of the more absurd or foolish posts, and I also enjoy appending suitable [http://world.std.com/~mhuben/sigs.html signature quotes from my collection]. | ||
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| + | I was briefly a contributing editor writing a monthly column on [http://www.suite101.com/topics/page.cfm/645 Skepticism] for [http://www.suite101.com/ Suite101]. That ended when I did not meet deadlines, but copies are present at [http://world.std.com/~mhuben/skept/index.html Mike's Skepticism]. | ||
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| + | |I am a zealous, evangelistic, crusading [http://www.infidels.org/ agnostic and skeptic], in religion, politics, pseudoscience, and quack medical practice. I've been posting for about 35 years (first on the old PLATO system and later on USENET) to political and religious newsgroups. Here's an [http://world.std.com/~mhuben/humbio autobiographical posting] from an old secular humanist mailing list. | ||
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