You can’t go wrong with hand signals! And no, I don’t see one in there for giving the middle finger—though I imagine it would signify “Your premise is bullshit. I’d rather be watching Will & Grace.”
Originally by Landon Schurtz, a graduate student of Philosophy at the University of Oklahoma
[Source]
Photo by azrasta
It may be admirable to claim that I read only to learn and expand my mind, but to be perfectly honest, I read because I enjoy it! It’s fun. If I happen to learn or challenge myself during this pursuit—all the better. I’m the furthest thing from a book snob as you can probably get while still loving to read.
I’ve purchased heaps of books lately (both audio and paper) that must be read! Have you read any of them? Which should I pick up next?
Fiction
The Gray Man by Mark Greaney
The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
How to Flirt with a Naked Werewolf by Molly Harper [fuckme, some of these titles seem embaraassing, don't they?]
Naked in Death by J. D. Robb [I love naked stuff]
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Non-fiction
The End of Faith by Sam Harris [Are you shocked that I haven't finished this book yet?]
Why I Am Not a Christian & Other Essays on Religion & Related Subjects by Bertrand Russell
Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings by Mark Twain
The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God by Carl Sagan
I’m leaving out a bunch of great options hiding on my shelves, but this is a good start.
What are you reading right now?
Laura Bell of Roscommon, Michigan spent approximately 1000 hours creating a 14′ by 4′ reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper out of towel lint. Think of the electric bill!
Ripley's Believe It Or Not!
This makes me even more proud to be from Michigan.
Read more about her domestic art quest here.
Dealing with dimwitted debate? I decided to make something that might come in handy.
What are logical fallacies?
Here are a few helpful resources for improving your (and my!) writing.
The straw man fallacy is when you misrepresent someone else’s position so that it can be attacked more easily, knock down that misrepresented position, then conclude that the original position has been demolished. It’s a fallacy because it fails to deal with the actual arguments that have been made.
“To be an atheist, you have to believe with absolute certainty that there is no God. In order to convince yourself with absolute certainty, you must examine all the Universe and all the places where God could possibly be. Since you obviously haven’t, your position is indefensible.”
The above straw man argument appears at about once a week on the net. If you can’t see what’s wrong with it, read the “Introduction to Atheism” document.
—”Atheism: Logic & Fallacies,” Infidels.org
Also because, as stated above, there is a tendency to start with desired conclusions and then construct arguments to support them, many people will happily draw upon logical fallacies to make their arguments. In fact, if a conclusion is not true one must either employ a false premise or a logical fallacy in order to construct an argument that leads to that conclusion. Remember, a sound argument (one with true premises and valid logic) cannot lead to a false conclusion. So in order to avoid using logical fallacies to construct invalid arguments, we need to understand how to identify fallacious logic.
—”How to Argue,” Steven Novella, MD
It is particularly easy to slip up and commit a fallacy when you have strong feelings about your topic—if a conclusion seems obvious to you, you’re more likely to just assume that it is true and to be careless with your evidence.
—UNC “Fallacies” handout
Meghan on 
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