The Uncredible Hallq » admin

My first tweet

Chris Hallquist — Wed, 19 May 2010 04:46:40 +0000

Andrew Sullivan doesn’t know the word “webcomic” and thinks we need to be told xkcd is wonderful. http://tinyurl.com/2d4wd8w

I’m now the UncredibleHallq on Twitter. This is going to be so much fun, why the hell didn’t I think of this before?

I’m on Google buzz, I think

Chris Hallquist — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 07:14:31 +0000

I’ve never quite seen the point of signing up for Twitter, but when Google buzz came out, I realized I could use it without going to the trouble of signing up for anything, and it would make a good repository for random thoughts and links that really have no business going up on the blog. Except I have no idea what I’m doing. Can someone–particularly someone who doesn’t already have me in their Google address book–please verify that they can find my on buzz just by searching “Chris Hallquist”?

Wordpress wish

Chris Hallquist — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:43:58 +0000

I wish Wordpress let you automatically delete comments containing more than a fixed number of links–say five. There’s a system for holding in moderation any comment with too many links, but after a certain number of links the chance that a comment isn’t spam drops to approximately zero. I just had to go through and delete 96 comments that my commenting system couldn’t identify as spam on its own, and so got held in moderation. But I had to go through them on the off chance that there was a legit comment in moderation somewhere. Comment moderation needs to be for comments that are hard to sort out at first glance as legit or not. Comments with fifty links don’t fit that category.

On a related note, if you’re a new reader who’s trying to comment but can’t, drop me a message, I’ll see if your comment got marked as spam.

Radio annoucement and open thread

Chris Hallquist — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:07:37 +0000

At 9:06 tomorrow, Eastern time, I’ll be doing a radio interview about my book. You won’t actually be able to listen to it on the radio unless you live in the area of Thurmont, Maryland, but everyone else will be able to listen online here.

Also, if you’ve just come to this website because you heard about my book, feel free to use this comment thread for any questions you have for me. Heck, whoever you are, feel free to use this thread for any questions you have for me.

Does the comment system work now?

Chris Hallquist — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:42:47 +0000

I appear to have successfully posted a comment on my recent post on self-confirence. Can someone post a comment in this thread to confirm?

My book is now available!

Chris Hallquist — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:31:37 +0000

On Amazon. Barnes & Noble still lists it as out-of-stock, but hopefully that will be fixed soon. All you out there have no idea how exciting this is–the release date kept getting pushed back, making me wonder when in the world it would finally be published. Then, all of a sudden, I get an e-mail from my editor saying it’s available. Okay, now I have to go tell everyone else!

To Skeptic’s Circle submitters–Important!

Chris Hallquist — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:12:05 +0000

If anyone has tried submitting to the Skeptic’s Circle using the “contact” form that was on my blog up until just now, I DO NOT HAVE YOUR SUBMISSION. Please re-send your submission to my Gmail inbox; my Gmail username is “challquist.”

Blog break

Chris Hallquist — Sun, 31 May 2009 07:48:57 +0000

Haven’t posted anything in a few days because of travel. Expect posting to be slow-to-nonexistent for awhile.

Podcast, paradox, and carnivals

Chris Hallquist — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:58:48 +0000

Random bits:

Yesterday, I appeared on the Minnesota Atheists’ radio show. Thanks to PZ for linking to it, and making me realize that there’s a podcast available for you to listen to
Chris Heard has posted a nice illustration of the preface paradox. It fails to account, however, for the epilogue paradox.
New editions of the Philosophers’ Carnival, Carnival of the Godless, and Humanist Symposium are up.

Housekeeping: carnivals, obscenity, and a Loftus-Craig debate

Chris Hallquist — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 22:03:03 +0000

Some miscellaneous things I’ve been needing to do for awhile…

First, John Loftus is asking people to endorse the idea that he debate William Lane Craig. I’m giving my endorsement here. Craig’s refusal to debate Loftus, is, to a large extent a demonstration of how ridiculous his schtick is. Craig insists that by (mainly) debating people with Ph.D.s, he’s debating qualified people, but having a Ph.D. has nothing to do with (1) having actual public speaking skills (2) having a good knowledge of arguments for and against the existence of God. Craig regularly debates people who have neither of these, and it’s shocking to see him refusing to debate someone who has both in large quantities. There really isn’t any major figure more qualified to debate Craig, not just because Loftus has the speaking skills of a former preacher and has written what may be the best critique if Christianity currently available. Loftus also has one qualification people like Richard Carrier lack: he actually plans to try to win.

As an aside, John: if this debate ever does happen, I’d be happy to give you any help you like preparing. Also, I hope Andrew of Evaluating Christianity is willing to give you some help that isn’t premised on involvement in the junior high debate scene.

In other news: recently, Randy Olson e-mailed me to inform me that… well… this post is currently one of the top Google searches for his name. Olson politely asked me to take the post down. I was seriously considering doing so, until I re-read what I wrote and realized I still stand behind all of it, and a even kinda grateful that Olson reminded me I had written it.

Finally: there’s a new edition of the Carnival of the Godless that I haven’t linked to yet.