More in the Store
I’ve had the Store sitting in the sidebar for a few months now, with Amazon links for DVDs of movies I’ve written. To my surprise, people do actually buy some of these — I made a whopping $16.43 in referrals last quarter. That almost covers, oh, half of the hosting fees for this site. But still, thanks for shopping.
In particular, I’d like to thank the reader who bought Chemistry: The Central Science (10th Edition), which retails at $145.66, netting me $5.83. Sweet.
Amazon recently started a system called aStore, which allows for much slickness in setting up off-site storefronts, complete with shopping carts. So, looking to avoid the actual work for which I get paid, I set one up to replace the pathetic Store here on the site. You can check it out in the sidebar. Basically, everything in the center of the screen is really a page on Amazon’s servers, embedded inside my own. The shopping cart lives at Amazon.
Mostly, the new version is an opportunity for me to make snarky comments about various books and movies, but if it gets one more reader to check out The God Delusion or The Book of Bunny Suicides, I’ll consider it worth it.
Articles
December 4th, 2006 at 2:34 pm
It sounds like you’re spending too much on hosting John! I use DreamHost, and they have a ton of features for very reasonable rates. In an act of shamelessness, here’s a referral link to their hosting plans:
http://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?95504/hosting.html
Oh, and their referral deals are excellent – hence the shamelessness.
December 4th, 2006 at 5:56 pm
I would agree with that – except that DreamHost was just hacked two days ago, and has still not recovered. Might want to think twice.
December 4th, 2006 at 8:43 pm
I was gonna comment on The God Delusion before, but somehow never got around to it. Anyway, my two bits:
Dawkins is slipping in his weakest book to date and his limited understanding of modern theology, let alone people’s deeply held beliefs, is truly entertaining.
The problem with Dawkins, where he is flat out wrong, is that he fails to grasp the fact that the existence of God is not a matter of probability, not a matter of assigning a P value to a “God Hypothesis,” but rather, like Heisenberg’s cat, is the unmeasurable state of Him being 100% there and 100% not there. We open the box and peek inside when we die, but before that, it’s anyone’s guess what’s in the box. Furthermore, Dawkins can’t comprehend a God who’s existence, as explicitly written in scripture, is intended to be questioned.
We live in a thoroughly agnostic world, where with all the advances made in physics and cosmology, the only logical position is that of fundamentalist agnosticism. But, Dawkins clearly writes that he can’t do that. His delusion is that the non-existence of God is a foregone conclusion, so obvious that anyone who doesn’t agree is obviously stupid.
John, as the title of his book proves, Dawkins is a sophist catering to a mass audience of people who just don’t know any better. If you decide to look further into atheism, I very highly recommend the lunacy of Paul and Patricia Churchland and their Religion of Eliminative Materialism. And of course, the philosopher Daniel Dennett is always fairly amusing. Did you hear? He explained consciousness a decade ago. Too bad his new book didn’t have as catchy a title as Dawkins’s.
God bless,
ivy
December 4th, 2006 at 9:11 pm
I love that John August is a dork. We need more cool dorks in this world.
December 4th, 2006 at 9:53 pm
I’ll second that, Jeff.
Edit my last post to Schroedinger’s cat. Schroedinger’s cat, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle.
December 5th, 2006 at 1:31 am
Hi John,
I was just looking through your store, and I was pleased to see that two of my three favorite books were in your fiction list: 1984 and The Fountainhead. My other favorite is The Stranger by Camus, which is great but definitely not for everyone.
It’s been a few years since I read The Fountainhead, but I seem to remember it did turn me into an asshole for a while, too. I like Rand’s ideas a lot, but I tend to balance out her “virture of selfishness” by studying Buddhist philosophies that stress the illusion of the self.
As far as The God Delusion, I haven’t read it, but I’m going to spout off my opinions anyway. I think that most religious people have been brainwashed since birth and there’s not much you can do to change their minds. I also, however, think that most scientists have a tendency to place too much value on reason and logic. They are very important tools, but they’ll only get you so far. At some point, you’ve got to leave them behind and act on faith. Then you can decide if the idea of God works for you or not.
December 5th, 2006 at 5:46 am
“the only logical position is that of fundamentalist agnosticism.”
That’s hardly the only logical position . . . far from it.
December 5th, 2006 at 10:10 am
Recent lesson learned: In order to start heated discussion threads, one should mention either (a) atheism or (b) Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
December 5th, 2006 at 12:50 pm
To put it into perspective: Dawkins also attacks the Pastafarians. He’s clearly taking himself too seriously for someone who doesn’t believe in God. Perhaps he thinks He’s god?
Personally, I’d rather be beholden to a plate of pasta than Dr. Dawkins. No offense to either party.
December 5th, 2006 at 2:06 pm
Okay John, dangnabbit, that nails it! Just WHAT do you gotta to say about Buffy? Huh?
Don’t be talkin’ no smack about the Buff-ster!
December 13th, 2006 at 5:29 pm
Hey, John – What a great looking aStore! The next time you log on to your Amazon Associates account, we recommend that you switch to the “Performance” Fee Structure. You’ll earn more through your store because the referral rates go up as people purchase more items. Here’s a link to do so:
https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/network/payments/main.html
Best wishes!