My First Post

So, now that the golden age of the internet message board is officially over, I guess if I ever want anyone to read any of my ramblings about the various things I like to ramble about I'm going to have to start writing a blog. I was wondering what I was going to do for the subject of my first post. A few things occurred to me. The most obvious was to write something about the contents of Ben Goldacre's new Bad Science column, (I'm willing to bet the Guardian didn't run with that headline) - it contains the interesting phrase : "you care what the pope thinks about global warming, and about the prophets of doom: because hundreds of millions of other people do." He's got a point, and it's a point I've never really thought through enough - but if I'm ever going to post my random musings on that, it'll be some time in the future.

Second, I considered posting something in detail about what I'm considering phrasing "the problem of miracles" - how do religious people ever believe anything about anything if they believe in a God that's willing to step in and bend the rules every now and then (and, perhaps just as importantly, what sort of evidence do you need to *disbelieve* a miracle story?). I'm sure I'll get to that eventually, but I'll probably wait until the few thoughts I've had about it are a bit more fully -formed (and it's not quite so late at night).

So, anyway, what I have decided to actually post about is something that occurred to me a long time ago when I was reading one of Steven Landsburg's slate columns... how to make the Ultimatum Game more realistic, and why I think it really would change the rules. So anyway, this was my first post. My second post will be about the Ultimatum Game.