Monthly Archives: April 2009
Australian Easter bits
A young gorilla escaped from his enclosure at the Melbourne Zoo last night and wandered about for 20 minutes while craven visitors hid out. I would have sat and waited for him to introduce himself. And paid good money for … Continue reading
Filed under Administrative, Humor, Religion
Holiday greetings
It’s that time of year, so Happy Spring Festival, Zombie Vampire Death and Raising Weekend, and Escape That Didn’t Happen Celebration… [I know, I know, don't blog drunk...]
The End of Punditry
This is a response to David Brooks’ column in the New York Times, today: “The End of Philosophy”. Other respondees include PZ Myers, Brian Leiter, James Smith, bottumupchange, Mark Liberman, and chaospet (who does a very nice cartoon summarising many … Continue reading
Filed under Evolution, Religion, Social evolution
Brazilian science reporting site
Well, it may be the case that science reporting is dying in English speaking publishing, but it looks like in Brazil, they are still able to do it. I was just interviewed online (good use of the technology) by a … Continue reading
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Filed under Education
On epigenetics
Here is an interesting discussion of a recent paper on the operational and theoretical definitions of “epigenetics”. This term – which has a deep history, well before genetics – is interpreted in every manner from inherited histone patterns on chromosomes … Continue reading
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Filed under Uncategorized
Philosophy of Biology workshop at Madison in 2010
I received this via Channels: Dear Philosophers of Biology, You’ll be interested in the first biennial “Philosophy of Biology @ Madison” workshop/conference that we’ll be hosting in Madison a year from May. It’s a ways off, but note that submitted … Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
Philosopher threatened with prison for copyright violations
I’m very conflicted about this: An Argentinian professor who put Derrida’s works in translation online because the published works were out of print or too expensive (way more than the European editions) has been charged with criminal copyright infringement, according … Continue reading
Filed under Education
It’s not censorship it’s, ahh…
Oklahoma lawmakers are singling out the visit by Richard Dawkins to talk about evolution on campus at OU, but they’re not censoring it, right? Just making academics fear for their funding, and perhaps jobs, but seeking all documentation about the … Continue reading
Filed under Censorship, Creationism and Intelligent Design, Evolution, Politics, Religion
Information and metaphysics
There’s a famous anecdote about Wittgenstein and his friend Piero Sraffa by Norman Malcolm (Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir): Wittgenstein was insisting that a proposition and that which it describes must have the same ‘logical form’, the same ‘logical multiplicity’, Sraffa … Continue reading
Filed under General Science
Relaxation technique
This was doing the rounds. I have to say there is absolutely no need for such techniques at my present employer institution, no sir.
Filed under Humor
