I’m about to give a keynote… in Poland 4 Jul 20124 Jul 2012 This is a brave new world. I’m about to give a keynote address to the Naturalizing Religion conference in Kazimierz Dolny in Poland. Or I would be if their internet hadn’t just died completely. Stay tuned for further news of the way things go wrong at the very last moment (people were filing into the room!). I think the gods haven’t forgiven me for disbelieving. I should add: I’m in Wollongong Australia. But it’s no go today. The entire town’s internet just died. I swear it wasn’t me. Epistemology Philosophy Religion
Biology When philosophy meets historical taxonomy 5 Apr 2010 Chris Taylor does this absolutely amazing blog. I find myself checking to see if he’s done another one of his wonderful taxon posts, where he picks some usually obscure group of animals and makes them interesting and alive. He’s done it again, for indrids, a group of lemurs, but what… Read More
Administrative Off to the wilds of Oxfordshire 14 May 2010 So, tomorrow I fly to Oxford (well, to Heathrow, and bus to Oxford) to this conference on religion and toleration. It looks to be an interesting conference, and I am commenting on a paper by one of my favourite anthropologist/psychologists, Ara Norenzayan from UBC. It includes such luminaries as Amartya… Read More
Epistemology On birds, and ornithologists, and mutual respect 31 Jul 20124 Oct 2017 Some time back I had dinner with Pete Richerson, a well known ornithologist and biological theorist. He told me and the rest of the table an anecdote about hooded crows. It seems that in order to capture one to band, the ornithologists must sneak in the dead of night to… Read More
That’s hilarious. I’ve spent a fair bit of time in Poland, and the internet dies quite a lot, along with many other technologies. They are trying so hard to shake that “backwards Eastern European” image, and I love them for it, but the results are mixed at best. For example, when my vehicle broke down, my Polish mechanic tried to fix it by jamming cardboard into the engine, which proceeded to catch on fire. True story.
Well, I’ve got more bad news. PZ has declared you a “kind” of atheist (shades of Henry Morris!). http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/07/04/what-kind-of-atheist-are-you/