My book is out the door 2 Oct 2008 Today I finalised my manuscript, printed it out, annotated it, made sure all the figures were there, that they had the least ugly photos of me, burned the CD, and ticked all the boxes. Tomorrow, Species: A history of the idea physically travels to University of California Press, where they will do publishing things to it until it instantiates as a book. This is great, given that I am now in the job market, with an actual interview in two weeks, and possibly many more to come. What gets up my nose is that the Australian department of education treats a 300pp book as the equivalent of five published papers! Hell, there’s enough material in there for 20 damn papers. More fool me for not publishing them, I guess. I will be finalising my Sourcebook next week, I hope. Then the evolution of religion anthology the week after. Anyhoo, this is by way of explaining why I haven’t graced you all with bad puns and fine wit lately. Book Species and systematics
Ecology and Biodiversity When entropy and ecology collide… 9 Nov 2008 …the albino silverback blinks once or twice, says knowingly “Yes, yes”, and sends those who do understand math to these two posts at The n-Category Café: “Entropy, Diversity and Cardinality” post 1, post 2. If I read it aright, it means that diversity is measured as the entropy of some… Read More
Evolution Peace in our time! 18 May 2008 I have been called, for my denial of outright atheism, a Chamberlainist. Well I never felt so much like Neville Chamberlain today as I walked through the corridors of the Seat of Learning* with a contract from the publishers for my book Species: A history of an Idea. I felt… Read More
Epistemology Operative concepts 27 Apr 202227 Apr 2022 Gave a talk “The Good Species” yesterday (26 April 2022) to the HPS crowd at UniMelb. The discussion went a way I didn’t expect: classification in the psychiatric and medical domains. I proposed a third kind of concept formation in science: what I am calling “operative concepts”: folk terms and… Read More
Congratulations on finally getting the book off the stocks. I look forward to reading it. Best wishes for the job interviews as well. Your next book needs to be more populist, though, something along the lines of Agnosticism: Probably The Best Idea In The World.
w00t! I believe this is the appropriate expression. Good luck with the interviews – would threatening to sit on the panel be of any help?
w00t! I believe this is the appropriate expression. Good luck with the interviews – would threatening to sit on the panel be of any help?
w00t! I believe this is the appropriate expression. Good luck with the interviews – would threatening to sit on the panel be of any help?
w00t! I believe this is the appropriate expression. Good luck with the interviews – would threatening to sit on the panel be of any help?
w00t! I believe this is the appropriate expression. Good luck with the interviews – would threatening to sit on the panel be of any help?
Anyhoo, this is by way of explaining why I haven’t graced you all with bad puns and fine wit lately. Not fair you should have to do it all, so let’s get the ball rolling again. If the Republican candidate for Vice-President had a flunkey whose name spelled the same backwards as forwards, would that make them a Palin-drone? Oh, and while we’re on the subject: Balham! (Gateway To The South!)
Anyhoo, this is by way of explaining why I haven’t graced you all with bad puns and fine wit lately. Not fair you should have to do it all, so let’s get the ball rolling again. If the Republican candidate for Vice-President had a flunkey whose name spelled the same backwards as forwards, would that make them a Palin-drone? Oh, and while we’re on the subject: Balham! (Gateway To The South!)
Well done John! If nothing else, I will guarantee to buy your books. So that’s one sale at least! 😉 Good luck with the job interviews and congratulations on the offloading of tomes to publishers. Louis
Well done John! If nothing else, I will guarantee to buy your books. So that’s one sale at least! 😉 Good luck with the job interviews and congratulations on the offloading of tomes to publishers. Louis
Well done John! If nothing else, I will guarantee to buy your books. So that’s one sale at least! 😉 Good luck with the job interviews and congratulations on the offloading of tomes to publishers. Louis
… “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?” Will the book be sold here in California by the alleged local publisher or will we have to swim to Oz to get it? There is one of those university things down the street, maybe they will buy a few. Seriously, how will one get a copy? Oh, and Mazel Tov!
@Susan Silberstein: Can it really be as difficult as that? The last time I looked (30 seconds ago on the Net, just to be sure), University Press Books was still on Bancroft Way. Should be possible to talk them into getting the book. Oh, and second the Mazel Tov. As to the Palin Drone: again doing the Bay Area news beat, we find a local quoted in Garchik’s column: Wasilla’s all I saw.
I may buy it when it comes to Australia John. I have Stephen Jay Goulds book The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, then when I buy your book it will supplement what he had to say. Congratulations John
I may buy it when it comes to Australia John. I have Stephen Jay Goulds book The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, then when I buy your book it will supplement what he had to say. Congratulations John
The book will be available through all shady bookselling outlets, including, as one might expect, the University of California Press website. Sometime next year, I guess. The book includes many species definitions, so you get to pick your poisson. Actually, it’s bad puns, and half wit. There’s an Alice quote that I start it off with: ‘What sort of insects do you rejoice in, where you come from?’ the Gnat inquired. ‘I don’t rejoice in insects at all,’ Alice explained, ‘because I’m rather afraid of them — at least the large kinds. But I can tell you the names of some of them.’ ‘Of course they answer to their names?’ the Gnat remarked carelessly. ‘I never knew them do it.’ ‘What’s the use of their having names,’ the Gnat said, ‘if they won’t answer to them?’ ‘No use to them,’ said Alice; ‘but it’s useful to the people that name them, I suppose. If not, why do things have names at all?’ ‘I can’t say,’ the Gnat replied. ‘Further on, in the wood down there, they’ve got no names …’
The book will be available through all shady bookselling outlets, including, as one might expect, the University of California Press website. Sometime next year, I guess. The book includes many species definitions, so you get to pick your poisson. Actually, it’s bad puns, and half wit. There’s an Alice quote that I start it off with: ‘What sort of insects do you rejoice in, where you come from?’ the Gnat inquired. ‘I don’t rejoice in insects at all,’ Alice explained, ‘because I’m rather afraid of them — at least the large kinds. But I can tell you the names of some of them.’ ‘Of course they answer to their names?’ the Gnat remarked carelessly. ‘I never knew them do it.’ ‘What’s the use of their having names,’ the Gnat said, ‘if they won’t answer to them?’ ‘No use to them,’ said Alice; ‘but it’s useful to the people that name them, I suppose. If not, why do things have names at all?’ ‘I can’t say,’ the Gnat replied. ‘Further on, in the wood down there, they’ve got no names …’
It appears we may have read the same book. I have the 1960 edition of “The Annotated Alice, With an Introduction and Notes by” Martin Gardner (yes, *that* Martin Gardner).
It appears we may have read the same book. I have the 1960 edition of “The Annotated Alice, With an Introduction and Notes by” Martin Gardner (yes, *that* Martin Gardner).
It appears we may have read the same book. I have the 1960 edition of “The Annotated Alice,… Doesn’t everybody own a copy of this book?
“this is by way of explaining why I haven’t graced you all with pad buns and fit wine lately.” Was that a bad pun at all?
“this is by way of explaining why I haven’t graced you all with pad buns and fit wine lately.” Was that a bad pun at all?