On the origins of syphillis 14 Aug 2009 A nice historical review by Thony Christie on syphillis and comets. History Science
Biology The Demon Spencer 16 Jun 200922 Jun 2018 When I first started to read philosophy and history I heard about this demon. His name was Herbert Spencer, and he was famous for three things: Incomprehensible prose Coining “Survival of the Fittest”, and Coming up with a “devil take the hindmost” laissez faire political philosophy that was called “social… Read More
Epistemology Does teleology hang on in Venice? 18 Dec 201022 Jun 2018 Here’s an interesting paper, which I haven’t had time to digest, but which I thought I’d better mention before it enters the fog my brain contains these days… It’s by David Depew, one of my favourite philosophical writers on evolution (in no small part because he takes a historical approach… Read More
Epistemology Reduction and surprisal, or, why water is wet 8 Aug 201122 Jun 2018 In his classic work A System of Logic, which set up so many of the issues and problems of the modern field of the philosophy of science, John Stuart Mill wrote: Not a trace of the properties of hydrogen or of oxygen is observable in those of their compound, water…. Read More
What rubbish. Syphilis is an instrument of God’s Love. Sometime He can love you too much. Either that, or it’s a communist plot to undermine soviet-style healthcare.
So, you’re saying we caught syphillis from God? How did that happen? What did he do to us while we were asleep?
Yes. It’s all God. He works in Mysterious Ways, you know. Even in Norfolk. But when you go barmy, your nose rots, and bits of you drop off, you can be consoled by the fact that it’s all because of God’s infinite mercy. As I always say to parents who have lost children to various complaints, heck, Jesus Wants Me for A Spirochete.
Mathematicians are such nit-pickers, even the ones that write so well. Need I remind you of the list-obsessed One Who Shall Not Be Named?
…besides, you should check out the first line of The Moons of Mars post on his blog. “…US Navel Observatory…”?