February 2012
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“Nietzsche thought that the truth was rarely ever useful. He thought errors,...”
– WSJ.com - American Nietzsche
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January 2012
40 posts
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“Quick: How many countries was America at war with last year?
If you accept the...”
– Robert Writght - America’s New Strategy: Endless War(s) (P.S. Libya.)
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The Atlantic - Mind vs. Machine →
Interesting article about the Loebner Prize, a Turing Test competition. The author tried his best to be named “the Most Human Human” by increasing his interactivity: it’s not about saying one or two interesting things, it’s about creating a thread of conversation that’s logical and reactive to the interlocutor.
For instance, Richard Wallace, the three-time Most...
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Washington Post - 10 reasons the U.S. is no longer... →
Sort of a cheesy headline, but I suppose it fits the mood of the day.
Here’s the list minus commentary:
Assassination of U.S. citizens
Indefinite detention
Arbitrary justice
Warrantless searches
Secret evidence
War crimes
Secret court
Immunity from judicial review
Continual monitoring of citizens
Extraordinary renditions
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Wired - The Search for a More Perfect Kilogram →
This is an interesting article and well worth reading, but this part stood out to me:
Back then, their intervention was sorely needed. The reigning standard of length in Paris, the toise, was defined by an iron rod embedded in a courthouse staircase in 1668. Outside Paris, chaos ruled: There were some 250,000 local units of weights and measures in France alone, many of them sharing the same...
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The Economist - Crowd dynamics →
IMAGINE that you are French. You are walking along a busy pavement in Paris and another pedestrian is approaching from the opposite direction. A collision will occur unless you each move out of the other’s way. Which way do you step?
The answer is almost certainly to the right. Replay the same scene in many parts of Asia, however, and you would probably move to the left. It is not obvious...
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Cato Unbound - License to Kill →
The United States is increasing its commitment to drone warfare without regard for the risks these weapons pose to our security and moral standing in the world. Drone technology is spreading rapidly, with dozens of countries and even nonstate actors such as Hezbollah now developing or purchasing these systems. Military planners are developing autonomous drones that could make their own...
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Let's Play: Ancient Greek Punishment →
I’m sure everyone has already seen this, but it’s a pretty amusing flash game. I feel like I could use this if I ever teach Intro to Philosophy again.
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“There is a sadness everywhere present
but impossible to point to, a sadness...”
– Jennifer Grotz - “Poppies” via Ta-Nehisi Coates (Cf. the Japanese concept of awaré)
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Daring Fireball - That Exact Nonsense →
Daring Fireball’s John Gruber quotes Penn Jillette’s God, No!: Signs You May Already Be an
Atheist:
There is no god and that’s the simple truth. If every trace of any single religion died out and nothing were passed on, it would never be created exactly that way again. There might be some other nonsense in its place, but not that exact nonsense. If all of science were wiped out, it...
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Chronicle of Higher Education - A New Philosophy... →
More or less everyone has blogged some of the articles about the “crisis” in philosophy from this issue of the Chronicle: Ian Bogost, Splintered Mind, Feminist Philosophers three times, my Facebook friends…
Still, for posterity, here’s a nut graf:
the case for reform made here involves an appeal to prudential self-interest—devising ways to survive in a harried, impatient,...
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Jenn Frank - some sick stuff →
So, this is the best writing about sex, God, and guilt in the universe ever not written by Eve Tushnet. Don’t read this link if you don’t want to read about those things in graphic detail. Here’s a representative sample:
And then I said to him, “Have you considered the possibility that you are frightened, not of genital herpes at all, but of incurring the wrath of God?”
...
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“All day the stars watch from long ago
my mother said I am going now
when you...”
– W.S. Merwin - “Rain Light”
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December 2011
31 posts
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Aaron Swartz - On Intellectual Dishonesty →
chitownblues:
carlsensei:
Science has a higher standard. It’s not just between you and your employer, it’s a claim to posterity. And you might be wrong, but what if you’re not around for posterity to call you up and ask you to show your work? That’s why intellectual honesty requires you show your work in advance, so that others can see if you’re missing something.
Good epistemology requires...
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