"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"
- Douglas Adams (quoted by Richard Dawkins)

Although it is finals time, I have picked up a book that has nothing to do with my final papers. (My final papers are fairly well under control and just need to be finished). A few weeks ago, Richard Dawkins was on the Colbert Report promoting his book The God Delusion. A student of mine mentioned it, and then I saw his book at the bookstore and ( Read more... )

I just finished reading Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower and I went online to find out about the sequel, Parable of the Talents. Apparently she died in February, which makes me really sad.

http://www.sfwa.org/members/butler/

Yay, Democrats!

I'm planning on switching textbooks for my class next semester to a book that includes stuff about UFOs and paranormal phenomena (now it's all supplemental readings). I'm also going to talk to my current class about fallacies in arguments for the ancient astronaut theory (Erich Von Daniken averages one fallacy every page or two). While ( Read more... )

You've gotta love Carl Sagan ( Read more... )

I know a few people who get up at 5 or 6am everyday, even on weekends. As insane as this sounds to me, I recognize that some people are just freaks, er, I mean, morning people. What's odd is that some of these people bring it up on a regular basis, which seems like thinly veiled bragging, as if they are superior human beings for waking up before ( Read more... )

Do you ever have inexplicable desires for music you normally don't listen to?

The other day I watched a documentary about heavy metal and since then I've had this strange craving for death metal. ( Read more... )

I'm going to my friend's "red dress party" tonight. Luckily, I found a red dress at the Goodwill a few days ago (the cashier said, with a smile, "this would be a good color for you" - I couldn't tell if she thought I was buying it for myself or not). I had to cut it a bit so it would fit. I think it looks like a dress that a Kindergarten teacher ( Read more... )

I've been reading Mencius for my far off exam. For some reason the only non-Western philosophy on the list is Chinese, despite the fact that Indian philosophy is one of the main strengths of our department. An emeritus prof. used to teach Chinese philosophy, so I imagine it had something to do with him. It's amusing to me that some people think ( Read more... )