Sometimes being agnostic is efficient. I can skip past "God, why did that cool old dude have to die?" and go straight to being sad.

"For the first time ever, the public will have a chance to see the particle Saturday at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where researchers in 2001 made the breakthrough discovery that the early Earth was much cooler than previously believed based on analysis of the crystal."

Scientists said it, so you know it must be true!

Fencer (after beating me): You're longer than I thought.
Me: That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said about me.

Good teacher shortage. Kids are annoying by nature and inclination. We need effective teaching software agents ( Read more... )

me: Is today Easter ( Read more... )

Having just read a list post referencing today's Supreme Court decision to make 16 and 17 year olds ineligible for the death penalty which brought up the strange fiction that we suddenly become competent on our 18th birthdays, I was reminded of a long argument on the subject I had some time ago ( Read more... )

This week: deontology versus consequentialism. Today, Nagel on Nozick. Nozick would like us to believe that there are a set of rights which can be treated as "side constraints" on action, i.e., there's no utilitarian tradeoff allowable, do not pass Go, do not collect 200 fauns. So, far, sounds like a standard deontological setup, no problems ( Read more... )

For the politics of empire course, I read a (small part of) a book about Indian nationalism. This in turn contained some of Gandhi's thought, including a section which quoted him as believing that intellectual labor should not be considered labor at all. Rather, we should only be paid for physical work; things of the mind are for enjoyment. ( Read more... )

Glee! Rousseau was a composer! And it's not half bad, either.

In other glee, I just discovered that Steven Brust is presently working on the next Vlad Taltos novel. It's been a while. If you aren't familiar with Vlad Taltos, I will say that 1) he is an assasin, and 2) you are sorely deprived.

News at 11.While I disapprove generally of this kind of thing, I do find it entertaining. Puts me in mind of those child leashes one occasionally sees parents dragging toddlers around on, though the similarity is only metaphorical. It says in the article that they're not going full GPS with this at the moment. Which is too bad, frankly; I'm sure ( Read more... )