For all of you art savants out there, I thought that you would find this amusing: The Sommerville Gates. Particular favories of this installation are "The Tub Gates," "The Media Gates," and "The Stairway Gates ( Read more... )

My life thus far has been a long process of forgetting. Plato, of course, laughs at the fact that I am realizing this only now, but there seems to be little way to retain that which will by nature slip away into the past. Concerning this much, at least, I would say that Plato is wrong--memory is not preserved in its pure form where we could ( Read more... )

A special thanks to all of you who filled out the pirate survey! I am not very surprised that you all thought me the captain, but what WAS surprising were the three votes for the "heartthrob" pirate. Yar, I not be one to caruse with the wenches! They's be distractin' me from the treasure! Now, if only they had one for ninjas as well ( Read more... )

I usually abstain from such things, but, after seeing this in Living_fossil's journal, I was powerless to stop myself. My affinity for pirates and ninjas runs deep, please contribute to my pathology.


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...a wind storm kicks up and blows a tree over into my apartment's power lines cutting off the electricity. The temperature has also dropped into the low 30s during the daytime, which all makes for a very cold apartment. Brrr! It is also difficult to read in the dark, which curtails my desire to make progress on my paper in the evening hours. ( Read more... )

I thought this article was really interesting for a number of reasons, but primarily for two reasons.  First, it yet again points out how badly philosophers have understood the question at hand between biological determinism and free will.  Second, it shows how science becomes auto-reflexive without reference to the experiential framework from ( Read more... )

Last night I went out to a bar with Len and my friends Heath and David.  Over the course of the conversation I happened to mention that I was "for all intents and purposes a Marxist."  Of course, those of you who know me, including those who were with me, recognize what this means to me:  an even economic playing field, not godless-communism.  ( Read more... )

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In Texas, 28,000 Students Test an Electronic Eye

All I can say, really, is "wow".

Welcome to the future, kids!  And god bless America, land of the moderately undisturbed!

Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men ( Read more... )