Pots, Kettles, Noses, Faces and Solidarity

30Jan06

On Sept 28, blogger extraordinaire Kos, wrote the following about the fairly large anti-war rally in DC (Sept 24, 2005):

Peace protests and the new media environment
by kos
Wed Sep 28, 2005 at 10:47:17 AM PDT
I’ve been critical of peace protests in the past [...]. This time, however, I wasn’t feeling animosity for last week’s protests. [...]

Filed under: Liberalism, Pluralism, Solidarity   |  2 Comments

WP: Senate Ends Alito Filibuster Attempt

30Jan06

Washington Post is reporting that the Dems stay true to cowardly form:
Senate Ends Alito Filibuster Attempt
72-25 Vote Virtually Assures Nominee’s Confirmation
By Fred Barbash
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 30, 2006; 5:57 PM
By a 72-25 vote, the Senate cut off a symbolic filibuster attempt today on the Supreme Court nomination of Samuel A. Alito Jr., all but [...]

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The emperor’s new inadequacy

25Jan06

In a well-reasoned piece titled:
Can humans escape Goedel?:A review of “Shadows of the Mind” by Roger Penrose
Daryl McCollough provides a non-paradoxical version of the Liar’s Paradox to illustrate inconsistency in human thinking. In doing so, he addresses a particular aspect of the interpretations of belief and truth with regard to debate on Gödel’s incompleteness theorem [...]

Filed under: CTM, Gödel, Logic, Penrose, Truth, Wittgenstein   |  2 Comments

You might be a (mathematical) Platonist?

25Jan06

[with apologies to Jeff Foxworthy]
Among other eminent bits, Karlis Podnieks has an interesting test you can use to see if you are a Platonist. As psychologists like to say, denial is more than just a river in Egypt and the first step to recovery is accepting the problem. So, take the test… its for your [...]

Filed under: Logic, Math, Platonism, Truth   |  3 Comments

Today’s Bookmarks

25Jan06

Nor Elle — SlapstickIf at all you like mellow, downtempo music, this is a worthwhile CD to get your hands on. Listen to the first track [Desert Storm] for a taste.Tags: Downtempo, Music

Sober and Wilson — Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish BehaviorBiologist Wilson and philosopher Sober examine the ideas of altruism and [...]

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Today’s Bookmarks

24Jan06

Richard Lewontin: Biology as IdeologyLewontin’s brilliant unmasking of the ideology behind some kinds of BiologyTags: Biology, Books, Science

Paul Feyerabend: Against MethodUsing a detailed examination of the history of science, Feyerabend demonstrates the shallowness of the notion of a single well-defined method in scientific activity and knowledge. To Feyerabend, the lack of one (and only one) [...]

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Books (etc) We Like

23Jan06

Books (etc) We Like
Since social bookmarkng (del.icio.us and friends) is all the rage these days, you may wish to check out “Books We Like” (click on link above). Here is a short bit of their blurb:
Books We Like is activist e-commerce and collective intelligence. It’s a non-profit service for book (and music and film) lovers, [...]

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Trivia from Divia, Part 1

18Jan06

Yeah, bad pun on that title…
Some fun bits (at least if you are as much of a geek as I am) from Divya (I am not sure what her sources are, so no attribution):

Animals can digest only molecules with one orientation (in an Organic Chemistry sense) though both exist in nature.
Mitochondria, now part of our [...]

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Is Western Liberalism so uniquely Western?

16Jan06

In left circles in the USA I have heard the (at times grudging, or at other times even proud) acceptance/declaration of the notion that Western Liberalism (or Western Democracy) is the better of available systems, past and present. While one part of this notion, that liberalism or democracy are positive systems, is unambiguous (and even [...]

Filed under: East vs West, Liberalism   |  8 Comments

REI Tagalong Child Carrier

15Jan06

With apologies to my single friends, an entry for the “Dude, what the hell?!” category just so it gets indexed by Google:
REI Tagalong Child Carrier from REI.com
Have a baby? Like to hike? Before you go out and buy that expensive Kelty backpack baby carrier, take a gander at the REI Tagalong. I should warn that [...]

Filed under: Parenting   |  Leave a Comment