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science

  • The politics of prudence; or, how I learned to stop worrying about climate change and love therapeutic nihilism | csid

    Nice new piece from Kelli Barr, one of my colleagues at CSID: Frankenstorm Sandy, currently ravaging the northeastern US, is testament enough to the predictable unpredictability inherent in global warming. What I mean by “predictable unpredictability” is something like the… Continue reading

  • The Matter of Anti-Philosophy

    Massimo Pigliucci criticizes Lawrence Krauss and the current habit of physicists who speak despairingly of philosophy. Very much worth the read. I give you here a quote he pulls from Einstein in defense of philosophizing… I fully agree with you… Continue reading

  • Review for new book: “What Can You Really Know?”

    A tad meandering for a book review, but the conclusion is of interest. When and why did philosophy lose its bite? How did it become a toothless relic of past glories? These are the ugly questions that Jim Holt’s book… Continue reading

  • The Most Deadly Drug: Alcohol

    In 2009, David Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacologist who served as chair of Britains Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs ACMD, published a paper in a medical journal that offered a provocative thesis: horseback riding, he wrote, was more dangerous than… Continue reading

  • A Boon of Dandelions 3

    These past weeks since my brother’s death, fear has hunted me. Or better, I have hunted myself… for I have not been afeared of what might actually do me harm right now or even partially down the line of life.… Continue reading

  • Denton Drilling: Draft ordinance needs overhaul

    Denton, Texas’ draft ordinance concerning gas drilling gets an F from local citizens. Time for a do over. Last night, about forty dedicated citizens gathered to review the draft gas drilling ordinance and generate ideas for how to improve it.… Continue reading

  • Human “Enhancement” vs Environmental Reformation

    When Dr. Michael Anderson hears about his low-income patients struggling in elementary school, he usually gives them a taste of some powerful medicine: Adderall. The pills boost focus and impulse control in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Although A.D.H.D… Continue reading

  • Combatting Knowledge with Opinion (and some Prayers)

    This is a nice follow up piece for the earlier link I posted today on why we are not ENTITLED to throw our opinions around without evidence and/or expectation of being challenged by those with broader knowledge: It is more… Continue reading

  • be happy, do nothing… « lederr

    From Lederr‘s blog… Canadian social psychologist Jamie Gruman is proposing a new way of achieving nirvana: Do nothing. Instead, live in the moment and embrace the “serene and contented acceptance of life as it is, with no ambitions of acquisition,… Continue reading

  • A Boon of Dandelions 1

    48 Revolutions Round Sol… 4 X 12 cycles, from the Year of the Green Wood Dragon to the Year of the Black Water Dragon. Maybe this “mind,” maybe this “I” is but a phantom radical of some complicated fleshly life… Continue reading

  • Pedagogy by Carrot

    The majority of students today expect assignments with finite parameters, clear grading paths, and a checklist of things they can tick off to get an A. “Pick my own topic for an essay? What do you mean by that? What… Continue reading

  • TechnoScience & the New Pedagogy

    In the past, the suggestion of getting a college degree without ever cracking a book meant paying a degree mill. It meant the degree was in name only, reflecting neither learning nor effort. Then distance learning meant correspondence courses, perhaps… Continue reading

  • Using a Compass Now vs. an Outdated Map from Before

    One of my good friends, Andrew Wicklander, runs his own project management group and software company. His wife, Maile, owns a yoga studio. They are both the sort of “job-creators” touted as crucial to the success of America. Andrew says… Continue reading

  • How Computerized Tutors Are Learning to Teach Humans – NYTimes.com

    Neil Heffernan was listening to his fiancée, Cristina Lindquist, tutor one of her students in mathematics when he had an idea. Heffernan was a graduate student in computer science, and by this point — the summer of 1997 — he… Continue reading

  • How to Build a Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later

    Well, I will tell you what interests me, what I consider important. I can’t claim to be an authority on anything, but I can honestly say that certain matters absolutely fascinate me, and that I write about them all the… Continue reading

  • Hermeticism and the Anthropic Principle of Evolution « Footnotes 2 Plato

    In The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945), Karl Popper famously (or infamously, as far as Hegelians are concerned) attacked Hegel for his bewitching apriorism and supposed distain for empirical science, going so far as to blame his Platonically inspired “mystery… Continue reading

  • Textimony 20120816

    “Any road followed precisely to its end leads precisely nowhere.” Frank Herbert, DUNE Continue reading

  • millipede love is mysterious and wild « sittinginthewoods

    A new blog from a good brother & cherished cousin, Will Hudson. Will is one of my favorite poets and quick becoming one  of my favorite environmentalists. There is an intrinsic value in the boundless wilderness and the complex and… Continue reading