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• Sideblog

• Richard on the confusion of whether the you on drugs is really "you." This is a big worry for some about anti-depressants. But still there is something odd about these sorts of concerns.

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• Ardis' Utah War primer. A nice summary if you aren't up on the history.

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• After years of waiting the Joseph Smith Papers are finally published.

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• Philosopher's Carnival 82. Sorry I've been too busy to contribute. I liked the entry "when do two objects touch?"

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• SEEx: the Science and Entertainment Exchange. Trying to get better science into movies.

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• From Marginal Revolution. "...aggregate capital investment in GM and Ford since 1980 has led to a net reduction in capital of $465 billion...with that $465 billion, "GM and Ford could have closed their own facilities and acquired all of the shares of Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and Volkswagen."

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• Infrastructure: is money the problem? "Spending is up 50 percent over the last 10 years, after adjusting for inflation. As a share of the economy, it will be higher this year than in any year since 1981."

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• Intuitive fatalism. The difference between the superstitious and skeptical is at the level of belief and not intuition.

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• Four things I learned from bad science

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• Tanasije has an interesting argument on why the universe has always existed. Take that Kalaam.

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• Does involving parents really help students learn? Depends on how they're involved

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• Two very thoughtful posts on gay marriage by Russell Fox and Nate Oman. My own views are pretty similar although I also think there's a reasonable worry about polygamy in all this. I don't want polygamy legalized and suspect that was the Church's main fear too.

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• What do we lose if definite descriptions are ambiguous between reference and attribution? I'm pretty sympathetic to the ambiguity issue. (Primarily due to issues in religion such as the issue of God in discourse) Check out Richard's arguments against ambiguity (linked to in the post).

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• Degrees of responsibility

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• NDPR on Metaphysics and the Representational Fallacy. "... philosophers all too often argue from claims about language to conclusions about non-linguistic reality. " It's hard to disagree with that even though I think it can be overstated. The review is a nice overview of the problem even if it's not really a positive review of the book.

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• Consciousness Without Attention? A lot of these debates seem largely semantic. (Actually I tend to think a lot of philosophical disputes are largely semantic) This one appears to be more substantial.

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• Time magazine on the Mormon/Prop-8 aftermath.

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• Interesting side-effect of a pandemic. All the large quantities of drugs (such as tamiflu) end up in the sewer system. What are the consequences of that? No one is quite sure.

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• What fuels college tuition inflation? According to this theory college Presidents making use of federally back college loans and inexperienced (naive) young people. Probably some truth to this. Lots of people end up at 25 with huge college loans they'll be paying off the rest of their life if they are lucky. Me - I didn't take any loans out at all and am quite glad.

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• Mormon America is a representative of the New England Puritan cultural tradition in 'Red America.'" Razib weighs in on Mormons, history and politics.

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• Brandon on Mill's utilitarianism. Mill was very influential on me when I was young. But I'm no utilitarian. I do think everyone should read both Utilitarianism and On Liberty. Brandon argues Mill was unlike modern utilitarians.

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• Genes in a post-genomic era. Single genes don't code for single proteins. "...the average protein-coding region produces 5.7 different transcripts. Different kinds of cells appear to produce different transcripts from the same gene." Fascinating and a must read. I need to get an updated primer on genetics. It's evolved way too much since college.

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• Young neurons led astray

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• 5 Questions on Philosophy of Action.

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• "Duty has the virtue of making us feel the reality of a positive world while at the same time detaching us from it."

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SMPT Podcasts

The SMPT Podcasts should be up soon. I’m just waiting for the list of SMPT members since most of the podcasts will be only for members. We will put up one or two for everyone. But by and large you have to be a member.

Dreyfus Heidegger Lectures: 2007

2007’s Dreyfus Being and Time lectures as a podcast. I have two different year’s worth. I’ll probably download these for when I’m jogging. (HT: Heideggerian Denken)

Dreyfus Interview

Interview with Hubert Dreyfus (HT: Brood Comb)

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