Atlanta- Hartsfield Intl (ATL)
Atlanta, GA
Arrives: 9:09 PM
Wednesday, September 1, 2004

Atlanta- Hartsfield Intl (ATL)
Atlanta, GA
Departs: 7:58 AM
Monday, September 13, 2004

I'll be hanging out, attending Dragon*Con the 3rd through the 6th. If you'll be in the Atlanta area, we should hang out.

Jonathan Bennett has created a website with some texts from early modern philosophy, with an interesting goal:

Here are versions of some classics of early modern philosophy, prepared with a view to making them easier to read while leaving the main arguments, doctrines, and lines of thought intact. Most of the versions are fairly complete.

The interesting thing is that he includes not only translations of Kant, Spinoza, and Leibniz, but also translations of Locke, Berkeley, and Hume, an idea he wrote about in Teaching Philosophy in an article entitled “On Translating Locke, Berkeley and Hume into English.” It's an interesting idea, anyhow, and many, many undergrads will probably be thankful for this resource, though I can see that some people will probably think it is a bad idea along the lines of modernized Shakespeare. (via John Turri)

So, it looks like the Bush Administration is finally trying to bring democracy to an end. We might have worried about more subtle manipulations ala 2000, but they've got far bigger plans.

Continue reading "you can't postpone elections"

Lawrence Lessig has a recent article in Wired called Stamping Out Good Science, where he addresses the scientific and political debates about nanomachines:

It is this that we should fear more than any nightmare Bill Joy might imagine. While scientists scheme to direct molecules to build things and invent tricks to make atoms dance, few can imagine an innovation in government policy regarding dangerous science. Science thus becomes irrational because we can't imagine government as rational. Simple facts of a political nature... prevent good science from ever becoming a reality. (orig. italics)

Besides the fact that certain nanophysics people I know have intimated that the business about little self-replicating nanomachines is not actually good science, I think there are some confusing things about what Lessig is trying to get at in this article.

Continue reading "irrational politics and good science"

That sounds like something I might have said about welfare recipients or starvating countries circa 1997. I've discovered lately that I was a real social darwinist, libertarian prick. It's kind of frightening.

But now it's something I'm saying about actual parasites. The cat has been given prescription deworming meds and Revolution flea killer, the house has been flea bombed (2 Zodiac foggers) and the couches have been sprayed down (1 8 oz. can carpet & upholstery spray). These little bugs had better be history. Also, I think I may have damaged my lungs. But it will be so worth it.

Sorry I haven't been updating a ton, lately. I've had a lot on my mind, but no impetus to write it down. That will probably change, soon.

June went a little better than April or May. Here are the numbers:

June 1st (actual): 172.0
June 1st (statistical): 173.9

June 30th (actual): 167.2
June 30th (statistical): 167.4

Continue reading "diet report: june"

In Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich describes the sermons at a tent-revival in Maine, which are reminiscent of the complete crapfest[1] that was The Passion:

The preaching goes on, interrupted with dutiful “amens.” It would be nice if someone would read this sad-eyed crowd the Sermon on the Mount, accompanied by a rousing commentary on income inequality and the need for a hike in the minimum wage. But Jesus makes his apperance here only as a corpse; the living man, the wine-guzzling vagrant and precocious socialist, is never once mentioned, nor anything he ever had to say. Christ crucified rules, and it may be that the true business of modern Christianity is to crucify him again and again so that he can never get a word out of his mouth. I would like to stay around for the speaking in tongues, should it occur, but the mosquitoes, worked into a frenzy by all this talk of His blood, are launching a full-scale attack. I get up to leave, timing my exit for when the preacher's metronomic head movements have him looking the other way, and walk out to search for my car, half expecting to find Jesus out there in the dark, gagged and tethered to a tent pole.

1. Yes, I think that this is a harsher opinion that I had after seeing the movie. But you know what, the more I think about it, the stupider I think the movie is.