I was watching an Open Yale lecture by Paul Fry and it got me to thinking about the context of authors: a world of ideas. My image is thus: take a piece of paper and place three random dots on it, then draw radiating lines in 6-8 directions from each dot. Those dots are books, those intersections are authors. Of course, those authors can then ( Read more... )

“It is interesting to note that, when theology relinquishes cherished notion in the face of new evidence, it is described as ‘retreating,’ but when science does so, it is advancing.” - Nancy Murphy and Jeffery P. Schloss “Biology and Religion” in “The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Biology”

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/08/18/kseniya_ryzhova_and_tatyana_firova_russian_athletes_kiss_on_winners_podium.htmlRead more... )

Gerrymandering has been on my mind. It is how members of Congress make America less democratic by re-drawing the congressional districts to have clear majorities of Democrats is some areas and Republicans in others. It protects their jobs, but is it a part of creating a political class that has separate interests from the rest of America ( Read more... )