Daily Archives: December 16, 2009

The Ironies Compound (and the Memes Multiply)

Here’s a video that ironically (and wonderfully) registers and deconstructs a scene genre within action films: the Stoic ice-hero who walks, calm and unblinking, away from explosions: But wait. Isn’t the above YouTube itself a genre piece (the ironic song about cookie-cutter … Continue reading

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Dr. Jekyll, Meet Mr. Hyde: What Can Happen To a Gentle Person Under the Spell of Nationalism, Ideology, or Religion?

Andrew Sprung, at the Daily Dish today, has written what I would regard as an exceptionally important—and even seminal—little blog post reflecting on the Iranian Revolution (“Gentle mullahs transformed”). In it, he simply offers two quotes and a bit of commentary that concisely lay out … Continue reading

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John Szostak on His Abiogenesis (Origin of Life) Research

More on Jack Szostak’s work here: http://exploringorigins.org/. Hat Tip: Heuristics

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Getting the Thomas Nagel Treatment: Brian Leiter and the Policing of Intellectual Discourse

Brian Leiter’s attacks on Thomas Nagel for giving a nice blurb to Stephen Meyer’s ID book, Signature in the Cell (2009), are getting a bit of pushback from some of his philosophy colleagues, most notably Chris Bertram, who wrote this to Brian Leiter:   My initial sympathies … Continue reading

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