Perhaps this moment more than any other, the moment of his first astonishment, marked the beginning for the engineer of what is called a normal life. From that time forward it was possible to meet him and after a few minutes form a clear notion of what sort of fellow he was and how he…
Larry Blumenfeld reports: During a press conference at last year’s Jazz & Heritage Festival, Mayor Landrieu told me, “There is a way to organize culture without killing it.” Those words are either comforting or alarming, depending upon whom you ask. As David Freedman, the general manager of listener-supported WWOZ-FM (self-proclaimed “Guardians of the Groove”), told…
The author of Zuleika Dobson, or, an Oxford love story born on this day. Had I a daughter, she’d have been named Zuleika. Max BeerbohmOxfordphilosophy and literaturesatireZuleika Dobson
This in the NYT — H/T to Troy Camplin In a paper from a few years ago I had a section in a chapter in Hayek and Behavioral Economics that deals with this notion, a curtain-raiser to a more detailed examination. Taking Ignorance Seriously As already indicated the other component to thinking about complexity resides…
Dick Taylor Bolivia — the winner by a mile. Dick Taylor is proving to the most consistently top-notch manufacturer. Amano Chuao — disappointing given its promotion as top-of-the-line and their bar from the last taste testing was the winner, even beating Dick Taylor. Not bad, but not distinguished. Pacari Ecuadorian — too sweet. Ethereal Meltaway —…
I’ve always felt that Housman was one of the sharpest and most insightful intellects of his day and certainly beyond, a caste of mind not terribly dissimilar to that other danger man, Bernard Williams. In critical mode reading them is akin to handling razor blades. Below is Housman as scathing classicist. After that is Richard Dawkins reading some…
Some may recall this bit of satire from the band 43 years ago — tricky Dicky was of course President. In the UK we had the perennial Screaming Lord Sutch, founder of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party taking the piss. The point is that perhaps it shouldn’t surprise one that that otherwise intelligent people of all political persuasions…
Damian Flanagan reports (in case you are wondering who Donald Keene is). Also check out Damian’s bio of YM. “The Sea of Fertility,” the leviathan that Mishima left behind, is arguably both the most important Japanese literary work written in the last 100 years and, by far, the least understood. Incorporating ideas from noh theater and…
This posted under the FirstView section of EPISTEME. Glad to see the implications (or not) between EM and (social) epistemology are now being examined quite regularly — a connection I’ve been making for several years now. Next development — stigmergic epistemology, something my co-author and I have been working on for a while . . . Benjamin JarvisEPISTEMEExtended…
Steve Horwitz’ long awaited book. I look at the ongoing debate over parenting in the United States, asking whether we are raising a nation of wimps rather than free-range kids. Since about 18% of the population are millennials we are already have a significant nation of wimps or entitled bleating self-induced “autistic” instrumentalist wet noodles. See Keith…
manwithoutqualities 