Any new book by Andy Clark is, so far as I’m concerned, a notable event. Clark speaks to a general audience without ever being condescending or very jargony and he has a superb turn of phrase. Here is a curtain raiser, a talk on the topic.
You might just as well say ‘I see what I eat’ is the same thing as ‘I eat what I see’
The wonderful Gilbert Ryle in discussion with James Urmson from 1972 (in 5 parts). Also see Jerry Cohen’s take-off of Ryle in the final video:
Endorphin Rush
I’m a chili-head and have so been for a good 50 years. By chili I usually mean bottled sauces as well any hot cuisine typically Indian, Indonesian, Thai, Mexican and so on – bring it on.
Regarding the bottled sauces, I’m often asked which I rate as the best. Having tried literally dozens over the years my day-to-day chili sauce is Endorphin Rush (Scoville 33,390). Endorphin Rush, surprisingly hailing from Chicago, has a beautiful balance of flavorful richness and depth (not the overpoweringly brutal pepper as many are) with a nice lush viscosity, and is still up there in strength though hardly anywhere near the strongest.
Tips:
- Avoid novelty bottles. Typically you are paying for what might be amusing packaging but if it’s quality you are after, then this is wasted money. They do make nice knickknacks for a man cave though. I’ve seen a few macho-men brought to their knees uttering curse words that would make a sailor blush, when despite my warnings, insisted on demonstrating their Scoville mettle. They godda learn the hard way.
- Avoid the highly runny ones. Few chili or hot sauces that are vinegar-based are decent but two that do meet muster are Ass Kickin‘ and Tabasco — but they really don’t figure highly on the Scoville scale.
- You do not need to refrigerate.
- Strong but top-notch chili sauce can really lift a stew without anyone realizing the “scary” ingredient. Dave’s is good for this – I often used a couple of drops of Dave’s insanity sauce special reserve, millennium edition to achieve this but one doesn’t have to use such a fancy sauce — Endorphin Rush will work perfectly.
Possibly the most informative chili online resource is Scott Roberts.
Extended Cognition, Trust and Glue, and Knowledge
Despite my (highly qualified) HEC commitments, I love reading people like Ken Aizawa (and Fred Adams) and others such as Rob Rupert who are really HEC’s best fiends. Yes, I said fiends (a nudge and a wink to Herzog’s superb documentary). These three are meticulous and fair critics, meticulous without ever resorting to point-scoring or being trivial. HEC in all its variants (to a greater or lesser degree) must be taken seriously and we are lucky to have critics such as Aizawa, Adams and Rupert as HEC’s best fiends.
The Band
I guess the name couldn’t have been more prescient — THE band! IMHO this is the greatest band of all for many reasons as nicely set out in this documentary (yet another excellent installment to the Classic album series). The three primary and inextricably linked markers of their greatness:
1. indifferent to mainstream musical fashion;
2. no egos;
3. supremely talented individuals.
As Carol Caffin puts it:
The Band were not derivative. The Band was soul music, in that it came from the soul, and spoke to the soul. They culled from music of the country. They culled from American music, but they did not take it and water it down. They took it and made it richer, and they made it their own. It was real and timeless.
And since it’s just over three years since Levon’s passing, here’s a recent memoir which seems to catch what one would imagine the man to be like. See the comment by Sandra (Levon’s widow).
Why Physics Needs Philosophy
Speaking of physics . . . here is Tim Maudlin on The Nature of Reality blog.
The “odd couple” of science: do we have a quantum Soul?
Check out the “odd couple’s” (I suspect a professional euphemism for looniness) freely available update Consciousness in the universe: a review of the ‘Orch OR’ theory with accompanying interview (first video). I heard Penrose speak at Imperial College around the time The Emperor’s New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds and The Laws of Physics was released. I’ve never had the pleasure of hearing Hemeroff in person.
Externalism in Philosophical Issues
Several papers relating to extended mind, collective belief and extended knowledge in Philosophical Issues. Not one mention of Hayek . . . and minimal network or complexity theory. Still, a very useful collection and clearly the tide has turned in social epistemology towards notions of distributed knowledge which I’ve been claiming for years is the sin qua non of social epistemology.
What ‘Extended Me’ knows
WALKER PERCY WEDNESDAY – 31
The sun is shining, people live well, go about satisfying their needs and achieving goals, work at creative jobs, attend cultural attractions, participate in interesting groups. This is, by every calculation, as it should be. Yet it was on just such a day as this, an ordinary Wednesday or Thursday, that he felt the deepest foreboding. And when his doctor, seeking to reassure him, suggested that in these perilous times a man might well be entitled to such a feeling, that only the insensitive did not, etc., it made him feel worse than ever. The analyst had got it all wrong. It was not the prospect of the Last Day which depressed him but rather the prospect of living through an ordinary Wednesday morning.
