Star Trek’s Big Black Hole

I enjoyed the movie, but can someone please explain to me why the Romulans drilled to the core of a planet in order to plant red matter?  Afterall, black holes are created later in the film without a planet’s core working as a catalyst. It seems the red matter can work in any conditions: Spock [...]

Letting a Thousand Nations Bloom

If you’re curious, I’ve been blogging and editing over at Let a Thousand Nations Bloom, a blog devoted to exploring market solutions to government.  Check it out!

If Humans Have Free Will, Then Subatomic Particles Do Too

So say a couple of Mathematicians from Princeton, John Conway and Simon Kochen. Conway will present the theorem supporting this view during a six week lecture series.  The two define free will as the lack of necessary and sufficient conditions in any previous state to determine (or to help us predict) the present state of [...]

Gary Hart on Liberalism

In this Sunday’sTimes book section Hart reviews both Alan Wolfe’s new book and Purdy’s Tolerable Anarchy.  He uses the review as an opportunity to wax stupidly on his own understanding of liberalism.  For instance: 
The closest Wolfe comes to a core liberal principle is this: “As many people as possible should have as much say as [...]

Moral Philosophy as Rationalization

Tyler Cowen links to a very insightful article on the theology of the young John Rawls.  It seems Rawls’s disciples are looking under the couches, beds, and rugs for anything written by the hierophant of social democracy.  I am reminded of a story the Harvard philosopher Warren Goldfarb once told a friend of mine about [...]

Anti-Immigration: The Argument From Labor Quality

Some who oppose immigration appeal to immutable poor labor quality as a reason against easing U.S. immigration policy.  For instance, in the comments to an earlier post on immigration, The Utilitarian writes: 
North African immigrants in the E.U. exploit the welfare states at much higher rates, commit more crime, underperform in education, do badly economically, etc. [...]

As Jon Stewart is to Jim Cramer…

…so Leno should have been to Obama. Alas!  My favorite Leno interview:

Cowen Vs. Singer

The brain drain from philosophy couldn’t be demonstrated better than on this BloggingHeads: Tyler is clearly the more competent philosopher, the more playful, the more far ranging…and yet, he’s an economist.  Singer comes across as dull as a public monument and as silent.  Also, I love Cowen’s argumentative strategies, his chess moves, pushing Singer to [...]

How To Use Wallicizors

Jason Kottke presents a how to guide for learning how to forge a David Foster Wallace sentence.  It’s a primer written by James Tanner. From soup to nuts! You can do it, too!  My favorite gobbit: 
Adjectival phrases: lots of them. (Note: apprx. 50% will include the word ‘little’):
It’s obvious someone helped with the script, but [...]

Transhumanism at the Margins

A Finnish computer programmer has had his finger replaced with a USB drive.