Linnear, 2001, Hael Yxxs
Last-Minute Changes - Wall Street Journal
But is the timeline right? Did human evolution really stop? If not, our sense of who we are — and how we got this way — may be radically altered. Messrs. Cochran and Harpending, both scientists themselves, dismiss the standard view. Far from ending, they say, evolution has accelerated since humans left Africa 40,000 years ago and headed for Europe and Asia. Evolution proceeds by changing the frequency of genetic variants, known as “alleles.” In the case of natural selection, alleles that enable their bearers to leave behind more offspring will become more common in the next generation. Messrs. Cochran and Harpending claim that the rate of change in the human genome has been increasing in recent millennia, to the point of turmoil. Literally hundreds or thousands of alleles, they say, are under selection, meaning that our social and physical environments are favoring them over other — usually older — alleles. These “new” variants are sweeping the globe and becoming more common.
Transformation Tracker » Army Use of Social Media, Some Quick Stats
From Soldiers in the Blogosphere, a quick accounting of the Army’s current use of social media.
Count the Arts In - Making the Case That Culture, Too, Is Economic Player - New York Times
In debates on the measure some legislators dismissed the arts as a highbrow, left-wing luxury unworthy of scarce taxpayer dollars. Such arguments evoked the ideological battles of the 1990s, when some politicians denounced certain projects financed by the Endowment as un-American. “I just think putting people to work is more important than putting more art on the wall of some New York City gallery frequented by the elite art community,” Representative Jack Kingston, Republican of Georgia, was quoted as saying in the Congressional Quarterly’s online publication last month. He described arts as “the favorite of the left.” “Call me a sucker for the working man,” he said. (Americans for the Arts later challenged Mr. Kingston’s assertions, saying that as of last year his own Georgia congressional district was home to 778 arts-related businesses employing 2,663 people.)
Cantor, Paul A. “Is there Intelligent Life on Television?” - Claremont Review of Books (Fall 2008).
If you can tear yourself away from your favorite television shows long enough to wander down to your local bookstore, you will be amazed at all the books you’ll find these days—about your favorite television shows. The medium that was supposed to be the archenemy of the book is now giving an unexpected—and welcome—boost to the publishing industry. It is well known that for the genre of literary criticism, publishers are extremely reluctant to bring out what are called monographs—books devoted to a single author or a single work (unless that single author is Shakespeare or the single work is Hamlet). Those works of literary criticism that are published often come out in print runs that number in the hundreds. By contrast, a book devoted to a single television show, The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D’oh! of Homer (2001, published by Open Court and edited by William Irwin, Mark T. Conard, and Aeon J. Skoble), has reached its 22nd printing and its sales number in the hundreds of thousands.
Velvet Howler › DeLong vs. Harvey
On February 11 I posted a link to a David Harvey article regarding the likely failure of the stimulus package to recover the U.S. economy. Interestingly, prominent neoliberal economist/blogger Brad DeLong (often cited by Matthew Yglesias) responded to Harvey in a less than charitable manner. David Harvey responds back by questioning DeLong’s usage of neoclassical economic theory, with DeLong responding back (again) by arguing that Marxism is “objectively-reactionary,” and apparently theological (a claim I actually would embrace), while unironically citing (economist) Joan Robinson:
Reading Marx’s Capital with David Harvey » Exhibit A: The Arrogance of the Neoclassical Economists
I did once upon a time make the mistake of studying Sraffa somewhat carefully. His sophisticated mathematical proof (as yet never refuted, in spite of the best efforts of people like Peter Newman) that all of neoclassical theory is based on a tautology I found all too persuasive. Why bother with a theory that proves what it assumes to be true? At the heart of the controversy lies the question of how to value capital assets independently of market prices and since our contemporary difficulties rest on the problem of how to value paper claims to capital assets held by banks in the absence of a market, I would have thought some re-visitation of the so-called “capital controversy” of the 1970s is in order. At the time I concluded (possibly erroneously) that Joan Robinson had the better of the argument against Samuelson but that the Cambridge (Mass) neoclassicals then merely decided to ignore the problem and go on with their theorizing as if nothing had happened. But now look at the mess!
McCulture - The Wilson Quarterly
Meanwhile, the rest of the world is reading outside the lines, as anyone who walks through a European airport bookstore can attest: Twenty-five percent of books published in Spain in 2004 were translations, according to Hoffman’s study. In Italy the figure was 22 percent, and in South Korea 29 percent. Even China, with four percent, had a higher proportion of translations than the United States. The world has noticed our resistance to translation. The head of the Swedish Academy, Horace Engdahl, caused a furor last fall when he dismissed American literature several days before the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to a Frenchman many Americans had never heard of. “The U.S. is too isolated, too insular,” Engdahl told The Associated Press, explaining why he sees Europe, not the United States, as the center of the literary world. “They don’t translate enough and don’t really participate in the big dialogue of literature.”
The Emergence of Musical Copyright in Europe from 1709 to 1850 by Frederic Scherer
This paper, written for a conference of the Society for Economic Research on Copyright Issues, explores the history of copyright protection for musical compositions. The first modern copyright law did not cover musical works. The role of Johann Christian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Johann Neopmuk Hummel in securing legal changes is traced. How Giuseppe Verdi exploited the new copyright law in Northern Italy is analyzed. The paper argues that Verdi, enriched by copyright protection, reduced his compositional effort along a backward-bending supply curve. However, his good fortune may have had a demonstration effect inducing other talented individuals to become composers. An attempt to determine the impact of legal changes on entry into composing is inconclusive. The paper shows, however, that a golden age of musical composition nevertheless occurred in nations that lacked copyright protection for musical works.
An article from The Economist titled “The Little Red Bookshop” was recently emailed to subscribers of the MCLC List (the email listserv of the Modern Chinese Literature & Culture resource center, and the source of a good deal of the announcements we make on Pap-Rep). The article notices a possible resurgence of leftist thought in China, centered around a bookstore called Utopia, “the term used to describe those nostalgic for Mao Zedong’s rule and worried that the country is abandoning its communist principles.” For anyone familiar with Marxist ideology, though, “Utopia” is a strange name: wouldn’t those really nostalgic for the pre-Reform & Opening-up era believe that Marxist-Leninist Mao Zedong Thought was the only outcome of the capitalist class struggle, and therefore an embodiment of Scientific, not utopian, Socialism?
Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog: The APA and Discrimination Against Homosexuals…Again
While this complaint addressed an advertisement in the 2006-2007 JFP, Wheaton College also advertised in the 2007-2008 JFP. Further, while some universities are listed as censored universities, Wheaton is not. Azusa Pacific University, Belmont University, Biola University, Calvin College, Malone College, and Pepperdine University all advertised in the 2007-2008 or 2008-2009 JFP. None of these programs are listed as censored universities. Nevertheless, all of these programs possess ‘ethics’ requirements that prohibit homosexual activity. This is especially troubling given that the APA claims to endorse the following anti-discrimination policy
Mind Hacks: The myth of the concentration oasis
Wired has an interview with author Maggie Jackson who’s recently written a book called ‘Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age’ in which she argues modern life and digital technology constantly demand our attention and are consequently damaging our ability to concentrate and be creative. The trouble is, I just don’t buy it and it’s easy to see why. The ‘modern technology is hurting our brain’ argument is widespread but it seems so short-sighted. It’s based on the idea that before digital communication technology came along, people spent their time focusing on single tasks for hours on end and were rarely distracted. The trouble is, it’s plainly rubbish, and you just have to spend time with some low tech communities to see this is the case.
IGN: Editorial: Is Resident Evil 5 Racist?
Set in Africa, because (as revealed in Resident Evil: Code Veronica) that is where the Progenitor virus originated, your primary targets are native Africans. With the release of the first full RE5 trailer in 2007, numerous journalists and social commentators raised concern that RE5 depicted Africa as a nation of savages and that the game itself would reinforce unhealthy stereotypes. When Resident Evil 5 releases this March, those concerns won’t subside.
WFD : “Deaf people and Human Rights”
WFD and SDR are proud to release the report ‘Deaf People and Human Rights’, written by Ms Hilde Haualand, Reseacher, and Mr Colin Allen, Project Co-ordinator of the Global Education Pre-Planning Project on the Human Rights of Deaf People. The “Deaf People and Human Rights” report is based on a survey that is, up until now, the largest knowledge database on the situation of Deaf people. The lives of Deaf people in 93 countries, most of which are developing countries, is addressed. The Swedish National Association of the Deaf (SDR) and the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) initiated the survey, with funding from the Swedish Agency for International Development Co-operation (Sida) and the Swedish Organisations of Disabled Persons International Aid Association (Shia).
Virtual ethnography and online fieldwork (2) « media/anthropology
Don Slater: 3. Does the idea that suburbs have some similar properties (and therefore (?) comparable internet practices) in Kuala Lumpur and Toronto necessitate recourse to concepts of macro structure and global processes? Don’t think so, in which case I’m not that bothered. I’ve probably got a very complicated process to unravel, and vast range of contingencies to track, so that I can see how these similar properties might arise from similar architectural and spatial arrangements, work/life relations, domestic arrangements (nuclear family?), class cultures, the practices of transnational corporations, and so on. And on, and on. Many of us have found the notion of ‘practice’ very useful in many of these studies as it posits an elementary unit of analysis that embraces so many features of a social setting without reducing them to structures.
Is resonance the cement of society?
This idea has been supported by many recent brain imaging studies (the kind debated here last month) that have shown overlapping activation patterns when subjects feel their own emotions and observe similar emotions in others. The theory of ‘‘embodied simulation” postulates that such overlap reflects an automatic resonance to others’ affective states, allowing implicit affect sharing and empathy (Gallese et al., 2004; Gallese, 2007; Keysers and Gazzola, 2006). Thus, according to the theory of “embodied dimulation”, resonance seems to be the “cement of society” (to use Hume ’s famous expression) : the mechanism that enables human interaction, sympathy and morality. A recent study by Danzinger and colleagues (here is a gated version) challenges this theory by looking at a unique population - individuals with congenital insensitivity to pain.
Small Talk: Nanotechnology and Metaphor - Joseph C. Pitt
The general topic I am addressing concerns the epistemological role of the use of metaphor in the philosophy of science. More specifically, I am concerned with the role metaphor plays in scientific and technological change. In the case in point, nanotechnology, I will explore the role of metaphor in changing our conception of the confirmation of the plausibility of theoretical notions. The basic idea is that metaphors either offer or suggest images that are meant to persuade one to change one’s belief. Thus the confirmatory role is variable..
Book from the Ground is a novel written in a “language of icons” that I have been collecting and organizing over the last few years. Regardless of cultural background, one should be able understand the text as long as one is thoroughly entangled in modern life. We have also created a “font library” computer program to accompany the book. The user can type English sentences (we are still limited in this way, but the next step will include Chinese and other major languages) and the computer will instantaneously translate them into this language of icons. It can function as a “dictionary,” and in the future it will have practical applications.
Concurring Opinions - Gender and Pay
But this reminded me of a remarkable study released last year that examined the wages of transgender people – individuals who change their gender, typically with hormone therapy and surgery – to learn more about the relationship between gender and workplace experience while holding human capital investments constant. The authors found that workers who transitioned from male to female (MTFs) experienced “significant losses in hourly earnings,” while those who transitioned from female to male (FTMs) experienced “no change in earnings or small positive increases in earnings from becoming men.”
Neuroethics & Law Blog: On the Philosophical Foundations of Law & Neuroscience (Goldberg)
Via the Professor comes word of an important new paper authored by Michael S. Pardo and Dennis M. Patterson, entitled Philosophical Foundations of Law and Neuroscience. Here is the Abstract: According to a wide variety of scholars, scientists, and policymakers, neuroscience promises to transform law. Many neurolegalists - those championing the power of neuroscience for law - proceed from problematic premises regarding the relationship of mind to brain. In this Article, we make the case that their accounts of the nature of mind are implausible and that their conclusions are overblown. Thus, their claims of the power of neuroscience for law cannot be sustained. We discuss a wide array of examples including lie detection, criminal-law doctrine, economic decision-making, moral decision-making, and jurisprudence.
Concurring Opinions - Can You Buy an Internship on Snobster?
Timothy Noah has described the growth industry in internship sales at Slate: [T]he internship-selling racket has slipped the surly bonds of philanthropy and entered the for-profit marketplace. An outfit called the University of Dreams guarantees placement or your money back. Summer-internship fees (the University of Dreams prefers to call it “tuition”) range from $5,499 to $9,499. For 3 percent extra, you can pay on an installment plan. The interns have been placed with firms like Hill and Knowlton and Smith Barney (did a rich, dumb intern start the credit crunch?) “It’s a huge misconception to say this is a program for rich kids,” Eric Lochtefeld, CEO of University of Dreams, told the Journal. “The average student comes from the middle class, and their parents dig deep.” To whatever extent that were true, inegalitarianism would shade into encyclopedia-salesman-style exploitation.
Legal History Blog: Reese on the History of Copyright Infringement
R. Anthony Reese, University of Texas School of Law, has posted Innocent Infringement in U.S. Copyright Law: A History, which appeared in the Columbia Journal of Law and the Arts 30 (2007). Here’s the abstract: American law generally imposes liability on anyone who infringes a copyright, regardless her mental state, and even if her infringement is innocent - that is, when she engages in infringing activity without reason to know that her conduct infringes (perhaps most commonly when she knowingly copies from another’s work but reasonably believes that her copying is legally permissible). This is true even though one of copyright law’s most important goals is distinguishing legitimate copying, which is encouraged, from illegitimate copying, which is to be deterred. Courts and commentators have paid little attention to this aspect of copyright law.
Green Fur? Green Wash! « The Discerning Brute
Fur is Green? More like Fur is Greed. The fur industry is jealous of the environmental movement. Green with envy, in fact. This has resulted in the Greenwashing award of the decade going to the Canada Fur Council’s “Fur is Green” campaign, which includes a spiffy website, a Facebook group, and amazing rationalizations that make historical comparisons impossible to ignore!
infinite thØught: the objectivity of illness
I know we’re not supposed to like totalities and technology after the twentieth century, but you know, we can’t actually measure very many things at all. Heidegger’s fears about calculation seem premature, and his alternative even worse. One of my least favourite academic tropes is the anti-technology paper, where someone sits their with their laptop, their vaccines, their antibiotics, their clothes and their hospitals bemoaning the lack of authenticity of modern life.
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