Monthly Archives: January 2012

Kenan Malik has posted some thoughts about “blasphemy” that he addresses at the recent CFI conference. In my opinion, the concept of blasphemy should rightly include ANY statement attributing any characteristic, act, or opinion to any god or gods. But what offends … Continue reading →

 Clay Shirky says it pretty well. (And in Canada, Michael Geist and Howard Knopf give good coverage of the legal issues for us). These proposed laws reverse the burden of proof with regard to alleged copyright violation. This both takes … Continue reading →

This article at NYTimes.com makes some interesting claims which may raise questions about how we should measure national economic success. But I don’t know how to either judge its validity or figure out what are the lessons we should take from … Continue reading →

 Kenneth Rogoff (formerly chief economist at the IMF and now at Harvard) has found the sense to ask: “does it really make sense to take growth as the main social objective in perpetuity, as economics textbooks implicitly assume?” And he correctly … Continue reading →

When certain Muslims voiced their offense, various others took offense in turn. Hmmm. Actually I agree with all but the last line of the following excerpt from the  Ahmadiyya Muslim Students Association: “Once a particular act is deemed to be … Continue reading →

Michael Geist calls on us to ‘ Speak Out on the Trans Pacific Partnership Negotiations‘. My brief letter to the provided response address (consultations@ international.gc.ca) was as follows: Re COPYRIGHT ISSUES Please take note of my very strong opposition to … Continue reading →

Michael Ruse is someone whose name is often mentioned and he presents this ‘Darwinian Approach to Moral Philosophy’ at the ‘ Talking Philosophy’ blog as a summary of his apparently sometimes controversial views. So I think I’ll read it fairly … Continue reading →

 Stephen Downes led me to this interesting dust up. Apparently Clark Glymour, a philosopher at Carnegie Mellon who can actually be “taken seriously” by computer (and other) scientists was offended that his dep’t got a low ranking in a recent academic ratings … Continue reading →