The Story of Cap & Trade

Here in the United States, a large percentage of our population seems to be increasingly obsessed with the 'invisible hand' of capitalism and the 'wisdom' of the free market. Interestingly, many of these folks are also the very same people who are highly skeptical (to say the least) of the 'wisdom' of the evolutionary mechanism of natural selection. And of course, they'll try to rationalize away the cognitive dissonance with the kind of twisted logic...

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Hand Shadows

I've been spending a fair amount of time preparing for a new class I'll be teaching this semester on Environmental Ethics, so I haven't had much time to prepare an intellectually stimulating entry for everyone today.I do have, however, some aesthetically pleasing videos showing both the creativity of hand shadow artists and the ease with which our minds can create three-dimensional mental representations based on black & white, 2-dimensional...

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World of Class Warfare

I have all kinds of philosophical problems with conservatism and the corruption of the GOP (and I'm increasingly finding it difficult to defend libertarianism with a straight face too, or anyone whose "philosophy" has been basically dictated by children's fiction writer Ayn Rand), but here is one thing I have to admire about Republicans:Their uncanny ability to build the wealth of billionaires by screwing the poor, then to pull out the victim card...

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Lecture 7 - Free Will, Determinism, Choice and Moral Responsibility

Ordinarily, we tend to think of our actions as freely chosen: we believe in free will. But if we get philosophical for a second, we have to start asking obvious questions, like what does that mean? What does it mean for something to be a choice? What does it mean for an action to be free? If all of nature is determined by physical law, and we are a part of nature, doesn't it follow that maybe our actions are just as determined, even though we may...

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Unintelligent Design - The Giraffe's Laryngeal Nerve

The complexity and intricacy of the bodies of living organisms seems like the epitome of science and art coming together in an explosion of perfection. But that appearance is deceiving, and it has given rise to the popular but erroneous belief that such delicacy must be the inevitable result of design and foresight on the part of some intelligent designer.When you look at the details a bit more closely, however, what you start to notice is that what...

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Anderson Cooper Laughs, Loses It

You remember the time journalist of journalists Anderson Cooper got pwned by a bonobo, right?Well, this time we have something funnier, and the only thing that's made me actually laugh out loud in a very long time. The story itself is not that funny, as you'll see, and the writing and the puns are kind of horrendous, but Anderson Cooper losing it and giggling like a little girl is priceless!He's got the most adorable giggle, doesn't he? Makes...

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The Cell - The Chemistry of Life

As we've seen in the first installment of this excellent documentary series on cell biology, it may have taken us a while to get a firm understanding of what cells are and how they work, but once scientists got going, there would be no stopping them.Still, important questions remained. For instance, how is it that a bunch of molecules somehow 'know' to self-assemble into specialized cells? And how do cells 'know' what functions to perform and when?...

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Kevin Slavin - How Algorithms Shape Our World

If you remember Susan Blackmore's fascinating presentation on the evolution of memes and temes, then the concept that much of our own individual and collective behavior is done for the sake of cultural units of selection rather than actual human needs will not be foreign to you.In the following TEDTalk presentation, Kevin Slavin argues that "we're living in a world designed for -- and increasingly controlled by -- algorithms. In this riveting talk,...

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Whereof One Cannot Speak... Fight Fire with Fire

You gotta give it to religious believers, no one in the history of humanity has managed to twist arguments and evidence to suit their beliefs quite like them. When you ask for evidence, there's always some bullshit story about the virtue of faith or about the ineffability of the transcendent; when you ask for a definition of God you can work with, you get so-called apophatic theology (defining God by what he's not); when you have a knock-down argument...

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John Oliver - The Forecloser

I heard about this story a few weeks ago, and it's really one of those feel-good stories that just have to be shared: after having recently bought a house, this Florida couple got a foreclosure notice from Bank of America, even though they had paid for it in full and with cash...The court ordered the bank to pay for the couple's legal fees, but after repeatedly failing to do so, the happy couple brought a sheriff and a repo truck to the bank, and...

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Me vs. American Atheists vs. Ground Zero Cross

If I had to describe my religious beliefs, I wouldn't think twice to say I'm an atheist. I think religions are the adult equivalent of fairy tales and Santa Claus, and I enjoy occasionally mocking irrational thinking because it's important, but also, let's be frank, fun :)That's not to say, however, that I don't also get upset with other atheists, whether these be bleeding-heart accomodationists (a la Chris Mooney, Michael Ruse or Paul Davies (technically...

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Lecture 6 - Primary and Secondary Qualities

No introductory philosophy course is complete without at least touching on the famous distinction between primary and secondary qualities originally proposed by Descartes, but explored in more detail by Locke, Berkeley and Hume. If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's the 3-minute animated intro.In today's lecture, Professor Millican provides a thought-provoking historical and conceptual analysis of this famous distinction, especially...

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Women's Nazi Health Plan

Sometimes I seriously wonder whether this life is all just a dream or whether people really are as obtuse and retarded as they sometimes seem. Take the fact that insurance companies will now be required to offer birth-control and other forms of preventative medicine without co-pay.I would have imagined that if you were a pro-life conservative, the idea that maybe preventing more children to be conceived only to be aborted later would be welcome news....

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Paul Bloom - Essentialism and The Origins of Pleasure

If I tried to sell you the painting to the right for a hefty sum, I'm pretty sure you'd think it wasn't worth your time, or that I was trying to pull your leg. Never mind the artistic talent and effort that indubitably went into the piece, you'd argue it's obviously a forgery and hence not worth very much. But why should that matter?In the following TEDTalk presentation, and using famous and fascinating examples from scientific studies and experiments,...

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Stephen Fry vs. Ann Widdecombe On Whether the Catholic Church Is a Force for Good

It seems that in an effort to attract a larger audience to their already impressive intellectual and rhetorical displays, Intelligence Squared, the Oxford-style debate house, is taking a page from the RSA Animate playbook and animating some highlights from one of their most popular debates: whether the Catholic Church is a force for good in the world.The clip below features animated excerpts from Ann Widdecombe, who favors the motion, as well as...

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Social Security Reform Bill Encourages Americans to Live Faster, Die Younger

One thing that has become so crystal clear even the blind can see it,  is that while Republicans appeal to American values, love of country, the Founding Fathers and so on, they don't really give a shit about average people like you and me. They are mercenaries who have sold their souls to do the work of greedy multi-billion dollar corporations whose wealth has been built on the backs of ordinary people.The thing that gets me is not even their...

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