Wednesday, January 14, 2015

But their pale lips did not part to say the words that would have given them security and dishonour

›
Eugene Volokh has a post up, ‘Let nobody belittle them by pretending they were fearless’ . He is citing a passage from Rebecca West's B...

Structure, Stability, Strength - defining family

›
From Families: It's Complicated by Joanna Venator and Richard V. Reeves. Commenting on new research exploring the impacts of family st...
Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Science is the topography of ignorance

›
I often discuss the knowledge frontier, that boundary which is much closer than we realize, between what we can know with confidence and wha...

It isn’t really a liberal civilization any more

›
From The Blasphemy We Need by Ross Douthat. If a large enough group of someones is willing to kill you for saying something, then it’s some...

Language and "the"

›
I love Language Log as a place to peep in on the ebbs and flows of research and interests among professionals in the field of language and l...

The lived experience of academic presentations

›
With a not inconsiderable interest in academic discussions about abstract issues, this cartoon captures years of mental eye-rolling.

Just because there's no upside, doesn't mean there isn't a downside.

›
From Obama's College Plan Bows to Elites by Megan McArdle. Years ago, I lived in Australia. The country is obviously much smaller tha...
Monday, January 12, 2015

They go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one

›
From Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds by Charles Mackay (1841). From his introduction. Money, again, ...

Truths too good to be true

›
From One of Science’s Most Famous Quotes Is False by Michael Specter. I recently began a Daily Comment about the growing threat of viral ep...
Sunday, January 11, 2015

Perspective - Duck and Rabbit edition

›
Click to enlarge.