Cure-alls and Remedies
A candidate trying to decide between graduate schools recently asked me which “types of public administration, political, or civic problems you are attempting to provide solutions to with your research? For example, which questions are you tackling right now?” Of course, right now I’m grading. But in a slightly more general sense of “right now,”…
Economists have long been fascinated by the biological role of “costly signalling.” Think of the peacock’s plumage. In biology, signalling is generally about mating . The idea is that the peacock’s absurd feathers are difficult to maintain, and a female peacock who notices his plumage will have to acknowledge that he must be pretty fit and…
After all the hype, and the promise of a powerfully political sci-fi movie, of course I had to see District 9 . In many ways it’s an enjoyable film, and if it had been set on Mars or in another galaxy far, far away, I think it would have deserved the laudatory treatment it’s receiving….
1. Peter Singer comments on Michael Vick . ( Previously ) My sense is that symbolic punishment of a celebrity may have lasting effects, but I worry that this is more about race than it is about animals, and Singer picks up on that. 2. Southern Poverty Law Center reports on ” The Return of…
This controversy is moving more quickly than I can keep up, unfortunately. 1. khateeb88 has taken down the original image. This follows the revelation that he is a Chicago engineering student whose primary frustrations with Obama began when he picked Rahm Emmanuel as chief of staff, who Khateeb believes to be pro-Israeli and thus evidence…
Let me start by saying that this poster makes me mad. I hate the way ‘socialism’ has been turned into an epithet, and I hate the way that epithet gets used against a fairly market-oriented politician like President Obama to keep him from straying too far into egalitarian policies. Also, I see this image of…
1. The image to the left is by the Iranian painter Feeroozeh Golmohammadi . 2. I’m not generally a fan of protectionism, but here’s a list of great American companies that make stylish and cool stuff . 3. Why meetings are bad for creativity : makers schedule their time in half-day chunks, managers in hour-long…
Dr. J responds with her typical lucidity to my contribution to Chris Long’s podcast series . Using Derrida’s critique of the Platonic distaste for writing, she suggests that: “all written words are vulnerable to being de-contextualized and re-contextualized, such that the distinction between the meaning that the “author” intends and the meaning that the “reader”…
What role does the critic play? Why do we need someone to stand between us and the art, analyzing, recommending, and denouncing? Why can’t we just have our own experience, unmediated by someone elses taste? In my last post , I managed to grab the attention of some folks in the sci-fi publishing world who…
Last week I did a Skype interview with Chris Long for his podcast on Socratic Politics and digital dialogue. We talked about Arendt, anonymity, and an attribution theory of identity. Listen here , or subscribe through iTunes . The whole series can be found at Chris’s blog , where he also posts personal reflections and…