yet another poll conducted by Brian Leiter

On the quality of continental philosophy journals. HERE.

What the heck? It’s a free country.

complete list of Documenta notebooks

Some interesting ones, and they’re quite cheap. Complete collection HERE.

today’s even more ridiculous Afghanistan spam

Screw Sgt. Steve Wood. I’m shifting my business allegiance to General Joel Mills:

“Greetings. I apologize for sending you this sensitive information via e-mail instead of Post-mail.I am Gen Joel Mills an Afghanistan soldier attached with the US Marine NATO/ISAF, 1st Battalion 5th Regiment, Field Artillery Special Operation Troops in Kabul district, Afghanistan.I am privately seeking individual investment partnership with a reliable individual.As my investment plan,i have in my possession sum of $15 Million to invest which i made from logistics and crude oil deals here in the middle east.I am ready to facilitate and fund any project capable of generating AROI – Anual Return on Investment and due to tragic incidents reoccurring here everyday i fear something might happen to me.This is the reason i have the courage to contact you so that we can establish a joint investment partnership on trust incase if anything happens to me,you shall take up my only daugther whom i shall make my next of kin in my agreement with you.

I look forward to your positive reply.
Respectfully,
Gen JM”

Best part: “and due to tragic incidents reoccurring here everyday i fear something might happen to me.”

Now don’t get too paranoid, General Mills. I’m sure it’s perfectly safe in Afghanistan.

Also this: “you shall take up my only daugther whom i shall make my next of kin in my agreement with you.”

Trying to lure the lonely hearts demographic along with the sleazy quick-dollar one.

China and wordpress

Troi writes in with the answer to my earlier question:

“Yes, China does block wordpress as well as most blogging sites like blogspot. When I was there I had to use either a proxy based in the United States or my university’s vpn in order to access these sites.”

I knew they blocked Facebook, of course, but didn’t know that about blogs.

now available: The Third Table/Der dritte Tisch

Documenta has confirmed that my notebook was published earlier this week, and THIS UPDATED ORDER PAGE reflects that fact.

The essay (printed in both German and English like the others) discusses Eddington’s famous image of “two tables”: the scientific table made of particles and the everyday solid table used for practical purposes. I argue that both tables miss the true table. Eddington’s two tables are simply the undermined and overmined versions of the table.

speaking of China

I just noticed that this blog has had not one reader from China since the count feature was introduced on February 25. How is that possible? Pretty much every country in the world has had someone read this blog– but not the world’s most populous country? Even when Syrian readers are checking in at this blog in the midst of street massacres?

I wonder if China blocks wordpress blogs. Anyone know?

There are also no readers listed from Iran, and I know for a fact that I have readers in Iran. But I think they’re reading this blog using some trick that may involve routing first through another country.

the spread of SR in China

See THIS POST.

another call for major media not to provide a platform for trolls

Freedom of speech means that you can’t face judicial punishment for what you say. It doesn’t mean you won’t become a social outcast for saying certain things. Nor should it mean that major media are required to provide a platform for vicious inanity.

I was just reading the CNN account of the Pakistan plane crash in which 121 people were killed. Most of the comments were the usual offensive Muslim-bashing at exactly the wrong time: virgins in paradise and blah blah blah.

I was looking around for how to report a couple of those comments for removal, and found that CNN’s policy is essentially a “we wash our hands of what people say here” dodge. There’s no easy way to flag inappropriate remarks.

In short, any piece of racist filth (or pseudo-racist troublemaker) who shows up on the site is allowed to say whatever they want (which is fine) but on the backs of a media empire with millions of readers (which is not required by democracy at all).

Editors exist for a reason. Democracy means that everyone has the right to speak freely without facing judicial punishment, but doesn’t mean that everyone deserves equal access to international audiences of millions who happened to be there to read the news. I’m really not sure why this problem hasn’t been solved yet. Practically all of these major media comment boards are dominated by idiotic and offensive posts. Just one editor to pick out selected useful posts would be enough, just as with the old “Letters to the Editor” sections of newspapers.

object-oriented space-time

James Ash with some thoughts on the topic, HERE.

has the Brotherhood misplayed its hand?

The answer, according to THIS EDITORIAL, is yes.