tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62889232024-02-23T11:47:31.757-06:00Zwichenzugan in-between movedrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comBlogger146125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1133845909218379142005-12-05T23:06:00.000-06:002005-12-05T23:11:49.233-06:00Hibernation's over......but all the good stuff's over at The Bellman. We've got a new format in those parts, still political, but less so, and a lot of what I'd been posting over here (lexicograblogging, dumb joke blogging, bloggy blogging) is now going over there. That is all.drhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1131292363090060672005-11-06T09:32:00.000-06:002005-11-06T09:52:47.506-06:00Dumb joke blogging, topical editionLisa Boucher of Exploding Aardvark sent me this joke[1]:A job hunter, a philosophy major, went here, there and everywhere in his search for employment, but in vain. Having run out of options, he swallowed his pride and took up the offer of playing a bear in a costume at a zoo. He was locked up in a cage, where he was supposed to imitate various bear-like movements to entertain visitors.To his drhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1130433939864645872005-10-27T12:24:00.000-05:002005-10-27T12:25:40.696-05:00caneyn.A person affected by a hurricane, usually adversely.drhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1130268081766854162005-10-25T12:39:00.000-05:002005-10-25T14:22:41.656-05:00Ethics training livebloggingYes, it's that time of year again, time for my state mandated online ethics training. Last year, as some readers know, I figured out how to generate certificates of completion for Genghis Khan and Osama Bin Laden. We'll see if they've fixed the loophole.The first part of my ethics training comprises three lessons. It turns out that it's possible to rapidly click through each page of the first drhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1129901020869663632005-10-21T08:20:00.000-05:002005-10-21T08:23:40.870-05:00bathos[from Greek 'bathos', depth]n.1. The sudden appearance of the commonplace in otherwise elevated matter or style.2. Exceptional commonplaceness.3. Insincere or overdone pathos.drhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1129900664127500262005-10-21T08:12:00.000-05:002005-10-21T08:20:37.870-05:00bathetic[from 'bathos', insincere or overdone pathos, from Greek 'bathos', depth]adj.Effusively or insincerely emotional.drhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1129778927586497272005-10-19T20:09:00.000-05:002005-10-19T22:28:47.650-05:00Travel notesLesson # 1: It takes more than two days for your butt to recover from sixteen hours of sitting in a bucket seat. About an hour into my drive back from Austin my ass hurt so badly that I was afraid it was going to fall off. Luckily, it numbed up by the time I got to Dallas. If I ever decide to transport drugs or other contraband across state lines and get stopped by a cop near the state line drhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1129678786420845502005-10-18T18:02:00.000-05:002005-10-18T18:39:46.473-05:00Blogfight!Ok, this is really just a response to a post of Patrick's, but his dang comments don't appear to allow HTML so I'm posting it here. Maybe he'll read it. At any rate, because this is a blogfight, I hereby command my minions to troll his blog and call him nasty names. I suggest "doo doo head." Or, possibly,"short stuff." I do ask, however, that you stick to schoolyard taunts. We'll leave the drhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1129063080255094582005-10-11T15:10:00.000-05:002005-10-11T15:38:00.336-05:00The method of dispositional conceptual analysisOne of the core methodological commitments of The Moral Problem is to the efficacy of a style of analysis that might be called dispositional conceptual analysis. In this post my goal will be to make a start at clarifying what is involved in such an analysis. The question of the philosophical potency of the methodology will be left for another time.On Smith's view, which seems to me to be drhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1129033077247792702005-10-11T06:01:00.000-05:002005-10-11T07:17:57.326-05:00Smith post the firstI'm currently reading The Moral Problem by Michael Smith (1993), and am going to try to get a couple of posts up about it today and over the next several weeks. I wanted to say first and briefly, though, how the book seems to fit in the contemporary literature. Let me note that these are extremely tentative judgments.The Moral Problem seems to be the locus classicus for a particular way of drhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1128899055024875492005-10-09T17:39:00.000-05:002005-10-09T18:04:15.033-05:00Astros livebloggingIt's the bottom of the 17th, Astros at bat, Game 4 of a 5 game series with the Astros leading 2-1. The series, that is. The game has been tied at six since the ninth inning. The Braves are on their sixth pitcher. The Astros have used eight.Brad Ausmus is first up. He's been playing first base for the last several innings, though he started at catcher. I'm pretty sure he hit the game tying drhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1128819439761241192005-10-08T19:55:00.000-05:002005-10-08T19:59:23.720-05:00Balk rule clarificationPENALTY: The ball is dead, and each runner shall advance one base without liability to be put out, unless the batter reaches first on a hit, an error, a base on balls, a hit batter, or otherwise, and all other runners advance at least one base, in which case the play proceeds without reference to the balk. Source: Official Rules of Baseball, 8.05drhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1128783590790563672005-10-08T09:49:00.000-05:002005-10-08T09:59:55.976-05:00Working hard on a Saturday morning"If you'd like to visit some others, just click on the union bug in the top right hand corner of the page."[1]That's from this post, found following this meme:1. Go into your archive.2. Find your 23rd post.3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.5. Tag five other people to do the same.Who shall I tag? Here's a sneaky drhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1128708958499740262005-10-07T13:12:00.000-05:002005-10-07T13:15:58.506-05:00Er...AskPhilosophers.org.(Via Exploding Aardvark)drhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1128607926793212992005-10-06T08:57:00.000-05:002005-10-06T09:12:06.833-05:00reflexive[from 'reflex', from Middle English 'reflexen', to bend back, from Latin 'reflexus', to have bent back]adj.1. Directed back on itself.2. In grammar: of, relating to, or being a verb having an identical subject and direct object; or derivatively, of, relating to, or being the pronoun used as the direct object of a reflexive verb.3. Of or relating to a reflex.4. Without volition or conscious drhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1128472591898646372005-10-04T19:27:00.000-05:002005-10-04T19:37:19.876-05:00On our obligations to bureaucratsA bureaucracy is an organization which pursues rigidly defined ends through rigidly defined means. The bureaucrats who staff such an organization are obligated to treat the rules and procedures of the bureaucracy as if those rules and procedures were a manifestation of the highest possible law – a law which is complete, self-sufficient, and inviolable.Anyone who has dealt with a bureaucracy drhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1128452688138549232005-10-04T14:03:00.000-05:002005-10-04T14:04:48.146-05:00Dated rap lyric of the week (not a weekly feature)I don't need a glock cause I'm not a hard rockGot bitches on my jock, like New Kids On The BlockI can't lose like Parker Lewis, I'm undefeatedStep into my sector, homeboy, you'll get greetedFeel ItHouse of Paindrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1128395254206040172005-10-03T22:05:00.000-05:002005-10-03T22:07:34.210-05:00A story about GodelThis is from Brad Plumer. I'd never heard it before.When Kurt Godel, mathematician extraordinnaire, etc., applied for U.S. citizenship long, long ago, he took the process very seriously and made a close study of the Constitution to prepare. The night before taking his test, he called a friend in panic and mentioned that he had found a loophole in the Constitution that would allow for a drhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1128283450842763652005-10-02T14:39:00.000-05:002005-10-02T15:05:20.400-05:00How to have a police presence at your party in four easy stepsPrevail upon a friend to drive to Indiana in order to buy illegal fireworks. After setting off a number of large devices, aim a rocket so that it will explode 25 feet above the nearest busy street.Wait until a police car is positioned so as to be directly under the burst.[1]Light the fuse and back away.1 This is more difficult than it sounds. Remember, you have to allow for the fact that it drhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1128197898106283442005-10-01T14:34:00.000-05:002005-10-01T15:18:34.786-05:00Sketch of a projectAfter the jump is something I wrote about 18 months ago while casting about for a dissertation project. I now think that the concerns expressed in the, uh, piece are too broad to make a workable dissertation, but there are a few interesting ideas there. I'm posting it here mostly for my own use, but feel free to comment. There have been a few (very) slight edits for the purposes of drhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1128090731791869502005-09-30T09:29:00.000-05:002005-09-30T20:56:38.940-05:00There goes the neighborhoodWorkers came and knocked down the house next door while I was at the gym this morning. This is good news for all sorts of reasons, not the least of which is that my house is now the last one left on my street. What most excites me, though, is the very real possibility that we'll have a dump truck handy for tomorrow night's party.Update: No dump truck. There are a couple of industrial sized drhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1128047048099534822005-09-29T21:22:00.000-05:002005-09-29T21:24:08.103-05:00bizarre[French, from Spanish 'bizarro', brave, probably from Basque 'bizar', beard]adj.Strikingly unconventional and far-fetched in style and appearance; odd.drhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1128005381141312862005-09-29T09:32:00.000-05:002005-09-29T09:50:35.726-05:00When the only winning move is not to playProfessor Snooze has fallen asleep in the shade provided by some shrubbery in a secluded part of the campus. From a nearby walk I observe this. I also notice that the shrub under which he is reclining is a man-eating plant, and I judge from its behavior that it is about to eat the man Snooze. As I run across to him I see a sign which reads KEEP OFF THE GRASS. Without qualm I ignore this drhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1127828078175583142005-09-27T08:27:00.000-05:002005-09-27T08:34:38.180-05:00Philosophers' Imprint......is a fairly new, free, online philosophy journal. Also, it's refereed and edited by the philosophy faculty at the University of Michigan. On their description page they write that, "The mission of the Imprint is to promote a future in which funds currently spent on journal subscriptions are redirected to the dissemination of scholarship for free, via the Internet."Which sounds like a good drhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6288923.post-1127682963840427142005-09-25T16:08:00.000-05:002005-09-25T16:16:03.846-05:00The Calamari WrestlerHere's the description:A gargantuan squid (Osamu Nishimura) who's captured the hearts of wrestling fans everywhere by winning the championship becomes the object of a sweet young woman's (Kana Ishida) affection. But when other sea creatures start gunning for his throne, he must defend his supremacy without losing his love.I haven't watched it yet. And, no, it isn't animated.drhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18394331250444204958noreply@blogger.com