If-Then Knots ---------------------->

This American Life on Iraq Mortality

Here is This American Life's second episode on the Lancet mortality studies.

"Exactly as Predicted"

Recent work published in Science further confirms the consensus view that recent climate change is caused by humans.  Realclimate headlines "The Sky IS Falling" and emphasizes that the results disconfirm denialist claims that solar forcing can explain the recent trends.

Patricia Churchland on Decisions, Responsibility, and the Brain

Preceiving that p.

Timothy Williamson's account of knowledge regards knowing as the most general "factive mental state."  Insofar as it is "factive", the content of the state must be a true proposition.  You can't know that "there is a chair" without "there is a chair" being true.  A more specific factive mental state is seeing.  You can't see that "there is a chair" without "there is a chair" being true.  I think that Williamson is onto something, but it's interesting that this is a specific way of using "see": putting "that" after it.  There are some contexts in which "see" is (to coin a word) existive rather than factive.  For example, "I see a chair" in some contexts would require there to be a chair.  In these contexts, if I found out that no chair existed where I had thought one did I would say "I guess I didn't see a chair".  I wonder if factivity is parasitic on existivity. . .  Of course, there are non-existive uses of "see" as well.  A hypnotist may ask a subject whose eyes are closed what she "sees" and she may well respond perfectly appropriately "I see a chair."

Science is for socialists.

Math is for Marxists.
Reading is for radicals.

These are the slogans of the reactionary right.  Consider this.  When Al Gore mentioned the leadership he showed in Congress toward the public-private partnership that lead to the commercial web, he was mocked by Republicans.  Those who know how important evidence-based leadership is to America's technological strength and leasdership in the world, like Vint "father of the internet" Cerf, actually awarded Gore for his work.  Now for his work on alerting the public to the urgent need of addressing global warming Gore is receiving  awards again. 

Sadly, as more negtive effects of global warming become evident we can expect the far right to be more interested in the paranoid conspiracy theories of Sen. James Inhofe (R-Exxon) and fiction writer Michael Crichton than evidence-based leaders like Gore and or to actual climatologists.  Happily, no one takes wingnut conspiracy theories about global scientific hoaxes all that seriously.

Global Warming Affecting Agriculture

Global warming caused by human emissions of greenhouse gasses and by deforestation is already affecting agriculture.  Steps toward stabilization are discussed at realclimate and on NPR's Science Friday.

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Great Tom Waits Song

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