The Combat Philosopher

Pandemic Training

2007-11-27T22:14:00.000-06:00

Over the last few weeks on our campus, we have been under an injunction to get 'trained' for the eventuality that we may one day get hit by a flu pandemic. Everyone is required to undergo this 'training' and then sign a form acknowledging having completed the task.

The 'training' itself actually amounts to watching a half-hour presentation on DVD. This can either be done with others in one of the mass screenings, or simply watching the DVD on one's own computer. I am happy to say that I am now fully 'trained'.

The DVD presentation is quite 'special' (in the sense of 'special education'). It consists of campus 'stars' -- the media person, the health care worker, the safety guy and the campus cop, who discuss the issues we need to know about. I threatened to post the video to YouTube and the media person host begged me not to, for fear of the embarrassment. This gives an idea of the thrilling nature of this video nasty.

The video itself starts off in a rather unpromising manner, by explaining the 'flu' is actually short for 'influenza'. The accompanying Power Point graphic really helped me remember this vital information. The health care worker then helpfully explains that influenza is a kind of virus. Of course, this was the first laugh in the video, as the claim is simply not true! As the CDC tells us, there are at least three kinds of flu virus. Oh well, who would expect a University person to get the facts correct?

What follows is then an amusing segment on how flu is spread. The video recommends practising 'safe coughing' and 'safe sneezing'. Who would have thought that there were such things? Perhaps a little less savory was the advice (again from the medical person), that one should cough, or sneeze into one's sleeve, should a tissue not be available! I seem to recall my Mother having quite strong views, which contradicted this advice. They did have a great picture of someone sneezing though, a bit like this one -- Nice! (Tasteful).

The next great bit of advice was that we should wash our hands in hot water for twenty seconds on a regular basis. Now, this seems like sound advice, or at least it would be, if there was any hot water available in my building. This sounded almost as practical as the advice that we should wear face masks.

Next, the presentation moved on to a discussion of pandemic flu. There was a certain post-modern feel to this part of the presentation. For instance, we were first informed (with more 'helpful' Power Point slides) that flu could only be spread between members of the same species. However, they then went on to explain that flu could also be spread across species (WTF? only Derrida could reconcile those claims). This was the moment at which the dreaded 'bird flu' was introduced, accompanied by lots more worrying sounding statistics, presented via yet more Power Point. These slides were done in an ominous grey.

The final phase of the presentation concerned our University Pandemic plan. Apparently, we are currently in phase one of this plan, where we get to watch silly DVDs. Should a pandemic flu show up we will move to phase two, in which we are supposed to watch the news, keep at least three feet from one another and prepare for phase three. In phase three, the campus will close and we will watch more news. We may get sick too. Eventually, phase four will follow and the campus will open again. Of course, phase four is exactly the same as phase two, as there may be further pandemic outbreaks.

The conclusion of the video just repeated the information we had already heard, along with some recommendations. These recommendations appeared to be identical to the standard hurricane preparedness texts. After all, why should we need to stockpile flashlights during a pandemic?

So, I now feel fully trained and ready for a flu pandemic. I have signed the form. Apparently, detailed plans will be distributed in the near future. I'm sure that the 'think safe' memo is being prepared for the philosophy department, as I write...Jeez!

The CP

A Week of Death

2007-11-26T20:12:00.000-06:00

For me, last week was a week of death. Four people I knew died. I have heard people from my parents generation complaining about how all they ever do is go to funerals and how many of the people they know are now dead. Last week, I got a taste of what this must be like.

It began with a telephone call that arrived while I was on the highway. The call was from a neighbour of mine. She wanted to know whether I knew anything about the health, or recent activities of another neighbour, Burt. It turned out that when the neighbour who called me was on the way home, she had been surprised to see the police blocking the end of our street. It seemed that Burt had been found dead in his drive way. As such a death is a little unusual, the police decided to initially treat it as a suspicious death.

I had known Burt for quite a while. He was very active in our neighbourhood. Indeed, he was the head of one of our neighbourhood organization, that I am also involved with. We had collaborated on a couple of major projects. All in all, Burt was a good guy. He was a little unconventional, but was very passionate about his causes. I will miss him.

The next death I learned about came in by e-mail. It seems that Henry Kyburg had passed away. Henry was an excellent and well-known philosopher of science, among other things. I got to know Henry during grad school, when I had dinner with him on several occasions. Although we had not seen each other in a few years, I was still fond of him. He was one of the few philosophers who knew anything about farming. He also loved to discuss farming matters, often with a very amusing philosophical twist. Thus, I will miss Henry too.

The next bit of bad news that came in concerned a friend of mine called Joe. Joe was an accomplished Zydeco musician. While not everyone liked Joe's playing style, I was a big fan. His style was very old time Creole -- the kind of sound that one seldom gets to hear these days.

Strangely enough, I had not seen Joe for some time, until the previous weekend. I asked him what he had been up to. He told me, using a wonderfully colorful local turn of phrase, that he had "caught a stroke". He told me though that he had recovered successfully and was back playing again. The next thing I know, it seems that he has died. I have put Joe's CD in the player in my truck, by way of a memorial.

The final death was probably the closest to me. When I got back from class one day last week, there was a message on my voice mail. It was from a philosophy faculty member who retired several years previously. It seems that another former philosophy professor, Bob, had passed away. Bob had been ill for quite some time, so the news was not a total surprise, but it was a little unexpected. One of the reason that Bob's death felt especially close to me is that fact that I was hired as Bob's replacement, when he retired. He was a nice and gentle man.

I am hoping that this next week will be a little less dramatic. As it is our last week of classes, there is likely to be some student based pantomimes, but hopefully nothing quite like last week.

The CP

Applying For A Philosophy Job: Getting To The APA

2007-11-19T18:56:00.000-06:00

Recently, there has been a flurry of discussion about the process of applying for a faculty position in a philosophy department. Indeed, there is now a blog going by the title A Philosophy Job Market Blog. A particular post there was commented on at length at The Leiter Reports Blog and has even inspired extensive comments.

Having served on numerous hiring committees, both in philosophy and in another discipline, I have a few words of advice for people who are going on the market. I will share these thoughts here. At some point in the future, I will have some suggestions for people about the notorious APA interviewing process. Before beginning though, let me add a couple of caveats. First, I succeeded in getting a tenure-track position my first year on the market. As this was during one of the tougher phases in the market, I may know a thing or two about how to succeed, as I was not graduating from an especially fancy school, however this does not mean that I am an expert on these matters. Second, I can only offer advice based upon my own experiences, as a member of a hiring committee. The views of others should also be consulted. Finally, it is also probably worth noting that what is said here may also apply to other academic areas -- just substitute your subject area's 'hiring fair' for 'APA', etc., if you are not a philosopher.

1) It is a profound mistake, though a common one, to think that the academic hiring process is a rational one. As philosophers, we have an inordinate affection for rationality. This affection can blind us to the fact that even philosophers are human and, as such, are subject to all sorts of foibles. Although a veneer of rationality is maintained during the hiring process, it is nothing more than a veneer. There are all sorts of preferences and prejudices that show themselves when committees are meeting and trying to make sensible choices. I will support this claim with just two examples. In one case, a file that I thought had some merit was rejected simply on the basis that the candidate described themselves as coming from 'The Commonwealth of Virginia'. To this day, I have no idea why this was viewed as being problematic, or even relevant to employment as a philosopher, but both other members of the committee would not permit this application to move forward once this had been noticed. In another case, a candidate who had reasonable publications and areas of specialization and competence that would have made them a very good fit for the position was rejected because the chair of the committee had met this individual and believed that they were "an arsehole". No amount of argument could persuade him/her to put this person onto the APA interview list. The point here is that the hiring process is not rational.

2) If you want to have a chance of getting onto the APA shortlist, publications really matter. There seem to be two views on publications in grad school. One view is that one should try and publish and publish as much as possible. The other view is that one should just get on and finish the dissertation. While it is true that being ABD and being nowhere near finished is certainly a deal breaker, I at least think that publications matter. One reason for this is that publishing is not an entirely straightforward matter. It is important to know where to send your work. It is also the case that it is worth getting used to the fact that it can take months, or years between submitting a manuscript and getting a final answer on the disposition of the paper. One also generally has to learn to handle the occasional referee who wants changes that make no sense. Learning how to navigate the world of academic publishing can take some time. Thus, a person who has some publications will be better equipped for life on the tenure-track, than a person who has no publications.

Another reason why publications matter is due to the fact that in most cases, past performance is the best predictor of future performance. When a file is being looked at for a tenure-track position, one of the questions that the committee members are probably asking themselves (or at least they should be) is whether they are looking at the file of a person who can make tenure, or not. Many freshly minted Ph.Ds appear to have 'potential'. Unfortunately, the vagaries of life in general and the academic game in particular, means that not everyone will actualize their full potential. Thus, a person who is on the way to having a tenure file that is well stocked will appear much more attractive (and thus, a much better candidate for an APA interview) than someone with mere potential. These then are the reasons why publications really matter.

There is one final thing to mention here though. Sometimes having publications can count against you too! Some departments have an internal tension between faculty members who are productive researchers and faculty members who are not (they usually see their role primarily as being that of a teacher). In such cases, the 'teachers' may see too many publications as a sign that a candidate will naturally gravitate to the other camp. Thus, although it makes very little sense, in such a case, publications can actually count against you.

3) Show the committee that you understand the profession and that you can read! This may seem like silly advice, but it is not. There is always a temptation to apply for the job that does not really sound like you, but which you think you might be able to do, in a pinch. Please, DO NOT DO THIS!!! It is a waste of paper, a waste of stamps and a waste of your time and ours.

Sitting down in front of a huge stack of application files is a long and tedious job. The job is made much worse by applicants who clearly are not suitable for the position, but thought that they would send in an application 'on the off chance'. On one famous occasion, I was sitting on a hiring committee for a position in a rather new and quite technical area. As I was going through the files, I came across two files that just made me angry. One was from an engineer, with no philosophical training, who thought that he/she could do the job, because they wanted to. The second file was even stranger. It came from an individual who was actually quite strong in their own historical area, but had no apparent skills in our area of interest. The explanation for the application appeared in the letter of application. The applicant informed us that as nobody really knew too much about the new technical area we were hiring in, they were perfectly qualified for the position! I leave it to the reader to try and figure out the missing parts of the argument here.

One final thing on this point, it is always a good idea to proof read your application letters! When an applicant appears to be applying to the wrong department, or in the wrong area, they seldom get offered an APA interview. So, it pays to check your application letter before putting it in the mail.

4) Make sure you put a telephone number where you can be reached somewhere easy to find in your application materials. This may again sound obvious, but is important. On no less than two occasions we have wanted to meet with candidates at the APA, only to discover that we cannot get in touch with them. I recommend numbers on the first page of the Vitae and in the application letter. It is also a good idea to put alternative numbers too. Many people do not check their office telephones over the break. Sometimes, people travel for the holidays. If some place wants to talk to you at the APA, they want to hear a human voice, not just a message. This is because scheduling interviews is often quite tricky. Leaving a message and sending an e-mail and then not hearing back within twenty-four hours is a pretty sure method to lose your chance of that all important first APA meeting.

5) In your application materials, try and avoid saying things which are too obvious. After a day or two of digging through files, reading for the umpteenth time that a person has an 'important' research program, or that they 'love to teach' does not impress too much. One thing to ask yourself about claims that you are going to make is 'how would the opposite claim sound?' It is pretty obvious that nobody is ever going to claim that their research program is 'profoundly irrelevant', or that they 'hate to teach'. However, this fact alone makes such optimistic assertions of dubious merit.

If you want to impress people with your research, try giving a concrete example of why your work matters. Just saying that 'my dissertation research has implications for metaphysics and epistemology' is not going to cut it. Pointing out how some of the research has been accepted into print, is much more effective. Another effective strategy is to make the case that your work should be able to attract grant funding. However, here you need to give specifics. Saying 'I expect to attract big grants' cuts very little ice. However saying, 'I intend to explore funding from the Whatever-Foundation, under their Really-Important-Philosophy-Stuff program' will be much more effective.

Similar points apply with teaching. As students, we have all probably had professors who made it clear that they think that they are quite brilliant and gifted teachers, when in fact they were no much good at all. So, in the case of teaching, explain what you do that makes your classes so exceptionally good. The thing to keep in mind in all these cases is that evidence always beats rhetoric.

6) Be modest about your exceptional skills. Some candidate are tempted to make themselves sound more interesting in their applications by emphasizing their skills outside philosophy. You may have a black belt in origami, play concert violin, cook world class cookies, or whatever. Unfortunately, none of this is relevant to an application for a philosophy job. Leave mentioning this kind of thing to your letter writers. You might be a brilliant Celtic musician, but the committee is not interested in this, they want to know about your philosophy skills. Indeed, this kind of thing can worry committee members. After all, if you really are that good at 'whatever', then how much time and energy will you have left over to do the job you hope to get hired for? However, if a referee says in a letter something like "X is nice to have around, as they can play the Y wonderfully/can cook the best cookies in the world/is fabulous at 'whatever'", then it becomes a bonus, not a liability.

I hope that these suggestions are helpful to those who are in the process of putting themselves forward for philosophy positions this year. We have all been there. We know how tough the process can be. We really do hope that you succeed. However, by writing this, I hope that you can gain a little insight into what it is like to be on the other side of the process. You have your dissertation to finish, papers to send to journals and probably a huge pile of grading to boot. Although we do not have the mill stone of the dissertation, we too have the papers to get out and probably an even larger stack of grading. Instead of the dissertation, we have a huge pile of files from applicants desperate to secure our position. Thus, we are in parallel binds. Good luck!

The CP

Library Tricks

2007-11-12T21:36:00.000-06:00

One of the 'challenges' of my current institution comes from the library. Basically, our library is not very good, especially with respect to journal publications in my research areas. This can make certain tasks more difficult than they would be in a place with better facilities.

Just recently, I had a paper accepted by a rather good journal. This paper is the result of a project that I started a long time ago. The final product is nothing like I had originally imagined. When the paper was accepted, there were no major editorial revisions. This was thrilling, as I was a little uncertain about the final results of this project. However, the referees did request that I add some updated citations. With a poor library, satisfying such a request requires some ingenuity.

My initial strategy was to check the various indices, looking for relevant recent publications. Fortunately, there were not many. Less fortunately, only one of these publications was included in our collection. As this is a circumstance I have met before, I have developed a few tricks to get around this kind of problem. I will share them here. Although most of these are pretty obvious, a collection of these tricks may be useful to some.

1. E-mail the author(s) of a paper you need and see if they will send you a .pdf file, or an off-print. It is a pretty good rule that the majority of people who are working in an academic area will have some kind of university (or equivalent) affiliation. This being the case, most people will have an institutional e-mail address. Of course, not all e-mail addresses are listed on web pages. However, by learning about the standard format of e-mail at the institution, it is often possible to guess even unlisted e-mail addresses. Most people like to have their work cited (I certainly do!). For this reason, they are often more than willing to share their .pdf versions of papers, or off-prints.

2. Have friends and/or former graduate students who are at institutions with better libraries. There are many advantages to having a network of academic contacts. Getting papers you need is one of them. Former doctoral students in particular are usually more than willing to help out with access to a paper. They can send a few .pdf files, that can save a great deal of driving to better libraries. This too is a very useful mechanism for getting access to otherwise hard to access papers. Of course, one has to be prepared to return the favour, if asked. However, a mutual self-help network like this can be very helpful indeed.

3. Get library access at a your closest 'good' library and know people who also live in the same city. Sometimes, there are no choices but to take a road trip in order to get access to research materials. If one can do this, while also seeing friends, then this can make the chore more enjoyable. Should the trip be a long one, then having a place to stay can also be helpful. This is one method of making what would otherwise be a bit of a bore into a fun trip.

4. Get to be friends with your local Interlibrary Loans people. Most academics know the value of good librarians, especially reference librarians. The people who run the Interlibrary Loans (ILL) office though can be an amazing breed. If you have good ILL people and they like you, then they can perform miracles! I once wanted to read a Doctoral dissertation that was only available for personal inspection at the degree granting institution, which was also in another country. I could neither afford the time, nor the cost to make that trip. However, an especially astute ILL librarian remembered that another institution had, for a while, had a policy of copying all dissertations that they borrowed from overseas. Lo and behold, it turned out that there was a copy of the dissertation hidden away in the library of this second institution. So, I was able to get access to the material that I needed.

5. Do not be afraid to ask! Sometimes, one will run across a paper, or a book that steadfastly remains inaccessible, despite the deployment of all the best tricks. Once all other avenues have been exhausted, one can make use of one of the many professional mailing lists that serve most academic disciplines. Posting a request to such lists often has yielded good results for me in the past. It is worth noting though that this should be done cautiously. It is not a substitute for going though all the other options first -- it is really a method of last resort. However, this method too can mitigate against the horrors of a bad library.

It would be nice if we all had access to good libraries. We do not. By using these tricks though, the worst privations of a deficient library can be overcome. Many of these strategies are predicated upon people being willing to help others out. I always feel a need to do this, due to the huge debt that I owe others, in this respect. A little bit of mutual help can make scholarship move forward more efficiently. This method has certainly been helpful to me in updating the bibliography of the paper I am currently finishing the changes on.

The CP

Nut Job E-mail

2007-11-06T23:13:00.000-06:00

One of the 'joys' of being a philosophy professor, especially one with a reasonable profile on the Internet, is that one gets 'strange' e-mails from time to time. Today, I got an especially odd e-mail. As this is a side of the philosophy profession that seldom sees the light of day, I thought it might be of interest to share the curious kinds of things that show up in a philosophers e-mail inbox (in addition to the usual spam, tedious memos and student e-mails).

From: <'A Nut Job'>
Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2007 20:51:45 -0600
To: <'Combat Philosopher'>
Subject: Whoever is detected in a shameful fraud is ever after not believed even if they speak the truth.

Ave! :)
I will not eat oysters. I want my food dead -- not sick, not wounded -- dead. Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun. Life has a practice of living you, if you don't live it.

I guess someone forgot their Lithium today! I wonder whether other professions also suffer from such curious e-mails? Should anyone be in a position to make anything that might remotely sound like sense out of this, I would be delighted to hear. In the meantime, 'enjoy'...

The CP

Free Speech?

2007-11-05T22:06:00.000-06:00

An interesting conundrum has arisen in my neck of the woods of late. When the advising season comes around, we have a habit of handing out lists of courses that will be taught in our program next semester. It has been my habit when doing this to give the students a few moment to look over the list and then ask whether they have any questions. The students often have questions.

The questions that the students ask are usually quite sensible. However, one kind of question is of the "Which section for class X do you recommend?" It has been my practice to try and answer these questions as best I can. As a faculty member, I have a much better idea about the relative virtues of various sections than the average undergraduate.

Consider our Critical Thinking classes. We have one faculty member who, quite frankly, is notoriously problematic. S/he teaches this class. This semester, in the first six weeks of this semester, this individual managed to teach 5 out of a potential 12 classes (the section meets on a Tuesday-Thursday schedule). No reason was given for the cancelled classes, yet the faculty member concerned told the students that they were still responsible for the material. I know about this, because some of the students came to ask me about what they might be able to do about the situation. Of course, this should be a matter for our program coordinator, but s/he is too useless and busy harassing productive faculty members to do anything about the situation.

When students ask me about whether a section of Critical Thinking taught by my often missing co-worker should be taken, what should I say? It seems to me that the reasonable and honest thing to do is to warn the students that they should try and take this course (that is required for many of them) from another faculty member. Apparently, the moronic coordinator believes that such candour should not be allowed. I got one of his/her harassment write ups, for telling the students the truth!

In an analogous case, one of my favorite courses has now been given by the coordinator to their new faculty friend (the newly hired unpublished assistant professor). In exchange, I get a 101 hell class. When the students asked me about the course I used to teach and for which I got great evaluations, what am I supposed to say? The individual now slated to teach this class has never passed a comprehensive exam in the area. From what I have heard, chatting to them, his/her knowledge of the area is sophomoric and superficial. I know of at least one major scholarly mistake that s/he made in another course, in the same philosophical area. Indeed, the only qualification this individual appears to have for teaching this class is that they wish to and our coordinator appears to be in love with them. I think that it is morally dubious not to warn students that there could be 'issues' with this class, especially as it is the follow on from the one I am teaching this semester. Apparently, this too is reprehensible, according to the coordinator.

I am thus in a bit of a bind. Should I obey the silly dictates from my 'glorious leader', or should I continue to be honest with the students? Now, the obvious move is to file formal charges against the administrative moron. This I intend to do, but what with publication obligations, conference talks to give etc. I have had little time to do this. I will get to it, should I ever get some time. Currently, it will have to wait a while longer, so I can do a good enough job to ensure that the coordinator is removed (and also, setting up the grounds for the legal action against him/her).

As I think about it, I have a recollection that freedom of speech was one of those things that was supposed to be guaranteed in this country. Perhaps I should continue to just shoot from the hip, tell the truth and 'damn the torpedoes'. However, any suggestions on this matter would be welcome.

The CP

Oops, Busy

2007-10-29T00:16:00.000-06:00

I suddenly realise that I have been ignoring this blog. The past few weeks have been beyond hectic. I blog when I have time. Of late I have had none.

Last weekend and much of last week I was away from home at a conference. It was wonderful, stimulating and fun, but left little spare time -- on one day we had twelve hours of sessions, with only two hours long breaks. We did get to see the Space Shuttle launch though, which was fun.

The weekend before that, I had to play a role at a local event. It seems my activities were appreciated. Next weekend, I will have to play the role of a town crier at another local event. It seems that having a loud voice is appreciated in some quarters. There is even talk that I might get appointed town crier for the place that I live. This could be curious, but yet more time consuming.

The conference trip was hectic, as I had to put together an entirely new talk. It is done now. It went well. However, I need to catch up on stuff. I have a good friend who is in jail. I owe him several letters. He is important and has very little, so I will make writing to him a priority. I also have to return a manuscript to the journal that accepted it. The changes are minor and bibliographic. However, this has a short deadline, so it too will have to be attended to very soon. The book chapter that is due at the end of the year, is next in line behind the obligations just mentioned.

So, this is a long way of saying that The Combat Philosopher is currently somewhat hors de combat. This should be a temporary state of affairs though. I'll be back. I, at the very least, intend to post at least once a week from now on, until I can get back to a more rapid schedule. Sorry to all.

The CP.

To New Orleans...

2007-10-08T21:55:00.000-06:00

This weekend was fun. One of my graduate students got married. They were kind enough to invite me. The wedding was held in New Orleans and turned out to be a very fancy affair.

The wedding itself was glorious. It was held at a venerable old institution. The venue was amazing. The reception was very good too. It too was held in a classic old building. The food was excellent. Of course, there were many friends there, including several former and current students. It was most jolly.

Before the wedding, there was all the chaos of people meeting together from many different points. I rode down to The Big Easy in my new truck, that performed flawlessly, in excellent company. The journey was enriched by my iPod. At the last moment, one of the Bridesmen (a new fangled idea), had to use my hotel room to get changed. There was then a gathering for 'pre-match' drinks. This was in the very 'down at heal' "Chuck's". It made a nice counterpoint to the opulence of the wedding itself.

The ceremony was interesting. I have never seen so many bridesmaids (and bridesmen), and groomsmen (and groomsmaids). It looked like there was an entire football team of attendants. The other thing which was kind of unusual is that not a word of the ceremony was audible. I whispered to the folks around me that they might have been saying "Isn't this fun! Let us mouth some stuff for a while and then just go party". Who knows. However, there was an announcement of the new married couple, so we must assume that the deed was done in the proper manner.

After several hours of reception, the whole proceedings were interrupted by the arrival of one of the better New Orleans brass bands. Parasols were handed out. After a couple of circuits around the room in which the reception was held, the band led a second line out into the street. This was both excellent and fun. It seems that the families have some 'stroke' (as they say in these parts). There were police there closing down the roads so that the second line could proceed without impediment. It was absolutely fabulous. For those who know New Orleans, we went down both Magazine and Poydras with our procession. Tourists were even taking pictures!

Eventually, we reached a rather grand hotel, where the bridal party was staying. After a big finale, the brass band left. Apparently, the plan was then that we should all go down to the French Quarter, with the bride and groom. Needless to say, the theory on this was not quite what happened. After some chaotic hanging around, a consensus was reached that those of us in the proverbial 'madding crowd' should retire to the hotel bar, to await further instructions. There had been a brief incident with a limousine and a visiting football team outside the hotel that made this seem like a prudent choice. However, this move to the hotel bar too turned out to be a little more interesting than might have normally been assumed.

When we arrived in the bar, one of the other patrons turned out to be the Reverend Al Sharpton. I was just a little disappointed that he was only drinking coffee. However, due to a small collision incident (note to self: learn to look where you are going next time), I got to chat to him a little bit. For all the public persona (I have an in built distrust of public figures), he is actually a nice and interesting guy. I certainly applaud his efforts on behalf of the Jena 6. When the bride (eventually) arrived, he was kind enough to pose for photos with her. Although I have a copy of the picture of Rev. Sharpton kissing the bride, I will not share it here -- I am sure that my students new husband and Mrs. Sharpton would prefer that (not that there is anything sordid -- it is actually very sweet).

After a while and some quite interesting traditional jazz, we moved out to the Quarter. The bride was AWAL by the time we left, but showed up later, along with many of the wedding party. I have to admire the resilience of my students. Thus, it was a very happy, jolly and late night. It was good to be back in The Crescent City. Although all these events took place in the so-called 'Isle of Denial', it was nice to see the place looking something like it used to before The Storms (do not forget Rita!). The tourist dollars are more revenues for the coffers of the City and thus (assuming that the money is not stolen, or diverted -- this is Louisiana, after all) at least in theory it may be able to be used to help regenerate the still badly afflicted parts of the place.

As for me, I had a wonderful weekend. I hope you did too.

The CP

Under The Rug

2007-10-03T21:30:00.000-06:00

The first couple of days of this week were nice. Classes were cancelled, due to a slightly odd local tradition. I managed to get somewhat caught up on all the things that I have to get done between now and the break. When classes started again today, they did so in an exciting manner. An 8am class was somewhat rudely interrupted, when the local police force burst through the door of the class room and arrested a student, including clamping them in handcuffs, in front of the rest of the students in the class. Needless to say, this did not do much to enhance the 'learning environment'.

Such an incident, provided plenty of fodder for the gossiping classes amongst the faculty. However, it also rather egregiously violated the proper protocol for such situations. Apparently, many years ago, our local forces of law and order hit upon the bright idea of tracking down people with outstanding warrants by showing up in the middle of final exams. This was not an academically popular tactic. Eventually, a correct method (advise the professor ahead of time, have them ask the student to step outside, etc.) was developed. Today, all this was ignored.

One of the slightly strange things about Louisiana is that ignoring rules and procedure is almost a way of life, for some individuals. While this does lend a certain 'rustic' and chaotic charm to things, it is not always welcome. However, in this context, the latest hot gossip topic is something of a surprise. It seems that a tenured faculty member is being dismissed for cause.

This is something which has almost never happened, as best anyone can remember. If there is a problem, offenders are 'persuaded' that it is in their best interest to just leave voluntarily. This way, all the embarrassing details can be conveniently swept under the proverbial rug. Not so in the current case. Nobody seems to know who the person is, or what they have done to get such a sanction, but there are plenty of theories.

What is puzzling is what a tenured person could have done to get themselves dismissed for cause. Our campus is replete with stories about 'faux pas' that have been overlooked and even forgiven. There was the case of the faculty member who was trading 'A' grades, in exchange for coeds appearing on his porn site. This was 'discovered' by the father of a student who 'happened upon' the porn site, where he saw his daughter. That faculty member was sent on their way and the matter 'went away'.

In another case, an untenured professor was caught trading sex for grades. Although there was a bit of an uproar, the professor in question still managed to get tenure, quite recently. Needless to say the traditionalists raised a stink about this, but tenure was still granted. This case was not too dissimilar from the professor who specialised in sending out Christian homophobic e-mails to entire classes, attacking individual students. They got tenure too.

It is not just the male professors either. A fairly notorious (barely tenured, or tenurable) female professor seduced a graduate student in their department. When the affair ended, the student broadcast far and wide all the sexual shortcomings of the professor. The situation was widely known about, yet no sanctions were ever taken against her.

Of course, not all transgressions are sexual. There is the professor who likes to cancel classes. Like about 50% of classes in a single semester, without explanation. Result? Nothing. Then we have the minor administrator types who victimize their productive faculty, telling them that they are being nasty for making their idle friend look bad. Thus, all in all, almost every academic crime has been committed in these parts and forgiven and overlooked. So, what did the individual being terminated 'with cause' do? Folks are investigating.

The other amazing thing is that such a circumstance could arise without the details being widely known. Many faculty around here seem to do very little, other than gossip (they certainly do not publish). So, most things are known. In this case they are not. This too is strange.

There are a few theories. One of our mechanical workers swears that he knows which department the problem has arisen in. Given that this is an administrative unit that is notorious for their politics and intrigue (they make the Battle of The Somme look like a 'group hug'), it is certainly a possibility. However, none of the usual cast of incompetents and miscreants seem to fit the bill in this case. So, the mystery remains.

Perhaps the interesting conclusion here though is that maybe, just maybe, there has been a change of heart somewhere in my institution. It could be the case that the culture of ignoring the rules of good practice (indeed, any rules at all) and common sense has at long last been realised to be a shortsighted strategy. I will not hold my breath on this, but it would make a nice change from everything being swept under the proverbial rug. I can think of a few other individuals for whom that particular 'piper' has been calling all too long.

The CP

The Jena 6 -- What They All Missed

2007-09-26T19:14:00.000-06:00

Last week, the news was full of stories about the so-called 'Jena 6'. There was a huge march in the town of Jena too. The TV networks were all there. As often happens with such news, there was a predictable outbreak of chatter on blogs about the topic, including the usual predictable drivel from the usual suspects.

There are a number of important points that the mainstream media and the bloggers all missed. I will fill this lacuna here.

Yes, the story of the Jena 6 is clearly about racism. Yes, it is horrific to hear such things can still happen in this, supposedly, more enlightened age. Yes, the situation is intolerable and something should be done about it. This is not exactly news. These observations have been repeated again and again to the point that they are now platitudes. What few have considered less is that there are underlying causes over and above the manifest racism.

Here is a question: Why were the police and the authorities involved in these incidents that occurred at a school at all? When I was in school, there were occasional fights. Sometimes a person would get hurt in these fights. Back then though, nobody felt a need to call the police, when a fight occurred. Nobody wanted to put a cop into the school, because of such incidents. Yet, in this day and age, this now seems to be a reflex action.

Do not get me wrong, there were serious incidents at my school occasionally. On one famous occasion, a student pulled an air pistol on a teacher. Even then though, nobody felt the need to call in the SWAT team. The head of the department was called. He took the gun. The student was punished (severely). That was the end of it.

The police have enough to do, without being given responsibility for acting as referees in school yard spats. To make matters worse, cops are not trained to deal with school kids. Yet, they are invited in, with all their tools (pepper spray, guns, handcuffs, dogs, etc.), for the most minor infraction that occurs in a school. This policy is now a favorite amongst school boards, who wish to be seen to be being tough, but it seems to me to be counter-productive. 'Zero tolerance' may make a fine election slogan, but it makes very poor policy. Let me cite a couple of examples I know of, that occurred in Louisiana.

A child was found with a lighter. Shock horror! In my day, nothing would have happened to them, although the child would have been under suspicion of being a smoker. A lighter is not a deadly weapon. Indeed, lighters have legitimate uses (lighting candles, finding a key hole in the dark and so on), yet in this case the mere possession of the lighter was treated like the child had been in possession of a loaded weapon. S/he was charged and even had to go to court, all for having a lighter. What a waste of time and resources. This might be called 'zero tolerance', but to me it sounds like zero common sense.

On another occasion, a child was found in possession of a (roll the drums), a drum stick! It turns out the child was bringing the drum stick to a friend who had left it behind after a sleep over. What happened to this hardened drum stick wielding 'criminal' though? They were charged with possession of a weapon by the ever so wise cops who attended in response to a call from the Principal. They were then expelled from the school. How much sense does this make? I would say none. Perhaps I missed something -- are drum sticks the latest terror weapons deployed by al Qaeda?

You see, the reported events concerning the Jena 6 occurred in a context in which paranoid thinking is considered normal. Had a wise teacher or administrator handled the whole initial set of incidents in a sensible manner, my bet is that this issue would have never reached the point where it made the news. However, in a climate which is suffused with the insanity of zero tolerance, this common sense approach would be denounced as irresponsible.

This kind of climate breeds certain kinds of madness. In some senses, it is a bit like the silly people who spend their lives claiming that they are being verbally abused, by anyone who disagrees with them, or detecting putative abuse, when there is none. It is some societal version of crying wolf. To make matters worse, adding the emotionally charging effect of the police into such situations can only make matters worse. Furthermore, when the police get involved, they are trained to deal with hardened criminals and they too are likely to have an effect of increasing the trauma. Now, if the small town police officers are themselves none too bright and are perhaps a little racist, then the results are predictable. Once matters have gone this far, the local prosecutors are going to wish to play their part too. It is for these reasons that the events in Jena are not really a surprise.

In fact, there is clearly plenty of blame to go around. If the initial events are typical of the kind that happen in most school yards, then none of the students will be entirely without some guilt. Antagonism between groups, be they cultural groups, racial groups, or whatever, often leads to ill considered actions by teenagers. The teachers at the school could have handled the matter in a low key manner, but instead decided to get the authorities involved. They had the option not to ('just following orders' is not a sound defence). The school board, who by their policies may have forced the hand of the teachers also have some culpability. The police, the prosecutors, all have some role in creating the horrific situation that has played out now in the public eye. No group can be entirely without blame.

Thus, despite all the rhetoric about race and the Jena 6, there is a deeper cause that needs to be recognised too. In saying this, I do not mean to diminish the culpability of the racists. Hopefully, they will be exposed and punished. My goal rather is to draw attention to the combination of Neanderthal attitudes and policies that lie at the root of the whole sad situation. Just one person, very early on, could have prevented the escalation that has resulted in ridiculous charges and at least one child spending over nine months in jail, when that child should have been completing their education. It is a damn shame that no such sensible person was available in Jena.

The CP

On Free Speech

2007-09-24T23:05:00.000-06:00

There are so many topics that I would like to blog about, but have been too busy to do so. One in particular, the Jena 6, I especially wish to write about. However, as time is short, I will address another topic today: Freedom of Speech.

Today, one of the big news stories concerned an address given by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, at Columbia University, in New York. The University President, Lee Bollinger, made some pretty caustic remarks prior to Ahmadinejad speaking. His remarks were far from polite, or kind.

Of course, Ahmadinejad has made some pretty inflammatory claims himself. This inspired all sorts of objections and protests from New Yorkers. It also all made great copy for papers in New York, Washington and elsewhere. However, beyond all this hype and hyperbole, there is an important point that seems to have been overlooked.

Freedom of Speech is a constitutionally important right in the United States. Organizations like the ACLU continue to work very hard to defend this right in the courts, not least in the face of the silent war against free speech and thought that has been waged by the Bush administration. However, there is a further important issue that needs to be brought to the fore in the current context. This concerns the importance of free speech in an academic context.

Although there are many philosophical theorists that I believe to be wrong, misguided and (occasionally) insane, it is still important that I be able to hear their point of view, in order to be able to show the errors in their positions. To just pre-judge, without considering the evidence, is academically irresponsible. While occasionally moronic academics (like my chair), may do this kind of thing, it is not the kind of behaviour that should be condoned in a serious academic environment.

So, I salute Columbia for their courage in letting Ahmadinejad speak. Perhaps a more interesting perspective can be gained by considering the following lines,

"[T]he life of all of mankind is in danger because of the global warming resulting to a large degree from the emissions of the factories of the major corporations, yet despite that, the representative of these corporations in the White House insists on not observing the Kyoto accord, with the knowledge that the statistic speaks of the death and displacement of the millions of human beings because of that, especially in Africa. This greatest of plagues and most dangerous of threats to the lives of humans is taking place in an accelerating fashion as the world is being dominated by the democratic system, which confirms its massive failure to protect humans and their interests from the greed and avarice of the major corporations and their representatives."

Who said this? Fidel Castro? A Greenpeace spokesman? Al Gore? Actually, it was none of these, it was Osama bin Laden in one of his recent video messages (a transcript is available here). Of course, this was not a part of the message that made the evening news. However, it is not an entirely insane, or problematic set of sentiments.

The point here though is that if we permit the news organisations to to filter our knowledge of the world, then we run the risk of just learning the message intended by the spin masters. Universities have historically been the places where sober and sane reflection and rational debate can take place. However, rational debate is impossible without hearing the words of those with which we may wish to take issue with. Thus, it is my judgement that Columbia University did a good and important thing today.

The CP

Too Much!

2007-09-18T11:10:00.000-06:00

I feel slightly bad. I have not being paying attention to this blog of late. I have no real excuse, other than the rather generic 'life is busy'. So, let me make a partial amends with an update.

I like to keep projects, especially research projects under control. This academic year, at least thus far, I have not been doing a great job of this. Suddenly a whole bunch of projects are coming due, all at the same time. First, there is the paper I agreed to referee for a journal last week. Then it seemed feasible, now, it is looking more like a bit of a panic. The paper is very technical and 75 pages long. In order to do the paper justice, it will take a big bunch of time on the details. However, just yesterday, I discovered that a paper I submitted quite a while ago has been accepted for publication. I am very excited about this one. This is the result of a research goal I set nearly a decade ago. The talk version of the paper has now been through seven major revisions. The final result is nothing like I had initially imagined. However, it is a solid and significant set of research results. I am very happy that it has been accepted, in a good place, with only minor revisions.

The minor revisions though are mostly bibliographic. Given our somewhat sad library, getting access to the relevant literature could be a challenge. I only have four weeks to get it all done. As they say in comic books, 'Yikes!'.

I also have a big conference talk to get together, for the middle of next month. Most of the basic research is complete, but there are details that are proving problematic. I wanted to cite a rather obscure work. It now seems that just to borrow the book though ILL will cost $40. I have not come across this before. It seems insane to me. However, I need to get the talk done and it also has to be good. The place where it has been accepted will have a large number of people there who are friends. A half-arsed job will thus not be acceptable. I need to get working on this too.

These are not the only professional obligations. Some time ago, I signed a contract with a major publisher in my area, which is due by the end of the year. I need to finish writing this stuff also. Suddenly, it seems that time is getting short and the academic obligations are mounting.

To add to the time crunch, my chair is out of control. S/he makes arbitrary and stupid choices and needs to be handled. While s/he is favoring their catamite (our unqualified new hire -- no publications, but a buddy of the Chair, need I say more), they are doing very bad things to our program. As the only senior faculty member who is still engaged in this kind of situation (there is another senior person, but they have been totally out of it, for the last several years), I believe that it is my responsibility to try and get things back on track. However, this too is time consuming.

This then is (at least part of) the life of The Combat Philosopher, currently. These are also the reasons why posts have been few and far between of late. Sorry. I hope that I will be able to get back ahead of the curve. In the meantime, please forgive the indolence. Oh yes, if anyone has any good ideas on how to best manage such multiple time crunches, then suggestions would be very welcome. I am actually drowning a little bit, currently, with quite a heavy teaching load in addition to all this. Oh well, time to get back to work...

The CP

Tropical Storm Humberto -- Here We Go Again...

2007-09-12T22:00:00.000-06:00

So, although 2006 was a quiet year in the Gulf of Mexico for tropical activity, it seems that the tropical 'fun' is back with us. As I write, Tropical Storm Humberto is about to pay a visit to Louisiana and Texas. We are back in the storm track again. The current radar tracking can be found here. It looks like things are going to get wet. Of course, where will get wet, will have to be seen. It is not a serious threat from winds and storm surge, but there will be a great deal of rain.

Further to the East is Tropical Depression 8. It is too early to tell where it will go as yet, but we have learned in this part of the world to keep a weather eye. Over the years and the storms, I have learned that some weather sites are better than others. My personal favorite is The Weather Underground. Jeff Master's Blog is especially worth reading.

So, as I work on the paper I have under contract, the talk I have to give next month, in addition to teaching my classes, I will be keeping an eye on the weather. This is life in Louisiana at a University (or at least, a 'university style' institution) during the late Summer Hurricane season. I love the research. I quite like the teaching. I am somewhat hot and cold on the incompetence of many administrators and all too many of the faculty. However, at least the weather is interesting. Let us hope that it is not too interesting. In New Orleans these days, when wandering around and taking to the locals, they have a saying -- "Katrina has a sister." A visit from a powerful hurricane would be one way of spelling 'too interesting'.

The CP

Time, Publishing Politics And A Quandary

2007-09-09T22:44:00.000-06:00

It seems that I am becoming an indolent blogger. It seems like ages since I posted anything. Let me say 'sorry' for this. This is turning into a very busy semester. It is also the case that other things going on in my life are permitting me less time to blog.

My topic today though concerns the politics of publishing. This is a topic that I have mentioned before. It seem that academic publishers have themselves a new lobbying and marketing organization, called PRISM which is dedicated to help 'educate' folks about the 'evils' of Open Access publishing. Naturally enough, the claims made by the people at PRISM are laughable. In a more agricultural arena, their claims might simply be rejected a 'bollocks'. Unfortunately, in the arena of business, where money talks and common sense (which seldom has many dollars to spare) gets pushed aside, organisations such as this have a bad habit of making head way, despite the complete lack of virtue of their position.

It seems that the large academic publishers are indulging in a strategy of what is sometimes called 'FUD' (short for 'Fear, Uncertainty, Dread') about how Open Access to academic work will mean the end of peer review, a decline in academic standards, the sky falling in, and other utter rubbish. Of course, the publishers are just trying to defend the status quo, in which we academics do research, write it up and submit it to journals, without asking for a penny for our labors. The journals then have other academics referee the submitted works (again for free). Finally, when papers are accepted, the journals then get to charge huge amounts for access to work they never paid a thing for. Of course, for them this is a nice deal. They get to make money off the work of others, without paying for it. No wonder they see open access as a threat (to their bottom line) and are consequently prepared to say (and spend) anything to defend the situation.

It seems though that a backlash is developing. Mike Rossner, Executive Director of Rockefeller University Press recently issued an open letter to The American Association of Publishers asking them to curtail the PRISM related silliness. This is even a topic that has been covered by Nature (but guess what, Nature want payment to read this article, unless your library has a subscription -- bloody typical) . So, things seem to be heating up.

I have been a fan and an advocate of Open Access for years. Back in the 1990s, I was involved in an outfit that aimed to make philosophy research available for free. I have also served as editor for an entirely free on-line journal, that permitted authors to retain their own copyright on their works. However, I fear that I too have allowed myself to fall under the sway of the big publishing houses and their dubious habits.

Just last week, I agreed to act as a referee for a major journal in my field. I will have to read, comment upon, and make recommendations on a 75 page paper within the next three weeks. For this I will get paid nothing. I also just signed a contract with one of the major supporters behind PRISM. The whole situation raises a quandary. Should I break the contract I have just signed? This will take some thinking about. Suggestions would be welcome.

To make matters worse, I am sure that all this smoke on the topic of publishers will be used by my less than productive co-workers as their latest justification for publishing nothing. Their profound lack of productivity will now be justified on quasi-'political' grounds, that they are refusing to submit, not because they have no original ideas, have nothing to say and are generally bone idle, but rather as an (ersatz) political actions against the evils of the major publishing houses.

Given this circumstance, it is a small wonder that academia is in such a mess. Active academics such as myself have to think carefully about how we interact with important publishers. In the meantime, the deadwood 'I publish Zero' style pseudo-professors will have been given yet another excuse for their sloth. Should I decide to take a stand and break my contract with the publisher, I will run the risk of sounding like one of the bone idle types, unless I can find an alternative venue for the contracted work. So, the situation is a bloody mess! No wonder I have had so little time to write this blog of late.

The CP

Off Coke

2007-09-02T15:24:00.000-06:00

If you were to hear that people involved in the Colombian coke industry engaged in kidnapping, murder and torture, there is a reasonable chance that you may not be surprised. There would be a hidden assumption in such an inference, however.

Many people tend to forget that the term 'coke' suffers from a three way semantic ambiguity. The term 'coke' can refer to an overly sweet fizzy drink, with a secret recipe, that is notorious for it's tooth rotting properties. It can also refer to the favorite 'nose candy' of certain types of yuppies, which is the main ingredient of Crack-Cocaine, which is currently the plague of inner cities. Finally, 'coke' can also refer to a type of coal based solid fuel.

The apparent lack of surprise about the activities of persons involved in the Colombian coke industry derives from the fact that people tend to assume that the term 'coke' in this context has the second meaning. Unfortunately, there is some evidence that the fizzy drink purveyors may have learned a thing or two from the operatives in the similarly named, though less legal, version of the coke industry.

The website Killercoke.org lists a number of cases where, according to the website, the management of Colombian Coca Cola company bottling plants, in conjunction with paramilitary thugs, has behaved towards union leaders in a manner more usually associated with drug cartels. Needless to say, the company has vigorously denied these allegations.

An interesting character in these allegations is the strangely named Douglas Daft, who was formerly CEO of the corporation. Some time ago, Daft left Coca-cola, with a $36 million pay off. During Daft's tenure, a bottling plant in India was forced to close, in the face of allegations of stolen water and polluted land. The company also had to pay out $192 million in a race discrimination case. In 2004, at a Coca Cola annual meeting, under Daft's watchful eye, a protester called Ray Rogers was put into a choke hold and wrestled to the ground by security staff, when he tried to address the meeting about the corporations labor practices.

Fortunately, also in 2004, an 'independent' report 'exonerated' the Coca Cola company from any complicity in cases of attacks on Colombian trade unionists. However, according to published reports, this report was prepared by the law firm White and Case. It just so happens that White and Case was the same firm that defended Coca Cola in a lawsuit brought against it by supporters of Colombian trade unionists. So, that's all right then.

In the meantime, Douglas Daft has been appointed to the ethics committee of arms manufacturer and dealer BAE Systems. One wonders where Daft gained the experience for such a post? Perhaps now would be a good time to switch to Jolt, or Pepsi for all one's carbonated caffeine needs, if one prefers a more ethical personal stance. One should also avoid the over-priced tap water that is marketed as Dasani. However, finding a replacement for Fresca, which actually tastes quite good, will prove a little more difficult.

The CP

Katrina: Two Years On

2007-08-29T00:01:00.000-06:00

On the morning of the 29th of August 2005, one year ago today, Hurricane Katrina came ashore along the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi. I have written a great deal here about this storm, in addition to the all too often overlooked Hurricane Rita. On this second anniversary, it is appropriate to take stock of what has happened since the landfall of Katrina.

Perhaps one of the most surprising things is that, even after all this time, new victims of the storms are still being found. Although it is now becoming increasingly rare, every now and again there will be a report of yet another body being found that was missed in previous searches. Fairly recently, a body was discovered in a bath. In the last year though, probably the most high profile victim of the storms of 2005 has been Governor Kathleen Blanco. She has announced that she will not run for re-election. Her unpopularity in the aftermath of the storms made this a political necessity that even the power of her husbands political machine could not overcome.

As for people who were directly impacted by the storm, recently released figures suggest that there are still around 40,000 people living in those notorious FEMA trailers in the State of Louisiana. This number is likely to have to shrink soon, now it has been discovered that the trailers themselves may not be fit form human habitation, due to noxious chemicals. Who knows what indignities FEMA and other agencies will manage to visit upon those who have to be displaced, yet again.

Those displaced by the storms are not just located in Louisiana though. There are an estimated 70,000 people who are living outside the State who still want to return. These figures come from The Louisiana Recovery Corps.. Although these numbers are distressingly large, they also do not convey the full impact of the tragedy the occurred in Louisiana in 2005. They do not include the people who have decided not to return to Louisiana, scared off by the high price of accommodation and the now shocking murder rate in the City of New Orleans. In all likelihood, the full extent of the human tragedy will never really be known. It has been severe though.

In the City of New Orleans, although the Katrina anniversary shows like to emphasise how much better things have got, it is important to realise that such perspectives only appear when the City is viewed from certain angles. Sure, the French Quarter, which never flooded is now hosting groups of drunk tourists as before. However, what these optimistic views miss is the rest of the City. Consider the case of the Lakeview area. Before the storm this was a relatively affluent area. Unfortunately, it flooded badly. Now, only about 25% of residents have returned and are rebuilding. Many more of the buildings remain untouched since August 2005. Things in the much poorer Ninth Ward of the City are, if anything, a little worse. So, do not be fooled by the upbeat affirmations of the news anchors. There is still plenty of suffering and tragedy around and about the City of New Orleans.

This being said, it is also the case that not everyone has done badly in the aftermath of the storms. There has been a great deal of money promised to help rebuild the City of New Orleans. Unfortunately, a good deal less of this money has actually appeared. The rebuilding funds are supposed to be administered by The Louisiana Recovery Authority. Needless to say, although the claims to the Authority have been many, the actual payouts have been few. For the most part, the Authority specialises in issuing upbeat (though implausible) press releases and inventing ever more complex and Kafkaesque procedures that people making claims have to follow. Although the actual storm victims have not seen much benefit from the activities of the Authority, the consultants that have been hired to administer the funds seem to be doing very nicely.

The other two groups who seem to be doing rather well in the aftermath of the storms are developers (often from out of State) and property speculators. When Congress passed The Gulf Opportunity Zone Act, the idea was to encourage rebuilding in the areas of the Gulf Coast that were devastated by the storms of 2005. One provision in this Act created so-called 'Go Zones'. In a Go Zone, the Act provides for a bonus depreciation of 50% on construction projects that started after August 2005 and completed by the end of 2008. What this means in practice for developers is that for every $10 Million Dollars they invest, they will receive a tax credit of approximately $5.3 Million Dollars. Thus, as a result of the storms, there has been a rash of speculative development. This has produced a veritable bonanza for both developers and property speculators.

One unfortunate side effect of all this construction activity is that there are now plenty of big box stores, yuppie condo developments and unnecessary student apartment complexes being built. The presumed goal of this Act, to provide housing for ordinary displaced residents and those in FEMA trailers, has seemed to have been forgotten as people have used the Act to get rich(er) quickly. So, while there is plenty of expensive property for those with large bank rolls, the normal working people are rather less well served.

Another curious feature that has appeared since the storms is the 'pseudo-survivor'. These are people who were never really too badly affected by the Tempests, but had to put up with a few people staying at their house, for a few days. They can now claim to have PTSD and all sorts of other, high improbable afflictions, while garnering support for their 'bravery' from people elsewhere in the US and around the World. When this is done on blogs, this kind of activity is especially distasteful.

So, what has been learned since the time of the storms in 2005? The first lesson is that outside agencies, be they consultants, or the Federal Government cannot be trusted. The people who have really made the recovery efforts as successful as they have been are just regular people. There are the church groups who have volunteered their time and labor. There are the neighbours who have helped one another out. These are not people with mission statements, or fancy web sites. They are just people getting stuck in and getting the job done.

Fairly recently I heard a tale from someone who had wanted to come down and spend some of their holiday time working. They contacted a national organization, who should have shown interest in their skills. To their amazement, this organization required them to make a cash donation, in addition to paying for their own accommodation and food, before their application would even be considered. So instead, they bought a tent, got in their car, and went looking for people who needed some help. It did not take them long to find folks who welcomed the assistance. Thus, it seems that the conclusion after two years must be something like 'trust people, not organizations, when it comes to surviving and recovering from Hurricanes'.

In closing, I want to share an amazing video I found on YouTube, that was taken during Hurricane Katrina by the Vaccarella Family of St. Bernard Parish. The video is quite long (circa 10 mins.), but worth watching. It shows the water level around their house rising to the level of the roof as the storm surge arrived. It is some amazing footage, not least because it shows the efforts of people helping one another out, both during and after the storm.

Finally, let us not forget the many people (how many, we shall probably never know) who lost their lives during the Storms of 2005. Let us hope that the rest of this years Hurricane season remains quiet in the Gulf of Mexico.

The CP

A Great Net Music Source...

2007-08-26T23:01:00.000-06:00

I feel bad. I have not been paying sufficient attention to this blog of late. There are a bunch of reasons for this. The new semester is only part of it. It is not like I have not been thinking about this blog. I have some great ideas and research for a bunch more posts. However, writing posts takes free, or spare time. Time like this is something I have increasingly little of at the moment. This is a good thing in general, but bad for the blog, so stay with me a while.

However, today I ran across something that I really want to share. It seems that there is a new Internet music service available. It is located at http://www.deezer.com/. I strongly recommend it (N.B. you will need to enable JavaScript). There are many full songs available free at this place. No registration. No bullshit. Just good music for free. It is also totally legal, due to an interesting deal having been stuck in France. Check this place out!

That being said, the interface is a bit clunky. It may take a few screen to find the artist you want. The search function can be a bit hit, or miss, but digging through the menus can usually find most bands a person might want. Some artists have complete albums available (e.g Jethro Tull). Others (e.g. Joy Division and Big Country) only have a few tracks from each album. Any which way, it is a great resource. As I type this, I have Salif Keita playing. Enjoy! More 'normal' postings soon, I promise.

The CP

The Rhythm Of The Semester

2007-08-22T19:08:00.000-06:00

The semester has started. All the classes have been met for the first time. Each class has their syllabus. The lost students have been pointed in the correct direction. All those annoying last moment details have been sorted. Things are ready to go for the semester, almost. Yet, there is still something missing -- the rhythm of the semester.

One of the downsides of a long break from teaching is that one gets out of the regular habits which make a semester run smoothly. Although the research time during the Summer is wonderful, it does mean that the internal sense of pace which is essential to a semester goes astray. With everything ready to go for the new school year, this is the one thing that is missing.

Usually, by the second week of the semester, the rhythm reappears. There is a certain periodicity and pulse to the way a semester runs. There is the schedule of the classes. There is the regular round of meetings. When the rhythm of the semester reasserts itself, all these things naturally follow one another. Until it does, it is hard to get used to being back in semester mode again. To paraphrase Peter Gabriel, it is time for 'the rhythm to take control'. Then the semester will be fully up and running again.

The CP

Once More Unto The Breach...

2007-08-19T16:59:00.000-06:00

Before the Battle of Harfleur, King Henry V rallies his troops in Shakespeare's play, with the following lines,

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,..."
(Act III, Scene 1).

It is my tradition to utter these lines, below my breath, as I leave my office on the way to my first class on the first day of the new school year. Tomorrow I will utter these lines, in accordance with the tradition.

The Summer break will be over tomorrow. Overall, it has been a good and productive one. As is usually the case, I have not managed to get quite as much accomplished as I had hoped. However, a great deal of research has been done and written up. One paper I have been plugging away at is quite close to completion. It should not take me long to get it finished and submitted.

It is also going to be a busy semester. Just last week, I got the contract from the publishers for a book chapter that needs to be finished and submitted by the end of the year. I have also had a paper, largely composed of entirely new research, accepted at a large and important conference in October. Both these projects and the one that remains from over the Summer will have to be finished during this semester. This should keep me out of trouble.

The last week or so has spun past as a blur. There have been the class materials to get prepared. There has been the arrival of the new truck and the finding of a buyer for the old one. There have been pre-semester get togethers. There was the necessity of getting the laptop fixed. There was also an incident involving my house, a tree branch and the loss of both cable and telephone lines. In addition to all this, there have been some rather special happenings. So, things have been busy, but in a curious way, fun and wonderful.

Thus, I am ready for the battle that will be the new academic year. I feel ready to face it with stiff, yet supple sinews, summoned and hearty blood and with a joyous countenance. Let the games begin!

The CP

Laptop Down!

2007-08-15T13:27:00.000-06:00

Things have been busy of late, with the new semester coming up and some other exciting things going on. However, the main reason for the lack of posts for the next couple of days is that the screen on my laptop has died. This makes doing pretty much anything a might on the tricky side. I have ordered new parts and they should be in in a couple of days. However, until then, things are going to be a bit quiet here. Sorry.

The CP

Could Dinosaurs Have Had Language?

2007-08-12T17:31:00.000-06:00

Philosophers have historically had a reputation for coming up with some pretty outlandish ideas, from time to time. Today, I want to have a go at joining the philosophers with strange ideas. The question which forms the title to this post is not as entirely barmy as it may appear, for reasons I will outline below.

Although not entirely uncontroversial, some theorists are now beginning to accept the idea that dinosaurs are not entirely extinct, in the manner they have traditionally thought to be. The fiction of Jurrassic Park notwithstanding, the notion that dinosaurs gave rise to modern birds is one that is now becoming part of the mainstream. As has been noted here before, one consequence of this is that the question 'Which came first, the chicken or the egg?' will now have to be updated to 'Which came first, the dinosaur or the egg?'. There may be other interesting implications too though. It is one of these that I will explore.

A while ago, I mentioned a recent report that discussed new evidence that children engage in deceptive behaviors when as young as six months of age. This is just one bit of evidence that behaviors and abilities that have traditionally been assumed to be quite sophisticated, actually appear a good deal sooner than was initially thought. Something similar is happening when it comes to abilities and where they are traditionally assumed to show up in the evolutionary hierarchy. Recently, I saw some strong experimental evidence, which is as yet unpublished, demonstrating numerical abilities among reptiles. Such abilities have, until now, only been seen in humans and primates. If this trend continues, then the question in the title of this post may not be quite a preposterous as it may initially sound.

One of the reasons this fact is of interest has to do with the parts of the brain that are shared by so-called 'higher animals' (like primates) and reptiles. There are parts that all species have in common. As Linden argues elegantly in his recent book The Accidental Mind (2007), apparent oddities in human cognition, such as the phenomenon of Blindsight can be easily explained by the brain having multiple systems, some more primitive than others, for performing particular tasks. If the 'language instinct', as Pinker calls it, could be shown to have causes in parts of the brain that reptiles or birds share with humans, then it is at least possible that dinosaurs might have had analogous abilities.

In fact, I think that an even stronger conjecture can be maintained. One of the distinctive features of language is that it has syntax. Yet, it has been clearly established that songbirds have syntactic abilities. Thus, given the relatively close connection between dinosaurs and birds, it is not impossible that they too might have also shared this ability.

Now, I am not suggesting that we could have had a conversation with a dinosaur. After all, even communicating with language trained apes is not entirely straightforward. However, there are two points I want to make here. The first of these is that the question posed at the beginning of this post is not quite as outlandish as it might initially appear. The second point, is that looking for evidence of rudimentary linguistic abilities in lower animals may be more fruitful than initially it may seem. To the best of my knowledge, no serious researcher has looked at the topic of language in dinosaurs. I think, given the evidence briefly discussed here, that it may be an interesting research direction.

The CP

Heat

2007-08-11T17:23:00.001-06:00

Most people are aware that Louisiana is located in a rather warm and humid part of the world. However, even by our local standards, the past few days have been hot. Normally at this time of year, the mean temperature us around 83 degrees F (28 degrees C), with highs around 91 degrees F (32 degrees C) and lows around 74 degrees F (23 degrees C). Today though the temperature peaked at 101 degrees F (38 degrees C), equaling the previous maximum recorded today, back in 1925.

Of course, humidity also plays a part. Today the heat index reached 110 degrees F. This is hot enough to be dangerous. We will be under a heat advisory until at least 9pm this evening, meaning that the heat index will be above 105 degrees F until then. The low tonight (without heat index) is forecast to be 81 degrees F. This is too damn hot, if you ask me.

With weather like this, one has to change the way one goes about doing things. I considered attacking my lawn today, but decided against it, as it would be potentially dangerous. Instead, I ran some errands. However, the heat was too much for the rather pathetic A/C in my truck. It just could not keep up. I was glad to get back inside after that little foray. Rather than working in the yard, I elected to do some carpentry work that I have been meaning to get around to for some time. At least this weather makes jobs like that get done at last.

Things are not looking like they will get much better in the next few days either. Perhaps by next weekend, the temperature will drop, if we get some clouds and rain. Of course, this will send the humidity up, but one cannot have everything.

Being forced to stay inside is also conducive to the other great obsession in this part of the world at this time of year, watching the Caribbean and the Atlantic for potential hurricanes. In the near term, things are looking pretty good. However, there is a tropical wave that is coming off the coast of Africa. This looks like it has a fair bit of potential to develop. Looking at the predictions of the various weather models, this could put a storm into the Gulf of Mexico is eleven days, or so. Let us hope the models are wrong. In the meantime, thank goodness for air conditioning...

The CP

IP And Sleeping Dogs

2007-08-09T20:43:00.000-06:00

Before the War of Jenkin's Ear, British politician Horace Walpole recommended to "Let sleeping dogs lie". When war was declared, he also famously remarked "They are ringing the bells now; they will be wringing their hand soon". Something I ran across today made me think of the sleeping dogs remark.

It seems that multi-national Johnson and Johnson has decided to sue The American Red Cross. Initially, this might appear to be a simple case of rampant corporate greed. After all, the Red Cross is supposed to be a charitable organisation. Unfortunately, things are not quite as simple as this initial impression might suggest. It seems that nobody in this fight is going to end up looking good.

Really, this little spat is a symptom of the wider malaise of the world of Intellectual Property (IP) having gone completely mad. The noxious RIAA are trying sue the living daylights out of anonymous college students, and technically challenged grandmothers. And now we have two organizations, that should have better things to do, fighting over the symbol of a red cross.

The basis of the suit is that Johnson and Johnson managed to get a trademark on a red cross back in the Nineteenth Century, before the Red Cross organisation was recognised in the USA. So, in one sense, the makers of K-Y Jelly look bad for the reasons that appear obvious. However, there is a deeper problem.

Anyone who lived through the Hurricanes of 2005 knows that the Red Cross, while doing some good work, is very far from a perfect organisation. Back then I wrote about the excessively officious procedures of the Red Cross. Since then, a great deal of criticism has been leveled at the organisation, for their rather greedy approach to fund raising, particularly after disasters. Thus, this is not an organisation that needs to have more negative publicity. This law suit though provides just this.

The level of annoyance and frustration that people have with the American Red Cross can be seen in the discussion about this story in the comments section of the Slashdot web site. Although commentators initially target the multi-national, eventually some rather unsavory tales about the Red Cross emerge. So, it seems that on this one, both side lose.

This then is the reason why this silly IP issue one is one on which both sides should have left well alone. Had the American Red Cross not decided to cash in on the red cross symbol, then the suit would have never arisen. That being said, Johnson and Johnson also look bad. This is then the reason why all parties in this fight would have been much better off following Horace Walpole's advice and let sleeping dogs lie.

The CP

Trucks And Luck

2007-08-08T21:16:00.000-06:00

I drive a truck. It is really quite old and is pretty nasty. It only cost me $1000 about nine years ago, so it has served me pretty well. However, it is now getting to an age where it cannot really be trusted, especially on the highway. For this reason, with a certain sadness, I have decided that it is time to look for new transportation.

This morning, I stopped in at a car place that has a pretty good reputation. Quite a few faculty members have bought cars and trucks there, with good outcomes. I also know the owner. He is the boyfriend of the mother of a student of mine. One of my odd quirks is that I hate automatic transmissions. He knows this. This also makes finding a second hand truck a little more tricky. The owner was pleased to see me. He had a truck that he wanted to show me.

The truck was a Toyota, a make I like a lot. It was a pleasing color. It was a standard. It even had cruise control and a good sound system. I was pretty impressed. The price was not bad either. However, there were a couple of down sides. First, someone else is interested in it, so I will have to move quickly. Second, it is four wheel drive, which is bad for gas mileage. Third, it was ten years old and had quite a high mileage. So, although I was pleased, I was not entirely happy. I told the guy that I would call him tomorrow. In the meantime, a student of mine is doing a carfax search on the VIN number.

This evening though, I had a monthly meeting of a non-profit, that I sit on the Board of. As is our tradition, after the meeting was over we all went and had a meal together. Over supper, I got talking to a fellow who owns a truck of the same make. I asked him about his and what he thought of it. He told me that he loved his truck, but was having to sell it, as it no longer quite fitted with his family needs. As this is a truck (and a guy) I have known well for years. I asked for more information.

So, as a result of an innocuous question, I have found a new truck. The one I will now buy from my friend is two years younger than the one I looked at this morning. It does not have four wheel drive, it also has half as many miles on it. It is two thousand dollars cheaper and, best of all, it is a truck I know. I an ecstatic!

There is a saying that it is better to be lucky than rich. I am not certain that this is entirely true. However, when it comes to trucks, I am very happy to be lucky. When I checked my e-mail this morning, I learned that I have had a paper accepted at a good conference in October. This should have tipped me off that this would be a good day. Now, I know for certain that it is. Tomorrow, I will have to organise new insurance and the like. However, I should have a new truck very soon and I am very excited. Isn't it amazing how such little things can thrill even the philosophical mind?

The CP

Towards The End Of Summer...

2007-08-07T17:23:00.000-06:00

I especially like the end of the Summer break. Although, this being Louisiana, the temperatures and heat indices are insane, it is a nice time on our campus. It is still too early for students to start appearing, but there are a few faculty around.

The semester is a couple of weeks away, so people are beginning to drift back, to tidy their offices and to begin to get ready. Most people have completed their traveling. A few of the new faculty are beginning to show up. Those of us who have been working on research throughout the Summer are rushing to finish up our papers and talks. We have had the building to ourselves, with just a few office staff and janitors as company. Over the Summer, a relaxed camaraderie between faculty, staff and workers has arisen.

For these reasons then, there are a few more people around. Also, most people are in quite a relaxed frame of mind. There is plenty of time to stop and pass the time, catch up on news. Of course, this is the lull before the storm of the semester, but it is a time to relish.

Today, having dug my way through the usual pile of e-mails, answering some and deleting the many offers for cheap drugs and congratulations for having won lotteries I never play, I was scanning through a book for a reference. Across the hall, the office staff were gossiping and listening to music. Suddenly, two people I know appeared outside my office in the corridor, with a small fridge and a box of books on a dolly. This was a bit of a surprise. I was even more surprised when they announced that they were moving into an office down the hall! I thought that they were all full.

After a bit of confusion, it turned out that they had managed to get out of the elevator on the wrong floor and I was not to have new office neighbours after all. However, I did offer them a hand with their heavy load. One reason for this is that I actually quite like physical labor. The other reason was that this was a chance to socialise a little. One of the individuals has been around, teaching through the penal servitude of the Summer session. The other has been away teaching elsewhere, but has returned to teach with us. Thus, it was nice to catch up.

As it happened, this was a good call. There were a few piles of box that needed to be moved from one office to another. This was easy work, but made all the more fun when done in a group. Once the task was completed, we went and had a tasty and relaxed lunch. This is the kind of lunch that is really enjoyable. Throughout all these activities we chatted. There was a great deal to talk about. There was University gossip and conjectures on various possible future courses of events. There were humorous anecdotes. It was a thoroughly cordial gathering.

It is little chance events like this, that mostly seem to happen at this time of year, when people are not frantically running for classes, or meetings, that make this time of year so enjoyable. I hope there are a few more days like today before the full horror of the semester breaks upon us all. I hope too that other professors reading this are having, or will have, a few nice days like this before it is time to put the shoulder to the proverbial grind stone, when our personal salt mines go back into full scale operation.

The CP

Horoshima Day

2007-08-06T21:29:00.000-06:00

Today in the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. The video below illustrates what the bomb looked like from the air, when it went off.

My Mother tells the story of when she heard about it. The World then was apparently pretty jaded after the ravages of the Second World War. Nonetheless, upon hearing the news, many people responded by going to church. If you look at the images in the following video (which may shock some, so caution is advised), it is obvious why some my have felt so inclined.

A device 'Brighter than 10,000 Suns' is such a dreadful thing, that can bring about such horrors. The question is, has the World become any wiser since that time?

J. Robert Oppenheimer summed things up nicely, after the event, with the following comments,

"We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." I suppose we all thought that one way or another."

The CP

The Power Of Old Documents?

2007-08-05T21:29:00.000-06:00

This morning, I got a call from a neighbour. It seemed that they had come across an old document that they thought might be important. They wanted me to have a quick look. This simple request turned into an interesting day of looking at old documents, with some possibly surprising and potentially significant consequences.

Let me begin with a bit of context. Some time ago, the land that adjoins our properties was bought by some developers. They took the previously rural land and have been building upon it. There was a great deal of opposition to this development from the community. However, with the assistance of some crooked and corrupt politicians, the developers were able to get their way.

The document that my neighbours wanted me to look at was an old plat, from 1933. For those who are not familiar with the terminology, a plat is a diagrammatic document that specifies property ownership and usage. On the old plat, there was a annotation that there was a forty foot right of access that ran along the edge of the land that is being developed, immediately adjacent to our properties. This right of access, was news to us all. We resolved to try and find out who had that right of access. This seemed like an interesting historical artifact, but little else.

When I returned home, I recalled that I had copies of a number of documents pertaining to the ownership of my property, from the local court house. I was provided with these when I bought the land. Although I had looked at them then, I could not recall in too much detail whether they might have some relevant information to the right of access, so I dug them out.

Most of the documents were fairly straightforward and of little interest. They concerned the purchase of the land and the passing of it to the wife and son, when the husband of the previous owner died. However, there was also another document that I had not paid too much attention to previously. This was a long and very complicated document specifying the division of land, including the land which I now own, between seven relatives, when another person had died. What immediately got my attention this time was the date. It was dated 1933 and even was signed in the same month as the plat.

As I ploughed through the copy of this old document, I came across something remarkable, that I had never noticed before. The relevance to the question of the right of access suddenly became clear. Let me quote the relevant sections (do not feel compelled to read this - I will paraphrase below):

"The eastern forty feet of this lot, however, is hereby subject to and there is hereby created thereon by the parties hereto a servitude of passage and of way, the whole distance thereof north and south...[there is a long and detailed description of the location here, which matches the plat]...for the use and benefit and in favor of the following described property now belonging to [NAME 1], to-wit;

[Another detailed paragraph long property description]

And the right is hereby conferred unto the said [NAME 1], her heirs and assigns, and [NAME 2] and [NAME 3], or either of them, their heirs and assigns, to dedicate said servitude of passage to public use when any one of the owners of the property on the east or on the west of said right-of-way so desire; but until so dedicated, said servitude of passage and of use to be considered as a private servitude for the benefit of the said property of [NAME 1] and of the property herein described."

The reason that this is of interest is that it provides the basis of the right of way that appeared on the plat. What is perhaps more interesting is that this right of way seems to be triggerable by the 'owners of property on the east or the west'. Both my neighbours and I are the property owners to the west!

Of course, there are many questions that need to be resolved. For instance, does the right of servitude carry over when the property was sold? Has this right ever been dissolved? However, as I know the lawyers of the developers and they are none too sharp, it is just possible that my neighbours and I may have a claim against the developers, based upon this right of servitude. They may have to buy it back from us.

I spent most of this evening digging around in the various legal databases that cover Louisiana law, and the judgements of Louisiana cases, where rights of servitude were at issue. For the most part, this was rather uninformative. Most cases seem to concern fights over access to waterways and tussles between municipalities and property owners. However, what little information I found that was relevant gives some small grounds for optimism.

Tomorrow, I will have a word with some people who know a great deal more about the law than I. Fortunately, I have an ex-student who is an expert in this kind of matter. However, what I believe this does clearly demonstrate is both the importance and intrinsic interest of old documents. At the very least, today I have learned a great deal about the history of my land and the land around it.

The CP

Bad Statistical Inferences

2007-08-04T15:11:00.001-06:00

As a general rule, people are not too good at making statistical inferences. This is obvious from the fact that lottery tickets sell so well. As a matter of fact (and not too many people are aware of this fact), buying a lottery ticket does not statistically significantly increase one's chances of winning. Why is this you might ask. Think about it for a moment.

Suppose the odds of winning on a particular lottery is in the order of one in 32 million. Buying a ticket thus increases one's chance of winning by one thirty-second of a million. This amount is so small that it falls below the level of statistical significance. This is the reason why this fact about lottery tickets is the case.

One can see something similar in games of chance. Consider Roulette. If one observes people playing Roulette, or even hears someone talking about playing, they will say things like "Red has got to come up soon!" Unfortunately, this is not true. For any particular spin of the wheel, the chances of the ball landing on red is just a little below 50% (it is a little below, due to 0 and 00). Even if red has not come up for a number of spins, this fact does not change. The chance is a little below 50% for each spin of the wheel. The wheel has no memory. So, the results of previous spins have no influence upon the next one.

Something similar applies to coin tosses. I just tossed a coin three times. On each occasion, it came up tails. Suppose you were asked to bet on the outcome of the next toss of the coin. Some people would be tempted to guess that the next toss would yield the result heads, as it was 'due to come up'. Of course, this is rubbish. As a matter of fact, when I tossed the coin for a fourth time, the result was another tails. Actually, heads did not come up until the eighth toss of the coin. The coin also came up heads on the ninth and tenth toss.

These facts help to illustrate another salient fact. Out of ten coin tosses, seven came up tails and only three came up heads. However, we know that the chance of one side or the other coming up is 50%. What these results help illustrate is that the chance of a particular side coming up is 50% on average. With a small number of tosses, like just ten, this statistical fact is of little relevance to predicting the actual behavior of the coin.

You might wonder why I am bothering discussing statistical inferences and the problems that they can give rise to, at all. What motivates me here is an especially poor example of statistical inference that has been annoying me in a television commercial.

On certain channels, at certain times, there is a commercial for the medication Valtrex. Apparently, Valtrex helps to suppress genital herpes. Presumably, the goal of the commercial is to persuade sufferers of this affliction to ask their physicians to prescribe Valtrex. However, the way the commercial makers go about achieving this goal involves some especially shoddy and misleading statistical inference.

At one point in the commercial, the voice over reads a caption that is also shown on the screen. The text here informs the viewer that,

"One study found that up to 70% of people who had genital herpes got it from their partners when they had no signs of an outbreak."

This sounds pretty worrying doesn't it? However, look at the claim a little more closely and the dubious slight of hand that is being pull off here becomes obvious.

Consider the following questions: If only 'one study' found this result, what did the other studies find? How large was the sample size of the cited study? Were the people looked at in this study picked at random? Where was this 'study' published? Who conducted this study? Without some answers to these questions, this supposed statistical 'fact' is close to being meaningless. In all likelihood, the manufacturers 'cherry picked' this result to maximise the chances of selling their product. With so little information provided, it is almost always possible to conduct a 'study' to produce whatever results one wishes.

As a matter of fact, this so-called 'fact' does little more than create what is sometime called FUD - "Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt". Notice though that by using the term 'study' and citing a putative statistical value, this claim attempts to convey the authority of science. In reality, witchcraft is about as trustworthy.

To make matters worse, after the presentation of the above quoted claim, an actor offers an interpretation for the viewer that is even more confusing. They say,

"This means that I could pass on herpes at any time."

Once again, this is palpable nonsense, even if one accepts the statistical claims as being reliable. Again, the goal appears to drive home FUD.

It seems to me that this commercial is at the very least irresponsible. It plays upon people's poor skills at statistical inference. To make matters worse, this is a claim that is being promoted by a pharmaceutical company. As this type of corporation has to rely upon statistical evidence when evaluating the safety and effectiveness of their products, the statistical confusion presented in this commercial suggests that they should not be trusted at all.

The CP

Domestic Affairs And An Invitation

2007-08-02T12:27:00.000-06:00

Today is a bit of a mess. I am having to sit at home and wait for my new refrigerator to be delivered. This means that I have to work from home, which makes me less efficient. However, it is a necessary evil.

The thing which I find a little strange is that I am actually quite excited at the prospect of the new fridge. This is a novel sensation for me. Never before in my life have I been excited about a domestic appliance before. I am not sure whether this is a symptom of my beginning to get older, or whether it is a reaction to the horrors of having to live out of an ice chest for a week. It really is amazing how having nothing but an ice chest to keep things cool in, makes life very difficult.

One reason I am excited about the new fridge is that it is much more efficient that the old one. Part of the reason this matters is, strangely enough, because of the potential for hurricanes in this neck of the woods. Some time ago, I bought a generator. Unfortunately, it was not powerful enough to run my old fridge. If a hurricane comes, then the power always goes out. Having food in fridges and freezers rot is one of the (many) unfortunate consequences of this. Now, I should be able to avoid this.

Earlier today, when I was just beginning my vigil waiting for the delivery of my new white goods, I got an unusual phone call. It seems that my University is undertaking an institutional review, that is being conducted by external consultants. For reasons I cannot fathom, our President has selected me to play in role in this process. This is rather outside the usual course of events.

As a rule, I am not too popular with many of the administration types. This is in part because I have a bad habit of asking awkward questions. I also tend to not accept what I am told, when it is completely implausible. This does not endear me to the suits. Now though, it seems they seem to think that I have something useful to offer. I naturally accepted the invitation. It should be interesting. I have never been mixed up in this kind of thing before.

The CP

Good Paperwork

2007-07-31T20:26:00.000-06:00

As a general rule, I hate administrative paperwork. In fact, it seems to me to be one of the worst banes of the academic life. For reasons I have never quite understood, there are some people who seem to relish doing paperwork. They appear to find some sort of virtue in it. For the life of me, I cannot see why. It is most often boring, it seldom requires much careful thought, or creativity, and more often than not, it involves creating documents that nobody will ever read.

Today, unfortunately, was a day dedicated to paperwork. However, as opposed to it being a royal pain, it was actually quite exciting. The reason it was OK was because it was a day dedicated to putting together the request for my new computer.

We have many forms for things. These forms often require covering letters, supporting evidence and the like. Sometimes all these forms can produce bizarre results. One of my favorite of these concerns requests to send materials out by courier. This means doing a formal purchase request. Unfortunately, given the vast number of signatures such requests require and the huge number of offices that it has to pass through, such requests usually take a couple of weeks to finally get approved. Of course, this rather defeats the goal of using the services of DHL, FedEx and similar companies. As a result, it is easier to just pay for the couriers out of one's own pocket.

In my younger, less responsible days, I also used to have fun with our various forms. For instance, I sent in a formal travel request in the name of a very dotty senior faculty member requesting authorisation for travel "Back to Reality". Not many people knew it was me behind such antics, but those that did thought that it was a pretty good joke.

It turns out that requesting a new computer, as I did today, is an activity that also requires a plethora of forms and documentation. A normal computer is complex enough, but if one wishes to request a laptop, institutional paranoia is such that there is a whole special extra level of forms and justifications required. As I have done this many times before, it was pretty straightforward, as I was able to use the text that I have used on previous occasions.

Another quirk of our computer purchasing process is that we are supposed to order standardized models of machines. Needless to say, although this sounds sensible in theory, hopefully guaranteeing standard parts and the like, in practice the result is a complete mess. When I looked up the standard laptop today, I discovered that it is no longer sold by Dell! A few calls later, I was able to find out the newly approved standard models. I was actually quite impressed. At least one of them is not a bad machine at all. In fact, it is quite a bit better than my current machine.

Unfortunately, the new machine is not quite right for my needs. Some of my research work requires the use of software that is not too usual for a philosopher. This software puts particular and stringent demands upon computing hardware. Thus, I also had to provide a justification for why I should be able to order a machine that had more advanced features than the base model. This is where doing this paperwork got to be fun.

In addition to being able to design my dream system, using the Dell website, I also had to come up with detailed reasons for why I needed each of the enhanced features. This is the kind of paperwork that does actually require some creativity. Not only that, but one has to be able to make this justification in a manner that can be understood up the administrative food chain, often by people with few technical qualifications (e.g. Mac users). In other words, this requires some pretty sophisticated argumentative strategies. Of course, making arguments is one of the best fun things that one gets to do as a philosopher.

For these reasons then, this was a good kind of paperwork. As I carefully argued my case for a faster processor, doubling the memory and for a larger hard drive, I was also able to enjoy the very thought of what a joy this system will be, once I have set it up to my own taste. I just have to hope that this application meets with approval. I am pretty sure that it will, as I already have verbal approval. The next thing will be the long wait until the new system actually arrives. In the meantime, I have learned that not all paperwork is bad.

The CP

Small World

2007-07-30T17:31:00.000-06:00

Today was my first day back in the office after my recent trip. As usual, there were piles of mail to be read and answered and all the usual detris that happens after being away. However, what was a little more interesting was some changes that have occurred during my absence.

The first change is that we have a new temporary secretary in our main office. It seems that our usual person has opted to take some time off, for medical reasons. I also discovered that during my absence, a colony of ants seem to have moved into my office. These are not welcome guests. I learned from the janitorial staff that ants are very common in our building. They were surprised that I had not been infested before. Thus, I was able to, as their first task, ask our temporary secretary lady to try and get someone in with dangerous chemicals to get rid of these critters.

A little later, I wandered across the hall, as I wanted to have a chat with the chair of the other academic unit that shares our floor. He was not around, but to my surprise it appears that this unit too has a new secretary. Perhaps a little more interesting is the fact that this is someone I know, who recently changed job. It is nice to have familiar faces around the place.

While I was chatting and catching up with this individual, I was surprised to see some other people I knew, who I had not seen in a while. This is a young and bright academic couple who were with us for a while, but then disappeared off, to do post-docs. I had rather assumed that they would not bother coming back, but it seems that they have. This is good news. They are proper academics, who publish, unlike many of the ersatz faculty that haunt my institution.

We naturally got chatting, mostly catching up and swapping gossip. Then, to my surprise, they mentioned that where they had been for their post-docs, there was somebody who knew me. This puzzled me a little, not least because for the life of me, I could not remember where they had been, other than the fact that it was a much fancier place than our institution. I do know quite a few people around the place, but it is not too common for me to know people outside my own area of study. So, this was a bit of a puzzle.

Initially, they could not recall exactly who it was who knew me. Oh well, I thought, another of life's little mysteries. Perhaps this was someone I got into a scrap with at some interdisciplinary conference that I go to from time to time. However, on the face of it, this did not seem too plausible, due to the field of study concerned. Then, they remembered!

It turns out these folks had been sharing a working environment with one of my favorite bloggers, the venerable Tenured Radical! This was just too weird. They talked very highly of the Tenured Radical, in her real life persona. Somehow, I am not really surprised. However, upon making this discovery, I immediately thought of the title of the academic novel Small World, by David Lodge. This is indeed one.

The CP

Surviving A Lightening Strike

2007-07-29T19:02:00.000-06:00

I got an e-mail recently from a person who could not manage to leave a comment here, for some reason. My guess is that they did not have the ever evil JavaScript enabled. However, in the e-mail, they asked about my experiences following my recent lightening strike, that I mentioned here. As this has been a somewhat instructive experience, I think that it is worth a little bit of discussion.

When my house was hit by lightening, there were a number of less than good consequences: My TV was fried, my Tivo became a glorified paper weight, my laptop power supply was toast, along with the Ethernet card on the motherboard and finally, my wireless hub went the way of all flesh. Basically, it was a bit of a mess. I have now recovered from all this and, in an odd way, things have not turned out too badly. Hopefully, what happened to me may be instructive to others faced with a similar situation.

Computer Issues
The most immediate and obvious problem concerned my laptop. Without my computer, work had to be put on hold. I was also worried that my unbacked up data might also have been gone. As I was out of the house when the strike occurred, the fried power supply was the first concern. While I was away, the batteries on the laptop had run out. Without power, there was no way to assess the rest of the damage.

So, my first action was to call Dell and ask for a replacement power unit. At the time, I had not figured out that the problem was caused by lightening. However, as my machine is still under warranty, they sent me the new power supply in a couple of days. I really like the fact that their support is '24/7'.

By the time the new power supply arrived, I had realised that the problem was not just a faulty unit, but more serious. Once the machine had power again, I was happy to know that the entire motherboard was not gone, but the Ethernet card was dead. My unbacked up data was also intact, to my great relief. So, I called Dell again and they sent me new parts to make the machine work properly again. Although actual events were a little more involved than this description makes it sound, once again Dell deserve credit for getting my machine back up and running. I am now a big fan of warranty programs.

When the guy showed up to fit the new motherboard (the Ethernet card is built onto the motherboard), I shared with him my suspicion that the cause was a lightening strike. He was kind enough to tell me that, although there were all new parts, the machine should not be trusted -- it could become unreliable any time. I also talked to our head University hardware tech. He confirmed this judgement. Thus, I was able to make an application for a new laptop. This application has been successful. Thus, I should be getting a new machine soon. It will be much better than my current machine -- a faster processor, with multiple cores, a bigger hard drive, even a better kind (for Dell experts, it will be a Latitude, rather than an Inspiron). This was the first plus from getting hit by Thor's bolt from the sky. However, it was not the last.

Television
My TV was a total loss. However, as I do not have a huge mega-screen horror, for about one hundred and fifty bucks, I was able to get a replacement. The new TV is also much more up to date and will not have to quit when things go all digital. It also is stereo and has better connections for the satellite box, Tivo and all that stuff, so it is certainly better than the last one. It turns out this was the only major expense from this whole experience, for reasons that will become clear (hopefully) below.

Tivo
The issue of the Tivo was a little more tricky. This was a gift from someone who is technically challenged. Thus, it was never too good a fit, but I had still got used to having it. I was glad to be rid of the original in some ways, as the gift giver had become a thorn in my side, due to their mental illness issues. However, when I called Tivo to ask about warranty issues, they were not helpful. They told me that they could replace my unit, but it would cost me one hundred and fifty dollars. I was not too happy about this. After some thought, I decided to write the unit off and cancel my subscription. When I called Tivo to tell them this, things changed (this is a point to pay attention to). The Tivo people decided that, when threatened with cancellation, they could in fact replace my machine for free. All I had to do was send them back the old one (cost, just twenty dollars).

This turned out to be the second big win from the lightening strike. When the new Tivo arrived, it was the same model as the original, but had several fancier features, like dual tuners and a proper Ethernet connection, rather than just a dubious wireless one that had been on the original. As they say in Soccer "Score!".

Wireless Hub
I had not really paid too much attention to the wireless hub. I do not really use it too often. For the most part, I directly connect to my modem, via an RJ-45 lead. As the modem survived the lightening, I assumed that the hub had as well. In addition, all the blinky lights seemed to be working OK. However, with the new Tivo, with an RJ-45 connection on it, I needed to use the hub to give me multiple net connections, in addition to the single one on the back of the modem. It was when exploring this that I figured that the hub was dead. The folks at Linksys were very helpful in diagnosing the problem. When they had deduced that the unit was a goner, they immediately offered to replace it, for free. All I had to do was send them the old one. I was especially surprised about this, as I could not find the original receipt. This did not phase them in the slightest.

Putting it all together
Now, I have the new hub, I can connect to the network either by cable, or wirelessly. This is great. Better yet, I now have my Tivo attached to the network. This means that I have a whole bunch of additional features enabled, which I did not have on the old unit. The other thing which is really cool is that using a neat bit of software that I was able to download from the Tivo website, I can now transfer recorded programs onto my laptop for viewing there. This is going to be really useful when travelling overseas, especially. Unfortunately, the software only seems to work under Windoze, which is a shame (I prefer my Linux partition), but this is a small price to pay for the additional functionality.

Conclusions
Basically, the only major cost from the lightening strike was to replace the TV. As the old one would have stopped working when everything goes digital, this is not really too bad a hi9t. In addition, the new TV has many more features than the old one, and is generally more up to date, despite costing about the same amount.

There are some pluses too. I will be getting a new laptop, as a result of the lightening. This is a very big plus indeed. It can be quite tricky getting a new machine, as equipment money is tight. I was provided with a perfect excuse and so will end up ahead of the game. Also, my Tivo is now much fancier than it was. So, overall, I think that I have come out pretty well from the lightening strike. It seems that being prepared to play a little bit of hard ball at times can pay dividends (especially with Tivo). So, although it has taken a bit of effort, overall, getting hit by lightening has ended up being quite a positive experience, in an odd kind of way. This is certainly not the outcome I would have predicted. It also shows the benefits of having good warranty programs on all one's kit.

The CP

The Wanderer Returns

2007-07-27T18:48:00.000-06:00

I have returned from my travels. They were interesting and fun. The British floods certainly added a dash of 'color' to my adventures. I also discovered how poor and expensive Internet access can be in some parts of the world, even in ostensibly 'civilised' places. Paying a high price to access e-mail, on a rather old Mac, which has a keyboard with keys that have been put in the wrong place must rate as an all time low point. However, I was able to have some quite athletic fun when away from the machines.

Unfortunately, upon my return home, I discovered a problem. It seems during my absence, my refrigerator broke down. I now live in a house with a cooler for keeping things cold. This is something that I will have to do something about very soon. At least this proves that philosophers, combat, or not, are afflicted by the same kinds of woes as other folks.

On my travels, I was able to manage to get a research meeting with a couple of old friends. These kinds of events are always fun. We began with a curry and then retired to a pub. After several pints, we had mapped out a research strategy that, even in the more sober light of the following day, looks very promising. I hope that it pans out. It was also nice to just spend time with friends, swapping gossip and news.

I think that this is one of the things that makes academia most rewarding. One builds up relationships over years that are close and lasting. They may begin professionally, but can later blossom into deeper friendships. As a bonus, great research work can also be yielded by such liaisons. Although such friendships are often maintained by phone and e-mail, getting together face to face from time to time, is a wonderful bonus.

However, now it is time to get back into the domestic swing of things. There are chores to be done and bills to be paid. I will also get back into regular blogging. It is interesting, looking at the connection logs from my time away, how many people have been dropping by this blog, even while I was away. As some of the visitors are 'regulars' I recognise from their point of origin, I want to thank all you folks for your loyalty. Now, though I have to first begin by unpacking...*groan*.

The CP

British Flooding

2007-07-22T16:26:00.000-06:00

On my travels, I find myself in the UK at the moment. I am staying in a small village in Oxfordshire. Unfortunately, this means that I am staying in the heart of the area that has been subject to all the flooding. Fortunately, the village I am staying in is quite high up, several hundred feet above the river Thames and the other rivers that have been causing all the problems.

Although I am not directly influenced by the floods where I am staying, indirectly things are more problematic. A town 4 miles away has over 400 houses under water. Also, all the roads are closed. This is a pain, as this is an important center of population in these parts. I had hoped to go to Oxford tomorrow, but that does not look feasible. Several rivers may burst their banks tonight and make any journey impossible. To make matters worse, more rain is predicted for tomorrow.

The attitude that people are taking about all this is quite interesting. It is probably best described as being 'laconic'. I am just hoping that enough things get sorted out by Tuesday, so that I can have the important research meeting that is planned for that day. With the roads and train in chaos, getting to London could prove quite exciting. Again, we shall have to see what happens.

I will be back to regular blogging, hopefully, by the end of next week. Of course, this is assuming that I can find a way to get to the airport, though all the water. I'm sure that things should be fine. The big message here though is that despite all the hysteria on the TV, although things are quite bad, they could be a lot worse. Nobody has been killed by the water just yet. Compared to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, this is nothing. Although some places are in a bad way, even though I am sitting in the center of the flood 'blast zone', things are still pretty much OK.

The CP

On The Road, Off The Air

2007-07-08T21:33:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow, I begin my travels for this Summer. For this reason, this blog will be 'going dark' until the end of the month. When I travel, I have a bad habit of going to obscure and somewhat quirky places. These are the places I like. Unfortunately, one consequence of this is that Internet access can be somewhat hit, or miss. I suspect that this will happen on this trip too. So, check back late this month and I should be back on-line. If I get lucky, I may be able to post on my travels, but there are no guarantees.

As always seems to be the case before hitting the road, things have been hectic the last few days, as I have been getting ready. The web site I have been working on went 'live' today. Unfortunately, last night a code crisis arose. I was up until 4am fixing it, but it all worked out well.

There has also been all the last moment academic stuff. There is a conference proposal that is due on the 15th of this month. It took a fair bit of effort, but that got done too. I am pretty happy with it, also. Let's hope that it is accepted. In addition, there is also the mundane domestic stuff: paying bills, arranging cat sitters, getting laundry done. Of course, there was also the obligatory out-of-the-blue last moment, but crucial paperwork that suddenly had to be done. This is now all completed.

Today has been a day of organization and packing. I am fortunate in so much as I was taught to pack by an expert. Indeed, I have even packed for expeditions. My bags are packed and I am ready for the off. So, I will wave all you blog readers a fond farewell, until I return. I hope that you have fun. I will try to, also.

The CP

Creole Computing

2007-07-06T23:03:00.000-06:00

Today turned out to be quite interesting. I think that I have mentioned here before that I have been helping a friend of mine who is running for State office. My main job has been to work on his web site. He is an excellent candidate, a thoughtful, intelligent and funny man. He is a great person to have as a friend. However, the web site got a little 'exciting' today, as his candidacy announcement is coming very soon.

Today, his wife an I went through final editorial changes on the site. It is really nice to work with someone with an eye for detail, punctuation and all the things that I am not always good at, when hacking code. She also produces excellent text to fill out the site.

I really wish I could share this site with you, as it has turned out to be excellent. I am very proud of it! The code is clean and slick. It loads incredibly fast, which is important, as some of the voters in the relevant district may only have dial up connections. Take my word, it is a beauty!

Unfortunately this evening, we ran into an interesting technical problem. It turns out that the plan was originally to host the site on a new server. What complicated matters was that it turned out to be rather difficult (as in, impossible) to redirect people from the old site (my friend had an older site, at the same address), to the new one. In technical terms, this was a DNS change problem.

This evening, I went over to my friends house. We worked on the problem. By a little judicious hacking, I was able to back up his old site and the upload the new site to the original server. In the meantime, his wife continued to edit the content. It was a fun evening of hacking. We drank a couple of Martinis. We chatted. We laughed. Although it took a while, the new site is up and running and looks just great!

I also got to meet Windoze Vista for the first time. I was not impressed. Although I am forced to use XP for some jobs, I mostly prefer Linux as my main operating system. I will make sure that I don't get Vista, when I get a new computer.

However, the interesting thing about today was how I was able to do something very concrete and useful for my friend. I am certain that many of the silly people who waffle on about race and related matters on their blogs did nothing similar. As I have said before, "actions speak louder than words".

The CP

More On Mercenaries

2007-07-05T19:21:00.000-06:00

A couple of days ago, I had a brief discussion about the complexities that surround the notion of being a 'mercenary'. It seems this is a current problem. It is perhaps because of this discussion that this blog got a visit from a machine owned by the CIA, according to the connection logs.

Yesterday, there were a number of news stories about members of the US military who took their oaths of citizenship on Independence day. This surprised me a great deal. I was not aware that non-US citizen's were able to join the military. However, it seems that this is surprisingly common. Indeed, the military even seem to be happy to boast about this. I find this very strange and perhaps a little worrying.

However, given the numerous recent reports about the misdeeds of army recruiters (see here, here and here for example), one must wonder of the exact methods used to entice non-US citizens to join the military.

When I was in high school studying history, it was not uncommon for armies to employ foreign nationals in their service. Often times, these would be specialised companies of bowmen, or other kinds of specialist. However, my high school history books made it quite clear that these individuals were mercenaries. What puzzles me, is why the US military do not consider these individuals also to be mercenaries? I guess they cannot, due to (a) The Anti-Pinkerton Act, which prohibits this and (b) the fact that these individuals acting as additional cannon fodder is to the advantage of the US.

With this in mind, it seems that now would be a good time to share a video I found on YouTube. This video should be essential viewing for anyone, whatever their nationality, who is considering join the military. Peace.

The CP

NOT(Independence Day)

2007-07-04T17:05:00.000-06:00

Independence Day is not a holiday I keep, for a variety of reasons. Last night, I ran into someone I know who has a similar attitude. They are a member of the Ojibwe First Nation, thus the whole event is highly equivocal to them. However, as we were talking, we both almost simultaneously recalled a joke e-mail that circulated in 2000, just after the Presidential election debacle. After a little bit of hunting, I was able to find a copy of this e-mail on an old hard drive (I actually found several copies). So, for fun, I thought that I would share it here today. No offence is meant by this. I just wanted to share with those of you who may not have seen this before. It still makes me laugh.

The CP

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NOTICE OF REVOCATION OF INDEPENDENCE

To the citizens of the United States of America,

In the light of your failure to elect a President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchial duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories. Except Utah, which she does not fancy. Your new prime minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a minister for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1.
You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up "aluminium". Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour', skipping the letter 'U' is nothing more than laziness on your part. Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters. You will end your love affair with the letter 'Z' (pronounced 'zed' not 'zee') and the suffix "ize" will be replaced by the suffix "ise". You will learn that the suffix 'burgh is pronounced 'burra' e.g. Edinburgh. You are welcome to respell Pittsburgh as 'Pittsberg' if you can't cope with correct pronunciation. Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up "vocabulary". Using
the same twenty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "like" and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. Look up "interspersed". There will be no more 'bleeps' in the Jerry Springer show. If you're not old enough to cope with bad language then you shouldn't have chat shows. When you learn to develop your vocabulary then you won't have to use bad language as often.

2.
There is no such thing as "US English". We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of "-ize".

3.
You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn't that hard. English accents are not limited to Cockney, upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier). You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents - Scottish dramas such as "Taggart" will no longer be broadcast with subtitles. While we're talking about regions, you must learn that there is no such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is "Devon". If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become "shires" e.g. Texasshire, Floridashire, Louisianashire.

4.
Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the good guys. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play English characters. British sit-coms such as "Men Behaving Badly" or "Red Dwarf" will not be re-cast and watered down for a wishy-washy American audience who can't cope with the humour of occasional political incorrectness.

5.
You should relearn your original national anthem, "God Save The Queen", but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way through.

6. You should stop playing American "football". There is only one kind of football. What you refer to as American "football" is not a very good game. The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays "American" football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football. Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to
play rugby (which is similar to American "football", but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies). We are hoping to get together at least a US rugby sevens side by 2005. You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the 'World Series' for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. Instead of baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls' game called "rounders" which is baseball without fancy team strip, oversized gloves, collector cards or hotdogs.

7. You should declare war on Quebec and France, using nuclear weapons if they give you any merde. The 97.85% of you who were not aware that there is a world outside your borders should count yourselves lucky. The Russians have never been the bad guys. "Merde" is French for "5hit". You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public than a vegetable peeler. Because we don't believe you are sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

8. July 4th is no longer a public holiday. November 8th will be a new national holiday, but only in England. It will be called "Indecisive Day".

9.
All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean. All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts. You will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips. Fries aren't even French, they are Belgian though 97.85% of you (including the guy who discovered fries while in Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called "crisps". Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is beer which should be served warm and flat. Waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.

11. As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added to all tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity to be doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself.

12. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all, it is lager. From November 1st only proper British Bitter will be referred to as "beer", and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as
"Lager". The substances formerly known as "American Beer" will henceforth berefered to as "Near-Frozen Knat's Urine", with the exception of the product of the American Budweiser company whose product will be referred to as "Weak Near-FrozenKnat's Urine". This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in Pilsen, Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion.

13.
From November 1st the UK will harmonise petrol (or "Gasoline" as you will be permitted to keep calling it until April 1st 2001) prices with the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the former USA and the Former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol prices (roughly $6/US gallon - get used to it).

14. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.

15. Please tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us crazy.

Tax collectors from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776).

Thank you for your cooperation.

Fake Crying And An Anecdote

2007-07-03T18:03:00.000-06:00

Today started with a fascinating e-mail discussion with an overseas colleague about some interesting new results that were recently reported in developmental psychology. The report can be found here. It seems that babies as young as six months old can engage in deceptive behavior. The results seem to be quite solid. However, this is quite a surprise, as up until now it has been assumed that such deception did not appear until much later.

One thing that these results are likely to do is fire up the age old debate between the nativists and the non-nativists. My correspondent, who has nativist tendencies and is an expert in this field, suggested that it was improbable that a baby would have time to learn deceptive behaviour so fast, while also learning to grasp and all the other stuff. Thus, they suggested that this behavior must be genetically determined, or predisposed. Unfortunately, I have far fewer nativist tendencies, having read the first book of John Locke's, Essay Concerning Human Understanding at an impressionable age. In this, Locke soundly attacks the nativism of Descartes. I think that this should be a fun debate. It is one we have engaged in before.

I was particularly interested in the baby result, as it may provide an explanation of something which happened a while ago and which has puzzled me ever since. When I was a young parent, my daughter would wake up between 3 and 4am, hungry. As my milk never really came in (this is a joke!), I did 'output behavior', that is to say, diaper changing at these times. However, once something curious happened on one of these midnight exercises.

On one occasion, I had finished the 'clean up' phase and was about to start the loading of the child into a new diaper. As I was about to start, my daughter started to smile and make a noise that sounded like a laugh. The next thing I knew there was a large stream of pee filling up the new diaper , before it was even properly attached. Needless to say, I was not thrilled by this, but went back into clean up mode. When I got to the end, exactly the same thing happened a second time -- the smile, the giggle/laugh, the stream of pee into the brand new, as yet unattached diaper. At the time, I could have sworn that this was my little girl having fun at my expense.

Of course, I rejected this as preposterous, as a well educated philosopher, who was up to date on all the modern thinking. Now, in the light of these new results, I may have to revisit this conclusion.

I sent my developmental expert friend some questions about these events. Unfortunately, due to the fact that we operate in rather different time zones, I will have to wait until tomorrow, to get a response. However, this does really rather nicely illustrate the point that it is vitally important to keep up to date on research. It is a bad habit of some of my philosophical co-workers to simply ignore the evidence. This I believe to be a mistake.

The CP

What Is A 'Mercenary'?

2007-07-01T22:23:00.000-06:00

It seems that a very unseemly, but highly amusing, spat has been developing over the Support Security Services contract in Iraq. In fact, this spat has all the hallmarks of a modern American classic. It involves, of course, Iraq, government contracts and large companies. There are injunctions and court cases. All good all American stuff.

It turns out that this contract is up for renewal. The contract is worth $475 million. However, it seems that there is a problem. The problem is caused by the 1893 Anti-Pinkerton Act and a man called Brian Scott. The Anti-Pinkerton Act is a law that prohibits the U.S. Federal government from hiring mercenaries. However, Brian Scott has filed suit, arguing that the contract violates this act.

Although the democratic discussion boards have been full of gleeful comments, Scott is no tree hugging peacenik hippie. He is an ex-serviceman who wants to bid on these contracts, but believes that he is prevented from doing so by the law. So, this raises the rather interesting question: what is a 'mercenary'? This is an interesting question, that even the Military appear to be somewhat confused about.

The General Accounting Office has attempted to defuse the situation by ruling that the contracts do not violate the law. The argument offered is that, as a previous Court decision refused to define "mercenary, quasi-military forces", then there is no reason to think that the contract violates this. However, it seems that not all judges are persuaded by this reasoning.

I will skip over the legal stuff, but instead will return to the question at hand. It is clear that this is a topic of interest to the military. See for instance, the discussion in The Military and The Constitution: A Legal History in Military Law Review, 136 (1992).

One thing that is certainly worth mentioning is that the Blackwater Company, who is also a bidder on this contract, comes up as a suggestion when a Google search is done on the term 'Mercenary'. However, what is more interesting is what the Military itself has to say.

An interesting example can be found on page 29 of The Military Law Review, 89 (1982). There one Professor Mallison opines that,

"As I understand Article 47 of Protocol I, dealing with mercenaries,
and its very interesting negotiating history, any competent
combatant who has a good lawyer doesn’t need to be a mercenary.
The definition of “mercenary” is so narrow, and there are so
many exceptions to it, that only a very incompetent combatant, with
a wholly incompetent lawyer, or perhaps not one at all, is going to
come within this narrow conception."

That seems to make things quite simple: nobody with a good lawyer is a mercenary! However, this is not the only remark of interest. In the November 2003 edition of The Army Lawyer, on page 31, note 78, Evan J. Wallace, in a paper entitled "Afghanistan, Quirin, and Uchiyama: Does the Sauce Suit the Gander" we find the following,

"By definition, mercenaries are motivated by a desire for private gain."

However, given that this claim was made in the context of a discussion of Al Qaeda, perhaps it does not count. After all, why should there not be different 'definitions' for different sides in a war? Well, I can think of at least one reasons why varying definitions should not be permitted -- consistency! However, maybe this is just a philosopher thing. Any which way, what happens with these contracts should be pretty amusing to watch!

The CP

Random Eight Blog Game

2007-06-30T17:54:00.000-06:00

They say that lightening does not strike twice. I hope that someone has told the lightening about this. However, in blog 'games' (as I prefer to call them rather than the more common term 'meme', which somehow seems inappropriate), one can get struck twice. I have been tagged twice in the eight random facts blog game, first by Tim Lacy and then by The Tenured Radical. In fact, the Radical was tagged by both Tim and by Adjunct Whore.

Apparently, the nature of this game is such that one has to first come up with eight random facts about one's self and post them one one's blog. Hopefully, these facts should be interesting, or perhaps surprising. Hopefully, people will avoid facts that are too disturbing. It should also be the case that these facts are actually true (some people may find it hard to conform to this suggestion). The second stage is that one has to then tag eight other people to also play the game. Of course, one is also supposed to explain the rules too, as I have just done.

So, here are my eight random facts:

I once denied the current Governor of the State of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco, access to a VIP area, because she lacked the proper pass, even if she did have a State trooper with her (she was Lieutenant Governor at the time).

As an undergraduate, I worked doing security at rock and roll venues. I worked with the Pogues, Dr. and The Medics, Huska Du, Billy Bragg and The Sisters of Mercy, to name a few. At a concert by The Lords of The New Church, I fell off stage, into the crowd.

I speak a few words of Cree and can read Classical Chinese, albeit very slowly.

Neither of my parents graduated from college and I dropped out after my first year, only to go back later.

I play the mandolin. I also play backgammon at the expert level.

I once had a rear wheel blow out on a motorcycle, while doing over 120 m.p.h. However, I managed to control the machine and did not even fall off.

I once disarmed a guy with a gun, armed with nothing but pure rhetoric. This was because I was unarmed and the gun was pointed at me at the time. I had few other options.

I have had my poetry published. Unfortunately, I have lost the text of every poem that was published.

What can I say? I have always attempted to misspend my youth as efficiently as possible!

Ok, now I have to nominate eight other bloggers to participate in this game. I choose Bardiac, Lumpenprofessoriat, Dr. Crazy, Indexed (how that turns out could be interesting!), Dr. Virago, Flavia, (these last two are not really fair, as they have been travelling, but what the hell), Anastasia and ToastedSuzy. If they get lucky, I may even mention to these folks that they have been tagged.

The CP

The Old Man And The Frog

2007-06-28T20:17:00.000-06:00

This evening, I went walking in my neighbourhood. I like to walk. It is a good way to get exercise and in my neighbourhood, it is a good way to find out what is going on. As I was walking, a car stopped. It was one of the older residents. This is a man I know. A true community leader. He wanted to chat.

For a while we chatted in the street, then we went back to his house as his car was blocking the road. It is important to know that the neighbourhood that I live in is historically important. It has been a place for Free People of Color since before the civil war.

There have been some changes in this neighbourhood of late. Out of State corporations have been moving in. This mostly is motivated by post 2005 Hurricane money that is available. I have been quite active in trying to defend the area and it's history from these outside invasions.

The senior gentleman wanted to chat about recent developments. In this last week, this little area has gained over $300k in support from various sources. We talked at length about how best to spend the money. Now, I am very far from the only person involved and responsible for this. However, I have played a significant role in making these things happen. I am proud of being able to play this role.

It is amazing when one reads the silly blogs about race issues how few of them talk about taking concrete steps to actually make things better. Indeed, they appear to be racists, in politically correct clothing. They hand out harassment and attract similarly inclined flakes and fools. However, they never mention anything practical that they have done. Far more important than spouting politically correct views (or not, as the case may be), is taking steps that actually make a difference. Actions speak much louder than mere words.

After my walk when I got home, on the steps to my house, I was met by a frog. This was unusual. Toads I see often, but frogs are quite rare. I was happy to see the frog, just as I was happy to see my old friend. I wonder how many of the politically correct racists can claim such things?

The CP

Bye Bye Blair, Plus Audrey

2007-06-27T17:32:00.001-06:00

I. Blair's Legacy
So, Britain's Tony Blair is finally gone from office. Not before time. It seems that the UK has a habit of having long serving Prime Ministers. Blair was in office for a decade. Prior to the Blair era, Margaret Thatcher was in office from 1979 to 1990. Both of these individuals caused great harm to the UK, as best as I can tell.

Blair, of course, will be remembered first and foremost for his complicity with the Bush administration in exaggerating the case for going to war in Iraq. It was fitting to see on the news that even on his last day in office, Blair be heckled by anti-war demonstrators. It is interesting to note that Thatcher also managed to get Britain into a war, of dubious merit. That was the Falklands conflict. The one difference though between them is that at least Thatcher managed to win her war, unlike Blair.

It is interesting to note that although Thatcher and Blair were of ostensibly different political leanings (Thatcher was a conservative, somewhat akin to US Republicans, while Blair was Labour, akin to US Democrats), their policies had many consistent themes. Thatcher attacked the trades union movement. Her most notorious action was the epic Miner's Strike, that effectively destroyed the British Coal industry, and the communities and traditions associated with it. Instead, Thatcher favoured the business people of the City of London. In a series of policies that became known as "selling the family silver", she privatised many of the previously State owned industries, with disastrous consequences.

Although the British Labour party traditionally had strong ties with the labour unions, these ties were not honored under Blair. Instead, Blair favoured an ever increasing army of consultants and spin doctors. Under Blair, venerable and worthwhile British institutions such as the National Health Service have experienced a serious decline.

Perhaps the most damaging of Blair's policies was the increasing use of so-called Private Finance Initiatives (PFI). This was a strategy under which private businesses were contracted to build new schools and hospitals, rather than having these funded by the government. Although in most cases the argument for the adoption of PFI schemes was made on the basis of reduced projected costs, these costs seldom materialised. In fact, PFI schemes notoriously have cost overruns and frequently the corporations involved renegotiated their deals with the government when they found that their profit margins were not high enough.

Apart from being a prodigious waste of public money, PFI schemes have had a bad track record of delivering the promised services. This though is not the really sad part about them. Even if the money that was wasted on consultants putting together these PFI schemes is overlooked, these schemes are at best short sighted. The true crime of these PFI schemes is that they lock public services, like health and education, into expensive contractual arrangements for years into the future. Thus, even when the ridiculous war in Iraq has been forgotten (probably after it is abandoned), the Blair legacy will be these schemes. The British public services, that were once fine and august institutions will be tied to expensive contracts. This may be intentional though. What better excuse could be found by a government for insisting on a further encroachment of industry into previously publicly provided services? Thus, both Blair and Thatcher have sold out the people of Britain and their institutions to base mercantile forces. This is the reason the legacy of neither is anything to be proud of.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
II. Hurricane Audrey, 50 Years Ago
It was 50 years ago today that coastal Louisiana was visited by Hurricane Audrey. This was a notorious storm, that killed over 500 people. There is a fascinating and excellent discussion of this storm, along with some comparison between it and the 2005 Hurricane Rita, that hit roughly the same area, over at Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog. It is well worth a visit, as it has some wonderful graphics and some moving first hand tales linked to it. There is also an interesting comparison between Audrey and Rita over at Lafayette weatherman Rob Perillo's blog. That too is an interesting read. In Louisiana, hurricanes are important events. Since the beginning of this month, we have been watching the Gulf of Mexico with some trepidation. Fortunately, there has been little to worry about, as yet. We shall see if this remains the case as the season progresses. Our fingers are crossed.

The CP

Writing And Code Hacking

2007-06-25T20:09:00.000-06:00

Posts have been getting a bit scarce around this blog of late. Sorry about that. The reasons are pretty simple to explain. With my computer unreliable after the lightening strike, several on going projects fell behind. I have been working on catching up.

There have been two main tasks that I have been concentrating on. The first concerned the research puzzle, that I have mentioned here before. Eventually, I was able to figure out a solution to the difficulties I had run into. Basically, by looking at some slightly older work, I can still provide a theoretical justification for the more technical research. I have already started writing the paper up and the prose is flowing very smoothly. I guess sometimes a bit of a break from work can actually produce beneficial results. It is looking like this is going to turn into an excellent paper.

The other big project concerns hacking HTML code. Some time ago, I discovered that a good friend of mine is running for an elected office. He is an excellent fellow. In addition, he is running against a local politician who is a profound buffoon. I really dislike this latter guy, as in his previous post, he sold out his constituents. Thus, I offered to build the campaign web site for my friend.

It has been a while since I have done a major bit of HTML code hacking. I had forgotten how easy it was and also how much plain tedium is involved. However, I am very happy with the way that the web site is shaping up. It is now about half done.

So, for the next few days, things here may remain a little sparse, until I can get at least the web site project under control. I hope that, in at most a couple of days, things will be back to normal. Thanks to all the folks who keep visiting this blog, even though I have not been posting too much. Your loyalty is appreciated!

The CP

Trust And Academia

2007-06-23T16:22:00.000-06:00

In response to my last posting,, the blogger Olddeadmeat left a long and thoughtful comment. In the comment, my observation that academia presupposes a degree of trust was cited. Olddeadmeat asked, and then remarked,

"Do you refer to trust between academics, between academics and students or between academics and the public? If the latter, I think the Ivory Tower may risk bankruptcy."

The contention here was then supported by a bunch of studies. I think that this is an interesting topic that deserves some further amplification. I will try and answer the questions too.

I don't think that it is too much of a surprise that the public do not trust academics. The main reason that this is probably the case is because most people do not really understand what goes on in higher education. This is made clear, for example, when being introduced to someone new as a professor, they respond by saying things like "Oh, so you are a teacher then?" Even students seem to have only a minimal awareness of the real role of faculty. Given that we naturally distrust those things we do not understand, this in part explains the reason for public distrust of academics.

Before returning to this issue though, let me address the issue of trust between academics and students and between one another. It is fairly obvious that students have to trust their professors to some degree. When they come to class, they come to learn things. There is a presumption that the professor knows what they are talking about, on the part of the students. Hopefully, for the most part, this trust is well placed. Of course, this does not mean that professors do not make the odd mistake. This is the reason why it is important for students to feel free to question their professors. Such questions can often be pedagogically important too, as they can reveal points about which the students have become confused about. Students must also trust that faculty will grade them fairly. Although there may be the odd complaint from time to time, students seldom question this (it happened to me exactly once in over a decade).

Do the faculty trust the students? I think that, within limits, this too can be answered in the affirmative. We do have to be on our guard against the occasional cheat, or plagiarist, but we seldom scan every paper checking that it did not come from some web site. This would just take too long. By asking carefully worded questions, it is quite easy to make it difficult for students to behave in a dishonest way. Also, with a few years of teaching experience, it becomes pretty easy to spot the students who appear to be odd. Thus, we must trust our students, at least by default.

The question of whether academics trust one another is a little more complex. When we submit papers, we trust that editors will send our work to referees who are competent and qualified to judge our work. This methodology also helps to ensure that badly mistaken, or even fraudulent data and claims do not appear in print. When we read a paper in a respectable journal, we are inclined to trust that the editor, referees and the author(s) have done their jobs conscientiously and that the claims made are at least plausible. There are even rating systems for journals, which convey a crude measure of the amount of trust that can be placed in a paper that appears in the journal. Thus, at least in the context of published research, academics do trust one another.

What complicates matters is that we may not trust our co-workers and administrators. They too are academics. Faculty members who do not publish, I believe to be inherently untrustworthy. If their ideas cannot stand external independent scrutiny, then what certainty is there that their views are really up to date and informed? When it comes to administrators, they are often distrusted by normal line faculty. As administrative positions are inherently political, to some extent, this distrust is quite natural. This distrust is even more natural, when a person's appointment is fundamentally political. I have written about this issue before.

So, I think that the trust that academics have in one another is a function of the roles played by the individuals. In addition, personality also plays a role in these kinds of interaction. This is why the situation is more complex than the case with students.

Now, let me return to the issue of academia and public trust. As I mentioned earlier, members of the public do not trust academics in part because they do not understand what we do. The belief that academics are just teachers is surprisingly common, even amongst students. This is one of the reasons why I believe that it is important to explain to students a little more about the nature of our jobs. If one attends conferences that arise during the semester, then this is a necessity anyway. This is one of the reasons being active in the profession has broader benefits.

One traditional formula is that an academic position should consist of roughly one third research, one third teaching and one third administration. This seems about right to me. If the public only considers the teaching component, then it is no surprise that academics look lazy, with their long vacations. That being said, this is also the reason why 'dead wood' faculty members are such a problem. I believe that non-publishing faculty members are in some sense, betraying the public trust (even if the public do not understand this). Thus, we should do whatever we can to help the broader populace understand what actually goes on in the Ivory Tower.

It is worth pausing here to mention that the requirement of active scholarship does not apply equally to all faculty. Some are employed in primarily teaching roles. For these individuals, the requirements are not the same. However, my comments should apply to all faculty with a research expectation and a commensurately lighter teaching load.

Now the issue arises of whether the public actually should trust academics, even if they do not. I would say, again the answer should be 'yes'. Although at any institution that employs a large number of people there will be a sub-set of individuals who suffer from mental illnesses, substance abuse issues, and other vices, by an large many faculty members are pretty responsible. Of course, there will also be a few who are terminally idle, who cancel classes for no reason, who spend their time when not teaching decorating their houses, playing golf, or working in their yards. However, there are mechanisms in place at most institutions to ensure that these folks cannot keep up such behaviours for too long, before getting caught.

That being said, it is an unfortunate fact that higher education institutions are inherently conservative bodies. This means that it can take a very long time for problems to get rectified. However, by everybody doing their jobs responsibly, there are reasons to have faith that, over the long term, we academics are providing value to society, even if that society is unaware of what is going on. After all, academic institutions have been around for a long time. There is a reason for this longevity.

The CP

Academia And Business

2007-06-21T20:36:00.000-06:00

If I recall correctly, it was in the 1980s, during the Thatcherite and Reaganomics era, that the notion that businesses were inherently efficient came to the fore. The contrast class to this claim was that governmental and similar arrangements were supposed to be inherently flawed. The rise of this pair of claims had the effect, and still has the effect, of making the idea that the adoption of business principles popular as a means of reforming institutions, including academic ones.

This phenomenon is seen from time to time on campuses when administration types come up with 'bright' ideas, like departments developing 'business plans'. The same set of values also appears to motivate the current epidemic of private consultants from industry being hired for their advice. My contention here, is that these are a fundamentally misguided set of ideas.

The goal of a business, or a corporation is to make money, or at the very least (for public entities) to increase shareholder value. Thus, a fiscal measure is the simple metric of success in this environment. There is nothing intrinsically problematic with this, unless this metric is applied in the wrong circumstance. It seems to me that academia is an environment where this measure is really a very poor fit.

The first thing to keep in mind is that there has been a history of businesses and corporations indulging in questionable practices in order to achieve their goals. The history of the downfalls of Enron, Worldcom, Arthur Anderson and similar organisations stand in mute testimony to how the profit motive can lead to bad choices. Of course, the recent list of corporate scandals provides many more instructive examples. In each of these cases, ethical considerations were given a secondary role to pecuniary advantage. This should be a red flag that there is an incompatibility between academic values and business values.

One of the most important virtues in the academic world is (or at least, should be) high ethical standards. We expect (hope?) that students will not plagiarise. We assume that researchers do not falsify their results. While there are some checks and balances in place and there have occasionally been some well publicised cases of fraud, by and large trust is the main currency in the Ivory Tower. Without this, we would spend more time checking up on one another, than actually doing any productive work. So, if an assumption of high ethical standards is fundamental to academia and the world of business does not adhere to these same standards, then there is an intrinsic problem with any attempt to graft business practices into the academic environment.

There is also a deeper confusion which lies at the heart of the assimilation of business values into academia. In business, value can be measured in monetary terms. However, such a measure is not applicable in academia. What is the 'value' of a good paper in a first rate journal? How many dollars should be applied to inspiring a student to pursue further study of a subject? There have been naive operationalist attempts at quantifying such things, but the results are at best laughable. More abstract values associate with academia, like the value associated with a well educated populace, that is skilled in critical thinking, are impossible to measure in a manner similar the the simplistic monetary metric. The point crucial point here is that there are many kinds of values. These values cannot be reduced to one another.

Now, this is not supposed to mean that academia should be permitted to engage in fiscal irresponsibility. Deans and other administrators have to ensure that units operate within budgetary guidelines and in a sensible manner. However, these guidelines merely provide the parameters within which the broader goals of increasing knowledge and educating the populace have to be achieved. These latter goals should always have precedence.

Thus, the attempt to use the business model in academia is doomed to failure, at least in terms of being a method for achieving academically proper goals. While people insist upon trying to enforce the ideology of business in academic circles, the results can only be detrimental to the main goals of academic institutions. So, such attempts should be resisted by every means possible.

The CP

Ring Solstice Bells!

2007-06-20T20:33:00.000-06:00

Tonight is the night of the Summer Solstice, the shortest night of the year. All over the world this is a time for celebration. There are many things that are celebrated on this night. For example, in Ireland and Spain, they will begin celebrating St. John's Eve. This is just one of many. However, not in Louisiana. This is a bit of a surprise, as almost any excuse for a party or a festival is popular here.

The actual Solstice this year will occur tomorrow, the 21st at 18.06 UTC (1.06pm EST). This is the time when Summer officially starts, at least in popular culture (there are many more complex theories). This means that it is the day when the Sun is highest in the sky. So, this is a significant milestone of any year.

The name 'Solstice" is also of interest. It comes from Latin and literally means 'Sun stands still'. After the Solstice, the days start getting shorter and the nights longer. There is a rich set of traditions associated with the Solstice. According to those of a Pagan inclination, it is a day when the Goddess manifests as Mother Earth and the God as the Sun King. It is a traditional time for people to gather together. It is certainly an excellent time to decide to have a party. I have done this quite a few times. The parties have always been a tremendous successes.

Some of the traditions associated with this time of the year include building a large fire, to welcome the Sun and then to stay up to greet the Sun rise in the early morning. It is also a time when medicinal plants that are gathered are supposed to have special properties.

This is going to be a quiet Solstice for me. I have had more exciting ones. For instance, in 1984 I met the morning Sun standing by the Slaughter Stone at Stonehenge (or I would have done, had it not been cloudy). Of course, the Druids are famously associated with the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge. It is unfortunate that their putative history is almost certainly fictional.

So, I wish you all a merry Solstice and hope that your celebrations (if you do such things) go well. I shall celebrate by shouting,

"SOL, OSIRIS, SLAIN AND RISEN!"

L. V. X.

Sorry, this is an odd tradition of mine. Happy Solstice!

The CP

History, Technology And Canonical Records

2007-06-19T20:04:00.000-06:00

The Tenured Radical, one of my favorite bloggers, has an interesting post up today about how the systematic erasure of e-mails and the use of non-governmental servers by members of the Bush administration presents a real challenge for historians. As this is a topic I have thought quite a bit about, I was going to post a comment. However, I have decided that it is a topic worthy of a full post.

I am an avid user of technology and have been for years. I began regularly using e-mail in the late 1980s. Back then, the system was a Michigan Terminal System (MTS) device. Connection was via a VT100 emulating dumb terminal, that connected through something known as a Gandalf box. The only way to keep a record of e-mails back then was to print. This was not a simple system.

After MTS, I moved onto a VM/PROFS system. This offered more options, but was still pretty primitive. Again, the only way of making a record was by printing. I still have a few print outs from those days, when I got e-mail that I considered to be of particular significance, from important people. It was during this period that it first became possible to access e-mail from home via dial-up modem. However, there was still no really handy way of archiving e-mail. Between these two systems, I have no ideas how many e-mails I sent or received. However, with the exception of the few print outs, I know that they are all gone.

The next step was to move to a UNIX e-mail system. I have been with UNIX (and more recently Linux) ever since. UNIX offered much better opportunities for saving things. Indeed, I still have e-mail records from years ago, stored on my various systems. Again printing is/was still an option.

Over the years, e-mail has changed a great deal. Once upon a time, almost everyone answered almost all their e-mail, as there were so few people connected. Those were the glory days. Now, e-mail comes in an avalanche. There are message from students, messages from administrators, messages from colleagues, messages from various mailing lists and, of course, there is always spam. Even when one deletes the dross, this makes for a great deal of e-mail. Most days, I get 40, or 50 (not counting spam). On a bad day, I have got nearly 300 (again ignoring spam). Indeed, on one memorable day, I got over 2,500 e-mails, due to a technical issue.

As I write, the Inbox on my current machine has over 19,000 messages, and that is with all the rubbish removed. When I backed it up today, the Inbox alone filled almost an entire CD (in fact, until I deleted the Trash e-mail folder, it would not fit onto a CD). That is a great deal of data. Now, I am not too likely to be of great interest to historians, but if I were, working through all that stuff would be a Herculean task. If important people have to deal with similar kind of volumes, this could present a problem. I always felt sorry for Leibniz scholars, who have to deal with his roughly 15,000 surviving letters. My e-mail alone, for just a couple of years, would present a far more daunting task.

Another problem arises due to the fact that e-mail records are likely to be incomplete. Even the most uptight person usually does not back up their files, especially e-mail files, often enough. There are other problems too. Hard drives fail, taking e-mail records with them. Much of this can be handled by using centralised servers, but it is seldom done. A further concern arises from the fact that e-mail forgery is also pretty simple to do. Unless one has a good understanding of the ever shifting standards associated with e-mail headers, it can be very difficult to distinguish genuine e-mails from potentially fraudulent ones.

However, the problem of e-mail that Tenured Radical describes not the only one. She mentions the use of cell phones, but what about other increasingly common technologies, like Instant Messaging systems and Skype conversations and chats? It is doubtful that records of these are ever kept.

This brings me to the topic of blogs. We all appear to have some kind of quite faith that the folks who run Blogger and similar systems will retain our texts. However, the question of how long this will happen is an open one. Even a simple software upgrade can wreck havoc. Also, once again, it is relatively trivial for blog owners to keep re-editing their posts, deleting comments, editing comments and even forging comments. Again, technical methods can be used to deal with these issues, but they depend upon access to detailed technical data, that may, or may not be available. Furthermore, technical methods like the use of proxies and IP spoofing, which are not really that difficult to deploy, can complicate matters immeasurably. Thus, the question arises about the kind of contributions to the historical record blogs and their comments will actually leave. Do blogs matter, in this way?

When thinking about matters like this, I suddenly feel very happy that I am a philosopher, not a historian! That being said, historians have been in their business for quite a while. I am certain that they will develop methodologies to deal with these issues. It will be quite a challenge though. Good luck to the historians, is what I say. I will be very interested to know what they come up with.

The CP

On Creating Structural Dysfunctionality

2007-06-18T15:53:00.000-06:00

Over the years, I have learned to become an astute observer of institutions and their institutional cultures. From time to time, these observations lead to surprising conclusions. One of these conclusions will be the topic here. This is a case where an apparently sensible policy can lead, over time, to very unfortunate results.

The academic institution that I work for is not a fancy school. This means that the salaries are relatively low, the teaching loads are quite high and funds for travel and the like are very limited. A concrete example of the general malaise comes from the fact that last academic year, the library budget for new books was zero dollars! Things could be worse, but it can be quite a struggle to get things done.

The faculty are quite a mixed bunch. More than a few are people who have failed to get tenure somewhere else. Others are people who had a luke warm early career, that has now fizzled out. Of course, there are also a few people who maintain an active research and publication programs. I count myself amongst this latter group.

The people who do not publish, generally get assigned more teaching. This makes sense, especially if they are reasonable teachers. Unfortunately, not all are. This means that there is something of a stratification among faculty members into researchers, teachers and the others. It is often the case that this final group, the 'others', are the people who are assigned administrative tasks and committees to direct.

Although this may seem like a sensible way of deploying personnel, it actually produces bad effects. The active researchers have no desire for such time consuming activities. However, this is a mistake on the part of the researchers.

Unfortunately, there are many petty jealousies between the various faculty groups. The non-researching, poor teaching faculty members end up having an inordinate amount of power, due to their administrative assignments. On more than one occasion, I have seen this power used to settle scores, with other groups.

The researchers are the people who most often suffer at the hands of these individuals. I have never really understood why this is the case. Perhaps it is simple envy. We get invited to go and give talks in interesting places. Frequently, other institutions will pay our way. Perhaps it is insecurity on the part of those people assigned to doing the administrative work? Presumably, at some stage in their careers, they had aspirations to be academic successes, so they must be aware that the huge gaps in their CVs are pretty obvious signs of failure. Who knows what the cause of this persecution really is?

This is not just an abstract animosity. I know of another good researcher who was categorized very poorly on their year end report, on the basis that they did not exhibit sufficient 'collegiality'. In another case, a faculty member who had taught a very successful and popular upper division course for years, had it replaced with a large (and suitably hellish) introductory section. The justification for this? Someone thought that "...it would work out better," whatever that is supposed to mean!

The problem is that this situation is fundamentally unhealthy and dysfunctional. It has been allowed to come about, by folks making choices that on the face of it made sense. What usually happens is that eventually the researchers strike back, either by accepting positions elsewhere, or by filing formal grievances. This of course does little to make for a comfortable and supportive academic environment. The complaints are rare though and take forever to actually reach a conclusion.

Thus, my reason for writing about this is to warn others about the unfortunate consequences of expedient decisions. I am able to shield myself from the worst excesses of these circumstances, but I know many who are not as successful. Untenured faculty are especially in danger, as they often become the victims of campaigns against their tenure. So, should you be untenured and find yourself in such an environment, my advice is to get out as soon as you can. Oh yes, and keep publishing! The administrative jihadists usually come undone in the end, but they can make life very difficult in the interim.

The other take home message here is that active researchers should also be prepared to undertake administrative tasks. Although they are a pain and take too much time away from real academic work, they are important. If they are left to less productive co-workers alone, extremely negative results can follow. There is perhaps an instructive analogy here with the steps of societal degeneration, discussed in Plato's Republic. So, if you are an active researcher, next time you are asked to chair a committee, or an equivalent role, perhaps re-read Plato before just saying 'No'.

The CP

Predictive Blogging: Hurricanes And Satellites

2007-06-17T15:15:00.000-06:00

Fairly recently, a story started circulating in technical blogs and websites about the immanent failure of the QuikScat satellite. Although this story has had some limited discussion on some news sources, it has not really hit the mainstream.

The story got a bit more press when Bill Proenza, director of the National Hurricane Center, was outspokenly critical of the situation. In particular, Proenza claimed that the accuracy of hurricane prediction could be reduced by up to 16 percent. Needless to say, according to The Miami Herald, Proenza has been officially reprimanded for his comments, in a three page letter. This event gave the story a little more momentum, although it has yet to hit the mainstream.

A few social/political commentary blogs have picked up the story so far. See for example, Republic of Sesakastan, Rants from the Rookery and Multifarious Ramblings. By and large, the reporting on these blogs has been reasonably responsible, albeit with an Anti-Bush slant. However, if this story gets out into the more general, politically correct, ideologically engaged blogs, the facts of the matter are likely to become obscured by the various agendas. I anticipate that there will be posts on these blogs which will follow roughly the following schema:

"QuikScat will fail...Hurricane Season...Kartina...Money...War in Iraq. Damn Bush and his cronies...what about Gulf Coast residents?...Republican agenda...Irresponsibility...Something should be done...[ad nausiam]"

This pattern is all too familiar on too many blogs, including some who claim academic credentials. While I do not necessarily disagree with the sentiments expressed, what I hate is when the facts are got wrong. This story has every potential to be misunderstood, or worse co-opted, in order to further the agendas. When this kind of thing happens, it really annoys me. So, as a service against the potential future postings of these fools, in what follows, I will try and lay out a few of the basic facts of the matter. Interested readers may also wish to consult the lively and informed discussion available at SlashDot (people who work with QuikScat also have contributed there, which makes this an especially valuable resource).

QuikScat was launched in 1999, as an emergency replacement for the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) instrument on Japan’s Midori satellite (previously known as the Advanced Earth Observation Satellite (ADEOS)). This satellite failed, about nine months after launch. QuikScat was supposed to be a 'quick and dirty' stop gap measure, with a limited intended life span, of at most two or three years.

In the words of an insider,

"It [QuikScat] was built in 13 months (hence the Quik) from spares from the one already in process, modified to fit on a commercially available satellite bus (Ball BCP2000) and launched on a surplus obsolete TitanII the AirForce had sitting around....

The instrument was designed as part of an effort to collect 10 years or more of continuous data as part of an overall "understand the interactions of air and sea" program. So JPL developed a ground data system oriented towards that need (hosted at PODAAC). As it happens, we also had a real time feed of the data to NOAA (think of a "tee" early in the data pipeline), which, it turns out, has been very useful in the forecast business (back in 1999 and earlier, when this was all being done, people weren't sure it would be useful.. certainly not to the point of kicking in large sums of money to that end..). It took several years for the forecast community to start heavily using QS data (they were justifiably nervous about depending on an experimental satellite that was never intended to run this long...)"

So, when this satellite was put up, it was at best a short term hack. Furthermore, at the time, the usefulness of the data was not fully appreciated. When these facts are combined with the length of time usually required for a satellite deployment (normally around 8 years, or so), in conjunction with cost, it is really not too surprising that there is no replacement for QuikScat, as yet.

There are also other issues. For instance, such satellites often involve the interaction of numerous government agencies. These interaction can be complex, especially when it comes to figuring out the responsibility for funding such projects. A second factor is the increase in hurricane awareness that has arisen since Hurricanes Kartina and (the often forgotten) Rita. This change in perception could not have been predicted.

So, if the ideologically engaged bloggers start wailing about the failure of QuikScat and blaming it on War spending, do not be fooled. Although their sentiments may be laudable, their facts are likely to be seriously wrong. There are plenty of real issues that the current administration should be criticised for. This is just not one of them, although it has a nice emotive ring to it. Sometimes, knowing a little about what one is talking about, in conjunction with a bit of philosophical insight, can be rather useful.

The CP

Agricultural Nostalgia

2007-06-16T19:48:00.000-06:00

A little known fact, is that after I graduated, but before I went to grad school, I worked in farming. Thus, I have something of a soft spot and interest in matters agricultural.

A couple of days ago, I ran across an interesting video on a web site I was looking at. Fortunately, I was able to find the video on YouTube. I have decided to share it here.

What makes the video interesting is that it depicts farming techniques from over twenty-five years ago. I found the video particularly emotive, because all the agricultural tasks that it shows are things that I have done, from stacking hay, to turning hay and even working on a potato harvester.

The other curious thing is that the equipment depicted in use is also fairly similar to the equipment I worked with. Not all the similarities are perfect though. The video was taken in North Yorkshire, England in 1980. I was farming quite a bit later and elsewhere.

This video documents farming methods which have now been superseded by innovations like the flat-eight bail grab. Many of the tractors lack cabs, air conditioning and most of the modern comforts, that are now taken for granted. Indeed, the lack of roll bars on some of the tractors would have made them illegal, even by the time that I was working the land. Thus, this video is an interesting historical artifact. I like it, because it reminds of some happy times in my youth.

The CP

Research Paralysis And A Puzzle

2007-06-15T17:31:00.000-06:00

This has been a frustrating week, research wise. As regular readers will know, last week my house was hit by lightening. One of the casualties of this was the power supply to my computer. Fortunately, it is still under warranty. The new power supply arrived on Tuesday. Until then, all my current work was stuck on a dead machine.

I had the good fortune that the computer was basically OK, once I got power back to it. Unfortunately, the Ethernet card had also burned out. I got a new motherboard the following day. Things are still not right though. For some reason, the machine keeps overheating from time to time.

When they sent the new motherboard, the guy was also supposed to bring a new keyboard. The letters on the old one had worn away from over use and some of the keys were sticking, or not registering keystrokes properly, from time to time. Another guy showed up today to fix this. While he had the machine in bits, he had a look at the overheating issue. It seems that some of the replacement parts are defective, so more new kit will show up on Monday. However, the effect of all these computer troubles is that I have managed to get almost nothing written this week. It is very frustrating.

It really shows the extent to which we academics have become slaves to the technology. I have managed to draft some stuff long hand, but I don't want to try typing it up until the computer is reliable and trust worthy again. This provides an interesting insight into how things have changed since when I began college. Then, I had a portable manual typewriter. Now, I cannot move ahead without my machine.

As I have been thwarted in the actual business of writing up research work, I have been mulling over a rather curious research puzzle. One of the things I have been working on recently is a paper which is co-authored with my doctoral student, who recently graduated and another researcher elsewhere. Initially, we had intended to send it to a rather good journal, that requires proposals prior to submission. We decided that this was the correct place to try initially, because they have a very rapid publication rate. Unfortunately, they did not accept the proposal, pleading too heavy a backlog of papers currently. The question is what to do with the paper now.

There is one obvious place where the the paper could go. Unfortunately, one section of the paper is a brief summary of some of the things argued for in my student's dissertation. The rest of the paper concerns an application of the suggestions to a concrete problem. The problem is that this very same journal is also the most logical place for my student to publish a detailed paper on the core of his dissertation. Both papers in the same place would produce too much redundancy.

Without the summary of the dissertation work, the theoretical justification for the approach will be missing. Without this justification, the rest of the paper doesn't make too much sense. However, the paper I am writing will be ready much sooner than my student's paper. So, another publication venue needs to be found. However, finding such a venue is proving much more difficult than one would imagine.

When working in a fast moving, rather specialised, interdisciplinary field, I guess this is the sort of problem one should expect. On the one hand, there is too much technical and methodological data for a straightforward philosophy journal. On the other hand, there is really too much philosophy for a journal with a more specialised and technical focus.

The odd thing is that this is not a bad idea. Even the editor of the journal that did not accept the proposal, liked it. I have had a similar reaction from all the people who work in the relevant fields, with whom I have discussed the project. The problem is that, as yet, I have not found a suitable venue. Indeed, perhaps there is no such venue, other than the obvious one, which I want to leave for my student. Has anyone else ever run into this kind of problem? I guess that I will just have to keep on digging. It will give me something to do, while waiting for the next visit from the computer technican.

The CP

Minds And Ideas I: Dualism

2007-06-14T19:03:00.000-06:00

This is going to be the beginning of an occasional series of postings concerning the philosophy of mind. I have noticed that there appears to be some interest, and some confusion, on these topics amongst various bloggers. Thus, I will offer brief 'bite size' discussions of these matters here, as they are something that I know quite a bit about. I will start with the topic of Dualism.

I. Introduction
Even Ancient Greek philosophers noticed that there was something rather different about minds, as compared to other things in the world. For instance, you can have a thought about beautiful things, without thinking about any particular beautiful thing. When it comes to beautiful things in the world, they tend to be single entities. Yet, the mind has this curious ability to think about beautiful things in a more abstract manner, without any particularity. How can this be?

In philosophy, this matter is sometimes called 'The Problem of Universals'. Plato's famous Theory of Forms was an early attempt, in part, to address the problem of universals. The interesting point here though is that this kind of example nicely illustrates the power of the human mind and how it seems to be both special and different from the mundane objects of the World.

By paying attention to this difference, people have tended to get attracted to the idea that, in some way, mental things and material things are intrinsically different from one another. In some sense, minds and ordinary objects appear to be composed of fundamentally different kinds of 'stuffs'. This is the insight that leads to the philosophical position known as Dualism. The term 'dualism' is just a fancy philosophical word for the idea that there are two kinds of 'stuffs' in the world, mental stuff and all the other stuffs.

Dualism is a surprisingly popular view, even today. Consider the notion of an immortal soul, that is so popular with many religious ideas. This notion makes the most sense in the context of dualism. We all die. That much we know. When we die, our bodies decay. However, if someone wishes to hold that part of them can survive death and the process of bodily decay, then what could be more useful for explaining how this might happen, than to be able to appeal to some other kind of stuff (a mind, or a soul), that can survives these processes unaffected.

II. Cartesian Dualism
Probably the most famous dualist though was the philosopher Rene Descartes. In his writings, Descartes made a number of observations and offered several arguments that the dualistic position was correct. For instance, he noted that thoughts seem to lack a particular location. Now, we tend to think that we think with our heads. This is a relatively modern idea. For instance, Aristotle thought that we thought with our hearts and that the brain was merely some kind of radiator! Consider for a moment, you idea of a triangle. Where exactly is that idea? Can you point to it? Contrast this with the case of any actual triangle. These pretty clearly have specific spacial locations. We can easily enough point to them. This, Descartes argued, showed that there were important differences between mental things and other kinds of things.

Another claim that Descartes used to support his dualistic view was the observation that mundane material objects are fundamentally divisible. We can think of half a sandwich, or half a chair, or even (eww!) half a mouse. By contrast, thoughts do not seem to behave this way. Does it even make sense to talk about 'half a thought', or 'half an idea'? Descartes thought not. Thus, he maintained that this too was an intrinsic difference between the mental and the physical. This in turn supported his claim that there had to be two distinct kinds of stuff.

So, on the face of it, dualism seems to be quite an attractive position. Moreover, there seem to be some quite good arguments to support the view. Perhaps this is why it has proved so popular. Unfortunately, it is also a view that has difficulties associated with it.

III. The Mind/Body Problem
The so-called 'Mind/Body Problem' is the main objection that dualism has to face. If the mental and the physical are two distinct kinds of stuffs, then how on earth are they supposed to be able to interact? It is pretty clear to me that my mind somehow becomes informed about the physical state of my body. If I tread on something sharp, I get alerted to it immediately. How does this happen? Conversely, when I think that I have an itch that needs scratching, the dualist owes us an explanation of how this thought gets translated into bodily movement. It is clear that this does happen. Where the dualist gets into trouble is by providing a plausible story about the exact mechanisms by which mind and body interactions actually happen. How can something physical, like and object, influence something non-physical, like the mind? If the mind is, non-physical then how can it have physical effects? The dualist is in a bit of a pickle to provide the required explanations here, without violating their prefered principles.

Descartes himself was aware of this difficulty. Indeed, in his correspondence, he even admits that he does not really have a suitable story to tell that can really solve the mind/body problem. It is a genuinely difficult issue. Indeed, trying to figure out this problem remains a central preoccupation of philosophers of mind, even to this day. In the post which follows this one, I will discuss some proposals that have been offered to get around this difficulty.

The CP

Cajun/Zydeco Grammy News

2007-06-13T22:41:00.000-06:00

This evening, I was invited to a local celebration. In the past few days, the Recording Academy have approved a new Grammy category for Cajun and Zydeco music. This is something that has been advocated for quite a while, by several people. Cynthia Simien, wife of Terrance, has been an especially vocal advocate. Congratulations to all the advocates. After all, if there is a Grammy category for Polka, it is only just that the indigenous music of Louisiana should also be honored in a systematic manner. The gathering this evening was fun with many of the 'usual suspects' in attendance.

Needless to say, local press has been little short of ecstatic. Both the Baton Rouge Advocate and the Lafayette Advertiser,
along with the TV stations have provided extensive coverage. Thus, this is a popular move.

Cajun and Zydeco music though has been recognised by the Recording Academy before. In 1982, Queen Ida Guillory received a Grammy. Then in 1983 Clifton Chenier was recognised. The fact that this evenings event was held in a club that was opened by Clifton playing was thus entirely appropriate. Rockin’ Sidney Simien received a Grammy in 1985. Most 'recently', in 1997, BeauSoleil was honoured. There have been quite a few nominations since, but these are the only winners to date.

In honour of this change in the Grammy rules, I will close by raiding the archives of YouTube again. Here is a short video of BeauSoleil, who won a Grammy, a decade ago. This is actually quite an interesting recording for reasons that will be discussed below.

Although the video quality is none too good, the sound quality is at least reasonable. The title of the video claims that the song is "Baby Please Don't Go". However, this song is also known as the "Seychelles Waltz". The video was apparently taken in a club in Austin, Texas. The line up in the video is also quite unusual.

On the far left, playing the fiddle is Michael Doucet. In the middle, and towards the front of the stage, is Jimmy Breaux, on accordion. To stage right is David Doucet on guitar. However, the curious thing to note is the drummer. It seems that Billy Ware is playing Drums. Usually, Billy plays percussion. The normal drummer is Tommy Alesi. Apparently, Tommy had managed to break both his wrists, thus making the change in musical assignments necessary. It is funny the kind of situations that can get captured on YouTube.

So, congratulations (albeit a decade late) to BeauSoleil for their Grammy. Let us hope that the future Grammy winners, in the new Cajun and Zydeco category, live up to their example.

The CP

Small World

2007-06-11T20:57:00.000-06:00

This evening was the Board meeting of one of the non-profit Boards I sit upon. As has become the tradition, after the meeting we all went and had dinner together at a local eatery. We sat outside. A fellow came to join us. This happens from time to time.

After a while, the conversation turned to Summer travel plans. The topic of a visit to the city where I was in graduate school came up. The fellow who joined us, suddenly mentioned that the funniest person that he had ever met came from that part of the world. When he mentioned the name. I was shocked! The person he named was someone I knew!

It turns out the apparent 'funniest person' is the son of someone I was in graduate school with. Not only that, I was good friends with his father. Indeed, we even shared a house for a while. This was just a bit too wild.

It also turns out that the 'funniest person' was also a student in the first class section that I ever taught all on my own. I still remember his grade (A). What made things better was that the visitor could even recall an e-mail address. I really hope that it is still current. However, it makes one aware of just how small the world really is these days. What are the chances that someone in Louisiana, should know someone I knew quite well, over a decade ago, in another country? I know where the father is, due to professional matters, but we do not keep in contact. I wonder what the odds of this are?

I have had something vaguely similar happen once before. When I first arrived in Louisiana, there was a local musician who shared the same name with someone I was in high school with. I naturally discounted the possibility that they could be the same individual. A little while later, I learned from a school contact that it was, in fact, the same person. When we met for the first time, after nearly twenty years, we recognised one another immediately. We have remained in semi-regular contact, although he is now in Kansas, due to Hurricane Katrina.

In both cases, I am amazed about how there are odd connection's between people, in disparate places and through time. I think that this is wonderful. Of course, the advent of universal e-mail and web pages also has made making this kind of contact easier to maintain. It is still wonderful when it happens though. It makes one think...

The CP

Lightening Strike!

2007-06-10T17:37:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was an odd day. In the morning, was James funeral. It was a suitably somber occasion. I was very happy that the family opted not to have an open coffin. I am not a fan of that tradition.

Yesterday evening, I agreed to meet a recently graduated senior, who wanted some career advice. As the place we agreed to meet was only around the corner and parking is usually a nightmare, I elected to walk. However, as I had heard a few rumbles of thunder, I decided to take an umbrella with me. It turns out that this was a good call.

I was not too far from my house, when suddenly, it started to rain. Now, you have to realise that this was the tropical kind of rain that we get in these parts. It is like someone turning on a tap. I was grateful for my umbrella. I considered returning home, but decided to take shelter under the overhang of a public building that was closer by. As I was hurrying across the parking lot, lightening started to crash around me. It was actually quite scary, as I was in a large exposed space, with a metal umbrella pointing up, just asking to be hit. Fortunately, I made it without incident.

As the rain poured and the thunder and lightening crashed and flashed, I was pleased to be under cover and relatively out of danger. It was pretty exciting though. The lightening was very close by as there was almost no gap between the flash and the thunder, which was incredibly loud.

After a little while, the rain abated somewhat and the tempest appeared to have moved away. Once it was reasonably dry and appeared to be safe, I continued on to my destination. The meeting with the student was fruitful and I also ran into a couple of other people I knew.

By the time I returned home, the storm was long gone. However, there were residual effects, I was yet to discover. It appeared that during my absence, lightening had hit my external TV mast. The TV and my Tivo were toast. Also, the power had gone out on my laptop. A second computer I also have in the house seems to have had the bun too. It must have been a good strike, as all these things were on pretty good surge protectors.

Although it is rather a pain, it could have been worse. I was glad that I was not home. The cat seemed unperturbed. The lightening did not set fire to my house. I have ordered a new power supply for my laptop (fortunately, it is still under warranty). I got a new TV. MyTivo is now a paper weight, but I may be able to trade it in for something a little better. I resurrected an old Pentium III I keep in the office, for just such emergencies. So, although it has been expensive and a pain, everything is more or less back to normal.

The one thing I am keeping my fingers crossed on is that the laptop did not sustain any damage. Hopefully, the power supply took the brunt of the hit, rather than the computer itself. The batteries were dead when I got home, as I had left the machine running. I will find out on Tuesday whether the machine is OK, when the new power supply arrives. I take this to be an object lesson in the power of Mother Nature and the relative frailty of modern electronic devices.

The CP

Something For The Weekend -- BOFH!

2007-06-09T12:40:00.000-06:00

The weekend is upon us. The weather with us is getting vile. The temperatures are in the nineties and the humidity is high. The Louisiana Summer weather is beginning to bite.

If you are looking for some entertainment this weekend, I have a suggestion 'BOFH'. This is short for The 'Bastard Operator From Hell'. This is a series of short stories that are available on the web site of The Register. BOFH is written by Simon Travaglia.

The basic premise behind BOFH is that the BOFH is the head computer techie for some company. He also has his side-kick, The PFK (Pimply Faced Kid). Often these two work in concert, however not always. They scheme and plot against various enemies, which frequently include their Boss and the Head of IT.

The methods of the BOFH and the PFK are largely hacker tricks, designed to enable them to get money, equipment and drinks. They are not too inclined to ethical behaviour. Troublesome persons may find themselves having their accounts and data deleted, being electrocuted and finding themselves in other problematic situations, courtesy of the BOFH.

A large archive, containing several years worth of BOFH storeys can be found here. Older storeys (going back to the year 2000) can be found by scrolling down. Older storeys going back to 1995 can be found here.

Interestingly enough, the Wikipedia entry for the BOFH is actually pretty good and accurate. Should you have an interest in things technical, then I strongly recommend the BOFH to you. The storeys are pretty funny and can be quite addictive to read.

The CP

Back!

2007-06-07T22:31:00.000-06:00

At long last today, I got broadband access back. The guy showed up this morning and did the basic connection. Unfortunately, it was not initially reliable. The name server kept dropping out. It turned out the problem was that the signal strength was too good. I take this to be a good problem. The guy came back. A 'thingy' was added to the line and now it works just fine.

Being without broadband has been an interesting experience. One gets used to such luxuries all too easily. Being back in the dial-up world taught me a great deal about web site design. Too much fancy stuff and they become simply unusable. This is worth keeping in mind.

One of the great advantages of the new setup is that I can now use my Linux partition at home. Prior to this, for all sorts of technical reasons, this was not an option. As this is my main partition for 'real work', this will make me much more productive, as I no longer have to go into the office. Even my technical software, which is expensive and requires licenses, seems to work just fine. This is a joy. I can relegate my windows partition to just playing DVDs.

This being said, it took me a while to get get the entire wireless network back up, running and secure. This is time well spent. Not being on a tightly secured connection can make all sorts of bad things happen.

I tested the new set up this afternoon, but calling a Brazilian friend of mine on Skype. The connection was amazing! If you do not know this software and have research collaborators around the world, I strongly recommend it.

So, I should be able to get back to posting to this damn blog on a regular basis. It will not happen immediately though. I have funeral things to deal with over the weekend (see the previous post on this matter). However, The Combat Philosopher is back! You have been warned. Thanks for putting up with the outage and visiting nonetheless.

The CP

Very Sad News...

2007-06-05T17:57:00.000-06:00

When I got to the office this morning and checked my e-mail, I got a bit of a shock. It seems that our main systems administrator, James, died over the weekend. This makes me very sad indeed.

When it came to hacking the school Unix systems, James was a God. As I am quite a frequent user of various facilities that run on these systems, I would interact with James once or twice a week. In fact, he was one of the people I have known longest on our campus. Thus, apart from the technical loss, it is also quite a personal loss.

He was someone who was kind and patient. He was also very funny. If I ever got myself 'into the weeds' with one of my own systems, James would often be able to help me out of the bind. He was also very talented at keeping the diverse range of machines that we have, some of which are none too new or fast, running. He was the kind of guy who would do deals. For example, there was some software I needed to be running on our main systems. He agreed to install it and maintain it, provided I agreed to handle the technical support for other users. As this was software I have wrestled with for years, this was an excellent practical solution for all concerned. This kind of flexibility and vision is a rare commodity in this day and age.

There is now a very interesting question of what will happen next. James' second in command is out of the town at the moment, but has been logging in remotely to lend a hand. Everyone in the computer building is doing their level best, but it is quite a shock to everyone's system. Probably nobody knew the ins and outs and quirks of all the systems the way that James did. We just have to hope that nothing major breaks in the near future.

In the meantime, everyone is sad. Arrangements have yet to be made. I feel a tremendous sense of loss. For this was the man who taught me more about Unix/Linux systems than probably anyone else. Now, I will no longer have a guru for arcane, but useful tricks. I will also no longer have that laconic voice on the phone, with whom to discuss technical matters and swap war stories. I am not alone in this, I know for sure. Everyone has lost an important friend.

The CP

Around And About

2007-06-04T14:25:00.000-06:00

The business of no Internet at home has finally got to me. I have given up on the old set up, which had become intractably complex. I have now decided to use another provider. To my amazement, with incentives to sign up and all that, the new system will end up costing me less, for better service. Thus, this is a good outcome.

I had something of a busy weekend. On Friday, by chance a well known international artist paid us a visit. He has friends locally. Thus after his performance, he and his band ended up at someones house for a jam. It was excellent! A good time was had by all.

Saturday, was made more exciting by a strange visitor in my house. This very large and odd insect showed up in my office. I looked like some kind of alien. I managed to get a picture of it, although not a very good one.

It was a little over three inches long and did not seem to do a great deal. I tried to catch it, so that I could let it out, but I could not find a way of doing so, without running the risk of hurting the little critter. It was fascinating to watch though. I did a little bit of research and discovered that it is a beast known as a 'Walkingstick', or a 'Stick Insect'. When I worked this out, I realised that I had seen one before, although many years ago. The previous ones I had seen were much greener than my visitor. I guess not seeing the animal in it's natural environment was what threw me off. Eventually, I was able to put it into the garden.

Yesterday was an interesting day too. I was invited by my now graduated ex-graduate student to have lunch with his family. They were a wonderful and funny crew. The food was excellent too. What made the trip especially interesting was that it involved a run to a part of Louisiana I had never been to before, Pointe Coupee Parish.

It is an interesting and pretty place. We took a side trip to visit a graveyard, where many of my student's relatives were buried. Perhaps I am a little odd, but I find graveyards fascinating places. This one did not disappoint. There were quite a few Civil War graves. Several of the grave markers were written all in French. There was even one grave that went back to 1798!

Thus, this was a busy and interesting weekend. Hopefully, later in the week, when the Internet problem is finally resolved, I will be able to get back to my usual posting schedule. In the meantime, I want to thank all the faithful readers of this blog who still seem to be dropping by.

The CP

It Begins...

2007-06-01T12:56:00.000-06:00

Today is the first day of the official 2007 Hurricane season. For those of us who live in Louisiana, this is the time when we begin to keep a close eye on what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico. Although this is always something of a preoccupation in this neck of the woods, since the 2005, this vigil has taken on a whole new seriousness.

Of course, the fact that the Hurricane season starts on the first of June is really somewhat arbitrary. The season is supposed to end on the first of December. However, it seems that in 2005 someone forgot to tell the storm systems this fact. There was tropical activity all the way through December that year. In fact, there were so many storms, that they ran out of names for them!

The beginning of the Hurricane season is usually quite quiet. This is because storms draw their energy from the heated water in the seas and so early in the season, water temperatures are not yet that high. However, this year as the season starts, there is already an area of disturbed weather in the Gulf of Mexico and a Tropical storm off the West coast of Mexico.

The forecast for this Hurricane season is not too good. They are predicting lots of storms. Of course, they predicted the same for last year and we were fortunately spared. This was a merciful release after the twin horrors of Katrina and the often overlooked Rita in 2005. Who knows if we will get lucky this year.

In many ways, the Gulf coast, especially Louisiana is still very much dealing with the effects of the events of 2005. Thousands of people are still displaced. There are still many areas where little, or no reconstruction has taken place, while the State and the Federal Governments continue to argue over funds and responsibilities. Nobody really is certain about the state of the protective coastal wetlands, or the shape that the levees are in. The one noticeable effect has been the influx of property speculators, like so much Carrion, who are putting up cheaply constructed properties, in order to take advantage of various Federal programs. Regular people though have not got much help. The one universal effect has been the massive hike in insurance rates, even thought the insurance companies continue to make massive profits.

Now, the all too familiar yearly ritual begins again -- buying in water, batteries, canned goods and candles. Let us hope that the Weather Gods are kind to us this year. We still need a break. In the meantime, we will be keeping a weather eye on what is happening in the Gulf and the Atlantic.

The CP

Update: What I previously described as 'an area of disturbed weather in the Gulf of Mexico' is now Tropical Storm Barry. It looks quite mild and will be hitting the elbow of Florida, if the forecasts are correct. This is the very first day of the season. If this continues, God help us!

The CP

Philosophy Exams

2007-05-31T20:01:00.000-06:00

Exams in philosophy can be curious things. Of course, in many instances, they can can be quite mundane exercises, designed to see whether the students have read and thought about the material. However, there is one kind of exam that does not fall into this category. This is the notorious 'philosophical problems' exam.

We do not have an exam of this kind. This is perhaps a pity. However, some programs have an exam in which students are faced with classic philosophical conundrums and asked to respond in philosophically appropriate ways. According to philosophy lore, there was one senior professor who would set the same exam question each year. The question was,

Ask a philosophically interesting question and answer it. Equal credit will be assigned to each part.

Most people are not quite as devious. However, the questions faced by anyone taking the exam can be quite challenging. When I took this examination, there were two questions in particular which stood out. In fact, I can recall their exact wording to this day. These questions were,

1) Can a dog think?
2) Is it possible that you alone exist? If so, then why answer this question?

I actually answered the latter question. As anyone with a little philosophical knowledge will know, this question raises the possibility associated with the philosophical position known as 'Solipsism'. My answer was based upon Wittgenstein's famous Private Language argument. In brief, Wittgenstein argued that there could not be an entirely private language, as language is essentially a public artifact. On this basis, as the question was posed in a language, I argued that although it was possible that I alone existed, it was unlikely to be the case. I then argued, in a manner similar to Pascal's famous wager, that it was prudential to answer the question, rather than not do so. If I recall correctly, I did well on the exam.

Unfortunately, during this exam, the stress proved all too much for one of my fellow students. Some time after the beginning of the exam, he stood up noisily, attracting the attention of everyone in the room. He then announced in a loud voice, "I am an Orange. Oranges do not take philosophy exams". He then started to make odd noises, as he was helped away by the people who were supervising the exam. I personally think that his inference about Oranges and philosophy exams was quite reasonable. It is just a shame that he was mistaken about his being an Orange!

The CP

The Quiet Time...

2007-05-30T21:58:00.000-06:00

We are now in what I call 'the quiet time'. The rush of the Spring semester is behind and the Summer classes have not started. This means that there are only a few people on campus. Of course, the office staff are there. However, they spend most of their time playing solitaire, or surfing the Internet. There are no students.

I always find this an interesting time on a campus. It is great time to get research work done. The Library is open, but it too is almost empty. What is really fascinating about this time in the pulse of the University calender is that it becomes possible to figure out who does any research and who does not. The faculty who are around at this part of the year are the ones who are prepared to post their Vitas on-line. They publish. They go to conferences and present. The people one does not see are the ones who do not appear to do any research. They only post vague accounts of their alleged research on their web pages. I guess it is a 'sheep from the goats' thing.

Next week, the Summer semester will start. The quiet time will end, somewhat. Everybody knows that around here the only people who teach in the Summer are people with large child support bills, adjuncts who need the money and a few others who are fiscally desperate and don't care a fig about research. The Summer is one of the very best research opportunities that we have.

The great thing about the 'quiet time' is that one gets to have lunch with people with real research projects. Although we may work in totally different areas, as there are few places open, we often end up in the same place to grab food in the middle of the day. We get to talk and gossip. One can learn a great deal at these sessions. I got to hear about some excellent scandals that were covered up. However, I also got to learn a great deal about an area which interests me, but I do not really know a whole lot about, just today, over a sandwich. I love it.

I guess next week, I will just start shutting my office door again. Maybe I won't have to. We shall see how many students there are. However, I have managed to get a lot of real research done this week and have written a huge amount. It is fun to be part of the 'productive club'. I just wonder what all the other so-called 'professors' are doing?

The CP

Memorial Day

2007-05-28T13:30:00.000-06:00

Today is a day that we are asked to remember those who have fallen in battle. This is not unreasonable. However, what this day should not become is an opportunity to glorify war. For all the grandstanding about duty, heroism and patriotism, wars are mostly about the death and maiming of human beings. One of the Commandments of the Old Testament is "Thou Shalt Not Kill." Why does this suddenly seem OK to ignore when wearing a uniform? I include the following clip from YouTube, entitled "Journey's End", to call attention to the results of war. These were the same in the Twentieth Century as they are today.

The CP

Administrative Strategies

2007-05-27T17:46:00.000-06:00

Over the last little while, I have been making a study of the techniques by used by people in administrative positions. It seems that there are a number of methods that one can spot being used over and over again, when administrators find themselves with difficulty. By cataloging some of these, it is possible to gain some insights into the kinds of response one can expect to run into, when as a mere non-administrative mortal, one wishes to get something done, but requires administrative assistance.

Method 1: Avoid saying 'no'.

When an administrator is faced with a request that they wish to deny, a common strategy is not to deny the request. Instead, they simply do not respond at all. The rationale here is quite easy to fathom. People do not like to be told 'no'. Also, if a request appears on the face of it to be reasonable, by saying 'no' an administrator can put themselves in line for criticism. By saying nothing, this is avoided. After long enough, the maker of the request will in all probability forget about it. Thus, not answering is always better than giving a negative answer. This method is also useful when faced with problematic requests for information.

Method 2: Over answer questions.

Occasionally a question will arise that it is impossible to ignore (see method 1). This can happen for a variety of reasons. A good technique to use in such situations is to over answer the question. For example, ensure that the requested information is included somewhere in a series of very long and tedious documents. As a general rule, a couple of pounds of paper should be included for each question asked. This method should be treated with some caution however. It is important that the additional documents are suitably uninteresting so that they in turn cannot cause further difficulties down the line. This method is especially effective if it can be combined with a strict time limit. Even the most trenchant and persistent critic will find it hard to find the answer they are looking for in several pounds of paper, in a twenty-four hour period.

Method 3: In case of trouble, form a committee.

Another excellent method for dealing with problems is to handle them by forming a committee. Once a committee has been proposed, most problems will go away. This is because of the variety of ways that committees can be used to be unhelpful. First off, it can take a while for the appropriate composition of a committee to be determined and agreed. Once the membership is agreed, especially if the committee is a large and diverse one, it can prove extremely difficult to find suitable times for meetings, when all the members do not have other commitments. If no suitable time can be found, after long and strenuous efforts, then a time can be arranged such that only the committee members that are acceptable to administrators can be present. Provided that enough people are present to form a quorum, then suitable decision can be made and the issue can be dealt with (or even ignored) in a manner that suits the administrators.

Even if these steps are not effective, after decisions have been made, a request can be made that the committee present their findings and decisions in the form of the report. Naturally, drafting a report can take quite a while for busy people. Once the report is completed, the committee can try and meet again to approve it, make corrections and so on. Committees can be used as a very effective method for dealing with almost any eventuality. Also, while a committee is completing it's work, administrators can make the decisions they wish to, justifying them on the grounds of expediency. A promise made that changes will be made after a committee reports, almost never needs to be kept, if people even remember it at all.

Method 4: Use promises and inducements.

It is a fact about human nature that individuals will often respond well, if they think that they, or something they care about will be benefited. As a minor example, a troublesome faculty member can often quite easily be placated by the promise of a new computer, or a salary adjustment. It is for a related reason that individuals who are looking for a promotion, or an administrative appointment often make excellent committee members (see method 3). Most people are aware at the imprudence of biting the proverbial hand that feeds. Depending upon the case, a promise alone may often be sufficient. Getting things approved often requires the complicity of numerous other individuals up- the administrative food chain. Use this fact. The longer a person is waiting for preferment, the longer they are likely to keep quiet and do as they are asked. If it proves ultimately necessary to not provide the promised benefit, then appealing to this is also a useful method. There is a fine tradition of blaming Bursar and Comptrollers that should not be ignored. If an inducement can be provided (after a suitably long wait), then it is often a good idea to ensure that the recipient is suitably grateful and will continue to be supportive for some time. This should be clearly indicated to the recipient, albeit in a suitably subtle manner.

As my study of administrative strategies continues, I plan to offer further posts about them here. I would also be interested to hear of other devious administrative methods detected by others.

The CP

Drills And Clocks

2007-05-24T17:28:00.000-06:00

We had a curious event on campus today. It seems that a couple of days ago an e-mail message went out to administrators announcing that the University wanted to test some new emergency procedures, put in place after the Virginia Tech tragedy. Unfortunately, it being after graduation, but before the Summer session, there are very few people on campus, including few administrators. As a consequence, we only got to hear about the drill purely by chance.

The drill consisted of everyone calling a special 'phone number at a certain time. Such an arrangement was decidedly bizarre. How, during a real emergency people are supposed to know when to call, has been left a profound mystery.

Another curious aspect concerned the fact that the exercise was supposed to be timed and coordinated by our institutional clocks. Now, these clocks, at least in my building, are notoriously unreliable. They very seldom tell the correct time. Fortunately, we found one that appeared to be behaving correctly, so that we could participate.

Of course, our clocks these days are relatively new digital ones. Although they do not look as nice as the old analogue models, they at least do not have the habit of suddenly rapidly changing their time in an apparently random manner. When we had the old clocks, I had one class through out which the clock ran backwards at a high rate of speed. It had a bit of a disturbing effect upon the class, as it felt like we were in some weird 1960s low budget time travel movie.

At the appointed hour for the drill today, we all (both of us) dutifully called the special number from our phones. We were greeted by a recording telling us that this was just a drill. Far out! However, the real issue with the whole event is why it was held today. There could not be a worse time to test the phone system. The only people around are a few diligent faculty members, such as myself who are working on research, and office staff. So, how much of a test this really proved to be, we shall probably never learn. However, I now have even less faith in our emergency procedures, although the powers that be can now claim that they have been 'tested'. Yeh, Right.

The CP

High Speed Hiatus -- A Retro Reflection

2007-05-22T20:43:00.000-06:00

For the last couple of days, my high speed internet connection at home has been on the fritz. I have made the calls. It is being looked into, but as yet there is no answer as to the cause of the problem, or when it will be fixed. Thus, I am forced to use old fashioned dial-up.

Actually, being without a high speed connection is quite an eye opener. I had forgotten how long things used to take at 45.2 Kbps. Of course, part of the problem may also be that these days web pages are getting 'heavier' all the time. By heavier, I mean that they include more and more code, especially the ever evil JavaScript, to make them have more cool features. This is all well and good with a high speed connection, but makes things incredibly slow via dial up.

It is also interesting how many commonly visited sites become totally useless. For instance, although it is probably possible to watch a video clip from YouTube, it would take an eternity to actually download it. Another program I use quite a bit, Skype also barely works at all. This is a particular pain at the moment, as I am collaborating on research and writing with people overseas. Given the differences in time, not being able to chat via Skype from home is a major problem. Hopefully, the high speed gnomes will be fixing things soon.

Actually, on reflection, there are some ways in which I should not really complain about a good 45 Kbps dial up connection. Back in the day, when I was in grad school, I was very happy with a 2400 Kbps connection. Indeed, even with such a narrow data stream, it was still possible to do some quite amazing things and get a good deal of work done.

Back then, I had an especially horrible computer, an IBM XT. This machine had a 4.77MHz processor and a low density floppy disk. It ran DOS 3.2! Unfortunately, the low density disk made it difficult to load software onto the machine. Most useful programs, like Word 4.0 for DOS, were too large to fit onto a single disk. The solution? Using various nifty utilities, like Pkzip and Uuencode, it was possible to compress the software and break it into little files. It was then possible to upload it to a workstation (a Sparc 2, running SunOS 4.0.1, if I recall correctly). One could then download it (overnight!) onto the hard drive of the XT. After putting the parts of the program back together and uncompressing it, one could get the programs to run just fine. Indeed, this is how I got the word processor onto the machine. This was the word processor with which I typed most of the text of my dissertation. I used a similar technique in reverse to get the files off the hard drive and onto a better computer for final formatting and adding tables, equations, figures and all that sort of thing.

I am proud to say, that I still own that old XT and it still runs. It is an amazing bit of equipment. One time, I succeeded in dropping it down an entire flight of stairs. The damage? A dent in the stairs! The machine still run just fine. I guess that is why they called such machines 'Blue Metal'. I am certain that my current laptop would not survive such abuse so well.

To return to the topic of the current connection issue, I am not entirely cut off. I still have an excellent connection in the office, but this is not always ideal. Also, when I am at the office, I am usually working. In fact, just yesterday I sent off a proposal. It is also the case that I feel a little guilty blogging from the office. Even though the semester is over, there is still plenty of research and writing that needs to get done. Thus, the upshot of all this is that posts here may become a little less frequent, until the connection issue is sorted out. However, fear not, this blog is not going away, but it may just slow up a little.

The CP

To Absent Friends...

2007-05-20T22:40:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was a curious day. The main event was that I got to hood my doctoral student at his graduation. I also decided to hold a little get together in my back yard in his honor, and also to honor some other graduates. Things did not go quite as planned.

When I got to the graduation and found my student, he told me that he had not been feeling too well. In fact, his temperature was just below 103 degrees. He also looked a curious color. The ceremony was unbelievable long, with all sorts of silliness, needless speeches and the like. We were there over two hours before the big moment arrived. During this time, my student got progressively worse. At various points, I thought that I may have to take him outside.

Eventually, the big moment arrived. My student rose to the occasion. When we sat back down, he seemed to have been re-energized a little by the experience. This effect did not last too long though. Fortunately, it did not take too long before we were able to process out.

Naturally, after such an event there were family members to meet, photos to be taken, all that stuff. As this progressed, the poor fellow began to look worse and worse. However, he told me quite emphatically that he was determined to make it to his party. It was just going to take a little while. He needed a rest.

I rushed home to discover the party had already begun without me. That was fine. The ceremony took much longer than I anticipated. The other people being honored were there and having fun. I was also very pleased to see someone who did not know anyone there, but who I was very pleased that they managed to show up, had made firm friends with one of my former students.

Initially, I had quite a bit of last moment stuff to get set up. This did not take long. More people arrived. It was going well, but no sign of my student. Eventually, when I was just beginning to worry a little, my phone rang. It was another faculty member. They had stopped by to check on my student. They discovered him in a bad way, with a temperature of 104.5 degrees. Immediately, they decided to take him to the emergency room, as a temperature that high is getting far too close to the danger zone.

So, it transpired that the main guest of honor at the get together did not make it. We got fairly regular updates though, which was nice. I checked on my student today and he is much better. Everyone else had fun, as best as I can tell. I have had a couple of nice phone calls today and a very kind e-mail.

When it came to the champagne toast, there were still two other graduates present, so we added "to X, our absent friend" to the salutation. The last people left a little after 3am. Thus, I am tired today. What a wild day, yesterday turned out to be!

It really does seem even more that having doctoral students is like being a parent. Today, when I talked to the other faculty member, who made the emergency room call last night, we started figuring out how to pay for it, finding my student a job (this looks like it is under control) and sorting out some issues with his living accommodation. Fortunately, I quite like being a parent...

The CP

Nice!

2007-05-17T23:09:00.000-06:00

This evening I accepted an invitation from a student, a graduating senior, to have dinner with him and his wife at their home. This is a student who is a real character and I have become very fond of. Recently, I treated him and his wife to dinner, to celebrate his graduation, his winning a prize and the news that they are expecting. This was, thus, a 'return match'.

It was a very nice evening. I got to see their home, that they had done major improvements to. The food was wholesome and excellent. We then spent a good deal of time sitting outside by a fire and chatting. Amazingly enough, the weather has taken a temperate turn and this evening was almost a little bit chilly.

It is really nice to see a student mature from being a somewhat callow youth into being a responsible adult. We talked about the future and the possibility of graduate school. However, the feeling I came away with, beyond anything, was what a huge honor it is to help guide someone through the vagaries of higher education into a better life. Sometimes, being a professor has benefits that are worth more than a simple pay check. This evening reminded me very strongly of this fact.

The CP

Crawfish Boil

2007-05-16T21:05:00.000-06:00

As all grades are in, we are now in the transitional period of the end of the semester. We get e-mails from students complaining about grades. There are events honoring various folks and there are other events that celebrate the end of the spring. This evening was one of the latter kind of event.

One of the wonderful traditions in my part of Louisiana is the Crawfish Boil. I attended one today. The crawfish were plentiful and spicy. The beer was cold. Unfortunately, the band was bad, so they were ignored. However, it is just a wonderful thing to hang out with a few people one knows and a larger bunch of people that one will get to know and eat crawfish.

For those readers who have never eaten crawfish, they are a little like small lobsters, although they live in fresh water. When boiled they go red. To eat them, there is no way to do it politely. Hands are the only way to go. After tearing off the head, the trick is to peel off the first band of the shell and then pull the tail out and eat it. They taste fabulous! They are traditionally served with cobs of corn and potatoes, boiled in the spiced water.

Should you ever have the chance to eat boiled crawfish, I would recommend the experience. However, I am certain that it is best done in Louisiana!

The CP

An Odd Observation

2007-05-15T23:04:00.000-06:00

I was asked to move a vehicle today, by a friend. It was a fancy SUV, very different from my vehicle. It was kind of fun to sit in the lap of luxury. After a little while, my friend told me that she was going to the gym. Apparently, she needed a work out on her arms. Driving her SUV would certainly give no exercise to her arms. Power steering made things all too easy.

My vehicle is not exactly new, or fancy. I also never feel a need to go to a gym to get an arm work out. My vehicle does not have power steering. If I want a work out, I can just try a bit of precision driving in a tight parking lot in my vehicle. Is there not something odd in this whole situation? It certainly seemed that way to me. With my 'senior' vehicle, I save myself a gym membership. Does that not, in a certain way, make more sense?

The CP

A Great Answer!

2007-05-14T00:05:00.000-06:00

Today was a day of grading final exams. Not nice, but the big push is almost done. I did come across one answer though that was a complete classic and is worth sharing.

One short answer question asked, "Why did Kant believe that synthetic a priori judgements were possible?". One student answered,

"Kant believed synthetic a priori judgements were possible, because he hates me."

It really cracked me up, when I read this. Although there was no credit for this answer, the student did pass.

The CP

End Of The Line: A Commencement Address

2007-05-13T10:45:00.000-06:00

It is unlikely that I will ever be asked to deliver a commencement address. I am known for telling things as they are. This is not the kind of thing that is appreciated at commencement type events. However, if I were ever asked to deliver such a speech, these are the kinds of things I would have to say.

In the Prologue to his work Thus Spake Zarathustra, Nietzsche wrote,

"Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman—a rope over an abyss."

At an event such as a commencement, a speaker such as myself is expected to congratulate you for navigating the rope over the abyss and transforming yourselves into superpersons. Thus, in a cautious way, I will offer you congratulations. However, let me warn you, despite all the pride and pretty words, for many of you, you will find that the abyss lies ahead.

Around you sit your peers, your professors and your friends and family. Many of us are dressed up like you in crazy outfits. There will be hand shakes, there will be photos, there will be hugs and kisses. This should be a happy time. However, do not be fooled, in someways this event is not much different than a funeral, albeit one that is cleverly disguised.

In a little while, you will hear a speaker from the alumni association talk. They will give a predictable speech. Last time I counted, the speech had forty-two euphemisms in it for 'give us your money'. You have been warned.

You might ask why all the effort is made to go through such a ritual as this. This simple answer is this: money. Your University has discovered that you family and friends become suckers for 'official photographs', 'official videos' and other memorabilia. Thus, a good part of the purpose of this event is really not much different from some glorified infomercial.

The really sad part about it though is that for a large number of you, after all the talk of pride, achievement and other upbeat buzz words is done, you will almost certainly be left with a sense of bereavement.

For at least the last four years, you have been granted a fair degree of independence, with few responsibilities. You have been able to wear what you wish -- flip-flops, shorts and tee-shirts has become a common uniform for many of you. You have been able to arrange your own schedule, to a certain degree. You have been able to hang out with people your own age, as you have all pursued a common goal, graduation. Now that goal has been reached, what is going to happen next? This is a tough question.

When you left high school, you were able to keep some of your friends, as they too went to college. Even if you did not go to the same college, you could still relate to one another, as you still had many experiences in common -- the annoying required classes, the odd professors, and so on. However, now that you are graduating, things are going to change radically.

For a while, you will be able to keep up with your college friends, but only for a little while. After a couple of new cell phones, many of the phone numbers will get lost. People's e-mails will change. Even those you still keep track of will begin to mutate, as their lives take a path that is very different and alien from yours. Soon, there will be little to say to one another.

You see after college, there is no single path to follow. Some of you will go to graduate and professional school. Others will get jobs. There will be still others who will just kind of disappear.

Thus, what this event today marks more than anything else is what may be one of the most traumatic transitions of your young lives. For those of you in your early twenties, you will have spent around one fifth of your lives in the college environment. As of today, that will be gone. There will be no more worrying about midterms and finals, which may be a relief. However, the things that you will have to worry about will be more scary, paying bills, getting to work on time, dealing with a stupid boss. Worse yet, there is no graduation from the rest of life. There is no end. You will just have to get through the best you can.

So, in closing, I want to wish you all luck. I also want to commiserate with you all. The one good and important thing to remember is that you will not be the first person to feel this sense of loss, nor will you be the last. Just keep in mind when all the pomp of today is done, that this is probably what lies ahead. Get through it and then try your level best to do what you can to make the world a better place. This is all that we can each do.

The CP

View From The Trenches

2007-05-10T19:02:00.000-06:00

Today was another huge grading day. Groan. However, I have finished all my undergraduate final papers, so that is a relief. All have left now are my graduate student papers. They are generally much more interesting and fun.

As I finished grading yesterday, I came across a paper that set off the proverbial 'alarm bells'. It was an excellent paper, in fact, just a bit too good. I really hate plagiarizers, as they take so much time to sort out, during the part of the semester when time is shortest. I did a bit of Googling on distinctive phrases last night, but did not find anything.

This morning, I set to figuring things out once and for all, with this anomalous paper. If Google fails to reveal a source, then there are other methods. One of my favorite is to check the bibliography. A few citations to journals and books which are not in our library can be quite damning. Again, I struck out. There was one citation that was clearly wrong, and another that was just plain odd, but the rest were all in the library. What I could not figure out was how the student knew about a number of fairly sophisticated arguments, that were not covered in the class.

My next strategy was to ask a co-worker to give the paper a look. This proved to be the correct step to take. It turned out the fellow in the office next door knows the student. He recognised the writing style. He also explained that the student is also in one of his classes where the more sophisticated arguments and concepts were discussed. Thus, I was wrong this time. Rather than having detected a cheat, I have an excellent student instead. This is an outcome I prefer.

In other news, I have been trying to figure out whether or not to accept yesterdays job offer. It is a tough call. Somethings are easy to arrange, other things are proving to be more problematic. It is hard to get a straight answer out of some people! If I accept though, it will provide some employment for my doctoral student who just completed. I will have to keep plugging away at this.

Finally, I want to commend the inventors of the ipod. Wearing an ipod and listening to music most definitely helps with the tedious process of grading paper after paper. I strongly recommend this method. It also provides an excellent opportunity to rediscover some of the more obscure corners of one's music collection (this is the joy of the shuffle function).

The CP

Job Offer

2007-05-09T20:36:00.000-06:00

Today was a busy day. I had a 10am meeting. I also had a 1.30pm meeting and then there was a 5.30pm event. However, the big event happened at noon. I did a job interview by video conference. It seemed that they liked what I had to say.

Later this afternoon, my cell phone went and I was told that they wanted to make me an offer. Were the situation to be ceteris paribus this would be beyond cool. This is a very good university, in a very good program. Unfortunately, there are a couple 'howevers'. The position is only a one year temporary gig. Being in a good place for a year should be fun, so this should be good. I have tenure so that this should not matter. Then there is the second 'however'. It seems that there are major health care issues. If I take this position, I could lose all my retirement benefits accumulated so far. Given the changes in the system, this could be a big hit, albeit one I will get years from now.

There may be ways around this. I have calls in to all the health system hackers that I know in the State. I have not heard back from a couple I would have like to have heard from by now. I am worried about the propensity in this neck of the woods to not tell bad news. Just not replying is easier. Maybe I will hear from them tomorrow. I have my fingers crossed.

In the meantime, I have a tough question to face. Do I want to roll the dice and make it difficult for me to stay in my present position in the long term, or do I play it safe? This is a real quandary. Any suggestions would be welcome.

The CP

Galileo And Grading

2007-05-08T17:58:00.000-06:00

On his death bed in 1642, Galileo Galilei was reputed to have said with his dying breath,

"I do not feel obliged to believe that that same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."

I have spent the day grading final papers and, if we take Galileo seriously, then I am forced to conclude that some of my students must be a Godless lot. How after a full semester some of them can still manage to spell Locke's name 'Lock' and Berkeley's name 'Berkley' is quite beyond me. Stranger still is the fact that some of them use both spellings in the same paper. I guess the power of modern spell checkers has taught some to forget the gentle art of proof reading. Fortunately, it is only a few who have forgone the use of reason and intellect. It is still annoying though.

The CP

A Scary Debt Card Vacation

2007-05-07T20:17:00.000-06:00

As a general rule, I am not a huge fan of banks. As best I can tell, banks charge large fees to let people get at their own money. Sometimes my views get a little less jaundiced. Today was one of those times.

Around lunchtime today, I took a walk to get a sandwich. While I was en route to the sandwich shop, I stopped by the ATM as I was getting a little low on cash. When I put my card into the machine, it told me that it could not help me. I assumed that it was some computer problem and went and got some lunch. After eating, I tried again, with the same result. As there was someone in front of me who had no problem, I figured that there could be an issue.

When I got back to the office I called the bank. After several annoying menus where they tried to entice me into buying all sorts of financial services from them, I managed to get through to a human being. There was indeed a problem with my ATM card, a fraud alert had been called on it. I was passed on to the security people at the bank.

What the security people told me made my blood run cold. Apparently, this morning I had made a purchase of nearly $1000 at some outfit called 'ABC Leather Kingdom' in Florida. This had been followed by another large purchase from a shirt manufacturing place. Fortunately, the bank software thought that the purchases looked suspicious and had cancelled my ATM card. This was why I could not get any money.

To be quite frank, I was aghast! I was also slightly concerned about the kinds of leather goods that might have been purchased in my name. A quick look at the website assured me that I was not forever going to be associated with a cat o' nine tails and some leather studded boxer shorts. That at least was a relief! However, how my card number got to Florida is a mystery to me. I seldom use my debit card other than at the ATM and in my boring local grocery supermarket. I would never use it on-line. Yet, somehow my number was grabbed.

I was also very impressed by the bank software. It had spotted the leather purchase as suspicious. This is amazing. I admit that I am not one to buy many leather goods, but how could it figure out it was not me? I travel quite a bit and end up buying all sorts of odd stuff, yet I have never had a problem.

So, although my bank account is currently empty, I will be getting my money back. The timing is not great, as I have bills to pay, but it beats the alternative. I have a new temporary card and a proper new card on the way. When the bank finishes up the paper work, I will get my money back, so all is well that ends well. However, it is still a little scary. In the meantime, I am trying to recall whether I have used this card in some less than entirely reputable gas station, but I just don't think so. I think that next time my debit card goes on vacation to Florida, it should be good enough to take me with it!

The CP

Seventy Years Ago Today

2007-05-06T16:14:00.000-06:00

It was exactly seventy years ago today that the famous Hindenburg Disaster occurred. We have all probably seen the footage and heard the commentary, but as a reminder here it is again.

This disaster took place at Lakehurst, New Jersey, USA, on May 6, 1937 at around 7.30 in the evening. Thirty-six people were killed. A great deal of information about the ship and the incident can be found at http://www.hindenburg.net/, the home page of the Hindenburg Historical Society.

One of the things which made the impact of this disaster so great was that it was the first live news event that was broadcast on the radio from coast to coast. Indeed, Herbert Morrison's blow by blow account of the disaster is a classic bit of radio broadcasting.

One thing that is generally less well known about this event is that, to this day, nobody is really sure about what caused the disaster. There are many theories, but no firm conclusions.

What I find interesting though is the fact that although seventy years ago is a long time ago, it is also not really that long ago. There are many people alive today who were both alive and old enough to notice when the Hindenburg Disaster took place. That being said, the very familiarity of the footage also serves to make it appear to be long ago in the past.

It is certainly the case that the world has changed a great deal in the intervening seventy years. Back then, there were no national television networks and certainly no Internet. Indeed, the first computers were constructed just a few years after this event. Yet despite these massive changes, there are folks who lived during that era and are living today. This, I believe, provides a fascinating perspective on how the world changes over time. I wonder how the World will change in the next seventy years?

The CP

On Paper

2007-05-05T19:19:00.000-06:00

Although computer files, .pdf, .doc, etc. are very useful, they have their limits. While it is handy to be able to move files around and store them by e-mail, on CDs and on flash drives, there are still cases where paper is still the best medium.

It is now the time of the semester, when I have to deal with a great deal of paper. My graduate students are completing their research projects. The undergrads are handing in their final papers. There is a lot of paper in my life at the moment!

Some students have started asking recently whether they can e-mail their papers to me. I know that some institutions require this, so that papers can be checked against plagiarism databases. Although I am a huge fan of e-mail in most contexts, this is not one of them. In addition to the ever present danger of the kind of virus that can hide in common file types (.doc files are particularly bad for this), there are often issues which can arise with printing papers out. In my experience, printers are amongst the least reliable bits of computer technology. They especially like to go wrong, run out of toner, etc. when the pressure is on. I think that Mr. Murphy, of the famous law, secretly haunts printers, especially at this time of the semester.

The great thing about a paper in hard copy is that one has space, margins and between the lines, where one can make comments. Not only is this useful for the students, as it gives them feedback on their work (if they read the comments, something I am never entirely certain about), it is also useful to me to help me remember what is happening in the paper being graded. When going through many papers on the same, or very similar topics, during the usual necessary grading marathon, there is always a danger of getting the faults of one paper confused with another one. Thus, being able to leave comments, like a trail of breadcrumbs, actually helps with the grading process.

So, although it is kind of 'retro' and perhaps a bit 'fuddy-duddy', I quite like paper in this kind of context. I have seen software that purports to provide many similar functions, but have seldom found it satisfactory. Almost always, one runs into version compatibility issues and the like. One then spends time fighting the technology, when one could be grading. This is not a helpful outcome.

Another great advantage of papers that come in on paper is that they are eminently portable. If the weather is nice, one can easily carry the papers, a couple of pens, the questions sheet and the class list to whatever location one desires. One can grade in the park, one can grade at a cafe, one can grade in the office, or at home, depending on one's mood. I often like to move around, when grading, so I think that this is an especially strong advantage.

As I turn my attention to the stack of papers I have waiting for me, I rejoice that these papers are still printed on paper.

The CP

More On Chickens And Eggs

2007-05-03T19:11:00.000-06:00

Almost a year ago, in a post with the title On Chickens, I wrote about the 'sport' of cockfighting, which is still legal in the State of Louisiana. This is now something of a legal anomaly. Recently, New Mexico, the only other State where this activity was legal, outlawed it.

The banning of cockfighting was debated by the Louisiana State Legislature last year. The motion to ban the activity was defeated on the grounds that it would have too severe a negative impact on rural economies. This issue has come up again in this years session.

It seems that this year that the outcome may be different. According to today's Daily Advocate a House panel has agreed to a ban on cockfighting, beginning in 2008. The ban will not come into force immediately, so as to provide time from people employed in this activity to find alternative employment.

What is truly amazing is that it has taken Louisiana until 2008 to ban an activity that was banned in England and Wales in 1849. I guess we are catching up slowly. Now poultry will only have to fear Ronald McDonald's McNugget tycoons and the evil Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Rodent fame. If things continue at this rate though, Louisiana can anticipate a sensible State Health Service by 2168, or so. I am happy for the chickens that run in the streets of my neighbourhood though. I am sure that they would be celebrating, if they were not such bird brains!

As this post is rapidly degenerating, I will close with another good bit of news. At long last, there appears to be an answer to the perennial question of which came first, the chicken, or the egg. It appears that the answer is...[drum roll] the egg! Although the matter is still contentious, it is now widely believed that birds are the descendants of dinosaurs (Creationists and other nut jobs may tune out at this point). Give that it is known that dinosaurs laid eggs, it follows that the egg must have come before the chicken! Of course, this leaves the more interesting question of which came first, the dinosaur, or the egg...

The CP

Academic Parenthood

2007-05-02T17:47:00.000-06:00

When I was a graduate student, I was in the slightly odd position of having two advisers for my dissertation. There was one in particular who I was quite close to, due to the fact that they had also supervised my Master's thesis.

This particular individual once explained to me an interesting metaphor about academics and their doctoral students. In the view of this individual, dissertation advisers are in some sense the academic parents of their graduate students. I have always rather liked this metaphor. When I first became a dissertation advisor, I attempted to emulate the way that my advisers had behaved. Often this was just little things, like paying for meals and passing on useful and interesting information. However, as this is much like what biological parents do, it made me realise that the metaphor had some considerable power.

As is the case with biological parents, the relationship was not just one sided. There was give and take. Upon occasion, when I had to be out of town for a conference, my student would drop by my house to feed and entertain my cats.

The reason for mentioning this metaphor today is because, as of this morning, for the very first time, I became an academic parent. My doctoral student successfully defended their dissertation. Although the final moments were kind of fraught, with late hours, working through drafts which always appeared to show up just a little later than was ideal, the dissertation was completed (just) in time. I guess this process is a bit like the child birth process. However, when graduation comes around, there will be one more shiny new PhD in the world. The dissertation also turned out to be surprisingly good in the end.

The thing that is curious is that when I got a moment (there was a lot of paperwork to get done and a celebratory lunch to hold as well), I felt compelled to drop a line to both my dissertation advisers, telling them the news. The experience of doing this, was not too dissimilar to that of making the calls about a newly arrived child. So, my student's academic grandparents have now been informed. What was interesting, was that in one of the replies, I learned the name of my academic grandparent for the first time. Now, I will be able tell my student of their entire academic family tree.

At the moment at least, I really like this parental metaphor. Of course, as is the case when one becomes a biological parent, the work is never done. The next thing that I have to look into is getting my student gainfully employed, until the next job/post-doc season opens up. However, all in all, this has been a pretty wonderful day.

The CP

Beltane!

2007-05-01T21:02:00.000-06:00

Today if the first of May. This is the traditional date of the feast of Beltane. This is a feast that is popular in Celtic regions of the world. It marks the beginning of Summer. There are many various traditions associated with it. Perhaps the best known of these is the Maypole. Obviously, there is quite a phallic component to this icon of the festival. Beltane is also one of those feasts that is often celebrated with fire. So, I hold up a light and light a candle.

In more modern times, the first of May also became the day to celebrate organized labor and trades unionism. Unfortunately, this is an association that has lost much of it's currency, at least in the US, due to the comparative weakness of the trades union movement. Originally, the date was chosen to celebrate the Haymarket martyrs of 1886. These individuals were crucial to the establishment of the eight hour work day.

Unfortunately, at this time of the semester, professors can only dream of eight hour work days. To everyone else involved in the final 'big push' towards the end of the semester, I wish you luck too. Perhaps you would also care to light a candle?

The CP

Exhausted, Happy

2007-04-29T23:42:00.000-06:00

Well, I got home eventually. Lafayette was quite hard to leave. Festival International was beyond wonderful. Yesterday, I got to see our State Governor grooving out to a band. Today, was superb too.

I am more than tired. However, I am also more than happy. I had a fabulous weekend. To top things off, I ran into a very old, close and wonderful friend, while in Lafayette. This was an unexpected surprise. We spent some time chatting, the result of this chat is that we should have a joint paper soon. As a real academic, I love research and publishing. This is an excellent and exciting project.

Thus, over and above sunburn and fatigue, Festival International was also an excellent place to come across a meeting of minds. I really hope that I will feel rejuvenated enough tomorrow to perform well in my classes. As they say in Lafayette, "Laisser Les Bon Temps Rouler!". Je dis "D'accord!"

The CP

Wild Times

2007-04-27T23:13:00.000-06:00

Well, the weather for the Festival has been wonderful. That acts were pretty good too. However, all this was massively overshadowed by other local events, in Lafayette.

Some of the people I know in this town teach at UL Lafayette. These people have been totally wild, since this afternoon. It seems that the UL President has today announced his retirement. Apparently, he is the second longest serving University President in the country. According to my friends, his retirement has been 'next year' for many years now. Now it has happened, the faculty members are very excited. It seems that many 'old boy networks' could be destroyed. Of course, things now all turn on who gets appointed. I will keep you informed.

The CP

Angelique Kidjo

2007-04-27T00:14:00.000-06:00

Well the high point of today at Festival International was a performance by Angelique Kidjo. Visit the web site. You can hear sound samples. It was an amazing set, although early on there appeared to be a few technical difficulties. These were fixed rapidly.

A real bonus came from the fact that Kidjo was selling her new CD. It has not been officially released yet. It comes out in a few days, but the Festival seems to have managed to get a few advanced copies. What was even better was that Kidjo was prepared to sit by the side of stage and sign both CDs and posters. While waiting, the Combat Philosopher made some comments, that Kidjo overheard. She accused me of being a philosopher. Curious. She still signed my CD.

Tomorrow will be an early run back home to go teach. Hopefully, the Gods of the nasty Interstates will be willing and I will be able to get back to Lafayette for more Festival. Lafayette is clearly a fun town. Festival International is an excellent event. Please try to listen at krvs.org. From what I have seen so far, there is very little danger of being disappointed.

The CP

Allons A Lafayette

2007-04-25T22:15:00.000-06:00

Well, I got to Lafayette, e v e n t u t a l l y. It seems that a chemical truck had a problem on I-10 and closed it down. Getting here took forever. However, we arrived.

This put me in mind of the Cajun song "Allons a Lafayette". The lyrics do not quite fit, but the sentiment does. Here is a YouTube rendition.

When we got here we discovered that we had just missed Robert Plant. He had been in town the last few days. Oh well. We went to the Festival, but the rain made us leave. It was fun though, until it started to rain too much. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better, if the weather forecasters are to be believed. We shall see.

The CP

Mr. Murphy And A Hiatus

2007-04-24T20:25:00.000-06:00

Well, Mr. Murphy, of 'the Law' fame hit big time in Combat Philosopher land today. It seems that my regular net connection is playing up. Thus, this is being submitted via a very retro feeling dial up connection! It is quaint and very slow, but a pain.

Tomorrow, I leave for a little road trip. I will be going up the road to attend Festival International in Lafayette, after class tomorrow. As I will be staying with friends, I am not too sure what the Internet access situation may be, so there may be a gap in posts here until next week. I will actually have to dash home to teach one more class, but if the net situation is not good, then that will only give enough time to catch up on e-mail.

I attended Festival International last year and it was beyond amazing! This year, I have made arrangements so that I can attend the whole thing. I strongly urge you to check out the web site above, to see what incredible acts from all over the world will be playing. What is better yet, is that I have discovered that the Festival will now be broadcast live over the Internet. If you go to http://krvs.org, you can find a live feed from the Festival from Thursday evening onwards. You might give it a try. That way you can hear and share some of the tunes that The Combat Philosopher will be enjoying. Even if that is not an incentive, you might still want to tune in to hear some excellent music. Enjoy!

The CP

A World Of Walls

2007-04-23T18:02:00.000-06:00

Some walls are good. For example, the walls of a house keep the elements out and provide a safe and secure environment within. However, not all walls are quite so benign.

One of the earliest examples of a less good wall is The Great Wall of China. This wall has a long and complex history, having been built and rebuilt by successive ruling dynasties. The wall is around 4,000 miles long and stretches from Shanhai Pass in the East to Lop Nur in the West. The purpose of the Great Wall, although it actually served many, was for the most part to keep China safe from attack from enemies. Thus, it had a defensive function. However, it also, at various times, became one of the mechanisms that was used to ensure the unification of China. In cases where the local inhabitants, and their local chiefs, may have been less than entirely thrilled about central control, it also served as a symbol of dynastic authority.

A slightly later wall is the wall that was built by the Roman Emperor Hadrian (AD 76–138). Although Hadrian's Wall has now become a major tourist attraction, it was originally constructed, in AD 122, to keep the the tribes who lived in what is now Scotland from raiding. As such, the wall formed one of the Northern boundaries of the Roman Empire. The wall is constructed from stone and turf and largely still exists today. It has a length of around eighty miles and runs from Wallsend on the River Tyne in the East, to the shore of the Solway Firth, to the West. The point to note here though is that this wall was built by an oppressive invading power, as a means of suppressing the native inhabitants of the area.

Perhaps the most famous wall of the Twentieth Century was the Berlin Wall. Construction of the wall began in August, 1961. It was a symbol of the oppression of the peoples of the Eastern bloc until it was dismantled, beginning in November, 1989. The primary purpose of the wall was to prevent people leaving the East for the West. Indeed, the Berlin Wall stood as the iconic symbol of the whole era of the cold war.

From these three examples, it should be quite clear that walls have historically had an association with oppressive regimes, of one kind or another. Unfortunately, walls of this kind are still with us today. The Israeli Separation Wall that was recently constructed, supposedly to prevent attacks from Palestinian territories, has been subject to much criticism, and has been ruled illegal by some courts. However, Israel is not the only nation engaged in wall building these days.

It seems that the US is now getting into the wall building business. Last year, a plan for a US-Mexican Barrier was announced. Do not be fooled by the semantics. A barrier is a wall, by another name. In the last few days, people in Iraq started protesting about walls being erected in the al-Adhamiyah in east Baghdad. These walls are being built at night by the US military and are unpopular with the Iraqi government. However, there do not appear to be any plans to stop building this wall, just yet.

The reason that these recent US wall building plans and activities are of concern though has to do with the history of the earlier walls. The Roman Empire did not last too long after Hadrian completed his wall. Although China has remained, the various wall building dynasties did not last. The Berlin Wall had an especially short life-span. Given these precedents, should we be concerned about the recent enthusiasm for wall building by the US? It seems to me that concern would be prudent. However, if these walls are just symbolic of the immanent demise of the incompetent Bush administration, then this may not be too bad. We shall see.

The CP

De Re, De Dicto and '-isms'

2007-04-22T14:33:00.000-06:00

This weekend, I went to an event at which I had the opportunity to hear Dr. Norman C. Francis speak. I have heard quite a few things about this gentleman over the years, so I was interested to hear what he had to say. It is also the fact that he has the rare distinction of being the longest serving University President in the country, at the present time.

Dr. Francis spoke extremely well. He kept his words quite brief. He made sure to give his audience a clear road map of the topics that he would cover at the beginning, so we had an idea where he was. He made several interesting and thought provoking points. Although Dr. Francis clearly has had a lot of practice at making speeches, it is seldom that one comes across a speaker who is so naturally gifted at public speaking. His style was lively, although slightly informal, though not in an offensive manner. He was relaxed and amusing at times. I really enjoyed listening to him.

One of the topic he discussed was race relations. Perhaps surprisingly, he argued against raising the topic of race and racism. What was interesting about this was that the audience was largely African-American. While Francis admitted that racism and other forms of discrimination were a problem, he was not in favour of the move of 'playing the race card' as a method of addressing these problems.

He pointed that actually making this kind of rhetorical move, in many instances, often worked against the interests of those that needed support and could end up hurting the people that were intended to be helped. His point was underwritten by the observation that people are different and come in all sorts of varieties. However, if one group is selected to have a special rhetorical move all of their own, which can be invoked whenever a difficulty, or a problem is encountered, then these people could come to rely upon this rhetorical move, instead addressing their own issues. Dr. Francis thus advocated education as a better solution to these kinds of problems, for both for racists and their victims. I thought that this was an interesting insight.

Some time ago, I noticed that there was an interesting phenomenon that roughly corresponded to the De Re and De Dicto distinction which is sometimes invoked about propositional attitudes and belief attribution claims. Roughly speaking, the De Re/De Dicto distinction can be thought of as distinguishing 'what is' from 'what is said' (note, this way of using these terms does considerable violence to the subtleties of the technical notions) for current purposes.

When it comes to contentious matters, such as race, gender, sexual orientation and the like, certain classes of people who have concerns about these matters can be divided into two camps. The first camp, which I think of as being the De Re camp, actually attempt to take concrete steps to ameliorate problematic situations. The other camp, which I think of as the De Dicto camp, spend a great deal of time talking, name calling and denouncing, but do very little else. I think that this distinction can be usefully applied to Dr. Francis' comments. Folks who follow his advice would fall into the De Re camp, while those who too frequently and indiscriminately 'play the race card' fall into the De Dicto camp. Of course, there is a fine line here. For example, those who write on these matters could fall in either camp. However, it would seem that folks who publish their thoughts on such matters in respectable refereed journals, would fall into the De Re camp, much more naturally than the De Dicto one.

One reason this is of interest in the current context is that, if one looks around the world of blogs, it appears that there are many blogs that fall into the De Dicto camp, while offering precious little evidence of any actual practical (that is to say De Re) activity. Other bloggers also seem to have noticed this phenomenon and have made suitably amusing comments on the matter (see here for an example -- it is worth reading the posts in reverse order to see the development). Further examples would be welcome.

The point though that I think is interesting is that the Francis style approach appears to apply to a much broader range of topics and situations than just racism. We have all probably at some point in our lives come across a student, co-worker, or some other individual, who cannot stand to be disagreed with. Whenever something they interpret as being negative is said about them, or done to them, they immediately start making accusations of racism, gender bias, orientation bias, or generally screaming and shouting about so-called 'abuse'. When we are faced with such situations, we should keep Francis' advice in mind. Each such claim should be judged solely on its merits. They should not be automatically accepted as being valid.

There are many '-isms' that people can get upset about. It seems to me that this advice applies equally to all. It is important to keep in mind that words are cheap and actions speak much louder than words.

The CP

Mayor Ray Nagin's iPod

2007-04-21T14:20:00.000-06:00

Some time ago, I came across a rather silly game which goes by the name of 'iPod'. The basic idea behind the game is that a certain person is nominated and then the goal is to figure out the top listened to tunes that would be on that person's iPod. Although this is not too sophisticated a game, it can be quite fun and presents plenty of opportunities for humor. It seems to be broadly based on the 'Celebrity Playlists' feature of the iTunes music store, although I am sure that the idea is actually much older than this.

Late in 2005, after hurricane Katrina, I came up with something similar, although I had not heard of the game at that point. I was looking for a selection of music to play while driving into New Orleans. The way I thought about it then, was to wonder what Mayor Ray Nagin might have on his iPod.

Now, Nagin is an equivocal figure. On the one hand, he was one of the few politicians who actually tried to get things moving after the storms, rather than dithering and indulging in photo opportunities, as did folks like Bush. I particularly enjoyed listening to Nagin totally loosing it and yelling, when phoning into a live radio show. Some of this can be heard on a YouTube video that is located here (the section is about three mins. and a thirty seconds in). His speech was blunt and littered with curse words, which seemed entirely appropriate in the context. On the other hand, since the time of that crisis, and especially since his re-election, Nagin has done a dreadful job leading the New Orleans reconstruction efforts. For this reason, it is hard to quite know what to make of Nagin.

Whatever we think of Nagin though, he is a fun person to play 'iPod' with. Now that iPods can also play videos, though the magic of YouTube, we can even simulate an iPod video version of the game (N.B. JavaScript needs to be enabled for the videos to run properly.) Here we go;

1) Like a Hurricane, by Neil Young and Crazy Horse.

2) When The Levees Break, by Led Zeppelin.

3)Refugee, by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers.

Enjoy the Tunes. Remember the Victims.

The CP

A Day to Walk and Sing

2007-04-19T19:33:00.000-06:00

Today, the weather was glorious. It was sunny and warm, but not too hot and not humid. It was one of those Louisiana Spring days that makes it a joy to walk across campus. I did this today. On route, I ran into various people I knew. I stopped and chatted several times. That was this morning.

This afternoon, I had a couple of students drop by my office for help with their final papers. The first student arrived fairly confused, largely by looking things up randomly on the Internet. By the time we were finished, the confusions were gone. This should now be a pretty reasonable paper. The second student is working on a project that is actually quite exciting. They had some excellent questions that were reasonably easy to handle. By the time they left, I had another satisfied customer. I am looking forward to reading this paper.

Next on the agenda was a talk from a visiting senior professor. The talk was very interesting indeed. I was not entirely convinced by all the detailed particulars, but it was nonetheless fascinating. I learned a lot.

So, this was a happy day. As I moved towards home, late this afternoon, I was filled with a desire to sing. Here is Donovan's Catch The Wind from YouTube to sing along with.

I like days like this. I hope that I have plenty more soon. I hope that you have some too.

The CP

In Praise Of Pencils

2007-04-18T18:01:00.000-06:00

Walking the corridors of my University, one occasionally comes across students reading their textbooks, while waiting for class. One of the things that I have noticed is how often students are reading texts that are massively highlighted. I have never quite come to grips with the phenomenon of highlighter pens. Why do they get used with such glee?

When I was a child, I was taught that it was some kind of venal sin to write in a book. A little later in life, I realised that this advice about writing in books, was not entirely correct. It is OK to write in a book provided that one owns it. It is certainly a sin to write in someone elses book, or a library book. I also came to believe that one should only ever write in a book in pencil, not pen. However, highlighter pens now seem to be the weapon of choice for students. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why this is the case.

When reading a book with a pencil, one can make short cryptic notes in the margins. This makes it possible to rapidly move through the text at a later point, in order to find a crucial passage. This can be done by just perusing one's marginalia. Also, with a pencil, it is possible to mark up a text in a manner that indicates levels of importance of a passage. Crucial passages can be underlined. In fact, one can underline heavily, lightly, or with a broken line, thereby providing a metric of importance. Less important passages can be indicated in a similar manner, by putting a line beside the texts.

Many of the books I have owned for many years are now quite heavily annotated. This is especially the case with canonical philosophical texts, that get frequently used in teaching and research. My annotations, in addition to the table of context and the index, make it pretty easy to find the parts of a text that one needs, both easily and rapidly. This can be extremely handy when writing, or counselling a student on a paper.

There is a sense in which these texts and my notes on them are part of my intellectual capital. Students who attack their texts with highlighter pens, rather than pencils, are denied the possibility of generating this capital over time. Although there are many colors of markers available, who can remember why a particular passage struck one as being worthy of yellow, or blue, rather than orange, many years later? Not only that, highlighted book look ugly! My cryptic pencil notes may not look perfect, but they have a certain familiarity that is comforting in a manner that a highlighted page surely can never achieve.

There is even a way that a pencil can be used on library books, without distressing later readers. The invention of the ubiquitous 'yellow sticky' was the key innovation that made this possible. When reading a borrowed book, one can place a yellow sticky on the page by a key passage and annotate away. These also form handy tabs that can be used later. When it is time to return the book, if one systematically removes the yellow stickys, making a note on them which page they were affixed to, and by which paragraph, it becomes possible to reconstruct one's notes at a later time. I store the stacks of yellow things in envelopes, when not in use.

These then are the reasons that I think that pencils should be praised. They also provide compelling reasons why they are to be preferred over those ugly dayglow highlighters. The pencil is one of the most useful scholarly tools, in my experience. Indeed, pencils have even been the subject of scholarship themselves! Henry Petroski has written a History of the design of the pencil. Thus, I am in favour of pencils.

The CP

'Philosopher For Hire'

2007-04-17T19:32:00.000-06:00

Once every now and again, a student will do something that is so ridiculous and funny that one can do nothing, but laugh like a drain. Today, one of these incidents arose.

Like many cities and towns, our town has a free publication which is full of small ads. People pay a smallish fee to announce garage sales, advertise things they want to sell, announce properties for sale, or rent, and the like. Our version of this publication also provides a section where employers can look for employees and potential employees can announce their availability. The next edition of this publication will contain, in the 'Jobs' section, the following announcement;

Philosopher for Hire. Can speak on the subjects of Metaphysics, Epistemology and Existentialism. Contact [Student's Name] at xxx-xxxx for details.

If you have ever wondered what philosophy majors do upon graduation, do not be fooled, this is a very far from typical strategy. I will be fascinated to see what, if any, responses the student gets to this advertisement.

This is a student who has something of a track record of doing this kind of thing. Several semesters ago, notices started to appear around the campus announcing a 'Beet Eating Contest', to be held at a certain time and place on campus. The announcement also mentioned a cash prize. On the appointed day, around twenty people showed up, willing to demonstrate their beet eating prowess. One of these individuals was the prankster. After a while, folks realised that they had been had.

When in the dog days of a semester, having characters like this around really livens the place up. I am going to be sorry when this individual graduates. They certainly have succeeded in making my life richer.

The CP

Wait For The Ricochet...

2007-04-16T17:42:00.000-06:00

"...wait for the ricochet" is the concluding line to the song Child in Time [Beware pop-ups], by the classic rock group Deep Purple. Somehow, it seems appropriate today.

I teach a three hour graduate class on a Monday afternoon. The morning is fairly hectic too. When I arrived in my grad class one of the students asked me whether I had heard about the events at Virginia Tech. I had not. After class was over, I got home and watched the news. I am completely horrified.

The media are full of accounts of the events, that are beyond distressing. However, there is likely to be many further, far less dramatic traumas that the faculty, staff and students of this University will have to endure, before it is all over. My guess is that this less dramatic kind of trauma will not be covered so widely by the media, but will nonetheless be dreadful for those whom they effect. This is the 'ricochet' I refer to in the title to this post.

On most campuses at the moment, the semester is drawing to a close. This means that final exams are close at hand. It would be almost unimaginably difficult for students at Virgina Tech to focus on their studies, after the events of today. Unfortunately, the pulse of University life means that there is no easy solution to this situation. Seniors need to graduate, as many will have jobs, or graduate schools elsewhere to go to. They can little afford a delay. Yet, those most closely effected by today's events will not be in good shape and thus their GPAs are likely to suffer. Although a delay may seem the humanitarian option, it would come at a cost. Rent still has to be paid and food still has to be bought. Thus, there will be negative effects far beyond those depicted by the shocking images played on the news.

It is likely that faculty will be negatively impacted in a profound way too. A University, no matter how elite, or how dysfunctional, is a community, especially for faculty. Any community that has to live through profound trauma will suffer. Perhaps the less secure and healthy will fear returning to the class room. Who knows. Unless radical steps are taken, some poor faculty member will have the dubious honor of teaching in a class room where a colleague lost their life. I for one would be very unhappy to be placed in such a situation.

It is also quite likely that there will be new provisions made, in a bid by the administration to enhance campus security. In all likelihood, these provisions will be burdensome and work against the free flow of people and ideas that makes campus life vibrant. Would you be inclined to return to your office, or lab of an evening if you had to run a gauntlet of security? I would be much less inclined to do so. Thus, again something important would become 'collateral damage' to the activities of today's lone assailant. It is also possible that enhanced security may become a feature of more campuses, thereby spreading the shadow of today's events. Administrations like to be seen to be 'doing something' in the light of such tragedies. Let us at least hope that the folks in Washington D.C. do not get involved in such programs. If they were to do so, it is a certainty that the results would be appalling.

Nobody can feel anything but the very deepest sympathy for the faculty and students of Virginia Tech at the current time. The point here is to keep in mind that, after all the camera crews and media have gone on elsewhere, there will still be high costs to be paid by everyone on that campus. These will be the 'ricochets' that will keep on coming. Thus, we should keep the campus community of Virgina Tech in our thoughts for a good long time.

The CP

More Gubernatorial Games

2007-04-15T15:50:00.000-06:00

I have written a couple of posts about the Louisiana Gubernatorial race before. Initially, I commented when Governor Blanco announced that she would not run. I then had some things to say about the possibility that John Breaux would run for the position and the Republican objections on the grounds of eligibility. There has now been another twist in this saga. Breaux recently announced that he will not be running, after all.

The following statement can be found at www.johnbreaux07.com:

"I said I would be guided by the Attorney General's opinion and therefore will not be a candidate for Governor. For me to run now means that we would face a campaign based on an eligibility to run, with the prospects of being in a courtroom only weeks before the election. That is not in the best interest of our state or what this election should be about."

This is an interesting turn of events. With both Blanco and Breaux currently out of the running (remember, things can change), there does not appear to be a strong Democratic candidate for the position of Louisiana Governor. As there is a strong Republican candidate, namely Bobby Jindal, it seems that if things do not change, then it would appear that the election is being conceded by the Democrats. Why might this state of affairs be permitted?

There are several possibilities. It could be the case that the Democrats have decided that, as they have no strong candidate, they will save their money and energy for other contests. Somehow, this seems to be an option with minimal plausibility, but it could be what is going on.

Another possibility is that either Breaux, or Blanco may have a change of heart. This appears to be a slightly more plausible scenario. The thinking could be that Blanco's chances were limited, with the possibility of Breaux in the wings. Now, Breaux has been ruled out, she may change her mind and decide to run after all. Stranger things have happened. It would be a strange set of events, but who knows.

It could be that another strong Democratic candidate will suddenly be thrust forward. The problem with this is finding plausible candidates to play this role. The one person who might stand is Mitch Landrieu. He currently holds the position of Lieutenant Governor. He improbably and possibly disastrously lost the Mayoral election in New Orleans, against Ray Nagin. However, there has been no indication that he might be interested in running for the top State job. Of course, there may be other strong candidates, but they have yet to make their intentions known.

Perhaps there is something that the Democrats know, or suspect, that will change things radically. One possibility that does come to mind is that the upcoming hurricane season will produce another devastating storm. As things stand, it is looking like it will be another bad season. Perhaps the thinking is that a bad storm before the elections in October, in which Blanco performs well, might give her the basis for a late run for re-election. Alternatively, the thought may be that if there is another bad storm, nobody in their right mind would want to be Governor of Louisiana. Thus, Jindal may win with a walk, but it could turn out to be a poison pill. However, it does seem unlikely that the politicians would be betting their futures on questionable weather forecasts.

One thing that is for sure, this being Louisiana, there will be some more surprises with this race. It is too early to tell where the next twist will come. However, it is a safe bet that the story of this Gubernatorial race is very far from over. So, as I have recommended before on this topic, keep watching this space!

***********
Update: Today, Mitch Landrieu announced that he will not be running for the Office of Governor. He will be running again for his current post of Lieutenant Governor. Oh well, so much for my 'crystal ball'.

The CP

Course Renumbering And Chaos

2007-04-14T14:26:00.000-06:00

The numbers assigned to courses in most departments often make very little sense. This circumstance arises over time as new courses are added and older less relevant courses are dropped. Thus, as a result of a fairly natural and organic processes, there are almost always anomalies in the course numbering system. It is also the case that, as course number assignment is usually done at the departmental level, there is little rhyme or reason with respect to course numbers between departments.

Such a slightly chaotic system might see problematic, but usually is not. People eventually learn the quirks of such a system. What causes real trouble though is when a proposal arises to 'rationalise' the course numbers. It is my contention that all such efforts should be strongly resisted at all costs.

Those who propose rationalising course numbers usually fall into one of two categories. A program to 'fix' course numbering will sometimes be proposed by recently appointed department heads, when they are in the 'new broom' mode. It provides them a means of appearing to be changing things and getting things done. The other category of persons who are likely to advocate changing course numbers are deadwood faculty, looking desperately for something vaguely useful to put on their faculty reports. This latter category of person often advocates this kind of thing when they wish to angle for a promotion. It provides them with an almost limitless excuse to write memos, hold meetings, prepare draft proposals. In other words, it can be a source of unending 'busywork'.

The arguments offered for these rationalisation programs are often of the kind that appear utterly compelling to Provosts, Deans and other administrative types, who have lost touch with the realities of teaching. Such programs are offered as a means of simplifying things for students. It is also sometimes claimed that the proposed new system will suddenly be rendered consistent with some other institution's system.

I have lived through quite a few of these course renumbering programs. The result of them is always the same: Utter chaos and confusion! No matter how good the arguments sound, they should always be resisted, for this reason.

The problem with changing course numbers is that everyone already knows the old idiosyncratic system. Although renumbering effots are usually accompanied by a flurry of announcements and explanations, these usually have little effect. Too many memos, be they paper, or by e-mail, or both, on the same topic end up going unread. Also, it is common for an initial memo to then require subsequent clarification, or emendation, thereby increasing to overall level of confusion.

The problem is that people are used to the old system, so they tend to default to it. The vast array of forms that need to be updated, means that there are always some oversights.

We had a recent example of course renumbering zealotry. A department that taught a series of courses, that are mandatory for a large number of students renumbered their courses, as part of a complex scheme, which really had as a goal reducing the amount of time faculty had to spend teaching. The course renumbering was part of the complex smoke screen developed to obscure the real goals. For many years now, the mandatory courses ran 101, 201, 203. Although this was not entirely rational, at least everybody knew the system. However, after the changes, the mandatory courses run 101, 102, 203. The result of this change? Chaos!

What really happens when courses get renumbered? Well, students enroll in the wrong classes for a couple of semesters, thereby slowing graduations. Faculty advisers mis-advise students, due to habit and the confusion caused by the various memos and e-mails. Department main offices get besieged by phone calls, as people try and make sense of the new system. There is also usually a great deal of what might be termed 'collateral damage'. The carefully developed tables of course equivalencies with other institutions have to be changed. Also, other institutions usually fail to get all the memos and thus, students end up being denied transfer credit, until the new system is understood.

The point here is simple. No matter how passionate and compelling the arguments made in favor of renumbering courses, they should always be resisted. This is, unless of course, for some perverse reason one should be a fan of causing institutional chaos and dysfunction. You have been warned!

The CP

On Early Exams

2007-04-12T17:09:00.000-06:00

That feeling that the semester is coming to an end is slowly filling the air. It arrives unerringly at this time of the year, as predictably as the Springtime. Suddenly, my e-mail inbox is full of urgent e-mails from students.

At the current time, the major concern seems to be about their final research papers. It always amazes me that students can read the work of philosophers such as Descartes, Locke, or Berkeley, yet do not manage to learn to spell their names correctly ('DesCarte', 'Lock' or 'Barkley'). The recent e-mails are the usual mixed bag.

However, what was interesting today was that I got my first "can I take the exam early?" request. This has to be something of a record. Usually, these show up much later. At least on the plus side, it shows that at least one student has well developed time management and planning skills.

Early exam requests always present something of a quandary. As a general rule, our institution has some (for once) sensible guidelines which do not favor early exams. There can be exceptions though. If one or two students need an early exam, then one has two options. Option One involves giving these students the same exam as the rest of the class, but early. Option Two involves giving these students a different final exam. Neither option is ideal.

The downside with Option One is that it means that other students can discover what is going to be on the exam. No matter how much the students promise to keep things secret, this can produce negative effects. There are always leaks. If students have an idea of what will be covered, then they will not learn the parts of the material that will not be focused upon. This mitigates against them getting the 'big picture' view of the material.

Option Two also has several drawbacks. The most obvious one of these is all the extra work involved in writing a second exam. However, there are further problems that can arise with respect to standardizing scores. It is very difficult to tell whether one exam is harder than the other. If only a small group of students take one version, it is quite tricky to figure this out. As I am quite fussy about ensuring that final grades reflect a student's actual performance in the class, this situation totally messes up my system.

Given these problems, I am against early exams, as there is no good way to handle such a situation. It is for this reason that I am just hoping that no student comes up with a really compelling reason why they should be able to take their exams early this semester. My fingers are crossed.

The CP

New Orleans 'Recovery': Front Line News

2007-04-11T22:45:00.000-06:00

While sitting on the patio at my hotel this evening, I got chatting to a fellow who was also staying at the hotel. He was in from Baton Rouge, working with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). It turns out that he was in town on a mission.

Apparently, a big problem in the city these days is private landfills. It seems that some landowners have come up with a new way of making money. They let their land be used as landfills, even though they have no license to do so. Naturally, these less than entirely legal operations do not feel inclined to bother with tedious environmental regulations.

According to the fellow I chatted to, this is not a subtle business. The landowners have bulldozers to pile up and stack the waste. Using licensed landfills to dispose of materials is not a cheap business. As there are still many contractors in town, in addition to the traditional methods of saving money, like employing illegal aliens and then not paying them, these less than ethical types save money by using illegal landfills. Illegal landfills will give a discount price on dumping materials and will not ask too many questions about the waste they are accepting.

My informant told me that one of the big issues is asbestos. This stuff is nasty and dangerous. It is also quite common in older structures. Rather than going through all the trouble of doing things safely, for those who only have a commitment to the bottom line, just dumping this stuff in an illegal site is a 'cost effective' alternative. It seems that doing things properly and thereby protecting the population can be avoided by just using illegal sites.

With people like these contractors and these cowboy landfill operators 'assisting' with hurricane recovery, it almost makes the irresponsibility of FEMA, the Corps of Engineers and all the bent and incompetent political types seem minimal. The really sad part about all this is that these cowboy contractors and their illegal dump running friends are still probably the only people who are actually seeing any federal dollars. I thanked the man from DEQ. If it was not for the fact that these activities will make people sick, the situation would make me feel sick.

The CP

On The Road Again, Plus A Reply

2007-04-11T19:40:00.000-06:00

So, today is another road trip day. I wish that I had a more reliable vehicle though. Mine is in the shop again, so this road trip had to be done in a hire car. Although it is nice to get invitations, if this circumstance keeps happening, it will get expensive.

My hosts this time took me for supper at a place that advertised itself as being 'genuine' Mexican. Signs that claim this sort of thing I often take to be a big red flag (and not a good one). However, in this case, I was not disappointed. Although I am not an expert on Mexico, or Mexican cuisine, it seemed a reasonably good version of the kinds of meals I have had in Mexico, in out of the way places.

I am back in a hotel again, which I am not too happy about, but it is a necessary evil. At least this hotel seems a good deal better than the last one I was in. They also offer free Internet access, which makes me happy and enables me to write this.

While I was driving over here, I had a chance to reflect upon yesterdays blog events. Quite frankly, I was amazed by them. It seems when people's passions get fired up on a topic, they lose all sense of proportion, critical abilities and to some degree, the ability to read. This is a shame.

Before closing this sorry chapter, I do have one or two remarks for the amateur critical thinkers 'per' and 'Joe Bingham'. 'per' asked,

"[T]ell me, CP, what is the [L]atin name for the logical fallacy which involves using foul language, and calling people names?"

To this question, "Joe Bingham" (who has no real profile) replied,

"It's ad hominem. Thus his pseudonym.

Well Joe, you only get a C- in the class, I am afraid. There are two reasons for this. First, both you and 'per' missed a potential case of the fallacy of prejudicial language. That was not the greatest error though. These activities only count as fallacies is they are offered in the context of an argument. The passage of text you both refer to was, in fact, a description, not an argument! Thus, all this clever classification is somewhat moot.

You see, were you ever to take a logic class, rather than looking a few things up on the Internet, you would know that one of the first things covered is the difference between arguments and other uses of language. Matters which pertain to arguments, do not pertain to other linguistic activities. This oversight is especially unforgivable, as there was a link on the very page you were commenting on that explained all this (hint, take a look at the first paragraph here). However, as Joe then attempts to draw a conclusion (note the conclusion marker term 'thus'), it appears that s/he was arguing in an ad hominem manner to boot.

Well Joe, I hope that your frat boy buddies do not rib you too much about your being hoisted by your own petard. Please, all you anons and pseudo-anons, go back to your holes in the ground! While I thank you for providing me many nice examples of poor reasoning in my Critical Thinking classes, I would rather that you went elsewhere to thump your chests. To my normal readers, normal service will be resumed very soon. I'm sorry about all this.

The CP

University Sports Teams

2007-04-10T15:04:00.000-06:00

As regular readers will know, I am a big fan of The Tenured Radicals Blog. Today, she has a post about Don Imus's attack on the Rutgers women's basketball team. In the post, she also compares the Imus/Rutgers situation with the case of the Duke Lacrosse team. I recommend reading this post as it has some very sensible comments on both sexism and racism in the context of University sports. Unfortunately for the Radical, her mention of the Duke issue brought out a swarm of trolls. I hope that I do not get the same here.

However, what I would really like to know is why do Universities need sports teams? The standard answers to this kind of question usually involve vague references to things like recruiting students and prestige. I don't not find these claims too convincing.

Let me make it clear that I am not against sports on a university campus. Intramural sports, for example, are an excellent way for staff and students from different faculties and departments to get some exercise and get to know one another. As this promotes collegiality and good health, this is a good thing. What I have in mind though is things like football teams.

Universities are supposed to be places of education and research. How does a sports team promote these goals? Perhaps if a university has a 'sports studies' program, then having some teams may make some sense, but few institutions have such programs. In fact, student athletes can have a negative impact upon educational goals. Faculty are required to keep special track of their grades. If a star football player is in danger of failing a course, it is not uncommon for coaches to call the faculty members to plead their case. This is just 'grade grubbing' by proxy though.

I have tried many times to figure out the costs of university sports teams, but information is seldom available. It is the case though that coaches almost always earn a good deal more than the average faculty member. Are these sports teams self-supporting? My guess is that they are not, or at least seldom are. If this is correct, then it means that resources that could have been directed to academic goals are being spent elsewhere. Why?

If a university is concerned about recruiting, then they could use the money to offer better scholarships. If a university is concerned about 'prestige', then sports is an odd way to go about gaining this. It seems to me that hiring better faculty, who would publish more would be a better method of improving this.

There is one interesting and illustrative example of what can happen when a sports team is eliminated. On March 3, 1999, Carleton University, in Ottawa, Canada, elected to drop its University Football program. Apparently, the thinking was that this action would produce an outcry from the alumnae, who could then be persuaded to support the program. Unfortunately, there was no outcry!

So, I am now officially against university sports teams. They do not seem like a good way for an educational and research institutions to spend money. More importantly, such teams are also a potential source of scandals. A Google search for "college sports scandals" yields a vast array of reasons why university sports teams should be abolished.

The CP