So this claims.   I have no insight into whether he is exaggerating the importance of the recent decision, but its an interesting claim.   I, for one, would probably welcome the outcome–though the consquences of these things are hard to predict.

For those of you who don't follow these sorts of things, there was a major announcement today in Physics/Cosmology.   The "BICEP2" group claims to have found (signs of) gravitational waves in the cosmic background microwave radiation.   This could give us a window into what happened in the very ealiest moments after the big…

While Neil deGrasse Tyson tries (probably in vain) to renew the nation's interest in space exploration, all the recent action in space seems to involve commercial ventures.    Is it time then, to start thinking about private property rights in space?  Interesting discussion of it here .      

Henceforth, we will have a new commeting policy here at New APPS.  The default setting for the blog will now be that comments will have to be approved by the author of the blog post before they appear on the blog.  In other words, the author of each individual post will be responsible for pre-moderating…

In comments here at Schliesser's blog. Follow up comments should be directed there.

NBC Chicago article here: Northwestern University professor Peter Ludlow, the target of a sexual harassment complaint by a female student, filed a response to that woman’s lawsuit in Cook County Court on Friday, denying her allegations and stating that she was the real aggressor.  Daily Northwestern article here: Philosophy Prof. Peter Ludlow responded Friday to a…

With all the stories in the news lately about bitcoins, and with our recent discussions of the role of central banks in creating money, I thought I would post two recent articles/blog posts that I think provide a good analysis of the present situation as well as some good proposals for what the future of…

We've had lots of discussions on this blog about how the climate for women in Philosophy compares to other disciplines.   Here is, if not some data, at least some anecdote. What do readers think?  Does this provide a foothold for pursuing that discussion?  If so, what can we (provisionally) conclude?

West Virginia Snowpack in the Sierras Lake Michigan 

We have all read various things about various agents tracking us via our phones and our phone use.  But none of them has struck me in such a visceral way as this. The Ukranian Government sent a text message to thousands of protestors that said: “Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass…