Plato’s reading suggestions, episode 110

Here it is, our regular Friday diet of suggested readings for the weekend:

The philosophy of food.

Liberals need to take their fingers out of their ears.

The truth about cultural appropriation, and why it’s a bad idea for creativity and social progress.

Why physicists need philosophy. (Yeah, yeah, the other way around too!)

Research perversions are spreading, and you will not like the proposed solution. (Though I’m not so sure myself.)

Jacques Lacan was very high maintenance. Particularly about his silk underwear…

Do we “translate” science for the general public? I actually think that’s a misleading metaphor. But food for thought.

150 years of bullshit, P.T. Barnum to Donald Trump.

The science-based and ethical case for banning children from using smartphones.

Speaking of banning, the ethics of doing so to friends on Facebook.

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Please notice that the duration of the comments window is three days (including publication day), and that comments are moderated for relevance (to the post one is allegedly commenting on), redundancy (not good), and tone (constructive is what we aim for). This applies to both the suggested readings and the regular posts. Also, keep ‘em short, this is a comments section, not your own blog. Thanks!

129 thoughts on “Plato’s reading suggestions, episode 110”

  4. wtc48

    Alan, your post and several others suggest a migration pattern that I also alluded to: a diaspora of white southerners, generally to the north and west, in search of opportunities that were lacking in the post-Civil War south. In working with the US Census (one of my hobbies is genealogy) I have noticed this pattern, but only recently have come to believe it may have had political consequences, especially evident in the distrust of the Federal government that seems a traditional part of the far right point of view. I think it would repay the attention of sociologists and/or poly sci people, and the Census is especially useful as a primary source because of its availability online, and the fact that every census from 1880 to 1930 records the birthplace, not only of the individual and household members, but of their parents.

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  7. synred

    Robin:

    For a recession you borrow money and spend it. With interest rates low, if you spend wisely on things like education and in-fracture the government might turn a profit in the long run.

    Even if you bury the money in a coal mind and pay the miners to dig it up this works — but wise spending would be better.

    It’s like driving a car around a sharp mountain curve going too fast…hit the brakes and over you go .. hit the gas delicately and you can make it round [a].

    Obama could only get 800 billion out o congress. It was enough to prevent a full fledged depression, but was not big enough to produce a robust recover[a] — which Repub’s blamed on Obama even though slow recovery was their fault.

    The amount that was borrowed for stimulation is small compared to the amount that the Re-bub’s ‘Tax Reform’ will through away.

    I did this once on a fun road outside Livermore driving my father’s Renault dauphine. The rear wheels slide out when I was going around a hair pin curve with cliff. I floored it(this is delicate in a dauphine). That produced a centripal force pushing the car back into the curve. I regained control and survived to tell the tale.

    I was pretty proud of my ‘skill’, but later realized that if I had panicked and hit the brakes, I would have likely ended up over the cliff.

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  8. synred

    Joyeux Noel

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyeux_No%C3%ABl
    Joyeux Noël (‘Merry Christmas’) is a 2005 epic war drama film based on the Christmas truce of December 1914, depicted through the eyes of French, British, and German soldiers. It was written and directed by Christian Carion.[2] It was screened out of competition at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.[3]

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