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"So, what's the relationship between material evidence and imagination in producing these illustrations? Why have our visual renderings of dinosaurs changed so much over time? I think the answer is neither just cultural -- artists are simply making it up as they go along -- nor is it just empirical -- artists are simply following the available evidence. Rather, the two interact with one another in a very deep way."
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In the comments section of the previous post, Hank, ST(res)S-ed out, and I have been arguing about Ian Hacking's ideas about "dynamic nominalism" -- the extent to which our interpretation of the world changes its material constitution. I don't want to suggest that dinosaurs are historically constituted in precisely the same way that Hacking thinks people are -- that is, I don't think that what we think about dinosaurs actually changes the material fossils buried underground -- but I do think that *something* comparable to Hacking's dynamic nominalism is going on here.
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If you read the Nature article carefully, and especially if you examine the Y. huali fossil (pictured above) closely, you'll see that it's not at all obvious, at least not at first glance, that this creature had feathers. So I could easily imagine someone preparing this specimen, trying to free the bones from the rock matrix, inadvertently destroying the fossilized traces of feathers. Perhaps the only reason Y. huali was recognized to have had feathers is because by now paleontologists are actively on the lookout for them. If that's right, then what's in your mind when you prepare a fossil for study and display may well have a significant impact on the material constitution of dinosaur bones.
The word "weird" has a literary lineage, from the classic, often pulpy weird tales to contemporary permutations such as the "New Weird," but for me, weird fiction is any writing that breaks the hold of realism and doubly-immerses me in its web of signification. Everyone immerses themselves once into a fiction, by accepting the words and letting their belief in the meanings of the symbols enter into their consciousness. Reading is an act both of imagination and cogitation, of making sense and creating worlds. But weird fiction pulls you into a second, deeper pool, where your beliefs are challenged, ridiculed, overthrown, or insulted.
"Justice Scalia may believe we have a dead Constitution, the legal equivalent of a fly in amber. This was not how most Americans in the Founding era would have viewed the matter. Originalists, both old and new, argue that the theory of the living constitution lacks the legitimacy of their own theory. In fact, the historical pedigree of the theory of the living constitution is it least as good as traditional originalism, and far better than that of new originalism. The fact that Americans are deeply divided today over the relative merits of originalism and the rival theory of the living constitution ought to come as no surprise—Americans were divided over the very same issue when the Constitution was first proposed more than two hundred years ago."
"This is what Haiti is both victim and symbol of—this new, rapacious stage of capitalism. A cannibal stage where, in order to power the explosion of the super-rich and the ultra-rich, middle classes are being forced to fail, working classes are being re-proletarianized, and the poorest are being pushed beyond the grim limits of subsistence, into a kind of sepulchral half-life, perfect targets for any “natural disaster” that just happens to wander by. It is, I suspect, not simply an accident of history that the island that gave us the plantation big bang that put our world on the road to this moment in the capitalist project would also be the first to warn us of this zombie stage of capitalism, where entire nations are being rendered through economic alchemy into not-quite alive. In the old days, a zombie was a figure whose life and work had been captured by magical means. Old zombies were expected to work around the clock with no relief. The new zombie cannot expect work of any kind—the new zombie just waits around to die. "
""Hello World" is one of the first programs that computer scientists write in a programming language. The program, usually only a few lines of code, causes the computer to output a greeting, as if it were speaking."
"The extended answer is that a feature of New Age science and other modern religious appropriations of science is a particular use of science history. A use which, furthermore, which could make a distinction between emic and etic historiographies of science relevant. Just as new religions frequently invent traditions, place themselves within a historical narrative which infuses an additional dimension of meaning to their practice, “scientistic” religious perspectives would use the history of science to legitimize their position."
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In the 1920s and 1930s, a number of (relatively) young, brilliant and ambitious physicists were taking up the exciting lines of research suggested by Max Planck, Albert Einstein and others, bringing it into new and uncharted territories. New conceptual tools were invented to deal with the emerging micro-physics: matrix mechanics, wave-particle duality, complementarity, the uncertainty principle, etc.
It’s been pointed out that in writing about these developments, scientists were more than willing to emphasise the novelty and break with the past, even to the extent of extrapolating too much. This was part of the (still slightly controversial) thesis of Paul Forman, who argued that people like Heisenberg, Bohr, Pauli and others tended were too enthusiastic in ascribing various worldview implications to their discoveries and theories
"The main objective of the paper is to propose a frequentist interpretation of probability in the context of model-based induction, anchored on the Strong Law of Large Numbers (SLLN) and justifiable on empirical grounds."
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Sweaty, rumpled earnestness, in the authors' minds, seems to be able to magically transform even this into a gripping, unforgettable sermon. What's that bit of nonsense about "no mention of an arrow"? And how on earth do you get from "a conqueror bent on conquest" to a mere diplomat? And doesn't Bruce notice that he has the crown before he rides out? And ...
None of that matters -- just look at how sincere and passionate Bruce is. See that exclamation point after the word "important"? That means it's important! Bruce is saying important(!) things and he's saying them passionately and sincerely.
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Clear as mud, that, but that's Daniel for you.
The first six chapters of Daniel are fairly straightforward stories of Israel in exile. The final six chapters are a hallucinogenic stew of visions, numerology and wrath. That description of the second half of Daniel might also work as a description of much of Revelation, so it's not altogether unreasonable for Bruce to decide that there's some connection between the two apocalyptic nightmares, but why here? Why jump to this passage in Daniel from that passage in Revelation? What's the justification or logic or excuse?
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The thoroughly modern installation is based on a 16th-century painting. Wedding at Cana, Paolo Veronese's huge painting, was made specifically for San Giorgio's convent in 1562, but was looted by Napoleon's army in 1797. Although the original painting is now in the Louvre, the Giorgio Cini Foundation commissioned an exact copy for its original home. It is not merely an imitation, but a clone realised with very advanced techniques developed by the Factum Arte workshop.
in list: Modern Art
He discussed four different applications, which are typically interpreted in different ways: physically-determined probability (e.g., statistical mechanics or quantum mechanics); frequentist probability (i.e., more data driven); subjective probability (in
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