* The Women in Philosophy Task Force "is an umbrella group that works to coordinate initiatives and intensify efforts to advance women in philosophy". (ht)
* Alexander Pruss on the Grim Reaper Paradox and the Kalam argument
* D. G. Myers has a post up on the topic of influence, following on a discussion of what it means for something (like a novel) to be overrated. There are some things I agree with and disagree with, I think, and you can expect a post at some point; but I will have to think through some things more carefully first.
* The SEP has a new article on xuanxue.
* George Washington Carver's pamphlet, How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption. The same website also gives his pamphlets on sweet potatoes and tomatoes. Carver, I think, is often misunderstood; he was one of the great science popularizers of the twentieth century. He did relatively minor scientific work, had far fewer discoveries than are usually attributed to him, and most of those were mere curiosities rather than revolutionary. He was a competent researcher, in that he got results, but he was also an unorthodox one, perhaps due to his lifelong aversion to administrative tasks: he refused to write down his procedures and he kept no lab records. But he was truly extraordinary at interesting people in the science of simple things, so much so that in the six decades since his death his legend has never stopped growing.
* Some notable YouTube finds:
Johanna Kurkela, Nothing Else Matters
The Quire of Cheahs, Spem in Alium. The wonders of technology: Spem in Alium is a forty-part polyphonic piece by Thomas Tallis. Once this would have required a choir of forty people, each taking a part. This was done by one person and recording technology. The nearly ten minute piece required 36 hours to make. (ht)
Idumea (an excellent version, a bit quieter and less anguished than most good versions, in which, through the wonders of technology again, seven of a person sing the Sacred Harp classic together)
* Nathan Smith, Why Socialism Does Not Work but Monasticism Does (Word). We tend not to see monasteries this way, but they have good claim to be the most efficient and stable wealth-generating institution prior to the rise of the modern corporation -- and even there, while they are less efficient than modern corporations, under the right conditions they can be massively more stable. This wealth-generating feature of monasteries is found in Buddhism as well as Christianity; and the ease with which Buddhism and Christianity allow for monastic lifestyles has been one of the historical causes for a number of the massive expansions each has undergone. Monasteries also have the important feature that they are not merely wealth-generating institutions but also study-based institutions; in addition to building a stable economic framework, they create an infrastructure for interaction among intellectuals. They are very efficient at this, too; it took the invention of the university to find anything that could surpass them at it.
* Daniel Nolan, Why Historians (and Everyone Else) Should Care about Counterfactuals (PDF)
* Sherry's Hundred Hymns List continues:
#21 Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee
#20 There is a Fountain
#19 Crown Him with Many Crowns
#18 That Old Rugged Cross
#17 In Christ Alone
#16 O Sacred Head Now Wounded
#15 Christ the Lord is Risen Today
#14 Before the Throne of God Above
#13 O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus
#19 was third on my ten hymns list, and so far is the fourth (if I count correctly) to be listed in the Hundred Hymns.
