Philosophy & Ethics

Digging Beneath the Surface of Grammar

Digging Beneath the Surface of Grammar How does language work? ...

Blog Post - Patrick Lockerby - May 26 2009 - 3:29pm

The Moving Finger Writes

The Moving Finger Writes I cannot agree that much of what is, these days, called poetry, is in fact poetry. I base that assessment on a simple rule: If it isn't memorable, it isn't poetry, q.e.d.  If I read something, and an hour later can remem ...

Blog Post - Patrick Lockerby - May 28 2009 - 12:11am

Falsified Research- A Meta Analysis Of Scientific Misconduct

How common is scientific misconduct?   It's a tough question to answer.   Scandals like Hwang Woo-Suk's faked stem-cell lines or Jon Sudbø's made-up cancer trials have demonstrated that fraudulent research is easy to publish, even in the mo ...

Article - News Staff - May 28 2009 - 11:20pm

Just Got Un-Christened

The catholic church has long lost its race against islamism for the religious institution with more adepts. And they ache for it: you can tell from their resentful remarks on the matter. Bishops and spokespersons of the Vatican have been recently reported ...

Blog Post - Tommaso Dorigo - May 31 2009 - 8:29am

Welfare Penalties And Race- Are Blacks Treated Unfairly?

African-Americans are significantly more likely to be sanctioned by the United States welfare system than Caucasians, according to research published in the June issue of the American Sociological Review, but is there bias?  Welfare sanctions in response t ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 1 2009 - 12:44pm

Random Noise #15: Noises In Noyes's Poetry.

Random Noise #15: Noises In Noyes's Poetry. What is a noise, that it annoys us so? Noise is, in a given situation,  any sound or sounds which one or more listeners consider to be any of: irrelevant, unwanted, intrusive, distracting, irrelevant or ann ...

Blog Post - Patrick Lockerby - Jun 3 2009 - 9:38am

Speak Out: Silence is the Enemy.

Speak Out: Silence is the Enemy. Injustice promotes unrest.  Unrest promotes war. War promotes injustice. It is not possible to have a productive and stable society in which there is widespread injustice. Injustice is not just unethical- it's irratio ...

Blog Post - Patrick Lockerby - Jun 9 2009 - 4:01am

Thinking Machines and The Semantic Quagmire

Thinking Machines and The Semantic Quagmire What Is The Semantic Quagmire? ...

Blog Post - Patrick Lockerby - Jun 5 2009 - 9:48pm

Strangeness And Ambiguity In Language

Strangeness And Ambiguity In Language My major linguistic interest lies in the problem of getting a computer to interact with us humans using language in exactly the way that we do.  It is just not acceptable to any rational human being that they should b ...

Blog Post - Patrick Lockerby - Jun 6 2009 - 6:15am

The Intelligence in the Chinese Room.

The Intelligence in the Chinese Room. In my  article Digging Beneath the Surface of Grammar, I wrote: ...

Blog Post - Patrick Lockerby - Jun 6 2009 - 5:00pm