the shipwright returns.

Moving

2007-04-25T20:31:00.000Z

I'll be moving to Wordpress, later than all the cool kids. The new address is mithlond.wordpress.com; see you there!

RIP Alan Ball

2007-04-25T12:35:00.000Z

From Brian Glanville's obit in the Guardian:...It was now that Ball came truly into his own, with his constant runs down the right. Within 90 seconds, he had left Schnellinger behind, ending with a shot which Tilkowski turned over the bar. On 100 minutes, Nobby Stiles sent him a searching pass. Ball would later say that he had "already died twice" and that he told himself, "Oh, no, I can't get

Cuss in Kinyarwanda

2007-04-13T04:28:00.000Z

Profanity in 180 languages. Dazzling stuff. (Not Safe For Work - this happened after I first came across the link, by the way)

Christos Anesti

2007-04-10T18:54:00.000Z

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.(John 11:25-26. KJV)

Embarrassingly, I had never heard his name before

2007-04-07T03:55:00.000Z

While my government was devoting its energies to figuring out how to describe what was happening in Rwanda without using the word "genocide", Mbaye Diagne just saw what had to be done and did it, at the cost of his own life.(Via Hilzoy, who continues to be mandatory reading.)

I regret to announce the death of Hiphop

2007-03-29T20:39:00.000Z

Chrysostom on Wine

2007-03-14T17:20:00.000Z

St. John Chrysostom had very definite views on wine:Paul is not ashamed, and does not blush, after the many and great signs which he had displayed even by a simple word; yet, in writing to Timothy, to bid him take refuge in the healing virtue of wine drinking. Not that to drink wine is shameful. God forbid! For such precepts belong to heretics;...I desire to ask one favor of you all, in return

Yotube just keeps on giving...(Your mother smelled of elderberries edition)

2007-03-12T16:14:00.000Z

a good man is hard to find

2007-03-12T14:51:00.000Z

Calestous Juma profile. Juma often gets asked when he will return to Africa. It's a barbed question, coming from a continent bedevilled by brain drain. But he views it differently. Nobody accused him of leaving Africa when he was at the UN, but it was then he felt he'd left Africa behind. "That was when I was disengaged." In his current position, he feels engaged once more. He goes back to Kenya

exoticising, informative, moving, all at once.

2007-03-09T14:50:00.000Z

Rendille single motherhood; a photo essay.

RIP Chris Lightfoot

2007-03-05T19:31:00.000Z

Chris Lightfoot, of ex-parrot, is dead. Truly sad news. More here, here, and here. (via VirtualStoa and Crooked Timber)

Philosophical Logic versus Philosophy of Logic

2007-02-28T14:20:00.000Z

JC Beall has a go at making the distinction here.

Concepts in Science explained (A Series)

2007-02-25T22:42:00.000Z

Awesome piece of work by various ScienceBloggers. John Wilkins hosts. Apparently, it'll be updated regularly. You might like to begin at Theory.

Wonderwoman II

2007-02-15T00:58:00.000Z

Wangari Maathai was recently interviewed on Start the Week. She's got a new autobiography out. It looks promising.

Wonderwoman

2007-02-15T00:52:00.000Z

Lene Hau stops light: Lene Hau has already shaken scientists' beliefs about the nature of things. Albert Einstein and just about every other physicist insisted that light travels 186,000 miles a second in free space, and that it can't be speeded-up or slowed down. But in 1998, Hau, for the first time in history, slowed light to 38 miles an hour, about the speed of rush-hour traffic.Two years

Top Gear In America

2007-02-12T18:37:00.000Z

(Via Metafilter)

The Hallelujah Chicken Run Band (Reloaded)

2007-02-08T19:27:00.000Z

Back in the day, when things were just as bad as they are now in Zimbabwe, The Hallelujah Chicken Run Band (led by Thomas Mapfumo) put out a dazzling series of songs; songs that both changed the face of popular music in Zim, and gained fame outside Zim. Matt Yanchyshyn, of benn loxo du taccu, has a song (time limited mp3) off the 2006 reissue. Head over there and listen to aural proof of

Meng Ziwen

2007-02-08T19:22:00.000Z

From his obituary in the Times:The death of Meng Ziwen, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Nanning, deprives China of its oldest prelate and a man whose long life encapsulated the challenges — and personal costs — of practising the faith in a country where the Communist Government still sets limits to religious conduct, despite China’s much-vaunted economic reforms. Requiescat in pace.

Awesome

2007-02-08T18:49:00.000Z

Kenya v ScotlandPlayed at Gymkhana Club Ground, Nairobi, on 7 February 2007 (50-over match)Result Kenya won by 8 wickets (with 73 balls remaining) More here, and here.

An unusual refutation of Skepticism

2007-02-06T20:18:00.000Z

SEARLE: Right...If you go back to the 17th century, and Descartes, skepticism -- the question of how it is possible to have knowledge -- was a live issue for philosophy. That put epistemology -- the theory of knowledge -- at the heart of philosophy. How can we know? Shouldn't we seek a foundation for knowledge that overcomes skeptical doubts about it? As recently as a hundred years ago, the

The World is Closer than You Think

2007-02-02T19:43:00.000Z

Bruce Osborn has, over the years, taken an amazing series of photos of Japanese parents and their children. More here, and here.

Ethics via the the Biology of Consciousness? (or réchauffé Hume ?)

2007-01-27T15:25:00.000Z

MY OWN VIEW IS THAT THIS IS backward: the biology of consciousness offers a sounder basis for morality than the unprovable dogma of an immortal soul. It's not just that an understanding of the physiology of consciousness will reduce human suffering through new treatments for pain and depression. That understanding can also force us to recognize the interests of other beings--the core of

(from the Holy Grail) Help, I'm being Repressed!

2007-01-22T20:58:00.000Z

Excluding Exclusion

2007-01-22T16:22:00.000Z

Deogol argued that the antipathy against exclusiveness (see here, here and elsewhere for material) was misguided and destructive. The argument is unsound, or so I've argued in comments.

World Social Forum comes to Kenya.

2007-01-20T13:24:00.000Z

Nairobi hosts the WSF this year. From the blurb:WSF Nairobi 2007 will be an opportunity to showcase Africa and her social movements; Africa and her unbroken history of struggle against foreign domination, colonialism and neo-colonialism; Africa and her rich heritage of natural wealth, cultural, linguistic and ethnic diversity; Africa and her reputation for embracing communities from around the

Atlas of World Religions

2007-01-19T12:09:00.000Z

At Der Spiegel, via (politicaltheory.info)

Martin Amis is a pompous t**t

2007-01-18T14:07:00.000Z

From today's Independent profile:Have you made up with your old friend Christopher Hitchens after your spat over Stalin? MARLIJN EVANS, LondonWe never needed to make up. We had an adult exchange of views, mostly in print, and that was that (or, more exactly, that goes on being that). My friendship with the Hitch has always been perfectly cloudless. It is a love whose month is ever May.

The Union

2007-01-17T16:49:00.000Z

This is the 300th anniversary of one of the most successful, if tumultuous marriages in all of history. Long may the Union continue, since nationalism just is tribal nationalism, and tribal nationalism is a bad thing.

Save Shilpa !!

2007-01-16T20:20:00.000Z

Petiton here. Do your duty!

One man he resist

2007-01-16T15:21:00.000Z

Plantinga Contra Dawkins

2007-01-15T13:22:00.000Z

This* appears to be Alvin Plantinga's response to Dawkins' The God Delusion. I say appears because it's not obvious why the review has been issued on a Norwegian website. However, it's written in the forthright style familiar to fans and (non-fans) of Plantinga's earlier work, and it employs the anti-naturalist argument Plantinga has expounded in many places. (e.g. here) So caveat lector and

A singularly powerful argument for atheism

2007-01-13T15:34:00.000Z

Somebody wondered whether Barack Obama was the anti-Christ. The consequences must be read to be believed. (via Jackmormon)

ANC Anniversary

2007-01-13T10:54:00.000Z

January 8th was the 95th anniversary of the founding of the ANC. There's no finer time to remember Oliver Tambo, very much the forgotten man of the Struggle, who died only a year before the full democratization of South Africa.Also, here's a BBC piece on the occasion.

Happy New Year

2007-01-13T10:38:00.000Z

Best wishes for 2007, everyone.GWOT has come to East Africa, as everyone now knows. It was probably inevitable, and may even turn out well. (Though not if the Americans keep missing targets and blowing up what look remarkably like civilians). What is annoying is the recent closure of the Kenya/Somalia border. As far as I can tell, this means Somalis fleeing the fighting are buggered. Since it's

General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte

2006-12-11T13:59:00.000Z

Jara sang, his song a weapon, in the hands of love,You know his blood still cries from the ground-U2, One Tree Hill.

Postcards from the Occupation II

2006-11-22T21:29:00.000Z

Please pray for the parties involved in this war.

The Logician's Liberation League Manifesto

2006-11-13T07:53:00.000Z

Logicians Liberation League Manifestowhereas logic is the essence of philosophy,and logic is the organon of philosophy,and logic is the form of philosophy andWHEREAScoaches, assistant coaches, managers, trainers and fansof the IU philosophy team havemade frequent and insinuating remarks about the number oflogicians recruited for this year's philosophy team,have discouraged the recruitment of

Blessed John Duns Scotus

2006-11-08T19:16:00.000Z

As Gerard Manley Hopkins said of him:Of realty the rarest-veined unraveller; a not Rivalled insight, be rival Italy or Greece; Who fired France for Mary without spot.Also, the only truly great medieval philosopher/theologian who wasn't Italian!

Our Lord and Master speaks

2006-11-02T19:28:00.000Z

There's full video of Saul Kripke's recent talk, (and some video of post-talk comments and questions) on the first person here.True believers in the causal theory of reference, unite! You have nothing to lose but your senses...

Aristotle as he was

2006-10-26T17:29:00.000Z

A bust of Aristotle found beneath the Acropolis in Athens is the first to show the Greek philosopher with a hooked nose. Archaeologists said that the 46cm (18in) marble bust, which dates from the 1st century AD, about 400 years after Aristotle lived, was “the best-preserved likeness ever found”. Alkestis Horemi, who supervises digs at the Acropolis, said: “This is the only bust portraying the

Exceptionally good news

2006-10-10T15:33:00.000Z

The National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) will henceforth pay the full cost of members’ inpatient bills. And this comes at no extra cost to contributors of the medical insurance scheme. The programme will be implemented in some 380 accredited hospitals, it has been announced. Further, the fund announced it would also offer comprehensive cover for expectant mothers who deliver by caesarean

Pigs glide lazily across the sky...

2006-10-09T14:57:00.000Z

In a statement issued after the meeting, Rev Paisley said his party had had a very good and useful exchange of views with the Northern Ireland Catholic Council for Social Affairs delegation across a range of issues. More here.

LRB symposium on the Mearsheimer/Walt paper, and other things

2006-10-06T00:13:00.000Z

Lots of clever people sit down and chat about something important. Here.Averroës was the subject of this week's In our Time. Good stuff; listening to Kenny is a bonus. (via Philobiblion)

Confucius he say, 'Name go in book'.

2006-09-28T00:33:00.000Z

the Monty Python Philosophy Foootball Sketch, via cosmic variance.

Nonsubstantial weirdness

2006-09-25T18:14:00.000Z

Creationists protest the hominid display at the National Museum of Kenya. (via the Sanity Inspector)The Great Stemwedel Nerd-Off.

B16's noble Humility

2006-09-20T17:45:00.000Z

B16 is apparently wrong about the age of the Surah in question, the Western philosophical tradition is not short of proponents of absolute omnipotence (Descartes,) or deniers of various foundational bits of Aristotelian logic (such as Aristotle himself), and sometimes both together (d’Autrecourt),But:1. The Palaiologos passage has clearly been taken out of context; B16 did say that Manuel was

Darfur

2006-09-16T20:36:00.000Z

Science has an authoritative estimate of deaths in Darfur. It's between 170 and 250, 000. (via the BBC)Tomorrow, September 17th, is the international day for darfur. Please consider getting involved; you might want to read up on things here, here, and here. Check out Daniel Davies' slightly contrarian take on things here and here. And these two articles by Alex de Waal are lucid and informative,

Reason # 310976887 to not buy the Times, ever (or: Property rights, but only for whites)

2006-09-12T09:54:00.000Z

William Rees-Mogg examined South Africa’s land issue in yesterday’s Times. The column was poor stuff. Rees-Mogg failed to distinguish the restitution and redistribution programmes. The restitution programme is intended to return land to those who can prove it was taken from them or their relatives following the 1913 Land Act. The redistribution programme is intended to widen land ownership.

Hits, not Homework.

2006-09-06T17:35:00.000Z

Jonathan Rée's new blog is here. (BBC)Jason Stanley has a nice report on Kenya in the news here. (Leiter)Obama in Kenya, here and here (Youtube). A university degree is still a good investment after all. (Guardian Education)Scary stuff; China is supplying surveillance technology to Zimbabwe. (BBC)Martin Amis turns into his Dad. (Observer)More Brits take out Irish citizenship. (Guardian)Koigi wa

Ramin Jahanbegloo II

2006-08-31T21:47:00.000Z

Ramin Jahanbegloo is out of jail, thank God. (Al Jazeera, NYT, Google)Apparently he was released yesterday on bail, and the Iranian authorities refuse to confirm that he won't be re-arrested. Canadian diplomats, and Michael Ignatieff, seem to have done their bit.

Omniscience and self-knowledge

2006-08-26T14:05:00.000Z

Reposted from comments here.a. Bits of knowledge are differentiated at the level of sense (or description if you like), while objects of knowledge are differentiated at the level of reference. There's a nice bit in Aquinas (at least, I think its Aquinas) where he points out that knowledge of the road from Thebes to Athens is different from knowledge of the road from Athens to Thebes, even though

How not to give in to despair.

2006-08-17T19:59:00.000Z

Jonathan Edelstein:The next task in the Middle East is to rebuild what has been destroyed and to headl what can't be rebuilt: to restore the houses and the roads, to comfort and provide for the bereaved families. Rebuilding northern Israel is an urgent priority, reconstructing southern Lebanon much more so. Lebanon sustained more damage than Israel - environmental as well as structural - and it

Notes from all over

2006-08-16T16:47:00.000Z

Diane Stinton, who teaches at Daystar, has a new book out on African christologies; here's a review. (via Commonweal)Billmon coins a word, punditburo, that needed coining.The BBC has a dedicated Pronunciation Research Unit; three full-time pronunciation linguists (orthoeptists, they're called) who maintain and update a 200,000-entry database of pronunciations. More here, greatest hits here. (via

We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again...

2006-08-15T14:24:00.000Z

Indian independence day today; Wikipedia has a decent article* on the Indian independence movement.*for all I know.

not quite sackcloth and ashes, but good enough.

2006-08-15T01:00:00.000Z

every whole is smaller than its parts

2006-08-04T17:30:00.000Z

Either there's an infinite hierarchy of composition for concrete objects, or there isn't. If there are basic parts of concrete objects, themselves without parts, then the basic parts have real magnitude, for if they didn’t, then neither would composite concrete objects. Now, suppose A is a composite concrete object. A has at least three parts: its proper parts and at least one improper part (A

Lebanese Christians

2006-08-02T03:32:00.000Z

Here's a Lebanese-American Christian blog; the writer has family in both places. (via politicaltheory, and this interesting article).

Reason # 310976886 to not buy the Times, ever.

2006-08-02T02:24:00.000Z

This wonderful editorial.

A bench of bishops, and another.

2006-07-28T15:21:00.000Z

From the USCCB statement:...Israel has a right to defend itself, but we cannot support its sweeping counterattacks on civilian areas, civilian infrastructure, blockades and other acts of war in Gaza and Lebanon. Punishment of an entire population for the indefensible acts of extreme armed factions is wrong and causes unjustified harm to noncombatants. Such actions are also counterproductive

Routley's defense of Cannibalism

2006-07-25T01:35:00.000Z

Never let it be said that philosophers are silent on the burning questions of the age. Here, Richard Routley (of nonexistent objects fame) defends cannibalism: The claim staked is accordingly this: where the human eaten is dead, and certain other conditions are satisfied, cannibalism is admissible. The other conditions may comprise such things as the following: that the whole thing is done

The Iceman Goeth

2006-07-22T15:25:00.000Z

In the early 90's, in my part of the world, they used to show Italian football on the telly. A feast for the imagination (of this little boy anyway). I remember seeing Bergkamp play for Inter, and even then knowing that he was enduring a crap time, and deserving of the respect and sympathy due to the master craftsman forced to work in inferior material. So what was he thinking moving to Arsenal?

Ramin Jahanbegloo

2006-07-20T18:45:00.000Z

Ramin Jahanbegloo, an Iranian-Canadian philosopher, (articles, cv, interview) has been held in solitary confinement in Iran since April 27th 2006. He hasn't been publicly charged. Many well-known scholars have signed an open letter to the President of Iran calling for his release:"Significantly, as director of the Cultural Research Bureau in Tehran, he has conveyed to myriad readers, students and

On Zidane

2006-07-10T16:24:00.000Z

Head-butting Materazzi was a bad idea. But until we know, or have better evidence of, what was said, to judge it 'unpardonable' is simply premature. (Especially since Materazzi has previous.*)As for Zizou's career, apotheosis came in 1998. Indeed, when all's said and done, he twice led goodish teams to World Cup finals, and managed to win one of them almost single-handedly. He's scored as many

New, African bible commentary launched. And other randoms

2006-07-07T21:51:00.000Z

New, African bible commentary launched. Rafael Nunez's surprising paper on Aymara models of times is here. But isn't this similar to Gikuyu?Cornel West, here: you've got a brotha of infinite value calling himself '50 Cent...'

Khadambi Asalache passes

2006-06-25T14:49:00.000Z

Khadambi Asalache (February 28, 1935 - May 26, 2006) Poet (Sunset in Naivasha: 1973), novelist (The Calabash of Life: 1967), philosopher (MPhil. Philosophy of Mathematics: Birkbeck in the 70's), artist, Mangu OB, civil servant, and Kenyan-in-exile.Obit: Times.

Alaa is freed.

2006-06-22T23:57:00.000Z

Alaa, whose jailing I blogged is now out. More from Al-Jazeera and the Belfast Telegraph.

GK Economic Survey 2006

2006-05-25T23:48:00.000Z

The 2006 Economic Survey is now out. Uncharacteristically, it has lots of good news. Kenya is officially in boom. I pun, as does the Nation...Highlights:The economy grew 5.8 percent last year, the best annual rate since 1995-6.458,900 jobs created. (this, if true, is the best number for years, maybe ever.)Total public debt down by ~KSh1 billion, from KSh697.8 billion to KSh687.9

A reductio of NFP?

2006-05-25T22:30:00.000Z

Luc Bovens has a new paper in the Journal of Medical Ethics*, wherein he claims that the rhythm method causes lots of embryo deaths. Enough of them to make it as bad as prohibited forms of birth control. Here, but the link is probably not permanent. (via Unfogged, Hit and Run)___________________*J Med Ethics 2006; 32: 355-6

A little-known rule of Indie success...

2006-05-23T21:38:00.000Z

...cover Love Will Tear Us Apart. This guy has 25 covers, from U2 to the Frames. (via muthecow at Metafilter)Also, check out Mattgy's Ben Loxo du Taccu. He podcasts carefully chosen African mp3s; he recently had one of Samba Mapangala's finest. Definitely worth your time.

One of the good guys.

2006-05-20T16:59:00.000Z

It's JS Mill's birthday today. Randoms:1. Mill, it's often forgotten, was of Scottish descent. Probably all the really great British philosophers except Russell have been Scottish.2. "The Conservatives, as being by the law of their existence the stupidestparty..."[1] = the shortest refutation of conservatism I know of.3. Mill was the subject of this week's In Our Time.4. Roger Scruton does the

A defence of internalism

2006-05-11T22:49:00.000Z

Timothy Williamson[1] argues[2] (against internalism) that:‘the search for a purely operational standard of evidence is …vain. It can be argued on quite general grounds that no standard of evidence is such that we are always in a position to know what our evidence is (Williamson 2000, 93-113; 147-83).’One

Blogging for Alaa

2006-05-11T17:19:00.000Z

Egypt is a wonderful place. Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt is probably Africa's hottest holiday destination. There's trouble in paradise Egypt though. The government of Egypt has detained Alaa Abd-El-Fataa. He's now blogging from his cell in Egypt. Bloggers need to stick together, so a googlebomb to make Alaa the top result in Google for 'Egypt' is cooking, even as we speak about Egypt. Spread the '

Kenya's first test-tube babies

2006-05-09T00:22:00.000Z

Nation story. (subscription only)UPDATE: The photo is Arthur Okwemba's and appears on the Nation website.

An Odd Implication

2006-05-07T16:38:00.000Z

Consider the Tory election poster of 1987 with the legend: Labour say he's Black, we say he's British. The second clause is supposed to contrast the first. More precisely, the sentence implies that the property P2 attributed by the second clause excludes the property P1 attributed by the first clause, at least for the subject of the sentence, at the time of utterance. The sense of exclude I

A bad argument for (hereditary) Monarchy II

2006-04-26T01:14:00.000Z

Here's Deogol's reply to my post. This is a response to his reply - you might want to read that first.It's unlikely that the (alcoholic, teetotaller, alcohol) relation and the (desirer of power, indifferentist to power, power) relation are identical, for the teetotaller is averse to alcohol where we want someone who is indifferent to power. Besides, the object of the alcoholic’s desire is not

A bad argument for (hereditary) Monarchy

2006-04-24T23:48:00.000Z

Deogolwulf’s train of thought is this: Typically, in a (hereditary) monarchy, the person who gains power didn't seek that power. In a non-monarchical republic or democracy, the ruler is usually someone who did. So, the hereditary monarchical method is likelier to produce a good ruler than the non-hereditary monarchical. What is common to those who seek power is a desire for power, whether as a

Gukira: Hetero-Affirmative?

2006-04-24T17:58:00.000Z

Gukira: Hetero-Affirmative?

links, lovely random links...

2006-04-23T17:40:00.000Z

Google Video documentary on the French Foreign Legion (via metafilter) . Very good, though Thomas Kadish is the very model of military stupidity (check out his comments on the Legion's actions in Algeria).Keguro on hetero-normativity.Jason Stanley in defence of Baroque Specialisation.Tom Morello's related to Kenyatta. His dad was Ng'ethe Njoroge, Kenya's High Commissioner to the UK in the 60's

God, Gays, Africans & Anglicans

2006-04-20T10:11:00.000Z

The center of gravity of the faith is now squarely in the Global South. If the new Christendom had a world capital based on the location of its believers, it would be somewhere south of the Sahara.An examination of some of the early consequences of that fact for the Anglicans. (via Commonweal)

The beautyful ones are already born

2006-04-18T00:24:00.000Z

In his April 8 column in the Nation, Peter Mwaura forcefully put the case for the inferiority of Sheng. He claimed that it was linguistic garbage: that it lacked a stable syntax, form or grammar. That claim is just false.Suppose a language's syntax is the set of rules for distinguishing the class of things that are expressions of that language, and a language's semantics is the set of rules for

Hiatus

2006-03-20T19:22:00.000Z

I'm going to have to give up blogging for the moment. Too much work, too little time. I'll see you all, all five of you, in a month's time. ps. A peaceful Lent and a happy Easter to those who go in for that kind of thing.

Some Criteria for philosophical views

2006-03-15T17:34:00.000Z

This is version 2.0 of a list of sufficient conditions for applying the label bad-ass to a philosophical thesis, which endeavour was inspired by this wonderful person (Please visit for the canonical statement of these matters).Naturally, any single view ought to accumulate as many of them as possible.1 - denying commonsense beliefs, extra points for skepticism about other people/other minds/

UN Women's Day

2006-03-15T12:59:00.000Z

Women's Day was like a week ago. I had intended to honour two or three Kenyan women, but didn't get round to it. I'm going to now.First, Wangari Maathai. She's fought a 30-year battle against environmental degradation in Kenya, during which she's had to overcome truly frightening obstacles, not least among them the violent thuggery of Moi's clowns. Dr. Maathai's struggle was rewarded with the

Commentisfree is unloosed!

2006-03-14T14:24:00.000Z

The new Guardian megablog is up. Looks good, although there's a slightly downmarket-Huffington-Post feel to it. Yalla.

how could possible possibly be ambiguous?

2006-03-11T12:00:00.000Z

reposted from coments here.The Baudrillard passage at the centre of the rumpus:"Before the event it is too early for the possible. After the event it is too late for the possible. It is too late also for representation, and nothing will really be able to account for it. September 11th, for example, is there first—only then do its possibility and its causes catch up with it, through all the

Nobody deserves to have their duly elected govenment let this happen to them.

2006-03-07T21:31:00.000Z

May they eat the bread of sorrow.

le maire du niafunké est mort

2006-03-07T21:14:00.000Z

Ali Farka Toure, a pioneer in bringing African music to global attention, is dead. Via the BBC, obit.UPDATE: Guardian obit.UPDATE II: Timesonline obit.

Unexpected support for descriptivist theories of naming

2006-03-03T14:29:00.000Z

Support freedom of the press in Kenya.

2006-03-03T00:18:00.000Z

Dear President Kibaki: On March 2, 2006 government forces raided the headquarters and printing plant of the Standard Group. In addition to destroying equipment and newspapers, they shut down the KTN news station. This latest attack follows the jailing of three journalists from Standard Newspaper, attacks on Citizen Weekly, and ongoing harassment of journalists by government-sponsored forces. I

Woe to the downpressor II

2006-03-02T13:15:00.000Z

IN A defiant courtroom confession Saddam Hussein admitted yesterday ordering the trial of 148 Shias who were subsequently executed but insisted that he was acting within the law. Addressing the evidence against him for the first time, the former dictator said the Shias from the village of Dujail were suspects in an assassination attempt against him in July 1982. “Where is the crime? Where is the

OUP has a blog

2006-03-02T12:14:00.000Z

You need to visit the new OUP (USA) blog.

Yeah, and some of my best friends are moral philosophers...

2006-02-28T23:08:00.000Z

Faced with a moral dilemma, would you ask a moral philosopher for advice? Actually, sharpen that a little:If you wanted someone to aid you in making a difficult ethical decision about medical treatment for your child would you be better off consulting a moral philosopher, or a physician who has dealt with similar cases for 30 years. Gerald Dworkin had a go at answering the question he`posed,

Gado gets it (with apologies to Giles Foden)

2006-02-28T22:58:00.000Z

YES!

2006-02-28T00:48:00.000Z

Steve Tikolo (our every own Siva) destroys Zimbabwe.UPDATE: Via Mentalacrobatics (who's to be congratulated on successfully moving house).

the craziest columnist in East Africa now has her own website.

2006-02-27T11:39:00.000Z

Betty Caplan is bonkers. I know this because we've (non-pseudonymously) exchanged rude emails in the past. You might want to go over here and see what all the fuss is about.

Ex-Catholic-School boy in massacre shock.

2006-02-27T10:39:00.000Z

It's difficult to belive that there won't be many more to come.

Woe to the downpressors/They'll eat the bread of sorrow !

2006-02-24T00:01:00.000Z

You'd think that genocide and civil war would satisfy any government's evilness quota. You'd be wrong. The Sudanese govt. is intensifying border clashes with the Chadians as a result of its continuing attempt to cleanse Darfur of the Fur, Zaghawa, et. al. Chad's none too stable, so there's the possibility of an intra-Chadian war...You can read all about it here.May they eat the bread of sorrow

Against Factivity

2006-02-22T18:29:00.000Z

Counterexamples to the following principle are invited:S knows that p only if either p or it is impossible to know that not-p.

Masolo on African Sage Philosophy

2006-02-22T18:08:00.000Z

DA Masolo's Stanford Encyclopaedia entry on African sage philosophy is now out. It's a good overview of the main positions, and has some interesting things to say about the ethnophilosophy debate.

Philosopher's Carnival

2006-02-21T13:29:00.000Z

The new Philosopher's Carnival is here.I especially liked Jonathan Kvanvig's 'indicatives and warranted assertibility', and RadGeek's nice post about the impiety paradox.