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October 12, 2006
Jowett Talk
Tomorrow I'll be giving a talk to the Jowett Society in Oxford. This will be the first talk I've given in the UK in 10 years, despite the fact that that's where I'm from. Ten years ago, as an undergraduate, I talked about why one should be vegetarian. Tomorrow it will be about why one should believe in the analytic/synthetic distinction. What's happened to my youthful ambition?
(There is some reason to think it's still there: I almost decided to give my new paper on the ethics of teaching karate...)
Posted by logican at 05:47 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 04, 2006
FOTWGLG
Some of you might have come across Josh Parsons' surreal "FOTWGLG" (Flags of the World Given Letter Grades), in which he...gives the flags of the world letter grades, along with helpful comments about how to improve. Well from this article on the BBC News website today, it looks as if Lesotho has been paying attention. Josh's main complaint was that the flag featured weapons. Here are Josh's thoughts on weapon-bearing flags in general:
If you are going to put a picture on your flag (in violation of rule 2a) why would you put pictures of the weapons that you are using to conduct a bloody repression of your citizens on it? This just doesn't make sense to me. Obviously countries like Afghanistan and Mozambique just aren't interested in the tourist dollars that you can get from not advertising the fact that you like to hack off the limbs of foreigners before shooting them and turning them into soap. Still, it's their loss.
The BBC reports:
The small mountain kingdom of Lesotho is marking its 40th anniversary of independence from the United Kingdom by flying a new more peaceful flag. The military emblem of a shield, spear and knobkerrie is replaced by a traditional cone-shaped hat on the blue, white and green flag.The hat worn by indigenous Basotho people was on the first independence flag but was replaced after a coup.
Lesotho says its new flag shows it "at peace with itself and its neighbours".
Coincidence?
Posted by logican at 02:13 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack