I Promised Something New

And here it is. Since I've decided that I'm going back to school, hopefully in the Fall of 2009 (God willing and the crick don't rise), I thought it would be a good idea to start putting some things on paper. That way, I won't go back into school having not written anything of philosophical substance in six years. So...

I have a new philosophy blog, Whither Reason?, and I'd like you to check it out. Philosophy is a dialog, and I can't have a dialog alone.

Here's how it works: I read a book, blog about it, and hopefully get a good back and forth going on the topics I write about. No, you don't need to read along, though you're certainly welcome to. I just need to make sure my writing isn't crap.

I'm taking this really seriously, and didn't want to put WR out there until there were a couple posts and the layout was at least what close to what I wanted. I'm now to that point. So, head over there, poke around, and let me know what you think!

I Never Thought I'd Say This

The University of Missouri now holds its NCAA National Championship destiny in its own hands. #2 Oregon lost last night to Arizona, and Mizzou's schedule looks something like this:

@ Kansas State
vs. #4 Kansas @ Arrowhead Stadium

If the Tigers win out, it's off to the Big XII Championship, likely against #3 Oklahoma (though the opponent doesn't matter).

Right now, the BCS Standings are:

1) LSU
2) Oregon
3) Oklahoma
4) Kansas
5) Missouri
6) West Virginia

So, assume everyone that can win this week does. Oregon drops out of the top five, and OU, KU, and Mizzou move up. Mizzou now has to play Kansas. If they win, and Oklahoma wins, the BCS top three going into the Big XII Championship would be LSU, OU, Mizzou (assuming LSU wins out). IF Mizzou gets to the title game, and IF Mizzou beats Oklahoma, the worst position Missouri would find itself in would be 2nd.

Now let's see if they can do it.

Oh, and most interestingly, with the Oregon loss, FOUR teams hold their destinies in their own hands, fighting for two spots. If a team wins out, it goes to the title game. But (and this is a big but), two of the teams face off in a week, and the winner will most likely face the third team shortly thereafter, since three of the top five are in the Big XII and lead their divisions. Pretty exciting. Kind of sounds like... a playoff. But we all know that playoffs in college football aren't exciting, which is why we have the BCS. Right?

Right?

Sorry for the Post Lull...

I'm working on something cool. And keep the grad school recommendations coming! They're super helpful.

Uh... And Ayers Rock is in St. Louis, Right?

As a follow up to my earlier post about 60% of Americans thinking that trade is bad for the economy, I have bad news.

The problem isn't just in America. We are a planet of morons.

The Guardian is reporting that one in three Britons believe that Mt. Everest is in Europe.

Yes, that Mount Everest.

I Need Your Help! Seriously.

I've been thinking about this on and off for the past few months, but I'm starting to get my act together - I want to get my PhD in philosophy. I'm looking at schools and admission requirements, and I'll be honest - it's quite intimidating. Some of the admission rates are crazy! Wisconsin only admits about 10% of its applicants. University of Chicago admits about 5%. Other schools don't say, but I'd assume it's about the same.

Here's where I need your help. If you applied to grad school (and not a University of Phoenix or eMBA or something, but a full time, physical presence required grad school), what was your application experience like? What are typical admission rates for your program? I'm starting to freak out a bit, and I'm terrified that I'll apply to a bunch of schools and get rejected by all of them. That would crush me.

Also, if you have any recommendations on where I should look, let me know!

Right now, the list consists of (in no particular order): Loyola Chicago, U of C, UIC, U of I, Mizzou, SLU, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Wash U, Indiana, Purdue, Iowa, Michigan, Western Michigan, and Michigan State.

It's Not About Creationism

I ran into an interesting article today on Language Log discussing a rather spurious theory that much of what constitutes English slang is, in fact, descended from Gaelic. As a member of the Irish diaspora, it would be fantastic, if it were true. Unfortunately, the research is bad at best and disingenuous at worst.

However, a quote* from the article got me to thinking about Creationism (or Intelligent Design, or whatever the Religious Right is packaging Biblical Fundamentalism as these days), the theory that claims dinosaurs lived alongside man 3,000 years ago and "the chances are good" they were on Noah's Ark.

Creationists have always maintained that they are relegated to the scientific fringes and are maligned and unfairly attacked by the mainstream, caught up in a conspiracy to prevent them from getting their views accepted by mainstream society and into the classroom (see Alabama, Kansas, Kentucky, Georgia, Pennsylvania, etc.).

Are Creationists out of the mainstream? Absolutely. Do they deserve to be? You bet. Consider the quote I mentioned earlier, applied not to bad Gaelic scholarship, but to Intelligent Design:

The Creationist advocate** "paints himself as the maligned scholar, the unappreciated genius, the outsider. He may be all of those things, but he is them by choice: his work cannot withstand scholarly scrutiny so he simply cannot afford to join forces with any larger body of experts who do this sort of thing for a living. His book falls apart on first reading by anyone with some expertise in the field."

* The original quote comprises the third paragraph.

** The Creationist advocate was obviously added by me. The quote in its original context discusses the book How the Irish Invented Slang.

Busy Bee

Sorry for the lack of updating. Things here have gotten a little busy, as I have begun teaching some English classes. My Puritan work ethic was not satisfied with the mere 20 hours a week I work with the Knox Program, so I decided to pick up a few hours of teaching. I had two classes this week, and they went really well. The first class is two 12 year old girls who barely speak any English. That class was pretty rough as it was apparent that they weren't understanding anything I said. However, my other class of 3 10 year old boys was AWESOME! They had a basic level of English, but definitely had a higher level than the girls, so we were able to do more things. We introduced ourselves, played time bingo, made up stories (they wrote about a magical basketball that was at the bottom of the sea), played an alphabet game, and the time just flew by!

So, that's what's been keeping me busy. Not sure what's going on this weekend. There's a chocolate festival here, which sounds cool, but is kind of expensive. I had also thought about maybe going hiking tomorrow, but it's gotten a little chilly here. But, perhaps the best news of the weekend is that we are getting a new couch! It is scheduled to arrive today, and I am VERY excited!