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Saturday, September 11, 2004 |
GOLD! Dog walker discovers pretty penny. At CNN International: Europe by way of NewsIsFree: Popular Items.
London auctioneers Spink estimate the coin will sell for 120,000-150,000 pounds ($214,100-267,700) when it goes under the hammer in October. But Richard Bishop, an auctioneer at Spink, said the coin's excellent condition might help the price rise beyond the top estimate.
"It's obviously going to be far in excess of anything that the average guy would expect to find when he's out walking his dog," said Bishop.
9:57:37 AM 
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What Good is Philosophy Education?.
I was pleased to see this paragraph from Matthew Yglesias.
As a journalist, I keenly feel the pain of the generalist. I find myself in Mead’s shoes all the time — needing to somehow touch on a range of material that I am perfectly aware I don’t understand nearly as well as those people who’ve spent years focusing in on it narrowly. I like to think that having studied philosophy as an undergraduate is a reasonably good preparation for such a task. Obviously, I never wind up writing an article about meta-ethics or the way structurally similar issues about reductionism pop up in diverse areas (insofar as I know a lot about anything, it’s these things), but what philosophy fundamentally teaches you about (especially as an undergraduate when you don’t really have the time to master any particular sub-area) is how to spot an unsound argument, irrespective of the topic of discussion. That’s a useful and generally applicable thing. And I think we’ll see it pop up again and again in this discussion.
I like to think that some of the specific things I teach in undergraduate classes have relevance to what my students go on to do, but ultimately I’d be happy if most of the students picked up just the kind of skills Matt is talking about. One of the side effects of philosophy being so abstract and disconnected from everyday considerations is that to do well at it, you have to be good at reasoning about unfamiliar topics. And in the modern economy that’s a very valuable skill.
[Thoughts Arguments and Rants]
See, too, my What can I do with a degree in philosophy?
8:01:55 AM
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Ruling Class War. There are two sorts of people in the information-age elite, spreadsheet people and paragraph people. By By DAVID BROOKS. [The New York Times > Opinion]
Good categories, some mildly thought-provoking data assembled using them, and a consideration of what it means for the future of democracy. Not bad for seventeen column inches or whatever.
7:57:38 AM
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Copyright Proposal Induces Worry. U.S. copyright officials say legislators should amend the law so firms that profit from others' infringement of copyright materials can be held liable for their actions. Tech companies and digital-rights activists say proposed changes go too far. By Katie Dean. [Wired News]
7:56:06 AM
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Judge Dumps Child Porn Law. A federal judge gives Pennsylvania's internet child pornography law the boot. The controversial law required ISPs to block child porn websites, but in doing so, they prohibited access to many legal sites, leading to a 'massive suppression' of free speech. [Wired News]
7:55:54 AM
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Opera Software has announced 