AAPT Members American Association of Philosophy Teachers

Among other shocking revelations:

(Thanks to Rory Kraft (York College, PA) for the pointer)

Statue stolen from SU, sold to recycling center | delmarvanow.com | The Daily Times

campus authorities are investigating the theft of a 5-foot bronze statue of American author, philosopher and transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau.

Comrade Physioprof recently posted a little video encapulating his recent experience at a conference. You can make these videos online from texts - so I could't resist. Enjoy:

Sorry, I really wanted a bad Irish accent for Philonous, but they only had three 'generic UK' accents, so I choose the one that most closely matched the 'Guide' in Hitchiker's Guide. Seems fitting enough.

Here's an oddity:
The Associated Press: Vatican paper says 'The Simpsons' are okely dokely

Without Homer Simpson and the other yellow-skinned characters "many today wouldn't know how to laugh," said the article titled "Aristotle's Virtues and Homer's Doughnut."

L'Osservatore Romano's english edition site (here) has only the 1st page of this edition publicly available, so we don't have access to the original. Still - it might be worth a look for an intro classes using popular culture to introduce Philosophy.

Riva Gold, phil major from McGill, has a highly entertaining commentary on the gender gap in Philosophy. While I don't want to minimize the concerns she is expressing, I just can't pass up some of these quotes, like the one in the title.

The Patriarchy of Philosophy: Women in philosophy departments find themselves pushed to the margins

Philosophy is one of those rare majors that, when declared, simultaneously elicits looks of reverence and contempt from others. Philosophy majors are often seen as meek hipster wannabes who emit foul odours and begin every sentence with “it is the case that.” And with good reason.

It took me nearly three months to learn what Hegel meant by “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” and I assure you, it was not fascinating.  read more »

The Chicago Flame has a profile on the Philosophy Department, noting some of the ways the department is dealing with budget cuts, such as:
Deep thoughts, deep problems? - News

...not all faculty have phones in their offices anymore. This was entirely voluntary: anybody who wanted to keep their phone kept it. Since some have cellphones [office phones weren't] necessary." [on page 2]

2 Hurt in Philosopher Fight | News | The Moscow Times

A debate between philosophers at an international forum ended in a fistfight Monday that left two people slightly injured

Just in case you want to read Swartz' great article:

"Philosophy as a Blood Sport", by Norman Swartz, Dept. of Philosophy, Simon Fraser University

While I was looking for data, I stumbled across this:

Anyone recognize her? Congrats on the big shout-out! (you have to get past the inane discussion of clubs and good-looking guys)

For years, I've been using the old standby:

Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

To make various points about syntax. (If you're not aware of the standard example: 'buffalo' is a verb that means to 'bluff aggressively'. The subject of the sentence is 'buffalo,' referring to the creatures. Those creatures are then from the city of Buffalo, thus being 'Buffalo buffalo' who bluff other Buffalo buffalo aggressively).

A few years ago, I noticed (unoriginally) that 'buffalo' is also used as an adjective to refer to a certain kind of spicey sauce, as in 'buffalo chicken' or 'buffalo wild wings'. Thus, if one could spice buffalo from Buffalo and then let them buffalo other similarly spiced Buffalo buffalo, one could say:

Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

And for years, I've been mentioning in class that there is another well-known english word that is used as all the parts of speech, including (unlike 'buffalo') as an interjection.  I leave it up to the imaginations of the students to figure out a 7-word sentence using that word (which takes -ing and -ed to operate as an adjective or adverb). Today, Ben Andres, 3rd year Phil major, created an 11-word sentence based on F--- that I believe grammatically correct. Here it is:  read more »

A story on the names of local pubs on the BBC produced this gem in the comments:
BBC - Today - The tale behind your local

My local is the Tippling Philosopher. It's not a trendy made-up name but the original name given in the early 18th century in honour of the pioneering physicist (and philosopher) Robert Boyle (remember Boyle's law at school?) who lived a mile or two down the road from the pub and who tippled and staggered his way to his local 300 years or so ago.
Howard Pell, Milborne Port near Sherborne, Dorset

The next time I take a Jan term over to London, we're going!