I had a wonderful if frantic last week in Melbourne. Most of the week was the Australasian Assoc. of Philo annual conference, and I gave a talk on Tuesday that went well. Heisenberg again. I wonder if he feels slighted now that I'm writing my dissertation on something different... too bad. He is dead, after all.
So the conference was a blast, though I got into a hearty argument with my new friend Jimbo from Sydney (post-doc, American) about the merits (or demerits) of all the coursework we do in the States. It's a pain in the ass, all those classes, but I went to talks at the AAP from every field you could think of (minus ethics...sorry, I just can't do ethics) and was able to contribute to most of them. I loved having the generalist background which allowed me to keep up on epist, metaphysics, and all the rest. But Jimbo says it's better to have 2 more publications than 2 years of coursework under your belt when you go on the market. Perhaps I'm too much of a romantic about what this discipline ought to be, but I really disagree with Jimbo. Granted, he's recently BEEN on the market, and I have not... but what would become of our field if everyone was only ever a specialist from the get-go? No fun. Plus, being a philosopher of science, I bring different sets of questions to topics like consciuosness and metaphysics of time... and likewise, my friends who deal more with epist or metaphysics or ethics bring different sets of questions to the table as well.
We had a lot of fun, though, all arguments about the nature of time and coursework and consciousness, etc. etc. aside. Lots of good food and drinking and philosophy talk, of course. I also got to hear ALL about what American philosophy PhD students are *supposed* to be like. Eech. I'll spare you the details but they think we're all fast-talking jerk-faces. I tried to remedy that as much as possible. I think deep down they're a bit intimidated by our coursework (yeah, that MUST be it...ahahaha.....ahaha.......ahhh)
I had dinner with Neil Thomason and his partner Rosemary on Friday night, as my flight wasn't until midnight. Neil does philosophy of science at Melbourne. He's from the States, but loved Melbourne too much. He's an incredibly bubbly old chap who invited me to dinner after he'd found out that (i) I took a course on History and Philosophy of Statistics, which he loves but no one really has ever heard of, and (ii) I love opera almost as much as he and Rosemary do. We sat in front of a fire in their beautiful living room, drinking Cabernet Sauv. and listening to Bel Canto arias. It was a lovely evening, all told. Also, I ate 9 pieces of pizza, had three glasses of wine, a small bowl of nuts, two helpings of salad, some dessert pudding and a cup of tea. I had to prepare for over 24 hours of airline food, after all.
Oh shoot! It've gotta get going to the conference. More later...
July 15, 2008
July 13, 2008
A Little Latitude
Latitude of Melbourne, Australia: 37° 49' South
Latitude of Helsinki, Finalnd: 60° 10' North
NORTH-ward: I think as far as public airports or major populated areas go, Reykjavik is the winner at almost 65° N, with Archangel, Russia coming in second at 64° 33' N. The farthest north inhabited areas (apart from the poles...booooring) are Kaffeklubben Island in Greensland, at almost 84° North. Cape Columbia in Canada gets to 83°. But I don't think any of us is shocked about people living in Canada at that ridiculous latitude. And anyway, I think these are merely launch-ports for North Pole expeditions. Which is cheating.
SOUTH-ward: Tierra del Fuego wins here, at 55° South, although I'm not sure about this being a major populated area... in which case New Zealand might be the actual winner, with Queenstown at 45° South.
As far as sourthernmost marginally inhabited areas, first-place goes to the South Georgia Islands at 59.5° South. Chile has some close seconds at about 56° south. Not nearly as close to the poles as in the North!
All this reminds me of a book I bought called _Endurance_ in Melbourne at a great used-book store (I also bought some Solzhenitsyn and Sir Walter Scott, b/c I love Russian lit and I've never read Scott, respectively). I've read _Endurance_ before and loved it. It's an incredible account of Sir Ernest Shackleton's famously disasterous trans-Antarctic expedition in 1915ish. There more recent biographies of the adventure available, and probably more accurate, but I found this one much more fun to read. Absolutely thrilling. And the even more astonishing thing is that the crew that was suppopsed to meet Shackeleton's men coming from the other side of the continent (they launched from New Zealand, whereas I believe Shackelton's crew left the South Georgia islands) ALSO encounetred extraordinary disaster. I read a book on that too, but I can't remember what it's called-- it's newer, though.
ANYWAY, that's all sort of a caveat, I guess. I'll write up another post on less geographical things...and I will have to do it tomorrow night, as I haven't eaten yet and am still feeling jet-lagged to the max. Don't worry, I'll tell you more about the last week in Melbourne and my trip to the Netherlands soon. Cheers, all.
Latitude of Helsinki, Finalnd: 60° 10' North
Yesterday (and agian I use the term '`yesterday" loosely ) I flew from Melbourne airport through Hong Kong, then on to Helsinki, and from Helsinki to Amsterdam. Whew. Which means I covered a total distance of 98 out of 180 degrees latitude available on the globe. It makes me feel somewhat like a rock star. And of course, if you take my entire summer into account, I did have that jaunt down to Christchurch, which is 43° 32' S, that makes my total latitude coverage this summer 103°. AND if you consider that of major airports in the world, or major cities, the total degrees latitue is probably closer to 120°...103° ain't bad. Woohoo!
As far as longitude goes, I'm circumnavigating the globe all said, which is a perfect 360° for 360°. Hot diggidy. But to be totally honest, I have been flying Westward during all these flights (save the small flight from Sydney to Christchurch), and this means that since the earth is turning the opposite direction, the airplane's relative speed to the earth is such that relativistic considerations taken into account, it is slightly less than 360 degrees that I've traveled, as the earth has appeared to me slightly (ever so slightly) Lorenz-contracted.
But all in all, still a good trip, eh? I think I'll be jet-lagged for several months.
NORTH-ward: I think as far as public airports or major populated areas go, Reykjavik is the winner at almost 65° N, with Archangel, Russia coming in second at 64° 33' N. The farthest north inhabited areas (apart from the poles...booooring) are Kaffeklubben Island in Greensland, at almost 84° North. Cape Columbia in Canada gets to 83°. But I don't think any of us is shocked about people living in Canada at that ridiculous latitude. And anyway, I think these are merely launch-ports for North Pole expeditions. Which is cheating.
SOUTH-ward: Tierra del Fuego wins here, at 55° South, although I'm not sure about this being a major populated area... in which case New Zealand might be the actual winner, with Queenstown at 45° South.
As far as sourthernmost marginally inhabited areas, first-place goes to the South Georgia Islands at 59.5° South. Chile has some close seconds at about 56° south. Not nearly as close to the poles as in the North!
All this reminds me of a book I bought called _Endurance_ in Melbourne at a great used-book store (I also bought some Solzhenitsyn and Sir Walter Scott, b/c I love Russian lit and I've never read Scott, respectively). I've read _Endurance_ before and loved it. It's an incredible account of Sir Ernest Shackleton's famously disasterous trans-Antarctic expedition in 1915ish. There more recent biographies of the adventure available, and probably more accurate, but I found this one much more fun to read. Absolutely thrilling. And the even more astonishing thing is that the crew that was suppopsed to meet Shackeleton's men coming from the other side of the continent (they launched from New Zealand, whereas I believe Shackelton's crew left the South Georgia islands) ALSO encounetred extraordinary disaster. I read a book on that too, but I can't remember what it's called-- it's newer, though.
ANYWAY, that's all sort of a caveat, I guess. I'll write up another post on less geographical things...and I will have to do it tomorrow night, as I haven't eaten yet and am still feeling jet-lagged to the max. Don't worry, I'll tell you more about the last week in Melbourne and my trip to the Netherlands soon. Cheers, all.
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