You can always count on Jerry Coyne to uncritically applaud A.C. Grayling …even when, as Brandon shows, the guy’s logic leaves much to be desired.

Samuelson on how Obama’s administration is handling…or not handling China: It would be a tragedy if these two superpowers began regarding each other as adversaries. But that’s the drift. Heirs to a 2,000-year cultural tradition — and citizens of the world’s largest country — the Chinese have an innate sense of superiority, Jacques writes. Americans,… Continue reading

Stephen Barr today: It is time to take stock: What has the intelligent design movement achieved? As science, nothing. The goal of science is to increase our understanding of the natural world, and there is not a single phenomenon that we understand better today or are likely to understand better in the future through the… Continue reading

I absolutely have to attend this panel at Boskone this weekend. Saturday 10am Harbor 3: The Suck Fairy, and Other Horrors of Rereading The Suck Fairy takes old books you used to like and magically makes them, well, suck. Writer Jo Walton heard tell of this creature at last year’s Montreal Worldcon; other participants deduced… Continue reading

The Author’s Guild on the Google Settlement: But here’s the thing: copyright victories tend to be Pyrrhic in the digital age. Our settlement negotiations went on with full knowledge of what happened to the music industry. The RIAA (the Recording Industry Association of America) won victory after victory, defeating Napster and Grokster with ground-breaking legal… Continue reading