Cultural Detritus, Reviews, and Commentary
Link to an excerpt from the book The Happiness Industry: How the Government and Big Business Sold Us Well-Being (2015) by William Davies:
“We Are All Just Rats in a Cage: How the 1 Percent Profits From Your Misery”
Bonus link: “The Happiness Industry and Depressive-Competitive Disorder”
Link to an article by Jonathan Latham:
“What Happened to Obama’s Promise to Restore Scientific Integrity?”
NOVA: The Great Math Mystery (April 2015)
PBS
Director: Dan McCabe and Richard Reisz
“The Great Math Mystery,” an episode of the long-running PBS science show Nova, is in essence an analysis of mathematics and analytic philosophy. In the program, about 99% of the show consists of people from the analytic philosophical school talking about math, plus one token representative from the Continental Philosophy school (Stephen Wolfram) and a few comments by analytic philosophy people about the Continental Philosophy view. What this show desperately needed was a dose of the “fairness doctrine” by giving something closer to 50% of the airtime to the Continental view. Ideally, Alain Badiou would have been featured, because he is perhaps the most well-known living philosopher to argue about the nature of mathematics from outside the caste of “working mathematicians”. Count this episode among the many that PBS airs that is a polemic disguised as an even-handed treatment.
Link to an article by Thalif Deen:
“Syrian Conflict Has Underlying Links to Climate Change, Says Study”
Link to the “GMO Myths and Truth Report”