The Ocean Thought Nothing

Just checking in to let you know what I've been blogging about lately.

• Letter to My Senators (The Sequential Philosopher) – Please don't cut off NSF funding for political science.
• Exciting Trends in Philosophy of Science (It's Only a Theory) – The four most exciting areas in general philosophy of science, IMHO.
• The Varieties of Evidence (It's Only a Theory) – A very general description of the complex,* process-functionalist theory of evidence that I'm working on.
• Science, Values, and Popular Culture in the Psychology of William Moulton Marston (Science, Values, and Democracy) – A description of my new research project.
• William Moulton Marston: Educational and Professional Background (Science, Values, and Democracy)
• Pragmatism, Positivism, Science, and Values in the 1930’s (Science, Values, and Democracy)
• Brief discussions on Science, Values and Democracy on Philip Kitcher's Science, Truth, and Democracy Part I and II and on The Challenge of the Social and the Pressure of Practice Part I: The Play of Values within the Core Areas of Scientific Research.
  

* By "complex," I don't mean to tout the complexity of my theory. Rather, I mean that there is a complex profile of functions that evidence is involved in. But, multi-process-functionalist and its cognates are uggers.

Dragon*Con Academics was GREAT this year. We did 8 panels with high attendance, great presentations, and rousing discussions. Now's the time to push for an expansion of academic programming at Dragon*Con! The way to do this is to let the Dragon*Con office know how much support there is for academic programming and an academic conference at the convention. I'm aiming for the stars, hoping to get a full academic track at the convention.

To see the panels we've done in the last two years, you can visit these links:

http://thehangedman.com/dragoncon
http://thehangedman.com/dragoncon/dc2008.html

What I'm asking from you is to contact the office and let them know how you feel. There are three ways to do this. You can email them at dragoncon@dragoncon.org. You can fill out the webform at:

http://dragoncon.org/dc_contact.php

Or you can call the office at 770-909-0115 (M-F 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. EST).

Below I've provided the beginning of a message. You can edit it, mix and match your reasons, and (this is crucial!) provide some detail about your own experience.

Thanks for your support! Tell your friends!

Best, Matt

-8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<---8<--

Subject: Track Request: Academics

Dear Dragon*Con Office,

I'm writing to request the creation of an academic track at Dragon*Con. I [[attended / participated in / wish I could have been at]] the academic conference organized by Matt Brown at Dragon*Con in [[2008 / 2009]], and I am very much in support of expanding it. The attendance has been very high, the presentations have been interesting and informative, and have lead to lively discussions.

While the ordinary, informal fan discussions at Dragon*Con can be fun and informative, these panels really bring something extra to my Dragon*Con in terms of the amount of work that has gone into the panel, and the type of intellectually stimulating discussion that results.

It would really help to have the academic panels be more officially organized, so they would be easier to find and in a more consistent space as well.

It seems like making an academic track would allow a wider variety of academic presentations. Right now, it seems to be limited by what tracks have space open.

We're not only ready for a higher level of intellectual discussion at Dragon*Con. We need it!

I've also heard that Matt Brown is willing to continue to organize academic presentations at Dragon*Con. [[I'd also be willing to help out by presenting / volunteering at the Con / helping with organization / attending the panels.]]

Thank you for your time!

[[Your signature here]]

For those who happen to follow this blog despite the lack of postings, I suspect that much of my blogging energy this semester is going to be directed at the blog I set up for my grad seminar on "Science, Values, and Democracy":

http://scienceandvalues.wordpress.com/

Hopefully some of you will be interested in the discussions.

Call for Participation

Institute for Comics Studies
Comic Book Convention Conference Series

DRAGON*CON 2nd ANNUAL COMICS & POPULAR ARTS CONFERENCE

Atlanta, Georgia September 4-7, 2009

The Institute for Comic Studies and Dragon*Con present their second annual academic conference for the studies of comics and the popular arts to take place at Dragon*Con, the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the US. For more info on Dragon*Con, visit http://dragoncon.org/

Please submit a proposal for a 15/20-minute presentation that engages in substantial scholarly examinations of comic books, manga, graphic novels, anime, sf, fantasy, and popular culture. A broad range of disciplinary and theoretical perspectives is being sought, including literary and art criticism, philosophy, linguistics, history, and communication. Proposals may range from discussions of the nature of the comics medium, analyses of particular works and authors, discussions of the visual language of comics, comics pedagogy, cross-cultural and cross-medium comparisons, and more. This year, we're especially interested in proposals dealing with anime/manga, sf/fantasy literature, and Star Trek, though presentations on any of the above topics will be considered.

This conference of Dragon*Con represents the Institute for Comics Studies' mission to promote the study, understanding, and cultural legitimacy of comics and to support the discussion and dissemination of this study and understanding via public venues.

100 to 200 word proposals due: July 1, 2009

STAR TREK PROPOSALS due JUNE 1, 2009!

Please submit your proposal at the following address:
http://www.hsu.edu/form.aspx?ekfrm=43888

Prospective participants are encouraged to submit a guest application in advance at the following address: http://dragoncon.org/dc_guest_app.php

Matt Brown
Dragon*Con Academics Chair
thehangedman@gmail.com
http://www.instituteforcomicsstudies.org

Help me figure out how to revamp and manage my web presence.

For My Atlanta / Lilburn People:

I am having a big party while I'm back home during the break, a reunion of sorts with my people from my days in Lilburn and Atlanta. I really hope that you'll come! It will be on December 20th, at my Dad's house in Lilburn.

Details and RSVP here:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=30194494991

or here:

http://www.socializr.com/event/599052356

Pass on the word!

Yes we can!
Yes we did!
Yes we will!

(ht: !bob . the beat)

People I have been slackin'! Well, that's not really true. I've been busy:

• 3 lectures a week


• Ramping up the job search


• Conference in Boulder a couple weeks ago


• Visitors in town from Australia


• Leaving for conference in Belgium tomorrow


• et cetera!

So, I haven't been keeping up with email, blogs, f'book, etc. I'm currently approaching 500 unanswered and unsorted emails. I haven't been calling people back, I haven't been coming to your parties, and I haven't invited you over for gaming/drinking/dinner or whatever I would normally have done.

I'm sorry! I'm traveling at maximum warp just trying to keep the ship together. Scotty is cursing up a storm, but I just need more power! I'll have it back together in a month or two...

You guys have to go check this out. Not only is the Batmobama poster awesome, anyone who has been watching the debates will love the videos (watch them in order).

I don't have to tell any of you guys to vote, do I? Have you registered?

Or, you know. Don't bother.

I don't usually post about such a thing, but I think it's so revealing about my current state of mind...

I dreamed that I had gotten some kind of job/postdoc/etc at Notre Dame that I had forgotten applying for. The problem was, I couldn't remember what the job actually was, or when it was supposed to start. I kept trying to search my email on my sidekick for what the application had said, but I couldn't get a signal. They were showing me my office (or maybe it was a classroom), but it was obviously a converted bathroom, dimly lit, with tile floor and walls, and urinals still on the wall with some kind of pads fitted on them so one could use them like a chair (?). Also, there are lots of escalators and Notre Dame, apparently.

Thanks, McCain's supporters!

On Friday, September 26, the end of a week in which thousands of copies of Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West -- the fear-mongering, anti-Muslim documentary being distributed by the millions in swing states via DVDs inserted in major newspapers and through the U.S. mail -- were distributed by mail in Ohio, a "chemical irritant" was sprayed through a window of the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton, where 300 people were gathered for a Ramadan prayer service. The room that the chemical was sprayed into was the room where babies and children were being kept while their mothers were engaged in prayers. This, apparently, is what the scare tactic political campaigning of John McCain's supporters has led to -- Americans perpetrating a terrorist attack against innocent children on American soil.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/28/203016/697/536/613742

Found somewhere in a Facebook crawl:

We need a three-mile offshore drinking rule
You've got to admire the creativity of those who must numb a percentage of their brain cells before they can enjoy a day at the beach. There they were last weekend, 50 or so people with their cute little matching rafts, lashed in a big circle about 75 feet offshore at Fanuel Park in Sail Bay. They even had inflatable ice chests and ample beer for repeated self-congratulatory toasts to their ingenuity. There were also a dozen uniformed police officers on the beach. They too must have admired the group's ingenuity, as they took a number of photographs. I thought I might inquire as to the policy toward offshore indulgence, but by this time the officers were preoccupied with photographing one another. I would therefore like to suggest a three-mile offshore requirement, similar to gambling, might be appropriate. Perhaps a three-mile swim or paddle to one's car would adequately prepare a post-toastee for a safe drive home.

Ed Lynaugh
Pacific Beach

... doesn't know where the pledge of allegiance comes from.

Sabrina has discovered that someone actually wrote what amounts to John Dewey fan fiction! Unbelievable.

A little sample:

"I can't be less than honest with you. You're a god-awful cooking teacher."

"Learn from experience, you wrote!" She defended herself with his own ideas, though she understood them better than she practiced: indifference isn't experience; chaos isn't experiment.

Absently, lost in reflection, he took up one egg, then two, cracking them against the pan as if to test for himself the possibilities in this encounter with eggs.

Their insides slipped out and lay in the pan like the breasts of a woman reclining, the soft padded circles fallen back against her body. They looked at him. They hissed in their butter. (p. 33)

And this is for her research!! (Sort of.)

Call for Participation

Institute for Comics Studies
Comic Book Convention Conference Series

DRAGON*CON ACADEMIC MINI-CONFERENCE

Atlanta, Georgia
August 29-September 1, 2008

The Institute for Comic Studies and the Comics and Pop Art division of Dragon*Con are working together to develop an academic conference for the studies of comics and pop art to take place at Dragon-Con, the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the US.

Please submit a proposal for a 20-minute presentation that engages in substantial scholarly examinations of comic books, graphic novels, and pop art. A broad range of disciplinary and theoretical perspectives is being sought, including literary and art criticism, philosophy, linguistics, history, and communication. Proposals may range from discussions of the nature of the comics medium, analyses of particular works and authors, discussions of the visual language of comics, to comics pedagogy, and more.

The academic track of Dragon*Con represents the Institute for Comics Studies’ mission to promote the study, understanding, and cultural legitimacy of comics and to support the discussion and dissemination of this study and understanding via public venues.

100-word proposals due: ASAP or by August 1, 2008:

Matthew Brown
Dragon*Con Mini-Conference Chair
mattbrown@ucsd.edu
Subject line: "ICS: Dragon*Con Proposal"
www.instituteforcomicsstudies.org

Due to the tight deadline and scheduling constraints, early submission is the best guarantor of acceptance

Check out who is on the Dragon*Con Guest List!

http://dragoncon.org/dc_guest_detail.php?id=1892

And check out the first CAC panel on Saturday at Comic-Con:

http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_search_results.php?strShow=22&chkCat[]=138

Oh, one more thing.

I'd really like to organize a big party during winter break this year, back home in Atlanta. I don't know how I'd make it work, in terms of finding a space, buying materials, etc. But I'd really like to do it. Strikes me as better than the upcoming PHS 10yr reunion, too. (Is anyone going to that?)

Who's in?

I finished my grading, more or less. Then spent a little time online looking at blogs and ljs, because I haven't for a while. Then spent... an hour or two?... reliving some of the Bad Old Times, reading archives of people's livejournals. Blergh.

I officially regret having abandoned the rstevens-verse. Perhaps I can find my way back now that summer is upon us.

I need to make a plan, stat. Too easily have I been sucked into the hectic day-to-day of the quarter. Important things have lapsed. Things that need to happen (and when-ish):

• First draft of Watchmen and Philosophy paper (6/16)
• Put together Comic-Con panel presentation (7/1)
• Attempt to convince Bryan to let me come work on Comic-Con costume things in ABQ (ASAP)
• NSF Postdoc Application (8/1)
• UCOP Postdoc Application (11/15)
• Decide about the job market for reals (ASAP)
• Get job market wheels running (maybe)
• Try to get on the Dragon-Con Comics Track schedule (ASAP, improbable)
• Consider turning Shaun-Con presentation into a publication (9/1).
• Think about other publication venues (fall)
• Develop a drawing schedule
• Get house ready for subletters (6/17?)
• Throw a big soup party? (6/13???)
• Write my dissertation! (Good grief!)