Sunday, April 20, 2008

Simon Critchley at the Sydney Writers Festival

The Sydney Writers Festival, on between the 19th and 25th of May, is hosting Simon Critchley as one of its speakers. Critchley, who is a professor of philosophy at the New School of Social Research, will be talking about death at the festival at three events. His latest book is entitled 'The Book of Dead Philosophers'. Critchley has previously written about the ethics of deconstruction.

His events are:

22 May, 10-11am What's the Big Idea?: Critchley will be discussing big ideas such as death and religion with John Gray and Maria Turmakin.

23 May, 2.30-3.30pm The Great Beyond: Critchley and Mark Wakely talk about 'mysteries, rituals and myths surrounding death.'

24 May, 4-5pm Dead Philosophers: Critchely to talk about attitudes towards death.

Each event costs $15/$10, bookings made on 9250 1988 or at Sydney Theatre

Darwin Rarities Online

Charles Darwin (along with that other Charles, Mr Sanders Pierce) died on the 19th of April, which just happened to be yesterday. To roughly coincide with the day, there has been a substantial new addition to the electronic catalogue of Darwin's writings at The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. The new release includes the first draft of his theory of evolution and The Decent of Man, notes from the voyage of the Beagle, Emma Darwin's recipe book, and reviews of his work from the time.

Inventor of Black Holes Dead

Keeping with posting obituaries several weeks after the event, John Wheeler, the theoretical physicist who coined the terms ‘Black Hole’ and ‘Worm Hole’ died last week on the 13th of April. Wheeler had collaborated with Albert Einstein, and that is about as much as I know. Instead of trying to write up something more substantial, I have decided instead to link to an interview with Wheeler by Paul Davies, recorded in 2003 and played on Radio National’s The Science Show this weekend.