Materialism Expanded and Remixed

I'll be giving this talk on materialism at New Materialisms, Johns Hopkins U in April, in honor of a new book by Jane Bennett called Vibrant Matter.
Materialism Expanded and Remixed

Green Sea Slug Is Part Animal, Part Plant

Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/green-sea-slug/#ixzz0d4yPRQS9

Make this up you cannot, as Yoda would say. Thanks to the resourceful Corey Moseley from my current class.

Trial by Darwin

Okay, this is now a phenomenon, in the Hegelian sense that for something to happen, it has to happen twice. The last two classes in which I've taught Darwin have provoked strong reactions. Students have walked out. I can only conclude that this is to do with some perceived threat to their view.

The first instances were in my survey class in Spring 2009. So few people came to the Darwin classes (it was the only hard copy set text, everything else was online), that I guessed it could only mean one thing. The new cases are from my Literature and the Environment classes (podcasts now on iTunes U). I saw people actually getting up and leaving in the middle of the lecture. There must have been about three of them. Then there were the people who didn't show up, and the people who dropped.

Wow. A two hundred year old guy still knows how to clear a room.

Collapse 6, Geo/Philosophy

Collapse, if you don't know already, is a wonderful and beautifully made philosophy journal edited by Robin Mackay. Volume 6 is devoted to things global and ecological.

New Podcasts

I just started podcasting again on iTunes U, for my “Literature and the Environment” class.