The Reg

First floor stairs in the Regenstein Library. Or possibly a set from Cremaster 2.

MOVE

More high-concept whimsy from Wyeth et al, for the AIGA Move conference.

Indexes

Michael Dummett, in his preface to the first edition of Frege: Philosophy of Language, says:

"I am always disappointed when a book lacks a preface: it is like arriving at someone's house for dinner, and being conducted straight into the dining room" (ix).

I agree, but I am also disappointed when a book lacks a good index: it's like having an enjoyable dinner with friends but then not being able to remember all the witty anecdotes.

The best example of an index entry I am aware of is the entry for "Hegel" in Terry Pinkard's Hegel: A Biography, which itself can function as a kind of super-abbreviated biography. I've reproduced a slightly abridged version of the "Hegel" entry below:

ABD

Now I am ABD for real.

(Unexciting) Dissertation title: Contextualism in Mind and Language

A quick outline:

1. The aims of traditional semantic theory
2. The structure and motivation for the basic contextualist argument
3. Contextualism and unacceptable consequences
4. My view, which of course handles all the problems
5. Applying contextualist insights to some issues in the philosophy of mind/psychology (dynamic thoughts, sharing thoughts, self-knowledge).

It's interesting to compare this with what I thought I was going to be doing.

How to make use of the telephone

According to the black diagram, it appears that to make use of the telephone I should pull a 10 cent coin out of a slot, take the receiver off a clothes hook, have the receiver spray me with strips of bacon, rest my hand on top of the wheel as it spins around, a little man vomits onto the phone, I ring the doorbell, breath into a tube, and viola, the phone is back where it started.

In red it seems that if I ask a question the phone lays an egg.

(Diagram from Otto Neurath's International Picture Language, 1936.)

The Wiener Circle

Lincoln Park, February, 2006. (Picture slightly modified.)

Last year I tried submitting a related joke to McSweeney's Lists:

Title: Food Items You Might Find at Chicago's Wiener Circle Hot Dog Stand If Its Name Was Actually A Pun on the German Name of the Vienna Circle

(with thanks to Jay Elliott, John Haugeland, and Peter Machamer)

Chile con Carnap
Neurath's Frito Boat
Hot Dog on a Schlick
Jalapeno Poppers

I got a rejection letter saying that no one would "get it".

Hegel's Phenomenology

Phenomenology of Spirit, §§178-196.

Keeping Mumm

Inside the Mumm Napa winery, Napa Valley, CA.

Gas!

Knob Creek, Kentucky. Topping up a Ford Excursion.

Rat-a-tat-tat

Knob Creek, Kentucky. Last weekend.

Louis Sullivan Wouldn't Like It

The colonnade, northwest corner of Millennium Park, Chicago, March 2006. Apparently it's a replica.