links for 2010-06-26

I particularly liked this seminar because it was about a trend that challenges old notions of Statism. The 20th Century was the rise of the State (and nationalism and so forth). But I see the early 21st Century, with the dissolution of the Cold War empires, further break down of States into their representative cultures, the rise of potential City-States, the focus away from over-lording nations to smaller communities. Does this spell the end of the State? Gilman points out that deviant globalization is a challenge to notions of Statism (most pointedly said at around 1h03m of his talk). My thought, would "Failed States" be "Failed" if we didn't expect a "State"? Can we have a world where there is no State?

"The term natural theology as used by Gifford means theology supported by science and not dependent on the miraculous."

A while back I listened to the In Our Time episode on the Gifford Lectures. The description of Gifford's theology ("awe") certainly reminds me of Magical Nihilism.

"No external power is needed: the lift lock functions by gravity alone using the counterweight principle."

I saw this on TV and have been thinking about it since. It's a great example of electricity-free machines that do amazing things. I like examples that remind us of a time before electricity, because I think we've become lazy and can only think of electronic and digital computer-based machines these days.