You know the story…

 A young person in graduate school hears a very inspiring lecture about saving the world.  And then drops out of school and goes off to help severely disadvantaged people.  Well, now that young person can keep a multi-media record and it’s pretty cool too.  There’s even a psychic dog who warns of floods.

If you look at the project photos on the right hand side of the opening page, you’ll see a picture  of our friend Kathy Ward.

Shawn, the young person, is a wonderful model, but any graduate students who decide to follow him will PLEASE not mention us as the origin of your information!  We’re considered subversive enough already.

The Feral Child

The Feral Child is an object of fascination for many theorists.  The very idea of one raises speculations about what the human being apart from  civilization would be like.  But the actuality can be horrible, tragic, sickening.

Florida’s St. Petersburg Times recently published a long story on a child who seems to have had little social contact for the first five or six years of her life.  This is a very difficult story to read, and even some actions of the remarkable people who have provided her with a home may raise questions in some minds.  From her closet full of fluffy dresses and her Miss Kitty accoutrements to the couple’s other child, who has had serious sacrifices asked or imposed on him to accommodate her, the ending we see may contain signs of other problems.  And it is also the case that we have little idea how she will develop. 

More background information, a slide show, audio interviews can be found here.

UK Women in Philosophy Stats?

Reader Aaron has written in wondering if anyone has recently done statistical work on women in philosophy in the UK– percentage of PhDs, percentage in full-time posts, percentage in temporary posts, percentage in senior posts, etc. I don’t know of any data on this. Do you? If so, please tell us in comments!