Chair or comment at the Pacific APA 2009

This was sent out over philosop-l:

Every year the APA Pacific Division invites volunteers to chair 
sessions or comment on papers at its annual meeting. The 2009 meeting 
will be held from April 8 to 12 in Vancouver, Canada. Anyone wishing 
to attend the meeting is cordially invited to volunteer. (Submitting a 
paper is no obstacle to volunteering: if your paper is accepted, you 
are released from any chairing or commenting obligations.)

To volunteer, please complete the form at http://apa-pacific.org/volunteer
. You will be asked to supply your name, affiliation, email address, 
and areas of interest. If you volunteered for a previous meeting and 
have *not* already volunteered again for 2009, please be sure to click 
the renew option.

For information about the meeting, please visit the Pacific Division 
web site at http://apa-pacific.org. Note: US travellers to Canada now 
need a passport to re-enter the United States, and students in the US 
on F1 visas must ensure proper documentation. Further information is 
provided through the meeting web site.

Dominic McIver Lopes
Professor of Philosophy and Associate Dean of Arts, University of 
British Columbia
Secretary-Treasurer, APA Pacific Division

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One of my favorite cat videos appeared here as a visual metaphor for the Pacific APA  2008; I hope you will enjoy another appearance, and it gives you a preview of the conference!

Biden and VAWA

I knew that Joe Biden had been very involved in the Violence Against Women Act, but I didn’t know much more than that till I read this New Republic Article (thanks, Jender-Parents!). What’s particularly interesting is that he fought especially hard for a provision (sadly now struck down) which treated violence against women as a civil rights transgression.

Human Interaction Beats Porn

Just when you thought the world was going to hell in a handbasket comes a hopeful bit of news: for (apparently) the first time, porn is no longer the most-searched-for thing on the internet. Social networking sites are Number One. Personally, I don’t think porn is *necessarily* a bad thing, but I do think actual human interaction is a better thing.* This is, I think, quite a hopeful finding for those worried that technology is making us more distant from each other, and also for those feminists who have thought that pornography is inexorably exerting greater and greater control over our lives. (And nice for those like me who have been dubious about both of these claims!) This is at least some evidence against those worries: people are, increasingly, more interested in actual interaction with other people.

*Hmm… Looking at this claim, I’m no longer so sure, since plenty of actual human interaction is bad. I’m not quite sure how to formulate what I mean, and would appreciate suggestions!