Multimedia
This Twitter compare and contrast, from an Ohio Romney rally, is too stark not to mark with commentary. The first comes from AP reporter Steve Peoples, formerly a journalist on the political beat for the Providence Journal: Steady stream of people leaving Romney rally in the middle of his speech. Maybe it’s the cold, but…
Jim Taricani invited me and RIFuture.org owner/editor Bob Plain to sit in for 10 News Conference, this morning. The topics leaned more toward politics than policy, but we bloggers did manage to pull the conversation toward political philosophy a bit. Specifically, we discussed economic development, the RI economy, the Congressional district 1 race, and the…
630AM/99.7FM WPRO has posted my appearance on the Dan Yorke show, Tuesday, in two segments. The first is the initial half hour introducing the research from the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity and touching on some conclusions. For the second hour, Economic Development Corp. board member and VIBCO President Karl Wadensten joined us in…
President Obama’s teleprompter style has been the subject of substantial (often mocking) critical commentary, and with some justification, as this nearly parodic 2010 video from a Virginia classroom proves: Given recent political events, one can sympathize with the desire of public officials to avoid extemporaneous speech. In a world in which one’s every public utterance…
The Portsmouth Institute conference on “Modern Science, Ancient Faith” closed in spectacular fashion with Rev. Nicanor Austriaco, who teaches both biology and theology at Providence College. With the ease and humor of somebody used to speaking before college students, Austriaco explained what genomic science tells us about our ancestors and speculated about the timing and…
With a joke about philosophers and theologians (he being the former), Michael Ruse used the dinner speech of day two of the Portsmouth Institute conference on “Modern Science, Ancient Faith” to take up the ostensibly neutral (mutually skeptical) approach to arbitrating between religion and science. He referred to both approaches to knowledge as “symbolic” —…
Among the many great pleasures of the Portsmouth Institute conferences is the musical performances, thus far conducted by former Portsmouth Abbey music director Troy Quinn. This year’s performance was no exception. The aesthetic bonus of a windy thunderstorm rolling by outside doesn’t quite convey in the video, but in any event, if one is in…
At each of the Portsmouth Institute’s conferences (except the first, as I recall), Kevin O’Brien of Theater of the Word has had some sort of performance. Last year, being on Catholicism and Shakespeare, his troupe performed scenes from Shakespeare with accompanying commentary. O’Brien’s other two performances, however, were self-composed biographical lectures given in the character…
From an entertainment standpoint, the most interesting aspect of Bill Dembski’s talk at the Portsmouth Institute conference on “Modern Science, Ancient Faith” was the continuation of what is apparently a long-standing head-to-head with the previous speaker, Ken Miller. Dembski is a notable personage on the intelligent design side of the public debate, and at one…
Brown University biology professor Ken Miller opened the second day of conferences at this year’s Portsmouth Institute conference, “Modern Science, Ancient Faith.” Readers may find his name familiar, inasmuch as he was a central figure when the teaching of evolution was big news a few years back. He also stood out, among the academics for…
