Most Expensive Car 2018

..according the the New Scientist .  David Carrier at the University of Utah suggests that the opposable thumb didn't so much give our ancestors an advantage in tool making and manipulation, but rather enabled the creation of a fist utilising the thumb as a buttress which produces greater striking force. Somehow, I'm sceptical.

but still a good dilemma. Popovich angers Stern by resting Spurs' stars, but it's the right call I love a good ethical dilemma, and Gregg Popovich gave us a great one Thursday night. He benched four of his top players -- Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker and Danny Green -- for a national TV game against the Miami Heat. Popovich has benched Duncan numerous times before, because while they may build a statue of Duncan one day, they don't want him to play like one in May. But Parker is 30. Green is 25. What kind of a world is this when a 25-year-old professional basketball player needs rest? Go tell the guys on the 5 a.m. shift at the nearest assembly line that Green needed to rest. Before the opening tip, this looked like an unofficial forfeit -- giving up one game to improve your chances of winning the next. It seemed to go against the one fundamental principle we hold for all our sports: Everybody must try. But did it? Or was Popovich not only within his rights, but si...

Call for Abstracts Fandom, Fantasy, and Fitness The 2nd Annual Rockford College Sports Studies Symposium Date: April 19, 2013 Grace Roper Lounge Rockford College 5050 E. State. St. Rockford, IL 61108 Fans play a central role at all levels and within various aspects of sport, so any study of sport would do well to consider their influences in connection to fandom, fantasy, and fitness. A specific and growing area of fandom, fantasy sports, illustrates a concrete and complex way fans relate to and even affect sport. Moreover, the implicit and explicit connection of sport to fitness offers another important way that fans interact with sport. This year’s symposium seeks to explore and examine these aspects of the relationship between fan and sport. We invite scholars from all disciplines to submit an abstract on these themes. This symposium will then bring together several panels of scholars to discuss these themes. The focus of each panel will depend, in part, on the submitt...

See this link for an upcoming conference on the philosophy of running. And see this link for a book (my book, couldn't resist) on this theme. Here are some more details about the conference: The University of Sheffield , in collaboration with the Open University  and the Royal Institute of Philosophy , is organising two public events for philosophers and runners, and interested public, dedicated to an exploration of the philosophy of running. Questions that will undoubtedly arise include, Why run? What sort of value does running have?  What might running tell us about intentions and effort? What is philosophically distinctive about running? Each event will include talks by a couple of running philosophers (see who we are ). And then a roundtable discussion with the great and the good from the running community (see the Sheffield Event and the Brighton Event ). The events are free. … but it’d be good if you can register so we make sure we have enough coffee an...

 If you would like to present a paper at a session sponsored by IAPS, email an abstract of 250 words or less to Mike Austin, mike.austinatsymbol.eku.edu. Each paper will be allotted 30 minutes reading time, and 20 minutes for discussion. The 2013 APA Central Division meeting will be held at the Riverside Hilton hotel, New Orleans, Wednesday, February 20 to Saturday, February 23, 2013. The IAPS Group Meeting is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 23. Deadline for receipt of abstracts is September 25, 2012.

Just ran across this essay by Mark Edmundson in the Chronicle of Higher Ed.  An excerpt: All too often, the players who go all out on the field but can't readily turn it off elsewhere are the best players. They're the most headlong, the most fearless, the most dedicated. And when they encounter a modulated, more controlled antagonist in a game, often they, the more brutal players, win. Lawrence Taylor was one of the best players ever to appear in the National Football League. With his speed and ferocity, and his ability to run down the opposing quarterback, he made football into a different, more violent game. But he was often as much in a fury off the field as on. By his own account, Taylor led the life of a beast—drunk, brawling, high on coke, speeding in his car: He was a peril to anyone who came near him. His coach, Bill Parcells, allowed him to cultivate this off-field character, knowing that it contributed to his prowess when he played. If the best players ar...

Readers of this blog might be interested in a new blog, The Sports Ethicist : Whether one is a participant, a casual spectator, a die-hard fan, or a critic, sport, in all its varieties and forms, play a significant role in the lives of most people through out the world. Sports and competitions have long been a part of human civilization and raise a wide range of important philosophical and ethical issues. This blog will examine these issues and explore both the ethical implications of sport and the ways sport can teach us about ethics and human life.