et cetera

Anja Löbert, “Cliff Richard’s Self-Presentation as a Redeemer“, in Popular Music, Vol. 27, No. 1, January 2008, pp. 77-97.

Although tremendously popular, Great Britain’s long-term icon Cliff Richard has been widely neglected by popular music studies. This article aims to correct this omission by introducing an argument that claims that Cliff Richard portrays himself to a considerable degree as a saviour figure. Evidence for this thesis will be drawn from three meaningful dimensions in popular music: song lyrics, pictorial self-representations, and image components. These three areas can be shown to be semantically concordant in presenting Cliff Richard as a redeemer. While the promise of redemption by the singer persona is a recurring motif in his song lyrics, this assurance gets repeated in pictorial representations that make allusions to Jesus Christ (through posture, lighting, and elevation) and is further reinforced by a number of components of Richard’s image such as the (apparently) incorruptible body, the asexuality, and the demonstrative benevolence towards the sick and poor. The combination of these sign-complexes creates a meaningful pattern around the singer that sets him apart as a surrogate saviour.

We learn about the perks that accompany a Nobel Prize, including a living alarm clock in the form of a white-robed soprano sporting a tiara of lit candles.

Jerry A. Coyne, “The Complex James Watson“, in The Times Literary Supplement, 12 December 2007.

The rejection of group selection in the 1960s was based on three arguments, like the legs of a stool [...]

David Sloan Wilson and Edward O. Wilson, “Rethinking the Theoretical Foundation of Sociobiology“, in The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 82, No. 4, December 2007, p. 331.

Furthermore, it provides a resolution of the long-standing debate between empiricism and realism.

Craig Dilworth, The Metaphysics of Science: An Account of Modern Science in Terms of Principles, Laws and Theories, 2nd Ed, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 173, Springer, Amsterdam, 2007.

In this respect, an opera is like a living thing—like a porcupine, say.

Joseph Raz, The Practice of Value, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005, p. 78.

The painter might be at a loss to paint a picture of an idea, especially if he is not familiar with conceptual art.

Gilbert Harman, “The Intrinsic Quality of Experience“, in Philosophical Perspectives, Vol. 4, Action Theory and Philosophy of Mind, 1990, pp. 31–52.