Requiescat in pace, Ernan Mc Mullin

From wikipedia.org:

Ernan McMullin (1924-2011) was the O’Hara Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame. He was an internationally-respected philosopher of science who has written and lectured extensively on subjects ranging from the relationship between cosmology and theology, to the role of values in understanding science, to the impact of Darwinism on Western religious thought. He was an expert on the life of Galileo.

He passed away on February 8, 2011, in Letterkenny in his native Donegal, Ireland.

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 13,000 times in 2010. That’s about 31 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 83 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 84 posts. There were 10 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 2mb. That’s about a picture per month.

The busiest day of the year was September 29th with 631 views. The most popular post that day was Pittsburgh: Assistant Professor.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were alphainventions.com, philosophy.ucsd.edu, soulphysics.org, digg.com, and Google Reader.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for taking up spacetime, logic methodology and philosophy of science, what is structure, itamar pitowsky, and robert batterman.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Pittsburgh: Assistant Professor September 2010

2

Philosophers of Physics February 2010
2 comments

3

CFP: 14th Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science in Nancy, France March 2010

4

Help wanted: wave function realism April 2010
6 comments

5

What is structure? February 2010
4 comments

Threatened closure of HPS at the University of Bern

This week, the remaining members of the group in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Bern, Switzerland, have issued an urgent call for international support as the Rector of the university and the Dean of the Faculty of Science have declared their intention to close this very successful programme, whose origins apparently go back to the 1930s.

Please read on…

Call for Nominations: Cushing Memorial Prize

The family, students, friends, and colleagues of Jim Cushing are pleased once again to solicit nominations for the James T. Cushing Prize in the History and Philosophy of Physics.

Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships

The Canadian government recently announced the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship program, which will award 70  two-year postdocs for Canadian scholars studying abroad or scholars (of any nationality) visiting Canadian universities. The fellowships are very well-paid, with a stipend of $70,000 (Canadian) per year. The fellowships are open to those who have completed their dissertation between the dates of November 3rd, 2007 and December 31, 2010. Applications are due on Nov. 3, 2010, and the program places an emphasis on “synergy” between the applicant and the host institution, so the application must be completed in collaboration with the host institution.  (Follow the link for the full details of the program.)

Call for Donations: Hanneke Janssen Memorial Prize

In collaboration with the Nijmegen University Fund (SNUF), the undersigned intend to launch a prize in memory of Hanneke Janssen, who graduated at the Radboud University Nijmegen a month before she died in a traffic accident on November 11th, 2008.

Cushing Prize

Congratulations to David Baker who wins the 2010 James T. Cushing Memorial Prize in History and Philosophy of Physics.

In Memoriam: Itamar Pitowsky (1950-2010)

As announced on his website, the leading philosopher of physics Itamar Pitowsky at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem has died on Wednesday, 10 February 2010. Friends are invited to write words of appreciation here.