This morning I did my first ethics class for the older students on this week’s topic of Free Will and Determinism. I had the one student from last week, plus another kid who graduated up from the younger class. They’re both very articulate and we had a really good discussion of the topic. I think they appreciated the difficulties of the questions and the nuances between simply declaring “of course we have free will” versus the idea that our decisions are determined by our circumstances.
I spent time today working on the next topic, which is How to Rig an Election. I’m going through ideas like gerrymandering, voter suppression, and other stuff.
On a lunch walk with Scully we went by the harbour, and I saw a couple of little black cormorants fishing for food. I could see the small school of tiny fish that they were herding into a ball and picking off as they dived repeatedly. It was very cool. I took a short video with my phone:
The sound you can hear in the video is cicadas, in the nearby trees. And there’s a silver gull swimming on the surface near the cormorants, presumably looking for some sort of hanger-on free feed.
And I did a bit of baking today. A loaf of sourdough (a mild mix of rye and wholemeal), and I made pastry to use for quiche for dinner.
New content today: