Friday, February 8, 2013

Pluperfecter: internet marketing, SEO, web usability, web content ...

How do you get good at marketing, social media, SEO, web usability analysis, and ecommerce?
Personally, I am not real big on formal education for advertising and marketing, but that's because I've forged my own path. I studied English literature and sociology in college.

By the time new business, advertising, and marketing methods and concepts reach a university, they've accumulated accretions of bad practice, hyperbole, and misconception. It's easy for academics to theorize and speculate, without much real world experience.

All my training and expertise in marketing comes from applying principles of poetics, semiotics, ethnomethodogly, deconstruction, and psychoanalysis to the realm of business communications. I got my first job in marketing based solely on my writing ability and enthusiasm for advertising.

At the time, I was working at Hiram Walker and Pabst on the weekends. But I had been subscribing to Advertising Age magazine and reading every book I could find in libraries and book stores on the topic of sales, advertising, and marketing.

I created some speculative print ads, put them in a portfolio, along with samples of my short stories and other writings, and managed to get an interview at a local marketing company. The first place I went to hired me.

I have also attended industry seminars sponsored by reputable corporations or trade associations. My real foundation is both personal study and practical experience working for companies like Ruppman Marketing Serivces, Troy Bilt, Scholastic, Wall Street Transcript, American Banker, and Grey Advertising.

Master marketing by practicing it for companies. Get as much insight and information as you can, then do some speculative work for a business or product that you love.

Design a print ad for a perfume or musical instrument or restaurant that you like and use.?

Develop a marketing campaign for a favorite rock band. Create a promotional video for a brand you're crazy about. Do something that shows you have some genius and passion.

Also be relentlessly paying attention to the blogs, videos, podcasts, and forums and websites devoted to the field, along with books like:

"Positioning" by Al Ries and Jack Trout
"Gonzo Marketing" by Christopher Locke
"Net Words: Creating High-Impact Online Copy" by Nick Usborne
"Designing Web Usability" by Jakob Nielsen
"Free Prize Inside" by Seth Godin
"Kellogg on Marketing" edited by Dawn Iacobucci
"The Origin of Brands" by Al and Laura Ries
"The Cluetrain Manifesto" by Doc Searls, et al
"Naked Conversatons" by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel
"Talent" by Tom Peters
"Small Town Rules" by Barry J. Moltz and Becky McCray
"Customer Centered Selling" by Robert L. Joles
"Credibility" by James Kouzes and Barry Pozner
"Mobile Marketing" by Cindy Krum
"New Rules of Marketing and PR" by David Meerman Scott
"F'd Companies" by Philip J. Kaplan
"505 Unbelievably Stupid Web Pages" by Dan Crowley
"Social Intelligence" by Daniel Goleman
"Guerilla Social Media Marketing" by Jay Conrad Levinson

Plus any classic books on advertising and by Tom Peters, Seth Godin, Peter Drucker, W. Edwards Deming.

Be cautious when it comes to buying books. There are tons of books out now on "social media marketing" and many of them are garbage, just rehashing the same ideas over and over again, or blabbering about a bunch of nonsense. Examine books on "social marketing ROI" if you want a good laugh. On and on they go, never really saying much in most cases.

Learn as much as you can about sales, psychology, web usability, SEO, online writing, direct mail, quality assurance methods, semiotics, sociology, deconstruction, art, design, web design, and other things of this nature, for they all intersect with what you're doing in marketing.

Just when I was feeling like I had learned it all, and was getting rather bored with marketing, along came the internet and websites. Suddenly a whole new world opened up to me, and so far, I have not approached anything like the end of it.

While I have shifted from social media marketing to SEO, I see no end to the intricacies and opportunities of the online realm.

So we must keep studying, thinking, implementing, and learning. You can never think you know it all, or know enough. You must be obsessed and keep on growing and knowing, more and more, and that's how you stay valuable in your field and worthy of ever-increasing pay.

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Source: http://pluperfecter.blogspot.com/2013/02/become-expert-and-get-job-in-marketing.html

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Demand of the day ? eCommerce Business with Social Networking ...

Social Networking is everywhere and always evolving, with an idea to reach into all the elements of the human life ? Business, Lifestyle, Networking & Communication, etc. Therefore, if you?re into an online business world or managing the eCommerce Solutions for any enterprise, it is not wise to ignore its significance. With the technological advancements, modern trends and various avenues, it is essential to utilize the potential of Social platforms to achieve success for your open source eCommerce solutions. Even so, the basic question still lingers on i.e. how to interact or engage the audience or potential customers into your business idea, brand and offers.

Transforming Trends: Enhancing Business Values!

As the time is changing, business trends are also undergoing transformation and taking businesses to new extents. Today the conventional medium of branding and marketing is no longer efficient and cost-effective. Due to the on-going revolution in trends:

  • Term ?Product? is no longer used, it is replaced by ?idea?.
  • Online media created new global avenues, and businesses have no restrictions. Today, business have to provide information feeds, to regulate channels and explore future prospects.
  • Promotional techniques received new definitions. Communication channels are now the medium of promotion. Social media is now a place for promoting or communicating people for business purpose.
  • Money is out of the picture, as social networking platforms are available free of cost and enable businesses to reach out to a wider population. In addition, this also helps in business promotion, as well as assists in interacting directly with the potential customers.

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Social networking is one the best tools for business brand and promotion, that allows people to interact, think and suggest the right option from the list. However, with load of organizations entering the market, people are getting more choices and options. Therefore, it is also hard to hold people on to your business. To overcome this, Social networking platforms offer technique to facilitate businesses by allowing them to create their fan pages or web pages.

Your eCommerce Solutions or portals can grow up to a great extent, through effective social networking, as it allows you to interact with people and convince them about your business or concepts. So, it is imperative for a eCommerce business to utilize social networking for spreading the word and acquiring success.


Source: http://blog.hiddenbrains.com/demand-of-the-day-ecommerce-business-with-social-networking-touch.html

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Anti-doping agency extends deadline for Armstrong

(Reuters) - The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has given disgraced American cyclist Lance Armstrong two more weeks to cooperate fully in an investigation into cycling's darkest episode in return for a possible reduction of his life ban.

Armstrong had initially been set a February 6 deadline by USADA to answer questions under oath, but that was extended on Wednesday after the athlete's attorney Timothy Herman said the timing for an interview could not be accommodated.

"We have been in communication with Mr. Armstrong and his representatives and we understand that he does want to be part of the solution and assist in the effort to clean up the sport of cycling," chief executive Travis Tygart said in a statement.

"We have agreed to his request for an additional two weeks to work on details to hopefully allow for this to happen."

After years of denials, Armstrong admitted in an interview with Oprah Winfrey last month that he had cheated his way to a record seven Tour de France titles with systematic use of banned, performance-enhancing drugs.

Last year he was stripped of his titles after being labeled a "serial cheat" by the USADA.

Tygart then told the CBS "60 Minutes" program on January 27 that his agency had requested an interview with Armstrong while disputing the cyclist's claims of a clean comeback in 2009.

"His blood tests in 2009, 2010 ... one to a million chance that it was due to something other than doping," Tygart said.

In a letter to USADA on January 25, Henman said his client was willing to cooperate with the agency but that pre-existing obligations made the February 6 deadline impossible.

In that letter, Herman raised questions about the role of the USADA in ridding cycling of performance-enhancing drugs. He noted that "professional cycling is and has been largely a European sport".

Herman applauded the International Cycling Union's announcement that it would work with the World Anti-Doping Agency in a broad probe into the use of drugs and rely on a "truth and reconciliation" process.

"As such, we would like to make sure we coordinate with the truth and reconciliation process to examine the culture of doping in cycling in the past and to clear the air so that cycling can move forward," Herman wrote.

Armstrong, 41, said in his interview with Winfrey on her cable network OWN that the lifetime ban against him was like a "death penalty".

He added that he had no ambitions to return to professional cycling but would like to compete in sanctioned athletic events.

(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Ian Ransom)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/usada-extends-deadline-armstrong-cooperate-011955899--spt.html

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No more Saturday mail? Postal Service plans cuts (The Arizona Republic)

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Stanford Engineering's Jens Norskov wins Boudart Award for catalysis

Stanford Engineering's Jens Norskov wins Boudart Award for catalysis [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 7-Feb-2013
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Contact: Andrew Myers
admyers@stanford.edu
650-736-2245
Stanford School of Engineering

Norskov has contributed extensively to the development of computational methods and models of surface reactivity

Jens Nrskov, The Leland T. Edwards Professor in the Stanford University School of Engineering and director of the SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis at SLAC, has won the Michel Boudart Award for the Advancement of Catalysis, an international award for scientific contributions to catalysts, which are integral to many important industrial and biological processes.

Specifically, Nrskov was recognized for developing computational methods and models of surface reactivity, introducing what is now a standard model of transition metal reactivity. Most recently, his research group developed the first database of surface chemical properties and an open-source software to access and mine thermodynamic and catalytic data, opening novel opportunities for discovering trends and for designing new catalysts and catalytic processes.

Nrskov was quick to direct attention to the entire SUNCAT group and its strength in theory, sophisticated computer modeling and experiments.

"It is a recognition of the team and what we've accomplished," Nrskov told the news website InMenlo. "It is by teaming up that you can really move things in a substantial way that a national lab in conjunction with a research university can really make a difference and attack the broader classes of problems."

The Bourdart Award is named for the renowned catalysis expert, Michel Boudart, who died last year after a five-decade career at Stanford University. Presented by the European Federation of Catalysis Societies and North American Catalysis Society, it recognizes contributions within the past five years to the understanding and practice of catalysis and comes with a $6,000 prize.

###


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Stanford Engineering's Jens Norskov wins Boudart Award for catalysis [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 7-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Andrew Myers
admyers@stanford.edu
650-736-2245
Stanford School of Engineering

Norskov has contributed extensively to the development of computational methods and models of surface reactivity

Jens Nrskov, The Leland T. Edwards Professor in the Stanford University School of Engineering and director of the SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis at SLAC, has won the Michel Boudart Award for the Advancement of Catalysis, an international award for scientific contributions to catalysts, which are integral to many important industrial and biological processes.

Specifically, Nrskov was recognized for developing computational methods and models of surface reactivity, introducing what is now a standard model of transition metal reactivity. Most recently, his research group developed the first database of surface chemical properties and an open-source software to access and mine thermodynamic and catalytic data, opening novel opportunities for discovering trends and for designing new catalysts and catalytic processes.

Nrskov was quick to direct attention to the entire SUNCAT group and its strength in theory, sophisticated computer modeling and experiments.

"It is a recognition of the team and what we've accomplished," Nrskov told the news website InMenlo. "It is by teaming up that you can really move things in a substantial way that a national lab in conjunction with a research university can really make a difference and attack the broader classes of problems."

The Bourdart Award is named for the renowned catalysis expert, Michel Boudart, who died last year after a five-decade career at Stanford University. Presented by the European Federation of Catalysis Societies and North American Catalysis Society, it recognizes contributions within the past five years to the understanding and practice of catalysis and comes with a $6,000 prize.

###


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/ssoe-sej020713.php

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Thursday, February 7, 2013

Fox dampens higher profit, revenue at News Corp

(Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch's News Corp on Wednesday reported higher quarterly revenue and profit on strong growth at its cable assets including its Regional Sports and FX networks.

But the rosy quarterly figures - revenue and profit beat expectations - masked troubles at three of News Corp's properties, most notably Fox.

The "fourth network," as Fox is sometimes called, has seen ratings weaken, with more softness at "American Idol" and "X-Factor."

"It's no secret (Fox) had a tough fall," said News Corp President and Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey on a call with analysts, pinning the blame on both programming and a sports line up that fell short of expectations.

Carey, for instance, specifically cited the fact that the San Francisco Giants' World Series sweep of the Detroit Tigers deprived Fox of three high profile nights of live event programming.

News Corp's other trouble spots were overseas, with SKY Italia experiencing a drop off in subscribers because of that tough economy and declines at its Australian newspapers - the early seeds of the News Corp empire.

Carey said Sky Italia's performance so far this year is tracking $100 million below expectations and $150 million lower than last year's performance. He said News Corp plans to take $200 million out of the unit's cost base over the next two to three years.

Shares of News Corp, whose global assets also include The Wall Street Journal and film studio Twentieth Century Fox, fell 3 percent in after-hours trading after closing at $28.22 on Wednesday.

The media conglomerate said revenue rose 5 percent to $9.43 billion for the quarter that ended in December. Analysts were expecting revenue of $9.28 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

News Corp is preparing to separate its faster growing entertainment assets from its newspapers, a move that has been greeted with enthusiasm from investors who have driven up the stock almost 50 percent year-over-year.

Some details about the new publishing operations have been released, including naming Robert Thomson, a Murdoch confidant and the former top editor at The Wall Street Journal, as CEO. More financial information is expected to be released in the next month or so and the split is still on track to be completed by the end of the year, News Corp executives said on the call. Beyond that, however, no other information about the split was provided and analysts did not ask any questions about it.

Despite the problems in Australia, the division that operates the company's newspapers and book publishing assets reported an operating income increase to $234 million from $218 million in the same period a year ago, credited in part to the launch of the Sunday edition of its British tabloid The Sun.

ON MALONE, THE LA DODGERS

Murdoch was once again absent from the earnings call but his son James Murdoch, the company's deputy chief operating officer, fielded questions including the latest cable news out of Europe.

Rupert Murdoch's long-time rival John Malone on Tuesday inked a deal through his Liberty Global to buy British cable group Virgin Media - a potential threat to News Corp's dominance in pay-TV in Europe and its BSkyB network in the U.K.[ID:nL5N0B5646]

But James, who also serves as a director at BSkyB, downplayed any competitive threat.

"Across Europe we compete as well as work with Liberty Global. I don't think there is really a big change to the landscape there. We're pretty pleased with momentum and pleased with the strategic position of the business," he said.

Indeed, News Corp's cable assets have turned in strong growth and this quarter was no exception. Operating income increased 7 percent to $945 million. Advertising revenue at its domestic cable channels rose 8 percent.

"You are getting a massive out performance of growth at the cable group and we think that is compelling," said RBC Capital Markets analyst David Bank.

Also attractive is News Corp's ambitions of expanding its sports programming. The company recently took a 49 percent stake in the network that airs the New York Yankees baseball team and snapped up a regional sports network in Ohio, Bank noted.

News Corp's moves to acquire sports programming rights is widely believed to be the prelude to its launching a national sports network to compete with Disney's ESPN.

On that point, Carey sheepishly said that while News Corp hasn't made an official announcement, "you could call it the world's worst kept secret."

"We think sports is in a huge arena that has room in it to build really attractive businesses," he added.

Carey also took the opportunity to take a shot at Time Warner Cable, saying that company's recent deal for the television rights to the LA Dodgers, reportedly valued at $6 billion-$7 billion, was "too rich for our blood."

News Corp said that net income was $2.38 billion or $1.01 per share, compared with $1.06 billion or 42 cents per share in the same period a year ago.

Excluding special items including costs related to the phone hacking scandal in the U.K., earnings per share was 44 cents, ahead of analysts' estimates by a penny.

(Reporting By Jennifer Saba in New York; Editing by Peter Lauria and Bernard Orr)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fox-dampens-higher-profit-revenue-news-corp-000815336--finance.html

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Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Sanctuary High!

Sanctuary High!

Three girls join a prestigious all boys school! Some of the boys are excited, others are not.. it's going to be an interesting year at Sanctuary High School!

Owner:

Game Masters:

This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?Sanctuary High!?. Anything posted here will also show up there.

Topic Tags:

Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.


Do you do reservations? If so I'd love to reserve one of the girls.

"Light can be found in even the darkest places if one only remembers to turn on the lights." - Albus Dumbledore.

MissBrightside_
Member for 0 years


Yes, I will reserve characters for 24 hours, I hope to get this thing going in a day or so. :)

Is 24 hours enough?

User avatar
Ikuto Tsukiyomi Fan
Member for 3 years



Post a reply

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Alycia Quilts: Home Improvement

Wrangler Man said we needed to do a little home improvement around here. I really think that is a great idea.... so I improved ;-)

This is our new Table Topper... It was in the newest issue of?Modern Quilts Unlimited?and I thought it would look great in Cowboy Fabrics....

And I made sure all my cowboy quilts were pretty... it is amazing how this chair catches things...

Like Ironing. *sigh*

I need a resident iron-er



?And other than a little cowboying - that was my home improvement... somehow though.... I am not sure that was exactly what Wrangler Man was referring to..... but I did my part!
And I can't really show you my design wall, because I am working on the HMQS Veterans Challenge Quilt - and its a *surprise*

For other design walls ...and inspiration... head over to -?http://www.patchworktimes.com

Source: http://alyciaquilts.blogspot.com/2013/02/home-improvement.html

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South Sudan fails to withdraw troops from Sudan border

JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan is not withdrawing troops from the border with Sudan to set up a buffer zone as it pledged it was last month, South Sudan's army said on Monday, in a setback to efforts to resume the oil exports vital to both economies.

The two countries came close to war last April in the worst border clashes since South Sudan seceded in 2011 under a peace deal that ended one of Africa's longest civil wars.

The African Union managed to broker a deal in September to defuse hostilities. But the nations have failed set up a buffer border zone and resume oil exports from the landlocked South Sudan through Sudanese pipelines as agreed in Addis Ababa.

In a sign of goodwill, South Sudan said three weeks ago it had started to unilaterally withdraw its troops from the border and would set up its side of the 10-km buffer zone by Feb 4.

Such a buffer zone is a pre-condition for Sudan to allow oil exports to restart. Juba shut down its output of 350,000 barrels day a year ago in a row with Khartoum over pipeline fees.

But South Sudan's military spokesman Philip Aguer told Reuters on Monday the army had not even started to pull out from the border, despite the government statement.

"There are no orders to withdraw and I don't think there will be any unless there is an agreement from both governments," Aguer said. "We will never withdraw unless there is an agreement for a timely withdrawal for both armies."

Neither South Sudanese nor Sudanese government officials were immediately available for comment.

The African Union twice brought together Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and his South Sudanese counterpart Salva Kiir in Ethiopia last month to end the stalemate but there has been no sign of progress.

Over the weekend Juba accused Khartoum of killing a South Sudanese soldier in two air attacks on their border. Sudan denied the allegation, though Reuters reporters have witnessed Sudanese air attacks on southern territory in the past.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-sudan-accuses-sudan-bombing-khartoum-denies-052602443.html

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Menendez denounces 'smears' (CNN)

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Monday, February 4, 2013

Windows Phone 7.8 hands-on: cosmetically yours

Windows Phone 78 handson cosmetically yours

There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth when Microsoft declared that fairly fresh (and costly) Windows Phone 7 devices like the Nokia Lumia 900 would never taste its latest WP8 wares. To assuage hurt feelings and keep legacy phone owners within throwing distance of the latest devices like the Nokia Lumia 920 or HTC's 8X, Redmond introduced Windows Phone 7.8 (version 7.10.8858), which started arriving via Zune on January 31st. It was likely hoping that the upgrade would tide legacy owners over until their contracts expired or boredom set in, at which point they'd get a new device packing WP8 -- including not-too-costly models like the $249 (contract-free) Lumia 620. So the question is, will the 7.8 bone thrown at WP7 handset owners prevent them from looking at the greener Android or iOS grass across the fence? We've got a Lumia 610 here that was otherwise collecting dust, so head after the break to find out our thoughts.

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Friday, February 1, 2013

Is Scientific Materialism "Almost Certainly False"?

When it comes to science, ours is a paradoxical era. On the one hand, prominent physicists proclaim that they are solving the riddle of reality and hence finally displacing religious myths of creation. That is the chest-thumping message of books such as The Grand Design by physicists Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow and A Universe from Nothing by Lawrence Krauss. A corollary of this triumphal view is that science will inevitably solve all other mysteries as well.

On the other hand, science?s limits have never been more glaringly apparent. In their desperation for a ?theory of everything??which unifies quantum mechanics and relativity and explains the origin and structure of our cosmos?physicists have embraced pseudo-scientific speculation such as multi-universe theories and the anthropic principle (which says that the universe must be as we observe it to be because otherwise we wouldn?t be here to observe it). Fields such as neuroscience, evolutionary psychology and behavioral genetics and complexity have fallen far short of their hype.

Some scholars, notably philosopher Thomas Nagel, are so unimpressed with science that they are challenging its fundamental assumptions. In his new book Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False, Nagel contends that current scientific theories and methods can?t account for the emergence of life in general and one bipedal, big-brained species in particular. To solve these problems, Nagel asserts, science needs ?a major conceptual revolution,? as radical as those precipitated by heliocentrism, evolution and relativity.

Many pundits calling for such a revolution are peddling some sort of religious agenda, whether Christian or New Age. Nagel is an atheist, who cannot accept God as a final answer, and yet he echoes some theological critiques of science. ?Physic-chemical reductionism,? he writes, cannot tell us how matter became animate on Earth more than three billion years ago; nor can it account for the emergence in our ancestors of consciousness, reason and morality.

Evolutionary psychologists invoke natural selection to explain humanity?s remarkable attributes, but only in a hand-wavy, retrospective fashion, according to Nagel. A genuine theory of everything, he suggests, should make sense of the extraordinary fact that the universe ?is waking up and becoming aware of itself.? In other words, the theory should show that life, mind, morality and reason were not only possible but even inevitable, latent in the cosmos from its explosive inception. Nagel admits he has no idea what form such a theory would take; his goal is to point out how far current science is from achieving it.

I share Nagel?s view of science?s inadequacies. Moreover, I?m a fan of his work, especially his famous essay ?What Is It Like to Be a Bat??, a quirky take on the mind-body problem (which inspired my column ?What Is it Like to Be a Cat??). So I was a bit disappointed by the dry, abstract style of Mind and Cosmos. The book seems aimed primarily at philosophers and scientists?that is, professionals?rather than lay readers.

Nagel acknowledges that his attempt to envision a more expansive scientific paradigm is ?far too unimaginative.? He might have produced a more compelling work if he had ranged more widely in his survey of alternatives to materialist dogma. For example, complexity theorist Stuart Kauffman has postulated the existence of a new force that counteracts the universal drift toward disorder decreed by the second law of thermodynamics. Kauffman suspects that this anti-entropy force might account for the emergence and evolution of life. Nagel mentions Kauffman?s theory of ?self-organization? in a footnote but doesn?t elaborate on it. (I critiqued the field of complexity research in a recent column.)

According to the physicist John Wheeler, quantum mechanics implies that our observations of reality influence its unfolding. We live in a ?participatory universe,? Wheeler proposed, in which mind is as fundamental as matter. Philosopher David Chalmers, Nagel?s colleague at New York University, conjectures that ?information,? which emerges from certain physical configurations and processes and entails consciousness, is a fundamental component of reality, as much so as time, space, matter and energy.

I never took Chalmer?s hypothesis seriously?in part because it implies that toaster ovens might be conscious?but I would have appreciated Nagel?s take on it. (For a critique of the ideas of Wheeler and Chalmers, see my column ?Why information can?t be the basis of reality.?)

Nagel touches briefly on free will, when he suggests that our moral and aesthetic choices cannot be reduced to physical processes, but I expected a deeper treatment of the topic. Many leading scientists, from Francis Crick to Hawking, have argued that free will is an illusion, as much so as God and ghosts. This perspective, it seems to me, stems from a cramped, hyper-reductive view of causality, which I wish Nagel had opposed more vigorously.

These qualms asides, I recommend Nagel?s book, which serves as a much-needed counterweight to the smug, know-it-all stance of many modern scientists. Hawking and Krauss both claim that science has rendered philosophy obsolete. Actually, now more than ever we need philosophers, especially skeptics like Socrates, Descartes, Thomas Kuhn and Nagel, who seek to prevent us from becoming trapped in the cave of our beliefs.

Lehrer alert: This review was originally published in the Canadian newspaper The Globe & Mail.

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