Butchers, bakers and donutmakers probably won’t forsee all that much trouble in cutting something in half. If you’re a philosopher on the other hand . . . Problems arise when trying (to imagine) the process of cutting something exactly in half. Given that most objects could be said to have a centre point of some […]
Tag: donut
The Lure of Virtual Donuts (study)
“There appears to be a lack of research on the influence of virtual foods in IVEs [immersive virtual environments] on human satiation.” Prompting a joint research project from Stanford University (US) and Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) to cater for this academic lacuna with a virtual donut [ […]
Doughnut holes revisited (new essay)
Dr Suki Finn who is a postdoctoral research fellow in philosophy at the University of Southampton, UK, poses a question in a recent AEON magazine article : ‘Is a hole a real thing, or just a place where something isn’t?’ Pointing out that: “[…] a better understanding of where holes lie on the material/immaterial and […]
The Straight Poop: Sociology of Canadian Donut Shops, Ongoing
The sociology of Canadian donut shops plays out afresh, as described in a New York Post report headlined “Lady poops on restaurant floor, flings it at cashier.” That report includes action video. The 1999 Ig Nobel Prize for sociology was awarded to Steve Penfold, of York University in Toronto, for doing his PhD thesis on the sociology of Canadian donut […]
How good are mathematicians at telling a joke?
You may have wondered how good mathematicians are at telling a joke. Here’s mathematician Henry Segerman telling a topology joke — the one about the coffee cup and the donut: Here’s another mathematician, Ian Agol, telling the same joke (filmed by Scientific American.) Here’s Jim Fowler making the joke wordlessly: Three anonymous, shy mathematicians make the […]
Holes in donuts – the philosophical implications (part 2)
In 2001, professor Achille C. Varzi, of Columbia University, New York, very probably became the first philosopher to author a paper focusing specifically on the ramifications of holes in donuts (that’s ‘doughnuts’ in the UK), as we reported. But the paper wasn’t, in the literal sense, the last word on donut holes. In 2012 the subject […]
Holes in doughnuts – the philosophical implications (part 1)
Achille C. Varzi, who is Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, New York, is interested in the philosophical implications of holes and voids, prompting a unique investigation into a special subset of hole-bearing entities – namely doughnuts (that’s ‘donuts’ US). “A doughnut always comes with a hole. If you think you can come up with […]
VR – Mysteries of the scent projector (part 1)
For those in the VR (Virtual Reality) world, there’s an old problem, how can scents be reliably delivered to individuals in an audience at the right place and the right time? Although many attempts have been made – with varying degrees of success – it took until 2003 for the vortex ring scent canon to […]
The ethics of eating a drug-company donut
Philosophy and medicine join forces because of a donut, in the study: “The ethics of eating a drug-company donut,” Karl Broznitsky, Canadian Medical Association Journal, 1996 March 15; 154(6): 899–900. It concludes with this passage: “He bit into the donut, as content with his rationalization as his staffmen were with theirs. A blob of grape […]