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"Qualia" is "an unfamiliar term for something that could not be more familiar to each of us: the ways things seem to us"[1]. They can be defined as qualities or feelings, like redness or pain, as considered independently of their effects on behavior and from whatever physical circumstances give rise to them. In more philosophical terms, qualia are properties of sensory experiences.
Whether qualia exist is a hotly debated topic in contemporary philosophy of mind. The importance of qualia in philosophy of mind comes largely from the fact that they are often seen as being an possible refutation of physicalism. Much of the debate over their existence, however, hinges on the debate over the precise definition of the term, as various philosophers emphasize or deny the existence of certain properties.
The word "qualia", (IPA: [ˈkwɑːliə], roughly KWAH-lee-ah) comes from the Latin, meaning "what sort" or "what kind"; The Latin and English singular is "quale" (IPA: [ˈkwɑːle], roughly KWAH-leh)[2])
Definitions of qualiaEdit
Broad definitionsEdit
There are many definitions of qualia, which have changed over time. One of the simpler, broader definitions is "The 'what it is like' character of mental states. The way it feels to have mental states such as pain, seeing red, smelling a rose, etc'" [1].
C. I. Lewis, in his book Mind and the World Order (1929), was the first to use the term "qualia" in its generally agreed modern sense.
|There are recognizable qualitative characters of the given, which may be repeated in different experiences, and are thus a sort of universals; I call these "qualia." But although such qualia are universals, in the sense of being recognized from one to another experience, they must be distinguished from the properties of objects. Confusion of these two is characteristic of many historical conceptions, as well as of current essence-theories. The quale is directly intuited, given, and is not the subject of any possible error because it is purely subjective.
</blockquote> Frank Jackson (1982) later defined qualia as "...certain features of the bodily sensations especially, but also of certain perceptual experiences, which no amount of purely physical information includes" (p. 273).
Under definitions like these, which are quite broad, there can be little doubt that qualia exist [2]. However, definitions this broad make it difficult to discuss the precise nature of qualia, and their interaction with the mind and the environment. Some philosophers have made attempts at more precise, possibly narrower, definitions of qualia, describing things whose existence is more controversial.
Narrower definitionsEdit
Daniel Dennett identifies four properties that are commonly ascribed to qualia. According to these, qualia are:
- ineffable; that is, they cannot be communicated, or apprehended by any other means than direct experience.
- intrinsic; that is, they are non-relational properties, which do not change depending on the experience's relation to other things.
- private; that is, all interpersonal comparisons of qualia are systematically impossible.
- directly or immediately apprehensible in consciousness; that is, to experience a quale is to know one experiences a quale, and to know all there is to know about that quale.
If qualia of this sort exist, then a normally-sighted person who sees red would be unable to describe the experience of this perception in such a way that a listener who has never experienced color will be able to know everything there is to know about that experience. Though it is possible to make an analogy, such as "red looks hot", or to provide a description of the conditions under which the experience occurs, such as "it's the color you see when light of 700 nm wavelength is directed at you," supporters of this kind of qualia contend that such a description is incapable of providing a complete description of the experience.
Another way of defining qualia is as "raw feels". A raw feel is a perception in and of itself, considered entirely in isolation from any effect it might have on behavior and behavioral disposition. In contrast, a "cooked feel" is that perception seen as existing in terms of its effects.
According to an argument put forth by Saul Kripke in "Identity and Necessity" (1971), one key consequence of the claim that such things as raw feels can be meaningfully discussed — that qualia exist — is that it leads to the logical possibility of two entities exhibiting identical behavior in all ways despite one of them entirely lacking qualia. While very few ever claim that such an entity, called a philosophical zombie, actually exists, the mere possibility is claimed to be sufficient to refute physicalism. Those who dispute the existence of qualia would therefore necessarily dispute the existence of philosophical zombies.
There is an ancient Sufi parable about coffee that nicely expresses the concept: "He who tastes, knows; he who tastes not, knows not."
John Searle has rejected the notion that the problem of qualia is different from the problem of consciousness itself, arguing that consciousness and qualia are one and the same phenomenon.
Arguments for the existence of qualia Edit
Since it is by definition difficult or impossible to convey qualia verbally, it is difficult to demonstrate them directly in an argument; a more tangential approach is needed. Arguments for qualia generally come in the form of thought experiments designed to lead one to the conclusion that qualia exist.
The Bat argument Edit
- Main article: Subjective character of experience
Although it does not actually mention the word "qualia", Thomas Nagel's paper What Is it Like to Be a Bat?[3] is often cited in debates over qualia. Nagel argues that consciousness has an essentially subjective character, a what-it-is-like aspect. He states that "an organism has conscious mental states if and only if there is something that it is to be that organism — something it is like for the organism."[4] Nagel also suggests that the subjective aspect of the mind may not ever be sufficiently accounted for by the objective methods of reductionistic science. He claims that "[i]f we acknowledge that a physical theory of mind must account for the subjective character of experience, we must admit that no presently available conception gives us a clue how this could be done."[5] Furthermore, he states that "it seems unlikely that any physical theory of mind can be contemplated until more thought has been given to the general problem of subjective and objective."[6]
The Inverted Spectrum ArgumentEdit
- Main article: Inverted spectrum
The inverted spectrum thought experiment invites us to imagine that we wake up one morning, and find that for some unknown reason all the colors in the world have been inverted. Furthermore, we discover that no physical changes have occurred in our brains or bodies that would explain this phenomenon. Supporters of the existence of qualia argue that, since we can imagine this happening without contradiction, it follows that we are imagining a change in a property that determines the way things look to us, but that has no physical basis. In more detail:
- Metaphysical identity holds of necessity
- If something is possibly false, it is not necessary
- It is conceivable that qualia could have a different relationship to physical brain-states
- If it is conceivable, then it is possible
- Since it is possible for qualia to have a different relationship with physical brain-states, they cannot be identical to brain states (by 1).
- Therefore, qualia are non-physical.
The argument thus claims that if we find the inverted spectrum plausible, we must admit that qualia exist (and are non-physical). Some philosophers find it absurd that an armchair argument can prove something to exist, and the detailed argument does involve a lot of assumptions about conceivability and possibility, which are open to criticism. Perhaps it is not possible for a given brain state to produce anything other than a given quale in our universe, and that is all that matters.
The idea that an inverted spectrum would be undetectable in practice is also open to criticism on more scientific grounds.
The Zombie ArgumentEdit
- Main article: Philosophical zombie
A similar argument holds that it is conceivable that there could be physical duplicates of people, called "Zombies", without any qualia at all. Similar criticisms about conceivability versus possibility can be made.[7][8]
The Explanatory Gap ArgumentEdit
- Main article: Explanatory gap
Joseph Levine's paper Conceivability, Identity, and the Explanatory Gap takes up where the criticisms of conceivabilty arguments, such as the Inverted Spectrum argument and the Zombie argument leave off. Levine agrees that conceivability is flawed as a means of establishing metaphysical realities, but points out that even if we come to the metaphysical conclusion that qualia are non-physical, they still present an explanatory problem.
"While I think this materialist response is right in the end, it does not suffice to put the mind-body problem to rest. Even if conceivability considerations do not establish that the mind is in fact distinct from the body, or that mental properties are metaphysically irreducible to physical properties, still they do demonstrate that we lack an explanation of the mental in terms of the physical"
However, such an epistemological or explanatory problem might indicate an underlying metaphysical issue — the non-physicality of qualia, even if not proven by conceivability arguments is far from ruled out.
"In the end, we are right back where we started. The explanatory gap argument doesn't demonstrate a gap in nature, but a gap in our understanding of nature. Of course a plausible explanation for there being a gap in our understanding of nature is that there is a genuine gap in nature. But so long as we have countervailing reasons for doubting the latter, we have to look elsewhere for an explanation of the former".[9]
The Knowledge argumentEdit
- Main article: Mary's room
In "Epiphenomenal Qualia" (1982), Frank Jackson offers what he calls the "Knowledge Argument" for qualia. One example runs as follows:
- Mary the colour scientist knows all the physical facts about colour, including every physical fact about the experience of colour in other people, from the behavior a particular colour is likely to elicit to the specific sequence of neurological firings that register that a colour has been seen. However, she has been confined from birth to a room that is black and white, and is only allowed to observe the outside world through a black and white monitor. When she is allowed to leave the room, it must be admitted that she learns something about the colour red the first time she sees it — specifically, she learns what it is like to see that colour.
This thought experiment has two purposes. First, it is intended to show that qualia exist. If we agree with the thought experiment, we believe that Mary gains something after she leaves the room — that she acquires knowledge of a particular thing that she did not possess before. That knowledge, Jackson argues, is knowledge of the quale that corresponds to the experience of seeing red, and it must thus be conceded that qualia are real properties, since there is a difference between a person who has access to a particular quale and one who does not.
The second purpose of this argument is to refute the physicalist account of the mind. Specifically, the Knowledge Argument is an attack on the physicalist claim about the completeness of physical truths. The challenge the Knowledge Argument poses to physicalism runs as follows:
- Before her release, Mary was in possession of all the physical information about colour experiences of other people.
- After her release, Mary learns something about the colour experiences of other people.
- Before her release, Mary was not in possession of all the information about other people's colour experiences, even though she was in possession of all the physical information.
- There are truths about other people's colour experience that are not physical.
- Physicalism is false.
Finally, Jackson argues that qualia are epiphenomenal: not causally efficacious with respect to the physical world. Jackson does not give a positive justification for this claim — rather, he seems to assert it simply because it defends qualia against the classic problem of dualism. Our natural assumption would be that qualia must be causally efficacious in the physical world, but some would ask how we could argue for their existence if they did not affect our brains. If qualia are to be non-physical properties (which they must be in order to constitute an argument against physicalism), some argue that it is almost impossible to imagine how they could have a causal effect on the physical world. By redefining qualia as epiphenomenal, Jackson attempts to protect them from the demand of playing a causal role.
Critics of qualiaEdit
Daniel DennettEdit
In Consciousness Explained (1991) and "Quining Qualia" (1998), Daniel Dennett offers an argument against qualia that attempts to show that the above definition breaks down when one tries to make a practical application of it. In a series of thought experiments, which he calls "intuition pumps", he brings qualia into the world of neurosurgery, clinical psychology, and psychological experimentation. His argument attempts to show that, once the concept of qualia is so imported, it turns out that we can either make no use of it in the situation in question, or that the questions posed by the introduction of qualia are unanswerable precisely because of the special properties defined for qualia.
In Dennett's updated version of the inverted spectrum thought experiment, "alternative neurosurgery", you again awake to find that your qualia have been inverted — grass appears blue, the sky appears green, etc. According to the original account, you should be immediately aware that something has gone horribly wrong. Dennett argues, however, that it is impossible to know whether the diabolical neurosurgeons have indeed inverted your qualia (by tampering with your optic nerve, say), or have simply inverted your connection to memories of past qualia. Since both operations would produce the same result, you would have no means on your own to tell which operation has actually been conducted, and you are thus in the odd position of not knowing whether there has been a change in your "immediately apprehensible" qualia.
Dennett's argument revolves around the central objection that, for qualia to be taken seriously as a component of experience — for them to even make sense as a discrete concept — it must be possible to show that
- a) it is possible to know that a change in qualia has occurred, as opposed to a change in something else;
or that
- b) there is a difference between having a change in qualia and not having one.
Dennett attempts to show that we cannot satisfy (a) either through introspection or through observation, and that qualia's very definition undermines its chances of satisfying (b).
Perhaps Mary's failure to learn exactly what seeing red feels like is simply a failure of language, or a failure of our ability to describe experiences. An alien race with a different method of communication or description might be perfectly able to teach their version of Mary exactly how seeing the colour red would feel. Perhaps it is simply a uniquely human failing to communicate first-person experiences from a third-person perspective. Dennett suggests that the description might even be possible using English. He uses a simpler version of the Mary thought experiment to show how this might work. What if Mary was in a room without triangles and was prevented from seeing or making any triangles? An English-language description of just a few words would be sufficient for her to imagine what it is like to see a triangle — she can simply and directly visualise a triangle in her mind. Similarly, Dennett proposes, it is perfectly, logically possible that the quale of what it is like to see red could eventually be described in an English-language description of millions or billions of words.
Dennett also has a response to the "Mary the color scientist" thought experiment. He argues that Mary would not, in fact, learn something new if she stepped out of her black and white room to see the color red. Dennett asserts that if she already truly knew "everything about color", that knowledge would include a deep understanding of why and how human neurology causes us to sense the "quale" of color. Mary would therefore already know exactly what to expect of seeing red, before ever leaving the room. Dennett argues that the misleading aspect of the story is that Mary is supposed to not merely be knowledgeable about color but to actually know all the physical facts about it, which would be a knowledge so deep that it exceeds what can be imagined, and twists our intuitions.
If Mary really does know everything physical there is to know about the experience of colour, then this effectively grants her almost omniscient powers of knowledge. Using this, she will be able to deduce her own reaction, and figure out exactly what the experience of seeing red will feel like.
Dennett finds that many people find it difficult to see this, so he uses the case of RoboMary to further illustrate what it would be like for Mary to possess such a vast knowledge of the physical workings of the human brain and colour vision. RoboMary is an intelligent robot who, instead of the ordinary colour camera-eyes, has a software lock such that she is only able to perceive black and white and shades in-between.
RoboMary can examine the computer brain of similar non-colour-locked robots when they look at a red tomato, and see exactly how they react and what kinds of impulses occur. RoboMary can also construct a simulation of her own brain, unlock the simulations colour-lock and, with reference to the other robots, simulate exactly how this simulation of herself reacts to seeing a red tomato. RoboMary naturally has control over all of her internal states except for the colour-lock. With the knowledge of her simulation's internal states upon seeing a red tomato, RoboMary can put her own internal states directly into the states they would be in upon seeing a red tomato. In this way, without ever seeing a red tomato through her cameras, she will know exactly what it is like to see a red tomato.
Dennett uses this example to show us that Mary's all-encompassing physical knowledge makes her own internal states as transparent as those of a robot or computer, and it is almost straightforward for her to figure out exactly how it feels to see red. Jackson's response might be to simply doubt the claim that Mary could figure it out. Yet this seems like a poor response. Dennett doubts Jackson's assertion that Mary learns something new, and Jackson doubts Dennett's counter-assertion that, with all physical knowledge, she learns nothing new at all.
Paul ChurchlandEdit
Mary might be considered to be like a feral child. Feral children have suffered extreme isolation during childhood. Technically when Mary leaves the room, she would not have the ability to see or know what the color red is. A brain has to learn and develop how to see colors. Patterns need to form in the V4 section of the visual cortex. These patterns are formed from exposure to wave lengths of light. This exposure is needed during the early stages of brain development. In Mary's case, the identifications and categorizations of color will only be in respect to representations of black and white.
David LewisEdit
David Lewis has an interesting argument that introduces a new hypothesis about types of knowledge and their transmission in qualia cases. Lewis agrees that Mary cannot learn what red looks like through her monochrome physicalist studies. But he proposes that this doesn't matter. Learning transmits information, but experiencing qualia doesn't transmit information; instead it communicates abilities. When Mary sees red, she doesn't get any new information. She gains new abilities — now she can remember what red looks like, imagine what other red things might look like and recognise further instances of redness. Lewis states that Jackson's thought experiment uses the 'Phenomenal Information Hypothesis' — that is, the new knowledge that Mary gains upon seeing red is phenomenal information. Lewis then proposes a different 'Ability Hypothesis' that differentiates between two types of knowledge: knowledge that (information) and knowledge how (abilities). Normally the two are entangled; ordinary learning is also an experience of the subject concerned, and people learn both information (for instance, that Freud was a psychologist) and ability (can recognise images of Freud). However in the thought experiment, Mary can only use ordinary learning to gain know-that knowledge. She is prevented from using experience to gain the know-how knowledge that would allow her to remember, imagine and recognise the colour red.
This makes sense. We have the intuition that Mary has been deprived of some vital data to do with the experience of redness. It is also uncontroversial that some things cannot be learned inside the room; for example, we do not expect Mary to learn how to ski within the room. Lewis has articulated that information and ability are potentially different things. In this way, physicalism is still compatible with the conclusion that Mary gains new knowledge. It is also useful for considering other instances of qualia; 'being a bat' is an ability, so it is know-how knowledge.
Jackson will defend the phenomenal information hypothesis — she does learn that red looks like x, which she couldn't using purely physicalist knowledge. The fact that she can only gain knowledge of what red looks like by experience is at the very heart of the thought experiment. Furthermore, the ability hypothesis could be described as just a restatement of the phenomenal information hypothesis — all phenomenal information is renamed 'ability' and placed firmly in the physicalist camp. The fact remains that Mary can't gain this knowledge through physicalist facts. Lastly, Lewis hasn't proven the ability hypothesis. When Mary sees red, she surely gains the new knowledge that this is what the experience of red is like.
Marvin MinskyEdit
The veteran artificial intelligence researcher Marvin Minsky thinks the problems posed by qualia are essentially issues of complexity, or rather of mistaking complexity for simplicity.
"Now, a philosophical dualist might then complain: "You've described how hurting affects your mind — but you still can't express how hurting feels." This, I maintain, is a huge mistake — that attempt to reify 'feeling' as an independent entity, with an essence that's indescribable. As I see it, feelings are not strange alien things. It is precisely those cognitive changes themselves that constitute what 'hurting' is — and this also includes all those clumsy attempts to represent and summarize those changes. The big mistake comes from looking for some single, simple, 'essence' of hurting, rather than recognizing that this is the word we use for complex rearrangement of our disposition of resources".[10]
Scientific PerspectivesEdit
V.S. Ramachandran and William Hirstein have proposed four laws of qualia, or "functional criteria that need to be fulfilled in order for certain neural events to be associated with qualia" by philosophers of the mind:
- "Qualia are irrevocable and indubitable. You don't say 'maybe it is red but I can visualize it as green if I want to'. An explicit neural representation of red is created that invariably and automatically 'reports' this to higher brain centres.
- "Once the representation is created, what can be done with it is open-ended. You have the luxury of choice, e.g., if you have the percept of an apple you can use it to tempt Adam, to keep the doctor away, bake a pie, or even just to eat. Even though the representation at the input level is immutable and automatic, the output is potentially infinite. This isn't true for, say, a spinal reflex arc where the output is also inevitable and automatic. Indeed, a paraplegic can even have an erection and ejaculate without an orgasm.
- "Short-term memory. The input invariably creates a representation that persists in short-term memory — long enough to allow time for choice of output. Without this component, again, you get just a reflex arc.
- "Attention. Qualia and attention are closely linked. You need attention to fulfil criterion number two; to choose. A study of circuits involved in attention, therefore, will shed much light on the riddle of qualia."[11]
Other IssuesEdit
It is possible to apply a criticism similar to Nietzsche's criticism of Kant's "thing in itself" to qualia: Qualia are unobservable in others and unquantifiable in us. We cannot possibly be sure, when discussing individual qualia, that we are even discussing the same phenomena. Thus, any discussion of them is of indeterminate value, as descriptions of qualia are necessarily of indeterminate accuracy. Qualia can be compared to "things in themselves" in that they have no publicly demonstrable properties; this, along with the impossibility of being sure that we are communicating about the same qualia, makes them of indeterminate value and definition in any philosophy in which proof relies upon precise definition. On the other hand, qualia could be considered akin to Kantian phenomena since they are held to be seemings of appearances.
Causal EfficacyEdit
It can be argued that:
"Qualia have not been to interact with any physical things. If some given thing can neither be observed nor be deduced from the observable, and if any quality that might distinguish it from nonexistent things is itself unobservable or inexpressible, then Occam's Razor would suggest that we eliminate that thing from models and descriptions of phenomena like consciousness since those models would function perfectly well without it in predicting observable events".
This is an example of an argument for epiphenomenalism — a position that is often regarded as unlikely, if only because our own consciousness seem to be causally active. It should be noted that the argument assumes that qualia are non-physical, although non-physicality usually does not feature in the definition of "quale"; and it also assumes the qualia are neither observable nor expressible, although qualiaphiles consider themselves to be subjectively aware of their own qualia.
Of course, some qualiaphiles do argue that qualia are non-physical entities. In order to avoid epiphenomenalism, they would need to embrace something like interactionist dualism; or perhaps emergentism, the claim that there are as yet unknown causal relations between the mental and physical.
Qualia might be explicable at least in part by memetics, which can attempt to show how vague descriptions, definitions, and characterizations can lead to self-replicating ideas arguably of little or no scientific or philosophical value. If descriptions of qualia can be considered as memes, then it can be argued that a major reason for the continued presence of such descriptions is that they include features that promote self-replication: e.g., that the majority agrees with them, (although clearly this is not, by itself, evidence either of their truth or of their falsehood), or, more importantly, that people assume that they are speaking about the same things when in fact they very possibly aren't. (An everyday example of this phenomenon is the oft-encountered "You know that one guy?" "Yeah, that man who did that one thing?" "Yeah, that's the one. I like him." "Me too.", et cetera.)
The indeterminacy of the definition of qualia allows the idea of qualia to replicate without being subject to as much criticism as something more easily demonstrated to be false, such as a belief that the Earth is composed entirely of cheese. The latter idea is highly unlikely to replicate, while qualia — the ultimate "that one thing that you already know that I'm talking about" — are supremely likely to do so.
However, qualia are held to be directly experienced and not mere beliefs by their proponents.
A scientific criticism of the ideas of qualia might point out that an argument for the existence of qualia cannot be disproved via experimental evidence, and that thus an assertion of their existence does not constitute a scientific hypothesis, since in, for example, Karl Popper's philosophy of science, a hypothesis or theory must be falsifiable. Furthermore, as the philosophical zombie argument demonstrates, qualia cannot be considered as describable in empirical terms, and science attempts only to characterize objects and events that are empirically-describable or that are demonstrably connected to empirically-describable things.
However, this only makes qualia inadmissible scientifically; it does not make the inadmissible philosophically or simply non-existent. The qualiaphile can simply respond that the inability of science to handle qualia is to be expected since they are non-physical".
- ↑ Dennet, D. Quining Qualia
- ↑ Definition of quale — Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. URL accessed on 2007-01-22.
- ↑ Full text of What is it Like to Be a bat
- ↑ Nagel, "What is it Like to Be a Bat?" (1974), p. 436.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 445.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 450.
- ↑ Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy on Zombies
- ↑ Entertaining overview of zombies by David Chalmers
- ↑ Levine, J. Conceivability, Identity, and the Explanatory Gap
- ↑ Edge interview with Marvin Minsky
- ↑ Ramachandran, V. S. and E. M. Hubbard (2001). "Synaesthesia — a window into perception, thought and language". Journal of Consciousness Studies, 8, 3–34.
Further readingEdit
- Chalmers, David (ed.). (2002) Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings, Oxford University Press.
- Churchland, Paul. (1992) "Knowing Qualia: A Reply to Jackson", Chapter 4 in A Neurocomputational Perspective, MIT Press, pp. 67–76. Reprinted in The Nature of Consciousness, 1997, edited by Ned Block, Owen Flanagan, and Guven Guzeldere.
- Dennett, D. C. (1988) "Quining qualia", in Consciousness in Contemporary Science, edited by A. Marcel & E. Bisiach, Oxford University Press. Online text
- Dennett, D. C. (1991) Consciousness Explained. Little, Brown, and Company.
- Dennett, D. C. (1996) "Facing Backwards on the Problem of Consciousness", Journal of Consciousness Studies, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 4–6. Online text
- Dennett, D. C. (1998) "The Unimagined Preposterousness of Zombies", in Brainchildren: Essays on Designing Minds, MIT Press and Penguin. Online abstract
- Edelman, G. (1990) The Remembered Present: A Biological Theory of Consciousness, Basic Books.
- Harman, Gilbert. (1990) "The Intrinsic Quality of Experience", Philosophical Perspectives, 4, Action Theory and Philosophy of Mind, pp. 31–52.
- Harnad, Stevan. (2000) Correlation vs. Causality: How/Why the Mind/Body Problem Is Hard, Journal of Consciousness Studies, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 54–61. Online text
- Horgan, T. (1987) "Supervenient Qualia", Philosophical Review, vol. 96, pp. 491–520.
- Jackson, Frank. (1982) "Epiphenomenal Qualia", Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 32, pp. 127–36. Online text
- Kitcher, P. S. (1979) "Phenomenal Qualities", American Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 16, pp. 123–9.
- Kripke, Saul. (1971) "Identity and Necessity", in Identity and Individuation, edited by M. K. Munitz, New York: New York University Press.
- Lewis, C. I. (1929) Mind and the World Order, New York: C. Scribner's Sons.
- Lewis, David. (1995) Should a Materialist Believe in Qualia? Australasian Journal of Philosophy, vol. 73, pp. 140–44.
- Nagel, Thomas. (1979) "What is it Like to be a Bat?" Mortal Questions, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 165–180.
- Searle, John. (1997) The Mystery of Consciousness, New York: New York Review Books.
See also Edit
- David Chalmers
- Consciousness
- Hard problem of consciousness
- Vassily Kandinsky
- Mind body problem
- Philosophy of mind
- Synesthesia (coupling of two senses)
External linksEdit
- Online papers on qualia, by various authors, compiled by David Chalmers
- Absent Qualia, Dancing Qualia, Fading Qualia — by David Chalmers
- "Field Guide to the Philosophy of Mind"
- The Knowledge Argument — by Torin Alter
- Qualia Realism. — by William Robinson.
- Qualia!( Now Showing at a Theatre Near You) — By Eric Lormand. A response to Dennett.
- Quining Qualia — by Daniel Dennett
- The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
- Inverted Qualia — by Alex Byrne.
- Qualia — by Michael Tye.
- Qualia: The Knowledge Argument — by Martine Nida-Rümelin.
- Three Laws of Qualia — by Ramachandran and Hirstein (biological perspective).
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Six former college athletes will receive the NCAA Silver Anniversary Award in recognition of their collegiate and professional achievements.
Ten exceptional former student-athletes will be recognized as the 2020 Today's Top 10 Award winners at the NCAA Convention in January.
The former Notre Dame football standout turned soldier turned injured veteran fought his way back to a professional football career that spanned more than a decade.
Former undercover policeman has spent his life supporting post-trauma survivors throughout his accomplished career as a highly decorated New Jersey state trooper and respected NBA referee and executive.
A former Ohio Dominican assistant football coach violated NCAA ethical conduct rules and jeopardized student-athlete well-being when he directed student-athletes to use a banned substance.
"The NCAA, its member schools and conferences are committed to enhancing our rules while providing the best educational and athletic experience for our student-athletes. We know that continuing our modernization of rules will require some...
The University of Missouri must implement the postseason bans, scholarship reductions and recruiting restrictions prescribed by the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions
One former and one current NCAA student-athlete are among 32 students elected to the American Rhodes Scholar Class of 2020, receiving what is considered the most elite award and scholarship for international study.
The NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Rules committees have approved the waiver requests from 10 conferences, permitting the use of electronically transmitted data to the bench for coaching purposes during the 2019-20 season.
The Christian Brothers University head men's and women's tennis coach provided impermissible benefits to an international prospect on two separate trips to the university
James Wiseman, a freshman on the University of Memphis men's basketball team, must sit 11 additional games (12 total) based on recruiting inducements his family received before he enrolled at Memphis and for competing in three games while ineligible. He will be eligible to compete in Memphis' Jan. 12 contest at South Florida. He also must donate $11,500 to a charity of his choice.
NCAA Division II announced 28 regular-season men's and women's basketball games that will be highlighted on ESPN3 or NCAA social media as part of an effort to promote the division on several platforms throughout the academic year.


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A collection of scholarly works about individual liberty and free markets. A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.
In his discussion of the division of labor, Adam Smith argues that the propensity to truck, barter, and exchange is part of human nature:
This division of labour, from which so many advantages are derived, is not originally the effect of any human wisdom, which foresees and intends that general opulence to which it gives occasion. It is the necessary, though very slow and gradual consequence of a certain propensity in human nature which has in view no such extensive utility; the propensity to truck, barter, and exchange one thing for another.
About this Quotation:
Adam Smith raises an important point in this quotation: is the "propensity to truck, barter, and exchange" something that is inherent in human nature or is it something learned or otherwise acquired by living in society? His conclusion was that it was a "natural" and not an "artificial" aspect of all humanity. It was from this "inherent" property of human nature that he derived the idea of the division of labour which was crucial for the development of complex economic structures in all societies wherever they may be located.


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Just over a week ago graphic artist, art director, watercolorist and political activist, Frank Cieciorka died at his home in Alderpoint, Calif. at the age of 69. The cause of death was emphysema. Since the early 1980s he has gained recognition for his watercolors of Humboldt County landscapes, but it's his 1960's woodcut rendering of a clenched-fist that will secure him an indelible place in history.
Born in Johnson City in upstate New York in1939, Cieciorka moved westward to attend San José State College in 1957 to study art. After graduation in 1964 he became a volunteer in Freedom Summer, the civil rights campaign initiated to help African Americans register to vote in Mississippi, the same campaign and summer that saw the Ku Klux Klan kidnap and murder three Freedom Summer volunteers -- James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. Cieciorka would become a field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which organized the campaign.
In 1965 Cieciorka returned to San Francisco and created a woodcut print inspired by his experiences in Mississippi; his image, simply entitled Hand, was initially printed as a poster and flyer for the 1967 Stop the Draft Week. The image quickly struck a chord with the civil rights and anti-war movements of the day; shortly thereafter the Students for a Democratic Society incorporated the image as their logo.
In 1966 Cieciorka also created an image of a black panther for the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, which was started by SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael to challenge the segregationist party in Mississippi. When Huey Newton and Bobby Seale formed the Black Panther Party in Oakland, they received permission from the SNCC to use the panther image, artist Emory Douglas re-designed a bolder, more streamlined image for the Black Panther's publications.
Cieciorka would go on to create posters for labor movements, including the United Farm Workers and for many radical and underground magazines including Paul Krassner's The Realist.
Frank Cieciorka is survived by his wife, Karen Horn, his stepdaughter, Zena Goldman Hunt and his brother, James Cieciorka.


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Arno Bernard Knives makes quality knives from premium materials at affordable pricing. Their workshop is located outside of Bethlehem, South Africa. Arno Bernard, Sr. made his first knife out of a saw blade in 1979. Currently, each blade is hollow ground freehand and hand polished from world-class Bohler N690 stainless steel from Austria. Then it is heat treated and tempered to insure absolute quality. After going through the liquid nitrogen process, the blade is 59-60 on the Rockwell hardness scale.
The variety of unique African animals inspire each knife design. All of the 24 different models are suitable for both collecting and everyday use, and each knife is fitted with a custom sheath. There are 14 different materials that they use for their handles.
- Overall Length: 5 3/4"
- Blade Length: 2 3/4"
- Blade Material: Bohler N690 Stainless Steel
- Handle Length: 3"
- Handle Material: Black G-10
- Carry System: Leather Sheath
- Hand Made in South Africa
"Dull Knife Terminator" - Your Authorized Arno Bernard Knives Dealer!


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The 20-year-old was responding to speculation that his appearance for England at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow would be his last.
But the Plymouth athlete insists he is not ready to hang up his trunks yet and is already targeting a medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016 - as long as he can stay fit.
Daley told Press Association Sport: "I'm not going to retire.
"It was quite amusing to come back from China and read that. I have no idea where that came from.
"Rio in 2016 is still my ultimate goal. But how far I go on after that really depends on how long my body holds out. Some divers last until they are 38, some until they are 22. I just have to listen to my body and then play it by ear."
The retirement rumours were sparked by reports claiming Daley was worried he would not be good enough to take on his Rio rivals in two years' time.
He missed out on a podium place at the World Cup in Shanghai last week and has also battled injury problems over the past 18 months.
The London 2012 bronze medallist has also faced accusations that he has let non-diving commitments - such as fronting reality TV show Splash - overshadow his medal preparations.
But the double Commonwealth champion said: "Lots of people want to know what I'm up to and what I'm doing. But I don't read any of the stuff in the papers, I just concentrate on my diving.
"It is my number-one priority. Everything else comes secondary. But having that other stuff there is a good escape for me.
"When I'm busy, I find it easier to relax.
"When I have got less to do, I end up dwelling on things so I think it's always good to have a distraction.
"It's the best way for me to guarantee performances. I know I'm working as hard as I possibly can. I'm doing 11 sessions a week which is more than a lot of other guys are doing."
Daley will defend both the 10-metre individual platform and 10-metre synchronised pairs titles he won in Delhi four years ago at Glasgow 2014.
But he could only finish fourth in Shanghai after Chinese duo Yang Jian and Olympic champion Qiu Bo finished ahead of Mexican Ivan Garcia.
However, Daley stressed: "The motivation to do well is stronger now than before.
"In Delhi, I didn't know I was going to win double gold. But here I want to give it my best shot and hopefully come away with another gold.
"Shanghai was a frustrating result really. I was diving really well but if I hadn't messed up one of my dives I would have finished higher.
"I scored 100 points in the semi-final - if I had continued like that then I definitely would have got a medal.
"That's diving. It's sport but it has given me that extra drive to do well here in Glasgow."
The diver also had to endure the trauma of an emergency landing during his flight home from Shanghai.
The Virgin flight had to make an unexpected stop in the Russian city of Irkutsk because of a "technical issue".
But Daley insists the scare has not affected his preparations.
He said: "You always have to prepare for the what-ifs but I wasn't necessarily thinking about the what-if being an emergency landing - more things like the flight being delayed.
"It was a scary situation but we managed to land safely and then get home in the end.
"Now we are in Scotland ready to compete again."


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Sick, twisted, politically incorrect and Freakin' Sweet animated series featuring the adventures of the dysfunctional Griffin family. Bumbling Peter and long-suffering Lois have three kids. Stewie (a brilliant but sadistic baby bent on killing his mother and taking over the world), Meg (the oldest, and is the most unpopular girl in town) and Chris (the middle kid, he's not very bright but has a passion for movies). The final member of the family is Brian - a talking dog and much more than a pet, he keeps Stewie in check whilst sipping Martinis and sorting through his own life issues.
|Family Guy
|First Air Date
|Jan 31, 1999
|Last Air Date
|Oct 11, 2020
|Number of Episodes
|Number of Seasons
|Animation, Comedy
|Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Mila Kunis, Seth Green, John Viener, Mike Henry, Patrick Warburton, Adam West
|Alternative Titles
|خانواده دوست, مرد خانه, I Griffin, परिवारको केटा, Сім'янин, Ґріффіни, Griffinlar
|Plot Keywords
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WBUR News
Support the news
Hagel Rejects Suggestion Of U.S.-Taliban Collusion
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is rejecting any suggestions that the United States is in collusion with the Taliban in Afghanistan with the goal of making Afghans fearful of more violence if foreign troops leave as scheduled next year.
The suggestion came from Afghan President Hamid Karzai before his meeting with Hagel Sunday in Kabul.
Hagel, on his first visit to Afghanistan as defense secretary, said after the meeting that he thinks Karzai understands "where we are and where we've been, and hopefully where we're going together."
A joint news conference by Hagel and Karzai that had been planned Sunday was canceled, because of what officials described as security concerns. A Pentagon spokesman said it had nothing to do with Karzai's accusations about U.S. and Taliban complicity.
Yesterday, a suicide bomber struck outside the Afghan Defense Ministry, killing nine Afghan civilians. Hagel heard the explosion from the safe location where he was meeting with Afghan officials, but was never in danger.
This program aired on March 10, 2013. The audio for this program is not available.
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Home ownership programs have been designed to help certain public servants--who aren't always the highest paid--buy homes in the communities they serve. Options range from special promotions offered by private mortgage lenders to tax breaks, down payment assistance, subsidized mortgage interest, and reduced closing cost plans administered by community organizations and government agencies. Home ownership assistance sometimes comes with income limitations or caps on how much house you can buy. Here is a run-down of the most frequently offered programs.
Private Mortgage Lenders
There is no shortage of private mortgage brokers and banks claiming to offer the lowest mortgage rates to teachers, health care professionals, or rescue and law enforcement personnel. However, calling a program a special deal doesn't necessarily make it one, according to the Rural School and Community Trust. Lenders may be full of appreciation for your profession and they may run lots of warm fuzzy ads to prove it. They may even put up Web pages that resemble official government sites. But it's still a private market, and you are advised to comparison shop with several lenders--one company's best mortgage rates for your profession may not be as good as what another lender offers everyone.
Many of these programs feature expanded qualifying guidelines, waive some fees, or add extra benefits like life insurance. Freddie Mac's Home Possible program is offered through private lenders and allows teachers, firefighters, law enforcement officers, health care workers, and members of the United States Armed Forces to finance up to 100% of the purchase price of their homes. Fannie Mae also boasts several similar programs that can be found through private lenders.
State and Local Programs
Firefighters, police, and others have access to similar programs in their states or cities. For example, in New Jersey, first responders can get a mortgage at an excellent rate--the 10-year Treasury note rate plus 1%, which totaled about 4% in 2009--at least a full percentage point lower than the market interest rate paid by everyone else. Some states provide home buying assistance to nurses and other health care workers. Alaska's program for health care and school workers finances 100% of the home and includes subsidized interest rates for lower-income applicants. You can find a list of housing agencies at the end of this article and locate programs in your state.
Most states and cities don't provide home ownership assistance to teachers, but those that do go about it in similar ways. They may offer below-market mortgage financing or partially forgivable loans, or pay closing costs for teachers in exchange for a commitment to work for a specified number of years. Others provide housing assistance to teachers who agree to work in understaffed schools for an agreed-upon time.
Mortgage Credit Certificates (MCCs)
MCCs are a creation of the IRS but differ from state to state and sometimes from municipality to municipality. They are available in many but not all areas of the country. A mortgage credit certificate enables you to buy a more expensive house with the same income. With an MCC, the IRS not only allows you to deduct your mortgage interest, but also gives you a credit against your tax liabilities. The lender subtracts that credit from your house payment when calculating your debt-to-income ratio, qualifying you for a larger loan.
In most states, MCCs are available to anyone who hasn't owned a primary residence in three years and meets income guidelines. However, some localities and states like Texas extend the privilege to teachers, police, firefighters, and EMTs.
How Do You Save with a Mortgage Credit Certificate?
Here's an example:
- You get a loan of $250,000 at 6.00% for 30 years with monthly payments of $1,499 and an MCC credit rate of 20% (MCC credits range from 20% to 35% and are determined according to where you live).
- In the first year, your interest expense is $14,916. Your federal income tax credit of 20% equals $2,983, or approximately $249 a month.
- The remaining 80% of mortgage interest, or $11,933, qualifies as an itemized income tax deduction.
- By applying the $249 increase in your monthly take-home pay towards your $1,499 mortgage payment, your effective monthly payment is $1,250 ($1,499 minus $249).
- If your lender caps your mortgage debt-to-income ratio (also known as a "front-end ratio") at a typical 28%, getting the MCC means that instead of having to earn $64,243 to qualify for your loan, you only have to make $53,571.
You must go to an approved lender and get your certificate before shopping for your home. If you refinance your mortgage, you'll need to get a reissued certificate to continue to receive your tax benefits.
HUD Good Neighbor Next Door (GNND) Program
If you're a teacher, firefighter, police officer, or EMT, neighborhoods want you living there. This program effectively takes 50% off the purchase price of HUD-owned properties in designated areas. The Good Neighbor Next Door program was created to enhance communities by helping public servants buy homes where they work. If you buy property under this program, you have to commit to living in the home for a minimum of three years.
How HUD's GNND Program Works
Homes owned by HUD due to foreclosure and located in designated Revitalization Areas are sold through the program. Revitalization Areas are HUD-designated geographic areas defined under the National Housing Act. Areas are determined by home ownership rates, average household income, and FHA foreclosure activity. You take a second mortgage for 50% of the property value when you buy one of these houses. You don't have to make any payments on the second mortgage and no interest is charged. The second mortgage is repaid when you sell the house, and you get to keep any profits from the sale.
How Do You Take Advantage of GNND?
First, you need to first check your eligibility. Then, find your financing. You can shop for and choose almost any lender or program--an FHA loan, conventional financing, a VA mortgage, or even a rehabilitation loan if the property needs work. If you qualify for an FHA mortgage, you only need to put $100 down, and you can finance your closing costs as well. Knowing how much you can spend before shopping helps you narrow down your property search. Once you find a property in your area, you must use a HUD-registered real estate broker to make your offer. You can find HUD-approved brokers from the GNND property description pages.
How Much Can You Save by Buying this Way?
A lot! For example, if you buy a $300,000 home with 100% financing, your payment on the $150,000 balance (half the purchase price) at a 5.25% interest rate is only $828 a month instead of the $1,657 it would otherwise be. Remember, on the $150,000 second mortgage, you pay nothing. Over five years, you would save more than $45,000 in interest.
Start Your Search Now
Below you can find a list of the many agencies and organizations that offer mortgage assistance to the everyday heroes in their communities. Some of these assistance programs can be combined to maximize your savings. For you public service workers seeking home ownership, start looking now--you may prove that sometimes nice guys (and gals) do finish first.
Nationwide Home Buying Resources for Public Servants
HUD Good Neighbor Next Door Program
The umbrella program for Teacher Next Door and Officer Next Door
HUD State and Local Resources and Initiatives
A portal to home buying resources in each state such as:
- Free or low-cost advice from HUD-approved counselors
- HOME contacts for your local community
- HUD homes for sale
- Affordable housing programs
- Home buyer education programs
- Links to resources and programs offered at the state, regional, county, or municipality level
Freddie Mac Home Possible 100% Financing Program
IRS Eligibility Guidelines for Mortgage Credit Certificate
American Dream Down Payment Initiative
A federal program administered under HUD's HOME Investment Partnerships program, providing grants for low-income first-time home buyers as well as uniformed employees such as police officers, firefighters, sanitation and maintenance workers, and teachers
Offers programs that reduce the cost of home ownership for low- and moderate-income families in designated geographic areas
Professional Organization Resources
International Association of Fire Fighters Financial Corporation
National Association of Nurses - Mortgage
National Education Association Member Finance Programs
American Federation of Teachers Mortgage Program
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Mortgage Program


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NuGet for the Enterprise: NuGet in a Continuous Integration Automated Build System
I had the pleasure of speaking at TechEd 2011 North America last week in Atlanta. You can see ALL the videos of all the sessions on Channel 9. As an aside, you might notice that they are in the process of organizing video archives of ALL Microsoft developer events at http://channel9.msdn.com/Events. You can even see PDC 1999 if you like or see sessions by Speaker at http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Speakers. Here are all my talks with a horrible headshot that I plan on asking Duncan to swap out ASAP.
My favorite talk was NuGet: Microsoft .NET Package Management for the Enterprise. I talked about NuGet, like I did in The Netherlands a few weeks ago, except the TechEd talk was focused much more on how NuGet fits into the software development lifecycle in a diverse Enterprise (or big boring company, if you prefer) environment.
Here's the video downloads, or you can click the slide at the right.
- Just the Slides (useless)
- MP4 (iPod, Zune HD)
- Mid Quality WMV (Lo-band, Mobile)
- High Quality WMV (PC, XBox, MCE)
At my last company, we used Subversion for source control and CruiseControl for Continuous Integration (CI). I thought it'd be nice to setup a similar system using the latest free (and mostly free) tools. Note, you can do all this with TFS as well for both Source and Build. I'll do a post on that later. For now, I give you:
Setting up NuGet to build using Mercurial for Source Control and JetBrains TeamCity for Continuous Integration while pushing to a local Orchard NuGet Gallery Server
Oh yes, that's a long H3 right there but it's descriptive, right? Here's the general idea.
This of course, is not unique to NuGet, as NuGet is just a build artifact. At my last company we had several things that popped out of the build. Not just the DLLs, but also a ZIP file, MSI installer and even a complete configured and prepped Virtual Machine for sales people to pick up and give demos with our latest bits. You can setup your Continuous Integration system to be as awesome or as simple as you like. You should be thinking about which libraries and parts will create NuGet packages.
Another thing to think about is daily (or every build) packages vs. stable or release packages. There are some discussions on the NuGet site around a "-beta" switch and baked-in support for understanding stable vs. volatile builds. For now, consider two locations for your builds, one for each build and one for "blessed." For some, this might mean a folder for dailies and only blessed go to a server.
Here's the demo I did. You can change what you like and swap out for your favorite tools. I'll point out some gotchas and issues that hit me and might hit you. It's not perfect, but we're moving in the right direction.
Step 0 - Prep Stuff
Some of these steps are "make sure x is setup" type steps and can happen whenever, so don't take the ordering of the steps as totally crucial. Here's what I used and installed.
- Get NuGet for VS if you like, but at least the NuGet.exe command line and put it in your PATH.
- Get whatever SCM (Source Control Management) system you want. I'm using Mercurial and TortoiseHg because it feels like Subversion which I'm used to.
- Install the TeamCity Continuous Integration Server. They have a free version for small teams.
- You can use a network share or local folder for a "poor man's NuGet Server" or you can install a full-on Orchard-based NuGet Gallery
- The full (draft) instructions for setting up an Orcgard NuGet Gallery are up on docs.nuget.org. We'll be updating them with graphics and more explicit detail soon. If you get stuck here, don't worry, just use a local folder, or even a basic NuGet.Server installation like the one Phil shows you how to create.
Step 1 - Make sure your project builds and you can make a NuGet package (nupkg)
I'm doing all this on one laptop, but you might have things spread out at your company. Do what makes you happy.
I made a trivial little class library called TechEdLibrary and confirmed it builds with MSBuild like this:
C:\dev\techedlibrary\TechEdLibrary>msbuild TechEdLibrary.csproj
Microsoft (R) Build Engine Version 4.0.30319.1
[Microsoft .NET Framework, Version 4.0.30319.225]
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2007. All rights reserved.
Build started 5/24/2011 4:52:54 PM.
Done Building Project "C:\dev\techedlibrary\TechEdLibrary\TechEdLibrary.csproj"
Build succeeded.
0 Warning(s)
0 Error(s)
Time Elapsed 00:00:00.13
The most important part is to make sure that your AssemblyInfo.cs is actually filed out and not just the defaults. This is because we'll want to update the NuGet's specification file using the values from the DLL and project. Basically we want the metadata of the project to drive the NuGet package (or we have to update it all manually.)
I need a spec file. I can do this a few ways. I can do it manually with just "nuget spec," I can build it off the resulting DLL with "nuget spec -assemblyPath bin\debug\techedlibrary.dll" or off the csproject with "nuget spec techedlibrary.csproj."
If I create it off the csproj, the NuGet spec file will be created with some $tokens$ that will be filled out at packaging time:
C:\dev\techedlibrary\TechEdLibrary>nuget spec TechEdLibrary.csproj
Created 'TechEdLibrary.nuspec' successfully.
In the talk at TechEd I mistakenly build it off the DLL and ended up hard-coding the versions. In a continuous integration system you'll want to update the version in your spec as the build versions. You can either do it with tokens like I will in this post, or you can pass in the version (often from an environment variable) into the command line like "NuGet Pack -version 18.104.22.168."
You can also use the UpdateVersion.exe that Matt Griffith and I updated SO many years ago to change your AssemblyInfo.cs, then the NuGet package can pick it up. Again, there is no right answer, the point is to have a strategy. What drives the version and how does NuGet find out about it?
My TechEdLibrary.nuspec I just made looks like this:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<package xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/packaging/2010/07/nuspec.xsd">
And my AssemblyInfo.cs (abridged) is like this. The attributes from the DLL will get copied into the $tokens$ and packaged.
[assembly: AssemblyTitle("TechEdLibrary")]
[assembly: AssemblyDescription("This is my cool library")]
[assembly: AssemblyCompany("Scott Hanselman")]
[assembly: AssemblyProduct("TechEdLibrary")]
[assembly: AssemblyVersion("0.9.*")] //The * means I'll get an automatic version bump
//and more...
Now I can pack it up with NuGet Pack TechEdLibrary.csproj. Note the command line output find the spec and does the token/metadata replacement?
C:\dev\techedlibrary\TechEdLibrary>nuget pack TechEdLibrary.csproj
Attempting to build package from 'TechEdLibrary.csproj'.
Building project for target framework '.NETFramework,Version=v4.0'.
Packing files from 'C:\dev\techedlibrary\TechEdLibrary\bin\Release'.
Using 'TechEdLibrary.nuspec' for metadata.
Successfully created package 'C:\dev\techedlibrary\TechEdLibrary\TechEdLibrary.0.9.4161.28882.nupkg'.
Now I can just open the .nupkg into the NuGet Package Explorer and see the version, author, ID (from Title) description and version are all there, brought in from the attributes and combined with my NuSpec. I can edit the NuSpec to taste as long as I maintain the $tokens$ I want.
Now if I build the library again I'll get a new version from the .NET build system and that will cause a new NuPkg to be built with a new version. I make a change to my application's source, build again, then pack again. Note the results in my directory after I make a small change, build and pack.
C:\dev\techedlibrary\TechEdLibrary>msbuild TechEdLibrary.csproj
Microsoft (R) Build Engine Version 4.0.30319.1
Build started 5/24/2011 5:07:58 PM.
blah build blah
Done Building Project "C:\dev\techedlibrary\TechEdLibrary\TechEdLibrary.csproj" (rebuild target(s))
Build succeeded.
0 Warning(s)
0 Error(s)
Time Elapsed 00:00:00.32
C:\dev\techedlibrary\TechEdLibrary>nuget pack TechEdLibrary.csproj
Attempting to build package from 'TechEdLibrary.csproj'.
Building project for target framework '.NETFramework,Version=v4.0'.
Packing files from 'C:\dev\techedlibrary\TechEdLibrary\bin\Release'.
Using 'TechEdLibrary.nuspec' for metadata.
Successfully created package 'C:\dev\techedlibrary\TechEdLibrary\TechEdLibrary.0.9.4161.29041.nupkg'
C:\dev\techedlibrary\TechEdLibrary>dir *.nupkg
05/24/2011 05:07 PM 4,770 TechEdLibrary.0.9.4161.28882.nupkg
05/24/2011 05:08 PM 4,763 TechEdLibrary.0.9.4161.29041.nupkg
2 File(s) 9,533 bytes
Without settings really anything up but the versioning plan, spec file and checking if packing works, I've got a little system here and hopefully you can see how it'll work.
WEIRDNESS NOTE: We do have a double-build going on. NuGet.exe, for some weird reason, is running MSBuild again for us. That's lame, and a known bug. Surprisingly in a large number of CI systems in both the .NET and Java worlds "double builds" are common. Weaksauce, but common. Still, no excuse. That'll be fixed in NuGet.exe soon.
Step 2 - Initial Source Check-in
I like using BitBucket for small private projects and CodePlex for public Open Source projects. Both support Hg (the elemental symbol for "Mercury" as in Mercurial) and CodePlex supports TFS for both Source and Work Items. Since my demo is private and BitBucket supports unlimited private projects it was a good fit.
I cloned my project URL from BitBucket into a folder, then added, commited and pushed my bits to the BitBucket Site:
C:\dev\something>hg clone https://firstname.lastname@example.com/shanselman/techedlibrary
...move my files in...
C:\dev\something>hg add
...yada yada yada...
C:\dev\something>hg commit
...yada yada yada...
C:\dev\something>hg push
...yada yada yada...
It's useful then to make sure I can get my source code into another folder and still build it. It's common to miss a file or two. Since the CI Server will be getting the code into a temporary folder you really need to make sure the source will build as it is, retrieved fresh from your SCM.
Step 3 - Setup your Build Server
I'm running TeamCity locally on http://localhost:8111/ with a "build agent" (there can be many) on the same machine. Visit Administration and make a new project, then a new Build Configuration (like Debug or Release).
You'll need to make a VCS root (Version Control System - there are like 60 different acronyms for version control systems. If you see a TLA (Three Letter Acronym) out there that you don't recognize, it's probably something that means "Source Control.") in TeamCity. Note that I selected Mercurial and set the HG Command Path with the full path to HG.EXE as the CI will call that to check out the code from BitBucket. Note also that I put the path without my name and password for the "pull changes from" as I put the name and password lower down.
Back in Administration, select Edit under your project. Note the nice lists of steps on the right.
We want two steps, one for the MSBuild and one "custom command line" for the NuGet package step. The first step is easy, we call MSBuild on our TechEdLibrary.csproj.
The second step is a temporary hack. It's temporary because JetBrains TeamCity is building NuGet support in directly (screenshots of their internal build below!)
The custom script is basically a BATCH file that looks like this:
del *.nupkg
NuGet pack techedlibrary.csproj
forfiles /m *.nupkg /c "cmd /c NuGet.exe push @FILE yourapikey -source http://localhost:81/
There's a few interesting things going on here.
First, I delete all the nupkg files in the CI folder as it's all temporary and we don't want to accidentally push old stuff.
Second, I pack up the NuGet package like we saw before.
Finally, I don't know the name of the newly created *.nupkg file, so I cheat by making a DOS BATCH "for loop" that has only one item in it, the newly created .nupkg file! Then I call cmd.exe execute NuGet.exe pack with that new file as a parameter. Make sure you have the trailing backslash.
NOTE: You can also save the API Key in local storage with NuGet SetApiKey yourapikey -source http://localhost:81 and it'll be saved on a per-source basis.
Because I have an Orchard NuGet Gallery running locally, I have an API key for that server. I'm running my gallery server (it holds the packages and serves the OData Feed) locally on port 81 and the Orchard Site itself is on port 80.
I set the build to check Source Control every 60 seconds, if a change is detected, the source is retrieved, build, then NuGet packed, and published to my local server (or the public one).
TeamCity is something I like to have running on extra hardware I've got lying around. You can have up to 20 projects with their free version, so when combined with BitBucket and CodePlex where I keep my projects I can setup my own Continuous Integration System in just a few hours and have better confidence in my code. You can even use Amazon EC2 images to run your builds or just be a build agent.
Sneak Peak - TeamCity with NuGet Integration
I'm continuing to talk to companies and software vendors who are jazzed about NuGet. If you are one, watch my talk for ideas on what you can do as a commercial software entity and get into the discussion on CodePlex.
Here's some mockups of what JetBrains is planning for TeamCity. These are just ideas, and they aren't available, so don't stress or pressure them. ;)
This is a mockup of NuGet as a possible Build Step within TeamCity.
Here's a mockup of a Build Feature where TeamCity downloads specific packages that will be needed by the build.
Here's a screenshot of some early work that Martin Woodward from the TFS team is doing to make sure NuGet and Team Foundation Server work well together in a Continuous Integration environment. Feel free to contact Martin via his blog and continue the discussion on http://nuget.codeplex.com.
Hope this helps you integrate NuGet into your company, however you like it.
Related Links
- Session Video: NuGet In Depth: Empowering Open Source on the .NET Platform
- Session Video: Coding for Fun with Scott Hanselman - Silliness!
- Session Video: MVC 3 – 101 - Good beginner video!
About Scott
Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.
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READ about Piers Morgan's long career in journalism here.
On the heels of his recently released 13th studio album, on Friday evening hip-hop legend LL Cool J joined Piers Morgan in studio with his trademark brand of candor and personality.
The new record, entitled "Authentic," is the 13th by the artist born James Todd Smith, and appearing as part of a worldwide exclusive interview, he offered some insight into his heavily criticized duet with country music star Brad Paisley:
"What I was trying to achieve is," began LL Cool J, discussing the song entitled "Accidental Racist."
"Don't judge a book by its cover," co-guest Eddie Van Halen, jumped in, finishing LL Cool J's thought.
"Exactly," agreed LL Cool J. "It was really that simple. Don't judge a book by its cover and also, we have to get passed the past, get passed what happened in the past if we're gonna really have a future together."
Meanwhile, as part of Friday's program, the 45-year-old entertainer also offered some context into a frightening experience with an intruder earlier this year:
"My alarm when off at 1 o'clock in the morning, not the alarm but the delay, entry delay," said LL Cool J. "I strolled downstairs in my underwear just to see what's going on. I get down there, this guy comes out of my kitchen at me and I detained him."
According to the police the intruder suffered a broken jaw, a broken cheek, broken nose and broken ribs.
"Talk about wrong guy, wrong house!" exclaimed Morgan.
Watch the clips, and listen to the interviews, as Morgan, LL Cool J, and Van Halen all discussed complex issues on the backdrop of life, music, and society.
» Follow "Piers Morgan Live" on Twitter
» Follow "Piers Morgan Live" on Instagram
Well played LL......... I'm in total agreement with you.
LL is blubbering..doesnt really seem to have a direct point. and if he does he is not making himself very clear.
Eddie Van Halen's comment "there's plenty of white people who don't like me" severely and completely unnecessarily waters down LL's entire argument. Further proof that the racial discussion continues to be an uncomfortable topic, as inherent guilt and frustration still plays a heavy role and people are not yet ready to speak about or listen to it.
Yeah way to go man. It's crazy to think the alarm didn't scare him off. Then he attacks a guy as big as LL cool J is. Good Luck Pal! The
intruder suffered a broken jaw, a broken cheek, broken nose and broken ribs.
Great story Great Jon LL!
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Welcome to the Web Site of the Warsop Vale Village Association.
Here you'll find what's happening and who does what, when and where.
Our On-Line Home
The WVVA was established in September 1999 to create and maintain a sense of community in our ex-mining village and the surrounding area, in the semi rural setting of North Nottinghamshire. All residents of Warsop Vale are welcome to attend the open part of each meeting to raise community issues or help in organising a range of social events.
Recently our focus has been on the provision of a local mini-market and resource centre to serve our local residents although we are now looking to branch out and establish regular activities for the whole community. In addition to our regular bingo nights we would like to offer regular children's discos and activities, an annual senior citizens party, a Halloween party, Fireworks display together with a summer fair and Easter Egg hunt. The WVVA has also just entered into the modern world by providing and maintaining this website, a Facebook and twitter page in order to keep a wider proportion of our residents informed and involved.
Currently these are supported via ever-dwindling grants and from our newly established WVVA 50-50 club. Everyone can join in that support by becoming a member of the 50-50 club for £1 per entry per month. A draw takes place at our monthly meeting with a prize of half of that month's income to the winner.
Meetings are held on the second Thursday of most months at 6.30pm in the Malcolm Sargison Resource Centre, with the AGM in April, all are welcome to attend the public section of the meeting.
Facebook page - Warsop Vale Village Association.
Twitter feed - @WarsopVale


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Latest Digestion News
WEDNESDAY, June 13 (HealthDay News) -- Certain types of saturated fats common in today's Western diet may change gut bacteria and trigger inflammatory bowel disease in people genetically predisposed to the disorder, according to a new study that looked at this relationship in mice.
Inflammatory bowel disease includes ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.
The University of Chicago researchers said their findings help explain why once rare immune-system-related disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease have become more common in the United States and other Westernized nations in the last half-century.
The researchers said their study may shed some light on why many people who are genetically prone to the condition still don't develop it and how certain environmental factors can cause inflammation in those at risk.
Scientists note, however, that research with animals often fails to provide similar results in humans.
Working with mice with characteristics of human inflammatory bowel disease, the researchers found that concentrated milk fats alter the composition of bacteria in the intestines. These changes can alter the fragile truce between the immune system and the complex but largely beneficial mix of bacteria in the intestines.
Harmful bacteria can trigger an unregulated tissue-damaging immune-system response that can be difficult to turn off, according to the study published online June 13 in the journal Nature.
Concentrated milk fats are used widely in processed and confectionary foods, the researchers noted.
The same response was not seen with polyunsaturated fats, which are found in plant-based foods and oils.
"This is the first plausible mechanism showing step by step how Western-style diets contribute to the rapid and ongoing increase in the incidence of inflammatory bowel disease," study author Dr. Eugene Chang, a professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, said in a university news release.
"We know how certain genetic differences can increase the risk for these diseases, but moving from elevated risk to the development of disease seems to require a second event that may be encountered because of our changing lifestyle," he said.
Not much can be done to correct genes that increase a person's risk for inflammatory bowel disease, and getting people to change their diets is often difficult and seldom effective, Chang said.
"However, the balance between host and microbes can be altered back to a healthy state to prevent or treat these diseases," he added. "In essence, the gut microbiome can be 'reshaped' in ... ways that restore a healthy relationship between host and microbes, without significantly affecting the lifestyles of individuals who are genetically prone to these diseases. We are testing that right now."
-- Robert Preidt
Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.


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The rustic Italian take on chopped liver flavored with sweet wine, capers, and fresh sage.
In this rustic version of chopped liver, Vin Santo adds a touch of sweetness. What to buy: Be sure to use fresh chicken livers from a reputable source. Vin Santo is a sweet Italian dessert wine that can be found in most liquor stores.... Read More
View Recipe


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Large Gold Twist Living Locket Face with Swarovski Crystals
Wear this Large Gold Face with Crystals by Swarovski with the Large Gold Twist Locket Base and 32" Gold Flat Oval Link Custom Chain to take on the world with style. Customize your keepsake by adding your favorite Charms, Plates and Dangles.
- Swarovski Crystal accent
- Requires a Large Twist Living Locket Base to Complete
- Locket Faces and Bases sold separately


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The aim of Benno van Aerssen, Christiane Peters and Claudia Burkhardt is to tease and shake up their readers and to open up the world of inspirations to them for more fun in thinking, more ideas, more fantasy and more success on the job.
The innovation artist Benno van Aerssen: "In a world, where radical innovations have become normal, we are in need of new inspirations for new successful fantasies, dreams and visions."
Benno van Aerssen developed the impetus and the concept for "inspiration on the job". Claudia Burkhardt and Christiane Peters converted everything to the beautiful, unique and inspiring layout.
"Inspiration on the job" – for some work-innovation-balance full of ideas
164 pages full of inspirational impetus for everyone!
... and each page is individual, surprising and designed with love!
High pressure for success, fear from change and, subsequently, a work-thinking-balance without any ideas is spreading among many people - that's exactly where "inspiration on the job" is intended to help - directly, straight, intravenously and with much, much fun.
Are you willing to make yourself familiar with new innovation methods? Are you wondering what the job of an Innovation Coach looks like? Are you willing to be up-to-date as to the subject of innovation?
We will send you hand-picked innovation know-how in the monthly verrocchio Notes. Free of charge and geared to practice. At first hand from Benno van Aerssen and Christian Buchholz, the founders of verrocchio Institute.
Just fill in the form, send it to us and confirm the response e-mail - that's how easy you will become a recipient.
By the way: We don't like spam mails and, certainly, neither do you. For this reason, your data will be safe with us and we will never pass them on to third parties.


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remember my scrappy socks?
well... they're finally finished!
and i LOVE them.
i call them my "hippie socks"!
i made these with 13 different leftover yarns. i grabbed the yarn from a bag to make them look as "random" as possible... i did make sure all the different colours were divided equally!
this is definitely my most colourful pair yet... and now i feel like knitting socks only until i have enough scraps for another pair! i'm in the "monstersocks"-group on ravelry and i have my eye on some great sock patterns already... (don't you love planning out new projects, even if it's just in your head and you know you can't actually start because you have a ton of other projects to finish first?)


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- Rig Rundowns
- Reviews
- Gear
- Artists
- How-to
- Lessons
- Pro Advice
- Win
Overtōn Flyweight 200
Overtōn is a new, Chicago-based company and the bright-red, anodized case of their Flyweight 200 looks like no other. While the six front-panel knobs are sturdy and functional, the dots that indicate settings are a little on the small side. Overtōn took a different approach to its controls, with Mute, Compressor, and Sculpt controlled by momentary contact switches on the Gain, Sculpt, and Bass EQ knobs, respectively. Each switch has a small indicator light below it to show whether it's on or off. The compressor is completely pre-set, just in or out, but was unobtrusive during my playing tests.
At first, I expected the Sculpt control to be like an enhance or contour control found on most contemporary bass amps, where their job is to scoop out the mids and bump up the highs and lows. Overton's Sculpt, in contrast, seems to make the tone both fatter and more aggressive in the mids when turning the control up, making it a useful and signature feature of the Flyweight 200.
On the back panel, the Flyweight 200 includes a DI with both level adjustment and ground lift, along with a pair of speaker jacks that will accommodate either a speakON or 1/4" cable. Along the bottom lives a series of 1/4" jacks for aux in, effects send/return, tuner out, headphones out, and even a footswitch jack for on-the-fly adjustments.
I would describe the tone of the Flyweight 200 as articulate, natural, and versatile. A turn of the Sculpt control provides a good range of sounds, which can be further tweaked via the 3-band EQ, and the separate Gain and Master Volume controls allow even more tonal variations. With a street price of $229, the feature-packed Flyweight 200 is a real bargain.
Street $229


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ESA astronaut Frank De Winne to answer questions from space
On Friday 12 June, as part of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) programme, ESA astronaut Frank De Winne will contact two European schools for a question and answer session with students.
Radio amateur societies from the International Space Station (ISS) partner countries have set up ARISS (Amateur Radio on the ISS), a volunteering working group devoted to develop and put into operation the Station's onboard amateur radio station.
Thanks to the work of ARISS, astronauts on the ISS can communicate with the ground not only with dedicated networks run by space agencies, but also with amateur radio.
Two radio contacts
De Winne's first ARISS contact at 08:52 CEST (06:52 UT) on Friday is with the Liceo Scientifico 'A. Bafile' in L'Aquila, Italy. The contact will be between IZ6BAJ and OR4ISS. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in English.
The second contact on Friday is scheduled to start at 13:38 CEST (11:38 UT) and is with children from the Vrije Basisschool Terbank-Egenhoven, in Heverlee, Belgium. This contact will be a telebridge. Radio contact will be established between groundstation ON4ISS and onboard station OR4ISS. The participants are expected to conduct the conversation in Dutch.
For both contacts the downlink signals will be audible all over Europe on 145.800 MHz FM. The contact with Liceo Scientifico 'A. Bafile' at 08:52 CEST can also be followed live via web streaming at: http://www.livestream.com/isscontact/
OasISS mission
ESA astronaut Frank De Winne is one of a crew of six currently living and working on the International Space Station. He is scheduled to remain in orbit until the end of November this year.
During his mission, named OasISS, De Winne will use the scientific facilities of the ISS, especially the European Columbus laboratory, to undertake a European programme of scientific experiments and technology demonstrations.
Following a crew rotation in October, he will also become the commander of the Station until his return to Earth in November. He is the first European to take on this role.
ESA views education as a valuable aspect of its human spaceflight missions, helping to inspire the youth of today. As such, the OasISS mission will be the prime focus of ESA's education activities during the mission.
Other ARISS sessions with schools are planned during De Winne's stay on the ISS – the next one is scheduled for 27 June.


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Matthews Community Center opened in 1907 as the Town's first public school. Over the years, this classic brick schoolhouse was expanded to meet the demands of this growing community. When
the aging building faced demolition in the 1990's, the Town of Matthews stepped in with a multi-
million dollar restoration effort. Now a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmark, the Community
Center provides a vital link between Matthews' picturesque past and dynamic future. The center also
houses Fullwood Theater - home of the Matthews Playhouse. Call (704) 321-7275 for more information or to speak with staff.
Matthews Community Center Hours:
Monday through Friday: 9 AM to 8 PM
Saturday: 9 AM to 2 PM
Sunday: 1 PM to 6 PM
Crews Recreation Center is the Town of Matthews' first indoor recreation center, opening in
2006. The Center is located at 1201 Crews Rd. (behind Matthews Police Station). A variety of programs are offered, including athletic leagues, martial arts and many other classes. Call (704) 708-1287 for open gym hours and more information.
Crews Recreation Center Hours:
Monday through Thursday: 12 PM to 9 PM
Friday: 12 PM to 6 PM
Saturday: 10 AM to 6 PM
Sunday: 12 PM to 6 PM
Crews Recreation Center Office Hours:
Monday through Friday: 9 AM to 5 PM
McDowell Arts Center is located at 123 McDowell Street, adjacent to the Matthews Community
Center. The former Agriculture Building was built in the 1920s as an extension of the old Matthews
High School. In 2008 the Charlotte Mecklenburg School System transferred the building to the Town.
The "MAC" is a dedicated space for the Arts! The facility is home to a wide variety of art related
classes and programs, as well as gallery space. The McDowell Arts Center is also home to KidzArt
and the Matthews Artists Guild. Call (704) 847-9746 for more information.
McDowell Arts Center Gallery Hours:
Monday through Friday: 1 PM to 8 PM
Saturday: 10 AM to 4 PM
Sunday: 1 PM to 6 PM