Here’s the latest edition of Mini-Heap.

1. Is “shmidentity” culturally shminsensitive? — on the philosophical practice of using the “shm-“ prefix for properties that resemble other properties but for some stipulated feature
2. Nervous about that philosophy exam? Does it help to learn that David Lewis failed his metaphysics exam when he was a grad student? — he mentions this in a letter to David Armstrong
3. Fortunately, very few philosophers have signed onto the latest episode of academic mobbing — it concerns a fellowship appointment in psychology (via Nathan Cofnas)
4. A key machine learning task is “modeling fuzzy, changeable patterns implicit in human behavior” — and that’s a central goal of the humanities
5. The New X-Phi Blog, focusing on the “new experimental philosophy” — it’s new
6. The two types of Jane Austen fans — a philosophical look at the distinction by Eva Dadlez (Central Oklahoma)
7. Where’s that paper you once glimpsed at on the web that you’re now trying to recall the details of for something you’re writing now? — here’s a free tool that makes that search much easier

Mini-Heap posts appear when about 7 new items accumulate in the Heap of Links, the ever-growing collection of items from around the web that may be of interest to philosophers.

The Heap of Links consists partly of suggestions from readers; if you find something online that you think would be of interest to the philosophical community, please send it in for consideration for the Heap. Thanks!

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