Welcome to the latest edition of Mini-Heap.

1. A must-read letter from a chemistry professor to a university president on the latter’s decision to close some departments — from 2010, but just as relevant today (via Laurie Paul)
2. Big philanthropy versus democracy — an interview with Rob Reich (Stanford) at Vox
3. “It may well be… that the extinction of humanity would make the world better off and yet would be a tragedy.” — Todd May (Clemson) on the value of humanity
4. A new interdisciplinary podcast about the mind — philosophy, neuroscience, and psychiatry
5. The task is feasible. But there’s one problem. It’s logically impossible. — The Web Page That Cannot Exist, by Geoffrey Pullum
6. Unconventional teaching ideas that work — a new series of posts at the Philosophers’ Cocoon
7. Ethical issues in conducting research on using artificial intelligence to help solve difficult social problems — David Gray Grant (MIT) at the Phenomenal World blog

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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