Fans of the new esoteric geek toy line, Philosophical Powers, will be pleased to hear that there are some new faces on the PP website (that is, if they read the Headlines more often than they do that website, which would be unlikely if they're such big fans, I guess). Fans who didn't notice the earlier additions of rich politician Plato and the inventor of the garter belt, Kant, will be extra pleased, because now they can go look at them. The more recent additions include (and are limited to) some catholic guy named Aquinas and heroic WWI soldier Wittgenstein. What a great website. Hilarious.
Frequenters of David Chalmers' authoritative listing of philosophy-related humor on the web, the cleverly-titled Philosophical Humor page, may have noticed an addition to the "This and That" section recently. Ian Vandewalker's very own labor of dorkiness, Philosophical Powers, is listed, right after the very droll "Porn for Philosophers." This link has meant an enormous boost in hits for the hilarious action figure website. Some people even go beyond the index to look at the individual pages one level down, which exciting because that's where all the jokes are, in case anybody didn't notice. This is especially exciting because Philosophical Powers is getting lots and lots of hits even though it is not yet listed on any search engines or web directories. But wait, the careful reader thinks to herself, how did David Chalmers know about it if it's not in any search engines? Exactly. Vandewalker had been planning to email Chalmers and personally invite the respected philosopher of mind to link to the list of hilarious toys, only to find that he need send no such email.
Those close to Vandewalker will remember Chalmers as the villian from 2002's Race to Grad School. Vandewalker applied in good faith to the University of Arizona, where Chalmers was, at the time, Director of Graduate Admissions. Heated emails were exchanged, the relevance of already living in Tucson was discussed, and so on. Ultimately, Vandewalker was neither accepted nor rejected. As far as he knows, his application is still being considered. Vandewalker had this to say of the connection, "How you like me now, Wildcats? I bet you wish you accepted Ian "Goddamn, I'm Hilarious" Vandewalker, don't you?! I bet you want somebody with a sense of humor to keep your mind off the heat, don't you?! So I'm good enough for a link on an extracurricular webpage but not to invest tens of thousands of dollars and the department's reputation in? Oh, yeah, that really makes sense! Well, don't worry about apologizing, 'cause I'm all Hoosier now, baby!"
So how did Chalmers know about Philosophical Powers? Perhaps he, like the beloved reader, checks out the Headlines regularly, in the throes of deep regret at not accepting the talented young man. Perhaps he randomly types in URLs in search of philosophy-related web pages. Perhaps he has some kind of extra-sensitive perspective, or ESP. Who knows? This mystery may never be solved. Some things are just not meant to be known.