Quick posts from around the web.

* Brian Leiter has a thread about “hot topics in metaphysics”:http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2009/02/hot-topics-in-metaphysics.html. For a while there metaphysics seemed to be all mereology/meta-ontology, all the time, with a special focus on meta-ontological questions about mereology. I think (and hope) that’s not really a fair characterisation of what’s going on now, so head over to Leiter’s and tell us all what’s been happening.
* A new edition of _Nous_ is “now out”:http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117997227/home?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0 featuring articles by Graham Oppy, Yuri Cath, and Jeremy Fantl and Matthew McGrath, among others.
* Terry Tao notes a “worrying research cut”:http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2009/02/06/proposed-stimulus-amendment-eliminates-14-billion-in-nsf-funding/ in a proposed amendment to the stimulus bill. I have no idea what’s happening throughout the stimulus debates, but it would be a worry if the horse trading cost us a lot of NSF funding.