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That's how Rome fell
Jan. 24th, 2013 10:41 amMindless religiosity leading to a denial of reality brought about the fall of the Roman Empire (at least according to some historians).
The US leads the world in both scientific research and in a popular denial of science on both sides of the political spectrum.
The Liberals' War on Science:
...81 percent of Democrats but only 49 percent of Republicans believe that Earth is getting warmer...
...progressive liberals tend to be antinuclear because of the waste-disposal problem, anti–fossil fuels because of global warming, antihydroelectric because dams disrupt river ecosystems, and anti–wind power because of avian fatalities. The underlying current is “everything natural is good” and “everything unnatural is bad.”
The US leads the world in both scientific research and in a popular denial of science on both sides of the political spectrum.
The Liberals' War on Science:
...81 percent of Democrats but only 49 percent of Republicans believe that Earth is getting warmer...
...progressive liberals tend to be antinuclear because of the waste-disposal problem, anti–fossil fuels because of global warming, antihydroelectric because dams disrupt river ecosystems, and anti–wind power because of avian fatalities. The underlying current is “everything natural is good” and “everything unnatural is bad.”
Chinese Eugenic Policies
Jan. 22nd, 2013 12:41 pmChina has been running the world's largest and most successful eugenics program for more than thirty years, driving China's ever-faster rise as the global superpower:
this poses some existential threat to Western civilization...
...the results would allow all Chinese couples to maximize the intelligence of their offspring by selecting among their own fertilized eggs for the one or two that include the highest likelihood of the highest intelligence. Given the Mendelian genetic lottery, the kids produced by any one couple typically differ by 5 to 15 IQ points. So this method of "preimplantation embryo selection" might allow IQ within every Chinese family to increase by 5 to 15 IQ points per generation. After a couple of generations, it would be game over for Western global competitiveness....
this poses some existential threat to Western civilization...
...the results would allow all Chinese couples to maximize the intelligence of their offspring by selecting among their own fertilized eggs for the one or two that include the highest likelihood of the highest intelligence. Given the Mendelian genetic lottery, the kids produced by any one couple typically differ by 5 to 15 IQ points. So this method of "preimplantation embryo selection" might allow IQ within every Chinese family to increase by 5 to 15 IQ points per generation. After a couple of generations, it would be game over for Western global competitiveness....
Self-Reliance For Self-Defense -- Police Protection Isn't Enough!:
even if the police were obligated to protect us (which they aren't), or even if they tried to protect us (which they often don't...), most often there wouldn't be time enough for them to do it. It's about time that we came to grips with that, and resolved never to abdicate responsibility for our personal safety, and that of our loved ones, to anyone else.Given that, I cannot comprehend how the authorities can deny personal firearm permits, as they routinely do in may states.
Napster, Udacity, and the Academy
Nov. 18th, 2012 09:01 pmThe possibility MOOCs hold out is that the educational parts of education can be unbundled. MOOCs expand the audience for education to people ill-served or completely shut out from the current system, in the same way phonographs expanded the audience for symphonies to people who couldn’t get to a concert hall, and PCs expanded the users of computing power to people who didn’t work in big companies.
In the US, an undergraduate education used to be an option, one way to get into the middle class. Now it’s a hostage situation, required to avoid falling out of it. And if some of the hostages having trouble coming up with the ransom conclude that our current system is a completely terrible idea, then learning will come unbundled from the pursuit of a degree just as as songs came unbundled from CDs.
If this happens, Harvard will be fine. Yale will be fine, and Stanford, and Swarthmore, and Duke. But Bridgerland Applied Technology College? Maybe not fine. University of Arkansas at Little Rock? Maybe not fine. And Kaplan College, a more reliable producer of debt than education? Definitely not fine.
http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2012/11/napster-udacity-and-the-academy/
Wednesday night we lost power in our block because a ConEd repair crew created a short circuit which started a fire. 80 (eighty!) firefighters on 3 (three!) firetrucks watched 1 (one) electrical pole burning and did nothing: they had sand and foam to put out electrical fires, but they were afraid that ConEd will sue them for equipment damage.
Eventually a ConEd crew managed to turn electricity off and the fire went out.
The firefighters washed ashes off the neighborhood cars and left.
Eventually a ConEd crew managed to turn electricity off and the fire went out.
The firefighters washed ashes off the neighborhood cars and left.
Sexism In Science
Sep. 28th, 2012 03:16 pmScience faculty’s subtle gender biases favormale students
Table 1 clearly shows that female faculty members are more biased that males.
Interestingly enough, the article does not recognize that, instead they say "female faculty members were just as likely as their male colleagues to favor the male student".
I think this is very important.
The reason for the discrimination, IMHO, is that women are generally expected to care for the children and thus to have shorter overall career. The persistent anti-discrimination propaganda (which I welcome wholeheartedly!) has, apparently, blinded the males, but not the females, because they know about the childcare pressures and the proverbial biological clock from personal experience instead of Noosphere.
Table 1 clearly shows that female faculty members are more biased that males.
Interestingly enough, the article does not recognize that, instead they say "female faculty members were just as likely as their male colleagues to favor the male student".
I think this is very important.
The reason for the discrimination, IMHO, is that women are generally expected to care for the children and thus to have shorter overall career. The persistent anti-discrimination propaganda (which I welcome wholeheartedly!) has, apparently, blinded the males, but not the females, because they know about the childcare pressures and the proverbial biological clock from personal experience instead of Noosphere.
- In a blatant disregard for a democratic process, the party amends its platform: the screams of "ay" and "nay" are roughly the same in loudness, and the rules require 2/3 majority; but the chairman still announces the motion as "passed"
- Russian ships displayed at DNC tribute to vets
pussy riot in an alternative universe
Aug. 21st, 2012 09:18 am3 Christian priests enter an empty CalTech lecture room and scream "Aristotle, remove Hawking!"
3 попа врываются в пустую поточную аудиторию Физтеха и вопят "Аристотель, забери Хокинга!"
3 попа врываются в пустую поточную аудиторию Физтеха и вопят "Аристотель, забери Хокинга!"
(no subject)
Aug. 2nd, 2012 10:55 amwhile learning to eat sushi with sticks, be careful not to knit a salmon scarf.
The Great Outdoors Is Good for Allergies
May. 8th, 2012 11:47 amA new study reveals that people who grow up in more rural environments are less likely to develop allergies. The reason may be that environments rich with species harbor more friendly microbes, which colonize our bodies and protect against inflammatory disorders.
Compared with healthy individuals, atopic individuals had lower environmental biodiversity in the surroundings of their homes and significantly lower generic diversity of gammaproteobacteria on their skin.
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/05/01/1205624109
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/05/the-great-outdoors-is-good-for.html?ref=hp
Compared with healthy individuals, atopic individuals had lower environmental biodiversity in the surroundings of their homes and significantly lower generic diversity of gammaproteobacteria on their skin.
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/05/01/1205624109
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/05/the-great-outdoors-is-good-for.html?ref=hp
Restroom automation
May. 7th, 2012 11:57 amOur office restroom is highly automated: auto-flush (often broken, so one has to press a button), auto-water (but no way to regulate the temperature, so some faucets produce ice cold water, and some - scolding hot), auto-soap (and the soap keeps ejaculating as long as one is washing hands because it "sees" them).
The only things which are missing are the things which are really truly needed: hand-less door opening on exit and entrance.
I guess I am the only one with such weird preferences...
The only things which are missing are the things which are really truly needed: hand-less door opening on exit and entrance.
I guess I am the only one with such weird preferences...
Я попробую ответить на этот вопрос как я это понимаю.
Представьте себе, что на какую-нибудь страну (не дай Бог) сбросили атомные бомбы, погибла треть населения.
Причём не просто треть. Бомбы сбрасывали на города, т.е., все университеты разрушены.
Ну, представьте себе, что, скажем, во Франции (не дай Бог!) перебили всех людей с высшим образованием.
Это ведь будет уже не совсем Франция, правда?
Восточная Европа была центром еврейской культуры. Печатались книги на идише, снималось кино, было много театров. Я понимаю, что современному человеку, который смотрит на идиш как персонаж Маяковского на польский паспорт ("откуда это и что это за географические новости"), в это трудно поверить, но идиш бы в то время таким же полноценным культурным языком, как, скажем, французский.
Подавляюшее большинство ешив (религиозных академий) тоже было именно сдесь (мозги, отточенные на талмуде, внесли значительный вклад в "сокровищницу мировой науки").
Всё это было уничтожено.
Холокост - это не просто 6М человек (китайцев в войне с Японией погибло в разы больше).
Холокост - это не просто треть народа (а если брать только восточноевропейских евреев - ашканазов - то ещё больше).
Холокост - это уничтожение целого культурно-исторического явления.
Евреи носятся с Холокостом, потому что он - как фантомная боль в сердце и лёгких одновременно. Нет этих органов больше. Но они болят.
Представьте себе, что на какую-нибудь страну (не дай Бог) сбросили атомные бомбы, погибла треть населения.
Причём не просто треть. Бомбы сбрасывали на города, т.е., все университеты разрушены.
Ну, представьте себе, что, скажем, во Франции (не дай Бог!) перебили всех людей с высшим образованием.
Это ведь будет уже не совсем Франция, правда?
Восточная Европа была центром еврейской культуры. Печатались книги на идише, снималось кино, было много театров. Я понимаю, что современному человеку, который смотрит на идиш как персонаж Маяковского на польский паспорт ("откуда это и что это за географические новости"), в это трудно поверить, но идиш бы в то время таким же полноценным культурным языком, как, скажем, французский.
Подавляюшее большинство ешив (религиозных академий) тоже было именно сдесь (мозги, отточенные на талмуде, внесли значительный вклад в "сокровищницу мировой науки").
Всё это было уничтожено.
Холокост - это не просто 6М человек (китайцев в войне с Японией погибло в разы больше).
Холокост - это не просто треть народа (а если брать только восточноевропейских евреев - ашканазов - то ещё больше).
Холокост - это уничтожение целого культурно-исторического явления.
Евреи носятся с Холокостом, потому что он - как фантомная боль в сердце и лёгких одновременно. Нет этих органов больше. Но они болят.
