Crazy On Tap - Is it okay to retaliate nowadays?

Crazy On Tap - Is it okay to retaliate nowadays?: "Here's the thing. The strategy both Israelis and Palestinians were playing was Tit-for-Tat: do whatever the other guy does. If the other guy kills, then you kill. If the other guy plays nice, you play nice.

This is the game every two countries (and even individuals) play.

Unfortunately the functor or callback for the Israeli-Palestinian game was 'kill the other guy.' Then the Israelis pulled out of S Lebanon and last summer out of Gaza strip.

Some may see this breaking of the Tit-for-Tat cycle, as an unnatural or spiritual or 'God-inspired' act. But I think the Israelis made an exception because they were just too tired. Killing is not good for the killer - it wears you down (something suicide bombers don't have to worry about).

But here's the key ... this was a one time change of strategy. Israel is still playing by the Tit-for-Tat game. But by doing something unilaterally 'nice' it expected Hamas and Hezbollah to CONTINUE playing Tit-for-Tat too, that is, to repeat Israel's last action, that is, to play nice.

Instead Hamas and Hezbollah didn't repeat Israel's last action - they didn't renounce violence, they didn't stop shooting rockets into Israel, they didn't play nice.

Is it because it takes more than one act to re-polarize a game? Is it because human memory isn't so easily erased, but is an exponentially weighted sum of the past (one nice act doesn't outweigh the sins of 50 years)? Is it because Palestinian passion is being stoked by Arab (and Iranian and Pakistani) leaders as an excuse for local problems? Is it that Hamas and Hezbollah are addicted to the pity and the international attention - like some wife-beating victims?

With its current military actions, Israel is showing that it's still playing the Tit-for-Tat strategy. This is a good thing!

Because the other two strategies - be unconditionally aggressive, or be unconditionally passive - are instantiations of one absolutist and highly unstable strategy. Untethered to real world conditions, it doesn't take much to switch from total passivity to total aggression."

'Black Swan Green,' by David Mitchell - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'Black Swan Green,' by David Mitchell - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "Even Mitchell, who takes greater formal and intellectual risks than most of his contemporaries, has said, 'Ideas are well and good, but without characters to hang them on, fiction falls limp.' It's true that you don't care about a book like 'Cloud Atlas' chiefly because it manages to analyze a century and a half of exploitation in societies from Europe to the South Pacific. But as a reader, I don't want to be without the verbal play and inventiveness of the generation that came before Mitchell's. There has got to be a way to write fiction that pays attention to people at the same time that it represents the breadth and complexity of the kinds of societies we live in now."

Where Have All the Strivers Gone? - New York Times

Where Have All the Strivers Gone? - New York Times: "It's that literary fiction is defined, in part, by its distance from popular fiction. And a crucial aspect of our whole high-low cultural system is that high culture mustn't be created for worldly gain. Which is an especially touchy subject when it comes to the novel."

Where Have All the Strivers Gone? - New York Times

Where Have All the Strivers Gone? - New York Times: "One conjecture I've heard is that modern literary fiction is just following a course set earlier by Romanticism in poetry. Subjectivity moves to the foreground; conflict becomes interior. You're not striving to best your rivals in the big wide world; you're struggling to come to terms with the ghosts of your past or the discord of the authentic self. According to this theory, nobody writes literary novels about worldly advancement any longer for more or less the same reason that nobody writes poetry about charging brigades, light or otherwise."

'Chances Are . . . Adventures in Probability,' by Michael Kaplan and Ellen Kaplan - The New York Times - Book Review - New York Times

'Chances Are . . . Adventures in Probability,' by Michael Kaplan and Ellen Kaplan - The New York Times - Book Review - New York Times: "In the 17th century, governments took advantage of the average citizen's inability to assess probability by selling annuities, a type of insurance policy in which the buyer, in essence, bets that he will live longer than most other people. As with all casino bets, the house held an edge. The government possessed mortality statistics, regarded as state secrets, and used them to rig the odds. It also relied on basic psychology, 'the instinctive belief that everyone dies at an average age — except me.'"

'Earthly Powers,' by Michael Burleigh - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'Earthly Powers,' by Michael Burleigh - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "While 19th-century Protestant America was searching for God by immersing itself in the Bible, experiencing one Great Awakening after another, Europe entered an age of anxiety over the prospect of living in a disenchanted cosmos. Was modern man progressively recovering the powers he once projected onto gods, building for himself a fully human world?"

'Earthly Powers,' by Michael Burleigh - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'Earthly Powers,' by Michael Burleigh - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "contemporary Europe is the closest thing to a godless civilization the world has ever known. Does this place it in the vanguard of world history? That is what many Europeans think, which is why they have been caught off guard by the challenge of radical Islam even in their own backyard. They find it hard to believe that people can still take God seriously and want to shape society according to his dictates."

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | What if...

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | What if...: "The philosophical puzzle is this: Why is it acceptable to sacrifice the one person in The Runaway Trolley Car but not in The Fat Man case? Can it ever be morally acceptable to kill an innocent person if that is the only way to save many? Should some actions - such as deliberately killing innocent people against their wishes - never be done?"

'High Lonesome: New & Selected Stories 1966-2006,' by Joyce Carol Oates - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'High Lonesome: New & Selected Stories 1966-2006,' by Joyce Carol Oates - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "For those of us who have stood before bookstore shelves lined with Joyce Carol Oates volumes, paralyzed with awe, wondering which of her more than 100 books we should open first, 'High Lonesome,' a new collection of 36 stories written between 1966 and 2006, is a welcome addition."

'No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality,' by Judith Rich Harris - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality,' by Judith Rich Harris - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "the evolutionary logic that makes us different from one another will gradually make us different from ourselves, context by context. Personality — behavior that is 'consistent across time and place,' as one textbook puts it — will fade."

'No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality,' by Judith Rich Harris - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality,' by Judith Rich Harris - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "From this evolutionary logic, Harris builds a theory of personality based on three systems in our brains. The socialization system absorbs language, customs and skills, making us more alike. Mommy and Grandma wear dresses; you're a girl, so you want a dress too. The relationship system distinguishes people so we can deal with each one appropriately. Crying gets milk from Mommy but not Grandma; Billy is gentle, but Bobby hits people. Even random differences are important: Anne helped you with your homework, but her twin sister owes you a dollar. You find ways to tell people apart because you have to."

Your socialization system figures out how to conform to your group. Your relationship system figures out how to get along with each person. Your status system figures out how to compete. It monitors people's reactions, gathering information about how smart, pretty, weak or talented they think you are. It looks for virtues, activities and occupations at which you're most likely to best your peers. It notices tiny differences between the way people regard you and the way they regard others in your peer group, or even your twin. By choosing pursuits based on these differences, it magnifies them. It drives you to be different.

'No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality,' by Judith Rich Harris - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality,' by Judith Rich Harris - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "When parents have an accent but most of the neighborhood doesn't, their children lose the accent. The village, not the family, prevails.

Why? Because that's what makes evolutionary sense. If your parents raise you poorly, Harris argues, you're better off diluting the damage. If they dote on you, you're better off adjusting to the tougher social world in which you'll have to find your way. Throughout most of human evolution, parents had little time for children old enough to run around. They learned from one another and from watching adults."

'No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality,' by Judith Rich Harris - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality,' by Judith Rich Harris - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "Does home environment — parenting style, marital harmony, the use or rejection of day care — shape a child's personality, making her more agreeable, less aggressive or more extroverted? Nope. Research shows that twins don't turn out more alike if they're raised together than if they're raised apart. Nor do adoptive siblings. And when you compare apples to apples — making sure that each parent-child unit in a study is as genetically related as any other — being raised in one home rather than another, on average, makes no difference."

'Reporting: Writings from The New Yorker,' by David Remnick - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'Reporting: Writings from The New Yorker,' by David Remnick - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire,"

'Fair Trade for All,' by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Andrew Charlton - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'Fair Trade for All,' by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Andrew Charlton - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "When markets in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere are opened, people often can't move easily to new industries where the nation has a comparative advantage. Transportation systems that might get them there are often primitive, housing is inadequate and job training is scarce. They're vulnerable in the meantime because safety nets are weak or nonexistent. Most people lack access to credit or insurance because financial institutions are frail, so they're unable to start their own businesses or otherwise take advantage of new opportunities that trade might bring. Many poor countries are already plagued by high unemployment, and job losses in the newly traded sector might just add to it.

Hence, the authors argue, the pace at which poorer nations open their markets to trade should coincide with the development of new institutions — roads, schools, banks and the like — that make such transitions easier and generate real opportunities. Since many poor nations can't afford the investments required to build these institutions, rich nations have a responsibility to help."

'The Possibility of an Island,' by Michel Houellebecq - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'The Possibility of an Island,' by Michel Houellebecq - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "In the English lad novel, the raffish cad learns to accept normal human limitations and eventually grows up. In the French lad novel, he not only refuses to grow up, he begets an entire anticivilization."

The Chick-Lit Pandemic - New York Times

The Chick-Lit Pandemic - New York Times: "In the new order — where both feminism and social consciousness are considered a relic of Communism — the line between independence and self-centeredness can be blurry."

'The White Man's Burden,' by William Easterly - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'The White Man's Burden,' by William Easterly - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "He contrasts the traditional 'Planner' approach of most aid projects with the 'Searcher' approach that works so well in the markets and democracies of the West. Searchers treat problem-solving as an incremental discovery process, relying on competition and feedback to figure out what works.

'A Planner thinks he already knows the answers,' Easterly writes. 'A Searcher admits he doesn't know the answers in advance; he believes that poverty is a complicated tangle of political, social, historical, institutional and technological factors.' Planners trust outside experts. Searchers emphasize homegrown solutions."

'The White Man's Burden,' by William Easterly - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'The White Man's Burden,' by William Easterly - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "The second, he says, 'is the tragedy in which the West spent $2.3 trillion on foreign aid over the last five decades and still had not managed to get 12-cent medicines to children to prevent half of all malaria deaths. The West spent $2.3 trillion and still had not managed to get $4 bed nets to poor families. The West spent $2.3 trillion and still had not managed to get $3 to each new mother to prevent five million child deaths.' The West is not stingy. It is ineffective."

'The White Man's Burden,' by William Easterly - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'The White Man's Burden,' by William Easterly - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "The program, Easterly reports, has 'increased the nationwide average of children under 5 sleeping under nets from 8 percent in 2000 to 55 percent in 2004. . . . A follow-up survey found nearly universal use of the nets by those who paid for them.' By contrast, when a Zambian program handed out free nets, '70 percent of the recipients didn't use' them. Charging for nets may sound hardhearted, but prices provide vital information about commitment."

Are We Having a Conversation Yet? An Art Form Evolves - New York Times

Are We Having a Conversation Yet? An Art Form Evolves - New York Times: "Cicero gave advice about conversation (It ought 'to be gentle and without a trace of intransigence; it should also be witty'). Montaigne hailed its pleasures ('I find the practice of it the most delightful activity in our lives'). Henry Fielding praised it ('This grand Business of our Lives, the Foundation of every Thing, either useful or pleasant'). Adam Smith prescribed it (calling it one of 'the most powerful remedies for restoring the mind to its tranquillity').

There were also those who opposed it, or at least strongly declared other preferences. Rousseau sneered at the chatter in French salons. Wordsworth preferred nature and solitude. The writers of Romanticism shifted the emphasis, preferring to share feelings and perceptions rather than honor conversation for its own sake. Conversation became confessional — which in many ways, it still is. 'Modern writers,' Mr. Miller suggests, 'tend to dwell on the emotional rewards that come from conversation.'"

story idea

Crazy On Tap - Dating lowers my self-esteem: "I just got out of a relationship where my girlfriend was constantly accusing me of cheating on her, and bring up times when we were ACTUALLY TOGETHER."

Flesh Trade - New York Times

Flesh Trade - New York Times: "Alvin Roth, a Harvard economist who studies the design of markets, has done a lot of thinking about repugnance. On some issues, he notes, repugnance will recede, as with life insurance — or, even more momentously, the practice of charging interest on loans. In other cases, the reverse happens: a once-accepted behavior like slaveholding comes to be seen as repugnant."

The Bride Price - New York Times

The Bride Price - New York Times: "Rather than a willing union between a man and woman, marriage is frequently a transaction among families, and the younger the bride, the higher the price she may fetch. Girls are valuable workers in a land where survival is scratched from the grudging soil of a half-acre parcel. In her parents' home, a girl can till fields, tend livestock and cook meals. In her husband's home, she is more useful yet. She can have sex and bear children."

On Point : Sonya Kitchell - Sonya Kitchell

On Point : Sonya Kitchell - Sonya Kitchell: "Sonya Kitchell grew up absorbing the great folk and blues artists of her parents' generation. She's already recorded a first album, and developed her own soulful style of singing and writing that belie her youth."

What Shamu Taught Me About a Happy Marriage - New York Times

What Shamu Taught Me About a Happy Marriage - New York Times: "Rather than teach the cranes to stop landing on him, the trainer taught the birds something else, a behavior that would make the undesirable behavior impossible. The birds couldn't alight on the mats and his head simultaneously.

At home, I came up with incompatible behaviors for Scott to keep him from crowding me while I cooked. To lure him away from the stove, I piled up parsley for him to chop or cheese for him to grate at the other end of the kitchen island. Or I'd set out a bowl of chips and salsa across the room. Soon I'd done it: no more Scott hovering around me while I cooked.

I followed the students to SeaWorld San Diego, where a dolphin trainer introduced me to least reinforcing syndrome (L. R. S.). When a dolphin does something wrong, the trainer doesn't respond in any way. He stands still for a few beats, careful not to look at the dolphin, and then returns to work. The idea is that any response, positive or negative, fuels a behavior. If a behavior provokes no response, it typically dies away.

In the margins of my notes I wrote, 'Try on Scott!'

It was only a matter of time before he was again tearing around the house searching for his keys, at which point I said nothing and kept at what I was doing. It took a lot of discipline to maintain my calm, but results were immediate and stunning. His temper fell far shy of its usual pitch and then waned like a fast-moving storm. I felt as if I should throw him a mackerel."

At Colleges, Women Are Leaving Men in the Dust - New York Times

At Colleges, Women Are Leaving Men in the Dust - New York Times: "From the time they are young, boys are far more likely than girls to be suspended or expelled, or have a learning disability or emotional problem diagnosed. As teenagers, they are more likely to drop out of high school, commit suicide or be incarcerated. Such difficulties can have echoes even in college men."

When the Personality Disorder Wears Camouflage - New York Times

When the Personality Disorder Wears Camouflage - New York Times: "In this environment, people who have one diagnosis in particular — antisocial personality disorder — can often masquerade as bold, effective soldiers, psychiatrists argue. Antisocial behavior is characterized by reckless irresponsibility, habitual lying and an indifference to the suffering of others. In some reports Army officials have listed such a diagnosis as the reason for Mr. Green's discharge...

This is especially likely if they have a measure of charisma, of superficial charm, a glib talent for telling lies, criminologists say. These are hallmark traits of what some experts call psychopathy, a potent blend of antisocial instincts and grandiosity.."

http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/ricardo.htm

http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/ricardo.htm: "The secret to the popularity of certain mathematical modelers, I suspect, is that they are valued precisely because they seem to absolve intellectuals from the need to understand the models that underpin orthodox views. Hardly anyone tries to understand what the Santa Fe theorists are actually saying; it is the pose of opposition to received wisdom, together with the implication that in a complicated world you can't learn anything from simple models anyway, that is valued, because it seems to say that not knowing what's in the textbooks is OK."

Salon.com Life | Why am I obsessed with celebrity gossip?

Salon.com Life | Why am I obsessed with celebrity gossip?: "I would argue that gods and goddesses are only useful to us in our lives if they are not regarded consciously as gods and goddesses -- only if they are regarded as real. I would suggest that we cannot possibly regard the gods and goddesses of another age and culture the way members of that culture themselves regarded their gods and goddesses. I figure that the ancient Greeks and Romans regarded their gods and goddesses much as we regard our film stars. The minute we become conscious of worship, the worship dies. It loses its magical power. We become self-conscious."

New Scientist News - How cocaine hijacks the craving brain

New Scientist News - How cocaine hijacks the craving brain: "When 18 cocaine addicts watched a 40-minute movie that featured people buying and preparing a substance that looked like cocaine, brain scans showed they produced more dopamine in the dorsal striatum than when they viewed a nature film. The effect was more marked in the most strongly addicted people."

idea: food-focused map tool

hmmm, a way to figure out food-groupings on the recipe blogosphere. hmmm. yummy. i wonder if anything could be done.

The Power of the Marginal

The Power of the Marginal: "When I was in college the rule seemed to be that you should study whatever you were most interested in. But in retrospect you're probably better off studying something moderately interesting with someone who's good at it than something very interesting with someone who isn't. You often hear people say that you shouldn't major in business in college, but this is actually an instance of a more general rule: don't learn things from teachers who are bad at them."

Discovery Channel :: News - Human :: Serious Study: Immaturity Levels Rising

Discovery Channel :: News - Human :: Serious Study: Immaturity Levels Rising: "Charlton explained to Discovery News that humans have an inherent attraction to physical youth, since it can be a sign of fertility, health and vitality. In the mid-20th century, however, another force kicked in, due to increasing need for individuals to change jobs, learn new skills, move to new places and make new friends.

A “child-like flexibility of attitudes, behaviors and knowledge” is probably adaptive to the increased instability of the modern world, Charlton believes. Formal education now extends well past physical maturity, leaving students with minds that are, he said, “unfinished.”"

TIM HARFORD | The Poker Machine

TIM HARFORD | The Poker Machine: "Many commentators now fear that the robots will destroy the online game that so enthused their creators in the days of IRC poker. Online poker players are thought to wager more than $250m a day - a tempting incentive to write a software program that could be let loose on unsuspecting 'fish' all over the world. A decent poker player can make thousands of dollars a month playing the online game, so what if that player was replaced by an unlimited number of copies of a fiendish computer program?"

Language Log: A man and a statue and a codex and a cadaver

Language Log: A man and a statue and a codex and a cadaver: "I mention those of the same origin which are contained in one name, but not one definition, but derive as it were from one source, e.g. when `Tullius' can be understood as a man and a statue and a codex and a cadaver. For these cannot be contained in one definition, but they have one single source, i.e. the real man himself, whose statue, books, cadaver they are."

Crazy On Tap - I'm sitting here watching American Pie and getting depressed

Crazy On Tap - I'm sitting here watching American Pie and getting depressed: "Oh, and when you are under 30, you also tend to think you can control emotions like who you fall in love with and how long the pain lasts." - sharkfish

Fraysters dissect the government's proposed reforms. Compiled by Adam Christian

Fraysters dissect the government's proposed reforms. Compiled by Adam Christian: "Tracker recaps the following four-step program laid out by 'Richard Swinburne (Cambridge Philosophy of Religion Dept Head)':

When someone has intentionally or cognizantly produced serious, unjustified harm to someone else, they must render,

1 Reparation.
2 Apology.
3 Repentence.
4 Penance.

You (1) repair as far as possible for you the damage done to the victim, (2) say you're sorry, (3) turn from the person you were as perpetrator and begin establishing habits of a life devoted to leaving that personality behind, and (4) constitute your apology as sincere by making it costly: when you apologize, offer some sort of servitude, goods, furtherance of the injured's favorite causes, etc., that could not have been required of you before you harmed that person(s)."

Reading Faulkner with Oprah. By Meghan O'Rourke

Reading Faulkner with Oprah. By Meghan O'Rourke: "For all his brilliant obscurity, Faulkner was obsessed with speaking in a language of mythic essentialism. His religious vision was an austere version of relic-worship, attached to place and to objects." In writing about the South he knew, he was trying to articulate a story of doomed consciousness, of pain, of being hyper-cognizant of the demise of not only family but of an entire culture established in bad moral faith. Out of these pressures are forged the self-made flaws of characters who collide with their families (and their culture) as violently as wrecking balls.

The war for the soul of literature - Salon

The war for the soul of literature - Salon: "The hysterical realist novel, Wood insists, is a noisy 'perpetual-motion machine' engaged in 'the pursuit of vitality at all costs.' Its authors produce 'books of great self-consciousness with no selves in them; curiously arrested books which know a thousand different things -- How to make the best Indonesian fish curry! The sonics of the trombone! The drug market of Detroit! The history of strip cartoons! -- but do not know a single human being.'

Without a doubt, some contemporary novels are overly frenetic and data-stuffed. But Wood doesn't seem to be able to distinguish between the frankly bad specimens ( Salman Rushdie's 'Fury,' a book that, contrary to Wood's predictions, was widely panned) and those that enjoyably gratify readers' curiosity about things like the drug trade in Detroit (why not?). They all strike him as inhuman because he has no interest in their struggle to describe what it feels like to live in a jittery world where authenticity has disappeared in a maze of electronic screens, and people often feel that the freedom to choose between multiple identities leaves them unsure whether any of those identities can be real. Wood is a great champion of the real in fiction, and particularly of characters who believe so entirely in their own reality that they convince the reader of it too."

The war for the soul of literature - Salon

The war for the soul of literature - Salon: "Wood labels it 'secular comedy.' Satire, he writes, is 'religious comedy,' because it doles out 'punishment for those who deserve it' as opposed to 'secular comedy,' which offers 'forgiveness to those who don't.' In Wood's secular comedy, characters are 'free to contradict themselves without being corrected by the author, are free to make mistakes without fearing authorial judgment.'"

Why I’m Happy I Evolved - OLIVIA JUDSON

-Why I’m Happy I Evolved - OLIVIA JUDSON : "No other animal that I have heard of can live so peaceably in such close quarters with so many individuals that are unrelated. No other animal routinely bothers to help the sick and the dying, or tries to save those hurt in an earthquake or flood."

The Weaker Sex - New York Times

The Weaker Sex - New York Times: "Perhaps the reason many societies offer boys nutritional, educational and vocational advantages over girls is not because of chauvinism — it's because we're trying to ensure their survival."

The rest of the article also points to this possibility .... that a sexist culture is affirmative action for men. Maybe the sexism is overdone. But then it's a question of balance not absolutes.

'American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville,' by Bernard-Henri Lévy - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville,' by Bernard-Henri Lévy - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "Any American with a big urge to write a book explaining France to the French should read this book first, to get a sense of the hazards involved. Bernard-Henri Lévy is a French writer with a spatter-paint prose style and the grandiosity of a college sophomore; he rambled around this country at the behest of The Atlantic Monthly and now has worked up his notes into a sort of book. It is the classic Freaks, Fatties, Fanatics & Faux Culture Excursion beloved of European journalists for the past 50 years, with stops at Las Vegas to visit a lap-dancing club and a brothel; Beverly Hills; Dealey Plaza in Dallas; Bourbon Street in New Orleans; Graceland; a gun show in Fort Worth; a 'partner-swapping club' in San Francisco with a drag queen with mammoth silicone breasts; the Iowa State Fair ('a festival of American kitsch'); Sun City ('gilded apartheid for the old');a stock car race; the Mall of America; Mount Rushmore; a couple of evangelical megachurches; the Mormons of Salt Lake; some Amish; the 2004 national political conventions; Alcatraz - you get the idea."

Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses

Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses: "There are nineteen rules governing literary art in domain of romantic fiction -- some say twenty-two. In 'Deerslayer,' Cooper violated eighteen of them. These eighteen require:"

The mysterious appeal of Garrison Keillor. By Sam Anderson

The mysterious appeal of Garrison Keillor. By Sam Anderson: "The 'News From Lake Wobegon' is basically an old-style Talk of the Town piece about the Midwest."

contract faq

1099 FAQ:

- hourly rate = current annual pay/1000

- don't do firm fixed price

- do have a fixed set of requirements in place before signing anything

- specify up front what hours you will answer the phone/SLA on email

- outside those hours, DO NOT ANSWER THE PHONE.

- as much as possible, do not let the client specify implementation. That's your job

- charge for documentation

- retain rights to the code you write, if you can

- specify passing through charges on unique tools (for example if you need a server pdf library)

- contract programmers work where they choose, or else they're employees

Make sure the client understands that you expect prompt payment, that
work will cease without payment and that you are prepared to sue if not
paid.



Do not hand over source until paid.



Some clients are past masters at delay. Beware the "suddenly
discovered unacceptable flaw" that hinders payment while the client
carries on using the system. You'll never be able to fix it to their
satisfaction. Sue.



Of course this presupposes that you deliver systems that work in accordance with agreed WRITTEN specs.


http://www.crazyontap.com/topic.php?TopicId=5488&Posts=27

people mellow with age

Elderly people may be better at perceiving happiness and worse at
perceiving fear, a new study suggests. The finding supports the idea
that people do mellow with age.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn9344&feedId=online-news_rss20

orexin and sleep

He believes this could explain why we naturally feel sleepy after a
meal and also why it can be difficult to sleep when we are hungry,
since the activity of the neurons would be higher when there is less
glucose in the blood.

“We
think orexin neurons make sure that we are awake and alert when hungry,
in order to ensure optimal food-seeking,” Burdakov says. He adds that
it makes evolutionary sense for animals to turn off their wakefulness
and conserve energy once they have eaten their food, since it could be
risky or wasteful to expend too much energy looking for more food.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn9272&feedId=online-news_rss20

previous link

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19025544.200&feedId=online-news_rss20

story idea

The appearance of websites detailing the recreational use of these
drugs, which even post recipes on how to heighten the hit, is the
latest twist in this trend (see "Recipe for abuse").
The traffic on some of the sites is enormous. One, which includes
around 3000 personal accounts of experiences with a wide range of legal
and illicit drugs, receives an average of 420,000 hits a day. "Some
people post their progress on beating a new formulation almost on a
daily basis. Then others respond with questions and experiences of
their own - it feeds on itself," says Cone.

low-calorie sweets throws body's calorie detection out of whack

Some researchers think artificial sweeteners may actually interfere
with our efforts to diet. A 2004 study by psychologists at Purdue
University found that when rats were fed artificially sweetened liquids
for 10 days, they lost their innate ability to gauge the calorie
content of foods containing real sugar. In nature, the sweeter
the food, the greater the calories. Humans have adapted over millions
of years to seek out food that tastes sweet, and not just for survival.

Time

locavores

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1200783,00.html

Bipolar teens see hostility in neutral faces

Teens diagnosed with the bipolar disorder are more likely to
interpret neutral facial expressions as hostile and react with fear, a
new study shows.

Brain scans also showed
that the brain centre that processes fear – the amygdala – shows more
activity in these youngsters than in those free of the disorder. The
researchers say the findings provide insight into how bipolar
individuals process emotions differently to their peers.

... says adolescents with bipolar disorder may have a suicidal reaction to
something as simple as a friend not calling them back on the phone. She
adds that patients with the disorder also show inappropriate reactions
during their manic phases: “A teacher will be yelling at them and they
might think this is the funniest thing.”

...

All participants reacted similarly to images of happy and fearful faces. But the patients with bipolar disorder were more likely to interpret
neutral facial expressions as hostile and feel more fearful of these
faces. On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being most fearful, those with the
psychiatric condition gave an average rating of 2 while others gave an
average rating of 1.4.



New Scientist

hyper-efficient showers

The shower unit is a watertight cylinder with very fine nozzles all
around. As the traveller steps inside, an optical sensor measures their
height and shape and pumps water mixed with shampoo at high pressure
through only those nozzles needed to cover the body.

New Scientist

critical social density causes differing behavior (locusts)

The experiments showed that at low densities of just 2 to 7 locusts,
the insects moved independently, while at slightly higher densities of
10 to 25 locusts they banded together, changing direction in unison,
rapidly and spontaneously.

New Scientist

locust commotion .... funny pun.

ornamental sex-selection features grow square

The study showed that sexual ornaments – such as antlers or a peacock's
feathery display – become disproportionately large as body size
increases.

They found that in virtually every case, ornament size grew by roughly the square of the overall growth rate.

New Scienist

business idea to think about

Each "bird" carries a document, which is automatically assigned a
string of numbers depending on the words it contains. Documents with a
lot of similar words have number strings of the same length and a
virtual bird will naturally fly with others carrying documents with
number strings of the same length.

When a new
article appears, software scans it for words similar to those in
existing articles and then files the document into an existing flock,
or creates a new one. The team has used the system to categorise online
news stories from CNN and the BBC. The next step will be to allow
people to click on a bird to display its document.

New Scientist

caloric-restriction diet

"Andrzej Bartke and colleagues at Southern Illinois University in
Springfield worked with normal mice and mutant mice missing the
receptor for growth hormone. Half of each type were allowed to eat at
will, and the other half were fed 30 per cent fewer calories than
usual. As expected, normal mice on fewer calories lived 20 to 30 per
cent longer. Mice without the growth hormone receptor also showed
similar increases in longevity on a normal diet.

This suggests that restricting calories has a similar effect on the
body to knocking out the growth hormone receptor. Doing both does not
make the mice live even longer: the mutant mice on low-calorie diets
had similar lifespans to those on the normal diet (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol 103, p 7901).

"The actions of growth hormone are somehow implicated in linking
caloric restriction to longer life," Bartke says. Insulin may be the
connection. Both groups of long-lived mice had a greater sensitivity to
insulin, and caloric restriction in the mutant mice failed to increase
their strong insulin sensitivity any further.

"Insulin
resistance is a risk factor for just about any problem you don't want
to get: diabetes, atherosclerosis, cancer. It's sort of intuitive that
the opposite situation would be beneficial."

"

New Scientist

kundalini

kundalini: "kun•da•li•ni

Pronunciation: (koon'dl-?'n?), [key]
—n. Hinduism.
the vital force lying dormant within one until activated by the practice of yoga, which leads one toward spiritual power and eventual salvation."

Weltschmerz

Weltschmerz: "Welt•schmerz

Pronunciation: (velt'shmerts'), [key]
—n. German.
sorrow that one feels and accepts as one's necessary portion in life; sentimental pessimism."

another gymnist thing

Slate Magazine: "Yes, I think you're taking it too seriously when you respond to (almost) every single post.

'Must defend gymism! Must defend gymnism against these hordes of Anglican heretics!'

I don't disagree there's a wonderful feeling. The wonderful feeling one gets in the middle of a workout (an endorphin high?). It's a feeling of power, of self-confidence, of connecting to something bigger than yourself (ie, having more power than one does). I love that feeling too.

But it's a very serious feeling, it's incompatible with humor. Humor deflates power. It's hard to laugh at yourself looking at the mirror in a gym and not lose that feeling (you will be mere dust soon enough). As it's hard to laugh in the middle of sex. Or when defending your religion.

The O'Neill article deflates an illusion (debunking's in the subtitle of the column afterall), too - that going to a gym is a morally virtuous act by pointing out that people we know are immoral, ie, the terrorists, went to the gym. The more intense they were the more often they went. There was nothing bringing their mania back to earth. No healthy self-parody. No balance. No ying to their yang. (I'd imagine a Daoist fanatic is a contradiction in terms.)


So many people in the modern world have no idea that their physical existence can be a source of pleasure or satisfaction.



Modern people hate physical pleaure. Goddam. Except for sex, food and violence (even if the last is vicarious), of course.

people don't go to the gym out of a sense of virtue or self-righteousness; they go because their lives are too stressful,



People go to church for the same reason - to relieve stress. They may say it's because they are being virtuous, God-fearing and so forth, but social animals feel good when engaging in social bonding. (Something about endorphin high, perhaps?) Quite a few gym-goers confuse the causality relationship of the two feelings as well (the two are probably in a virtuous/vicious cycle).

I know I go to the gym because I have told myself it's the right thing to do, in the long run. How else to explain my getting up out of my comfortable stress-free Sunday and going for a bike ride or a swim? Certainly lounging around reading the paper would also reduce stress. So would beer and chocolate cake. Or video games on the computer. To go to the gym I need to persuade myself there's a 'higher' or more long-term reason to go. I've had to package it in a moral rationale (by way of health/market competitiveness). Everyone does - even if the moral rationale is 'Doing what feels good, is the right thing to do.' That's still a moral statement.

(Goddam, all this introspection is going to make it hard to go to the gym tomorrow. I need my myths. Luckily the lifeguard is cute.)

The connection between British/WASPs and flabbiness eludes me, also. Didn't the British Victorians practically invent modern athletics? From golf, tennis, soccer, rugby, cricket, rowing, etc.

Maybe what pisses you off is that the British commit the heretic's worse offense -- being silly."

Slate Magazine

Slate Magazine: "Yes, I think you're taking it too seriously when you respond to (almost) every single post.

'Must defend gymism! Must defend gymnism against these hordes of Anglican heretics!'

I don't disagree there's a wonderful feeling. The wonderful feeling one gets in the middle of a workout (an endorphin high?). It's a feeling of power, of self-confidence, of connecting to something bigger than yourself (ie, having more power than one does). I love that feeling too.

But it's a very serious feeling, it's incompatible with humor. Humor deflates power. It's hard to laugh at yourself looking at the mirror in a gym and not lose that feeling (you will be mere dust soon enough). As it's hard to laugh in the middle of sex. Or when defending your religion.

The O'Neill article deflates an illusion (debunking's in the subtitle of the column afterall), too - that going to a gym is a morally virtuous act by pointing out that people we know are immoral, ie, the terrorists, went to the gym. The more intense they were the more often they went. There was nothing bringing their mania back to earth. No healthy self-parody. No balance. No ying to their yang. (I'd imagine a Daoist fanatic is a contradiction in terms.)


So many people in the modern world have no idea that their physical existence can be a source of pleasure or satisfaction.



Modern people hate physical pleaure. Goddam. Except for sex, food and violence (even if the last is vicarious), of course.

people don't go to the gym out of a sense of virtue or self-righteousness; they go because their lives are too stressful,



People go to church for the same reason - to relieve stress. They may say it's because they are being virtuous, God-fearing and so forth, but social animals feel good when engaging in social bonding. (Something about endorphin high, perhaps?) Quite a few gym-goers confuse the causality relationship of the two feelings as well (the two are probably in a virtuous/vicious cycle).

I know I go to the gym because I have told myself it's the right thing to do, in the long run. How else to explain my getting up out of my comfortable stress-free Sunday and going for a bike ride or a swim? Certainly lounging around reading the paper would also reduce stress. So would beer and chocolate cake. Or video games on the computer. To go to the gym I need to persuade myself there's a 'higher' or more long-term reason to go. I've had to package it in a moral rationale (by way of health/market competitiveness). Everyone does - even if the moral rationale is 'Doing what feels good, is the right thing to do.' That's still a moral statement.

(Goddam, all this introspection is going to make it hard to go to the gym tomorrow. I need my myths. Luckily the lifeguard is cute.)

The connection between British/WASPs and flabbiness eludes me, also. Didn't the British Victorians practically invent modern athletics? From golf, tennis, soccer, rugby, cricket, rowing, etc.

Maybe what pisses you off is that the British commit the heretic's worse offense -- being silly."

Slate Magazine

Slate Magazine: "I read the same article and I didn't get the gym-hating tone you're alluding to. Sure it was prickly, but it was supposed to prick some sort of CW - that gyms are morally virtuous. I guess it worked as you came out swinging in defense.

You're taking it far too seriously. As if your God/ritual/community/symbol had been insultingly drawn in a cartoon. Or made the villain of a popular book/movie starring Tom Hanks. Which proves the author's point, no?

Yes, he did call gym goers preening and narcissistic, but is it that particularly inaccurate? I started a gym regimen a few months ago, and I can definitely attest to looking in the mirror far more often (what can I say, it's a beautiful sight!) - must have done it three times today already. And preening? Well, that's what's it's called when one takes the long way around the pool when the teenage lifeguard and her friend are chatting over on the other side as I did this morning (laughs at self).

I don't think narcissistic and selfless are polar opposites anyway. People are social animals who live under the gaze of others. Abstract away the social context in one way (the agency of the others), and one gets the extreme of just gazing, ie, narcissism. Abstract away the social context in a dfferent way (their physicality), and one gets the extreme of just judging, ie, asceticism and aestheticism.

Self-idolatry and self-immolation are the Scylla and Charbdis of a certain personality type, those that are too viable to abstract social contexts. Mysticism tries to tame the excesses of the first. When it overreaches, it veers into those of second."

NPR : Summer's Here: Grills Catch Fire

NPR : Summer's Here: Grills Catch Fire: "Grilled Tuna Steaks with Summer Salsa

Serves 4

5 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise, seeded and coarsely chopped

2 chopped scallions (all but 2 inches of the green)

1 medium clove garlic, peeled and minced

1/2 cup olive oil

3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1 cup chopped basil leaves

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 jalapeno pepper or other hot chili, seeded and minced (or to taste)

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

4 tuna steaks, about 8 ounces each, about 1-inch thick

2 tablespoons olive oil

Coarse sea salt to taste

The Salsa:

In a bowl, combine chopped tomatoes, green onions, garlic, 1/2 cup olive oil, cilantro, basil, lemon juice and jalapeno. Season with salt and pepper. Best if refrigerated for an hour or more, then taste again.

The Tuna:

Coat the tuna steaks with 2 tablespoons olive oil and season well with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. (Remove fish from refrigerator about 10 minutes before grilling; it should not be cooked icy cold.)

Grill tuna steaks about 6 inches from the heat, about 4 to 6 minutes per side, depending on thickness. (Check by making a thin incision in a thick part of the flesh). Remove before they reach desired doneness because they will continue to cook a bit."

NPR : Summer's Here: Grills Catch Fire

NPR : Summer's Here: Grills Catch Fire: "Spice-Rubbed Flank Steak with Cajun Swamp Sauce

Hanger steak also is excellent prepared this way.

2 medium garlic cloves

1 1/2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black mustard seeds (optional)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon black pepper, or to taste

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon cayenne (optional)

1 1/2 pounds flank steak, trimmed of excess fat

With a mortar and pestle, mash the garlic and ginger into a paste. (You can use a flat meat pounder or mince very well with a large chef's knife). Add the remaining seasonings. Salt to taste.

Pat the steaks dry with paper towels. Rub the paste all over. Cover in plastic wrap and marinate steak for about 5 hours or, better, overnight.

Oil the grill grates. When the grill is hot, cook the steak for 5 to 8 minutes on each side for medium-rare (depending on thickness). Test with a meat thermometer -- 145 rare, 160 medium. Transfer steak to a cutting board and let stand 10 minutes.

With a very sharp knife slice the steak thinly with the grain and serve."

NPR : Summer's Here: Grills Catch Fire

NPR : Summer's Here: Grills Catch Fire: "I asked him to identify the three most common errors committed by amateur grill cooks.

'Number one is overcrowding the grill,' he said. 'The second is confusing burning food with cooking food -- that's where direct and indirect cooking comes in.'

Number three: 'You should not put on barbecue sauce too early, only in the last few minutes of cooking,' he advised, noting that this is particularly critical with a sauce that contains sugar. 'It'll burn right up.'

Because grilling is a dry-cooking method that extracts water from foods, marinades are beneficial for their moistening and flavoring effects. Contrary to widespread belief, a vinegar-based marinade does not tenderize a steak any more than Kool-Aid does because it barely penetrates the surface. The same is true with seafood. In fact, it generally is not a good idea to marinate fish or shellfish for more than half an hour because the acid can make the surface gray and mushy.

At this time of year, simple marinades can be assembled in minutes using fresh herbs, vinegar, olive oil, lemon, wine, even beer (it's great with shellfish)."

NPR : Summer's Here: Grills Catch Fire

NPR : Summer's Here: Grills Catch Fire: "So, assume you have a shiny new grill. How do you get the best from it? Here are a few pointers:

· Maintain your grill as you would a new car -- well, as some of you would. Keep it clean, both inside (especially the cooking grates) and out, so it doesn't discolor.

· Grilling is more than just dropping food onto a flame and joining the volleyball game for 10 minutes. Some foods benefit from the 'direct heat, indirect heat' treatment. For example, a thick steak should be placed over the hottest part of the fire until it chars and develops a nice crust, then moved to a burner on a lower setting to continue cooking without burning. Most medium to large gas grills have two adjustable burners, one left, one right. If using charcoal or wood, move the food to the perimeter of the grate where the heat is less intense. Flip the steak and repeat. Cuts of meat 3/4-inch thick and thinner do not have to be moved because they cook quickly.

· Use long tongs to grasp food and rely on a meat thermometer. Experienced cooks know how to judge the doneness of a steak or thick filet of tuna by pressing them with their fingers. Amateurs should not try to show off this way -- it's safer and more accurate to use a thermometer. Steaks are rare at 145 degrees Fahrenheit, medium at about 160 degrees. Since meat and seafood continue to cook a minute or two after they are pulled from the heat, remove them a minute or so early to assure desired level of doneness.

· Let the meat rest. Sometimes when I am grilling, shortly before the food is cooked, I find myself surrounded by a wolf pack of hungry eaters. Don't give in to the rabble-rousers. When a steak is removed from the fire, it definitely needs a few minutes of downtime for the juices to redistribute."

Slate Magazine

Slate Magazine: "If we can create 'fine tuned' manufactured foods then we could mass produce celebritys for consumption in another way. 'Give me a pound of Oprah and some Paris Hilton for desert...' If you were a particularly delicious person you could get rich on the property rights to your own flesh (though the law will no doubt ensure that big corporations get 'first bite')."

Arguments for the Existence of God

Arguments for the Existence of God: "“... a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion.” [Francis Bacon, “Of Atheism” in A S Gaye (ed) Bacon’s Essays, Oxford University Press (1911), p59]"

Slate - The Dismal Science - Aug. 13, 1998

Slate - The Dismal Science - Aug. 13, 1998: "Now what happened in the Sweeneys' co-op was that, for complicated reasons involving the collection and use of dues (paid in scrip), the number of coupons in circulation became quite low. As a result, most couples were anxious to add to their reserves by baby-sitting, reluctant to run them down by going out. But one couple's decision to go out was another's chance to baby-sit; so it became difficult to earn coupons. Knowing this, couples became even more reluctant to use their reserves except on special occasions, reducing baby-sitting opportunities still further."

Where Fat Is Problem, Heredity Is the Answer, Studies Find - New York Times

Where Fat Is Problem, Heredity Is the Answer, Studies Find - New York Times: "''If you are one of those people who cannot lose weight on a relatively low-calorie diet, it means that you are efficient in storing energy,'' he said. ''That leaves you only two ways out. One is to increase your energy expenditure through exercise. The other is to reduce the proportion of fat in your diet.''"

Where Fat Is Problem, Heredity Is the Answer, Studies Find - New York Times

Where Fat Is Problem, Heredity Is the Answer, Studies Find - New York Times: "''If you are one of those people who cannot lose weight on a relatively low-calorie diet, it means that you are efficient in storing energy,'' he said. ''That leaves you only two ways out. One is to increase your energy expenditure through exercise. The other is to reduce the proportion of fat in your diet.''"

NPR : Mussels Made Easy

NPR : Mussels Made Easy: "Mussels Primer

1. Always buy mussels as close as possible to when you'll cook them, but definitely the same day.

2. Mussels should be closed the way my daughter's mouth is closed when her pediatrician wants to look in her throat -- except that mussels don't have hands they can also clamp over their faces.

3. Put the closed mussels in a large pot. Throw out any that are cracked, broken or gaping wide. Set aside in a large bowl any that are open, but still questionable.

4. The bag my mussels came in suggested 'lightly tapping' the slightly open ones. Instead, shake and swirl the lot of them in the bowl, pretty aggressively, for about 30 seconds. A number of them will have closed up again (in fear, I'm guessing). Rinse these, then throw them into the cooking pot. The rest, throw away.

5. When it comes to cleaning the little guys, there are a couple things to think about. First, even though most mussels these days are cultivated (and not wild), they're still sandy. You can scrub them under running water, or you can fill a bowl with clean water and swirl them around in there; dump the water out and repeat one more time or until most of the grit is gone.

Also, remember mussels die in fresh water, so don't soak them to get them even cleaner. My friend says he'd rather cook live mussels with a bit of sand than dead ones without.

6. As for the 'beard,' it's a little tuft of fuzzy 'hair' emerging from the inside of the shell, kind of like a mollusk soul patch. Harden your heart, take a deep breath and yank it out with your fingers or a paring knife. You probably won't get every single last bit, but then these are animals of the wild. It's all right.

7. Finally, when looking to see if the mussels are done cooking, think 'baby opening its mouth for milk,' not 'toddler eating spinach.' In other words, they should be more than just a little open. They should be yawning."

NPR : Mussels Made Easy

NPR : Mussels Made Easy: "Moules Normandes by Anthony Bourdain

Serves four as a main course.

1/4 pound slab bacon, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

4 tablespoons butter

1 shallot, thinly sliced

6 small white mushrooms, thinly sliced

1/2 apple, cored, peeled and cut into small dice or chunks

3 ounces good calvados

1 cup heavy cream

Salt and pepper

6 pounds mussels, scrubbed and debearded (just before cooking)

In a small pot, cook the bacon over medium-high heat until the meat is brown and the fat has been rendered, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid sticking. Discard the fat and reserve the meat.

In a large pot, heat the butter until it foams. Add the shallot and cook until soft, about 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms and the apple and cook for 5 minutes, then stir in the calvados, scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon to dislodge any good brown stuff that might be clinging there. Stir in the cream and season with salt and pepper.

Once the mixture has come to a boil, add the mussels and cover. Cook for 10 minutes, or until all of the mussels have opened. Shake. Add the cooked bacon to the mussels. Cook for another minute. Shake again. Serve immediately."

folderol. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

folderol. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.: "folderol

SYLLABICATION: fol·de·rol
PRONUNCIATION: fld-rl
VARIANT FORMS: also fal·de·ral ( fld-rl)
NOUN: 1. Foolishness; nonsense. 2. A trifle; a gewgaw.
ETYMOLOGY: From a nonsense refrain in some old songs."

Munchhausen-Trilemma - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Munchhausen-Trilemma - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "# All justifications in pursuit of certain knowledge have also to justify the means of their justification and doing so they have to justify anew the means of their justification. Therefore there can be no end. We are faced with the hopeless situation of 'infinite regression'.
# One can stop at self-evidence or common sense or fundamental principles or speaking 'ex cathedra' or at any other evidence, but in doing so the intention to install certain justification is abandoned.
# The third horn of the trilemma is the application of a circular and therefore invalid argument."

History of liberal thought - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

History of liberal thought - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "As Isaiah Berlin said, 'Freedom for the wolves means death for the sheep.'"

Essays (Montaigne) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Essays (Montaigne) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "We cannot trust our reasoning because thoughts just occur to us: we don't truly control them."

Johann Gottlieb Fichte - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Johann Gottlieb Fichte - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Fichte did not endorse Kant's argument for the existence of noumena, of 'things in themselves', the super-sensible reality beyond the categories of human reason. Fichte saw the rigorous and systematic separation of 'things in themselves' (noumena) and things 'as they appear to us' (phenomena) as an invitation to skepticism.

Rather than invite such skepticism, Fichte made the radical suggestion that we should throw out the notion of a noumenal world and instead accept the fact that consciousness does not have a grounding in a so-called 'real world'. In fact, Fichte achieved fame for originating the argument that consciousness is not grounded in anything outside of itself."

Johann Gottlieb Fichte - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Johann Gottlieb Fichte - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "In his famous work Foundations of Natural Right (1796), Fichte stated that self-consciousness was a social phenomonon. Namely, he writes that self-consciousness depends upon resistance from objects in the external world. However, the mere perception of these external objects depends on self-consciousness. The solution to this paradox, Fichte thinks, is that a being gains consciousness when 'summoned' to be conscious by another rational being outside of oneself."

Sartor Resartus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sartor Resartus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Sartor Resartus, published in 1833, was intended to be a new kind of book: simultaneously factual and fictional, serious and satirical, speculative and historical. It ironically commented on its own formal structure (as Tristram Shandy had, long before), while forcing the reader to confront the problem of where 'truth' is to be found. The imaginary 'Philosophy of Clothes' holds that meaning is to be derived from phenomena, continually shifting over history, as cultures reconstruct themselves in changing fashions, power-structures, and faith-systems. The book contains a very Fichtean conception of religious conversion: based not on the acceptance of God but on the absolute freedom of the will to reject evil, and to construct meaning. This has led some writers to see Sartor Resartus as an early Existentialist text.

Sartor Resartus was initially considered by some bizarre and incomprehensible, but had a limited success in America, where it was admired by Ralph Waldo Emerson, influencing the development of New England Transcendentalism."

Slate Magazine

Slate Magazine: "If you'd like to read a complex well researched study of how the novel's form altered and developed in response to new attitudes toward the self, let me recommend a brilliant book by an old teacher of mine at UCLA, Vincent Pecora's Self and Form in Modern Narrative, dealing with various Victorian literary worthies but especially Joseph Conrad."

Why does it take Wes Anderson so long to make a movie? By Armond White

Why does it take Wes Anderson so long to make a movie? By Armond White: "Truffaut, Godard, Malle, and Chabrol did in the French New Wave; as Fassbinder, Herzog, and Wenders did in the German New Wave; or as Altman, Bogdanovich, Ashby, Walter Hill, and Woody Allen did during that '70s period known as the American Renaissance."

Salon.com Books | Hipster rebel punk outsiders -- 99 cents a dozen

Salon.com Books | Hipster rebel punk outsiders -- 99 cents a dozen: "As another European expat scholar, George Steiner, has put it, we live in a 'post-culture' (he means post-Auschwitz and post-Hiroshima) in which all the moral certainties of Western civilization have been stripped away and we wander about with no clear purpose, like ants whose hill has been blown up by a kid with a firecracker."

Salon.com Books | Hipster rebel punk outsiders -- 99 cents a dozen

Salon.com Books | Hipster rebel punk outsiders -- 99 cents a dozen: "1944 essay 'The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception,' by the German-Jewish refugee scholars Max Horkheimer and T.W. Adorno (from their book 'Dialectic of Enlightenment'). All human needs, they write, are 'presented to individuals as capable of fulfillment by the culture industry,' but 'individuals experience themselves through their needs only as eternal consumers, as the culture industry's object.' The point here is 'the necessity, inherent in the system, of never releasing its grip on the consumer, of not for a moment allowing him or her to suspect that resistance is possible.'"

Dictionary.com/verklempt

Dictionary.com/verklempt: "Main Entry: verklempt
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: overcome with emotion; clenched; also written ferklempt
Etymology: Yiddish"

New Scientist Features - Love special: Six ways to woo your lover

New Scientist Features - Love special: Six ways to woo your lover: "LET YOUR BODY DO THE TALKING

We all hunt for the perfect chat-up line, but in reality, our body gives away a great deal before we open our mouth. It is estimated that when you meet a stranger, their impression of you is based 55 per cent on your appearance and body language, 38 per cent on your style of speaking and a mere 7 per cent on what you actually say.

So what can we learn from the experts? There are a number of actions that signal 'I like you' to another person. Adopting an open posture (no folded arms), and mirroring another's posture help create a feeling of affinity. Most people are not conscious of being mirrored, but evaluate those who do it more favourably. And it is worth adopting stances that enhance your masculinity or femininity, such as placing hands in pockets with elbows out to enlarge the chest.

You could also indulge in a 'gestural dance', synchronising your gestures and body movements with those of the object of your desire, such as taking a sip of your drinks at the same time.

EXPERIENCE FEAR TOGETHER

A dramatic setting can kick-start your love life. Meeting a stranger when physiologically aroused increases the chance of having romantic feelings towards them ...

It's all because of a strong connection between anxiety, arousal and attraction. In the 'shaky bridge study' carried out by psychologists Arthur Aron and Don Dutton in the 1970s, men who met a woman on a high, rickety bridge found the encounter sexier and more romantic than those who met her on a low, stable one. A visit to the funfair works wonders too. Photos of members of the opposite sex were more attractive to people who had just got off a roller coaster, compared with those who were waiting to get on. And couples were more loved-up after watching a suspense-filled thriller than a calmer film. Why? No one is sure, but the adrenaline rush from the danger might be misattributed to the thrill of attraction. But beware: while someone attractive becomes more so in a tense setting, the unattractive appear even less appealing.
SHARE A JOKE

An experience that makes you laugh creates feelings of closeness between strangers. A classic example comes from experiments carried out by US psychologists Arthur Aron and Barbara Fraley, in which strangers cooperated on playful activities such as learning dance steps, but with one partner wearing a blindfold and the other holding a drinking straw in their mouth to distort speech. Sounds stupid, but love and laughter really did go together. You can read about it in 'The effect of a shared humorous experience on closeness in initial encounters' in the journal Personal Relationships (vol 11, p 61). We suggest that the blindfold/drinking straw approach is best confined to the laboratory.

GET THE SOUNDTRACK RIGHT

Psychologists at North Adams State College in Massachusetts have proved what Shakespeare suggested - that music is the food of love. Well, rock music, at least. Women evaluating photos of men rated them more attractive while listening to soft-rock music, compared with avant-garde jazz or no music at all.
USE LOVE POTIONS?

Can you short-cut all the hard work of relationship-building by artificial means? People have been trying to crack this one for thousands of years. A nasal spray containing the hormone oxytocin can make people trust you - an important part of any relationship - though there's no evidence yet to suggest it can make someone fall in love. And while we wouldn't suggest you try this at home, studies on prairie voles show that injecting the hormone vasopressin into the brain makes males bond strongly to females. Illegal drugs such as cocaine or amphetamines can simulate the euphoria of falling in love by raising levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine, but dopamine levels can also be increased legally by exercising. Another neurotransmitter, phenylethylamine (PEA), is tagged the 'love molecule' because it induces feelings of excitement and apprehension. PEA is found in chocolate and it, too, is linked to the feel-good effects of exercise. Overall, a swift jog could be more conducive to love than anything you might find in a bottle.
GAZE INTO THEIR EYES

Any flirt knows that making eye contact is an emotionally loaded act. Now psychologists have shown just how powerful it can be. When pairs of strangers were asked to gaze into each other's eyes, it was perhaps not surprising that their feelings of closeness and attraction rocketed compared with, say, gazing at each other's hands. More surprising was that a couple in one such experiment ended up getting married. Neuroscientists have shed some light on what's going on: meeting another person's gaze lights up brain regions associated with rewards. The bottom line is that eye contact can work wonders, but make sure you get your technique right: if your gaze isn't reciprocated, you risk coming across as a stalker."

Amazon.com: The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating: Books: David M. Buss

Amazon.com: The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating: Books: David M. Buss: "But most societies aren't patriarchal, as Buss believes, rather are instead kyriarchical: a few men control everybody else ('kyri' is the Greek word for overlord). Such societies are polygynous, and the median woman is better off than the median man. Such societies are mostly run by the Grand Pooh-bah's senior wives. And these hierarchical societies were created by women selecting to mate with certain men and not others."

How to insult in verse. By Robert Pinsky

How to insult in verse. By Robert Pinsky: "I'd be a dog, a monkey, or a bar,
Or anything but that vain animal,
Who is so proud of being rational.
The senses are too gross, and he'll contrive
A sixth, to contradict the other five:
And before certain instinct will prefer
Reason, which fifty times for one does err."

New Scientist SPACE - News - Need a food or drug hit? Just relax

New Scientist SPACE - News - Need a food or drug hit? Just relax: "STRESS can trigger binge eating and compulsive drug-taking. But how?

Kent Berridge of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and colleagues suggest that stress hormones might actually change how much we value a reward, increasing our desire for something pleasurable without actually increasing our enjoyment.

Berridge's team injected the stress hormone corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) into the nucleus accumbens of rats' brains, a part of the dopamine 'reward circuitry' responsible for wanting or desire. These rats had been trained to press a lever to get a dose of sugar and to associate hearing a certain tone with getting that sugar. The stressed rats worked harder at pressing the lever when they heard the tone than rats with low stress hormones (BMC Biology, DOI: 10.1186/1741-7007-4-8).

The effect looked exactly the same as when amphetamines were injected, something well known to increase desire. 'Stress magnifies the wanting,' says Berridge - but only when there's a cue, the tone, to advertise the reward as well. It's a bit like how seeing an advert for ice cream makes you desire it, he says. You might resist when you're not stressed, but the advert and the stress together make it irresistible.

The findings could explain why some stressful pursuits can be rewarding, and also how drug paraphernalia and stress can make relapse almost inevitable."

New Scientist SPACE - Breaking News - Watching the brain 'switch off' self-awareness

New Scientist SPACE - Breaking News - Watching the brain 'switch off' self-awareness: "Goldberg found that when the sensory stimulus was shown slowly, and when a personal emotional response was required, the volunteers showed activity in the superfrontal gyrus – the brain region associated with self-awareness-related function.

But when the card flipping and musical sequences were rapid, there was no activity in the superfrontal gyrus, despite activity in the sensory cortex and related structures.

“The regions of the brain involved in introspection and sensory perception are completely segregated, although well connected,” says Goldberg, “and when the brain needs to divert all its resources to carry out a difficult task, the self-related cortex is inhibited.”

The brain’s ability to “switch off” the self may have evolved as a protective mechanism, he suggests. “If there is a sudden danger, such as the appearance of a snake, it is not helpful to stand around wondering how one feels about the situation,” Goldberg points out.

It is possible that research into how the brain switches self-awareness on and off will help neurologists gain a deeper understanding of autism, schizophrenia and other mental disorders where this functionality may be impaired."

New Scientist News - All the pleasures of alcohol, with no downsides

New Scientist News - All the pleasures of alcohol, with no downsides: "In fact such 'partial agonists' of GABA-A receptors already exist in the form of bretazenil and pagoclone, which were developed as anti-anxiety drugs but never commercialised. These molecules also have the advantage of being instantly reversible by the drug flumazenil, which is used as an antidote to overdoses of tranquillisers such as Valium. Alcohol also inhibits NMDA receptors, which are part of a general excitatory signalling circuit, so a second ingredient of the alcohol substitute would be an NMDA antagonist such as dizoclipine, originally developed as a drug for stroke."

New Scientist SPACE - News - Lazy mole rats that get fat to have sex

New Scientist SPACE - News - Lazy mole rats that get fat to have sex: "Damaraland mole rats and naked mole rats are thought to be the only mammal species that live and breed cooperatively, with some colony members devoting their lives to helping others reproduce."

The Dilbert Blog: Education and Religion

The Dilbert Blog: Education and Religion: "“The gods can either take away evil from the world and will not, or, being willing to do so cannot; or they neither can nor will, or lastly, they are able and willing.

If they have the will to remove evil and cannot, then they are not omnipotent.

If they can but will not, then they are not benevolent.

If they are neither able nor willing, they are neither omnipotent nor benevolent.

If they are both able and willing to annihilate evil, why does it exist?”

-- Greek philosopher Epicurus (341-270 B.C.E.), Aphorisms"

The Dilbert Blog: Education and Religion

The Dilbert Blog: Education and Religion: "“The gods can either take away evil from the world and will not, or, being willing to do so cannot; or they neither can nor will, or lastly, they are able and willing.

If they have the will to remove evil and cannot, then they are not omnipotent.

If they can but will not, then they are not benevolent.

If they are neither able nor willing, they are neither omnipotent nor benevolent.

If they are both able and willing to annihilate evil, why does it exist?”

-- Greek philosopher Epicurus (341-270 B.C.E.), Aphorisms"

Two new books about Jesus. By Richard Wightman Fox

Two new books about Jesus. By Richard Wightman Fox: "Emerson insisted, just wanted to impose a new conformity. 'It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.'"

On Not Wanting to Know What Hurts You - New York Times

On Not Wanting to Know What Hurts You - New York Times: "'It's not whether I actually bother to control it,' Dr. Sandman said. 'It's whether I feel I can.' The factors that influence worry are often linked. Familiarity, for instance, can moderate the sense of dread, said Paul Slovic, a psychologist with Decision Research, a nonprofit research institution in Eugene, Ore. Car accidents, he noted, are as horrific as cancer, yet 'we don't have the same sense of dread around cars that we do around carcinogens' because we drive all the time.

Faced with unfamiliar diseases, people rely on other measures to calculate risk. For example, they may unconsciously use prevalence as a gauge, said Howard Leventhal, a professor of health psychology at Rutgers.

'Prevalent events are seen as less serious than rare events,' Dr. Leventhal said in an e-mail message. The logic is simple, he said: if lots of people have a disease but are not hospitalized or dying, it must be relatively benign; if it is rare, it might have serious, unknown consequences."

Is Freedom Just Another Word for Many Things to Buy? - New York Times

Is Freedom Just Another Word for Many Things to Buy? - New York Times: "Another study that compared people in different occupations showed that those employed in middle-class jobs got upset when a friend or neighbor bought the same car as theirs because they felt that the uniqueness of their choice had been undercut. But those in working-class jobs liked it when others chose the same car because it affirmed that they had made a good choice."

Language Log: Whatever is not prohibited is permitted -- not!

Language Log: Whatever is not prohibited is permitted -- not!: "Was nicht verboten ist, ist erlaubt"