shirgall

His guides were dishonest and he should have vetted them better, first of all. He thought he was paying for the appropriate permits and being led to a hunt for legal targets. Lots of force of state going on here. Conservation works well for handling endangered species. Ducks Unlimited is a great example. Another example is the availability of the "extinct" European Aurochs domesticated as the Texas Longhorn. With animals that migrate, it's harder to handle conservation without a state, but it's not impossible.

40mg of caffeine (typical can of soda) is not enough to make your pupils dilate.

Pluto's albedo is greater than all the gas giants, Earth, and Mars, and on par with Venus's. The moon's albedo is only 0.12. At Pluto's orbit the Sun is 450 times brighter than the reflected light from the moon to the Earth. That's not negligible. Pluto's albedo of .5 to .7 means it reflects at least half the light it receives, similar to snow on Earth. The probe that took the picture is coming from very close to the Sun so it would have the among the very brightest possible pictures of Pluto you can get. Therefore, your conclusions that follow from your incorrect premises do not need to be addressed.

Actually, no, compared to the stars around it, Pluto is extremely bright. http://www.skywise711.com/Skeptic/MoonPics/MoonPics.html

Just point out the formulas: Despite the protests, both parties like to run extreme elements to fire up the base and make the preferred candidate look normal, everyone falls in line behind the preferred candidate in the end. The candidates are portrayed as "neck and neck" but somehow different in order to push up the price of political ads. Candidates benefit from the increased donations and spending as they have a reason to ask for ad money for two years. And the result usually doesn't make a difference.

I think you just did. When people call in, they clearly consider Stef an authority figure, and him saying something isn't funny is going to make them ashamed. I haven't heard him do it in a while, do you really need me to dig through the archives for something we both know is there? I think we both know Stef is not doing it out of vindictiveness. I'm not saying that dark comedy about philosophy can be inappropriate laughter out of vindictiveness either. I'm just pointing out the irony.

In my University, Logic was indeed a PHIL class too, but Logic is not the same as Argumentation, Ethics, etc. My point was that the professor want people to learn enough about what was going on it recognize the arguments that should be coming from the other side, to really understand the issues. That way when you did have a conclusion, it was based on real strengths, and defended against strong attacks. This is good training in critical thinking. I think I enjoyed picking up the credits there than I would have in Literature or other requires "Arts" credits for my degree which was in Science after all. He was impartial in class, but he railed on folks that did not take the time to understand weaknesses in their positions. I do think he made people more effective arguers, in additional to taking a little journey through the topics. I didn't go on to 300-level stuff, so I dunno where it would have gone. My 300-level electives were instead in support of a minor in Mathematics...

He certainly asked people "why are you laughing? this isn't funny". That's not telling people to not laugh, it's just shaming them for doing it. Not exactly a difference with great distinction. Stef's rants are great, but underneath it all I kinda feel like I'm the one with the nervous laugh that pokes fun at the state that claims to kill people in my name, and I sober up. I'm a big one for humor. I use it to shock people out of reverie. I use it to draw attention away from my own weaknesses... but if Stef did a comedy show, and I would hope it would be like the glorious days of George Carlin, and not his bitter, cynical, angry latter days, I would hope that he would bring people around to how it's not funny in the long run.

Eating enough to live today is an achievement. Living long enough to reproduce is a trophy.

It would be interesting to splice together the admonition to not laugh about serious things from older call-in shows with the gallows humor of some of the recent parodies of the brutal power of the state.

Early in Philosophy classes you will get a better reputation for being able to organize your thoughts and argue either side of a position. It will mark you to the professor as someone that puts real thought and care into what you are saying, moreso than the positions. Your positions come later. My favorite professor never told anyone what he thought on any issue, at least in class.

Indeed, well done. Glad to see it stopped without further damage, especially to you!

Religion is the ascribing of importance to things that are coincidences, usually about things that are really important like rains for the crops, and making sure the people don't kill the chief that's parenting the next tribe with "Winning!" genes. It's not surprising that the gains of language are also gains for those that learn to manipulate, I mean influence. But science also came from our desire to understand the tiger... Science tells us nothing except to give us a methodology to test claims. Religious claims do not want to be tested, but rather to be obeyed.

Spoilers...

The Trans-Pacific Partnership http://wikileaks.org/tpp/

Forced coincidence, seeing patterns when conditioned to do so. Photoshopped just to make it more obvious. A recent example is the people seeing pluto or a heart in the Pluto pictures. Some people see it right away, others have to be preconditioned to see it. The invocation of the Disney "Sex" posters is intended to precondition people to seeing letters in the sky.

Indeed, the moment in the trailer seemed to be a set piece designed just for a trailer. When the moment happened in the movie, it felt tacked on and out of place from the other material.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/25/upshot/americans-are-finally-eating-less.html

SJW protests are public shaming events, too, why aren't they debating those?

Does this mean we will soon see a review of "The Anarchy Workout"? 30 minutes, 2 dumbbells, No rules! http://www.theanarchyworkout.com/theanarchyworkout/index

Here's a start at the indefinable something that appeals to the listener. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hook_(music)

Libertarian Right: Economic Left/Right: 3.88, Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.92 Some of the questions are too vague, of course, or have detestable bichromatic choices.

Our brains are massive pattern matching machines that quickly notice coincidences, because one survives to breed just a little bit more when we notice the tiger before it's too late. While we're at it, the moon landing was "cosmic manspreading": http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/07/24/sorry-buzz-aldrin-the-moon-landing-was-just-cosmic-manspreading/

Traffic doubled in NYC in February 2015 when Uber opened service... right after one of the worst freezes in a while (freezing temperatures every night, and over a week of highs below freezing from the 13th through the 21st). Not many people like to walk in that crap.

The practical advice is always to try to make what you are learning apply to the areas that interest you. Part of what goes from a Master's to a Doctorate is deep research, a new idea, and a rigorous defense of that idea to the assails of experts. At least, that's what they tell us. I only have a Master's.