TheSchoolofAthens

Boom. Thank you Mike! Edit: Would you happen to know which webcam software?

Hello, I am in need of some help. I can not figure out how Stefan records his truth about series where he is being filmed in the top right corner of a powerpoint, while he goes through the slides, bullet point animations and all. I have searched tirelessly for software that would make this possible on Windows, but I haven't found any software that mirrors what he is able to do. Did the gods of Mt. reason bless him with special software privileges or is there someone out there with an answer? It is possible that he is using a linux distro, perhaps Ubuntu, and then using an open source alternative to Powerpoint, and then using a webcam software, and a screen recorder. But does anyone have any ideas? I'd like to make some PPT presentations that are similar.

I am currently in the process of forming my own organization for this purpose. The website is still under construction, and the government takes ages to approve non-profit status...but here is the link to the two podcasts I have so far: https://soundcloud.com/childhoodinstitute Am I the very best? No. Will I try to be up there as one of the best? Yes I will work towards that. Will I be dedicated to changing the ills of our culture? Absolutely. Tell me what you think!

This is the "celebrate diversity" culture which really means "don't point out obvious facts because that's somehow offensive" as well as the "fuck white people" culture. It can't be terrorism because that's racist! Because the people were Muslim and probably linked to ISIS, it was simply workplace violence, nothing more! We can't offend anyone! We must accept all people, all cultures, all religions! Diversity diversity diversity! What it really means is destroy the very foundation of civilizations. To hell with facts, to hell with campus safe rooms, we need an entire nation that is a safe room! It's disgusting.

Some lessons we have to learn the hard way because of our refusal to learn the easy way - via rational discourse. Your genuine message touched me and it reminded me of how important it is that we don't ever give up. We don't ever give up on ourselves, on our community, and on our goals. It was a hell of a battle for you to get from the toxic relationship you were in to where you are today. We are here for each other, even when the world can seem so cold and changeless, we are here to remind each other that what we value is worth it. Every day, Stefan works to spread rationality to make the world a better place, and as you said, he must get so stressed and tired on occasions and with certain topics, but he doesn't give up. I got out of a toxic relationship this year as well. A lot of factors go into it, I feared loneliness, I felt lust, I thought I could fix her, when in reality I was the one who needed repair: why would I want to be with the type of girl I was with?! We do so much to try to fix other people, when all along the person we should focus on first is the person in the mirror. Then, once we can confidently say, and with supporting evidence, that we are rational beings, we can help others. We just must never give up on ourselves, and from there we can make the world a better place. That is exactly what you've done and I give you a big internet hug for that.​

Wow you all are awesome! We could actually make this happen I think Sntnce should be a native application as first and foremost, privacy is the top priority, and secondly we want people to be able to complete their stem exercises even without an internet signal.​ I am much more of a designer than a developer. I really only know html and css so I wont be of much help to the backend, but I can make the front end pretty! Let's do the public license! Who can set up the GitHub repository? ​​

"We can not build peace on bodies." "We are still so addicted to this lie, this fantasy, that we honor the dead by adding to their numbers. What we need to do is remember that their bodies bury us" I remember this video! When did it come out? I LOVE it.

I appreciate it man! It is more of a dream at the moment - my programming skills are not strong enough nor do I plan on making them much stronger as I've realized that I would not like to be in that career field personally, but programming is an absolutely wonderful skill to have, so if anyone here ever wants to pick this project up, let me know! And it is funny that you thought something similar, haha great minds think alike. I'm sure such ideas come natural to us, as a millennial whenever I see someone mention pencil and paper I think "if there's not an app for that already, there really should be."

Hello everyone, I have an idea for an open source project and I would love it if the programmers and developers here would be interested. I was reading Nathaniel Branden's "Six Pillars of Self Esteem" when I came across his stem completion exercises. Stem completion exercises are exercises in which one writes out multiple endings for the beginning of a sentence. Here are some examples from Nathaniel's book: Living consciously to me means... If I bring 5 percent more awareness to my activities today... If I pay more attention to how I deal with people today... If I bring 5 percent more awareness to my most important relationships... If I bring 5 percent more awareness to (fill in a particular problem you are concerned about - for example, your relationship with someone, or a barrier you've hit at work, or your feelings of anxiety or depression)​... Every morning for the first week, one is supposed to write out six to ten endings to each stem. Then, one writes out six to ten endings every night that compliment the morning stems. I was blown away by the simplicity and genius of these exercises. As Nathaniel says "You will discover that you have set in motion forces that make it virtually impossible for you to avoid operating more consciously." While pen and paper would suffice for these exercises, why not build a web application for this that users can access from their phones, tablets, and computers? It would be so cool to get email reminders saying "Hey usernamehere, click here to start your nightly stem complete exercise." My idea is this: 1) Help create a medium for users to become more conscious by providing 2) premade stem completion exercises which they 3) get reminders to complete, and get the chance to 4) review everything they have written. Users also get the ability to 5) create their own stem completion exercises. ​Here is my idea for a catchy name and landing page. "sntnce" is of course short for sentence, it gets your attention and makes you think "What is that?" Below is a screenshot: ​

I wanted to say that after reading through the comments and arguements, I've come to the conclusion that it isn't immoral to watch porn. It is something I prefer to not do. Thank you to all those who commented, whether you agreed or disagreed with me, this thread helped me figure out my stance and I greatly appreciate that!

I understand what you are saying, you basically gave them the objective reality and said "well here is the evidence...probably shouldn't do that right?" instead of saying "First of all, if you spank your child you are acting immorally." Even though you'd be right to say the latter, the former is welcoming to introspection and thinking. I found something interesting in the first PDF called "Physical Punishment and Childhood Aggression: The Role of Gender and Gene–Environment Interplay" Here it is: "Child’s race. In order to limit the potential for confounded results, this study also included a measure of race in the analyses. The child’s race was measured using information gleaned from the birth certificate and was coded so that 0 5 non-white and 1 5 white." I find it so odd that so many people think and work in the terms of "white" and "non-white." As if Asians and all the different types of Asians are the same as all the different types of Blacks and Hispanics and other races combined. It's just white people and colored people? I'd like to see more specific results about the different races. I know it would be a lot more work though. But it's a really detailed PDF, I am enjoying reading through it and seeing their study process. Great read for sure.

Hold up. Never did I say that those who watch porn are committing a crime, did I? Immorality is not equivalent to only criminal behavior such as rape, theft, and murder. It is immoral but perfectly legal to tell a lie in most cases. "The standard of value of the Objectivist ethics—the standard by which one judges what is good or evil—is man’s life, or: that which is required for man’s survival qua man." - Ayn Rand One thing that man needs to survive a relationship is a good, trustworthy, reliable, virtuous partner. In order to obtain such a partner, one has to practice sex carefully. Therefore, responsible sex is ethical sex. Promiscuous sex does not lead to a quality relationship, it leads to a life of destruction, danger, and pain. Such sex is anti happiness, thus is anti man and it therefore unethical/immoral. For the same reasons I oppose screwing women just for fun, I do not watch women (or people) screw just for fun. It is unethical behavior and if I were to support unethical behavior I'd be acting unethically.

The amount of work that must have gone into just one of those...they are beautiful, I can't believe you made so many!

To the above two quotes: I do think it is wrong. If I believe that monogamy is right and has the potential to be a moral relationship, and that promiscuous behavior is wrong and immoral, in other words not good, then it is hard to justify porn isn't it? It is r type people being recorded in their wreck less ways, all so that we can see another man's cum in HD on a woman's face. That is, in my honest opinion, wrong to support, it opposes my values. I don't care if a woman/man gets to have sex for money nor do I care that it must be great to have orgasms as a career and thus save people form walking long distances. But your point about the porn star enjoying the trade reminds me of something I've just read: "Regarding the porn industry, I used to think that porn stars (especially women) are tortured souls who have fatally compromised their humanity for money in a manner similar to prostitutes. Then I caught a "porn awards" show on HBO and saw actresses beaming and crying (apparently) real tears of joy, in one case with equally jubilant mom sitting in the audience, upon receiving an award for "best fellatio scene" or similar." here Those happy women belong to a disgusting culture which I don't want to belong to. Sure it's voluntary, that is fine, but people being idiots is also voluntary and I don't want to support idiocy. I don't see why that matters at all. Don't you realize how much mafia members make? 150k+ a year isn't bad. Of course a porn star is a lot different from a mafia man - a porn star is doing work voluntarily. My point is that sure, I understand the $$$ incentives but making good money doesn't justify sick cultures. The real problem is the culture that I'd be supporting. In other words, women who cry tears of joy for getting the trophy for best three dick anal video. Talk about a promiscuous, r type, not family friendly culture to be giving money to!

That sounds like a very good presentation. I will take a look at the resources you provided, thank you for attaching them here as I look forward to reading them! I totally understand how nerve-racking it can be to share facts and ideas that conflict with how we were treated, or how many people were treated and continue to treat others. Good on you for doing this presentation and taking the opportunity to spread rationality and morality.

Yes, I think a Montessori inspired school would be better. One that focuses on the rationality of the Montessori method but necessarily preserving all of the tradition.

That is pretty cool. I'm no evolution buff but I am still definitely suprised by that rate!

Earlier this week I decided to stop watching porn. I think it is wrong to watch. Sex should be for lovers, and there is no love between me and a stranger made of pixels. On top of my moral problem with it, I've become more and more disgusted with it. Simple nudes disturb me and make me think: who is this woman? Why would she choose to act in this way? What happened to her that influenced her to do this? Where are the people telling her to stop? Why isn't she telling herself no? Doesn't she want to hold onto her dignity and self respect? Of course this applies to males too, this is simply my heterosexual perspective. Has anyone else stopped watching porn for the same sort of reasoning?

Yes, there are some horrible "Montessori" schools out there. The Montessori name is not protected by any type of law or copyright. So therefore anyone can start a school and claim it is Montessori. What one really needs to look for in a Montessori school is to see by whom the teachers are certified. AMI and AMS certification is important. Here's a link that goes into more depth, but to give you the gist, AMI was started by Maria Montessori herself to preserve the methods and philosophy, they set the best standards along with AMS. I'd like to do a lot in the future with kids. I'd love to be a father, but I need to be able to provide resources for that, which is one reason why I'd like to at least co-found a Montessori school in the future.

It is something I will think about for sure. I will give it a listen after work and share my thoughts after that.

Hello everyone, I was laying in bed about ten seconds ago when I decided to hop on and share my realization. I've been denying something that I'm passionate about to my core. I've suppressed it for reasons I'll get into in a moment. I want to be a Montessori school teacher. I love working with kids. I believe I am very good at it, and I think it would be such an amazing way to spend a large part of my life. As a teenager, though I am only 20 now, I worked in a religious pre school. I couldn't stand the religious aspect, nor the authoritarianism of some of the teachers - I combined that experience with my experience as a depressed student of public school and I discovered a path that seemed so right for me: Montessori. I began to read her works a little while after I was converted into libertarianism. It made such good sense! Yes, liberate the child! Of course! But around this same time, I got involved in a very toxic romantic relationship. I've written about it before, but I won't go into much detail here. One of the heartbreaking parts of said relationship in retrospect is that I gave up this dream because my girlfriend at the time said I wouldn't be making much money to live off of. Now this is true. Montessori teachers don't make a whole lot of money. Averages can be between $24,000 and $30,000 a year. But that is enough to live off of humbly. I do not need much to be happy - give me food, shelter, truth, and hopefully companionship, and I will be as happy as possible. When I worked in the pre school, I got paid minimum wage but I got paid in other ways. The value that I created in those kids lives...the connections and bonds were so amazing! To help a child grow and to witness it. Amazing! I miss it. So what did I give it up for? Well I changed my major and focus on design and development. And have since dropped out of college to pursue those subjects in my free time. I believe I could be good at both, I have the potential to be, but I do not feel the same passion for it as I do teaching and working with children. I feel so foolish for choosing a job which may pay more money over one which changes my own live substantially for the better, and possibly the children's lives as well. It's been about a month since I've broken up with my ex and this whole time I've been thinking about learning languages x, y and z. Doing this type of design and that type of design. It is an overload of stuff that I just don't even have much interest in. I still want to pursue certain techy projects in my free time, I have an idea for an app I'm trying to build right now that I like a lot. But it is not the destiny which I want to claim for myself as a career. I believe I am going to go back to school to get just an associates in child development, then get Montessori certified. This just feels so liberating to me. I believe I was self erasing for the sake of the relationship. Ah I feel so good!

Beautiful poem...thank you for the topic post and link! I love poetry for it's abilitiy to reveal profound truths in the simplest of words.

I just saw this video today about a case that Hillary Clinton handled as a lawyer. It is definitely worth a watch if you want another reason to throw up when you hear her name:

I would be willing to bet that most of the youth would vote democratic socialist, something along the lines of Bernie Sanders, if they weren't too nihilistic.

Earlier today, I had to run a few errands. On my way I saw a half price books and thought it was worth a stop! I walk in and browse. I pick up a few books on philosophy just to put them back down after remembering that I can get ebooks. That is until I see a 54 volume collection of beautiful books, covering philosophy, history, economics, etc. I started to drool. It was $125. But given the condition of the books and the fact that there was $54 of them, it would come down to $2.31 each. Not bad! I picked up the first book and I was immediately wooed. I then noticed the same collection, but slightly newer (from the 60's rather than the 50's) with 10 additional books that are a gateway into the series "The Great Books of the Western World." This series was complete with 64 books for the price of $200. That makes each book $3.12 I couldn't resist! The first passage made the fire in my heart rage with happiness: "I would conclude my letter here if I did not know, from painful experience garnered over forty years, what you will be told by your well-meaning friends. The Hutchins Poll shows they will say, "Too hard," "No time," "Too dull," "What good is it?" Since Mr.Adler and I have not the slightest interest in manufacturing furniture to decorate your living room, and still less in building up your social prestige by handing you, as it were, a poor man's Harvard diploma to hang on the wall, I must trespass on your patience a little longer to expose the absurdity of the popular answers to which I have reffered. Of course, I do not attribute them to you. If you were so unintelligent as to share suh views, you would not be holding this book in your hand; you would not have bothered to open it. No, what I am trying to do is protect you from the slings and arrows of your outrageous neighbors." I knew I needed to read more! Included are the works of many great minds, even the disagreeable ones such as Kant and Marx, but how glorious to have the opportunity to read their original works in such a vintage book. People pay $200 for about three new video games, so I see this collection as a wise investment. I've attached pictures of part of the books below. I believe that 34 books are missing from the pictures as I don't yet have a shelf for them, and they are resting peacefully in a box below the others. Beautiful still is their presence.