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POPSCoffee Corrupts America's Youth We can all laugh at Starbucks' typically popmpus token gesture of contrition. (Yeah, blame the barristas! Not whatever idiot designed all those weird factory-made collage panels on the walls of every Starbucks from Timbuktu to Taipei!) But what really frightens me is that American 16 year olds are using words like "stigma" while lamenting the metaphysical condition of the chain-cafe that provides the fix to keep their caffeine addiction at bay. Shouldn't they be busy drag racing hot rods around Dead-Man's-Curve? Or Rebelling without a Cause? Is the "stigma of commercialism" now one of the many bewildering social concerns brought on by puberty?
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POPSHumanity, Divinity, and Beauty I wonder if this striking interpretation of aesthetics (one which I find quite appealing) still holds true in the cynicism of post modernism? Although it certainly can be found to echo in Kandinsky's "Concerning the Spiritual in Art" what of the later Deconstructivists, Marxists, and other self-styled "realists" who attacked the very idea of beauty? On the other hand, it may be that in these dark times our cynicism is spent and an idealistic revival of Romanticism might rise in response to the desperation and alienation that has become almost universally felt through the deep ideological conflicts marking the beginning of the 21st Century. Another thought: does not this empowered sense of self-determination ring true with the most admirable aspects of Existentialism? ...oh, and sorry for all the alliteration. Don't know how it snuck in there! :P
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POPSA Plan to End the Crisis With Iran Just so nobody can say I only criticize Bush, I offer here a plan to immediately end the crisis with Iran. Ahmadinejad is an aggressive, anti-Western president who is isolating Iran, much to the chagrin of the Iranians. The economy is weak, and it is getting harder for people to make a living, which is causing unrest. On the other hand, his predecessor Khatami was a progressive, who wanted relations with the west, and had a good record on the economy. I suggest that we use these factors in to our advantage in the following plan: (see comments bellow.)
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POPSImmanuel Kant & Brittney Spears
The central question this poses is: did we do this to Brittney Spears? Isn't this somehow our fault? Spears poses an interesting challenge to this conventional interpretation of Kant. Consider this: it seem very clear now that Spears was merely a meat puppet, who's trials (both literal and figurative) and travails (mostly figurative) have destroyed her as a person. And to what ends? Nothing more than our temporary amusement, no doubt. The creation and destruction of Brittney Spears won't even provide long-term amusement, except maybe for later day insomniacs who watch VH1 20 years from now. But, did she not concent? Was not this devils bargain something she not only entered into fully appraised of the situation, but even sought it out? Didn't she get the life she wanted? (Albeit in a twisted and cruel way.) It seems Kant places too much confidence in people's rationality. We explained the ends to her and accepted it, but deep down didn't we all know something that s
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POPSKate Webb: My Dream Girl We really lost someone great when Kate Webb died this May. She was hard as she needed to be to get the scope from behind enemy lines, but soft enough to not lose her sense of humor and humanity. This is an amazing story of how she escaped from a Viet Cong prison. She is so totally my dream girl. (Or at least, one of them! ;) )
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POPSOn Architecture and Elegance bridge is endowed with a subcategory of beauty we can refer to as elegance, a quality present whenever a work of architecture succeeds in carrying out an act of resistance—holding, spanning, sheltering—with grace and economy as well as strength; when it has the modesty not to draw attention to the difficulties it has surmounted. From philosophical historian Alain de Botton's inimitable The Architecture of Happiness , itself a paradigmatic illustration of the aesthetic elegance of well-engineered minimalism (be it architectural or textual). The NYRB's synopsis of de Botton's work makes note of this: The simplicity of his writing is not the product of a simple mind.... In The Consolations of Philosophy (2000) he remarked that "there are...no legitimate reasons why books in the humanities should be difficult or boring; wisdom does not require a specialized vocabulary or syntax."
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POPSArtificial General Intelligence: Barking up the wrong tree? The question is: could Kurzweil and Goertzel's Aritifical General Intelligence genuinely surpass the human brain? Or is ti simply mimicing it? Their solution still relies on computation, but there is no evidence that the human brain makes any such calculations to arrive at its conclusions. If so, what needs to be done in order to develop a computer system that works the same way as the human brain? And what about the mother of all conundrums: free will. Goertzel pretends it doesn't exist at all, but how could we motivate even a self-aware computer to do things on its own initiative?
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POPSThe Spread of Ideologies: ClipCast v. The Rise of Bengali Islam Although I've always enjoyed using clipmarks as a tool to research social trends and ideologies, with Clipcast, Clipmarks is rapidly becoming a subject worthy of such research itself. Consider this: The effect of making Clipmarks (and it's community of ardent followers) mobile, and capable of organizing in more than one internet context is remarkably similar to the way in which Islam spread over much of South and South Eastern Asia. For those who are interested, I heartily suggest reading Richard Eaton's "The Rise of Islam on the Bengal Frontier." I've clipped its thesis here. It is one of the most interesting and insightfully approaches to understanding the interaction between social and ideological groups. It goes well beyond the coarse but popular theories of war and mercantilism in explaining the reason for Islamic success in a part of the world that America has failed miserably at influencing.
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POPSPat Robertson's Endorsement: Blessing or Curse? Leave it to national politics to turn a normal guy into Crazy McGee. Giuliani is campaigning so hard to the Republican fringe that he seems to be sabotaging the traits that might have made him appealing in a general election. On the other hand, think about what Pat Robertson is saying: "the defense of our population from the blood lust of Islamic terrorists" W*$# the F@&#!!!! Now imagine if a liberal candidate got endorsed by a national figure who talked about the "Blood lust of Christian Colonialism and Capitalist Neo-Fascism." That would pretty much be the end of the trail for that campaign. It is horrific that someone who could say something like this is actually thought of as an important endorsement. How many people seriously think like that? Are we really that ignorant and angry? Why would anyone be proud to be endorsed by someone who sounds increasingly apocalyptic, paranoid, and deranged?
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POPSThe Age for Rootless Wandering David Brooks' saving grace is that despite his myopic politics, occasionally he thinks up something very interesting. I saw this happen to my Graduating class. They were spread all over the world. We are a new Lost Generation, disinherited by the absolutism that secured our forefathers in their insulated identities and simplified social contexts. Deconstruction, and post-modernism, now seems to me a natural process far more than a philosophy.
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POPSDemocracy and War: From deTocqueville to Pepe Figueres I was thinking about Pepe Figueres the other day, and wondering if war was our destiny because we lacked the courage to disarm ourselves. For reference, the opening quote is from Alexis deTocqueville's Democracy In America, Book II Chapter 22 (I couldn't clip the title, but the whole book is on this website! Super cool, and useful for finding or checking that deTocqueville quote that's right on the tip of your tongue. The site also has a clever bit about how politicians have miss-attributed numerous deTocqueville quotes.)
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POPSWho Was the Most Right-Wing Man in History? "This brings me to another puzzle of ideological classification. The phrase is often used by thoughtless people, TV interviewers, tabloid columnists, etc. ‘He is even to the right of Genghis Khan.’ The implication is that Genghis Khan is on the extreme right of the political spectrum. What is the origin of this belief? And when did the phrase come into use? I believe it is hardly more than half a century old. Hitler, again, is to blame. He is seen, falsely, as the epitome of ‘the Right’. He is also seen, more accurately, as a mass killer on an unprecedented scale. Before the 20th century, the classical perpetrator of terrorist massacre, pillage and the destruction of cities was Genghis Khan."
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POPSOakeshott on Rationalism and Tyrany Although, needless to say, my politics follow a very different path from Oakeshott, he's still a fascinating thinker, who knew how to provoke good questions. For instance, why did mankind feel the need to create Rationalism when we already had rationality?
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POPSThe Question of Leni Riefenstahl In a sense, I think this is the perfect answer to the question. Even when her art was not employed as Nazi propaganda, I feel that Riefenstahl's films and photography lack insight or depth, probably because she lacked these qualities as a person. After all, a person who can accept Nazism is clearly lacking in a certain empathy and humanism that is essential to creating art. How can we find it compelling when at its core, it remains vacuous and empty, devoid of the human soul that must infuse any work of art, bringing the inanimate to life.
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POPSReflections on Solitude "How does an intelligent person, deal with a world gone mad?" A site full of resources and reflections about solitude, silence, spirituality, recluses, philosophy and simplicity and other stuff like that. Sometimes, quiet is a good thing. Lots of food for thought.
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POPSBest Places to Get Free Books - The Ultimate Guide Best of the best free book resources on net. pdfs, docs, ebooks, mp3s... philosophy, science, technology, religion, theology, futurism, fiction.... almost all public domain intellectual work is available online. net is soon going to become the sum of all human knowledge (or has it already :)
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POPSNo, Thorne, THIS is funny, no matter WHO you are. I wonder if characters in moral dilemmas every pause and wonder quizzically about the author of the dilemma? Probably only if that author happens to be Douglas Adams. If I were ever to find myself, grotesquely obesse, and lodged in the mouth of a cave with dynamite at my back and the tide rising fast, I'm pretty sure I would think back to the first edition of "Moral Reasoning" by Victor Grassian, and say to myself "You know, now that I think about it, intentional or not, it was pretty darned funny..."
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POPSConstructive Atheism What I really appreciate about Al the Atheist is that he is being constructive. Many atheists glibly make their case by lashing out at religion, instead of focusing on making positive statements about what they believe. It is far harder to create than to destroy, but if you never risk putting your own ideas in the ring, you aren't really contributing the public discourse. For any one with an opinion or belief, say it. Defend it. Put it out there. You will win far more respect by defending your own ideas rather than attacking the ideas of others.
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POPSDarwin's Legacy it is not so much the idea that Hitler was the result of Darwin than it is the idea that Hitler was able to rise to power, spread his filth, and propagandize his ideas of the supreme race because of the irrationality of some misguided Materialists. The same way Islamist irrationally twist their faith. These materialist ideas had their roots in the thinking of Kant, Nietzche, Keirkegard, and Darwin. It seems to me pretty obvious that Hitler would not have been able to gain a foothold in German society were it not for his understanding of these ideas, given the environment occurring in Germany at the time. It seems to me that understanding the underlying principles behind world views and philosophies is beneficial. There are lots of scientists and thinkers that have had their ideas used by later societies. Examples: Jefferson borrowed philosophies of Hume and others to write The Constitution, Lenin used Marx, Bin Laden used Mohammed.
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