Monthly Archives: March 2015

Rational Orthography

What do DVORAK, polyamory, and home schooling have in common? They’re all about doing what’s weird-but-effective instead of what’s popular. What else is like that? About three thousand years ago, the ancient Greeks invented a form of writing called boustrophedon. … Continue reading

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OT17: Their Hand Is At Your Threads, Yet Ye See Them Not

(source) This is the semimonthly open thread. Post about anything you want, ask random questions, whatever. Also: 1. I’ll be pretty busy at work for the next few months, so expect a lower volume of blogging. 2. Comments of the … Continue reading

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Highlights From My Notes From Another Psychiatry Conference

I took a break from my busy schedule at Our Lady Of An Undisclosed Location to attend another local Psychiatry Conference. This conference consisted of a series of talks about all the most important issues of the day, like ‘The … Continue reading

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Extremism In Thought Experiment Is No Vice

[content warning: description of fictional rape and torture.] Phil Robertson is being criticized for a thought experiment in which an atheist’s family is raped and murdered. On a talk show, he accused atheists of believing that there was no such … Continue reading

Is Everything A Religion?

I. On the last Links thread, Eric Raymond claims that environmentalism is a religion. It has “sins” like wasting energy and driving gas-guzzling SUVs. It has “taboos” like genetically modified foods. It has an “apocalypse” in the form of global … Continue reading

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Links 3/15: Linksmanship

The OKCupid Bullshit-To-English Filter makes dating site cliches more interesting. “Random” becomes “banal”, “I love X” becomes “I for the most part tolerate X”, and “I like to have fun” becomes “I like institutionalized racism”. And it only gets worse … Continue reading

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List Of Passages I Highlighted In My Copy Of “Machinery Of Freedom”

Under any institutions, there are essentially only three ways that I can get another person to help me achieve my ends: love, trade, and force. By love I mean making my end your end. Those who love me wish me … Continue reading

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Book Review: The Machinery Of Freedom

[conflict of interest: David Friedman is an amazing person who has been very nice to me and among other things hosted the San Jose SSC meetup earlier this month] David Friedman’s The Machinery of Freedom is half Libertarianism 101: Introduction … Continue reading

List Of Passages I Highlighted In My Copy Of “Willpower”

[content note: dieting] Warning: I have not checked any of these claims for truth, I was generally not impressed with the skepticism level displayed in this book, and I highlighted the passages I found most surprising or counterintuitive. So these … Continue reading

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Answer to Job

(with apologies to Jung) Job asked: “God, why do bad things happen to good people? Why would You, who are perfect, create a universe filled with so much that is evil?” Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the … Continue reading

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