12 DEC 2017 by ideonexus
Credit is Trust in the Future
We’ve already seen that money is an astounding thing because it can represent myriad di 1 
notes
notes31 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
Aristotle Was About Quantity, Not Quality, of Thought
I don't doubt that Aristotle thought more in actual footage during his life than any other person ever thought in the same elapsed time of sixty-two years. I do say, however, that any prize he deserves for so doing should be for quantity, not quality, as a great deal of it was spinach. He would sit around and think like one possessed, or he would walk around and think, since he was a Peripatetic, as they called it in those days. And then he would announce that Swallows spend the winter under ... 1 notes
notes18 OCT 2014 by ideonexus
The Gevulot
‘It’s a nice thought.’ He offers her his hand. ‘I am Paul. I got a little lost: all those moving streets. I was hoping you could tell me the way out.’
A trickle of emotion bleeds through his rough visitor’s gevulot: a sense of unease, a weight, a guilt. Xuexue can imagine the old man of the sea sitting on his back. It feels very familiar. And suddenly it is more important to talk to the stranger than to smile at the robot.
‘Sure I can,’ she says. ‘But why don’t you stay for a little while? ... 1 notes
notesA device that provides privacy protection with anyone you interact with real or virtual.
24 MAR 2013 by ideonexus
Our Minds Demand Closure
In 1927,
Gestalt psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik
noticed a funny thing: waiters in a Vienna
restaurant could remember only orders
that were in progress. As soon as the
order was sent out and complete, they
seemed to wipe it from memory. Zeigarnik
then did what any good psychologist
would do: she went back to the lab and
designed a study. A group of adults and
children was given anywhere between
eighteen and twenty-two tasks to perform
(both physical ones, like making clay
figures, and mental one... 1 notes
notesWithout closure we are more likely to remember something, a lack of closure bothers us and motivates us.
06 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Cultivate Good Habits While Your Young
Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state. We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never so little scar. The drunken Rip Van Winkle, in Jefferson's play, excuses himself for every fresh dereliction by saying, "I won't count this time!" Well! he may not count it, and a kind Heaven may not count it; ...Folksonomies: plasticity of mind youth
Folksonomies: plasticity of mind youth
1 notes
notesAnd your mind is plastic, rather than being set in bad habits when you get older.
23 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
The Law is King in America
But where, says some, is the King of America? I'll tell you. Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Britain. Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolu... 1 notes
notesAnd the crown is demolished and scattered among the people.
23 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Time makes more converts than reason
Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not YET sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favour; a long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial appearance of being RIGHT, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason. 1 notes
notesThomas Paine on the habit we have of assuming something is correct because it has gone so long without being demonstrated as false.
18 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
The Judges Become the Judged
36. When, under stress of pain, the witch has confessed, her
plight is indescribable. Not only cannot she escape herself,
but she is also compelled to accuse others whom she does
not know, whose names are frequently put into her mouth
by the investigators or suggested by the executioner, or of
whom she has heard as suspected or accused. These in turn
are forced to accuse others, and these still others, so it goes
on: who can help seeing that it must go on and on?
37. The judges must either s...Folksonomies: witch hunts paranoia
Folksonomies: witch hunts paranoia
1 notes
notesIn Witch Hunts, eventually you run out of people to prosecute, and you become the guilty.
