06 JAN 2018 by ideonexus
Of All Times in which to Live, You Would Choose Today
I don't think in terms of one year, but I can tell people what I genuinely believe, which is that if we take responsibility in being involved in our own fate if we participate, if we engage, if we speak out, if we work in our communities, if we volunteer, if we see the joy that comes from service to others, then all the problems that we face are solvable despite all the terrible news that you see, despite all the genuine cruelty, pain, and hardship people are experiencing all around the world...Folksonomies: optimism
Folksonomies: optimism
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notes
notes24 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
Humanity is Not the Purpose of the Universe, It is Humani...
Another phrase which occurs frequently in the propaganda of Christian fundamentalists is "scientific humanism." Scientific humanism is supposed to be a philosophy standing in opposition to Christian faith. Fundamentalists like to pretend that we have only two alternatives, either scientific humanism or their version of Christianity. But scientific humanism has as many different meanings as scientific materialism. Roughly speaking, a scientific humanist is somebody who believes in science and ...Folksonomies: humanism
Folksonomies: humanism
1 notes
notes21 JUN 2014 by ideonexus
Why hard work others ask us to do doesn't inspire us
In our real lives,
hard work is too often something we do because we have to do it—to make a
living, to get ahead, to meet someone else’s expectations, or simply because
someone else gave us a job to do. We resent that kind of work. It stresses us
out. It takes time away from our friends and family. It comes with too much
criticism. We’re afraid of failing. We often don’t get to see the direct impact
of our efforts, so we rarely feel satisfied.
Or, worse, our real-world work isn’t ...Folksonomies: gamification
Folksonomies: gamification
1 notes
notes08 NOV 2013 by ideonexus
Taxonomy of Email Chains
Family Pyramides
This family is named for the pyramid scheme structure common to all members of the family. Each specimen in this family will include a list of addresses of its last 4 to 10 hosts, and instructs the current host to alter this list by adding his or her address to this list and removing the oldest address from it. Hosts are also directed to send a small sum of money to each name on the list.
Family Petitiones
Members of this family are characterized by the additional behaviou... 1 notes
notesFood for thought in considering a taxonomy of memes.
14 OCT 2013 by ideonexus
Introverts Thrive Online
Studies have shown that, indeed, introverts are more likely than extroverts to express intimate facts about themselves online that their family and friends would be surprised to read, to say that they can express the “real me” online, and to spend more time in certain kinds of online discussions. They welcome the chance to communicate digitally. The same person who would never raise his hand in a lecture hall of two hundred people might blog to two thousand, or two million, without thinki... 1 notes
notesPossibly because it is a world of ideas?
11 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Science is Disconnected from the Needs of Man
A plain, reasonable working man supposes, in the old way which is also the common-sense way, that if there are people who spend their lives in study, whom he feeds and keeps while they think for him—then no doubt these men are engaged in studying things men need to know; and he expects of science that it will solve for him the questions on which his welfare, and that of all men, depends. He expects science to tell him how he ought to live: how to treat his family, his neighbours and the men... 1 notes
notesIt gives useless facts, while the average man is seeking meaning.
11 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Life of a Scientist
I have had a fairly long life, above all a very happy one, and I think that I shall be remembered with some regrets and perhaps leave some reputation behind me. What more could I ask? The events in which I am involved will probably save me from the troubles of old age. I shall die in full possession of my faculties, and that is another advantage that I should count among those that I have enjoyed. If I have any distressing thoughts, it is of not having done more for my family; to be unable to... 1 notes
notesQuoting Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier. Who appreciates that his reputation will live on and he will die with his mental faculties, but regrets not having spent more time with his family.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
The Story of Flo, an Aging Chimpanzee Mother
Flo, inevitably, began to show her age. She wasn't strong enough to wean Flint when the time came, nor to care for her new infant Flame, born when Flint was only four and a half years old (the normal birth interval is five years or more). Flame disappeared during a time when Flo was too ill even to climb into a nest. Though she recovered somewhat after Flame's death, she did not have the strength to discipline Flint, who insisted on riding on her back and sleeping in her nest. When Flo died i... 1 notes
notesShe is too old to properly raise her infant, who grows up to be too dependent on her and cannot go on when she dies. This story is from the "F" family that Jane Goodall studied.
29 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
Sleeping Arangements Across Climates
Anthropologist John Whiting found a simple association between climate and parent-child co-sleeping (among other behaviors).^ Evaluating 136 societies for which he had information. Whiting outlined four kinds of typical sleeping arrangements for a household: mother and father in the same bed with baby in another bed; mother and baby together and father somewhere else; all members of the family in separate beds; and all members of the family together in one bed. The most prominent pattern acro... 1 notes
notesClimate seems to predict where the child sleeps in relation to the parents.
11 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
FDR Defends His Dog
These Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on me, or my wife, or on my sons. No, not content with that, they now include my little dog, Fala. Well, of course, I don’t resent attacks, and my family doesn’t resent attacks, but Fala does resent them. You know, Fala is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writers in Congress and out had concocted a story that I had left him behind on the Aleutian Islands and had sent a destroyer back ... 1 notes
notesSomething to consider in the history of heated political rhetoric is this passage by FDR in 1944, which invokes some of the heated silliness we tend to think only applies to our modern political culture.
