25 APR 2017 by ideonexus
Bit chin Society Emissary
And it clicked for me. He was a missionary—one of those fringe-dwellers who act as emissary from the Bitchun Society to the benighted corners of the world where, for whatever reasons, they want to die, starve, and choke on petrochem waste. It's amazing that these communities survive more than a generation; in the Bitchun Society proper, we usually outlive our detractors. The missionaries don't have such a high success rate—you have to be awfully convincing to get through to a culture that... 1 
notes
notes29 NOV 2016 by ideonexus
Earthseed 21-30
21. What a living world will demand
There is no endTo what a living worldWill demand of you.
∞ = Δ
22. Earthlife
We are Earthseed. We are flesh—self aware,questing, problem-solving flesh. We are thataspect of Earthlife best able to shape Godknowingly. We are Earthlife maturing, Earthlifepreparing to fall away from the parent world.We are Earthlife preparing to take root innew ground, Earthlife fulfilling its purpose,its promise, its Destiny.
∞ = Δ
23. A Phoenix
In order to riseFrom i...Folksonomies: earthseed
Folksonomies: earthseed
1 notes
notes30 MAY 2015 by ideonexus
Scientific Consensus is the Spanking is Bad
At least since Dr. Spock, child-care gurus have increasingly advised against spanking.175 Today every pediatric and psychological association opposes the practice, though not always in language as clear as the title of a recent article by Murray Straus: “Children Should Never, Ever, Be Spanked No Matter What the Circumstances.”176 The expert opinion recommends against spanking for three reasons. One is that spanking has harmful side effects down the line, including aggression, delinquency... 1 notes
notes16 FEB 2015 by ideonexus
Religion and Racism
A meta-analytic review of past research evaluated the link between religiosity and racism in the United States since the Civil Rights Act. Religious racism partly reflects intergroup dynamics. That is, a strong religious in-group identity was associated with derogation of racial out-groups. Other races might be treated as out-groups because religion is practiced largely within race, because training in a religious in-group identity promotes general ethnocentrism, and because different others ... 1 notes
notes20 JUN 2014 by ideonexus
Transcription Fluency
When you write something down, either while taking notes or while trying to write your own original thoughts, you’re dealing with what literacy scholars call “transcription fluency”: How quickly and fluidly you can get down — “transcribe” — the stuff that’s in your head. One of the reasons we formally teach handwriting to young children is that you don’t want a bottleneck between the ideas they’re forming and the writing. If you struggle with the act of forming let... 1 notes
notes03 MAR 2014 by ideonexus
The Success of Science
One of the reasons for its success is that science has
built-in, self-correcting machinery at its very heart. It takes
account of human fallibility. One of its commandments is,
"Mistrust arguments from authority." Too many such arguments
have turned out to be painfully wrong. Authorities must prove
their contentions like anybody else. This independence of
science, its unwillingness to pay automatic obeisance to
conventional wisdom, makes it dangerous to doctrines less self-
critical. ... 1 notes
notesComes from its built-in self-criticism, its proven results, and the reverence and awe it inspires.
22 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
With the Seed We May Deduce the Animal
If we possessed a thorough knowledge of all the parts of the seed of any animal (e.g. man), we could from that alone, by reasons entirely mathematical and certain, deduce the whole conformation and figure of each of its members, and, conversely if we knew several peculiarities of this conformation, we would from those deduce the nature of its seed. 1 notes
notesInteresting idea, if wrong for not understanding how environment affects growth, but the idea that we could one day take a seed and predict the full-grown organism that will result from it is intriguing.
27 NOV 2013 by ideonexus
Mathematics Should Also Inspire
So why do we learn mathematics? Essentially, for three reasons: calculation, application, and last, and unfortunately least in terms of the time we give it, inspiration.
Mathematics is the science of patterns, and we study it to learn how to think logically, critically and creatively, but too much of the mathematics that we learn in school is not effectively motivated, and when our students ask, "Why are we learning this?" then they often hear that they'll need it in an upcoming math class o... 1 notes
notesEducation in math focuses too much on the practicality of it and not the artistic appreciation.
19 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
Argument Frames
Functioning as a progressive or conservative means having a stock of general
argument frames that are used not just on one issue but on many issues. That is why someone attuned to politics can immediately understand or construct a “new” argument as soon as a new issue arises. The “new” argument is not really new at all. It is an instance of a general argument frame with a new issue-defining frame plugged in, and sometimes a new commonplace frame or surface frame. But the overall struc... 1 notes
notesLiberals and Conservatives have a framework on which to quickly build arguments for/against new issues.
18 JAN 2013 by ideonexus
Chinese Cultural Innovations Turned to Ritual
When Europeans first arrived in China, three hundred years a^ago, they found that almost all the arts had reached a certain degree of perfection there, and they were surprised that a people which had attained this point should not have gone beyond it. At a later period they discovered traces of some higher branches of science that h had been lost. The nation was absorbed in productive industry; the greater part of its scientific processes had been preserved, but science itself no longer exist...
1 
1 An account of the amazing art and inventions found in China, but how these had turned into unquestioned rituals--performed exactly over and over again through the ages without alteration or innovation. The culture had stagnated.
