14 MAR 2016 by ideonexus
"Colic" Means "I don't know why your baby is crying"
The strict medical definition of colic is a condition of a healthy baby in which it shows periods of intense, unexplained fussing/crying lasting more than 3 hours a day, more than 3 days a week for more than 3 weeks.
There’s that word there, unexplained. For years I thought this word “colic” described a phenomenon that was understood and therefore natural. The etymology of the word, pertaining to “disease characterized by severe abdominal pain” in the early 15th century suggests ...Folksonomies: nominal fallacy
Folksonomies: nominal fallacy
1 19 APR 2013 by ideonexus
The Philosopher's Solace
...how admirably calculated is this view of the human race, emancipated from its chains, released alike from the dominion of chance, as well as from that of the enemies of its progress, and advancing with a firm and indeviate step in the paths of truth, to console the philosopher lamenting the errors, the flagrant acts of injustice, the crimes with which the earth is still polluted? It is the contemplation of this prospect that rewards him for all his efforts to assist the progress of reason ... 1 
notes
notesThe unstoppable perfectibility of the human race is almost a law of the Universe that no injustice in the present can undo.
19 APR 2013 by ideonexus
The Splits in Christianity Led to Religious Toleration
The spirit which animated the reformers did not introduce a real freedom of sentiment. Each religion, in the country in which it prevailed, had no indulgence but for certain opinions. Meanwhile, as the different creeds were opposed to each other, few opinions existed that had not been attacked or supported in some part of Europe. The new communions had beside been obliged to relax a little from their dogmatical rigour. They could not, without the grossest contradiction, confine the right of e... 1 notes
notesWhen there were many sects of Chrisianity, Europe had to grow tolerant of them.
06 AUG 2012 by ideonexus
A Positive View of Human Progress
And how admirably calculated is this view of the human race, emancipated from its chains, released alike from the dominion of chance, as well as from that of the enemies of its progress, and advancing with a firm and indeviate step in the paths of truth, to console the philosopher lamenting the errors, the flagrant acts of injustice, the crimes with which the earth is still polluted? It is the contemplation of this prospect that rewards him for all his efforts to assist the progress of reason...Folksonomies: philosophy optimism
Folksonomies: philosophy optimism
If civilization is ever-improving, then the philosophe can take heart that all the wickedness and ignorance they witness in their lifetimes mean nothing, because the good works will survive and carry on into a better future.
04 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Hormones on the Brain
At school, boys are fidgety, difficult, inattentive, and slow to learn, compared to girls. Nineteen out of every twenty hyperactive children are boys. Four times as many boys as girls are dyslexic and learning disabled. "Education is almost a conspiracy against the aptitudes and inclinations of a schoolboy," wrote psychologist Dianne McGuiness, a sentiment to which almost every man with a memory of school will raise a hearty cry of assent.
But another fact begins to emerge at school. Girls a... 1 notes
notesHow hormones affect learning in school children.
23 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
Reading Comments on the Internet Feels Like It's the End ...
Watching an unbelievably beautiful video of Hubble probing the edge of space: unfathomable 17.000 comments, but half of them inane, gross, with atrocious spelling, insults from childish name-calling, immature outbursts, vicious moronic bullying to outright gibberish insanity. Reading YouTube comment threads can make you sense the end of the world as we knew it.
How sad, but I guess one doesn’t have to look?
...
The Internet brings the promise of connecting it all.
But it could also conne... 1 notes
notesA shared sentiment, the idea that reading youtube comments robs our faith in humanity.
