31 OCT 2018 by ideonexus
Adult is Not a Term of Approval
Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about bei...Folksonomies: maturity juvenillia
Folksonomies: maturity juvenillia
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notes30 DEC 2016 by ideonexus
Magnus Speaks on Knowledge
Magnus turned from Mortarion and walked to the centre of the amphitheatre, lifting his hands out to his sides and slowly turning on the spot as he spoke.
“Imagine the Imperium of the future, a golden Utopia of enlightenment and progress, where the scientist and the philosopher are equal partners with the warrior in crafting a bounteous future. Now imagine the people of that glorious age looking back through the mists of time to this moment. Think what they will know and what they would mak...Folksonomies: enlightenment knowledge
Folksonomies: enlightenment knowledge
1 notes
notes12 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
The Many Ways of Representing Sounds in English Spelling
English spelling, owing to the conditions that gov-
ernd the growth of the English language, now presents
many anomalies. The same letter, or combination of
letters, often represents many different sounds; while
the same sound is often represented by many different
letters, or combinations of letters.
The combination ough, for example, represents at
least 9 different sounds in the words cough, rough,
though, through, plough, hough, thorough, thought,
hiccough; and the sound of e in ...
1 10 JUN 2014 by ideonexus
C.S. Lewis on Maturity
Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about bei... 1 notes
notesIndicated by a lack of concern with being an 'adult'.
21 APR 2014 by ideonexus
"Susicion of Authority" is Also Propaganda
While individuals get our empathy and sympathy, institutions seldom do. The "we're in this together" spirit of films from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s later gave way to a reflex shared by left and right, that villainy is associated with organization. Even when they aren't portrayed as evil, bureaucrats are stupid and public officials short-sighted. Only the clever bravado of a solitary hero (or at most a small team) will make a difference in resolving the grand crisis at hand.
This rule of con...
1 A conspiracy meme that comes from both the left and right.
03 APR 2013 by TGAW
Beware of Software Engineers Who Do Not Maintain Their Ow...
If an engineer is not tasked with the long term maintenance of the systems they build, view them with suspicion. 80% of the blood, sweat, and tears of software occurs after its been released—that’s when you become a world weary, but wiser “professional.”Folksonomies: softwaredevelopment maintenance
Folksonomies: softwaredevelopment maintenance
1 notes
notes20 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Learning About Forestry
How to start on my adventure—how to become a forester—was not so simple. There were no schools of Forestry in America. ... Whoever turned his mind toward Forestry in those days thought little about the forest itself and more about its influences, and about its influence on rainfall first of all. So I took a course in meteorology, which has to do with weather and climate. and another in botany, which has to do with the vegetable kingdom—trees are unquestionably vegetable. And another in ... 1 notes
notesHow Pinchot studied forestry, a subject that did not exist in his time, so he studied meteorology, geology, and botany.
23 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
The Principle of Religious Diversity
As to religion, I hold it to be the indispensable duty of all government, to protect all conscientious professors thereof, and I know of no other business which government hath to do therewith, Let a man throw aside that narrowness of soul, that selfishness of principle, which the niggards of all professions are so unwilling to part with, and he will be at delivered of his fears on that head. Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society. For myself, I fully and c... 1 notes
notesPaine argues that a plurality of religious beliefs with strengthen the country.
03 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
We Inherit from Our Parent's Zygotes
It IS a mistake that biologists used to make, too. They believed that evolution proceeded by accumulating the changes that individuals gathered during their lives. The idea was most clearly formulated by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, but Charles Darwin sometimes used it, too. The classic example is a blacksmith's son supposedly inheriting his father's acquired muscles at birth. We now know that Lamarckism cannot work because bodies are built from cakelike recipes, not architectural blueprints, and i... 1 notes
notesThe failure of Lamarkism means we do not inherit our genes from our parents, but from their sex cells.
06 APR 2011 by ideonexus
Intellectual Quackery in Academia
Intellectual quackery extends throughout the landscape of academia; tenured professors in the humanities and social sciences, on the right and left, are constantly purveying theories that are the philosophical, literary, and artistic equivalents of junk science. That many of the researchers consider themselves intellectuals is sad but unremarkable in the annals of quackery withing academia: junk thought with an intellectual patina fosters anti-intellectualism as effectively as junk science wi... 1 notes
notesThis is the worst form of junk-thought, because it comes from a source the public considers reliable, the Colleges and Universities.
