27 JUL 2018 by ideonexus
Old Movies are SJW Too
When people say they just want 'good stories' and no politics or 'SJW' issues in their entertainment-what they are saying is that when they were kids, they completely missed the subtext of every story, movie, comic book, etc they took in. These stories have always been political.
Star Trek, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, X-Men, Wonder Woman, on and on and on- these are Political / 'SJW' stories. And the message, if you were paying attention at all is one of inclusion... 1 
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notes30 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
The Problem with the X-Files
The cult of The X-Files has been defended as harmless because it is, after
all, only fiction. On the face of it, that is a fair defence. But regularly recurring fiction - soap operas, cop series find the like - are legitimately
criticized if, week after week, they systematically present a one-sided
view of the world. The X-Files is a television series in which, every week,
two FBI agents face a mystery. One of the two, Scully, favours a rational,
scientific explanation; the other agent, Mulde...Folksonomies: science fiction criticism
Folksonomies: science fiction criticism
1 notes
notes07 NOV 2014 by ideonexus
Objects of Primary Education
To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business;
To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his ideas, his contracts and accounts, in writing;
To improve, by reading, his morals and faculties;
To understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either;
To know his rights; to exercise with order and justice those he retains; to choose with discretion the f...Folksonomies: education public education
Folksonomies: education public education
1 notes
notes01 SEP 2014 by ideonexus
Literature Asks Questions without Offering Answers
Even when writers profess to know nothing about the inner man, they often make the profession in a way which suggests that they really know plenty When D. H. Lawrence says (in his essay on Benjamin Franklin) "The soul of man is a dark forest," he says it with a kind of knowing Satanic smirk, so that the profession of ignorance actually becomes a species of knowledge. When I first read that ominous Lawrence sentence I was young and it was news to me that my soul was a dark forest. For several ... 1 notes
notes21 APR 2014 by ideonexus
Childlike Curiosity is a Virtue
As a species, humans manifest a quality called neoteny, the retention of juvenile characteristics into adulthood. Neoteny has physical ramifications—scarce body hair and a flat face are two examples—but it also has neurological ones. Namely, we have an extraordinary capacity to continue learning throughout life.
If neoteny helps to explain our ability to learn, researchers are now figuring out what drives us to take advantage of it. In 2008, a group of scientists set up a novel fMRI stu...
2 An neotenatal evolutionary adaptation that allows us lifelong learning.
22 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
The Three Principal Means of Investigation
We have three principal means: observation of nature, reflection, and experiment. Observation gathers the facts, reflection combines them, experiment verifies the result of the combination. It is essential that the observation of nature be assiduous, that reflection be profound, and that experimentation be exact. Rarely does one see these abilities in combination. And so, creative geniuses are not common. 1 notes
notesEach is a virtue, and strength in all three is rare.
13 OCT 2013 by ideonexus
The Two Kinds of Cell Growth
In 1838, Matthias Schleiden, a botanist, and Theodor Schwann, a physiologist, both working in Germany, had claimed that all living organisms were built out of fundamental building blocks called cells. Borrowing and extending this idea, Virchow set out to create a “cellular theory” of human biology, basing it on two fundamental tenets. First, that human bodies (like the bodies of all animals and plants) were made up of cells. Second, that cells only arose from other cells—omnis cellula e... 1 notes
notesHypertrophy and hyperplasia, cells either grow bigger or grow more numerous.
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
Greeks and Romans Lacked the Virtue of Doubt
The Greek and Roman antiquarians, and even their literati and philosophers, are
chargeable with a total neglect of that spirit of doubt which subjects to a rigorous
investigation both sacts, and the proofs that establish them. In reading their accounts
of the history of events or of manners, of the productions and phenomena of nature, or
of the works and processes of the arts, we are astonished at the composure with which
they relate the most palpable absurdities, and the most fulsome and dis... 1 notes
notes...and as a result, their writing reveals an incredible gullibility.
25 DEC 2012 by ideonexus
Condorcet's Final Days
Condorcet,proscribed by a sanguinary faction, formed the idea of addressing to his fellow-citizens a summary of his principles, and of his conduct in public affairs. He set down a few lines in execution of this project: but when he recollected, as he was obliged to do, thirty years of labour directed to the public service, and the multitude of fugitive pieces in which, since the revolution, he had uniformly attacked every institution inimical to liberty, he rejected the idea of a useless just... 1 notes
notesFrom the preface of Condorcet's book, describing his life and virtue in his final days and how he dedicated himself to the task of writing for the greater good.
