15 JUN 2016 by ideonexus

 Greek Philosophical Science of Categorization was Aesthetic

It is not meant that the Greeks had more respect for the function of perception through the senses than has modern science, but that, judged from present practice, they had altogether too mucfy respect for the material of direct, unanalyzed sense-perception. They were aware of its defects from the standpoint of knowledge. But they supposed that they could correct these defects and supplement their lack by purely logical or "rational" means. They supposed that thought could take the material...
Folksonomies: knowledge categorization
Folksonomies: knowledge categorization
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08 MAY 2015 by ideonexus

 China to Rate Online Behaviour in Social Credit System

Chinese internet firms are definitely interested, as Ant Financial, a subsidiary of ecommercegiant Alibaba, recently showed. To its popular app Alipay it added a new service which rated a person's credit worthiness on a scale of 350 to 950 points. This score is not only determined by one's lending behavior, but also by hobbies and friends. If friends have a poor lending reputation, this reflects badly on the person, just as prolonged playing of video games. Buying diapers indicates responsibi...
Folksonomies: socialism social ratings
Folksonomies: socialism social ratings
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18 MAR 2012 by ideonexus

 Society Needs People Who Are Concerned With Ideas, Not Th...

Humanity certainly needs practical men, who get the most out of their work, and, without forgetting the general good, safeguard their own interests. But humanity also needs dreamers, for whom the disinterested development of an enterprise is so captivating that it becomes impossible for them to devote their care to their own material profit. Without the slightest doubt, these dreamers do not deserve wealth, because they do not desire it. Even so, a well-organised society should assure to such...
Folksonomies: science society funding
Folksonomies: science society funding
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Quoting Marie Curie on a class of people who are not materialist, but society should support them so they need not be concerned with materialism.

26 JAN 2012 by ideonexus

 We Have Finite Time to Spend in Life

At IndieCade in October 2011, Adam Saltsman, Canabalt's creator, discussed the notion of "time until death." All of us have a finite amount of time on earth, and any time we spend on a particular activity is time that we can't spend doing something else. This means that the time we spend gaming represents most of a game's cost of ownership, far more than any money that we spend. If that time is enjoyable (or rather, if its benefits outweigh its costs), then the game was worth our time. Value...
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When we play games, we should play games that are fun, but also creative and challenging. Easy games are a complete waste of time, like watching TV. Hard games challenge us and make us grow.

08 JUN 2011 by ideonexus

 The Science on the Path

A weed plucked at the side of the path might have found its way to the New World in a seventeenth century sailing ship. Scratches on a rocky ledge evoke colossal mountain-building events on the other side of the world millions of years ago that modified the planet's climate and caused glaciers to creep across New England. The oxygen atoms I suck into my lungs were forged in stars that lived and died long before the Earth was born. It is something of a cliche to say that everything is connecte...
Folksonomies: nature education naturalism
Folksonomies: nature education naturalism
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A brief summary of the scientific concepts to be considered on a nature walk.

03 JAN 2011 by ideonexus

 The Consumer is Not King

Marketers glibly say that the consumer is king, but in practice he's not. In the real world, experienced marketing and consumer-affairs hands will tell you, consumers aren't very good at protecting their own interests. They're too busy consuming, or working, or just living regular lives. The groups that claim to protect their interests often end up with their own agendas, which may have more to do with Washington power battles and fund-raising than with genuine consumer interests.
Folksonomies: capitalism
Folksonomies: capitalism
  1  notes

This is a common-wisdom that is not true in practice, consumers are too busy too look out for their own interests.