06 JAN 2018 by ideonexus
Pattern-Seeking Through Play
Meredith's worldplay was shot through with yet another well-recognized ingigredienlent of creative thinking, the comparison and synthesis of two or more unlike things. As the mathematician and poet Jacob Bronowski famously expressed it, the discoveries of science and of art "are explorations—^more, are explosions, of a hidden likeness The same holds true for the insights generated in worldplay. Documents of play in Lewis, like many a child, combined the animal and the human in Lord Big. Una... 1 
notes
notes09 SEP 2016 by ideonexus
Childhood Fascination with What Adults Consider Mundane
If you know kindergartners, you know that a thread on the carpet can become one of the most fascinating objects on the face of the earth. The child will pick it up and run her fingers the length of it, scrutinizing every centimeter of that thread. She might hold it up in the sunlight to get a better look and then lay it on her lap to continue the intense observation of the thread. Those who are sitting close to the thread scientist may notice this intriguing object and want in. So they’ll ... 1 notes
notes08 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
1 19 FEB 2015 by ideonexus
All Art is Plagiarism
Any text is woven entirely with citations, references, echoes, cultural languages, which cut across it through and through in a vast stereophony. The citations that go to make up a text are anonymous, untraceable, and yet already read; they are quotations without inverted commas. The kernel, the soul — let us go further and say the substance, the bulk, the actual and valuable material of all human utterances — is plagiarism. For substantially all ideas are secondhand, consciously and unco... 1 notes
notes28 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
Using Santa Claus as a Teachable Moment
But as our son Connor began to exhibit the incipient inklings of Kringledoubt, it occurred to me that something powerful was going on. I began to see the Santa paradigm as an unmissable opportunity—the ultimate dry run for a developing inquiring mind.
My boy was 8 years old when he started in with the classic interrogation: How does Santa get to all those houses in one night? How does he get in when we don’t have a chimney and all the windows are locked and the alarm system is on? Why do... 1 notes
notesTell the child the fantastic story about Santa Claus, but answer their skeptical questions truthfully.
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... 1 notes
notesQuoting Marie Curie on a class of people who are not materialist, but society should support them so they need not be concerned with materialism.
03 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
§176. Respect for flag
(i) The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever. It should not be embroidered on such articles as cushions or handkerchiefs and the like, printed or otherwise impressed on paper napkins or boxes or anything that is designed for temporary use and discard. Advertising signs should not be fastened to a staff or halyard from which the flag is flown. 1 notes
notesUnited States Flag Code prohibits the use of the American flag in advertising or in logos.
18 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Torture Methods Used on Those Accused of Witchcraft
One might glance at some of the special tortures at Bamberg,
for example, such as the forcible feeding of the accused on
herrings cooked in salt, followed by denial of water - a
sophisticated method which went side by side with immersion
of the accused in baths of scalding water to which lime had
been added. Other ways with witches included the wooden
horse, various kinds of racks, the heated iron chair, leg vises
[Spanish boots], and large boots of leather or metal into
which (with the feet ...Folksonomies: witch hunt injustice
Folksonomies: witch hunt injustice
1 notes
notesA small subset of the injustices wrought on innocents.
03 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Writing as Quilting
This book is crammed with original ideas—very few of them my own. Science writers become accustomed to the feeling that they are intellectual plagiarists, raiding the minds of those who are too busy to tell the world about their discoveries. There are scores of people who could have written each chapter of my book better than I. My consolation is that few could have written all the chapters. My role has been to connect the patches of others' research together into a quilt. 
1 Taking ideas and patching them into the quilt of a book.
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
notesThis is a common-wisdom that is not true in practice, consumers are too busy too look out for their own interests.
