fascinating. It really makes clear how much social norms affect the way populations think, even when everyone's sure that it's their purely individual internal opinions they're expressing...
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 11:55 AM on June 7, 2008

I'm always surprised when people seem to still believe that IQ's are static. It's been shown many times that IQ scores change depending on education, and the basic test is a simplistic early 20th c / eugenicist notion of intelligence to start with...
anyone studying intelligence or neuroscience in more depth already assumes this. That some portion of the general population still has a love affair with the mensa threshold is just unfortunate.
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 4:44 PM on June 6, 2008

I'm waiting to hear there's a Timmy Hitler and a Skippy Hitler too.

I know, it's like Ted Hitler
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 11:47 AM on June 6, 2008

Measurement might mean something entirely different to you than it does in the context of QM. If you want to discuss QM, you are going to have to put aside your common-sense definition of measurement.

well, I don't think it's just bad journalism that gives this understanding of "measurement". Einstein apparently understood it this way. It seems as if some portion of scientists have interpreted observation to include specifically conscious... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 9:53 AM on June 5, 2008

Unless you want to believe that dinosaurs sprung into existence the moment the first human laid eyes on a fossil, somehow sending a signal back in time that it was OK for that particular dinosaur to live and die...the entire conscious observer thing is worse than wrong. It's worse than string theory.

Right - this was exactly Einstein's problem with QM! And he argued with the top QM scientists of his day, so I don't think it was just bad journalism.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 11:22 AM on June 5, 2008

Propaganda is now officially hip.

You say this like it's a new thing. THe 'hipness' of exactly this style of propaganda dates back to early this century. The basic hip aspect of advertising in general has been a niche of design/marketing as long as i can remember as well. The only thing specific here is that a presidential campaign is trying to use 'hip' propaganda instead of general, everyday, good ol' US flag style propaganda. This will only work... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 11:45 AM on May 24, 2008

Holy crap that a big ass brush you got there.

You're assuming caring about this is "good" and it is demeaning to say people won't care about it. But there are people out there who actually don't care much one way or another how "hip" the posters of a candidate are.

And I didn't say there couldn't be hipster schoolteachers and millworkers, just that there do exist those... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 1:44 PM on May 24, 2008

And I think this is solid presentation, and that you're wrong. I love that you said "making trouble" though, like somebody will read over the policies on the website and think, "that's pretty good, but whoa, I don't like that shade of Melon. Oh Barack...you're in trouble with me."

Well, maybe images and graphics have no impact, but people are often slightly affected by symbolism even if they won't admit it or even notice it... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 2:13 PM on May 25, 2008

I hope someone makes the still at .10 into a poster for same sex marriage. It's too bizarre & non-linear not to be on some college kid's wall...
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 8:40 AM on May 25, 2008

I found this really cute, somehow - really weird, but also cute in a very surreal kind of way. I dunno, it was interesting. The way it was described here (also links to hi-res plus ad people's comments) seemed fairly on-target to me , especially as "curiously infectious", as at first the stills just seemed kind of insane, but the more I see the more I kind of think they're fun.

The sexiness is weird because it's anthropomorphized,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 9:44 AM on May 24, 2008

When the war started, the polling approval rating for going in was something like 75%. We have a two party system rather than a parliament, so that a winning effort has to be able to capture 50% of the population. This means having a middle-of-the-road platform in most respects. Supporting an outsider position can only be a media event, not an actual political action. Green party or Libertarian party nominees are attempting to start conversations, not get elected. They can't get elected,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 12:43 PM on May 22, 2008

So Einstein - as an agnostic or aetheist - is someone impoverished of thought and appreciation of the Universe?

odd choice. Einstein often spoke of his religious understanding, a belief in Spinoza's god, deism, pantheism, Nature's God or however you want to describe it. He was usually quite dismissive of atheists who did not appreciate what he believed to be the unity and manifest harmony of the universe, and quite sure of a true order or original... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 12:33 PM on May 20, 2008

It makes no difference what Einstein thought.

No, of course it doesn't make a difference in terms of what you ought to think, but the point was simply, it is possible to have a more complex opinion than just "Jesus is real and he loves me" vs "religion is bullshit & we have everything figured out". You can be scientifically minded without rejecting all notions of god. Einstein's a good example because he's recent enough that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 7:19 PM on May 20, 2008

I just try to remember that emotionally compelling ≠ factually accurate.

It may help you to keep in mind that most religious people don't turn to religion in order to factually describe the world. The majority are turning to it for that emotionally compelling part too, and only get defensive about the "facts" because they're told it's all or nothing. But integrate scientific advance into religion comfortably, and have respect for the ritual,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 1:57 PM on May 19, 2008

people have always done this, to varying degrees... Of course a)people who are really invested in living naturally and not being attached to money may never get stuck in a blackberry-world to start with, so don't so much "give up" a lifestyle as never really get caught up in it to begin with; and b)the more completely someone has left the world behind, the less likely the worldly papers are to catch up with them and write about them. But this story seems to be just about people... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 1:22 PM on May 19, 2008

It is sad that this will certainly be seen as the majority of mefites already see it, as elitist and flakey and pompous. Really, eating organic food is very much a part of environmentalism: pesticides, preservatives, and heavily artificial or processed foods and oils are indeed parts of the problem. But to care about it is automatically understood as liberal fagginess, exactly the way alternative fuels, electric cars, recyclable containers, compost, yadda yadda, has been seen when it's first... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 9:56 AM on May 19, 2008

it's nanny-state liberalism at its absolute worst; precisely the kind of thing that makes me uncomfortable about the left - thoughtless dictation of what's "best for you"

god forbid that people should have a CHOICE of what to eat at one of america's major political party conventions - because after all, they're not SMART enough to CHOOSE the right thing, are they? - not as smart as the DNC and their pal,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 12:26 PM on May 19, 2008

I thought
TMN Lincoln and
Rainbow Brite Hamilton were the best, myself.
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 12:37 PM on April 30, 2008

I only have anecdotal evidence for it, but I can say I've never seen money in circulation here that has been written on.

That has been written on at all? The white out and intensive blacking out of faces and stuff may be harder to bear, but drawing mustaches or glasses on presidents is as old as money with presidents on it. I have definitely written & drawn on money and then spent it... back when I had a zine I used to regularly rubber-stamp... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 2:39 PM on April 30, 2008

In order for it to be a slur, the speaker has to be white, must be referring to an African-American person, and must deliver it with unambiguous condescension

I don't think so. I think the idea is that you may not realize that you're racist, but if the guy were white, it wouldn't occur to you to call him "articulate". You'd just think it was a regular guy talking. We don't specify that Bill or Hillary, or, say, Stephen Colbert is... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 2:37 PM on April 28, 2008

Would calling a white person unarticulate be a slur? Or would calling a black person unarticulate be a compliment? It's all so confusing.

I really don't think it is. Calling a black person "articulate" is often considered a backhanded compliment - it's not a direct slur, and saying someone is not articulate is not a compliment. But in most cases, we say "that was articulate" rather than "he is articulate", except in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 7:29 PM on April 28, 2008

And as this dino-ostrich connection was revealed to me around 10 years ago, I am super pleased to see that our former waiter has finally gotten his papers published.

This is just a further piece of evidence for what has long been known. They have divided dinosaurs into "bird-hipped" and "lizard-hipped" for as long as I remember, and I was a dinosaur loving child. They discuss this at length at the AMNH, e.g.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 10:50 AM on April 25, 2008

wow, I did not remember that! funny. I just remembered the two groups and that one of them was the bird ancestor, and having met ostriches, I didn't doubt it. But I totally assumed the bird-hipped were the bird-dinosaurs.
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 5:49 PM on April 25, 2008

i can't quite see how people are so grossed out by this. The kid looks completely comfortable, and the actual touching is all within normal bounds. The only lines that could be said to be crossed are in what role he's playing, when he playfully pretends to lick the kid or bite his shirt. But he seems to be doing it in a very jokey kind of way, not in a way that would actually seem threatening, although perhaps if I knew the lyrics of the song or the context it would be more evident exactly... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 10:19 PM on April 24, 2008

Cool Papa Bell, I think what she was saying was the equivalent of "Well, I don't care if their research shows that house cats can't jump higher than 6 feet, I'm watching mine regularly hit the ceiling right now". Because regardless of what came from that study, her experiences still happened.

No, Pater Aletheias' example was irrelevant to the claim she made. That researcher proved that people could distinguish between people speaking... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 5:27 PM on April 24, 2008

but to me he's always seemed the embarrassing uncle figure who insists on orchestrating the whole Bar Mitzvah from his 61-key Casio. It sounds just as a good as a live band, stop crying.

I really wonder if you would have this association if you did not know from the start that he was jewish. It's as if it's embarrassing for a jew to try to be some kind of authentic, immediate, singer of soulful music. But would he be an embarrassing uncle if he were... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 8:24 PM on April 24, 2008

Yeah, I don't see the problem with this myself. As people have said, privileged kids already get rewards for good grades, even if it's just in the form of accolades and a generally good relationship with the parents. Underprivileged kids will often simply not have this option. Getting A's for some kids will be meaningless - there are bigger more immediate issues going on - the rent, someone's health, abuse, who knows what - and whether they get good grades or not won't get... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 5:29 PM on April 23, 2008

Or, alternatively you can explain why your first reaction to the notion that individuals ought to be treated as individuals is to reference GWB and Trump. Seems to me that those two would be better used in an argument about, say...

I think the idea is that people are often more prone to want to turn it to questions of individuals but claim it's not racist when dealing with issues of racial injustice than issues of white privilege. Sure, it'd be useful... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 2:21 PM on April 23, 2008

This rings true to me. One of the reasons I love doing martial arts is that my exercise time is all barefoot. I'm always barefoot at home. In the summer I often wear flip flops, though my feet can get pretty dirty that way. I've tried various simple shoes for the cooler parts of the year.

One thing I've long been trying to do for a while is find a shoe that doesn't bend your big toes inward - I remember reading a book years ago that had a picture of the feet of an... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 10:13 PM on April 22, 2008

My response to creationists is just, come up with a theory and then we can talk. Saying "god did it" is no more a theory than saying "it happened". You have to explain the details of how this force you call god enacted the coming into being, and you cannot turn to "it's magic" or you are not doing science. So you either have to make god empirical, or get out of science's way and just let them inevitably fail in their efforts, if you think it is... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 5:31 PM on April 20, 2008

Oh, and Aristotle is a particularly weird example to choose as your head-in-the-clouds philosopher who wouldn't care for science, as he's famous for writing about physics, the generation of animals, the movement of animals, etc etc - he is often considered the first scientist. However, he is also very much concerned with how it all works in unity, and philosophy for him is the ultimate science that can help us understand the source or principle of "being" or existence (so... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 5:49 PM on April 20, 2008

And he was wrong, completely wrong. Even really, really smart people can be stupid sometimes.

This is another area where things are still being worked out. He may turn out to be completely wrong, but it's misleading to claim it's already been proven. There is more than one theory on the table, and there are still issues with the interpretation that Einstein questioned. And, he wasn't being stupid to question someone else's theory.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 9:24 AM on April 21, 2008

This is not what happened in the case of Einstein, however- he rejected quantum mechanics because it seemed intuitively wrong, not out of any kind of reason.

I think you're misunderstanding the relation between intuitive thought and reason. Einstein rejected it because it went against the most basic, common components of reason, reason at the most intuitive level. This doesn't mean it's necessarily wrong, as there may be ways to eventually understand... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 1:40 PM on April 21, 2008

we've talked about the hensel twins here before - they're American and doing ok so far.
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 2:56 PM on April 19, 2008

Also: you have to face the flag when you say the American pledge of allegiance? I think even 5-year-old me would have rather gone to the principal's office. What a weird country.

Just to be clear, it's not universal - it's up to the school what they want to do. I went to several different public and private schools in NY and MA, and I'm pretty sure I never said the pledge of allegiance at any of them. My high school in MA had a school song we had to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 12:26 PM on April 16, 2008

I can win the nomination despite you and I can win the election in spite of you. Don't let the door hit you on your way out.
posted by three blind mice at 10:57 AM on April 13 [29 favorites +] [!]

this is how we're gonna lose the election...
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 11:42 AM on April 14, 2008

You know why? It's the GOP's southern strategy for Obama.

Yeah, of course it is, it's their strategy for every democrat (we're always "elitists") but the point is that he, and way too many of his supporters are feeding right into it. That whole "don't let the door hit your ass on the way out" attitude toward Hillary is not productive, and it really seems indicative of a larger blindness to me.
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 3:16 PM on April 14, 2008

blatantly intended to prompt you to feel something

The fiends!

what was annoying was that rather than let the kid sing for a decent amount of time so that you could actually be moved, or not as taste might have it, they provided a tiny snippet bolstered by endless social cues that all yelled "you ought to be moved!"

It felt like the entire scene was a form of self-congratulation for everyone... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 11:56 AM on April 14, 2008

Very cool. I was just enjoying Garfield Minus Garfield, and it's interesting how awareness of removed content seems to guarantee an uncanny bereftness

I don't think it really works here. Garfield worked because the original aimed for a sense of familiarity and simple silly comfortable humor. Removing Garfield (and some other manipulation) was a bizarre recontextualization that made the whole thing dark, weird, and almost beautifully funny; it made... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 11:14 AM on April 13, 2008

The professed and native weirdness of Hitchcock's films is weighed down heavily by their style and primacy as referents for kitsch for viewers today, for many of his works, arguably The Birds above all.

"is weighed down heavily"? How could they have that "native weirdness" without the stylistic choices? If you read reviews, it's not as if people were unaware of those choices. Hitchcock was considered a master... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 4:23 PM on April 13, 2008

If you're comparing sexuality in Removed and The Birds, I'm not sure what your intented point is.

oh sorry, I got confused there - somehow thought you were talking about the "ghost bodies" left by the poorly rendered removal of the birds in these videos - I guess I thought you were going back to talking about the post after one reference to that other film, not that your whole post was about the other film. My mistake, should have read more... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 7:45 PM on April 13, 2008

god, that was sickening. I just feel kind of ill and depressed that people can be so blind and poorly guided. She has some skills and some good intentions, and yet she devotes the better portion of her life to spreading hate.

Well, I guess it's a good reminder that we all may "know not what we do" if we aren't sufficiently careful to examine what we support or go along with. Never just vote for the guy your dad voted for, or join the church your mom... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 4:08 PM on April 13, 2008

I grew up in NYC and switched to taking the E train by myself when I started middle school in 6th grade. Before that I took the school bus from Spring street, and mom walked me to the bus stop. One of my classmates was abducted walking to the same bus stop by himself, though.

Seems basically like a decision with lots of factors, and something it's reasonable in general to respect parental choice about. 9 sounds slightly on the young side to me, but I guess I was only... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 3:43 PM on April 12, 2008

I met Derrida; he's a very nice guy

well, except for the whole being dead part :).
He sat in on a class of mine once when I had to give a presentation, which was intimidating to me at the time, although pretty interesting too (class ran over for like an extra hour because no one was going to interrupt him...)

mr_roboto, there are still at least a few departments in the US that have "continental" style... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 2:04 PM on April 7, 2008

mdn--it may be that Plato was the first continental and Aristotle the first analytic.

sure, or the other way (Heidegger & Bergson being big readers of Aristotle, for instance, while Plato epitomizes the rationalist... Aristotle's work is constantly reworking, reconsidering, weighing multiple possibilities, whereas Plato often can be read to present one view as winning).
But as you say, the divide isn't nearly as clean as people... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 4:08 PM on April 7, 2008

One of my past professors characterized the difference as follows: analytics think that philosophical progress is possible; continentals treat philosophy, like Wittgenstein, as a kind of personal therapy. That seemed like a poor characterization of continental philosophy to me. It is, right?

That would certainly mean John McDowell wouldn't count as an analytic - (but maybe he doesn't where you're from...) I think the potential grain of truth to this... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 10:21 AM on April 9, 2008

ornate insect, it's not that language is the only way to think or experience, not at all - it's just that language is the only mode through which we do philosophy. If you want to be a painter, or just meditate and enjoy nature, or - etc - then that's fine, but if you are doing philosophy, you do have to deal with the mode through which you are expressing things. That's why I think the poetic language, or the attempt to recognize the "more than the sum of its parts"-ness of language,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 1:00 PM on April 9, 2008

I was prepared to be disappointed by this.

I'm happy to say that I was not.

I had the opposite experience. There was a lot of misinformation in that, and it basically came off as propaganda. I am fine with experimental drug use, but there have been attempts to curb recreational use of mind-altering substances since well before the 1960s, and the reason is that contemporary society relies on networks of productive, capable... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 6:48 PM on April 8, 2008

But how many sixth grade classrooms across the state are having that conversation?

How else could you discuss those lists, though? Constitutional means what's legal and political means what's viable in a certain populace. That's what those words mean. What other distinction will someone draw between what's constitutionally necessary and what's politically necessary?
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 1:14 PM on April 7, 2008

If anything, the "study" here represents a blatant attempt to force a particular viewpoint upon those who disagree with it.

Well, no; there may be some issues which can be argued about, but there are some points the PDF makes that simply reveal factual errors on the part of the textbook, clearly made with political goals in mind. For instance, the claim that "In God We Trust" as our national motto has not been considered... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mdn at 2:55 PM on April 7, 2008