jayder's answer is correct, and I only want to add that there is an important distinction made between the "transcendental" and the "transcendent": the latter refers to that which is beyond a limit, the former to the limits themselves.
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 2:21 PM on August 3, 2008

Clothing doesn't really make very good padding for breakables.

Seconding this, the idea of using clothing for box padding is popular, but it's just not very effective.

You may or may not get a lot of use out of some movers' plastic wrap, depending on what you're moving. Last time I moved, I wrapped all of my books into small stacks using plastic wrap. Since they were mostly tomes I wasn't overly concerned about damaging, this... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 3:44 PM on August 2, 2008

When my fiancee and I were staying in Florence, we rented a little apartment situated just next door to a quaint Italian restaurant. It wasn't anything special, really, since Florence is a huge tourist city and Italian restaurants are a dime a dozen. (The food isn't generally that great, either, but that's a story for a different time.) Anyway, we settled in the first day, unpacked our stuff and walked around the area a bit. We were loving every minute of it, trying to remember how to speak... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 9:47 AM on July 25, 2008

Is love enough to avoid these hurtles?

This should be translated as, "Is love enough to make one of us change our expectations to accommodate the other," since that's the only way to avoid the hurdles you've described. It's pretty clear that you're not willing to change your expectations out of love for him, and it doesn't sound like he's willing to do so for you.

For that reason, I'd agree with what the others above have said; it's not going to work.
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 6:56 AM on July 24, 2008

This Batman is not JLA Batman, this is a Batman in a world without other superheroes.

It was a world without other supers. As the Joker was at pains to point out in his extended attempts to co-opt Batman, there's no going back...as soon as Batman donned his costume, it became inevitable that the other side would as well. Now that the floodgates are open, there's nothing to stop them from using supers in the future.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 9:17 AM on July 20, 2008

The better the school, the more likely you are to see a Comparative Religion class. I took one in high school, but apparently my school was (at least at the time) one of the top high schools in the nation, and hence in no way representative.

Something to remember is that a lot of education policy still in place today was set during the Cold War, at which time it was vitally important that students had a strong science and mathematics education -- and not just any... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 4:54 PM on July 19, 2008

Make sure that both partners feel as though the place is theirs, not that it is yours and this other person just moved into your place for the time being. Sometimes the person moving in may be shy about asking for changes to elements of your living space, because he/she still perceives him/herself as a guest there. Explicitly asking whether there is anything he/she would like to add or change to your shared place is a good way to make... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 9:49 AM on July 12, 2008

What I want more than anything is to NOT cause a scene at this wedding, so I'll need to interact with my stepfather to some extent, as avoiding him completely would be awkward.

Actually, avoiding him should be relatively easy (depending upon the size of your family), and the "awkwardness" you mention will only be felt by you. Other people will be focused on the couple that is getting married, for the most part, so if you end up maintaining a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 1:41 PM on June 21, 2008

Lady Ada Lovelace (though the Wiki page doesn't actually do her justice, now that I'm rereading it...the idea of the universal machine didn't originate with Turing, but with Lovelace)

Princess Elizabeth (cleverer than Descartes by half)

Émilie du Châtelet (Voltaire's lover for a time, he became disillusioned with her once it became apparent that she was smarter than he would ever be)... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 11:21 PM on June 4, 2008

Yes, in my opinion. The field worker seems to me obviously racist*, and Miko basically covered the reasons to think the fishing/flagholding statue is as well.


* Yes, inanimate objects can indeed be racist. No, intent is not essential to racism.
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 8:52 PM on June 3, 2008

I wouldn't normally add to a thread with so many good answers already, but nobody seems to have mentioned one easily-remedied problem that commonly causes this feeling of tightness: yeast.

Obviously, as you say, no visits to the doc on your honeymoon. However, if you just cannot get it to feel comfortable, no matter how relaxed you are, it might be because of a minor yeast infection. If all else fails, check with your doctor when you get back.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 8:44 PM on June 3, 2008

Claude Shannon's groundbreaking paper is available online, incidentally:

A Mathematical Theory of Communication
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 8:33 PM on June 3, 2008

"Time flies when you're having fun" does not imply "Time does not fly when you are having a bad time." It's a different cause. In my personal experience, time also tends to fly when I'm not paying attention -- and on mornings like you describe, I don't tend to be paying very much attention.
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 10:28 AM on April 19, 2008

Any of the early Platonic dialogues describing the trial and death of Socrates -- his attitude is one of serene and mysterious acceptance.

"You too must be of good hope as regards death, gentlemen of the jury, and keep this one truth in mind, that a good person cannot be harmed either in life or in death... So I am certainly not angry with those who convicted me, or with my accusers...

This much I ask from them: when my sons grow up,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 2:40 PM on March 5, 2008

I'm a philosophy grad student who hasn't read Heidegger, but have some friends who are very ardent proponents of him. I asked a similar question to one such Heideggerian, and he said that Heidegger saw himself as responding primarily to Aristotle -- Heidegger apparently claimed that no one ought to read his work without having first studied Aristotle for thirty years... My guess is that Heidegger wanted to justify a transition from the Aristotelian focus on being "qua being" to his... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 7:55 PM on March 3, 2008

Clever, salvia, but a bit too dismissive of philosophical anarchism.

If we owe our obedience to the government by virtue of some form of contract, just cease to assent to the contract!*




* Ceasing to assent will entail most of the lameness that salvia mentioned.
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 7:46 PM on March 3, 2008

I recommend Spinoza's Ethics. The first and fifth books are particularly relevant to your musings.

"By God, I mean a being absolutely infinite--that is, a substance consisting in infinite attributes, of which each expresses eternal and infinite essentiality.": Deus sive Natura
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 12:35 PM on February 12, 2008

Several good answers here already, particularly Johnny Assay's and JustKevin's (though the list of interpretations is, perhaps inevitably, incomplete).

The linguistic point that bears emphasis is that "observation" is often used where "measurement" ought to be. The reason "measurement" is a better word is that a quantum system can, and almost always does, undergo the irreversible change involved in measurement without a human around to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 9:50 PM on December 30, 2007

ROU_Xenophobe mentioned public shaming by pointing and laughing. Making fun of your students works fantastically if it fits with the personality of the teacher. When it doesn't, it's a disaster. Your friend will know if this will work for him. If he feels uncomfortable with it, stay away. I feel uncomfortable with it as well. However, the point about making them the center of attention is a good idea regardless. If the person with the phone is frantically trying to shut it off,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 8:09 AM on December 14, 2007

Quine's textbook, Methods of Logic, is one of the best textbook introductions to formal logic.

It is not, however, the best guide to the applications of logic in daily life. I think that the best, and certainly most succinct, text in that area is Weston's Rulebook for Arguments. If your work requires you to productively interact with other human beings at all, you will find it immensely useful.

Finally, if... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 8:53 PM on September 20, 2007

Honestly, its probably easier to do a factory reset of the wireless device and be done with it.

What he said.
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 11:22 PM on September 14, 2007

I've heard that the format chosen by the porn industry will essentially be the winner. Does anyone have any insight into whether or not that is true? (I believe the reasoning is simply that the massive amount and constant production of pornography will outweigh that of other productions, and that the industry will be driven toward the format that has the most potential product.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 7:53 PM on September 8, 2007

The shift actually happened much earlier than you suggest. It was one of the most obvious changes to come from the Renaissance, and it really began (as far as I am aware) when Dante wrote The Divine Comedy in the local vernacular (what would come to be called Italian) rather than Latin. This transliteration of the spoken language was taken up by other poets and writers of the 13th and 14th centuries fairly quickly (cf. Petrarch's beautiful works).

If... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 7:44 AM on August 24, 2007

For more detail, it looks like they discuss Dante's innovation in his Wikipedia article. You could check out their sources to learn more.
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 7:46 AM on August 24, 2007

Hmm. Have you asked your wife what she thinks?
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 2:25 PM on August 22, 2007

Ludwig Wittgenstein was fluent in English in addition to his native German, and in fact became similarly proficient in Russian -- he was at the time enamored of (what he thought to be) the soviet work ethic.

Bertrand Russell was raised as an English aristocrat, and as such learned Latin and Greek at a very young age. Some of his earliest philosophical writings are in Greek, having been composed for practice in his workbook. He also learned several other languages later... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 10:01 AM on August 21, 2007

I wonder if there's a crack in the jar. We keep ours in the cupboard and have never had any issues with it drying out.

This is probably the culprit.


God I love nutella.
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 7:19 AM on August 13, 2007

I'll second Neverwinter Nights, though for someone who's gotten used to WoW it will feel clunky at first. Also, though it is available for Mac, the Mac discs are far more expensive than the Windows version. (It didn't come packaged nicely for both OS's, unlike WoW.)

Once you get into it, though, NWN has a great community producing fun, and free, user-generated content. The main storylines aren't too bad either, though they don't stray far from standard fantasy fare.
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 7:48 PM on August 3, 2007

bricoleur's got it, to my mind. Russell covered this ground succinctly but with eloquence.
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 5:05 AM on July 31, 2007

One problem you say you're encountering is that women aren't seeing you as a potential partner, and it sounds like this is owing to your disability. At a younger age, people are more willing to forgive the fact that their partner hasn't got an established career (i.e., financial security) on the assumption that one will pan out in time. I bet people aren't as willing to make that assumption for you since you're in a wheelchair.

I wish I had constructive suggestions for... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 3:43 PM on July 7, 2007

I'd suggest visiting some of the smaller towns in the surrounding area as well. Florence is a large, tourist-filled city, and I don't know how much patience or interest the teachers there would have for foreigners. Also, it would give you a chance to see the difference between the often very modern Florentine schools and the archaic (by contrast, at least) rural ones.

You did choose a good place to visit, by the way, as Florentine Italian is very close to textbook... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 8:06 AM on June 29, 2007

"According to the late philosopher and logician George Boolos, who was a professor at MIT, the hardest logical puzzle is one that was invented by the logician and puzzle-master Raymond Smullyan, and modified slightly by the computer scientist John McCarthy. Here is the puzzle:

Three gods A , B , and C are called, in some order, True, False, and Random. True always speaks truly, False always speaks falsely, but whether Random speaks truly or falsely is a completely... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 6:49 AM on June 28, 2007

(text taken from physicsforums, but the original paper by Boolos is worth a read if you find this interesting.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 6:50 AM on June 28, 2007

I recommend contacting your IT people immediately.
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 9:09 AM on June 21, 2007

Saying that "murder proscribed" is a human universal is like saying that brown hair is always brown.

Not at all. It's not tautological since it asserts of all human cultures the existence of some circumstances in which killing is perceived as wrong or taboo -- though I agree it is poorly worded.
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 8:03 AM on June 20, 2007

No, you should not get a dog.
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 12:51 PM on May 25, 2007

There wouldn't generally be much use in such comparisons, so I don't think there's much discussion of such things in most sciences. However, in computer science and mathematics, this kind of question does come up.

If you consider more abstract objects than the human body and city mentioned in your question, say a paragraph of written words, then it makes sense to ask what is the smallest possible encoding of that paragraph. (This becomes of particular interest in... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 10:12 AM on May 25, 2007 marked best answer

Ugly is probably lack of beauty, which is much more definable.

I disagree with this idea, that ugliness is just the absence of beauty. There is a point, though not an entirely clear one, at which ugliness becomes an almost tangible quality. If you tried to explain it in terms of a lack of beauty, you would surely fail--especially when dealing with some of the most robust and manifestly grotesque uglinesses.
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 7:56 AM on May 16, 2007

I'd jump ship if I were you...

Is there a ship to jump?
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 11:07 AM on May 8, 2007

I am not a dog owner, but this sort of criticism of your plans:

"Some have also questioned our sanity, and have gently suggested that we might be trying to fill some sort of "hole" in our lives not filled by work/relationships/etc."

seems to miss the point. Even if that lies behind your desires, what's wrong with trying to fill that sort of "hole" constructively? It's not like you're getting... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 10:51 AM on May 7, 2007

Honestly I think your choice rides on the culture/geographical location of the church. Are you from one of the heavily religious cultures of the Bible Belt? If so, it might very well be best not to go back to the service. Are you from California? Minnesota? Massachusetts? Places like that, the culture isn't so permeated with religion that you'd be treated any differently.

To add a personal anecdote, last year (and in years prior) I returned to my parents' house to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 10:34 PM on April 29, 2007

I actually used to work on a committee that selected the student commencement speakers for a university's graduation. I can't tell you what you should talk about, but I can point out a few tips that, if not followed, can really detract from a student speaker's presentation.

- Do not forget that you are on par with your audience. DevilsAdvocate is right that you should not adopt the "sage advice" tone; more specifically a good way to avoid this is by never... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 11:34 AM on April 17, 2007

FWIW, I think I just heard someone use the word straight instead of gay - as in "That's straight", but they obviously meant it in a "That's {lame\dumb\nuts}" fashion.

Very nice, that's awesome. Going to give it a shot.
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 9:28 PM on April 16, 2007

If you're getting in the night before, drive the route from your hotel to the office so you're familiar with it and not trying to figure it out in the morning.

Seconded. This is very important when visiting new cities on business.
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 6:43 PM on April 5, 2007

Thank you for your responses so far. She was pleased to see all of them, and I imagine we'll be going through them systematically.

As for the further details some of you requested: She has always been a light sleeper, but the bad dreams have only become a nightly event in the past couple of years--(she is 28 years old). She does not smoke, and she also doesn't usually drink very much alcohol. (She isn't averse to it, just doesn't often find the opportunity to drink.)... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 12:20 PM on January 24, 2007

grumblebee, for someone who has professed to never seeing a Whedon* show, you're really gung-ho set on telling everyone how bad they are.

Given the criteria you've mentioned for what makes a "good" story, I think you'd love Firefly (especially if you check out the series first, movie second). I've not watched Buffy, for various reasons, but when I saw Firefly I thought it was wonderful. Though some of the posters above have said that Whedon cares more about... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 9:09 AM on October 9, 2005

Looks like it's the center of some kind of strange political debate...despite the fact that it's a picture of a broken tree. That might explain the abnormal number of views somewhat.
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 1:42 PM on September 14, 2005

MN has already been pretty heavily represented here, so I won't pontificate upon its many splendors (yes, I am a native). However, I should note that my SO, who grew up in Virginia, often complains about something that hasn't been mentioned here yet: if you go to Minnesota, you will probably not be able to see the ocean for a long, long time. For some people who have grown up near it, living by an ocean is sort of psychologically vital--I'm not sure how else to describe the phenomenon.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 1:38 PM on September 14, 2005

7. Is there anything I should know?

Things might be getting uncomfortable for Taiwan within the next couple of years as China starts flexing its newly-found capitalist muscles.

As merv pointed out, Taiwan is a seperate country from China. However, China has wanted to "acquire" Taiwan for many, many years, but has been unable to do so without provoking a number of other countries (including the US) that have... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 8:21 AM on August 25, 2005

Often, Universities and other academic institutions will have deals with MS that allow registered students to download copies of Windows for free, and sometimes even Office. This might be how your friend obtained it, if he is still considered a registered student (or has special alumni priviledges) somewhere.
posted to Ask Metafilter by voltairemodern at 9:24 AM on August 12, 2005