I wish the expressions on the characters' faces had been more...expressive. I don't mind ugliness by design, but here it seemed to restrict the characters' emotional range.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 1:48 PM on July 23, 2008

Favorite transformers: starscream,galvatron,megatron,stunticons,aerialbots,dinobots,combaticons,omega supreme,shockwave,soundwave,cyclonus,rumble.

Isn't it against the rules to have whole classes of transformer as your favorite?
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 8:22 AM on July 17, 2008

This is really awful writing.

The whole world turned brown and chunky for a second. Flecks of corn floated past my pupils, and it took me a second to blink it all away.

I stopped reading his story at that juncture.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 3:56 PM on July 14, 2008

Excellent post, thank you.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 11:23 PM on June 23, 2008

Any responsible curriculum for the study of religion in the 21st century must be guided by two basic principles: first, a clear distinction between the study and the practice of religion, and second, an expansive understanding of what religion is and of the manifold roles it plays in life. The aim of critical analysis is not to pass judgment on religious beliefs and practices — though some secular dogmatists wrongly cross that line — but to examine the conditions necessary for their... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 5:30 PM on June 17, 2008

To be honest, I wanted to limit my remark to birth control; I have some qualms about instant sterilisation on demand.

What qualms? Worries about the irreversibility of the procedure?
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 12:31 PM on June 16, 2008

Very interesting, I wonder how this will affect the charitable organizations dedicated to fighting AIDS. Also...

Dr De Cock, an epidemiologist who has spent much of his career leading the battle against the disease...

How droll.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 8:48 AM on June 12, 2008

In related news: Philosophers Everywhere Mourn Loss of Only Coherent Example.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 8:40 AM on June 12, 2008

Repsectfully and non-rhetorically, do you think that the results of letting the couple in the article stay together would have been worse than the results from separating them? What might have happened that would be worse than the woman in the story isolating herself from everyone around her?

The manager noted several ways that the social environment of the home was being destroyed by their sexual relationship. Because these weren't just elderly... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 9:28 AM on June 11, 2008

In fact, it seems to me that the negative outcome here happened solely due to the reactions of family and staff...

No, the article specifically mentions that the other patients were upset by the relationship as well...the manager claimed that this was due to jealousy, but she seemed fairly biased toward the old couple.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 9:31 AM on June 11, 2008

Wow, it's really fun to watch them go. The review of 10,000B.C. was particularly awesome.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 5:55 AM on June 11, 2008

The flaw here is that the same logic would apply to those things that virtually everyone agrees are relative.

Terrible example. Use ice cream flavors instead, next time.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 9:54 AM on June 8, 2008

To add to my comment, I mean that the sort of thing you're talking about occurs with matters like which flavor of ice cream is the best. Yes, that's clearly relative. However, matters such as who will be the best president are anything but relative (in the sense used by "Phoenix Wright"). We don't think that everybody "has their own truth," there, just that they have their own opinion. Opinion comes with the unspoken stipulation,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 9:59 AM on June 8, 2008

Constructivism is not the same as relativism, and certainly not the same as the absolute form of relativism outlined in the clip.

Namely, constructivism is rad, relativism is not.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 3:11 PM on June 8, 2008

Can you show me anywhere where Odin is against abortion...

Can you show me anyone here who counts themselves one of Odin's faithful?

Both the original statement and Konolia's response were clearly referring to some version of the Judeo-Christian god. You know, of biblical fame. I don't see how your response helps the discussion in any way.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 9:10 AM on June 7, 2008

That really needed the sound effects to go with the punches. It was amazing how fake it all looked without the sound to go along with the stunts.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 8:24 AM on June 7, 2008

If the observer is a second machine that simply records the measurements of the first measuring instrument, you haven't measured anything--you've just created a more complicated measuring apparatus.

This is not considered true in the current paradigmatic account of quantum theory. An observer can be a machine or object; the only restriction is that it be a classical object rather than a quantum one.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 9:52 AM on June 5, 2008

His hacking, therefore, was uncommonly effective, and didn't require scare quotes.

Thank you, seriously, it's annoying when social manipulation is seen as being somehow less valid than technical solutions. People always have this bizarre preference for imagining hacking as some kind of mystical "Hackers"-style interface with the computer itself. (Kind of reminds me of when a good speech is accused of being "just rhetoric." So what if it is?)
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 11:08 PM on June 4, 2008

What, no History of the Peloponnesian War?

Rush, I thought that might be good reading too. However, upon reflection, Thucydides' style is too deep for any of these candidates to get much from. It's way too easy to imagine each of them reading the Melian Dialogue as a primer on how to handle small, independent nations (for example).
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 6:01 PM on June 3, 2008

Lost should be ended now, there's no point in carrying on like this.

However, it should be replaced next season by the Ben Show. I love that damn character.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 10:37 PM on June 2, 2008

The Jeanette Winterson link was interesting, ninebelow. It would be really excellent if these sites also included, on each book's page, a paypal link that could be used to make donations to the author.

It's a fascinating thing to watch, the way the internet is gradually causing us to revert to a strange version of the renaissance patron/artist relationship. I feel bad for the artists now, as we go through the shift, but it seems that it will be better for them -- both... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 7:52 AM on May 30, 2008

Thanks for posting this.

One of his other articles argues that blind tastings are not the best way to evaluate wines, an interesting proposition.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 7:39 AM on May 30, 2008

I think I enjoyed the first clip linked because it reminded me of the year I spent working at the same place as my brother, a "lovable slacker"-type who spent most of his time emailing or IM'ing me basically the same sort of stuff as Amir does in the clip.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 10:44 PM on May 28, 2008

Interesting first comment, Effigy, but you should give the artist a bit more credit than you do. Notice:

First off, my personal views. ... 'Art', however you wish to define such a thing, is almost always going to be on the edge of what society finds acceptable. Indeed, the most interesting art is the one that generates discussion and debate within society and culture. ...

But after several paragraphs of well-reasoned... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 6:40 AM on May 25, 2008

It's disappointing to think that we're watching this particular dumbass reach the apex of his social consciousness, but at least he got this far.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 6:14 AM on May 24, 2008

allkindsoftime, well put. (Also, thank you for not continuing the meme. It got old pretty fast.)
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 4:32 PM on May 20, 2008

Also, dude, a metaphor doesn't have to be on purpose.


Thank you. All those comments about authorial intent were getting to me.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 3:11 PM on May 16, 2008

Monster's Den is an amusing little game, but calling it even close to the best dungeon crawl on the web is, uh, a bit much. If you're looking for more substance I'd recommend any of the following...


You recognize, I hope, that every single one of the links you just posted are to games requiring download + installation?
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 9:39 AM on May 14, 2008

Haven't had a proper go at it, did they improve the rogue/thief any?

The thief is pretty excellent in terms of damage, so far. The ability to bypass armor lets you one-shot a lot of monsters.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 10:55 AM on May 14, 2008

Well okay, you're right. And I've heard City of Heroes is a great example of that, though I've never played. There are also a handful of RP-encouraged WoW servers. But the percentage of people RPing (in these beautiful worlds that were at one point, I think, designed for RP) is tiny, tiny, tiny.

People will always carve out their little RP niches, but the games themselves, in both terms of mechanics and how they end up being played by the vast majority, have... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 10:08 PM on May 7, 2008

FTA:
I think the experiment had only limited relevance to our understanding of the actions of the German people under Nazi rule. In the experiment, the professor had no power to enforce his orders. In Nazi Germany, the enforcement powers went from simple reprimand all the way to imprisonment and death.

His description is very interesting, but here he seems to miss the point. If the authority figure in the experiment "had no power to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 11:00 AM on May 7, 2008

Trent Reznor is a goddamn visionary of the music business.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 6:37 AM on May 5, 2008

Virtual age: 4.5?

I don't think this is quite right. It reminds me of an old stress quiz developed by some psychologists in the 80s, wherein each cause of stress was assigned a numeric value, and your total numeric value was supposed to measure how stressed out you were.

The idea was that you could assign a fairly small score, say 5, to an event like getting cut off on the highway, and a fairly large score, say 50, to the death of your wife.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 8:10 AM on May 4, 2008

The US govt. must have some avid Starcraft players among its ranks.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 6:05 AM on May 1, 2008

Excellent post, thank you. Reminded me that my fiancee hasn't yet seen the movie; something to do this weekend!
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 4:26 PM on April 24, 2008

The measure of all things is human being.

So I'm going to try to live sensibly because I don't want my world surrounded by trash, but no, I'm not going to let go so the world can somehow "right itself" -- as though we were a virus inserted from beyond it.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 5:28 AM on April 16, 2008

Astrologers continue to think about the stars; their failure is in how.

What a horrendous analogy. If astrologers are the counterparts to English profs, who correspond to astronomers? (I presume that was the unwritten direction of your thought.)

To collapse the levels of the analogy a bit: I'd much rather study literature with an astrologer than an astronomer.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 12:30 PM on April 7, 2008

Ah, that's what I get for commenting and leaving. But to answer KirkJobSluder's question a tad late,

Why? Do you automatically assume that an astronomer would be unwilling to consider methods out side of her field?

Yes, insofar as they are an astronomer and concerned with generating scientific knowledge. Insofar as they are a person, then no, certainly they could be competent teachers of literature. But... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 5:41 AM on April 8, 2008

Yield to my skills
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 5:40 AM on April 3, 2008

Right, so this is a very watered-down distinction between valid and invalid forms of argument. Something like what you'd learn in a first-year logic course. Of course, if you've ever been in such courses, you know that making the distinction is the easy part. It's the difficulty of recognizing fallacies that makes that kind of logic so tricky. It's like telling someone who needs to go on a diet that they should avoid carbohydrates, then ending the conversation -- it... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 7:50 AM on March 30, 2008

Then there's the method of proposing a better idea instead, thereby bringing a solution and not just a problem to the issue.

Fair enough. New policy proposal: an intro logic course should be required before the use of the internet is allowed. How's that?
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 11:01 AM on March 30, 2008

What's particularly interesting is how far back this sort of conception of the human being goes. Hobbes, for example, can be almost straightforwardly read as giving game-theoretic arguments for preferring civil society to the state of nature (which will, for game theoretic sorts of reasons, devolve necessarily into a war of all against all). It all depends upon what facets of human motivation and behavior you decide to model; the criticisms expressed in the videos are definitely not new.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 10:32 PM on March 21, 2008

Oh, and a link discussing game theory and Hobbes.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 10:32 PM on March 21, 2008

Malor, check out the conspiracy theories in the link klue posted above. There are a number of such possibilities, but no way for us to check them for correctness.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 12:11 PM on March 19, 2008

.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 5:33 PM on March 18, 2008

Wow. Thanks for the link, I think? Very weird.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 12:44 PM on March 18, 2008

This is still mysticism, disguised as science. Mathematics describes nature. Music is part of nature.

I don't see why it's mysticism rather than the science it appears to be. If your point is just against the pervasive sense of "the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics", then I suppose I agree. But what thesis, exactly, do you take yourself to be refuting? And, moreover, where in this is the mystical, where the scientific?
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 6:25 PM on March 16, 2008

Jesus fucking Christ, people. This post is not about the USA. Not everything is about you and your country.

It's going to take a while for people to get used to this.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 11:16 AM on March 6, 2008

Leap Year
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 1:33 PM on March 5, 2008

Thanks for posting this, I don't frequent his site anymore and didn't hear about the new album. Really interesting so far.
posted to MetaFilter by voltairemodern at 6:07 PM on March 3, 2008