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AbA

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Everything posted by AbA

  1. My speculation on Rearden Metal is that it's not so much a newly discover metal (in the sense of a chemical element) but rather a new alloying of some already discover elements into a newly discovered high strength "super alloy" that's achieved not only by combining certain elements is specific quantities but by new "rolling" and "heat treating" techniques that Hank figured out. With this in mind I'd tend to think that his primary smelting operation would produce slag very similar in appearance with what's shown in those videos.
  2. Alex, In general I earn my living as a welder / fabricator. All though over the years I've been involved with quite a few different projects for the oil and gas industry I wouldn't say I'm particularly invested in working on drilling rigs. If your interested in off shore work I'd recommend checking out a site called RIGZONE. What's your particular engineering discipline? As to living in Montana....I like it (been here 14 years now) it's low key and peaceful. The wages aren't as high as a lot of other places but that's kind of balanced out by the fact that it's not as expensive to live here if you're willing to accept a certain level of rustic-ness. As compared to a place like Singapore it's a radically different place. Montana is 540 times bigger than Singapore but only has 1/5 the number of people. Dave
  3. Well I'm back from my employment adventure to Singapore. Everything came together and went much quicker than any one was anticipating it happening. We loaded and sea fastened the jack up drilling rig "Key Hawaii" on to the heavy transport vessel "Transshelf". It left for Bahrain the day after we finished up. Got to spend 4 days playing tourist and getting taken around to some very nice places. Also spent a day over in Johor, Malaysia seeing where the company I was working for is in the process of getting ready to build a new machining, welding and fabrication facility to service the office shore industry. I think there's a good chance I might get the opportunity to go back to live and work there for extended periods. Over all, Singapore has to be the most modern, up beat, industrially booming and economically expanding place I've ever been to. It's also the third most expensive city in the world in which to live. Talk about some sticker shock, the average price we paid for a pint of beer was around $18 SD. Luckily for me the cost of all my lodging and most of my food was picked up by my employer. While I didn't see or hear any mention of Ayn Rand or Objectivism in my short time there I didn't get any indication that any of her ideas are banned or would otherwise get you in trouble for openly discussing or advocating for. I guess I could have done a little more in depth research into the matter (like checking a book store for the availability of her books) but I was for the most part just caught up in going with the flow of those I was there with. If any one has any specific things they'd like me to try and comment on please let me know. .
  4. Hell Nicky, with the exception of the occasional foray into midget clown porn I stay away from most of that stuff here at home.
  5. Headed there next Tuesday. Scheduled to be there for three to five weeks. Will probably be spending most of my time out in the West Anchorage working but should get a day or two in there some where to play tourist. Dave
  6. That first sentence reveals that the poster accepts the Soul-Body Dichotomy and is simply thrashing about looking for a way to justify or maintain the contradictions it entails. It's the product of a primacy of consciousness mentality. As to "people having been swimming irrationally for ages", well I would assert that the major portion of the blame for that sad state of affairs rests with Christianity and by extension people such as this poster who go around trying to some how justify or gloss over the worst of it's essential characteristics.
  7. Despite having seen quite a bit of it, it still amazes me how much time, effort and convoluted verbage people of faith are willing to put in, in their attempts to raise the spectral reflectivity index number of that prolate spheroid of solid excretory matter that is commonly known as "Christianity". I've come to view these attempts by people who some how think their "faith" constitutes a virtue as further proof that what Rand said about Faith (the alleged short cut to knowledge) being simply a short circuit that destroys the mind, was a highly astute observation on her part. As to those who attempt to reconcile their religious beliefs with Objectivism, well personally I think that those people should be shunned and dissuaded from doing so where ever and when ever possible. Because as Rand also said, in any compromise between food and poison it is only poison that can triumph.
  8. I guess for me the reason that "charity" carries such a negative connotation is because most of the people I've come in contact with during my life that have made a big deal out of the "charity" work they do are for the most part otherwise people I've come to find philosophically abhorrent and burdensome to deal with or be around. If they haven't been out right religious fanatics they've been moochers who've tried to use their so called "charity" work as a cover for the fact that they themselves feel they have a "right" to get by in this life by relying on the productive efforts of others. As far as "charity" not being the same as altruism....well, I think that all depends on how you would define "charity" and the context in which you would try to practice or advocate it. I will have to say that I think the general held public perception that doing Charity work some how makes one virtuous is based on using Altruism as a moral justification for it. Thanks to the contaminating influence of the Christian religion the concept of "Charity" has gotten so mixed up with the concepts of self sacrifice and the morality of Altruism that it does far harm than good. So how's your search for a missionary work type adventure coming? Please don't think that because I have an over all low opinion of Religiously motivated charity that I would look down on or fault you for going on one of those. I encourage you to go do something like that if you can arrange it so that it doesn't have to negative a disruptive effect on the long term course and success of your life. I got an email just yesterday asking if I'd be available to go to Vietnam mid July as part of a crew involved with moving an off shore drilling rig. So right now I'm kind of stoked up over the possibility of a well paid employment adventure in my near future.
  9. How about the "Paul Watson Memorial Whale Rendering, Seal Packing and Porpoise Pickling Plant"? If that's to wordy for you how about just the "Sea Shepard Cannery". Or maybe instead of a cannery you could have the "Wyatt Whale Oil Refinery" with a siding full of tanker cars. As far as a back story goes Ragnar could have captured both the Steve Irwin and the Bob Barker and beached them next to where the facility was built so they could be broken up for recycling thru a steel mill Hank Rearden would set up to produce the piping and structural shapes necessary to build it. I've watched a few episodes of Whale Wars and like you I always rooted for the fisherman. Oh man, if I was Captain of one of those Japanese boats I don't think I'd have been able to resist the urge to open up with a 50 cal. and start punching holes (at the water line) in the hulls of the Bob Barker and Steve Irwin when ever they tried to come along side. If any kind of credit needs to be given for "saving the whales" most of it probably needs to go to John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil.
  10. As a vet (US Navy 1975-1981) I wish to tell you that I find what you have to say on this subject on this particular day(and the manner in which you're saying it) to be at a minimum at least an exercise in seriously poor judgement. Have you ever thought to consider that if the time and place of your birth would have made you of military age in Nazi Germany you might have got swept up in things and simply ended up being a "Good German" yourself?
  11. I wonder how long it will be until they get around to marketing a "Green" version? Soylent Green any one?
  12. LoBagola, I'd have to say that letting these kinds of people cause you feelings of fear and anxiety is not seving you in a benefical way. All they're doing is running the "Arguement from Intimidation" on you. To help give you a better understanding of what that is please read this...http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/argument_from_intimidation.html And since it sounds like you're in an Educational enviroment I'd also recommend you read Rand's essay "The Comprachicos". That should help give you some insight into why these people are behaving the way they are. Hang in there, I'm rooting for you.
  13. Dante, I would suggest that you do a search on "religeon and mental health / illness" and then see if you might want to re-think that opinion.
  14. AbA

    Violence by proxy

    I think the total context and circumstances under which a threat (or percieved threat) is made has to be factored in. You have to have a reasonable expectation that the person confronting you poses an immenent risk to your physical well being before initiating (or attempting to initiate) pre emptive steps to avoid the possibility they'll cause you physical harm. And while all this general theorizing that's going on in this thread about when it might be justified (from the Objectivist philosophical standpoint) to initiate pre emptive force against a percieved threat is all well and good (and has it's place) what I think needs to be kept very fore front in one's mind in these types of situations is what your local legal system (law enforcement, the courts and possibly a jury of your peers) is likely to find reasonable and justified. I think a big part of being mentally prepaired to defend yourself is knowing what your States Criminal Code has to say about what constitutes "assault" and what the "use of deadly force" statues are.
  15. There's a lot about the Mullan Pass Train Tunnel outside of Helena, MT that makes me wonder if AR might have known something about it and used aspects of it's history as inspiration for the tunnel scene in AS. Not only have people died in that tunnel from smoke inhalation but there's also the remains of the old switch back rail bed that was used to get over the divide before the tunnel was put in. And it was once put back into service for a while while they cleared a partial tunnel collapse. Got a friend that lives about 5 miles from it and I've spent some time exploring around up there and reading some of the local history books he's got in his library. Also I've always wonder about D'Annconia Copper being some what of a reference to the real life Anaconda Copper Company of Butte, MT. There's a book called "The Copper Kings" that I found to be a pretty interesting read. One last random thought... Rand's descriptions of "Rearden Metal" in AS have always made me think think that she was making lose reference to Titanium. My guess would be that Rearden Metal (if it actually existed) would be a HSLA type classification steel that has Titanium as it's primary alloying element.
  16. laz, I don't think that was a case of Nicky personally calling I.A a "scumbag". I believe he was trying to make the point that if you get a reputation for going around taking advantage of the short comings of your fellow man you run the risk of others not coming to very flattering judgements concerning your basic character. There's a big difference between between being a savy, knowledgeable, hard barganing, Trader that knows how to deal with others to mutual benefit and being some one who just goes around preying on the cupidity of the lesser lights among us.
  17. Hello Charles, Sounds like you've been having some interesting times and adventures. While I don't have any experience with Vegas I have spent several months (about 5 years a go) in Ely while working at the Robinson Copper Mine. I found it to be a very cool, laid back little zone that I think you would also enjoy exploring. Boy howdy, there's some interesting characters in that town. There's also a great little venue for music there that I really enjoyed. If your standing in front of the Hotel Nevada there's an Italian resturant/bar across the street to the left. Friday and Saturday nights they always seemed to have a collection of very talented local musicans sitting in for very informal pick up sessions. Heard a lot of Blues flavored music there that I really enjoyed. A good road trip I'd highly recommend is to take Hwy 50 from Ely over to Fallon across the center of the State. If you go to the front desk of the Hotel Nevada in Ely you can pick up a "trip ticket". Then along the route in some of the small towns you go thru there's designated places (mostly taverns) that you can stop at and have this trip ticket stamped. If I recall correctly there's about 6 small burgs you've got to get a stamp from. Then when you've collected all your stamps you can throw it in the mail to the State of Nevada's Tourism Office and they'll send you a certifcate proclaiming you to be a survivor of "The Lonliest Road in America" (you get a Hwy. 50 key fob out of the deal too). Awesome (and also pretty surreal at times) scenery along the way. Talk about splendid isolation, that road will give it to you in spades. One thing I highly recommend for the trip is to take along some of your favorite pre recorded music. When I did it all I had was the cars AM/FM radio and the only stations that would come in along the way were some serious hell fire and brimestone gospel gibberish. If I ever get the chance to do it again I think I'll want something like the collected works of Warren Zevon along for listening to. Safe Travels.
  18. My point is that these people don't need any more altruistically motivated selfless charity. Especially if the price for it involves getting indoctrinated with that malicious collection of reality denying nonsense that is "Christianity". The harsh reality is that they need to learn self reliance and respect for the individual rights of others. All this aid and charity has really done is to create an ever larger dependant welfare class. Along with an ever expanding pool of human suffering and misery. As to the current negative results of christianity having been brought to the natives by all these various "missionary workers" over the years I suggest you search for articles on "Child Witches" in Nigeria. While I was there the number two cottage industry seemed to be for the natives who'd been schooled most in "the word of god" by these all various Missionaries was to set up shop as a prophet of god, try and build a church and use it to prey on his neighbors. Boy howdy, if you think we have snake oil selling, faith healing, fire and brimestone preach'n relious scammers in the US, well, I can tell you that there's pretty much one on every corner in Nigeria. Almost with out fail every day I was there I found myself in the position of having to hold hands with others (individualy and in groups) while some one prayed out loud to invoke God's blessing on us. The Nigerian crane crew we worked with quite a bit while on shore in Port Harcourt was particuarly fond of this. In fact they seem to favor praying over having any kind of realistic safety or job discussion meetings. Before starting one particularly tricky lift when I tried to raise some safety concerns that I thought every one present needed to be aware of, to the Nigerian who was the supervisor of this crew I got told (and I quote verbatim) "No problem Master, God is watching out for us". If weren't for the fact that I just happen to be in the right place and was anticipating what might happen when the load started to come off the ground and was able to yank some young Nigerian kid out of the way he would have probably ended up with both his lower legs crushed. To get this kid out of the way in time I had to roughly grab him by the back of his coveralls and drag him backwards over another steel beam and he ended up hitting the ground pretty hard. When I reached down to help him up he recoiled from me in terror holding his hands up saying "No master, no master". It was like he thought I was some kind of colonial white over seerer who was going to beat him because I blamed him for what had happened. After about 5 minutes of pretty intense discussion amongst those present in languages I didn't understand every one seemed to realize that I'd done the kid a good turn and it was not a case of a white man taking liberties to abuse a black man. Oh man this kid ended up adopting me as his personal white man. Every morning after that he had to come hold my hand and pray for me. He brought me all kinds of little trinkets and gifts of local food (most of which I found highly unappetizing and unsanitary). And no matter how much I tried to get him to use my real name he wouldn't refer to me as anything other than "Master".
  19. While I can certainly understand the desire to have adventures like this, personally I don't think I would want to lend any of my productive time and energy to any endevor that involved bringing Christianity to the native inhabitants in any fashion. From what I've observed I'd have to say that these various christian missionary groups have done far more harm in the third world than any real good. A few years back I spent several months working in Nigeria and can tell you with out hesitation that it's no place you want to go unless you can figure out a way to be paid well for being there. It would also be advisable to have the security infastructure of a large corporation you could draw on to help keep yourself safe while there. Otherwise you'll run a fairly high risk that what you thought was going to be a neat adventure turns in to nothing short of a serious suffer-fest.
  20. E'gads people, I can't believe more of you don't recognize this individual for what he is and what his real motives for posting to these forums are. Make no mistake, this individual is the enemy of all Objectivism holds dear.
  21. I think that when it's considered just how taxing it can become to listen to a follower of this Jesus character continually hold forth on how supposedly "moral" they are... well, I'd have to say that there's a level of "Jesus Tax" being imposed on those of us here who want to try and use these forums to better understand and discuss the ideas of Ayn Rand and her philosophy of Objectivism.
  22. Have you ever stopped to consider that a leading cause of "child molestation" just might be christianity and the twisted, perverse, un-natural view of human sexuality it has worked to inculcate in our society???
  23. I don't see how a Christian can reasonably be considered to be "totaly harmonious" with the end results of Rand's ideas (Capitalism) when that ideology is so diametrically opposed to the basic metaphysical precursor ideas (such things as the mind body dichotomy and the primacy of consciousness vs. the primacy of existence) that are the foundation (roots) on which her end product (Capitalism) depends. I'd have to say that it's a prime example of some one wanting to enjoy the "fruits" of some thing while at the same time not just denying the roots but holding ideas that actively work to poison them. To put it in terms of the "parable of the talents" I'd have to say it's worse than "reaping where one has not sown" in that it's a case of "expecting to reap where one has sown nothing but salt".
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