-
Posts
2935 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
13
Everything posted by DavidV
-
"Socialist writers look upon people in the same manner that the gardener views his trees. ...And just as the gardener needs axes, pruning hooks, saws, and shears to shape his trees, just so does the socialist writer need the force that he can find only in law to shape human beings. For this purpose he devises tariff laws, tax laws, relief laws, and school laws.... One socialist leader has been known seriously to demand that the Constituent Assembly give him a small district with all its inhab...
-
Richard Dawkins actually says that paying your taxes is moral because it's a rebellion against your "selfish genes". Booo!
-
"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it." - Max Planck The older I get, the more true and universally applicable this statement becomes.
-
I needed to lie down and take a nap today after spending a few hours walking around a museum. I am definitely not living up to the ideal primal lifestyle.
-
I want to make homemade cheese. Any way to get cheese cultures (or fresh buttermilk) in China? What is "cheese cultures" in Chinese?
-
A good theory: * is supported by different kinds of observations * is consistent with pre-existing theories * has high predictive value: it accurately predicts what does happen as well as what will not happen * is possible to confirm by subsequent verification
-
The more I learn, the more I'm humbled by the abilities of others. I've discovered people who can manipulate conceptual models several orders more complex than what I can - and far faster too. Frankly, it's discouraging because I have tried looking at the same inputs as they and feels like my IQ is just not powerful enough to parse the same data -- and there is nothing I can do about it. Others have told me that it's a matter of motivation and knowledge, but I think not. Also, the older I...
-
The popular notion that sexual acts should be performed in the dark and under the sheets is derived from the Judeo-Christian dogma that human beings and thus human sexuality are fundamentally corrupt, shameful, and evil. Because this dogma is still widespread throughout secularized Western societies and in secularized equivalents of original sin, it is now infecting and corrupting non-Western societies along with the positive elements on Western civilization. It's unfortunate that this is n...
-
"Sous les nuages de la nuit je marche vers la clairière. D'un éclat argenté, je la vois: la lune. Elle porte les voiles de l'éternité son aureole embrasse les étoiles, ma lune."
-
The following is a multiple-choice question on a career site in China: Political landscape: *Communist Party members (including a probationary member) *Member *The masses *Democratic parties *Personages without party affiliation *No comment
-
Evolution is not just a part of biology. It is the foundation which shapes our understanding of life. It is meaningless to speak of living things outside the context of evolution. It is like trying to learn about human civilization by iterating the appearance and sounds of individual people without any idea of history, leaders, movements, or ideas. This is not merely a condemnation of creationism. The vast majority of education material about life leaves out the evolutionary context. T...
-
"The secret of a joyful life is to live dangerously. A joyful life is an active life - it is not a dull static state of so-called happiness. Full of the burning fire of enthusiasm, anarchic, revolutionary, energetic, daemonic, Dionysian, filled to overflowing with the terrific urge to create - such is the life of the man who risks safety and happiness for the sake of growth and happiness." - Richard Dawkins ("A Devil's Chaplain")
-
Ah, China, glorious bastion of freedom, where every Tylenol Cold has enough pseudoephedrine to make the room start spinning around, and I don't get treated like a potential drug dealer when I buy it.
-
The word "referrer" has two r's, but the HTTP standard specifies the spelling "referer." There is therefore a mispelling at the very core of the HTTP protocol which is practically impossible to fix, as you would have to change every web-enabled program in the world. I suggest we change the English language instead.
-
"In decades past the [mortality] curve looked like a ski slope, hitting zero around 114. But the fact that more people are living longer lifts the curve and pushes it to the right so it looks more like a cliff than a ski slope – and more like a rectangle."
-
"Comment reconnaître la [spoliation légale]? C'est bien simple. Il faut examiner si la Loi prend aux uns ce qui leur appartient pour donner aux autres ce qui ne leur appartient pas. Il faut examiner si la Loi accomplit, au profit d'un citoyen et au détriment des autres, un acte que ce citoyen ne pourrait accomplir lui-même sans crime. Hâtez-vous d'abroger cette Loi; elle n'est pas seulement une iniquité, elle est une source féconde d'iniquités; car elle appelle les représailles, et si vous n'...
-
"The only real moral crime that one man can commit against another is the attempt to create, by his words or actions, an impression of the contradictory, the impossible, the irrational, and thus shake the concept of rationality in his victim." --Ayn Rand