BrassDragon

Welcome from a fellow North Carolinian! I'm usually in the eastern or central part of the state, though - not near you.

I think Aubrey de Gray is going more for a "plan of action" and less for a "theory." It seems that there is enough material to say, "OK, let's get to work on prolonging human life."

The "Empty Chairs and Empty Tables" you linked to is wonderful musically, Thales, but I find it to be too sad for my liking... I found versions of the songs I mentioned on YouTube, but they're not nearly as well done as on the recordings I have on my computer. intellectualammo, definitely read the book when you get a chance!

intellectualammo... I really like that song... but some of the others from the soundtrack are even better! Buy it and check out "One Day More" and the finale.

Correct, it's from the Rush in Rio DVD (actually, I got it from YouTube). I'm pretty sure somebody already guessed this in the chat (possibly K-Mac). Anyway, way to go!

I don't want to get into a big discussion on this, but I do want to say, thanks for posting the Google video - I really enjoyed that! I would like to live indefinitely, and I don't think this kind of aging research is a pseudoscience - of course we can tinker with the human body and make it last much longer - but the science may be in its infancy. (I hope it's beyond that.)

Would anyone be opposed to the creation of a separate thread for intellectual and philosophical videos, as opposed to funny videos, commercials, etc.? I'm more interested in the former category and I think it'd be nice to have all those things in one place in the future. This isn't to take a stab at any of the recent funny videos that have been posted... in fact, I haven't even watched them but I do appreciate those too, from time to time.

Myrhaf, great post. Much enjoyed.

Considering your hesitation, I don't see any reason to write about Ayn Rand unless you truly cannot write something just as good that references a different author.

When I switched my views from being strongly pro-intervention in Iran (military and economic) to being anti-intervention, Ron Paul turned up as the favored candidate. Not surprising at all - as far as I know, I agree with him on everything except foreign policy. IMHO, he's the most compelling speaker. Too bad he's wrong on one of the most important issues (if not the most important).

I got Tancredo as the highest (in the upper 60s), like several others. I also put down pro-immigration things... so either he's pro-immigration, or the test isn't all that good.

Thanks to everyone who has responded to this thread! I really loved Sophia's suggestions, and I also really like several of your suggestions, cilphex. I haven't gotten time to actually buy any posters yet (very sadly) - man... need to work on my priorities.

Thanks, Qwertz!

I searched for footage of the event online yesterday, with no luck. Could someone post a link - if there is one?

Beautiful piece of art. Yeah man, what the hell was AR thinking when she used the Atlas theme in that book? I went to the press release GC linked to. They're having a conference, and check out the agenda: Check out the first entry, and compare it with the next to last entry. I wonder if Dr. Brook will still be attending. (Oh, not to mention the fact that they butchered his name.) Interesting, though, that there is a university that describes itself this way: "Latin America's leading university promoting free markets and individual liberty". I'll definitely be spending some time learning more about this place.

What!? I thought you said you majored in philosophy and history. Those have got to be two of the best things to major in for anyone who's going into any kind of artistic pursuit. (And I bet film schools would think so, too.) Aha, another major qualification - and I'm sure they care about this one.

Actually, the Lexicon would probably more quickly point you to the most important references (in Harry Binswanger's view) to a given term than the CD-ROM, since that's basically all it contains. The downside: it often doesn't go into as much depth as I would like.

Oh, right, duh. And I have seen fairly hi-res older works online, come to think of it.

John, finding a good art gallery is a good idea. I don't have time to do that right now, but sometime in the future I hopefully will do that. There are probably some great, inexpensive pieces in the state Museum of Art, too (I remember seeing them before), so that's another place I'll look for actual art. As for finding high-res pics online to print - it seems that most artists do not provide hi-res images, and that's probably the reason they don't. Of course, that's probably illegal, anyway, at least if I'm understanding you correctly. Quin - If by Dagny style room, you mean with a view of NYC and some expensive furniture, I'm totally in agreement, though I'll have to wait. Question: What is your conception of a Dagny style room? And, is Dagny included or does she have to be "purchased" separately?

Hey, I love the flag idea!!! I had that idea once before and forgot about it, so thanks for reminding me. I'm definitely going with that. (Actually, I may also get an Israeli flag, since I support Israel... but I may not, since I don't like it when people around me get angry.)

I glanced at Rush posters online. They weren't expensive (so you might look there), but I didn't see any I particularly liked. (Though many have probably been made over the years, so I'm not counting them out.) I guess I'm probably more likely to find affordable "art" posters than other kinds of posters. "Affordable" being under $100 and hopefully under $50. (And hopefully even less than that.) My friends are far too ugly to put pictures of them on the walls. (Just kidding! ) P.S.: The cheap Rush posters I found were at Amazon.com.

I'm a college student. I have a room (not in a dorm - my very own!) and also an office. Both have blank, white walls. Basically, I'm looking for recommendations on good posters I can buy to put on the walls (hopefully, posters that I can order online). I don't know of any good Objectivist-themed posters, so those would be most welcome. Also, anything Romantic art-related. Or just what any of you find appealing - from what I've gathered, most regular participants on this forum have very good taste. If anyone has any suggestions, please make a post! Even if some of the suggestions aren't ideal for me, they may come in handy for some other college-aged people on this forum. Also, if anyone has any good advice on cheaply decorating rooms in general, let us know. (Unfortunately, I can't afford prints of the sort Sophia has linked to several times - yet).

Pretty incredible. I'd love to hear about any updates on this topic, if anyone hears anything else.

That is definitely helpful! To follow up to that (at least, in a general sense) - is it true that one industry having a rough quarter will contribute to the entire economy doing badly? Example: The price of animal feed goes up due to bad weather in the US corn belt. Then the price of livestock goes up, because the price of feed went up. Then the price of hamburger in restaurants goes up. So people end up paying more for hamburgers, and less on other things. Moreover, the livestock industry doesn't expand as much, due to a bad quarter. So, that might hurt the equipment industry. Or, rather, is it true that capitalism has a softening effect when something goes wrong? For example, the price of animal feed goes up due to bad weather in the US corn belt. But that price is passed on to every person and industry and business that does business with the corn farmers, all the way down the chain, so the loss is spread out over a huge number of people. I end up paying a penny more for hamburger, and it's no big deal. Or, rather, is it more subtle/some of both/depends on the industry?

Thanks so much for your good post, DarkWaters. That helps a lot. Here are some follow-up questions, for you or for anyone else: -Most importantly, are there other possible (or likely) explanations and causal factors of the boom and bust cycle? Or is this a complete explanation? -Under this explanation for booms and busts, how long should a cycle last? In other words, if I'm understanding correctly, how long does it take for interest rates that have lowered to then rise as prices increase, and then finally (presumably) settle out? Is there empirical data that matches this? Mainly these questions came about from arguing with a fellow college student who follows the Keynesian model, without thoroughly understanding it (neither do I), because that is what his professor told him. He basically ended up taking the stance that the economy can only be "figured out" through a lot of data and empirical research, and that there are variables that we may not even know about that could have a huge effect. I disagreed and said that we could figure out how the economy works through a proper understanding of ethics and markets (without looking at data and searching for variables we didn't expect), though I could not back up my point very well. (This seems almost like "a posteriori" vs. "a priori," but I know those terms are not correct - what would be correct here?) And finally, who was more right about "figuring out" how the economy works - he or I? And why? Thanks to anyone who attempts to answer any of these questions. I'm going on a trip for 4 days, so I may not get back to the thread until Wednesday night, but I'll be back.