JMartins

A quick follow-up, with a picture of Cate Blanchett looking very Dagnyesque (though of course, she should be a brunette).

The Atlas Society posted a news update on the Atlas Shrugged movie. I'll be very pleased if Cate Blanchett plays the role of Dagny Taggart (though even more pleased if the project is delayed long enough for the intellectual property rights to return to ARI).

While contemplating why the tv-series Dexter is so appealing to me, I figured it has to do with the personality of Dexter himself, as I strongly identify with parts of it. He's very private, organized, introverted (INTJ, no doubt), and almost consistently has an internal monologue with himself, making observations and reflecting on events or life in general. I'd be very interested in hearing your thoughts on internal monologues. When I asked a very extroverted friend about this, he told me that the internal monologue in Dexter is just for storytelling purposes (obviously one reason), and that he [my friend] doesn't think in that way. 1) Do you often think in "internal monologue mode"? If so, do you use clearly defined phrases, so that your thoughts would make perfect grammatical sense to someone else if you had spoken them out loud? I'd also be interested in hearing some thoughs on "thinking in pictures". I don't believe I do this very much, and despite a high IQ I'm usually horrible at remembering the faces of people I've only met a few times. I've been using the brain training games at Lumosity and get top scores in all categories (90% +) except for visual memory, where I'm at a paltry 48%. 2) Do you yourself think in both words and pictures interchangeably? This is this related to whether you're using the left or right part of the brain, I believe. Is thinking in words and pictures interchangeably something which can be trained/improved, and if you have done so, do you have any good techniques to recommend? Thanks, I'm looking forward to reading some insight on this.

Great work. If possible, make it a "video response" to the original pledge videos.

I've heard that many entrepreneurs have been moving to Singapore, or recommended doing so. This is also a viable alternative: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_traveler

This picture of Elizabeth Mitchell, who plays Juliet Burke on Lost, makes me think of a Greek goddess.

While on the topic of Facebook activism: I just created a new group called "Kick the U.N. out of New York". Please join it if you have an active Facebook account. Also, I welcome any suggestions on how to improve it. More reliable sources to refer to would be appreciated.

Geert Wilders has started a campaign to ban the Koran, for the same reasons and purpose that Hitler's "Mein Kampf" was banned in Germany. You'll find many stories on this by googling "geert ban koran".

The Ron Paul faction will probably spoil the chances of the future Republican candidate. We all know how huge their movement was this election – well, by the next election they'll already be organized, fully staffed with precinct captains, better educated in their ideology/austrian economics, they'll have the added experience in activism and fundraising, they'll have their donor lists, and they'll draw in a large number of independents who are sick of the current system, as well as a large amount of the disillusioned young people who formerly voted for Obama, believing that he would bring about change. The Ron Paul candidate and the Republican candidate will most likely ruin each others chances, prolonging the status quo (and the odds of the Ron Paul candidate being the Republican candidate are very slim, considering his likely foreign policy and his somewhat crazed followers, who'll turn off half of the population).

Their official website is located here. Their media website is located here. I have no trouble accessing either of them. Looks like they've done a Podcast on how you can be an Objectivist and a Mormon at the same time. That ought to be good. There's no denying that they hold some good values however.

I didn't say he's endorsed them, but that he's added himself as a supporter of the FreeCapitalist cause on Facebook. It's listed on his profile, under "causes" (along with "Objectivism" and "Capitalism"). Like I said though, it's probably an honest mistake. Most likely someone invited him, and he accepted after briefly reading through the cause description, which seems to be pro-Objectivism (it says nothing about Mormonism).

I have to hand it to these people – they're extremely industrious and great at activism. They have their own radio show/podcast, they run their own private university ("American Founders University"), they've made a deeply moving (though unfortunately also flawed) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O6eOFzSobM, they have a very professional portal/newssite, they have numerous study circles where they read Ayn Rand, they've recruited thousands of members on Facebook, they got both Rudy Giuliani and Ron Paul to speak at their convention in Utah, they've got a multitude of successful entrepreneurial projects which funds their cause... they're clearly very dedicated at what they're doing. Of course, this all makes it all the more horrible that they're largely religious. I've noticed that Yaron Brook has become a supporter of their "FreeCapitalist Project" on Facebook (which is listed as a "cause"). He's also listed as a friend of Rick Koerber, the leader of the organization. I suppose Brook's support of the FreeCapitalist cause may be an honest mistake, since the cause says nothing about it being a religious one, but rather that it "rejects mysticism". Still though, it's weird that he would support a cause without doing a little bit of research on it first.

But of course.

61st now.

I've found that the most gratifying way of watching Firefly is to do so while substituting the word "reaver" with "socialist". Example from the episode "Bushwhacked":

Do anyone here know which year the property rights will return to the estate?

Casino Royale, 300, The Dark Knight, Iron Man and Gladiator were made by today's Hollywood, so I do have some hope for Atlas Shrugged. The outcome of the Atlas Shrugged movie will probably be similar to that of the Lord of the Rings triology in many ways – the product will be decent, and it'll be very inspiring to a large amount of people, but the true fans who "read the book" will find countless things to criticize. I'm sure that after Atlas Shrugged is released, as it inevitably will be one day, this forum will suffer a fate similar to that of numerous conservative forums during the "Ron Paul Revolution" – it'll be invaded not by "Paulbots", but by "Randroids" – intolerable youngsters who keep quoting Ayn Rand instead of thinking for themselves, not understanding any of the underlying philosophy. Most of them will probably be attracted to the Libertarian Party instead though. I'm convinced that Christian Bale, Russel Crowe, Gerard Butler, Daniel Day-Lewis and Robert Downey Junior would be able to fill the role of almost any Objectivist character in Atlas Shrugged – they all have the sort of appearance and demeanor that greatly appeals to many Objectivists' sense of life. Guy Pearce and Daniel Craig would also do great. I keep trying to envision what the Atlas Shrugged movie might be like if it was hyper-romanticized and hyper-exaggerated, such as 300 was.

Well, it gave me a good laugh.

I absolutely agree. The classes I've taken in Java programming certainly helped me understand the material presented in "Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology". Ayn Rand made numerous analogies between philosophy and computer programming. "Garbage in, garbage out."

http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pag...us_libertarians

I recently rewatched one of my favourite movies, "Serenity" (Firefly), forgetting that I would be subjected to the following horror again:

Wow. I have no words. Are you sure its not satire though?

I did consider John for a while, but am leaning towards Ian. John is probably the most common name in western civilization, and there are several thousands of people named John Martin. Not only that, but John-Martin is a very common first name as well here in Europe, so it might lead to misunderstandings. Ian Martin is more unique, and as I said I love the look and sound of it. The name Ian may be of Scottish origin, but so are Scottish Terriers and Scrooge McDuck, and I've learned to love both. *admires JASKN's signature*

I intend to change my own name from Jan Martinsen to Ian Martin – not only because I like the look and sound of Ian Martin considerably better, but because I intend to move from Norway when I graduate, and want a more international name which will be easier to recognize and pronounce correctly by the people I'll associate with. When an American sees the name Jan, for example, he'll either interpret it as short for Janice, confuse it with Jane, or believe it to be German and pronounce it in a very annoying and awkward way.

Here's an interesting/entertaining videoblog by Penn Jillette, where he talks about a debate on atheism which he had with Sam Harris. He makes some great points, and should be less humble about it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccfqpwfvYmw