Alexandros

Ahhh, a member of the IBA, I reckon? Man, I love riding, but I don't know if I'd be up for Saddlesore, and I'd never even consider Bunburner. But, maybe I just haven't been on the right bike. The biggest and most comfortable bike I've ridden is a '72 H-D Shovelhead (V-Twin 1200cc), which isn't exactly a touring bike.

Sounds like a good idea for a movie: Guy invents time traveling motorcycle, goes back in time, crashes a sock-hop, accidentally gets his mom to fall in love with him, wails on a guitar, and then sets everything right again before coming back to the future. OMG, we're going to be millionaires.

If a piece of music is composed for the computer, interpretation by the computer isn't necessary. All that is necessary is interpretation of the composer. A song written for the computer can be related to a traditional live performance that is recorded and sold. It's an interpretation, but it's only one interpretation. And if you buy that recording and only that recording, it's the only interpretation. Your argument fits a situation where the computer is doing both the composing and the playing. In that case, I agree with you completely., but that isn't what I was referring to

If Rachmaninoff composed his piano concertos on a computer, would they be any less enjoyable? I ask this question because modern technology allows for such amazing music to be composed without composers ever meeting a single musician.

If we start from the position that government's sole purpose is to protect individual rights, could you tell me what the government would be protecting individuals from by not allowing incorporation? In your post you imply that the limited liability feature is harmful. How so? Contracts are agreements. Agreements are a two-, three-, thousand-way road. To use Peikoff's scenario: People and businesses who find themselves having to make the decision of whether or not to work with a corporation must take the risks into consideration before they sign any contracts or make any agreements. It is for the reason that if they weren't valuable, the free market would eventually weed corporations out of the system. And as for your comment about the State: what does it have to do with anything? Is the State forcing people to do business with limited liability organizations? If they are, would it make sense to regulate the businesses instead of taking action against the government?

Thanks for this post. I especially appreciate that there is an emphasis on the female perspective, which I'm pretty ignorant of.

http://crossbreedcycles.co.uk/alfabeast.aspx Looks like the most exciting time you can have this side of duct-taping yourself to the outside of a SaturnV rocket. I want one

It does. Thanks.

Sounds great. Now I don't know which to see this coming weekend, this one or Blind Side? I only have time for one, which do you recommend?

The first thing that comes to my mind is that you may have to ditch a class system altogether. In every RPG I've played, choosing a class only means that you have almost no choice at all in character development. Using your example, if I choose thief class, then my traits/attributes/skills will likely be balanced towards stealth and deception. I won't be powerful enough to beat people in battles, thereby securing their loot (weapons, gold). I'll have to steal. To me, this sounds like a pretty easy way to get through the game, especially if I can steal from shops owned by NPCs (non-player characters). So, in an effort to reach level 70 (thereby 'winning'), I just choose thief class for convenience. If we go back to the beginning, and I choose thief class because I am, in reality, a person of questionable ethics, I have no way to 'change my ways' when I realize stealing is bad after I've invested months into getting my character up to level 30. On the other hand, if I was playing a game where I was free to become a thief by making the necessary choices, well now it gets interesting. All things equal, I have to make the decision to steal some loot from another person who may have earned by investing hours and hours of their actual life in 'grinding'. Now, I'm really experimenting with another value system. It's a very interesting idea, Louie. I hope you keep developing it.

I see. I was under the impression that as she was educating herself, she had adopted his morality to some degree and in her studies she realized he was wrong. With regards to your comment on the direct quotes, they just seemed to lack characteristics that I associate with her writing. Hickman was a murdering lunatic, and Rand is known for showing a lot of emotion when she condemns someone like that, so I expected more from her on the topic than a critique of societal response and calling him a "degenerate". But, what didn't register with me is that the quotes were from her journals (which I'll most likely wind up subscribing to on account of this embarassing situation), and it isn't likely that she wrote to herself like she was writing to the public.

I forget where I read this, but I once saw this part of Ayn Rand's life called her "Nietzsche phase". If she gave any weight to the idea that morality is good for the unwashed mashes, but not good enough for extraordinary men (Ubermensch, anyone?), and that these men should follow their own, subjective "inner law" (chosen by the degree to which it allowed them to impose their will on others), I could see how Hickman's horrific crime could take a back seat to his attitude towards life.

Here you go: http://www.noblesoul.com/orc/misc/read.html

I got this virus, and fixing it was as simple as rolling back to a previous System Restore point. Seeing as how you say you're technologically impaired, it's not likely that you've turned system restore off (a lot of people do, especially gamers and performance junkies). Start > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore Go through the dialog. It's pretty self-explanatory. When you get to the calendar, choose to rollback to a system restore point that was made before you started having these problems (system restore points are the bold dates). You'll lose everything you've done since the system restore point (programs installed since then, changes made to OS settings, etc) but it's probably worth it because you likely haven't done much since then on account of the virus and all.

Articles like these are particularly disgusting. That being said, I hope it encourages some people to do more than just roll their eyes and click the close button. As Objectivists, I don't think we are in a position to be content with the fact that we are right and they (whoever "they" may be) are wrong, and for that reason our ideas might win out. Indeed we are right, but we are also the minority, which means there is a majority out there who is predisposed to take ad hominem attacks against Ayn Rand and Objectivism for granted simply because they are made in the name of their own ideology. When I have the time, I reply to articles such as the one mentioned in the original post (some of them warrant only a short response, which will usually involve chastising the author for such poor journalism, or posting some applicable quote, others warrant responses that are practically essays). I do this because it is in my own rational self-interest to do it, as it is for every Objectivist.

Very interesting.

Definitely very animated and, at least to me, it seems genuine. I love this kind of expression. I'll Youtube Anne-Sophie Mutter and Andre Rieu tonight. Up until a year ago, I rarely watched performances and mostly stuck to audio recordings, so I have a lot of ground to cover. Feel free to recommend some more of your favorite composers. Another of my favorite performers: Pianist Evgeny Kissin In this video he is performing Liszt's arrangement of Paganini's "La Campanella" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpnM1ahqzdw

Maxim Vengerov playing the 3rd Movement of Saint-Saens 3rd Violin Concerto

I think it depends on your personal desires/goals. As proof of this idea, I'll ask you if you think it would have been ethical for a person to join the Nazis in an effort to fight the party from the inside, perhaps by acting as a spy/informant/etc?

Posted by Ari Armstrong on his Twitter: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/4342434.html Excerpt from the article:

This new ad is identical in substance to the Axe ads. I remember taking a course like this in high school. They called it "Economics". Really, all I did was look at ads and determine things like message, intended audience, etc. When it came time for class discussion, the teacher would open with some remark about what things were obvious and were to be taken for granted, such as "this ad is degrading towards women" and "this ad is degrading towards blacks." At the time, I bought it all, hook, line, and sinker (not suprisingly as I was a socialist and hardly ever questioned anything that "seemed self-evident", so long as it coincided with my pre-existing beliefs). Take everything you are taught in this class with a grain of salt. Instead, consider it a chance to observe and learn about the enemy. Don't take my word for it, just be alert. What you are witnessing is postmodernism at its finest.

Saw it a few days ago. The movie is going to win the Oscars, American Idol, and Big Brother for one scene alone: the one involving the first living vampire trial of the blood substitute.

A lot of people will take anything they are given as an excuse for why they "don't get to realize their full potential". It keeps them from having to fully develop the idea they know somehow to be true: that of the things standing in their way, they are the biggest.

Great article. You wouldn't by any chance happen to have a recommendation for good reading on the history of Soviet Russia, would you? Chomsky's remark about the USSR in the first 3 minutes of the video reminded me that I don't know as much about its history as I'd like.

For US citizens, there is a lot of meaning tied to the word "America". But, if there wasn't, I'd vote for "Usonia" as its replacement. Frank Lloyd Wright was onto something, imo.