OldGrayBob

I have seen posts on movies, poetry, games, and listening to music, but does anyone here play a musical instrument just for their own enjoyment? I am a beginner to intermediate Irish Tin whistle player. I love it and it soothes the spirit, (or maybe it is the Guinness at the Irish music sessions!) By the way, the modern Irish tin whistles were first made by Clarke in England and most are made of brass or PVC. They are an end blown flute with 6 finger holes.

I just wish "None of the above" would be on the ballots for President. They all seem to be objectionable.

Just as an add-on, my (step) grand-daughter is 13 but thanks to indifferent public school system in the Detroit area she is becoming one of the schooled uneducated. I send her books that challenge her to think without over challenging her reading abiity. Anthem fits the bill perfectly. Initially, I wanted to send Cliff Notes on Anthem but could not find it in either Borders or Barnes and Noble so I got the SparkNotes. I am glad I read it before sending it to her.

I purchased the Barnes and Noble version of Cliff Notes, called SparkNotes, on the novella Anthem. The SparkNotes contained an attack on the novella based on the fact that the Golden One was not a full character that only supported her man. To judge a story written in the 1930's and published in the 1940 on today's PC standards is just beyond belief! I am just glad that I reviewed the SparkNotes before sending it to my grand-daughter and that Barnes and Noble accepted the book for return. I finally found the Cliff Notes on the novella, reviewed it and found it to be quality. This I sent to my grand-daughter. I have heard of radical PC people that believe that no acceptable books were written before 1970, but I did not believe it. Now I do.

Quick comment: the preious entry should have said Axioms and not Axions. Blame a bad typist (me), a bad spell checker (MS-Word), and a bad editor (me again.)

I do not want to sound mean on this but if you really want to go on in Aeronautics and Astronautics, you are going to need a lot more than a book to help. You will need many courses in Physics and Mathematics including a course in Newton's Mechanics. Remember, Newton developed the Calculus to do his Physics. Good luck, work at it, and have fun doing it.

In the past I have studied indepth the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathemitica, (Sir Isaac Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy). His mathematical notation was quite bulky compared to the modern notation but it was very interesting converting it to the modern. Lately I have been studying the philosophy of Objectivism and was taken back by how well the two meshed. Following Newton's Axions (Laws of Motion) to their logical ends seem to have helped me much later with the foundation of Objectivism. Anyone else see the similarity?

For years I have been an avid reader of the James Randi Educational Foundation on the Internet. I love the way he bares the illogical, irrational, and just plain wacko side of our existance. In the past James Randi has been grouped with Ayn Rand as a 'dangerous' person, which according to the Internet he considered an honor. I was just wondering how other Objectivist see him?

You needed the category, 'all of the above'. In the last month I have read the next step in Stephen King's Dark Tower series, Analog Science Fiction, a book on woodworking, Anthem (again), Dr. Phil Weight book, two papers from the American Phyical Society on Physics, and a new Sun book on Java Security. Currently I am rereading the The Fountainhead and starting King's Song of Susanah. I just cannot and will not limit my self to any one area.

I really like the way the steps are presented, but experience tells me that it is not a one time process. This is just one iteration with the steps being revisited and refined iteration after iteration.

Objectivists it is time to wake up. Some of us have reached the point of being an objectivist by an intellectual exercise and other through live experiences. Either way we have reach a common ground. We demand rationality in our daily life. We have all read Ayn Rand's beautiful prose and said to ourselves we are not alone in demanding rationality in our lives. I have read and listened to Anthem a number of times and every time feel like cheering at the end. In the Fountainhead, I see Howard Roark and say to myself I wish I had his courage. If we just sit back and debate fine points of Objectivism we are doing nothing to help the cause of Objectivism. We must do something to get the core of the ideals of rational living and Objectivism out to the general people. Remember that the print media did not help Ayn Rand so just imagine what it must be like for an Objectivist to get new material out in print, radio, television or movies! Currently, the movies, radio and television is carrying the message, don't think, we will do that for you! An Objectivist saying think is the last thing the media wants. We must encourage Objectivist points of view in the public eye and the major question is how.

I do not doubt it that the Catholic schools encourage Ayn Rand. I went to Marquette University for a year before switching to UW-Madison. Those Jesuits were quite open minded, but unfortunately, not all people are. The sad part is that my daughter-in-law feels the way she does. As far as I am concerned, Anthem is the best novella I have ever read. There are very few wasted words and nothing seems missing.

I have noticed in a number of threads commenting about voting. In the past twenty years since being locked out of the Wisconsin 2nd District Democratic Caucus in 1984, I have been refining my method of voting. I think that my method may appeal to some Objectivist. The method I used is based on a method described by Robert Heinlein in his novel Time Enough for Love. Very simply, research all the candidates and rank them in the order of who will do the most damage to your ideals. From this you can develop a list of which you want to vote against. This can vary for the different elections, i.e., in the primary, you might vote for Kerry over Dean because you see Dean as the bigger threat. Later you might vote for Bush over Kerry because Kerry is the bigger threat to you ideals. (I am using Bush, Kerry, and Dean only as examples, I am not stating that you should vote for any of these hotdogs.) One more thing, never vote for a nonviable candidate when voting against some one, vote for some one who might make it. Finally, never vote for candidates in uncontested races, their egos are big enough without adding to it. Sorry if I sound cynical, but I live just outside of Madison, Wisconsin, where new-age liberalism reigns.

In an earlier reply I mentioned that I break software. I am the load/stress tester of all new applications that are being installed at the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. I use LoadRunner from Mercury Interactice to run from 1 to 250 concurrent users against an application. These tests are run in a repeatable manner with the analyzed results presented in an HTML format. Any monitor built into Windows 200x servers, Unix, or Oracle can be recorded in a test and presented in the analyzed results. I get to work with developers on a one to one basis and have the respect of co-workers and supervisors. The best part is that I get to control the scheduling of testing. I cannot think of a better job in IT for an independantly minded, 'Roark-ish', skeptical, old coot who loves meeting and helping others. Two questions, where is the warn(0%) defined? And where is the blue rectangles with titles like novice (actually novice has zero rectangles) defined?

Thank you for the reply. By the way, I think I am past 'midlife' - I will be 58 next month. But I have a job that I love, I break developer's software so the users don't. They are going to have to kick me out when I turn 66, I am not going willingly! I am also into weight lifting and playing the Irish Tin Whistle (which is actually made in England of brass.) I made up my mind about two years ago that I was not going to sit back, retire and die. This life, the only one I am sure of, is just to precesious to let slip away. Since I cannot stand the irrational behavior of politicians, news media, and talk radio hosts, I listen to either Irish music CDs or books commuting to work and back. Finally, I vote the Robert Heinlein way, I figure out who to vote against first. And as a last comment, I got into a lot of trouble when I set by 12 year old grand-daught the book "Anthem" with the Cliffs Note on the book. My wife warned me, but I sent it anyway. My daughter-in-law went balistic! Seems that Ayn Rand is on her big Catholic no-no list!

Hello all, I am an 'old-bugger' who after 30+ years rediscovered the writings of Ayn Rand. I have gone through many changes from being a Christian Young Republican in the late 60's, to a card carrying Democrat in the 80's, to an avowed atheist in the 90's. The irrationality of both the left and the right in the last few years has thoroughly disgusted me and I felt very alone in demanding rationality in my life. Then thanks to Audible.com, I downloaded the 'Virtues of Selfishness' and 'Anthem'. Listening to them brought back Ayn Rand and her Philosophy. ('Anthem' is the most powerful novella that I have ever read!) Since then, I have downloaded "The Fountainhead' and 'Atlas Shrugged." The experience of listening to them now is even greater than when I read them back in my college days in the late 60s. I guess it just took years of experience to see what I was missing. Now I would like to discuss ideas and feeling on Objectivism with others and therefore I joined this forum.