On the Nature of Things | Forum

Things will really kick into high-gear once the Republicans are back in charge. Not because they are any worse, but because of the politics of reprisal that, for some reason, people don't talk too much about but certainly exists. Back during the WWII years, the Roosevelt government was using anti-fa...

With regards to Egypt, people in the West are starting to lose patience with the violence meted out by the Egyptian military. I repeat my point: would we have shown equal disgust if in the thirties the German military had used force to repress the then popular Nazi party? The sad thing is that we w...

The quote in my signature gives the clue to all arguments of this type. You won't find an example of Ibrahim bringing up an observable fact, such as IQ surveys of different socioeconomic groups or crime statistics, that causes me denounce him on moral grounds. He, and his ilk, have all sorts of such...

With regards to Egypt, people in the West are starting to lose patience with the violence meted out by the Egyptian military. I repeat my point: would we have shown equal disgust if in the thirties the German military had used force to repress the then popular Nazi party? The sad thing is that we w...

Black Georgia teen denied heart transplant because of low grades & legal issues http://t.newsone.com/newsone/#!/entry/15yearold-allegedly-denied-spot-on-transplant-list-because-of-low,520a6d47da27f5d9d00ab7b5/1 I'm guessing some will focus on skin color, some on grades, some on legal issues, bu...

Black Georgia teen denied heart transplant because of low grades & legal issues http://t.newsone.com/newsone/#!/entry/15yearold-allegedly-denied-spot-on-transplant-list-because-of-low,520a6d47da27f5d9d00ab7b5/1 I'm guessing some will focus on skin color, some on grades, some on legal issues, bu...

Correction: Richwine's claims are stated in the article... Claims that you haven't bothered to counter, except to say that you don't like Richwine. Richwine is a... Rawwwr, right-wing! Koch Brothers! Other words meant to induce negative feelings in the reader and free me from having to say anything...

Surely early childhood socialization is still just socialization. A neglected/isolated child will not develop properly, but one raised in any fashion should have the same basic capacities. They are simply trained differently, depending on the culture in question. ... This is, to me anyway, the inte...

Damn. I don't know enough detail about the last century's history of Egypt to make any learned pronouncements, but my gut is telling me I hope the MB gets the upper hand mercs every single one of people responsible for all this.

Surely early childhood socialization is still just socialization. A neglected/isolated child will not develop properly, but one raised in any fashion should have the same basic capacities. They are simply trained differently, depending on the culture in question. Maybe. But it makes me wonder when ...

Jaynes's theory of the development of consciousness is based on the idea that inner-space conscious-attention subject-centered awareness that we associate with the basic level human experience is a learned skill, like language or logic. And that it is the business of societies to "build-in&quo...

In 20 years, we are going to look back and not be able to believe that we ate as much sugar as we do today. It will be like watching Mad Men and trying to understand how people drinking bourbon and chain-smoking at 10 am got through their days. Sugar is a poison, but people don't realize it because ...

True story: The first thing I remember as a child was being in a corner store with my father. There was a toy truck that I wanted, but we didn't have any money so he had to tell me no. We knew the owner of the store, though, and he was working the register, so he gave me the truck as a gift. I remem...

Jaynes's theory of the development of consciousness is based on the idea that inner-space conscious-attention subject-centered awareness that we associate with the basic level human experience is a learned skill, like language or logic. And that it is the business of societies to "build-in"...

Its not clear what factual information an IQ test really presents, other than measuring the ability of an individual to take an IQ test, so it seems like a poor datum on which to base public policy. Considering average IQs based on race is even more problematic, since it takes a measurement of dubi...

Thanks for the generous post. You have given me an interest in watching the sport. Great! It's important to look past some of the rhetoric, especially out of certain of the fighters. They know that the public is more interested in seeing fights where there is a personal element or backstory behind ...

Hypothetical person: has a mild condition, could be anything, infrequent seizures, let's say. Come Obamacare their condition will be in the database. Now let's write a law: nobody with that condition can, oh, I don't know, drive a car. Own a gun. You name it. Or maybe their blood test comes back po...

Azrael wrote:I had a very brief conversation with a woman I hardly know; but would like to get to know better.

She has a tattoo...

Take a pass bro.

I've practiced jiu jitsu for years and I've been following MMA since the first UFCs, watched the sport develop through its various stages. For awhile, Pancrase had existed in Japan, vale tudo in Brazil, and all the best fighters in the world were from those two countries, but due to stylistic limita...

It is a symptom of (what I consider) a defect in the modern understanding that whenever I represent my position on the humanities and social sciences, I say that I don't consider them sciences but most often what people hear is that I don't consider them valuable or important. It's happened many, m...

People whose survival throughout the ages depended mostly on their wits will have developed differently from people whose survival depended mostly on their physical strength. It would not be surprising if the former tended to have higher IQ than the latter, and the latter would tend to be more prof...

manolo wrote:Folks,

I think the 'protestant work ethic' is for people who lack mental discipline.

Alex.

People who think they have mental discipline are fooling themselves. There is no such thing. There are people with good habits and people with bad habits.

Its not clear what factual information an IQ test really presents, other than measuring the ability of an individual to take an IQ test, so it seems like a poor datum on which to base public policy. Considering average IQs based on race is even more problematic, since it takes a measurement of dubi...

It is a symptom of (what I consider) a defect in the modern understanding that whenever I represent my position on the humanities and social sciences, I say that I don't consider them sciences but most often what people hear is that I don't consider them valuable or important. It's happened many, ma...