Wednesday, November 17, 2010

A human being should...

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.  --Robert Anson Heinlein 
True stuff.  How's your score?

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Answer to yesterday's Pop Quiz

Source: planks of the National Socialist Party of Germany (NAZI), adopted in Munich on February 24, 1920


Interesting, no?

Monday, November 15, 2010

Pop Quiz

Name the source:
We ask that government undertake the obligation above all of providing citizens with adequate opportunity for employment and earning a living. The activities of the individual must not be allowed to clash with the interests of the community, but must take place within the confines and be for the good of all. Therefore, we demand: ... an end to the power of financial interest. We demand profit sharing in big business. We demand a broad extension of care for the aged. We demand ... the greatest possible consideration of small business in the purchases of the national, state, and municipal governments. In order to make possible to every capable and industrious [citizen] the attainment of higher education and thus the achievement of a post of leadership, the government must provide an all-around enlargement of our system of public education.... We demand the education at government expense of gifted children of poor parents.... The government must undertake the improvement of public health -- by protecting mother and child, by prohibiting child labor -- by the greatest possible support for all groups concerned with the physical education of youth. [W]e combat the ... materialistic spirit within and without us, and are convinced that a permanent recovery of our people can only proceed from within on the foundation of The Common Good Before the Individual Good.
Answer comes tomorrow.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

A Primer on Natural Resources and the Environment - George Reisman

The notion that production and economic activity are harmful to the environment rests on the abandonment of man and his life as the source of value in the world, and its replacement by a nonhuman standard of value — i.e., the belief that nature isintrinsically valuable.
A Primer on Natural Resources and the Environment - George Reisman - Mises Daily

Now I have to add this guy's book to my reading list.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Why do smart kids grow up to be heavier drinkers? - The Week

According to two long-term studies — one American, one British — there's a correlation between smarts and a thirst for alcohol. The "more intelligent children in both studies grew up to drink alcohol more frequently and in greater quantities than less intelligent children,"

Why do smart kids grow up to be heavier drinkers? - The Week

I also like the theory proposed by an associate of mine:

When the lion and other predators hunt at the back of the pack, taking down the slow, sick and less-able, the overall quality of the pack improves. In the same way, alcohol's destruction of brain cells increases the overall average intelligence of what's left as it first takes down the slow and stupid ones.

Tipping Points and The Future of Electronics | OdNT - open.neurostechnology.com

An excellent article about the future of embedded systems (which pretty much means anything nowdays) and android as being the spark that could kick off another decade of western innovation like what happened with PCs in the 80's.

Tipping Points and The Future of Electronics | OdNT - open.neurostechnology.com