Reasoned Consideration

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(For those familiar with the BHL blog, where they are known to sneak in justifications for using force): The very phrase ' Bleeding Heart Libertarian ', if you think about it, is 'in and of itself' actually a subtle contextual ad hominem and ' poisoning the well ' attack on 'actual' (i.e. non-force-advocating) libertarians ... the only way it makes sense to prefix the "bleeding heart" adjective at all is if you're sneaking in a sort of suckerpunch claim that your opponents ('normal' libertarians who presumably, we are to take it, don't have 'bleeding hearts') are 'heartless'; it is essentially a claim that much pain and suffering would be allowed and ignored if 'ordinary' 'non-bleeding-heart' libertarians were ever in charge - it automatically frames all subsequent discourse and debate within this mindset, and it's 'smart' but sneaky in that it puts debate opponents immediately on...

Durban beach sand art bulldozed “Durban Metro Police have removed dozens of unlicensed sand sculptors from the beachfront today ...  the move is part of ongoing efforts to ensure that only traders with permits are allowed on the beach-front ...  Those wishing to make sand sculptures are required to pay a monthly permit fee ” So you now need a "permit" to create sand sculptures on Durban's public beaches (presumably if you expect someone might tip you), and poor people trying to earn a living are having their livelihoods bulldozed by the government. Meanwhile, taxpayers foot the bill for expending police resources on this, instead of on real crime. It should seem like common sense to say, but provided you aren't interfering with anyone else, you should have a natural right to create a sand sculpture on a public beach. And if a passerby wants to give you a bit of spare change, that too is his/her natural right - neither party should have to ask anyone's "p...

A 'bad philosophy' can be more incapacitating than an actual handicap.

An Aquatic Ape I think the strongest 'circumstantial evidence' supporting a partial form of the (controversial)  aquatic ape hypothesis * is something I don't think I've seen mentioned before: The simple fact that we find  wet Homo sapiens sexually attractive. If you think about it, doesn't it seem a bit arbitrary? E.g. would gorillas find other wet gorillas sexy, or would rats find other wet rats sexy? How universal is this? If we consider the concept of sexual choice ** in evolution, then if our ancestors were once partially evolving "in that direction", then we might expect that they may have felt  a mate choice preference  for the entailed characteristics of a hypothetical "aquatic ape" (such as the 'wet look', as well as finding smooth, hairless skin comparatively more attractive, as we do). To consider this argument, look at a picture like the one above (or  this ,  this ,  this ,  this , or  this ) ... then (for...

TIME's 'senior national correspondent' Michael Grunwald accidentally tweets what he's really thinking: Michael Grunwald: "I can't wait to write a defense of the drone strike that takes out Julian Assange" Not only does he advocate murder, he is gleefully excited about writing up propaganda to justify it. His "apology" is no better: The big problem you see with your comment is that it was "dumb"? Not maybe 'immoral', no 'hey, I see now extrajudicial murder is wrong'? There seems to remain no real  moral concern -  only regret at having made a PR blunder.

[Posting in a colloquial tone for a change] - I think something is deeply wrong with a society in which it actually makes the news if a man walks naked next to a road [ link ]. Yawn. And you'd think the commenters on the article had never seen a naked person before. I don't think even Victorian society was this repressed. Get over it people, the naked body is natural, mundane even - the only thing that should be cause for concern is the fact that he was doing it in this cold, rainy weather. Perhaps we should hire people to walk naked along the road daily, until everybody just collectively gets over it for once and for all. I think if you can't handle seeing a naked body, you need help. (That's not to say I think nudity should be considered acceptable everywhere , on the contrary ... but that's a topic for another day.)

A brief response to the following point in this comment on this blog: "Artists in the Dada movement purposely countered the established traditions of aesthetically pleasing art because of its irrelevance and bourgeois classicist association. It was the art of the rich who were sheltered from the horrors of war" Consider a graph such as this one : ("Damien Hirst's Spot Prices"), and tell me that modern/contemporary art still represents the common man today, and not the rich. Also, thanks to numerous economic and technological advances, beautiful art IS now within the reach of even lower economic classes. The historical situation has changed - in some senses, reversed. Related: How Contemporary Art Lost Its Glamour : "Suddenly, the press dares to criticise contemporary art. A number of coinciding events seem to have focussed a new, less reverential attitude towards the spin of the art world  ...  Hirst's auction took £70.5 million on the day that ...

Who would have thought, modern/contemporary art training institutions are having some difficulty explaining why they are relevant : "What's the point of art school? ... As changes to the school curriculum and university funding undermine the arts education system, industry experts gather at Central Saint Martin's art school to discuss what the future holds for arts students ... Catastrophic cuts to funding, a drop in applications to university arts courses and the exclusion of the creative arts from the new EBacc performance measure mean now is a difficult time for the arts sector" And yet I think the examples on the article page speak for themselves (and note, contrary to what you might think, these were posted in defense of contemporary art education, with not a trace of irony or apparent self-reflection). "Nowhere Else Could I Do This for Credit" , says the artist, while pondering why the 'contemporary art world' is struggling to explain...

Studies are increasingly showing possible harmful effects of Triclosan , commonly used in antibacterial soaps, toothpastes, mouthwashes and more: (Addition 2014-11) Triclosan ... causes liver fibrosis and cancer in mice (November 17, 2014) (Additions 2014-09) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140903121858.htm Exposure of pregnant women to certain phenols may disrupt growth of boys during fetal development and first years of life (September 3, 2014) "Medical researchers have found that exposure to certain common phenols during pregnancy, especially parabens and triclosan, may disrupt growth of boys during fetal growth and the first years of life. Parabens are commonly used as preservatives in cosmetics and healthcare products and triclosan are an antibacterial agent and pesticide found in some toothpastes and soaps" http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140512101410.htm Endocrine disruptors impair human sperm function (May 12, 2014) "A ple...

" Pixels Floating on the Art World’s Margins ": This is the site of the “ Into the Pixel ” exhibition, a juried collection of 16 digital artworks printed on canvas and plucked from the kinds of video games being marketed nearby. Those who stumble upon these works can take a few minutes or more to muse upon the artists’ intent and inspiration — and perhaps glean some untold secrets, since the images are from games yet to be released. Now in its 10th year, “Into the Pixel” is still somewhat overlooked during the convention, although perhaps less so than in years past. Recent exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum have considered such art in a different light, focusing on each video game as a whole. “The thing is, these people are not computer geeks — they’re real artists,” said Martin Rae, the president of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, which jointly produces the show with the Entertainment Software Association. “And t...

There is plenty of research showing that breastfed babies do better in numerous ways. But in considering the issue, this comment makes an important point: "Interesting how breastfeeding is the only area of research of which I'm aware that reverses the findings.  In any other research, the biological norm is assumed to be the benchmark, and deviations from the biological norm are measured in impact. Instead, we assume formula feeding as the benchmark, and measure the biological norm in terms of its deviation from formula feeding.  By which I mean - breastfeeding does not enhance development. It is the biological norm. Formula feeding inhibits neurological development ." (Emphasis mine.) The above comment is in response to an article that uses this phrasing: "MRI images, taken while children were asleep, showed that infants who were exclusively breastfed for at least three months had enhanced development in key parts of the brain" . [Hat-tip Shayne Wissler ...

The 'art world' should be ashamed that one of the last refuges of artistic beauty and value is not in the art world, but in the art produced by the artists of the video game industry ... I think there is more beauty and value in a single screenshot here than in all the works of the "Tate Modern" put together: http://www.videogamer.com/wii/secret_files_tunguska/screenshot-4.html (And there's plenty more like this out there.) Even the garbage bin is beautiful The rich, expansive virtual worlds created by video game artists are, in a loose sense, 'virtual art galleries' - they're often 'larger' than 'real' art galleries, you can comparably 'explore' them, and every virtual detail is almost like a small piece of art in its own right. If you're ever in London, try this "experiment": Visit the National Gallery (for its classical paintings collection) in the morning, and the Tate Modern in the aftern...

Neat app to help visualize/understand the scale of ... everything , from the observable universe down to the Planck length.

Hrm, evidently Friday was International Women's Day ... maybe a good opportunity to reflect on a seldom-discussed but common form of violence against women - namely, how "modern", "civilized" society continues to brutally violate the rights of many innocent women by forcibly locking them in cages for victimless consensual crimes: http://www.csun.edu/~psy453/prosti_y.htm Decriminalization of (adult, consent-based) prostitution would restore to the justice system its proper role of protecting the natural rights of citizens, rather than violating them - providing not only protection against being locked up at gunpoint, but also legal remedies against abuse by the very forces who are supposed to protect society's most vulnerable: http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Most-sex-workers-abused-by-police-study-20120822 "About 70% of sex workers have been abused by police" ... "Sex workers experience violence during arrest by police officers...

On cosmic and species time-scales, natural selection must ultimately select for space-faring species. If the dinosaurs had a colony on Mars, they might still be alive today. These Russian meteorite videos  are a helpful reminder that all our metaphorical eggs are in one tiny, fragile basket - if we don't set our sights on inhabiting new worlds, we'll probably eventually go the same way the dinosaurs went , or via some other 'galactic threat', such as a nearby supernova.

Some beautiful high-resolution images of Mars . (Mars has a few interesting geological features we don't really have on Earth, like subsurface sublimation of frozen carbon dioxide, cf. " Spring Fans " and " Seasonal Erosion ".)

From this post, " Moderate Rationality ": "First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice ... who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom" - Martin Luther King Jr. "Imagine what "moderation" in mathematics would mean. It would mean not that 2 + 2 = 4, but that it's more or less 4, maybe we can "agree" that 2 + 2 = 4.2. You don't land a man on the moon with this sort of attitude about ideas. The field of ethics is even more important than the field of m...

I think the Hubble UDF/XDF is probably  one of the most interesting images  in astronomy ... in short, every one of those dots/blobs is an entire galaxy , each with (on average) in the order of hundreds of millions of stars ... and the staggering part is that this image shows only an extremely tiny portion of our sky (much smaller than the visual area the Moon occupies). The implication is that the number of galaxies in our 'observable' sliver of the universe alone is probably in the hundreds of billions. So a crude low-ball estimate of the number of stars in the observable universe would probably then be ~15,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, give or take (and based on observations of our own galaxy so far from the Kepler observatory, if our galaxy is representative, it's probable that a large percentage of these stars have planets, though that is 'scientifically speculative'). So when you look at the night sky, consider that in each roughly Moon-sized a...