The Hall of Fire

In the grand scheme of things, is it actually possible to teach 14 year olds anything? In a classroom? 14 works out to 8th or 9th grade in the US; I can certainly still remember things I learned in school then. Basic algerbra and geometry, diagramming sentences, basic chemistry and physics, geology...

I have a British friend my age who's been a working PhD for close to 5 years. I kind of hate her. :P For most people in the US, getting a doctorate means four years of ordinary college plus 5+ years going to grad school and writing a thesis. Unless you're very driven and don't get distracted by litt...

Jnyusa wrote:The elderly and the military consume about 80% of our federal budget.

I thought the stat was SS/Medicare/Medicaid plus defense plus interest on the national debt made up 80% Or is that already out of date?

I'm not using the word Naturalist in any technical sense; I mean someone who lacks belief in the supernatural. It should probably be further qualified to "pessimistic Naturalist"; i.e. someone who believes nature is not just indifferent but ultimately hostile to human needs.

most are better characterized by free-floating hostility. :P...Yes, I think that hostility is kind of a poor man's despair. Either denial or open rage would feel better, from a purely emotional perspective. I think the type of hostility you're thinking of has more to do with the person's perception...

I don't think that Naturalists are automatically courageous; I do think they need to choose between courage, despair, and denial. I also don't think Northern Courage is only valuable for naturalists; it comes in handy for pessimists of all stripes!

This has been sitting on my hard drive for some time. It's not quite as polished as I'd like, but I'm worried if I don't just post it now I'll never get around to it. ************ The pre-Christian inhabitants of northern Europe had a fundamentally pessimistic worldview. History was to culminate in ...

My dad's always told me that it's a myth diesels pollute more..at least today's modern diesel. According to him, they are better. I don't know enough about cars to find out if this is really true or not. It's not an easy calculation. Even if diesel creates more pollutants per gallon, you don't need...

As for overpopulation, I have high hopes that it will be balanced out in the long run by two factors. One is economic growth, which leads to high living standards, high levels of education, smaller families, and zero population growth eventually (see parts of Europe, for example). The other is tech...

Every time a subject like this comes up, I recommend this: Arithmetic, Population, and Energy It's a lecture by Dr. Albert Bartlett, who's been talking about population and resource issues for 30 years. You can download it, stream it, or just read the transcript. "What I hope to do is I hope to...

Ellienor wrote:DaveLF, what you are describing is known as the "tragedy of the commons"

That's right; I was thinking Jevons' paradox, but TOTC is more accurate. Jevons discovered that if resource usage is made more efficient, consumption rises instead of falling because more people hop on board.

Unfortunately, I don't think conservation is the answer, whether that means driving less, not watering the lawn, or having fewer children (I still think it's a good thing to do). Basically, if you make a moral decision to consume less, someone somewhere else will take advantage of the surplus you cr...

The bunny and eggs are remnants of the fertility rites to Ishtar that used to occur at the same time of year.

Jn: technicality is always appreciated. :) What is the mechanism that forces price X down when price Y goes up and the money supply is held constant? Is it just that if food got more expensive, people would have less money for CDs so the music industry would have to lower its prices to keep people b...

It seems to me that once "regular Americans" were doing these jobs but with increased immigration, many employers have taken advantage of this and hired illegal immigrants so they could pay them less which has driven down the pay of these jobs. You're right, and it's also driven down the ...

If immigration law were strictly enforced starting tomorrow, the economies in the border states would collapse. Yeah. And I don't think they could do it, even if they wanted to. They'd have armed riots on their hands. Edit: Please don't construe the above as a racist statement. But it is a fact tha...

It kind of confouds me that, given all the abuses Americans seem prepared to tolerate, this is the issue that's got them taking to the streets. I'm not confounded. People do tend to get more excited when their livelihood is threatened than when their liberties are. That explains why immigrants are ...

It kind of confouds me that, given all the abuses Americans seem prepared to tolerate, this is the issue that's got them taking to the streets.

I don't know... It's certainly true that fanatics get the most attention, but I don't think most Americans even know who O'Hare is. And in the fanaticism department, radical atheism can't hold a candle to radical Islam (for example). Nevertheless, atheists are disliked more the Muslims. I kind of fe...

A recent survey found that atheists are the most hated group in America. :( University Of MN From a telephone sampling of more than 2,000 households, university researchers found that Americans rate atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians and other minority groups in “sharing th...