Mike Hansen

James, 5 "likes" out of how many views? Do you know the people who "liked" it? If you don't know the number of views, then 5 becomes nearly meaningless. And if you don't know anything about the characters of those five people then why do their "likes" matter? Mike

Adam: Thanks! That's a funny one. I advise everybody to read at least the four-point program. Even a socialist would begin to think, "wait a minute, how much will this cost?!" But of course, his program won't happen, because "the balance of class and social forces doesn't allow it." This guy is still better than Paul Krugman, though. Mike

Xray makes a good point. How can John Galt be played by an actor?! Galt's Gulch too. And do we know if they're going to do Galt's Speech? That alone would take hours, and they can't just shorten it.

Hi everybody, Despite all the good words here about the Atlas Shrugged movie, I really don't want to see it. Anybody else feel as if they don't want their images of the characters tarnished? That happened to me with the Andromeda Strain and the book hasn't been quite the same since. Mike

Scottmkiv: Good point on the opportunity cost. I did some research and ran the numbers last night. With average numbers and some generous estimations, even if one pays cash for the entire installation, the capital costs of solar panel roofing would take plenty more than ten years to pay off. It appears that you can't get a solar panel that has enough of a power output to cost ratio. But if they can increase that ratio enough, I can certainly see solar panels "taking over" in a very non-traditional way. Definitely an interesting prospect. Mike

Solar will never be a viable source of power in the traditional "power plant" way. The only way solar will ever cut into usage of traditional energy sources is by people putting it on their houses, buildings, etc. From what I can tell that appears to be a good investment. Plus if you're a "financial apocalypse is coming" kind of person it would be nice to not depend upon a power company or diesel generator for electricity. Good article. Numbers always make things clearer. Mike

Definitely! One particular hater of selfishness and its achievements is the person who acts "selfishly" in trying to better his life but holds other people's achievements as his standards of value (i.e. he needs to be better than them). Since he can't be better than everybody at everything (and certainly feels some envy in the process), he eventually says that "selfishness" leads to sadness, and turns into a champion of "unselfishness," where that envy becomes a feeling of righteousness.

This is a good one. Thanks for the post. And as Bob added, it's all about the definition. I've noticed that a lot of people can't respond to the idea of rational selfishness. They can only respond to the word. (The issue of knowing words but not ideas seems to be prevalent in religious people and hippies, at least in my experience with them.) There's one cure for stupidity such as this: clear definitions. Mike

Hah. Sweet victory. I've heard a million times that Utah drivers are the worst, and this adds to it. Your four-way-stops involve people being "too polite." We have to practically pray that the guy turning left won't ram into the guy going straight (who, of course, was there much earlier), and then get out of the car and proceed to viciously blame the guy going straight (seen it happen, and barely avoided it once ). Well done. And nice avatar. Mike

I currently attend Kean University (which no longer has a philosophy dept. as of last year by the way), majoring in econ and wanting to switch to philosophy, and hoping to transfer to Rutgers in a semester or two. This is where she attends Mike, it is right down the road from my town. Took the words right out of my mouth. Wasn't expecting Adam to answer! Why the switch from Economics to Philosophy? Mike

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/44048 Computational Fluid Dynamics to the rescue! Cool photos. Thanks. Mike

Good catch. They're gettin' tricky with combinations. I'm still waiting for something to be described as "ethnoculturally tolerant." The worst part is, they aren't even offering an intro to ethics course next semester, which I actually need to take. Good lord that sounds terrible. Where are you going to school? Robert, Given the recent UN project of granting human rights to trees and bugs and stuff, "communities of color" might be referring to an eggplant patch or a tomato farm. (Feelin' wicked. ) Michael Genius, Michael! I didn't even think of that! Mike (liking the lol smiley face)

Hi everybody, I'm currently registering for fall semester at the U. After I finished with my awesome Chem Eng classes, I decided to look at the Environmental Studies courses, you know, for a good laugh. After I finished reading this total knee-slapper, I recognized just how pathetic it is: Okay everybody. Say it with me: "buzzword" Mike

I agree completely. In terms of the best game of the tournament, Kentucky/Ohio State may have been close but it's a shame we couldn't have seen Arizona and Uconn play for the title. Kentucky, Arizona, and Uconn were very poorly seeded. Kentucky should have been a 2 (and Florida should have had their 4 seed). Arizona clearly was better than a 5. And Uconn is clearly higher than a 2 (SDSU, Florida, and Notre Dame got 2 seeds over Uconn, Arizona, and Kentucky?? Huh?). Then again it's really easy to say this after the tournament's over... Mike, currently frustrated with the tournament but hopeful that the loss of talent will spawn another wild bracket next year

Man oh man that was terrible. Part of it was awful bounces and the rest was the horrendous game plan (exclusively three-pointers all game long). My Dad said before it started that usually the Super Bowl is the dullest game of them all. He was right on the money tonight! The one bright spot: Uconn's win means that my cousin, by far our youngest competitor who knows nothing about basketball, is now our family pool's first repeat champion in 12 years. HAH! That's definitely worth the Butler loss. Mike

Hmm. If the person is illogical (in their thought processes), then it's usually pretty difficult to estimate their response to anything, let alone Aristotle's ideas. Predicting an irrational response is like solving an equation you don't know anything about! However, for the person whose goal is a correct idea (whether they are currently logical or illogical in their thought processes), logic is very persuasive, and would generally have a positive effect. Also, the difference between logical and illogical is not one of degree. It's a totally discrete switch. There is no continuity between illogical mindsets and logical ones. If somebody is on the logical side of this "threshold" of logical-ness then Aristotle's logic would certainly be useful. Well said. So I guess that makes Aristotle the best of the three? Mike

You bet I'll be there! I can't wait! I can't believe Butler made it back to the final after losing Hayward. Brad Stevens ought to be getting a raise sometime soon. I think part of Butler's efficiency results their coupling of team play and individual responsibility. All of their guys play team ball (very well) and also seem to hold themselves responsible for their performance and the team's success. It's as if each player gives himself the responsibilities of both his performance and the team's performance, while recognizing the important link between the two. (How else could a relatively untalented mid-major be so successful two years running despite losing a star player in between?) Other teams who exclusively play team ball, like Wisconsin, seem to share the responsibility across all the players. Their individuals seem to be "repressed" to the point of losing any individual responsibility. Then, the only responsibility that exists is that to the team, which is spread over all individuals regardless of their performance... and that's why Wisconsin really sucked at times (33 points against Penn State? Seriously?!). And why they lost to Butler . I'm going to pick Butler again (it's worked for me so far!). I'll say Butler 68, Uconn 66. Mike

Good catch. This is an example of NO DEFINITION (an atheist only differs from a radical Islamist if they are defined differently (and in this case, correctly)). In other words, Gingrich doesn't know his premises from his pants. If he holds the idea that America is somehow "chosen by god" then one could just as easily make the argument that, because those radical Islamists he speaks of will certainly think of themselves as "chosen by god," they must know "what it once meant to be an American." Drivel like this is easy when one ignores premises/reason/reality. Mike

Hehe. I'm not sure about "smart as paint" but "touchy feely is dreck!" sounds pretty good to me. Ever since I've been "training" myself to think in definite terms I've gotten a lot better at math/science/engineering/programming, but my ability to write essays for those god-awful general ed courses has gone straight down the gutter. The mere act of using a synonym has gotten harder. Hell, if you use synonyms in math you're generally doing something seriously wrong! Mike

I'd say for the same reason I like math/science/computer programming. Ayn Rand referred to chess with the term "metaphysical absolutism" or something similar. In other words, the rules of chess are definite. Math/science/computer programming are the same way. You're dealing with strictly defined identities in m/s/cp. Either that or you're coming up with the strict definitions. Liberal arts are much more 'loose' with definitions. The whole 'touchy feely' part of it takes precedence there. What's your answer? Mike

Nothing funny about autism or anything similar to it. My declaration of hilarity was made to Bob_Mac concerning his comment of sexual reproduction being an issue. Mike

This is the first year where the Final Four doesn't have a No. 1 or a No. 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Men%27s_Division_I_Basketball_Championship#.231_seeds Thanks again to Merlin for the link. If you click on a blue-colored year, you can see the bracket from that year and all kinds of other neat facts. Example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_NCAA_Men%27s_Division_I_Basketball_Tournament Mike

Except that 'evolution' implies an increased level of success in a little endeavour called sexual reproduction. Until the physics department aspies get laid more that the football team I think your hypothesis is a little flawed. Bob Baal, Can high-level autism be passed on genetically? Bob, That's hilarious. Mike

Thanks. Joining me is the 0.2% of ESPN users who also picked Butler in the Final Four! That pick saved me in my family bracket pool. VCU was impressive today against Kansas. I think Butler will win, but it could easily go either way. Kentucky vs. Uconn should be a good matchup. Both teams have exploded in the tournament.

Hi Carrie, OL is great. A lot of the philosophical conversations here are mind-blowing. And there's plenty of room for other good stuff like sports and hobbies. "Less orthodox" is good. I started off with an 'orthodox' outlook on Objectivism, and I didn't make any progress in understanding and applying it. Now that I think about it, I'd say that some of the most beneficial experiences I've had here on OL were those which didn't involve philosophy directly. Discussing my hobbies and non-philosophical interests has done the most for my intellectual development, ironically! Mike