Soup.GroundPlane.org

"Imatters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small..."

Sun, 20 May 2012 20:57:58 GMT

"Imatters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.

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If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question I could solve the problem in less than 5 minutes."

–Albert Einstein Quotes - Page 4 - BrainyQuote

"“What von Neumann contributed” was “this unshakable confidence that said: ‘Go..."

Thu, 10 May 2012 17:29:41 GMT

"“What von Neumann contributed” was “this unshakable confidence that said: ‘Go ahead, nothing else matters, get it running at this speed and this capability, and the rest of it is just a lot of nonsense.’ . . . People ordinarily of modest aspirations, we all worked so hard and selflessly because we believed — we knew — it was happening here and at a few other places right then, and we were lucky to be in on it. . . . A tidal wave of computational power was about to break and inundate everything in science and much elsewhere, and things would never be the same.”"

–Julian Bigelow, the Maniac’s chief engineer, in ‘Turing’s Cathedral,’ by George Dyson (NYTimes)

"Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost ..."

Thu, 03 May 2012 17:32:50 GMT

"Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"

–T. S. Eliot: The Rock

""Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surpr..."

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 23:05:00 GMT

""Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.""

–--George S. Patton

"You can recognize a really good idea by the fact that its implementation seem..."

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 21:14:00 GMT

"You can recognize a really good idea by the fact that its implementation seems impossible in the first place."

–– Albert Einstein

His Holiness Gyalwang Karmapa XVI

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 23:32:18 GMT

His Holiness Gyalwang Karmapa XVI
16th Karmapa - Rangjung Rigpe Dorje

His Holiness Gyalwang Karmapa XVII

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 23:32:14 GMT

His Holiness Gyalwang Karmapa XVII
17th Karmapa - Ogyen Trinley Dorje

""As the world goes, the strong will do as they please and the weak will suffe..."

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 15:45:00 GMT

"As the world goes, the strong will do as they please and the weak will suffer what they must."

–"The Peloponnesian War" --Thucydides
Thirty Seconds To Mars - "This Is War" (YouTube)

"... You may fly over a land forever; you may bomb it, atomize it, pulverize i..."

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 21:38:10 GMT

"... You may fly over a land forever; you may bomb it, atomize it, pulverize it and wipe it clean of life—but if you desire to defend it, protect it and keep it for civilization, you must do this on the ground, the way the Roman legions did, by putting your young men in the mud. "

–T.R. Fehrenbach Quotes (Author of This Kind of War)

"How do we prosper as a society? How can we define and achieve our ideals? Wha..."

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 18:12:14 GMT

"How do we prosper as a society? How can we define and achieve our ideals? What are the foundations of civil discourse? What is truth? What is right reason? How do we foster fair play and goodwill? "

–The Roots of Sound Rational Thinking

"“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a..."

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 00:56:46 GMT

"“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.”"

–Robert A. Heinlein Quotes (Author of Stranger in a Strange Land)

"John Adams, "I must study politics and war, that my sons may have liberty to ..."

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 23:25:06 GMT

"John Adams, "I must study politics and war, that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy . . . ," quoted in Seabury and Codevilla, War: Ends and Means, p. 3.
cited in Irfan Khawaja, “Victory: Means and End”"

–Reason Papers | A Journal of Interdisciplinary Normative Studies

"Like Plato, Strauss taught that within societies, "some are fit to lead, and ..."

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:26:45 GMT

"Like Plato, Strauss taught that within societies, "some are fit to lead, and others to be led," according to Drury. But, unlike Plato, who believed that leaders, which he called philosopher-kings, had to be people with such high moral standards that they could resist the temptations of power, Strauss thought that "those who are fit to rule are those who realise there is no morality and that there is only one natural right, the right of the superior to rule over the inferior."

Moral law was nonetheless indispensable Strauss' view because "it is necessary to keep internal order." It should be propagated through religion, which, like Karl Marx, Strauss considered to be "the opiate of the people," or in Strauss' own words, "a pious fraud." But religion is for the masses alone; the rulers need not be bound by it; indeed it would be absurd if they were, because they know there is no reality behind it."

–ref_Leo Strauss

"The idea of democracy is a wider and fuller idea than can be exemplified in ..."

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 17:43:52 GMT

"The idea of democracy is a wider and fuller idea than can be exemplified in the state even at its best. To be realized, it must affect all modes of human association, the family, the school, industry, religion. And even as far as political arrangements are concerned, governmental institutions are but a mechanism for securing to an idea channels of effective operation. ... Regarded as an idea, democracy is not an altrenative to other principles of associated life. It is the idea of democracy itself." --John Dewey, "The Public and its Problems (1927; p. 143, 148)"

–Democracy as problem solving: civic ... - Xavier de Souza Briggs - Google Books

"even if the received opinion be not only true, but the whole truth; unless i..."

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 23:37:00 GMT

"even if the received opinion be not only true, but the whole truth; unless it is suffered to be, and actually is, vigorously and earnestly contested, it will, by most of those who receive it, be held in the manner of a prejudice, with little comprehension or feeling of its rational grounds. And not only this, but, fourthly, the meaning of the doctrine itself will be in danger of being lost, or enfeebled, and deprived of its vital effect on the character and conduct: the dogma becoming a mere formal profession,"

–JS Mill's Mill's On Liberty" (Chapter II; "Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion")
Online Guide to Ethics and Moral Philosophy

"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of socia..."

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:53:38 GMT

"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.
Martin Luther King, Jr."

–... at BrainyQuote

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those..."

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 23:14:58 GMT

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.

Second Inaugural Address (20 January 1937)

–Franklin D. Roosevelt - Wikiquote

"The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterward."

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 06:37:45 GMT

"The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterward."

–Arthur Koestler - Wikiquote

"Without the hard little bits of marble which are called 'facts' or 'data' one..."

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 06:37:14 GMT

"Without the hard little bits of marble which are called 'facts' or 'data' one cannot compose a mosaic; what matters, however, are not so much the individual bits, but the successive patterns into which you arrange them, then break them up and rearrange them.

The Act of Creation

–Arthur Koestler - Wikiquote

"Aim: Geiselman (1985) set out to investigate the effectiveness of the cogniti..."

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 19:15:35 GMT

Aim: Geiselman (1985) set out to investigate the effectiveness of the cognitive interview.

Method: Participants viewed a film of a violent crime and, after 48 hours, were interviewed by a policeman using one of three methods: the cognitive interview; a standard interview used by the Los Angeles Police; or an interview using hypnosis. The number of facts accurately recalled and the number of errors made were recorded.

Results: The average number of correctly recalled facts for the cognitive interview was 41.2, for hypnosis it was 38.0 and for the standard interview it was 29.4. There was no significant difference in the number of errors in each condition.

Conclusion: The cognitive interview leads to better memory for events, with witnesses able to recall more relevant information compared with a traditional interview method.

–Cognitive Interview

""The definition of politics: In politics there are no right answers, only a c..."

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 05:03:33 GMT

""The definition of politics: In politics there are no right answers, only a continuous flow of compromises among groups resulting in a changing, cloudy, and ambiguous series of public decisions where appetite and ambition compete openly with knowledge and wisdom." (part of his presentation [MP3])"

–--Senator (R-Wyoming) Alan Simpson.
Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction Hearing - C-SPAN Video Library

"I think that more philosophical disputes are substantive than Carnap did, but..."

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 19:16:46 GMT

"I think that more philosophical disputes are substantive than Carnap did, but the dissolution of verbal disputes is nevertheless part of my metaphilosophical religion. The diagnosis of verbal disputes has the potential to serve as a sort of universal acid in philosophical discussion, either dissolving disagreements or boiling them down to the fundamental disagreements on which they turn. If we can move beyond verbal disagreement to either substantive agreement or to clarified substantive disagreement, then we have made philosophical progress.
To make this progress, though, we need some general tools to help us ..."

–David Chalmers' Papers Chapter 9: Verbal Disputes and Philosophical Progress

"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evi..."

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 23:08:03 GMT

The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.

–Albert Einstein; about "Fishead, the Movie"

"We live by meanings that cannot be reduced to scientific terms."

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 21:43:04 GMT

"We live by meanings that cannot be reduced to scientific terms."

–David Cayley, in the introduction to part 2 of "The Malaise of Modernity" (5 parts) CBC.ca | Ideas

"‘In matters of the intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, ..."

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 16:11:29 GMT

"‘In matters of the intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard to any other consideration,’ ... ‘In matters of the intellect do not pretend that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or demonstrable.’"

–--Victorian Darwinist, Thomas Henry Huxley in his essay "Agnosticism".

""I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporation..."

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 17:57:59 GMT

"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country."

--Thomas Jefferson, letter to george logan, 1816

–amos olio....

""A continual circulation of lies among those who are not much in the way of h..."

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 17:55:47 GMT

"A continual circulation of lies among those who are not much in the way of hearing them contradicted, will in time pass for truth; and the crime lies not in the believer but the inventor."

--Thomas Paine

–amos olio....

"Revolution is not revolt. It was revolt which bolstered the Resistance ..."

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 03:02:27 GMT

"Revolution is not revolt. It was revolt which bolstered the Resistance for four years. It was the complete, obstinate refusal, almost blind at the beginning, of an order which wanted to bring men to their knees. Revolt stems first of all from the heart, but a time comes when it passes to the spirit, where feeling becomes idea, where spontaneous fervor leads to direct action. This is the moment of revolution.
— The Rebel"

–Existential Primer: Albert Camus

Study group and Rinpoche

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 04:34:41 GMT

Study group and Rinpoche
Nalanda Halifax with our teacher, July 2004. (If I look kinda freaked out and flushed it's because I got to sit at his right, which I thought was a big deal.)

"What I’m really closing in on here is not signal to noise but a third vector,..."

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 17:56:53 GMT

"What I’m really closing in on here is not signal to noise but a third vector, the special context that comes from the missing feedback loop in Plus. To illustrate it, I’ll bring up a seeming wild card, Spotify, which I fell in love with over the weekend after receiving a complementary invite. I might have played with it in the freemium edition, but getting a chance to experience it full bore was a gift I much appreciate. In a few minutes I was diving into the past, like the swooping cable car of the last Harry Potter as I tumbled through my favorite haunts, in realtime, streaming, on demand, live.

see also Glasperlenspiel aka "Glass Bead Game""

–The revolution will not be televised | TechCrunch by @SteveGillmore

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 01:04:59 GMT

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."

–Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a former US senator and diplomat, quoted by Jay Rosen in Economist Debates: The news industry: Statements

"Value issues are at the heart of most conflicts, but if they are disguised as..."

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 02:35:00 GMT

"Value issues are at the heart of most conflicts, but if they are disguised as factual disputes, a situation of “dueling science” results and little progress can be made.""

–"Collaborative Modelling"

""When I'm talking about design, I'm not just talking about the visual layer t..."

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 18:09:29 GMT

""When I'm talking about design, I'm not just talking about the visual layer that everyone seems to think of when they hear the word," Allen asserts. "We really believe that designer-founders need to be able to guide the product and organization through 'the full stack': user research, interaction design, information architecture, all the way to the interface, and everything in between." In other word's Allen's fund is seeking people who already have the vision and entrepreneurial spirit that any Silicon Valley founder has -- but just happen to self-identify as designers, too. Allen points out that designers have recently earned a rich pedigree in the Valley, having founded YouTube, Tumblr, Airbnb, Android, and Flickr, among others."

–A New VC Model That Turns Designers, Not Techies, Into Startup CEOs | Co.Design

"The points [Victor Klemperer makes in his book “The Language of the Third Rei..."

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:20:42 GMT

The points [Victor Klemperer makes in his book “The Language of the Third Reich”] are applicable to propaganda in the service of much more mundane endeavors, be it to pass health care reform or to increase or decrease taxes. The use of propaganda is not limited to a single political affiliation or intent.

As Klemperer writes propaganda “changes the value of words and the frequency of their occurrence … it commandeers for the party that which was previously common property and in the process steeps words and groups of words and sentence structures in its poison.”

–Silencing Speech With Propaganda - NYTimes.com

"Silencing extends to politics when outlandish claims are made about public fi..."

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:15:44 GMT

Silencing extends to politics when outlandish claims are made about public figures. Suppose that President Obama really was a secret Islamist agent, or born in Kenya. In that case, he would be grossly insincere. We would have no reason to believe what he said in any situation. The function of disseminating such claims about the president is not to object to his specific arguments or agenda. It is to undermine the public’s trust in him, so that nothing he says can be taken at face value.

There are multiple purposes to political speech, only one of which is to assert truths.

–Silencing Speech With Propaganda - NYTimes.com

"Imagine a sci-fi universe in which every letter, word and sentence is a commo..."

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:12:15 GMT

"Imagine a sci-fi universe in which every letter, word and sentence is a commodity. Companies make money off chunks of language. Bosses drive writers to make more words faster and for less pay. Readers then pay for exposure to these cheaply made words in the precious currency of their attention."

–Google's War on Nonsense - NYTimes.com

"Philosophy of dialogue is a type of philosophy based on the work of the Austr..."

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 15:50:17 GMT

"Philosophy of dialogue is a type of philosophy based on the work of the Austrian-born Jewish philosopher Martin Buber best known through its classic presentation in his 1920s little book I and Thou.^[1] For Buber, the fundamental fact of human existence, too readily overlooked by scientific rationalism and abstract philosophical thought, is "man with man", a dialogue which takes place in the so-called "sphere of between""

–Philosophy of dialogue - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"as Ted Levitt, Tony Ulwick, and others have argued, while customers are notor..."

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 15:46:25 GMT

"as Ted Levitt, Tony Ulwick, and others have argued, while customers are notoriously bad at coming up with solutions to their own problems, their actual difficulties and complaints – the problems themselves – are a goldmine for observant researchers. That’s why management gurus like Clay Christensen and Gary Hamel have advocated listening not only to your core (and presumably satisfied) customers, but to those on the fringe – the unhappy non-users and complainers. And the louder they whine, the better."

–Blogging Innovation » Dissatisfaction is the Mother of Innovation

"Although the generation of ideas is important, it ceases to be useful if ther..."

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 19:58:55 GMT

"Although the generation of ideas is important, it ceases to be useful if there is not an effective process to transform inspiration into financial performance, i.e. value. [Ergo: the A-list can very easily skuttle a project by plausibly deniable cold-shoulders. --bdt]"

–Innovation is a process of social interactions

"Our brains are designed to create cognitive shortcuts — inference, intuition,..."

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 17:22:48 GMT

Our brains are designed to create cognitive shortcuts — inference, intuition, and so forth — to avoid precisely that sort of discomfort while coping with the rush of information we receive on a daily basis. Without those shortcuts, few things would ever get done. Unfortunately, with them, we’re easily suckered by political falsehoods.

Nyhan ultimately recommends a supply-side approach. Instead of focusing on citizens and consumers of misinformation, he suggests looking at the sources. If you increase the “reputational costs” of peddling bad info, he suggests, you might discourage people from doing it so often. “So if you go on ‘Meet the Press’ and you get hammered for saying something misleading,” he says, “you’d think twice before you go and do it again.”

Unfortunately, this shame-based solution may be as implausible as it is sensible. Fast-talking political pundits have ascended to the realm of highly lucrative popular entertainment, while professional fact-checking operations languish in the dungeons of wonkery ...

–How facts backfire - Page 6 - Boston.com