Clipmarks | Philosophy Clips

I support Obama on Issues, not because of the Cult of Personality

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 06:08:45 GMT

clipped by: ouyangwulong
clipper's remarks: I don't worship Barak Obama. I don't think he's a savior, or even an angel. Although the novelty of him being a "black" president is entertaining, I don't really care about that either. (Honestly, it seems a little strange that we are so self-congratulatory over 'voting for a black man,' as if that should be really impressive somehow.)

Why do I support Barak Obama? Because of all the people running for President, I believe he has the best ideas on what direction our country needs to take. I would like to see much of his platform made into reality, and because of that, I will vote for him.

I don't want to waste all our time arguing of personal slights and vauge rumors. Let's get to the issues. Here is why I support Barak Obama:

Clip Source: www.barackobama.com

Renewing American Diplomacy

Talk to our Foes and Friends: Obama is willing to meet with the leaders of all nations, friend and foe. He will do the careful preparation necessary, but will signal that America is ready to come to the table, and that he is willing to lead. And if America is willing to come to the table, the world will be more willing to rally behind American leadership to deal with challenges like terrorism, and Iran and North Korea's nuclear programs.

Clip Source: www.barackobama.com

Restore Our Alliances

Organize to Help Our Partners and Allies in Need: An Obama administration will expand humanitarian activities that build friends and allies at the regional and local level (such as during the response to the tsunami in South and Southeast Asia), and win hearts and minds in the process.

Tags: obama, president, issues, serious, philosophy, experience, patriotism, iraq

Proof Obama isn't Muslim

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:54:01 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners

Clip Source: www.chicagotribune.com

Barack Obama has expressed pride in his ability to bring home old-fashioned pork.

"My philosophy was that, if money was being distributed, then it would be inappropriate for me to not get my share for my district,"

In 2001, for example, Obama steered $75,000 to a South Side charity called FORUM Inc., which promised to help churches and community groups get wired to the Internet. Records show five FORUM employees, including one who had declared bankruptcy, had donated $1,000 apiece to Obama's state Senate campaign.

One of those long-time supporters was Rev. Michael Pfleger, the politically active leader of St. Sabina Church. He gave Obama's campaign $1,500 between 1995 and 2001, including $200 in April 2001, about three months after Obama announced $225,000 in grants to St. Sabina programs.

Another supporter, Henry English, made two donations to Obama totaling $900 in 2001 after Obama helped send a $50,000 grant to a non-profit group that English ran

Tags: obama, politics, pork, corruption

Occupy The City

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:58:55 GMT

clipped by: homebusinessaces
clipper's remarks: This is a pretty good description of Occupy The City. Most people may not know what it is so this article will give them really good basic information.

Clip Source: www.goarticles.com

Occupy The City - Now You Can Have More Home Business Success And Make More Money with The Occupy The City Way by Jose Seminario

Most online business opportunities offer crappy training if at all. Anyone with a online business that would like to generate some traffic to their web site can gain from the OTC training. You can discovery a step by step task list that will help you form the foundation to your online business.

See and hear Jason Acopolis, Occupy The City Founder, as he talks about how he developed the original philosophy for the program on the web site. If you have been struggling to develop a home based business or are involved with a network marketing or MLM company then feel free to check out the program.

Tags: occupy the city, home based business, work from home, network marketing leads

Romantic Novel

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:14:50 GMT

clipped by: lovebegetswealth
clipper's remarks: Love begets wealth represents a romantic novel written by GJ Bajaj that uses a earth shattering and amusing approach on How to create Wealth using the power of love.

Clip Source: www.lovebegetswealth.com

Welcome to the Romantic Novel LOVE BEGETS WEALTH. The title of the romantic novel itself is a subject of the fiction. Entire story cites an example, which justifies the theme, 'Love Begets Wealth'. And at the end reader too accepts the philosophy.

It's a love story of an irresponsible and vagabond Michael and a sex bomb Bobbi. Michael pursues exclusively different hobby and accidentally gets beautiful Bobbi.

It is my word, whoever reads this romance novel, will not be able to keep it down; and I assure you that you shall need it for future reference too. The reasons are obvious. The concept of the romantic novel is so novel that you might never have read or even imagined. The language of the romantic ebook is very crisp and flying. And it contains a booklet on "Wealth Creation".

Tags: romantic novel, ebooks, romance novels

Why Everyone Should Be in Favor of Reducing Taxes on the Rich

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:04:41 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Clip Source: mises.org

Are the American people being primed to elect a home-grown version of Hugo Chavez, in the person of Barack Obama? This is a question one can come away with after reading "Obamanomics," the featured article in this last Sunday's (August 24, 2008) New York Times Magazine. Written by Times' columnist David Leonhardt, the article provides insight into Obama's thinking on economics and the economic policies he would be likely to pursue if he were elected President.

Obama's agenda, we are told in more detail, includes "a $500 cut in the payroll tax for most workers" and major middle- and lower-income tax credits, to the point of simply handing out government money to those for whom the tax credits more than eliminate the taxes they would otherwise have to pay. "These tax cuts," Leonhardt writes, "are really the essence of his market-oriented redistributionist philosophy (though he made it clear that he doesn't like the word 'redistributionist').

Open Source Justification

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:22:09 GMT

clipped by: biverson

Clip Source: news.cnet.com

The bug is that Flash videos don't play for certain Firefox 3 users on Windows XP or Vista, when using the current Flash player version 9. On YouTube, CNET TV, and other sites, embedded videos will start, but they halt after two seconds. Both Mozilla and Adobe have been aware of the issue since late May, but as yet no solution has been found. For some people suffering from this bug, it's intermittent. For others, it's a consistent block to viewing online videos.

He also took a minute to trumpet Mozilla's open-source philosophy. Since Firefox's code is open, Adobe can look at it to try to determine what is going on. But Mozilla's team can't look into Flash. Beltzner didn't blame Adobe for the bug itself, but he did say that Adobe's traditional closed software architecture is slowing down their investigation. "We hit a wall when it's a closed-source solution," he said.

The Science of Mysticism

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:07:57 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Well worth reading the article. Another example of how the popularised emphasis on 'intelligence' and AI is well off the mark when it comes to assessing the biological nature of the human organism: feelings (cortical representations and re-representations) are the basis of human experience including reason and language. The hundred years of suggestion in this area from James onwards are now being supplemented by modern neurobiological research. Such a key word as representation offers a potentially rich bridge between neuroscience and philosophy, linguistics and the humanities.

Clip Source: www.science-spirit.org

A stunning new description of how the human body and brain communicate to produce emotional states -- including our feelings, cravings, and moods -- has all the elements needed to explain how the human brain might give rise to spiritual experiences, without the necessary involvement of a supernatural presence, according to Dr. Martin Paulus, a psychiatrist at the University of California in San Diego who is also a Zen practitioner.

Called interoception, it offers a radically new view of human anatomy and physiology based on how information from the body reaches the brain and how that information is processed uniquely in humans.

In this view, spirituality -- an emotional feeling from the body, a sense of timelessness, a suspension of self and dissolution of personal boundaries -- can be explained in terms of brain physiology, which means, of course, that it is subject to experimentation and manipulation.

Tags: neuroscience

Free Will ?

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:33:02 GMT

clipped by: klippety
clipper's remarks: Age old debate regarding free will, moral implications, evolution and far more.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Free Will versus the Programmed Brain

If our actions are determined by prior events, then do we have a choice about anything—or any responsibility for what we do?

Many scientists and philosophers are convinced that free will doesn’t exist at all. According to these skeptics, everything that happens is determined by what happened before—our actions are inevitable consequences of the events leading up to the action—and this fact makes it impossible for anyone to do anything that is truly free. This kind of anti-free will stance stretches back to 18th century philosophy, but the idea has recently been getting much more exposure through popular science books and magazine articles. Should we worry? If people come to believe that they don’t have free will, what will the consequences be for moral responsibility?

In a clever new study, psychologists Kathleen Vohs at the University of Minnesota and Jonathan Schooler at the University of California at Santa Barbara tested this question

Free will

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:40:36 GMT

clipped by: chipperdean

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

scientific american

Free Will versus the Programmed Brain

August 19, 2008 in Mind & Brain | 88 comments | Post a comment

If our actions are determined by prior events, then do we have a choice about anything—or any responsibility for what we do?

By Shaun Nichols

Tags: psychology

History of Western Civilization lost in Iraq

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 04:56:18 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "It was there, in what the Greeks called Mesopotamia, that life as we know it today began: there people first began to speculate on philosophy and religion, developed concepts of international trade, made ideas of beauty into tangible forms, and, above all developed the skill of writing." And US invaders stood by and watched as irreplaceable world history was hauled off by unarmed looters.

Clip Source: www.tomdispatch.com

The Past Destroyed: Five Years Later

On April 11, 12, 13, and 14, 2003, the United States Army and United States Marine Corps disgraced themselves and the country they represent in Baghdad, Iraq's capital city. Having invaded Iraq and accepted the status of a military occupying power, they sat in their tanks and Humvees, watching as unarmed civilians looted the Iraqi National Museum and burned down the Iraqi National Library and Archives as well as the Library of Korans of the Ministry of Religious Endowments. Their behavior was in violation of their orders, international law, and the civilized values of the United States. Far from apologizing for these atrocities or attempting to make amends, the United States government has in the past five years added insult to injury.

In 1258 AD the Mongols descended on Baghdad and pillaged its magnificent libraries

The world has never forgotten that medieval act of barbarism, just as it will never forget what the U.S. military unleashed

in 2003

Tags: war, iraq

Obama: A U of C Dem

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:36:41 GMT

clipped by: gardnertoby

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

All told, Obama would not only cut taxes for most people more than McCain would. He would cut them more than Bill Clinton did and more than Hillary Clinton proposed doing. These tax cuts are really the essence of his market-oriented redistributionist philosophy (though he made it clear that he doesn’t like the word “redistributionist”). They are an attempt to address the middle-class squeeze by giving people a chunk of money to spend as they see fit.

On Law and Neuroscience

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:06:32 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: An interesting read describing the influence of evolution theory and neuroscience on basic legal and moral concepts such as responsibility and free will.

Clip Source: darwinianconservatism.blogspot.com

Farahany is a law professor at Vanderbilt University who brings together law, philosophy, and biology in studying the fundamental assumptions about human nature in criminal law.

paper on "Law and Behavioral Morality

In this paper, she considers how research in evolutionary science and neuroscience might influence our view of criminal responsibility and culpability.

She claims that as evolutionary biology and cognitive neuroscience provide biological explanations of human morality, this will strengthen the power of "behavioral morality--the idea that any behavior with a physical cause is either not blameworthy, or is less so.

She seems to assume that "blameworthiness" presupposes "free will" understood as an uncaused cause.

I disagree with her. As I have said in some previous posts, I see no reason to believe that legal responsibility and culpability must rest on the idea of "free will" understood as uncaused cause.

Tags: law, morality, neuroscience

Components to A.I.

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 03:09:10 GMT

clipped by: jgisme11

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

AI research uses tools and insights from many fields, including computer science, psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, cognitive science, linguistics, ontology, operations research, economics, control theory, probability, optimization and logic.^[7] AI research also overlaps with tasks such as robotics, control systems, scheduling, data mining, logistics, speech recognition, facial recognition and many others.^[8]

Naturalism's Hot Water

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:10:12 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: The problem, as several thinkers (C. S. Lewis, for example) have seen, is that naturalism, or evolutionary naturalism, seems to lead to a deep and pervasive skepticism. It leads to the conclusion that our cognitive or belief-producing faculties—memory, perception, logical insight, etc.—are unreliable and cannot be trusted to produce a preponderance of true beliefs over false....

Clip Source: str.typepad.com

Alvin Plantinga, philosophy professor emeritus from Notre Dame, shows why the basic presuppositions and worldview of the new atheists undermine their claim to hold the rationally superior beliefs about religion:

I believe it's extremely important to see that naturalism itself, despite the smug and arrogant tone of the so-called New Atheists, is in very serious philosophical hot water: one can't sensibly believe it....

[T]his is true on several counts, but here I want to concentrate on just one—one connected with the thought that evolution supports or endorses or is in some way evidence for naturalism. As I see it, this is a whopping error: evolution and naturalism are not merely uneasy bedfellows; they are more like belligerent combatants. One can't rationally accept both evolution and naturalism; one can't rationally be an evolutionary naturalist.

Tags: naturalism, evolution, science, religion

Ruby vs Python

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 09:04:59 GMT

clipped by: allendog

Clip Source: c2.com

So, how do Python and Ruby compare? They look more similar to each other than either does to Perl. What are the differences?

Points of comparison:

Overview
Heritage and Philosophy
Popularity
Readability
Ease for Beginners
Ruby Blocks and Python Lambdas
Development Environments
Community and Documentation
Libraries, Platforms and Applications
Performance
Opinions : Leaving Python for Ruby / Leaving Ruby for Python (anybody?)
Misc.