Glanced at the “Have a nice day” article. I’m absolutely shocked by how much can be said about a banal expression, especially how much negative stuff and criticism people level at it. Wow.
On the topic of death, I’ve always been fond of Derrida’s “Last Words” (later translated and published in Critical Inquiry, I believe). While they were addressed to his son, I think it’s clear he really addressed them to everyone:
Jacques wanted no rites and no orations. He knows from experience what an ordeal it is for the friend who takes on the task. He asks me to thank you for coming and to bless you. He beseeches you not to be sad, to think only of the happy moments you gave him the chance to share with him.
Smile for me, he says, as I will have smiled for you until the end.
Always prefer life and constantly affirm survival...
I love you and am smiling at you from wherever I am.
I have to agree with Sanderson’s first law.
One reason I liked HPMOR more than the original Harry Potter was the transition from soft magic to hard (rule-based, well-explained) magic.
You see, mother and fetus have quite distinct evolutionary interests. The mother ‘wants’ to dedicate approximately equal resources to all her surviving children, including possible future children, and none to those who will die. The fetus ‘wants’ to survive, and take as much as it can get.
Short Online Texts Thread
Psychology:
“The poor neglected gifted child: Precocious kids do seem to become high-achieving adults. Why that makes some educators worried about America’s future” (SMPY)
“The Overprotected Kid: A preoccupation with safety has stripped childhood of independence, risk taking, and discovery—without making it safer. A new kind of playground points to a better solution.” (Playgrounds, risk, and childrearing.)
Frederik Pohl & cryonics
Science/technology:
“Dorian Nakamoto has vehemently denied being Bitcoin’s creator. Did Newsweek act irresponsibly in pursuit of a scoop? Could they have known, prior to the denials, that Dorian wasn’t Satoshi?”
“A Randomized Experimental Study of Censorship in China”
Tweets which are anagrams of each other
“A Fistful of Bitcoins: Characterizing Payments Among Men with No Names”, Meiklejohn et al 2013 (excerpts)
Philosophy:
“Searching For One-Sided Tradeoffs” (Optimality/equilibrium reasoning.)
“SCP-988”
Business:
Econlolcats
“The True Story Of The Great Marijuana Crash Of 2011”
Misc:
Have a nice day
Lapham’s Quarterly: “Death”:
“Longing for His Son Furuhi” (Yamanoue no Okura mourns)
Gensen’s death poems
“Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”
Heraclitus
Montaigne, “To Philosophize Is to Learn to Die”
“The Masque of the Red Death”
“Gertrude Bell Survives a Plague”
John Stuart Mill’s diary
Macaulay letter on Wilberforce’s death
Egyptian rites
Glanced at the “Have a nice day” article. I’m absolutely shocked by how much can be said about a banal expression, especially how much negative stuff and criticism people level at it. Wow.
What made you stumble on it?
Probably /r/Wikipedia.
On the topic of death, I’ve always been fond of Derrida’s “Last Words” (later translated and published in Critical Inquiry, I believe). While they were addressed to his son, I think it’s clear he really addressed them to everyone:
The China study link gives me
Ironic, since that link was itself a link I tracked down after the original link had died. One of the links in http://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=18363866799340069167&hl=en&as_sdt=0,9 should work...
Politics/religion:
“How Interest Rates Were Set, 2500 BC – 1000 AD”
“How Successful Was Christianity?”
“How is the biomarker ID aid plan going in India?”
“The Chaos Company: Wherever governments can’t—or won’t—maintain order, from oil fields in Africa to airports in Britain and nuclear facilities in America, the London-based “global security” behemoth G4S has been filling the void”
“Book Review: A Poisonous Affair: America, Iraq, and the Gassing of Halabja, by Joost R. Hiltermann”
Statistics:
“Laplace the Bayesianista and the Mass of Saturn”
“Why do Phase III Trials of Promising Heart Failure Drugs Often Fail? The Contribution of ‘Regression to the Truth’”, Krum & Tonkin 2003 (excerpts)
“The Efficacy of Psychological, Educational, and Behavioral Treatment: Confirmation From Meta-Analysis”, Lipsey & Wilson 1993 (I love these meta-meta-analyses, since they let you say things like ‘Published studies yield mean effects 0.14 SDs larger than unpublished studies.’ Isn’t that useful to know?)
Literature:
“Sanderson’s First Law” of fantasy
Medicine:
“Biomarkers and Long-term Labour Market Outcomes: The Case of Creatine”
Caloric restriction, evidence pyramid, and drug risks
“Meta-Regression Analyses, Meta-Analyses, and Trial Sequential Analyses of the Effects of Supplementation with Beta-Carotene, Vitamin A, and Vitamin E Singly or in Different Combinations on All-Cause Mortality: Do We Have Evidence for Lack of Harm?”, Bjelakovic et al 2013
I have to agree with Sanderson’s first law. One reason I liked HPMOR more than the original Harry Potter was the transition from soft magic to hard (rule-based, well-explained) magic.
The attribution of mental states to technological systems.
Related: http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2013/11/07/ux-and-the-civilizing-process/
How Politics Makes Us Stupid
Ezra Klein’s version of Politics is the Mind-Killer.
Suzanne Sadedin, “What is the evolutionary or biological purpose of having periods?”