One interesting fellow who commented on early articles on this blog is Pete Murphy, who worked for thirty years in manufacturing and engineering for a major chemical company and now writes in his spare time.
What’s interesting is that his book, Five Short Blasts, take an economic approach to analyzing the population problem in the United [...]
Posts from ‘May, 2009’
Interview: Pete Murphy, author of “Five Short Blasts”
Logical inversion and fascism
We humans like to keep a linear, categorical, literal view of things. When we say we’re in control, we’re in control — we think.
One thing we’ve never as a species quite wrapped our minds around is the inversion. This is a logical technique where you argue for something that you claim is against what you [...]
Bad logic: speed limits
Opposition to speed limits divides an audience. Most immediately shut down to anything you have to say and call you crazy, and the others listen because they’re annoyed with speed limits but are still very skeptical.
After all, speed limits are one of those things like food label warnings, fire exits, and health insurance that might [...]
Harvard Study Supports BPA Leaching Theory
Harvard has released a study which further confirms what everyone should by now know: stay away from products that leach chemicals:
Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health found that people who drank for a week from the clear plastic polycarbonate bottles increased concentrations of bisphenol A – or BPA – in their urine by [...]
More bad science: what causes early puberty?
Here’s a prime example of our major human problem — arguing from the human as the cause of all effects, and therefore, having no idea what actually causes anything, although we feel better treating the world as if it were a personalitied human like us:
A UK-led team located two genes on chromosomes six and nine [...]
Nihilism mailing list
We’ve set up a mailing list for those who wish to discuss nihilism and other deontological or anthrocentricism-negating philosophies. Plop in your email address and click subscribe, and you’re on!
Moral judgment blinds us
Among the many ways to look at the world, one of the most popular is moral judgment. Moral judgments are the shoulds, oughts and shouldn’t’ves of the world. When a situation happens, we decide according to some ideal what “should” have happened, and penalize people for what did.
But that’s neurotic, since they did do what [...]
30 Minute Presentation on Overpopulation
Worth checking out:
[Click here]
Things ain’t what they used to be
What an interesting phrase: “Things ain’t what they used to be.” Implication: things are getting steadily worse.
During the first half of a civilization’s life, no one says it but the insane.
During the second half of a civilization’s life, no one denies it but the insane.
Thresholds
Whenever the words “it’s the natural way” appear in debate or in print, I groan inwardly. They once seemed such an easy thing to say; granola, monogamous marriage, friendship and eating vegetables were “natural,” and soft drinks, aggressive selfishness, and living in tiny air-conditioned boxes were “un-natural.”
But then someone pointed out the first paradox: if [...]