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Podcast #1: The Launch

 Posted by on 31 August 2009 at 11:01 pm  Podcasts
Aug 312009
 

For Tuesday’s episode of Philosophy in Action Radio, I posted a podcast on “The Launch.” That podcast is now available for streaming or downloading.

Remember, you can automatically download podcasts of Philosophy in Action Radio by subscribing to Philosophy in Action’s Podcast RSS Feed:


Podcast: 1 September 2009

I introduce myself, discuss the new Atlas Shrugged Reading Groups sponsored by Front Range Objectivism, and offer my advice on an ethical question about a no-show at a wedding.

Listen or Download:

Topics:

  • Introduction
  • Atlas Shrugged Reading Groups
  • Dealing with a no-show at a wedding

Links:

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Philosophy in Action Radio focuses on the application of rational principles to the challenges of real life. It broadcasts live on most Sunday mornings and many Thursday evenings over the internet. For information on upcoming shows, visit the Episodes on Tap. For podcasts of past shows, visit the Show Archives.

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 Podcast #1: The Launch  No Responses »

An Unhappy Customer

 Posted by on 31 August 2009 at 1:01 pm  Funny
Aug 312009
 

This letter from a seriously unhappy customer of a British telecommunications company is damn funny — and then it turns downright hysterical toward the end. Read the whole thing — slowly, so as to savor it.

Oh, how I do love the Holy Internet, and its amusing Begotten Son E-mails from Crazy People! They bless us with The Funny.

 An Unhappy Customer  No Responses »

How Anne Sullivan Taught Hellen Keller to Speak

 Posted by on 30 August 2009 at 11:01 pm  Education, Epistemology
Aug 302009
 

Those of you have have seen the movie and/or play versions of “The Miracle Worker” might be interested in this short 1930 newsreel clip in which Anne Sullivan explains how she taught Helen Keller to speak:

Ayn Rand was a great admirer of “The Miracle Worker“, a now-classic play about Sullivan and Keller.

In her essay, “Kant Vs. Sullivan” (from Philosophy: Who Needs It), Rand wrote:

…Annie Sullivan, her young teacher (superlatively portrayed by Anne Bancroft), is fiercely determined to transform this creature into a human being, and she knows the only means that can do it: language, i.e., the development of the conceptual faculty. But how does one communicate the nature and function of language to a blind-deaf-mute? The entire action of the play is concerned with this single central issue: Annie’s struggle to make Helen’s mind grasp a word — not a signal, but a word.

…To my knowledge, “The Miracle Worker” is the only epistemological play ever written. It holds the viewer in tensely mounting suspense, not over a chase or a bank robbery, but over the question of whether a human mind will come to life. Its climax is magnificent: after Annie’s crushing disappointment at Helen’s seeming retrogression, water from a pump spills over Helen’s hand, while Annie is automatically spelling “W-A-T-E-R” into her palm, and suddenly Helen understands.

The two great moments of that climax are incommunicable except through the art of acting: one is the look on Patty Duke’s face when she grasps that the signals mean the liquid — the other is the sound of Anne Bancroft’s voice when she calls Helen’s mother and cries: “She knows!”

We had the pleasure of seeing a theater version of “The Miracle Worker” with some friends when it came to Denver last year, and it was a real treat precisely because of the talent of the actresses who played Sullivan and Keller.

If you can’t see a theater version live, you can always rent the excellent 1962 film version from Netflix.

 How Anne Sullivan Taught Hellen Keller to Speak  2 Responses »

Recap #56

 Posted by on 30 August 2009 at 1:01 pm  Activism Recap
Aug 302009
 

This week on We Stand FIRM, the blog of FIRM: Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine:

 Recap #56  No Responses »

Sunday Open Thread #90

 Posted by on 29 August 2009 at 11:01 pm  Open Thread
Aug 292009
 

Here’s yet another Open Thread for your thoughts:

For anyone in the fiery grip of a random question, comment, joke, or link they’d like to share with NoodleFood readers, I hereby open up the comments on this post to any respectable topic. (Please refrain from posting personal attacks, pornographic material, and commercial solicitations.)

 Sunday Open Thread #90  No Responses »

Bacon, Bacon, and More Bacon

 Posted by on 29 August 2009 at 1:01 pm  Food, Funny
Aug 292009
 

Horror of all horrors, I think that I’m out of bacon at the moment. However, this flow chart tells me exactly what to do:

(Click for a larger version.)

 Bacon, Bacon, and More Bacon  No Responses »

Spot the Difference

 Posted by on 29 August 2009 at 7:01 am  Fun
Aug 292009
 

Today’s “Spot the Difference” quiz features recent brain MRI scans from Diana and Paul. Can you tell the difference between the two?

Hint: Diana has a PhD in philosophy, which means she spends her days pondering deep thoughts about “the fundamental nature of existence, of man, and of man’s relationship to existence.”

Paul is a radiologist, which means he spends all day “looking at the pretty pictures!”

Diana’s brain:

Paul’s brain:

 Spot the Difference  No Responses »

Translation FAIL

 Posted by on 28 August 2009 at 2:01 pm  Funny
Aug 282009
 

I’m pretty sure the humor of this image is self-explanatory:

Perhaps the translation was done by this Chinese lady, taught English by her very helpful grandson:

 Translation FAIL  No Responses »

Be the Local Computer Expert!

 Posted by on 28 August 2009 at 12:01 pm  Funny, Technology
Aug 282009
 

Oh, this one is soooo going to all of my relatives… :^)

[from www.xkcd.com/627/ HT: JasonG]

 Be the Local Computer Expert!  No Responses »

The Objectivism Seminar: Past and Future

 Posted by on 27 August 2009 at 11:01 pm  Announcements, Leonard Peikoff, Objectivism, Politics
Aug 272009
 

The Objectivism Seminar just wrapped up its intensive tour of Dr. Leonard Peikoff’s seminal book, Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand. It was great!

We got to chew on the entire system and its distinctive methodology in the course of some 53(!) sessions, going section by section from metaphysics to esthetics. Some of the participants already had a decade or three of study under their belts, while others were brand new — but we all came away with a more grounded, integrated understanding relative to where we started (that whole “spiral theory of learning” thing :^).
The recordings are available for anyone who wants to join in after the fact — just visit The Objectivism Seminar’s page at TalkShoe to listen or subscribe to the podcasts.
But it’s much better to actually be a part of the conversation, so please join in on our next adventure: Dr. Peikoff’s other book, The Ominous Parallels! It seems so fitting with our current political trajectory and speed.
Is the freest country on earth moving toward totalitarian dictatorship? What were the factors that enabled the Nazis to seize power in pre-war Germany? Do those same conditions exist in America today?

These are the questions raised — and answered, with frightening clarity — by Leonard Peikoff, Ayn Rand’s intellectual heir, in his powerful book The Ominous Parallels.

“We are drifting to the future, not moving purposefully,” Peikoff warns. “But we are drifting as Germany moved, in the same direction, for the same kind of reason.”

The first session will be in about two weeks (September 7), so you have plenty of time to order your copy and be ready to bring your knowledge and questions to the conversation! This isn’t as technical a work as Objectivism, so we’re planning on moving at the rate of about a chapter each week or two. Please visit www.ObjectivismSeminar.com for more information.

Hope you can join in!
Greg

 The Objectivism Seminar: Past and Future  No Responses »
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