Democratizing the Internet

Group of dancers wearing Hammer Pants flashmob a trendy store and surprise hipsters in skinny jeans.

“Flipping pages in general, I get the impression that if you subtract individual desire from Western philosophy (and the negation of individual desire from Eastern philosophy), all you have left is mathematical set theory.” - Bruce Brooks

Hello Boston Friends,

I'm considering buying a cheap plane ticket to Boston this weekend, but first I need to know if its worth my while in terms of seeing people. So who is free to hang out this weekend from Friday morning to Tuesday? Any takers on who I could stay with? If I get a good response, I'll likely buy a ticket and take the ride...
miss you all still.

Heidegger! For the chapter heading: "The Anyone as the who of the being of with one-another in everydayness". She said whatnow?

Also, for beautiful pictures of Kasmiris, check this out

for some reason Harold and Maude struck a chord with me tonight. perhaps its because I secretly have a thing for cantankerous old laidies and re-affirming life in the face of teenage angst, but I found the movie to be rather hilarious. the movie's "psychoanalytic framing device" added nicely to the comic effect since the shrink seemed to be more reflective of Harold's mother than Maude, which gave the whole narrative a nicely meta feel. My favorite exchange in the film was:

( Read More - warning, spoilers )

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you.

1. I have an incredibly vivid and active dream life, which often affects my waking life. Sometimes I have trouble deciding whether or not things in dreams actually happened right after I wake up. The good news is that I rarely have nightmares.

2. Animals of all kinds and children seem to have an odd affinity for me. Often times kids and critters who don't usually like strangers will take a fancy to me in remarkable ways. I've been told that I have a friendly looking face.

3. I have been an animal lover my whole life. I really wanted to be a veterinarian until I learned about the harsh realities of veterinary medicine in high school when I started volunteering at the local animal shelter.

4. Often times, I have strange psychic tendencies for predicting things like what someone will throw in a game of Ro Sham Bo, or what will happen in a given situation. I've had a few prophetic dreams as well, although they were mostly about mundane things.

5. I like playing sports, but I hate watching. My favorites are softball, tennis and ultimate frisbee.

6. I really enjoy dancing, and have learned several styles. These include: swing, salsa, cha-cha, waltzing and the charleston. I love watching other people dance as well, particularly if they look like they're really into it, and regardless of how bad they are at it.

7. My favorite beers are spicy and dark, chocolatey, Belgian ales or made with fruit. Recently, Michael gave me some amazing pumpkin ale that he made. The best beer I've had has been home or micro-brewed.

8. I don't tend to have single favorites of any kind, mostly because I'm moody and crave variety. I tend to have groups of favorites.

9. I go to the Philly Folk Fest every year, if I possibly can. Its a magical place, filled with good music, cheap beer, and psychedelic artistry.

10. I have a Hawiian baritone ukelele that I used to really enjoy playing until the bridge snapped off at the Philly Folk fest one year in 100 degree heat. I'm still trying to find a way to repair it. In particular, I need some clamps to hold the bridge on while the glue dries.

11. I like clamps, buttons and electronic gadgets.

12. The best book I read recently was Reason's Traces by Matthew Kapstein.

13. I think that people who want to speculate about history should just write fiction, or perhaps should write fiction in addition to their histories just so we know what they really want to have happened. I also think its sad that fiction is solargely under-appreciated by historians.

14. I'm way into Battlestar Galactica, so much so that I won't watch any of the new season until its mostly been released so that I don't have to wait to see the next episode.

15. I'm staunchly against internet regulation or censorship of any kind.

16. The best movie I've seen recently is Monster in a Box, with Spalding Gray.

17. Music is a big hobby of mine, although I haven't had much time to play any recently. Since moving to Chicago, I've acquired a large amount of new music and have been researching and talking to people about the history of elecronic music.

18. I love it when my friends share the music they make with me. Having a personal connection with them means that I have an immediate personal connection with their music, and there's something deeply meaningful about that experience.

19. I am going to San Francisco twice in the next 4 months: once for a wedding and once just because. Meet me there!

20. I'm in a monogamous relationship for the first time in 2 years, and I'm loving it.

21. Unfortunately, this means I can't slam-fuck your mom anymore. Or your sister.

22. Much like a super-hero, I'm willing to make great sacrifices for the good of the people.

23. If I get into the phd program, I might cut a mohawk and dye it purple.

24. Despite hating the winter, I've only moved farther and farther north since leaving New Jersey.

25. When I die at the ripe old age of 95 at my beach-house in Maui, I want my lover to be so sad about my passing that he decides to not attend his senior prom.

"Empty are the words of that philosopher who offers therapy for no human suffering. For just as there is no use in medical expertise if it does not give therapy for bodily diseases, so too there is no use in philosophy if it does not expel the suffering of the soul."
-Long and Sedley 1987: 155

"In this world, there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it."
-Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan: act 3

I think I appreciate old Oscar even more with time.
::update::
Recently, I worked really hard on a paper about identity and the role of the first person pronoun "I" as articulated by Anscombe, Wittgenstein, Frege and Descartes. This was my first major foray into the wonderful world of analytic philosophy, and it made me hyper-pedantic and batty for weeks. Luckily, I finished the paper in time, and I think it turned out really well. Today I found out that my professor apparently agrees since he gave me an A in the class. I know I shouldn't care because it doesn't matter, but my GPA totally powns right now. :D

Also, I'm applying to the Divinity School and the application's due Monday. My adviser called my petition "eminently well-suited to the occasion", so I'm feeling pretty good about the whole thing.

Once I finish the 12 page paper that's due Thursday on the Bhagavad Gita, some drinking will certainly be in order. Look me up towards the end of next week!

And yes, Michael is still fucking amazing.

"If there are no questions, there are no answers. If there are questions, then, of course, there are answers, but the final answer makes the questions seem absurd, whereas the questions, up until then, seem more intelligent than the answers." --John Cage

‘In this cauldron fashioned from delusion, with the sun as fire and day and night as kindling wood, the months and seasons as the ladle for stirring, Time (or Death) cooks all beings: this is the simple truth’.
-The Mahabharata

Suddenly, there was nothing missing and it felt like there never was. Lately, I've been simmering in warm hugs, silly jokes and mutual mental masturbations. I feel as though I've won the boy lottery. he reminds me of what its like to be truly optimistic about the world, of why people are so worth it (ie: the right blend of independence, kindness, intelligence and fun). he studies sociology at my school and is as critical, curious and "meta" as I am. he loves film, music and books...and we know such different things that there hardly seems to be any potential for boredom. its all rather...perfect, and perhaps a little terrifying for that reason. there's nothing quite like this kind of excitement.

Also, this semester I am taking the most amazing classes...Indian Philosophy I, Yogacara and we're reading a Mimamsa sutra written by Shabarasvami in sanskrit! My paper on Wittgenstinian interpretations of identity via first person analyses is going quite well also. If only I could finish it...

In the past two weeks, I've been spending a lot of time with someone really special. Strangely, we met in the middle of the stress of finals, Thanksgiving and PhD application deadlines, but these things now somehow seem lighter. In the past two weeks, I've been smiling and laughing much more often, remembering what warmth, tenderness and chemistry feels like.

The funny thing is that when I acquired houseplants back in September, they were all flowering or some had never flowered. The flowers all died when part of me did a few months ago. Now, for some strange reason, ALL of my plants have begun flowering in the last week - even a plant that I didn't know could flower. This is totally inexplicable since it is now the dead of winter... but the truth is, these plants simply match my mood. Scarlett Begonias and purple blossoms in my red clover plant adorn my living room, stretching towards the light.

According to Jan Westerhoff,
"There remains a second problem, namely answering the question what is responsible for the cessation and production of entities existing by svabhava (or substance). If they are dependent on causes and conditions for their production and annihilation then they cannot be ultimately real entities after all, as the whole point of postulating entities existing by svabhava was to have some objects that are not existentially dependent on any others.

The permutationist view does not have this problem. We still have to assume that the ultimately real objects congregate in certain ways dependent on causes and conditions, but this only concerns the existential dependence of the objects they thus constitute, objects which were not supposed to exist by svabhava in the first place. While the permutationist view thus seems more attractive than the annihilationist
view it has the curious consequence that the supposedly ultimately real objects existing by svabhava recede more and more.

The idea of fire-atoms as ultimately real objects is obviously only of historical interest. It is far from clear, however, whether the conception of elementary particles of contemporary physics is much more attractive to the permutationist. While the mahabhutas had the advantage of being relatively close to objects of ordinary experience, such as fire, water and so forth, things like electrons, quarks or strings are purely theoretical posits. Nobody has ever seen an electron and nobody ever will, as these are not accessible to sensory perceptions. As in the case of all theoretical posits claims for their existence are based on the explanatory work the respective terms carry out in a particular theory. It is therefore quite ironic that our best candidates for ultimately real entities independent of human conceptualization turn out to be objects which are so highly theory-dependent and the existence of which seems to be considerably less secure than that of the medium-sized dry goods with which we interact daily."

The positive change-kind of business! Obama is looking into overturning Bush's most assinine, I mean controversial, executive orders when he takes office in January! He's looking to overturn the executive orders on banning funding for family planning groups, abortion, the ban on creating new lines of embryonic stem cells and drilling for oil in fragile ecosystems, among others. He also still wants to close Guantanamo.

Check it out!

It is interesting to note that in Pali, one word for the Self or soul is attA, and the doctrine of no-self is called anattA. In Japanese, the word for "you" is anata. I wonder if there is any linguistic relationship between these words...

"I am not this, this is not mine, this is not attA."

Well, he dumped me again, a couple of hours before my birthday party. I wonder if he was trying to do something so mean that I'd stop talking to him. I really shouldn't be surprised, and I'm trying to not take it seriously. I honestly don't know why I'm so hooked on this one. I've forgotten how to let go.

In other news, my polish roommate was held up at gunpoint when a gangbanger followed her into the vestibule to our building. She ran into the house before anything happened, but she's scared enough that she's considering moving...possibly back to Europe. Does anyone know of someone looking for a place in Hyde Park?

Also, Indian meal moths have invaded my catfood. I really don't want to have to throw out pounds of it, so any advice on dealing with such a problem?

The truth is, I am actually fine. I have some dark moments, and some anxiety about the usual, but a new semester approaches on the horizon with the promise of interesting classes and new friends. A few of us are organizing a series of potluck dinners, which promise to be lovely.

Everything is empty, and I'm always learning the hard way. Friends like you make it easier.

A new study out of Yale University confirms what argumentative liberals have long-known: Offering reality-based rebuttals to conservative lies only makes conservatives cling to those lies even harder. In essence, schooling conservatives makes them more stupid.

From the Washington Post article on the study, which came out yesterday:

Political scientists Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler provided two groups of volunteers with the Bush administration's prewar claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. One group was given a refutation -- the comprehensive 2004 Duelfer report that concluded that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction before the United States invaded in 2003. Thirty-four percent of conservatives told only about the Bush administration's claims thought Iraq had hidden or destroyed its weapons before the U.S. invasion, but 64 percent of conservatives who heard both claim and refutation thought that Iraq really did have the weapons. The refutation, in other words, made the misinformation worse.

A similar "backfire effect" also influenced conservatives told about Bush administration assertions that tax cuts increase federal revenue. One group was offered a refutation by prominent economists that included current and former Bush administration officials. About 35 percent of conservatives told about the Bush claim believed it; 67 percent of those provided with both assertion and refutation believed that tax cuts increase revenue.

In a paper approaching publication, Nyhan, a PhD student at Duke University, and Reifler, at Georgia State University, suggest that Republicans might be especially prone to the backfire effect because conservatives may have more rigid views than liberals: Upon hearing a refutation, conservatives might "argue back" against the refutation in their minds, thereby strengthening their belief in the misinformation. Nyhan and Reifler did not see the same "backfire effect" when liberals were given misinformation and a refutation about the Bush administration's stance on stem cell research.

An undercover video taken at an Iowa pig farm shows workers hitting sows with metal rods, slamming piglets on a concrete floor and bragging about jamming rods up into sows' hindquarters.

On the video, obtained by The Associated Press, a supervisor tells an undercover investigator for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that when he gets angry or a sow won't move, "I grab one of these rods and jam it in her [anus]."

The farm, located outside Bayard, Iowa, about 60 miles west of Des Moines, is a supplier to Hormel Foods of Austin, Minnesota. PETA wants to use the results of the investigation to pressure Hormel, the maker of Spam and other food products, to demand that its suppliers ensure humane treatment of pigs.

After getting a whistleblower complaint from someone inside the farm, PETA sent two undercover investigators to be hired at the farm and document its practices -- one from June 10 to September 8, and the other from July 23 to September 11.

"Abuse on factory farms is the absolute norm, not the exception, and anyone eating factory-farmed meat is paying to support it," Friedrich said.

At one point in the video, workers are shown slamming piglets on the ground, a practice designed to instantly kill those baby pigs that aren't healthy enough. But on the video, the piglets are not killed instantly, and in a bloodied pile, some piglets can be seen wiggling vainly. The video also shows piglets being castrated, and having their tails cut off, without anesthesia.

Temple Grandin, a leading animal welfare expert who serves as a consultant to the livestock industry, said that while those are standard industry practices, the treatment of the sows on the video was far from it.

One of the PETA investigators, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect his ability to do further undercover operations, said there was a culture of violence on the farm, and working there was an emotionally and physically exhausting experience that typically involved working 12-hour shifts and walking 15 miles a day.

"So many times, it took all of my willpower not to step up and do something," he said, adding that he also saw the supervisor shove a cane into a sow's vagina. "I was just shocked. What do you say to that?"

Its apparently "industry standard" to slam baby pigs into concrete to determine which ones are strong enough to live and to cut off their balls and tails without the use of anesthesia. Wow.