robert darwen

@gmiller @christiandean_ You have revealed that you have not encountered the epistemology of David Deutsch. We are all running the same creative software in our brains (a little variation in memory and processing speed notwithstanding) and differ only in our interests and readiness to engage with them.

This G.K. Chesterton quote I return to weekly

Trikafta is one of the most inspiring medical advances in decades. Approved in 2019, the drug at first makes cystic fibrosis patients vomit up mucus for a few days. But while they lose those days, they gain a lifetime–a healthy, *normal length* lifetime. It's a miracle drug.

Anyone who cannot speak simply and clearly should say nothing and continue to work until he can do so. — Karl Popper

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@poppermemes What a line, what a thought! 'If we turn back we must go the whole way, we must return to the beasts'.

The results of the Renters Rights Act: - mass evictions as landlords sell up - huge fall in the number of properties available to rent (flat hunting is worse than ever) - landlords/letting agents intensely vetting tenants - mega-landlords taking over the market - traditional student lets effectively banned Good for renters with £50,000 in the bank ready to buy. Bad for just about everyone else. The consequences were obvious to anyone who has studied economics and yet Ministers just didn’t listen. And now we have politicians calling for full rent controls. It beggars belief. thetimes.com/life-style/pro…

The most exciting longevity trend right now is that we are actually beating dementia. At a given age—70, 75, 80, etc.—the prevalence of dementia is down compared to what it was decades ago. Today's 90-year-olds have less than half the risk of dementia that ones in 1984 did!

Open at 11, but you can browse from 10.45

@NancyRPearcey That might make some sense if Ancient Greece BCE never existed.

If anybody builds it, everybody flies

“Men have sacrificed and crippled themselves physically and emotionally to feed, house, and protect women and children. None of their pain or achievement is registered in feminist rhetoric, which portrays men as oppressive and callous exploiters.” ― Camille Paglia

You're right on the Hebrew, DavidDeutschOxf. "אני מבלבל" means "I confuse [them]" or "I muddle/mix things up" (root ב.ל.ב.ל = bewilder/confuse). It doesn't mean "I fabricate" (that'd be "אני ממציא" or "אני מזייף"). The subtitles in the clip are interpretive at best—likely added by the uploader for impact. The speaker (Eli Hazan) is describing aggressive info tactics in an info war, not official fake-news policy.

Sound!

Choose any word in the dictionary and prefix it with ‘you absolute”

Just something incredibly Brass Eye about the fact that the MP who can’t stop going on about sex toys is called Samantha Niblett

It's whats so frustrating about living in Britain. This country could be far, far richer by just applying the sort of econ 101 you would expect an international delegation to offer to a sub saharan African country: energy, housing, infrastructure. We've already got the difficult stuff that is desperately hard to create from scratch: elite human capital, excellent universities, social trust, weirdly good global biotech/finance/insurance etc. It's the trivially easy stuff that we continually studiously avoid.

I picked up this book from the library, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, and it is about Richard Feynman. I am not a big fan of reading biographies or autobiographies, but this book felt like something I wanted to give a shot. Well, it is not exactly a biography in the first place. It is a collection of interviews, essays, and talks by Feynman himself, put together after his death. It feels like someone close to him is speaking through these moments. The book does not read as a perfectly structured set of paragraphs, but rather like conversations that have been written down and recorded. There is such a natural flow to the words, which I really enjoy. It feels as if I can almost see Feynman in my head, speaking as I read. It is through this book that I have come to better understand his character. The things that mattered to him were honesty, independence, and a willingness to admit ignorance. He was cheerful, and he cared most about finding things out, looking at something from all kinds of perspectives, and being able to explain it to others. As I learn more about him, he comes across as genuine and down to earth. He did not care much for status or honors as a goal; he cared most about doing physics and staying with it. The author draws a comparison to William Shakespeare, quoting Ben Jonson to describe this duality in intensity and playfulness: “When he hath set himself to writing, he would join night to day; press upon himself without release, not minding it till he fainted; and when he left off, remove himself into all sports and looseness again; that it was almost a despair to draw him to his book: but once got to it, he grew stronger and more earnest by the ease.”

"Critical reason is the only alternative to violence so far discovered. But it is an alternative which requires courage, patience, and a willingness to face unpleasant truths. The task is difficult, and the fight is not always successful; but it is not hopeless." —Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies, 1945.

@SimJoeMoore Blocked by David Deutsch. You dumbass!

@DavidDeutschOxf There is no intention to starve Ukraine. Zelenskyy refuses any concession that would end fighting. Trump in Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba aims to remove the hated leader and allows the weakened govt to remain if they cooperate. Putin is not hated.

Quite.

Fascinating piece by @DanielDieppe for @TheCriticMag on what makes the Western mindset so unusual..."we put strangers above friends, are far more likely to tell the truth, and look down on ideas like nepotism. These views are, from a global perspective, “weird” - most people do not think like us." thecritic.co.uk/most-of-the-wo…