Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

It’s reaching the point where there isn’t anything that can’t be printed these days. Most people have heard about guns, houses, ceramics, etc., but today I learned about printing microscopes. From paper: A new microscope can be printed on a flat piece of paper and assembled with a few extra components in less than 10…

Fake quotes on the Internet are nothing new, and the biggest problem with them is the difficulty of disproving them. The more famous the person quoted, the greater the likelihood that everything he said for public consumption exists in an accessible archive somewhere, and that if the attributed quote is not to be found there,…

While the term “kids for cash” might sound morally repellant, relax! It’s now a judicial concept. Painful scene from a new documentary ‘Kids For Cash’. The woman in this photo lost her son, Ed Kenzakoski, who was so disturbed by his multiple unjust prison sentences that he took his own life. The mother screams in horror…

A system me and a few friends have been working on for the last couple of years is nearing completion of development. It is a tiny controller board that harkens back to the early days of computers. Although it is big by those standards. It has 32K of ROM (Flash actually – no programmer required)…

This is not only a beautiful sight to behold, but it is narrated by Salvador Dali:  

Speaking of things that Suck Big Time, what a lovely headline I found staring me in the face. 2016? Hillary Clinton 47%, Jeb Bush 33% The latest round of speculation about the 2016 presidential race stars former Florida Governor Jeb Bush whose Republican nomination could potentially lead to a matchup between two powerhouse political families.…

I am having a nostalgic moment. Back when I was living in Philly, there was a huge scandal involved corrupt then-Mayor John Street which was called “Pay to Play.” The general idea of Pay to Play has its own Wiki entry (which doesn’t mention Street, but does cover Illinois Governor Rod Blog Blagojevich). Today I learned that…

Is Vladimir Putin emerging as some sort of conservative hero? Earlier I left a comment saying that I would not write a post about such things, as I don’t need the headaches. But an article I read made me decide to take that back. After all, if other people are already discussing the issue, I…

As as I was reminded earlier by this scene, we really need to get people out of their cars and onto bicycles!

Not much time right now, but this news just plain sucks. SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine — Russian armed forces seized control of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula on Saturday, as the Russian Parliament granted President Vladimir V. Putin broad authority to use military force in response to the political upheaval in Ukraine that dislodged a Kremlin ally and installed…

I no fan of the wind industry so when I came across “Gaslighting” by the Wind Industry I had my suspicions (and knowledge) confirmed. How often are we told by the wind industry that their development will create so many jobs, so much power to “X” number of households and that their will be no…

In a comment, Gringo asked me whether I built the “Hackintosh” over concerns about the demise of Windows XP. No. I did it because in order to get the degree I want, I have to take a listed course to demonstrate what is called “computer literacy.” Among the listed courses was Adobe Illustrator, which I…

Pointman has a terrific piece up A climate of deception, deceit, lies and outright dishonesty. You should read the whole thing. It was prompted by this Jo Nova bit: Busted: 120 gibberish science papers withdrawn — so much for “peer review”. For those of you into electronics the IEEE published about 100 of the papers.

I love this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JstwmJjn34w Is it magnetic attraction? Magnetic repulsion? Or is it something else?

So I am writing my first blog post in my Hackintosh computer, which was kind of a bitch to put together. But for the resources discussed in places like these (which made me think it would be easier than it was), I would never have attempted such a ridiculously nerdy thing. And nerdy it is!…

Wow. Take a look at these Drudge headlines: AZ WARNED: YOU’LL LOSE SUPER BOWL… Pressure mounts over bill opposed by gays… Brewer veto drama… ‘I will do right thing’… Romney: Veto Bill… UPDATE: ‘Religious Freedom Restoration Act’… Hollywood Bar Bans Anti-Gay Lawmakers… ‘We Don’t Want Your Kind Here’… I’ve read the law in question, and…

This blog has been getting slow and buggy in recent days, and I am trying to figure out why. In addition, we are getting a HUGE amount of comment spam, which is abnormal, and is causing some favorite commenters to be blocked. I am sorry for this, and I am trying to solve the problem.…

I think it is getting colder.

From 1969. Firesign Theater, anticipating GPS by at least 20 years. The full album: How Can You Be Two Places At Once When You’re Not Anywhere at all H/T Chief IO Sensitivity Training Is Evil.

It cracked me up to see Glenn Beck being told he should read up on Foucault. (Not because he should, of course.)