Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Well this report from 2000 is interesting. The level of male hormones in the womb can influence an unborn child’s future sexual orientation, according to new research from a University of California, Berkeley, professor who used an unusual technique – measuring finger length – to gather evidence. Marc Breedlove, professor of psychology, also found that…

If pot is legalized government will tax it. Increased government revenues simply lead to increased government spending. What to do? It is obvious. Make everything illegal.

The looniest member yet of the North Korean Kim dynasty is working hard to outdo his ancestors in terms of sheer savage depravity: What’s a fitting way to execute a man labeled “worse than a dog“? If an unconfirmed newspaper report is to be believed, by stripping him naked, throwing him in a cage, and…

A doctor in Illinois had trouble getting an authorization for a surgery from theObamaCare system. Paperwork problems almost delayed suburban Chicago resident Sheri Zajcew’s scheduled surgery Thursday, but Dr. John Venetos decided to operate without a routine go-ahead from the insurance company. That was after Venetos’ office manager spent two hours on hold with the…

    Every hysteria is driven by confirmation bias.    

David Brooks says legalizing drugs encourages drug use. He may or may not be right, but let’s assume he is. Is it worse to encourage drug use, or to encourage crime? This is no idle question, especially because the sort of crime that is encouraged by the illegality of drugs is not limited to the…

The Tablet has the details: How, then, did the quenelle come to be the controversial gesture du jour, the ‘reverse Nazi salute’ that has the world’s attention, and has French Jews (and their American counterparts) crying foul? The gesture was created and popularized by Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, the Cameroonian-French comedian and political provocateur—known primarily by…

Whether you like it or not, weather ain’t the same as it used to be. Seriously, when I was a kid, weather was just one of those things people talked about as a way of making polite conversation and to keep each other informed in a common-sense manner. No more. Weather is now the occasion…

Reason commenter (typos fixed): A friend of a friend posted on Facebook yesterday that owning a gun was irresponsible. I said “good to know I am not a responsible citizen”. The guy then asked what my reasoning was for owning a gun. My answer: “feminism”. I love throwing that shit back at them.

Of course the definition of scientists is rather broad. It includes mathematicians and psychologists. You can find the jokes at the Guardian. My favourite (Brit rag dontchaknow): What does the ‘B’ in Benoit B Mandelbrot stand for? Benoit B Mandelbrot. The most incomprehensible (to me): Sodium sodium sodium sodium sodium sodium sodium sodium Batman! If…

I was checking out the title of this post on Google and came across this post: CRIMINAL TERROR CHARGES FILED AGAINST OBAMA which said in part: Several prominent media sources in Egypt are now reporting that Egyptian lawyers have filed criminal terrorism charges in the International Criminal Court against President Obama in addition to the…

Eric sent me a link to Cocaine Is Evil. In the comments some one brought up China’s opium problem. I was recently discussing that issue at Talk Polywell. Eric sent me the link that started that thread. But OK. How about China and opium? Well how about alcohol in America? What does that show? When…

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player The shape shown the most in the video is a tensegrity tetrahedron although they do have snapshots of an icosahedron. I have built tensegrity tetrahedrons. Here is a video how to: And Bucky Fuller (my inspiration) on tensegrity. There are no solids. The whole universe is made of rubber with…

H/T WUWT

Something about having Christmas Day and New Years Day each in the middle of the week one week apart makes me think that this classic would be appropriate. From 1962, “Seven Day Weekend,” by Gary U.S. Bonds. Don’t let the picture of the record label fool you. It’s an actual video in there. Or there’s…

I brought up the matter of PTSD from child abuse in another post. So this video clip from a longer video suits my zeitgeist to a T. You can find out more about the video by visiting The Gift From Within. A therapist who has watched the video has this to say: For victims of…

The dietary habits of fat people are not my business and I do not want them to be. I say this notwithstanding an emerging trend among certain conservatives: Overeating and not exercising is a choice that often leads to a multitude of health issues like diabetes and heart disease. The obese are being coddled, while…

I saw this on facebook: It gave me PTSD and respect for no one.

Some one posted a similar image on facebook. The person is otherwise sane. She is anti-drug war for instance. I left a few comments. Pretend I’m a woman and need continuous government surveillance. It should be done using the Drug War precedent. Weekly pregnancy tests.With a sufficiently strong police state we can end this scourge.…