Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

From a friend who asked “Who’s paying for THIS?”, I just learned about a study which trained pigeons to be art critics: Pigeons, it seems, can discriminate between art techniques and can even judge their quality. According to scientists, given the incentive of food, racing pigeons can be trained to study the colour, pattern and…

I remember when the micro-computer trade shows started. A few years after the first ones we had an industry. I think hemp/marijuana will follow a similar track. This video was put out by the same folks who put out the It Gave Me Hope video. If you want to grow your own hope this book…

A post linked by Glenn Reynolds yesterday (about Barry Goldwater’s revenge) reminded me of an excellent observation which bears rerepeating: “I became a conservative by being around liberals, and I became a libertarian by being around conservatives.” That was Greg Gutfeld, in a hilarious ReasonTV interview. My experience was somewhat different. I became a libertarian…

Speaking of adultery (which almost everyone agrees is bad) I’m wondering whose adultery is worse — Mark Sanford’s or Newt Gingrich’s. I realize that I’m not the only one asking, but the question was just sort of thrown in my face earlier as I read yet another strong online moral condemnation of the eminently condemnable…

When I wrote about the Mark Sanford sex scandal, I had no idea that it might be considered even remotely related to gay marriage. Well, apparently it is — at least to some people. Rod Dreher explains: The argument goes like this: 1. Mark Sanford is a social conservative who advocated against same-sex marriage rights.…

As regular readers know, I love Sarah Palin. (So does co-blogger M. Simon). What I don’t love, though, is this attempt by Stacy McCain to link hatred of Sarah Palin to homosexuality (which McCain sees as synonymous with Andrew Sullivan’s view of motherhood and vaginas). Because the man is an influential conservative as well as…

H/T R. Dave via e-mail who sent me to Gateway Pundit to get the whole picture. Cross Posted at Power and Control

Fareed Zakaria (whose Future of Freedom is a must read) has this to say about the possibility of revolution in Iran: It’s possible but unlikely. While the regime’s legitimacy has cracked — a fatal wound in the long run — for now it will probably be able to use its guns and money to consolidate…

Does the scandal involving a womanizing southern governor shed any light on the GOP’s “Southern Strategy”? While nearly everybody agrees that what Mark Sanford did was wrong, positions as to what the consequences should be are all over the map. Victor Davis Hanson described himself as baffled: I am somewhat baffled by the reaction to…

A lot of people complain about moral relativism, and over the years I’ve noticed that the term is often invoked inconsistently. Little wonder, for even defining the term is an immensely complicated undertaking. A frequently used definition of moral relativism is along these lines: …the position that moral or ethical propositions do not reflect objective…

Honduras. There. I just mentioned it. Wouldn’t want some scold of a blog analyst to come along and ask why it is that only conservatives care about Honduras and where are the libertarians. But which side am I on? Why, the libertarian side, of course! I can’t help notice that Hugo Chavez is threatening to…

I was checking out the home page of Neda Net and came across this interesting bit: I’m Eric S. Raymond. Some of you will know me from the open-source movement as “ESR”. Because of the real threat of terrorist action against us, most of NedaNet is keeping a low profile. I have volunteered to be…

In the latest wrinkle of Birth Certificate Trutherism, an Ebay seller has been prohibited from selling what he calls “Barack Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate” — and for a very interesting reason: In the third listing from colmado_naranja, the seller explains, “This time their reasoning for the cancellation was that birth certificates and other forms are…

Even though I’m gloating over my good fortune, I feel guilty over a purchase I made yesterday. I’d been looking for canister filters (which are expensive — typically hundreds of dollars each) and I spotted a Craigslist ad for a bunch of aquarium stuff which included two canister filters. Everything was $100.00. I made a…

An Iranian asks: “Dear Israeli Brothers and Sisters,” writes Iranian dissident Arash Irandoost, “Iran needs your help more than ever now. And we will be eternally grateful. Please help opposition television and radio stations which are blocked and being jammed by the Islamic Republic (Nokia and Siemens) resume broadcast to Iran. There is a total…

With ABC handing over hours of primetime to Obama’s infomercial for socialism (which failed utterly to attract viewers, thus giving the lie to the notion they’ve been kowtowing to him just because he’s a draw) I shouldn’t be surprised by this little piece of enviro-propaganda (enviroganda?) from the AP, furtively titled “analysis,” which I suppose…

I get emails, and this morning I was greeted by this one: let me see if I understand this. these deficits are bad,, but bush”s were fine. and I forget what was wrong with clintons surpluses. it is a hell of mess you people got us into.. this message was awful early, you repubs(now a…

In a discussion of Barack Obama’s father, a piece in The American Thinker touched on an interesting point about Marxism: Like many educated intellectuals in postcolonial Africa, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. was enraged at the transformation of his native land by its colonial conqueror. But instead of embracing the traditional values of his own tribal…

The Climate Bill passed the House 219 to 212. Which is a fairly slim margin since the minimum required for a House majority is 218 votes. Now the Senate has to go over it. It will be interesting to see how the Senators from Illinois (a coal state – I met my mate in Carbondale,…

An EPA Staffer, Alan Carlin, has dropped a bomb [pdf] not just on global warming (it is currently not happening) but also on the “concensus” hypothesis about how the climate system works. The document makes these points: The EPA report is based on the last IPCC report which is now 3 years out of date.…