Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

We are one step closer to room temperature superconductors. Menlo Park, Calif.–Move over, silicon–it may be time to give the Valley a new name. Physicists at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have confirmed the existence of a type of material that could one day provide dramatically faster, more…

No, Classical Values has not “gone green on us” as TigerHawk worried Glenn Reynolds might’ve. (There are no greenie weenies who blog here.) However, like many bloggers I want to express solidarity with the protesters in Iran. (Andrew Sullivan, despite my many criticisms of him, is really on board with this one.) Showing some temporary…

In a series of some of the dumbest “clarifications” I have ever heard of — to one of the dumbest laws I have ever heard of — government Obamacrats have construed the 1958 Switchblade Knife Act in such a way as to prohibit the vast majority of pocket knives routinely sold in stores and carried…

The boys at Talk Polywell have uncovered the details of the WB-8 contract [pdf]. Those details can give us some insight into how WB-7 has gone. From the looks of things – rather well. The current effort will build on what has been completed under these previous contracts as well as requirements to provide the…

Michael Totten as usual has very good sources. Let us start with the fact that in the above video a phalanx of police is retreating before a mob. Then Michael gives this excerpt from Shah of Shahs. Now the most important moment, the moment that will determine the fate of the country, the Shah, and…

I hate to think that I might be diagnosed as a conservative for saying this, but I have never liked other people’s saliva. It’s irrational and I admit it. I’m not afraid of blood or urine, and I would rather be bled on or urinated on than drooled on. The relative actual dangers of these…

I was very upset to see Glenn Reynolds point out how true it is that “90% Of Waking Hours [are] Spent Staring At Glowing Rectangles.” So upset, in fact, that I decided to get up now. To get up out of my chair. To get up right now and go to the window. (That’s because…

Not that this will surprise anyone, but I think it is a national disgrace that ABC is blatantly shilling for President Obama’s health care plan: ABC TURNS PROGRAMMING OVER TO OBAMA; NEWS TO BE ANCHORED FROM INSIDE WHITE HOUSE Tue Jun 16 2009 08:45:10 ET On the night of June 24, the media and government…

Like many YouTube users, I have grown a little tired of clicking on videos only to discover that the sound has been disabled by corporate robotic vandals who leave a calling card which says this: NOTICE This video contains an audio track that has not been authorized by WMG. The audio has been disabled. More…

Obama’s policy on Iran seems to be to lay low and hope the whole thing blows over. Meeting with the press before President Obama’s speech to the American Medical Association in Chicago, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, “I think there are a number of factors that give us some concern about what we’ve seen.”…

And THIS abomination my friends is why the Republican party is in trouble. Big trouble. U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk will call for legislation Monday that would toughen drug-trafficking laws regarding a highly potent form of marijuana, with penalties of up to 25 years in prison for a first-time offense. The law would target offenders who…

Ever wonder why racist crackpots, Nazi sympathizers, and rabid anti-Semites like James von Brunn are always said to be part of the “right wing”? This “conventional wisdom” never made much sense to me, as it’s based on very sloppy reasoning. Whether you’re a conservative or not, the Edmund Burke tradition has nothing to do with…

Bruce Bawer has written the best tribute to Howard Stern that I can remember reading. It’s titled “Howard Stern, Man’s Best Friend — A lifelong listener speaks of the joy Stern has brought to his life.” Because I’m a longtime fan of Howard Stern, almost all of it rang very true with me. Here’s an…

I was just reading an interesting report on clouds by Willis Eschenbach at Watts Up With That? The post is long and detailed so let me just focus on the conclusions. 1. The sun puts out more than enough energy to totally roast the earth. It is kept from doing so by the clouds reflecting…

As I discussed in a previous post, because Holocaust Museum shooter James von Brunn was a convicted felon, he was not allowed to buy or possess firearms. But once again, the gun laws failed utterly. Apparently von Brunn was so busy plotting murder that he never stop to consider the gun laws he was violating.…

Detroit was once one of the most beautiful cities in the United States. Architecturally, much of that beauty still remains. Here are a few pictures I took in Detroit last weekend of some beautiful boarded up buildings: They’re palaces, really. And like many a palace in history, they’ve fallen into serious decay. For decades, there’s…

The man who wrote Drugs, Kids & Crime: Surviving Our Drug Obsessed Culture has figured out how to thrive in such a culture. At least for a while. Kendall Craig Farris’ website is filled with influential endorsements for the drug prevention program he founded. Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl called them “amazing tools which…

Amazon is selling a Logitech QuickCam Communicate video camera with microphone for under $40. Here is what one reviewer had to say: Previously we purchased a cheaper web cam. This was not a good thing. We then decided upon the logitech. The picture is great and we are enjoying being able to talk to our…

According to Michael Totten the above is …thousands of Iranians chanting not “Death to America” or “Death to Israel,” but “Death to the Government.” Michael goes on to say: Oppressive governments that face ferocious resistance in the streets often don’t last very long. The Islamic Republic regime has been durable so far, and reports of…

Calling himself an “intellectually honest fiscal conservative” (in a post titled “Insta-Hack Watch”) Andrew Sullivan attacks Glenn Reynolds as a partisan “hack” (for this post) and contrasts Glenn’s “silly posturing about pork” (by which he means the PorkBusters movement) with his own so-called “actual proposals for serious structural spending cuts.” For starters, I remember PorkBusters…