Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

China has made the leap from N Korean-style basket case communism to banana republic crony-kleptocracy, and we should all applaud the fact that liberation has lifted several hundred million people out of grinding poverty and into middle incomes. But is the Party over? If you think we saw bad things out of China this week,…

It may come as a shock to those who hold Masters degrees in Public Health and want to micromanage our lives, but it is turning out that Michelle Obama’s federal food guidelines are backfiring: CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – New federal school food regulations promoted by First Lady Michelle Obama are becoming a massive headache for many…

As you may have noted my postings have been a bit sporadic of late. It is because I have been designing a Stepper Motor Controller. Good for table top machining and 3D printers. I wrote the main elements of the software about 10 years ago to run a Bridgeport Milling machine. To work with modern…

It turns out that Miguel de Cervantes, writing about Don Quixote was prescient. The Don was titling at windmills out of what was then thought to be imaginary fears. It turns out the fears are all too real. European Union leaders announced they will be consolidating energy and environmental goals under a new commissioner, effectively…

Really? Apparently so. I always thought bacon was a food implicating little more than what a person might like (or not like) to eat, but what do I know? I also thought sexual tastes were that, too.

The home of the religion of peace, Saudi Arabia, is rounding up unbelievers. Islamist police in Saudi Arabia have stormed a Christian prayer meeting and arrested its entire congregation, including women and children, and confiscated their bibles, it has been reported. The raid was the latest incident of a swingeing crackdown on religious minorities in…

The Islamic State that is. According to our misesteemed Secretary of State, John fn Kerry. The Voice of America (which America?) has it. Kerry said Islamic State jihadists claim to be fighting on behalf of Islam, but said the group’s activities have nothing to do with Islam. He said, “Its message of hate is rejected”…

Few things horrify me more than people who do as they are told. (Well, maybe the people who tell people what to do, but they wouldn’t have any power if they were ignored.) So, there are two groups of stubborn humans whom I especially admire. 1) Smokers; and 2) Dog owners who refuse to castrate…

  Some things must never be forgotten.

This is really hard. I spent much of the day trying, but I’m just not coordinated enough to really make it work well. By the time I get the thing hovering, it runs out of juice to keep it up. (I guess the same could be said about many of us, haha.) MORE: Fortunately for…

We militarized the police to fight a war on those people. The hearing, convened to probe “police militarization” in the wake of the police response to protests in Ferguson, Mo., focused on three federal programs designed to help local police departments respond to drug crime and terrorist attacks. Lawmakers and witnesses suggested that programs have…

So it appears Scotland may actually go independent this month. Irrespective of how this particular vote unfolds, hyperlocalization is one of the most promising trends in our global political evolution. As much I disagree with most of the Yes crowd’s policies, which include some of the most retrograde statist notions, independence for Scotland means government…

My four year old Gateway hard drive has given up the ghost. I have spare hard drives and backups but I can’t get them to install. Pity. It is a very nice machine. If anyone has an old Win 7 machine they wan to get rid of my e-mail is on the sidebar here. Well…

I drove from Berkeley to LA, where I’ve been for the better part of a week. It’s sweltering hot, which is normal for this time of year. Such is life. MORE: The dog passed an IQ test with flying colors.

Made with a 3D printer. Details of the project can be found here. I have designed a set of electronics – motor drivers and master controller for 3D printers and table top CNC machine tools. You can read about them at the bottom of this page.

Well that is not what they think they doing. They think they are striking for higher wages. The next round of strikes by fast-food workers demanding higher wages is scheduled for Thursday, and this time labor organizers plan to increase the pressure by staging widespread civil disobedience and having thousands of home-care workers join the…

The first mate sent me this link. I like # 6. 6. Too much TV: Watching TV is a ”no brain” activity and the research is compelling.

Another version Happy Labour Day.

Back before the ‘net got irretrievably crazy I used to correspond with Ariana Huffington about the Drug War. She was putting on a drug war conference around 2000. Shadow political conventions she called them. I think she was still a Republican back then. In any case the link was to this Reason article: The Literal…

From the comments at Samizdata. Paul Marks August 29, 2014 at 7:51 pm The Islamists are what Edmund Burke called an “armed doctrine” – they make no secret of the fact that (like the Jacobins and Nazis and Marxists) they seek to spread their system by force – all around the world. Peace is not…