Saturday, October 30, 2010

James T. Kloppenberg Discusses His ‘Reading Obama’ - NYTimes.com

To Mr. Kloppenberg the philosophy that has guided President Obama most consistently is pragmatism, a uniquely American system of thought developed at the end of the 19th century by William James, John Dewey and Charles Sanders Peirce. It is a philosophy that grew up after Darwin published his theory of evolution and the Civil War reached its bloody end. More and more people were coming to believe that chance rather than providence guided human affairs, and that dogged certainty led to violence.



Pragmatism maintains that people are constantly devising and updating ideas to navigate the world in which they live; it embraces open-minded experimentation and continuing debate. “It is a philosophy for skeptics, not true believers,” Mr. Kloppenberg said.


Why Intelligent People Drink More Alcohol | Psychology Today

That such behavior is detrimental to health and has few, if any, positive consequences, is irrelevant for the Hypothesis. It does not predict that more intelligent individuals are more likely to engage in healthy and beneficial behavior. Instead, it predicts that more intelligent individuals are more likely to engage in evolutionarily novel behavior.


Friday, October 29, 2010

Balsamic Vinegar: Magnificence and Deception


Obama vs. Stewart: The Pace of Change

Amplify’d from www.huffingtonpost.com
, revise
Both men were showing us the other night how practiced communicators insert their views, stand their ground, revise the course of conversation, and substitute a positive term or perspective for a negative one.Read more at www.huffingtonpost.com
 

The Republican War on Reality


Capitalism Uber Alles: How the American Working Class Got Brainwashed


So You Want to Privatize


Thursday, October 28, 2010

Only $4.2 Billion to Buy This Election?


Want to Increase Your Willpower? Here's How


Dope, Dopes and Dopamine: The Problem With Money


The Psychology of Manipulation in Political Ads


The Question That Answers Everything About the Election (and America, too)


Our Open Internet Under Siege


A Response To Michael Steele: What Do Republicans Really Stand For? | Democrats.org


Sunday, October 24, 2010

The Allais Paradox

This minor change in notation soon revealed one of the most important discoveries of their careers. When Kahneman and Tversky framed questions in terms of gains and losses, they immediately realized that people hated losses. In fact, our dislike of losses was largely responsible for our dislike of risk in general. Because we felt the disadvantages of risky decisions (losses) more acutely than the advantages (gains), most risks struck us as bad ideas. This also made options that could be forecast with certainty seem especially alluring, since they were risk-free. As Kahneman and Tversky put it, “In human decision making, losses loom larger than gains.” They called this phenomenon “loss aversion”



Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/the-allais-paradox/#ixzz13KDHHFm8


Grasping Reality with Both Hands


Why Are We Expected to Be Brave in the Face of Illness?


It's the Occupation, Stupid - By Robert A. Pape | Foreign Policy

Extensive research into the causes of suicide terrorism proves Islam isn't to blame -- the root of the problem is foreign military occupations.


The Flaw: Examining the Roots of Economic Malaise


Tea Party Hypocrisy: The New Taxation Without Representation


Chess Champion's Class Act

...about a chess game...


Juan Williams Is Right: Political Correctness About Terrorists Must End!

Sadly for you (and this is also why you shouldn't be working for a real news organization like NPR), Shahzad never said that. If you were a real journalist, you would have quoted him accurately. What he actually said was that he was the "first droplet of the flood," not blood. But I know how easy it is to mishear things when scary Muslims are talking. And I guess it's not a huge difference anyway.


America's Income Defense Industry