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Don't forget Encyclopedia Dramatica and Conservapedia. I think Conservapedia is harder to stomach than Encyclopedia Dramatica.

Socially I'm a liberal/libertarian. I think people should be able to do whatever they want as long as it doesn't infringe the same freedoms of others. I'm all for complete sexual freedom, legalization of drugs, anti-censorship, and whatever alternative or eccentric lifestyles people can dream...

These things have a noticeable and even measurable effect on objective reality. This means that something which is not measurable, an internal subjective state, is causing objectively measurable effects. There is for those people who experience these things. For them, there is no reason to...

There is some data on this in these threads: Political Compass. moral politics test. Poll: Political Stance.

Supernatural phenomena have an objective affect on: 1. The way people behave. 2. The way people interpret patterns, events, and meanings. 3. The way people interact in a society. 4. The beliefs people have about various natural phenomena. 5. The way people interact with their environment. And...

Exactly, science takes it axiomatically that there is a natural cause. This in no way can be used as evidence that there are no "unnatural" causes. It's illogical to use an assumption to prove that said assumption is true. See below. Measuring the energy it takes to have a thought, or the...

Science takes it axiomatically that God is not needed to explain anything. This means that science is only exploring territory that doesn't need God as an explanation. It would be like concluding kangaroo's don't exist when you've only looked in Manhattan. I don't believe in God. I will admit...

Using science to 'disprove' God is like using a microscope to look at the moon.

Has anyone tried Adderllin? It seems pretty new and I can't find much information about it from websites that aren't attempting to sell it.

I enjoy the show (it requires quite a bit of suspension of disbelief, however). There is some good science reviews for it here (done by a doctor who also reviews House episodes) with it's primary focus being on the validity of the science and medicine behind it.

This is a gross misunderstanding of natural selection. Natural selection doesn't tweak variables. It uses what's available in an economic fashion. Our brains were not selected for power, but for (ability to survive) - (over-usage of resources). Our brain is just as much adapted for cutting every...

I am currently trying aniracetam. I don't know how much it does for actually being smarter or enhancing memory, but it seems to do two things for me that piracetam didn't: 1) helps with my depression and anxiety and 2) makes more mundane things seem not as bad (eg I have more motivation to do...

Which ones? I'm reading the Cambridge Companion to Kant right now, when I'm at home. Since I have a lot of time spent at school, I read Derek Parfit's "Reasons and Persons" when I'm not doing homework.

What kind of math are you bad at? This summer I'm taking Calculus 1 & 2 and Statistics, and they couldn't be much more different. Best advice I can give is try to learn it on your own instead of having someone teach it to you. It's done wonders for me. I'm not exceptionally gifted at math...

I'll take a quick stab at it. http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg1/ar4-wg1-chapter2.pdf See section "2.9 Synthesis" and the corresponding tables (mainly tables on pages 201-202) Water vapor feedback. Ice-Albedo feedback. (see pages 243-245). Carbon dynamics and climate...

It could be OCD. Most people mistake OCD for Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder, but OCD is often marked by repeating thoughts. For instance, I have OCD/Tourettes and one of my repeating thoughts is that I've hit someone while driving my car. I've been to the point where I was so paranoid...

Anyone who denies that the climate has changed, is changing, and will change is deluded. Anyone who thinks the relatively closed system of earth is immune to the activities of humans is in denial. Where climate science falls short is both A) in calculating the precise effect humans actually...

Interesting, but I wonder what kind of radioactive decay they are referring to (eg alpha, beta, gamma, positron emission)? I wonder if it could have anything to do with the energy level of the nucleus (possibly effected by increases/decreases in gamma radiation from the sun)? This could also...

Besides being the work horse of all metabolic, signaling, cell structure and other cellular activity (you won't be breaking down any molecules without enzymes, either) amino acids play numerous other roles. L-leucine regulates myfibrillar proteolysis and down-regulates ubiquitination and...

When it comes to science or math, I like to attempt something before we have gone over it in class. One problem I have is that my mind can sometimes be very inhibiting to ideas that don't seem like they would work, so I try to get over that and just see what sorts of solutions I can think up...

I figured if any rap could be considered "INTP style rap" it would be Eyedea and Abilities. I've always pegged Eyedea as probably being an ENTP (both from his music and articles I've read). I think one of the problems with hip-hop is the exposure people get to it. Mainstream...

It's been shown that calorie restriction causes biochemical changes in the body that makes it healthier (1). One such mechanism is the activation of the SIRT1 gene (1) (2). The effects of calorie restriction can be induced by supplementation of resveratrol (1) (2) (3). If someone plans to...

I must have wanted to make it, because it took me like an hour and a half to do it. I guess the proverbial straw was this. Plus, who doesn't like talking about themselves?

I've been asked a few occasions about the type of hip-hop I listen to - not often, but I think the fact that I listen to it is sort of an enigma around here. So, I've decided to make a thread talking about and showcasing some of my favorite artists. When I first decided to make this thread, I...

Extroversion: 10% Orderliness: 30% Emotional Stability: 48% Accommodation: 26% Inquisitiveness: 86% Extroversion results were very low which suggests you are extremely reclusive, quiet, unassertive, and private. Orderliness results were low which suggests you are overly flexible...

Speaking from (plenty of) experience: Alcohol. Speaking from scientific papers I've read (as an alcoholic hoping to recover, plenty): Alcohol. If you can't do it moderately, don't do it.

Not exactly "original" material in this day and age, but what makes it fascinating is that it was released only a month after 9/11 (the slideshow on the youtube is by a fan, made a while after): This song really hit me hard the first time I heard it. I was reading and listening to Pandora...

If you want a great book for learning Calculus on your own, I recommend Calculus Made Easy. It's not a "for dummies" type book, but it covers what the introduction calls "the philosophy of calculus" and gives simple explanations (not analogies) for the concepts behind calculus (eg limits...

The ability to understand new material and recognize novel patterns is fluid intelligence (which is what most IQ tests are testing), and the ability to utilize what you know is crystallized intelligence. There is a lot of controversy over the ideas of modular intelligence and a central or...

I've read Origin of Species, and I really don't remember much about altruism in it. I don't think most people have a problem with natural selection. I think people who are skeptical of evolution are generally skeptical about speciation (a result of natural selection). In order for there to not...

I have ideated about suicide. If I decided I was going to do it, I know for sure that I wouldn't announce it here. I feel like a complete asshole saying this, so don't read it if you are easily offended:

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/special/section/spotlight-joss-whedon/ For anyone else who is a fan of Joss Whedon's work (Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Serenity, Dollhouse, numerous comics etc) this is an ongoing series of essays that are being written about Joss Whedon's work, going in order from his...

Immortal Technique

Squares and roots of fractions are easy. When someone finds an easy way of factoring polynomials of degree 3 and higher, I'll be happy. Especially when it includes complex numbers.

I'm interested: how does the "metal" genre (supergenre?) break down? As an 'outsider' (someone who doesn't listen to it) it all seems fairly similar to me, as any music genre appears to an outsider (I'm curious how it breaks down for electronic music, too). As for my last post (first page) I...

You're a good chess player, I'll concede that. I underestimated you the first game (most people I play are generally beneath me, which may explain why I have the rating I do) but the second game was definitely just me being stupid. I demand retribution!

1. Music preference doesn't say much about peoples personality. I enjoy rap music, which is usually associated with extroversion and excess, but I'm probably the quietest person you'll never know (but I also probably listen to the rap music you'll never know about). 2. In a show of my...

http://www.chess.com/ My screen name is Iron-Tom Feel free to send a challenge.

Rage Against The Machine - Killing In The Name YouTube - Rage against the machine - Killing in the name Lyrics It's simple, but there aren't too many songs that pump me up as much as this one. It's also one of the few songs I can actually play on the guitar.

The way I always remembered fraction exponents is that the numerator of the exponent acted like a normal exponent, then the denominator acted like the root. So, for instance, if you have 10^(2/3) then you square 10 to get 100 (eg the 2 in the exponents numerator), then take the cube root of 100...

Healthy individuals have parts of the brain known as the default network. This consists of the medial prefrontal cortex, the posterior cingulate cortex, and the parietal cortex. What's meant by default is that these are areas of the brain that are active when our minds aren't doing anything...

I've recently read an article in Scientific American MIND about daydreaming. I won't go into the neurological details, since that seems to turn people off from reading my posts, but it mentioned a "condition" that doesn't have an actual name called Maladaptive Daydreaming. I know I can be a bit...

I don't know about the CIA, but ampakines have been investigated by DARPA (according to wiki). Racetams are also supposed to be able to improve intelligence (I've tried piracetam before, but it didn't seem to do much for me).

Scientists have a drug that inhibits the action of Protein Kinase M-zeta, which is the primary component in long term potentiation (long term memory). This drug can erase spatial memory (in the hippocampus) and procedural/contextual memory (in the basolateral amygdala). To put it simply: what...

People with ADHD aren't people that are simply bored easily. ADHD is a problem in the reticular activating system that makes everything interesting. People with ADHD can't help but A) notice things and B) find them interesting enough to pay attention to. Think of how when you're doing something...

This began with a strawman argument from incredulity (land floating around - a double whammy fallacy) and then proceeds to not explain how this hypothesis doesn't break the law of conservation of matter. Everything else he talked about is just as easily (if not more easily) explained by plate...

There is good evidence that the way our parents raise us has little to do with how we turn out as adults (The Nurture Assumption). There is a higher correlation between genetics (adopted children having personality traits of their biological parents) than to how we are raised (adopted children's...

For me, I like to put the description right into the action. For something like "...hot sweat now beginning to cover his face" I would indicate that sweat is covering his face in the action, maybe like: "...wiping the sweat away from his face, Jason struggled for every parched breath that drove...

1. If you keep your sex obscure, then it's considered wild card. People are allowed to consider you whatever sex fits their fantasy. 2. It looks like most of the females here wouldn't get along with me. I'm unintelligent; I'm non-serious (despite how I come across around here); I have no...

One grammar nazi's should hate: The phrase "OK" came from a slang misspelling for "all correct": orl korrekt. So, when people say they hate slang words (particularly internet slang, like using "ur" instead of your or "kewl" for cool) they're using one every time they say okay.