Study Notes: Jan 18-24, 2015: "Parafanfiction and Oppositional Fandom" &c

This is commentary. And this is really good. 

What I've been watching and reading this week: 

• Article, "Have We Been Interpreting Quantum Mechanics Wrong This Whole Time?" by Natalie Wolchover 
• Article, "New Quantum Theory Could Explain the Flow of Time" by Natalie Wolchover
• Article, "Dream Machine: The mind-expanding world of quantum computing" by Rivka Galchen
• Article, "Five Practical Uses for 'Spooky' Quantum Mechanics" by Nicola Jenner
• Post, "Parafanfiction and Oppositional Fandom" by Sam Keeper
• Post, "Creating as the World Falls Down" by Sam Keeper

Homework for the future: 

• Go through at least five entries in in my "P Articles" bookmark folder. Let's go with: (1) 
• "Technical debt and the making of payments on it"; (2) "Marxist Feminism / Materialist Feminism"; (3) "Ninth-Century Muslim Anarchists"; (4) "Friedrich Nietzsche on Why a Fulfilling Life Requires Embracing Rather than Running from Difficulty"; (5) Nietzsche, the Overhuman and the Posthuman: A Reply to Stefan Sorgner"
• Read the posts linked to by "Responses to the Anti-Reactionary FAQ.". Eventually. 
• Still on the to-do list: studying the Austrian School of Economics.
• Also on the to-do list: All of those themes that I decide I want to play with, and cool bits that attract me, and things like that? Let's get systematic about that, put them into a single document (might be public, might not) and work with at least one of them every week. Systematic. Systematic. I do it best when I do it systematically. 

Study Notes: Jan 11-17, 2014: "Star Trek and Moral Judgment," &c

This is commentary. And this is really good. 

What I've been watching and reading this week: 

• Article, "5 Unconventional Ways to Become a Better Writer" by Belle Beth Cooper
• Post, "Star Trek and Moral Judgment" by Joe Holbo
• Article, "Less Thinking, More Doing: Develop the Action Habit Today" by Daniel Wallen
• Essay, "Serpent Symbols and Salvation in the Ancient Near East and the Book of Mormon" by Andrew C. Skinner
• Article, "Choosing the Right Name for Your Story" by John Floyd
• Post, "Queerness in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell," by Sam Keeper
• Post, "Night of the Living Fandom," by Sam Keeper
• Book, "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins (Ch. 2 only)
• Book, "Evolution? The Fossils Say Yes!" by Donald Prothero (Ch. 9 only)

Homework for the future: 

• Go through at least five entries in in my "P Articles" bookmark folder. Let's go with: (1) "Have We Been Interpreting Quantum Mechanics Wrong This Whole Time?"; (2) "New Quantum Theory Could Explain the Flow of Time"; (3) "Dream Machine: The mind-expanding world of quantum computing"; (4) "Five Practical Uses for 'Spooky' Quantum Mechanics"; (5) "Quantum Physics Just Got a Tiny Bit Easier to Understand, As Two Oddities Merge Into One"
• Read the posts linked to by "Responses to the Anti-Reactionary FAQ.". Eventually. 
• Still on the to-do list: studying the Austrian School of Economics.
• Also on the to-do list: All of those themes that I decide I want to play with, and cool bits that attract me, and things like that? Let's get systematic about that, put them into a single document (might be public, might not) and work with at least one of them every week. Systematic. Systematic. I do it best when I do it systematically. 

Study Notes: Jan 4-10, 2015: "Janelle Monae: Contemporary Queen of Science Fiction," &c

This is commentary. And this is really good. 

What I've been watching and reading this week: 

• Article, "What the inside of a spaceship might really look like" by Richard Hollingham
• Essay, "On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts" by Thomas De Quincy
• Article, "10 Writing 'Rules' We Wish More Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors Would Break" by Charlie Jane Anders
• Post, "Janelle Monae: Contemporary Queen of Science Fiction," by Sam Keeper
• Post, "Janelle Monae: Sci Fi Queen Yet Uncrowned," by Sam Keeper
• Speech, "The Ballot or the Bullet," by Malcolm X

Notes to: The Great Conversation: Moving from Medieval to Modern (& other chapters)

This is commentary. And this is really good. 

"The Great Conversation," by Norman Melchert (sixth edition)

Chapter twelve: Moving from Medieval to Modern (pages 299-319)

• "Paradoxically, and to some extent accidentally, skepticism has arisen once more from its ashes-- this phoenix that first Plato and then Augustine sought to slay." 
• The author asks us to "attempt to recapture a more direct and naive interpretation of our experience" and explains how, speaking of the firmament concept, "this view of the heavens is very common among primitive people and among children, too." It is exceedingly patronizing and, I daresay, naive in itself. These so-called "primitives" were often much more intelligent than many people today, and the only reason we know their faults is because we have had the opportunity to stand on their shoulders. 
• "Aristotle does not accept the atomists' conception of a void, that is, a space in which nothing exists. His reasoning depends on the notion of potentiality. Wherever there is space, there is potentially some substance. But potentiality is just the possibility of having some form; and what is formed into a substance is matter. So wherever there is space there is matter, matter never exists unformed; so the idea of empty space is a contradiction in terms. There could not be other worlds out in space beyond this world; this world is not just the only world there is, but the only world there could be." 

Notes: Visual Focus, Principles of Typography

Visual Focus, by Caryn Esplin
Principles of Typography

Chapter one

• "For most layouts, just remember to avoid centering the subject. Instead, divide the layout into thirds and place elements on those imaginary lines." 
• "Too many designers worry about all the elements in the layout and forget about the message. Following precise measurements to fit the Fibonacci's calculations for the golden mean is now always the best way to share a message." 

Philosophy 313 Readings: Jan 5, 2014: "The Experience Machine" and others

Material covered: 

"Ethics," by Bonhoeffer, pages 30-39
"Letter to Menoeceus," by Epicurus
"The Experience Machine," by Robert Nozick
Selections from "Utilitarianism," by John Stuart Mill
Selection from "Brave New World," by Aldous Huxley

Study Notes: Dec 28, 2014-Jan 3, 2015: "Anarchism and the Constitution"

This is commentary. And this is really good. 

What I've been watching and reading this week: 

• Post, "Anarchism and the Constitution" by Jeremy Weiland
• Essay, "Anarcho-Theocracy: The Only Biblical Form of Government" 
• Page, "Historical Examples of Anarchy without Chaos" compiled by Roy Halliday
• Post, "Is Medieval Iceland an example of "anarcho"-capitalism working in practice?" by afaq
• Post, "Cha-Change! Formal Experimentation in Adventure Time" by Sam Keeper
• Post, "Hyperflexible Mythology: Classpects, Fandom, and Fanfiction" by Sam Keeper
• Thread, "Obscure Mythology"
• Article, "4 Famous Movies with Deceptively Complex Symbolism" by Gladstone
• Post, "How to write like... Philip K Dick" by Phil South
• Post, "How to write like... David Lynch" by Phil South
• Post, "How to write like... Douglas Adams" by Phil South
• Post, "How to write like... Neil Gaiman" by Phil South
• Post, "How to write like... "Ian Fleming" by Phil South