Notes to: Anarchy-- Never Been Tried?

This is commentary. And this is really good. 

A six-part series on anarchist societies throughout history.

The greatest flaw is the lack of citations. As someone who likes to check sources, this is extremely disappointing to me.

Part I: Moresnet
Part II: Emerald Anarchy
Part III: Fire and Ice
Part IV: In the Beginning
Part V: Anarchy in the U.S.A.???
Part VI: The Living Anti-Nation

Study Notes: Oct 25-Nov 15, 2015: "The Ethics of Respect for Nature"

This is commentary. And this is really good. 

What I've been watching and reading in this time: 

• Paper, "The Ethics of Respect for Nature", by Paul Taylor
• Post, "The World Is Mad", by Ozy
• Post, "Steven Pinker is wrong about the Cuban Missile Crisis", by Topher Hallquist
• Article, "Disrupting the Cycle of Urban Violence With Arts and Culture", by Brentin Mock
• Article, "Strange but True: An Elemental Quest for the Building Blocks of the Universe", by Jack El-Hai
• Article, "Let Me Tell Y'all A Little Bit About the Mohists", by Max Gladstone
• Post, "The Galileo affair: who was on the side of rationality?", by Val
• Post, "Vegetarianism for Meat-Eaters", by Scott Alexander
• Post, "The Perfect Machine Versus the Art Monster", by Chuck Wendig
• Article, "THE EMPIRE NEVER ENDED. Philip K Dick, Valis, and the Psychopathology of War", by CJStone
• Post, "Nanowrimo Survival Guide: How I Write 50K(-ish) Every Month", by Chuck Wendig
• Post, "How to Write a Novel in 30 Days", by Catherynne M. Valente
• Post, "Predator Novel Process", by Jeff Vandermeer
• Post, "Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth", by Scott Alexander

Homework for the future:

• 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.
• Read Fenrir's Shrine. 
• 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. 
• Also, don't forget to flesh this section out a bit more with goals in general, and maybe include a section on which of those goals were accomplished since the last update.

Study Notes: Sep 13-19, 2015: "Effective altruism and mistakes of globalization"

This is commentary. And this is really good. 

What I've been watching and reading in this time: 

• Post, "Effective Altruism and mistakes of globalization", by Topher Hallquist
• Article, "You Ain't Seen Sustainable Dining Until You've Eaten Here", by Rebecca Flint Marx
• Article, "Origins", by Jacob Mikanowski
• Post, "DBT Sequence: Radical Acceptance", by Ozy
• Post, "Cardiologists and Chinese Robbers", by Scott Alexander
• Article, "A happy state", by Benjamin Radcliff
• Post, "Artistic greatness, according to my brain: a first pass", by Luke Muehlhauser

Homework for the future:

• 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.
• Finish the reading for "Notes to: Anarchy: Never Been Tried?"
• Finish the reading for "Notes to 16 Articles on Writing"
• Read Fenrir's Shrine. 
• 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. 
• Also, don't forget to flesh this section out a bit more with goals in general, and maybe include a section on which of those goals were accomplished since the last update.

Study Notes: Aug 30-Sep 12, 2015: "Perfect genetic knowledge"

This is commentary. And this is really good. 

What I've been watching and reading in this time: 

• Article, "The V.C.s of B.C.", by Adam Davidson
• Article, "Dark Matter May Be More Complex Than Physicists Thought", by Liz Kruesi
• Article, "Cover of darkness", by Jamie Bartlett
• Article, "Perfect genetic knowledge", by Dawn Field
• Article, "The Limits of Language", by David Auerbach
• Post, "DBT Analysis: Chain Analysis", by Ozy
• Post, "Specific vs. General Foragers & Farmers", by Robin Hanson
• Post, "Identities Are Not Arguments", by Ozy
• Article, "Clothes and daggers", by Rafia Zakaria
• Article, "Think Like A Tree: A New Kind of Eco-Friendly Concrete Inspired By Coral", Shara Tonn
• Article, "How to Write Convincing Death Scenes", by Bianca Nogrady
• Article, "Book Review: Manufacturing Consent", by Scott Alexander

Homework for the future:

• 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.
• Finish the reading for "Notes to: Anarchy: Never Been Tried?"
• Finish the reading for "Notes to 16 Articles on Writing"
• Read Fenrir's Shrine. 
• 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. 
• Also, don't forget to flesh this section out a bit more with goals in general, and maybe include a section on which of those goals were accomplished since the last update.

Study Notes: Apr 19-Jul 25, 2015: "On Measuring Tradeoffs In Effective Altruism", &c

This is commentary. And this is really good. 

What I've been watching and reading in this time: 

• Page, "The Old Ones: The Time Before Sumeria"
• Article, "Ursula K. Le Guin, Fyodor Dovstoevsky, and the Snuggly Comfort of Evil", by Charlie Jane Anders
• Article, "The most convincing argument for legalizing LSD, shrooms, and other psychedelics", by German Lopez
• Article, "Why Does This Ice Look Exactly Like Hair", by Maddie Stone
• Post, "On Measuring Tradeoffs In Effective Altruism", by Ozy Frantz
• Post, "The General Factor of Correctness", by Scott Alexander
• Article, "The Genesis Engine", by Amy Maxmen
• Post, "Bemundolack wrote..." by Medievalpoc

Other notes: 

• Notes to: 11 Articles on Polyamory
• Notes to: The Great Conversation: Kierkegaard and Marx (& other chapters)
• Notes to "Wrestling with Scriptural Violence: A Primer for Peaceful Followers of Jesus Christ"
• Notes to: Arms and Armor-- Common Misconceptions and Frequently Asked Questions

Also check out: 

• "Conceptions Of Soul In Old-Estonian Religion"
• "The Lester Dent Pulp Paper Master Fiction Plot"
• "The Campaign Survey"

Homework for the future:

• Go through at least five entries in in my "P Articles" bookmark folder. Let's go with: (1) "Why Germany Has It So Good -- and Why America Is Going Down the Drain"; (2) "I don't agree with your parenting choices. Now let me explain how you should raise your own children."; (3) "Sex & Sexuality in the 19th Century"; (4) "Yes, We Should Clone Neanderthals"; (5) "Russia's Terrifying 'Nuke Trains' Will Be Roving The Rails By 2018"
• 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.
• Go through the various essays at Fenrir's Shrine, because there are a lot and they are interesting. 
• Kitsune, Kumiho, Huli Jing, Fox is also rather big. 
• 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. 

Notes to: Arms and Armor-- Common Misconceptions and Frequently Asked Questions

This is commentary. And this is really good. 

Notes to: Arms and Armor--Common Misconceptions and Frequently Asked Questions

"Armor was worn only by knights.--Wrong."

• "Knights rarely fought alone, nor did medieval and Renaissance armies consist entirely of mounted knights." 
• "It is wrong to assume that every nobleman was a knight. Knights were not born but created, by other knights, feudal lords, or sometimes priests. And, under certain conditions, people of non-noble birth could be knighted (although the knighting was often regarded as their admission into lower nobility). On some occasions, mercenaries or civilians fighting as ordinary soldiers could be knighted for exceptional displays of courage and valor, while in later times a knighthood could be bought." 

Notes to: "Converging Media: A New Introduction to Mass Communication"

This is commentary. And this is really good. 

Material covered:

""Converging Media: A New Introduction to Mass Communication" by John V. Pavlik and Shawn McIntosh

Chapter one: Mass Communication and Its Digital Transformation

• "One concern critics have long had about the internet and digital media is our ability to create 'The Daily Me,' a highly personalized digital news stream that contains only information of expressed interest to the user. The problem with The Daily Me is that we may self-select such a unique range of interests that it leaves us unable to discuss in a meaningful way with others matters of broader public importance." 
• Thomas Friedman: "At its best, the Internet can educate more people faster than any media tool we've ever had. At its worst, it can make people dumber faster than any media tool we've ever had."

Notes: "From the Ashes of Angels"

This is commentary. And this is really good. 

Material covered:

"From the Ashes of Angels: The Forbidden Legacy of a Fallen Race" by Andrew Collins

An interesting piece of pseudohistory. Lots of good stuff for worldbuilding. Feels like the base for a Lovecraftian paper. 

• "There is the angel who wrestles all night with Jacob at a place named Penuel, or those which he sees moving up and down a ladder that stretches between heaven and earth. Yet other than these accounts, there are too few examples, and when angels do appear the narrative is often vague and unclear on what exactly is going on. For instance, in the case of both Abraham and Lot the angels in question are described simply as 'men', who sit down to take food like any mortal person." 

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. 

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." 

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

Study Notes: December 21-27, 2014: "The Book No One Read"

This is commentary. And this is really good. 

What I've been watching and reading this week: 

• Article, "The Book No One Read: Why Stanislaw Lem's futurism deserves attention" by Lee Billings
• Essay, "Study of Leviticus 18-20 'Abomination'" by Dave Cornwell
• Post, "Surviving in an Alien Environment: Human + Christ as Medieval Natural-born Cyborg" by Ruth Evans
• Essay, "The Sword of Laban as a Symbol of Divine Authority and Kingship" by Brett L. Holbrook
• Article, "The Horizontal and Vertical Axes of Storytelling" by James George
• Article, "The Remarkable Queerness of Shinji Ikari" by Sam Keeper
• Article, "Tony Stark in the Integrated Circuit: The Iron Man films and Cyborg Feminism" by Sam Keeper
• Article, "Stark Modernism: Fine Art and Iron Man" by Sam Keeper
• Article, "The Thingiverse-- Model Reuse in the 3D Printing Community" by Jarkko Moilanen
• Article, "The Practical Guide to the Future of Medicine" by Dr. Bertalen Mesko
• Article, "Controlling Genes With Your Thoughts" by ETH Science Writer
• Article, "The Fermi Paradox, Self-Replicating Probes, and the Interstellar Transportation Bandwidth" by Keith B. Wiley
• Article, "The Stars Are Wrong: Why Cthulhu Needs To Go Away" by Sam Keeper
• Article, "AnimalTech-- Wearable Technology for Fido" by Clara Mancini

Study Notes: Dec 14-20, 2014: "The Evolution of Names and Personal Identifiers"

This is commentary. And this is really good. 

What I've been watching and reading this week: 

• Post, "The Evolution of Names and Personal Identifiers" by Eric Hellman
• Essay, "At One with Nature: An Ecocritical Study of the Nature Motif in Three Swedish Horror Writers" by Lars Martinsson
• Article, "Five Bold Predictions for the Future of Humanity" by Balam T. Salem
• Article, "Twenty Top Predictions for Life 100 Years From Now" by Ian Pearsson
• Article, "Is Vat-Grown Meat Kosher? We Asked a Rabbi" by Tim Barribeau
• Article, "The Next Big Disruption: Three Major Shifts That Will Influence the Future Global Economy" by Terry Young
• Article, "11 Predictions on the future of social media" by Mary Catherine Wellons
• Article, "The Transhumanist Bodhisattvas," by Butsugen Chigen
• Article, "Turn Your Inkjet Printer into a Chemistry Lab" by Mark Lorch
• Article, "PAN'S LABYRINTH-- Interview with Guillermo Del Toro," by Michael Guillen
• Post, "Will Rituals Return?" by Robin Hanson
• Article, "Today's Apps Are Turning Us Into Sociopaths" by Evan Selinger
• Article, "Anti-aging Oxymorons and Anti-oxy-morons" by Josh Mitteldorf
• Article, "Robotics Update" by Len Rosen
• Article, "Is It Better Never To Have Been Born? (anti-natalism)" by John G. Messerly
• Article, "Lithium for Life Extension?" by Josh Mitteldorf
• Article, "Designer Viruses Could be the New Antibiotics" by Luc Henry
• Article, "The Future of Lunar Archeology" [sic?] by Dr. Beth O'Leary
• Article, "Aging Brains Aren't Necessarily Declining Brains" by Angela Gutchess

Study Notes: Dec 7-13, 2014: "How Steampunk Screws with Victorian Gender Norms"

This is commentary. And this is really good. 

What I've been watching and reading this week: 

• Article, "Queer Cogs: Steampunk, Gender Identity, and Sexuality," by Lisa Hager
• Thread, "What's the difference between aesthetic/sensual attraction and sexual attraction?" on Asexuality.org
• Article, "How Steampunk Screws with Victorian Gender Norms," by Molly Westerman
• Essay, "Blooms of Banjeli," by Eugenia W. Herbert and Candice Goucher
• Article, "Monopoly is Theft," by Christopher Ketcham

WikiLearning #8 (the Mafia)

Things I've learned from Wikipedia, and sometimes other places.

This is commentary. And this is really good.

"We know from Gay Talese's book Honor Thy Father that being a professional mobster isn't all sunshine and roses. More often it's the boredom of stuffy rooms and a bad diet of carry-out food, punctuated by brief, terrible bursts of violence." Roger Ebert.

WikiLearning #7 (lumberjacks)

Things I've learned from Wikipedia, and sometimes other places.

This is commentary. And this is really good.

"Lumberjacks" entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia

"It was only around the turn of the 18th century, however, that the professional logger-- or lumberjack-- was born... It grew to be the backbone of the region's [eastern Canada] industrial economy, and focused on harvesting white pine. From roughly 1800 to 1840, production was centred on cutting and hewing square timber for the British market. Then this industry underwent a reorientation, whereby the pine logs were increasingly sawn into planks for sale largly in the United States. It was estimated that during the 19th century, which was the heydey of the white pine era, half the males in Canada were employed as lumberjacks. By the turn of the 20th century, the receding stands of mature white pine in the East was sending that part of the industry into decline while lumber production-- based largely on harvesting Douglas fir-- was accelerating in British Columbia."

WikiLearning #6 (various cultures)

Things I've learned from Wikipedia, and sometimes other places.

This is commentary. And this is really good.

High-altitude peoples are probably descended from people that originally moved higher-up for only short periods at a time before eventually settling there.

Tibetan people have lungs that "synthesize larger amounts of... nitric oxide" and may also have larger blood vessels.

LDS History in Context of the Strauss-Howe Generational Cycle

In 1991, William Strauss and Neil Howe proposed a system of generational cycles, each cycle having four distinct stages that lasted twenty years give-or-take. Each generational stage took its nature by reacting to the generations that preceded it, most especially by reacting to faults in the generation that directly raised it (these reactions, of course, produce other faults that cause a similar reaction in the generation to follow). All countries go through this cycle, but Strauss and Howe were specifically interested in America's.

Study Notes: Nov 30-Dec 6, 2014: "Zombies, Vampires, Democrats, and Republicans"

This is commentary. And this is really good. 

What I've been watching and reading this week: 

• Post, "Correlation of the Week: Zombies, Vampires, Democrats, and Republicans," by Marc West
• Post, "An Introduction to a Non-Violent Reading of The Book of Mormon," by Joshua Madson
• Post, "The Constitution: The God That Failed (To Liberate Us From Big Government)," by Bill Buppert
• Article, "A Muslim RuPaul at the Dawn of Islam: Tuwais and the Mukhannathun," by Maryam
• Post, "Why I Am Not an Anarchist," by Matt Zwolinksi
• Post, "(the) Gambia, (the) Lebanon, etc.," by M. Lynne Murphy
• Paper, "How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later," by Philip K. Dick
• Article, "Graphene Could Lead to Better Bullet-Proof Vests and Hydrogen Fuel Cells," by Justine Alford
• Article, "Ravens have Social Abilities Previously Only Seen in Humans," by Declan Perry
• Article, "Anarchism, not Anomism," by Skyler Collins
• Post, "In Favor of Niceness, Community, and Civilization," by Scott Alexander
• Video, "The surprising decline in violence," by Steven Pinker

Notes: "Norse Mythology for Smart People"

Notes for "Norse Mythology for Smart People," a website written by Dan McCoy."

This is commentary. And this is really good.

I'm not going to record every detail, just the really snappy awesome bits that Wikipedia never taught me. Some sections (Tales, Book Reviews, My Book, The 5 Best Books on Celtic Mythology, News/Updates, The 10 Best Norse Mythology Books) are not recorded here.