| I've just publicly opened a new website: http://www.intellectualpornography.com
It's a blog about things that make you think, but hopefully it will turn into something more than that--a place where interesting people discuss interesting things, and where together, we can discuss thoughts that none of us might have had alone.
So please, drop by and check it out. And when you're done, make sure to leave a comment. 
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| There are days in life when something happens, and you cannot help but feel as though somehow you've been given confirmation that actually, you're doing all right at life.
Thank you.
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| I was out grabbing dinner with a friend tonight, and the subject came up of a 14 year old girl who had run an astounding half-marathon time over the weekend.
People are marvelous things, and so much more than we seem at the surface. We're the product of millions of years of evolution, with countless adaptations up our sleeves. Out of everything that Mother Nature, in all her patient cleverness, ever created, nothing else comes close to mankind. We are the pinnacle of embodied ability in the universe.
That's our heritage. Our inheritance as a species is to be capable of awe-inspiring feats, to do things that nothing else can manage. And we would be well advised to remember this.
The late Heinlein was often quoted, describing his view on people:
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
Heinlein might have added a hundred more to his list of twenty-one, and he still wouldn't touch on all that a single person is capable of.
Too often, though, we get caught up in the storms that surround us, and forget the essential truth that underlies Heinlein's musings--that our destiny, as individuals as much as a species, is to bring change to the universe on a grand scale, for we are the only things that can.
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| I sent out a lot of letters this Christmas, but I'm not done yet. It turns out that they take longer than I expected. In any case, Merry Christmas! |
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| I'm done with Ch 3, L&L.
The last derivation took me all day.
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