"Squashed Philosophers" by Glyn Hughes

From his "About" page:

There is no taking-part in the 'Great Debate' of Western civilisation... without some familiarity with the, remarkably few, thinkers in whose language and idiom the talk is conducted...

There's nothing new in making condensed versions of the classics. What is different here is that these are neither the opinion of one person nor mere extracts. Instead, each has begun with a very wide analysis of quotations, citations and, especially, past examination papers (including UK A-Levels back to 1976), to establish which passages, which phrases, which lines, which words and which ideas, are generally considered the most important...

Google cheatsheet!

Amazing; they just keep getting better and better!

(Who knew you could do synomym searches?!)

"An even more intelligent design"

[Link]

Card: "Does Democracy Really Work?"

Another very interesting article from Orson Scott Card, about the becoming-more-famous book The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies, and Nations, by James Surowiecki.

Card says, summarizing from the book:

Crowds are wisest when these conditions are met:

1. Diversity of opinion. ("Each person should have some private information, even if it's just an eccentric interpretation of the known facts.")

2. Independence. ("People's opinions are not determined by the opinions of those around them.")

3. Decentralization. ("People are able to specialize and draw on local knowledge.")

4. Aggregation. ("Some mechanism exists for turning private judgments into a collective decision.")

And then, arguably, turns to using the book, and those concepts, to show the it really was the best thing that George Bush was elected, that the Iraq war was a success (even decries "the CIA's intransigent rejection of President Bush's war plan in Iraq") and why the Democrats are such miserable, elitist, two-faced failures.

But it's so easy to see how selective and self-serving the rhetoric is.

Think just a bit about the four points above, and you see that:

1) We have little "Diversity of opinion": There's the right-wingers, the left-wingers and the poor slobs in the middle who got the sales pitch of the millenium. And in the Neocon world, everyone's "on message" or they visit the woodshed til they get on message; quite scary really - but terribly sucessful, if measured in the acquisition, expansion and use of power.

2. We have little Independence: People's opinions were determined by the opinions of those around them; both in the sales pitch and in the endless hand-wringing about "electability".

3. Decentralization. "People are able to specialize and draw on local knowledge."? Huh? We have a virtually homogenized culture - and a presidential election is the epitome of that.

4. Aggregation: Sure, we've got voting, but among the many indications of fraud, various flavors of disenfranchising activities, the utter lack of any way to verify much of the voting (e-voting and others), ignoring the non "battleground" states, low percentage turnout... we're left with rather little to crow about.

But back to the title for a moment: "Does Democracy Really Work?"

It can - but like anything else, it can fail too. It can be twisted, and we're seeing an awful lot of that lately.

"What if Bush has been right about Iraq all along?"

BY MARK BROWN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

Maybe you're like me and have opposed the Iraq war since before the shooting started -- not to the point of joining any peace protests, but at least letting people know where you stood...

But after watching Sunday's election in Iraq and seeing the first clear sign that freedom really may mean something to the Iraqi people, you have to be asking yourself: What if it turns out Bush was right, and we were wrong?...

It all sounds so reasonable doesn't it? I mean, maybe we just missed something right? We're not perfect and Bush really isn't the devil, huh?

WRONG.

The end does not, ever, justify the means. The Bush administration betrayed and continues to betray the fundamental things this country stands for. From lying about the reasons for the war in the first place, to torturing people during, to holding people for years with no accusation and no access to any form of legal counsel. It's all horribly, tragically un-American and just plain wrong.

For now, though, I think we have to cut the president some slack about a timetable for his exit strategy.

If it turns out Bush was right all along, this is going to require some serious penance.

Maybe I'd have to vote Republican in 2008.

Ah, yes - I see the point now; seems to me like just another of the "but we're being oh so reasonable" right-wing attacks on the middle.

Sun Tzsu said the best way to win a battle is to not have to fight it. If you can get the left and middle to keep fighting themselves, you can keep focusing on your agenda of remaking the world in the image of right, eh?

Self-Esteem and Encouragement

Orson Scott Card has a great article on self-esteem in education - a bit harsh, but maybe it needs to be; most of it does indeed ring true.

Homework stress

Mixed Media by Scott Willis and Jack Ohman, 2005/02/01.

"Adults better Web surfers than teens"

By K. Oanh Ha, Mercury News

...Teens ages 13 to 17 were able to complete assigned tasks on the Web 55 percent of the time, compared with 66 percent for adults... The teens were hampered by poor reading and research skills and were more prone to leave a site after encountering difficulties...

Interesting - seems to fly in the face of common wisdom, but it actually does make sense, in the full context.

"What's wrong with these kids today?!"

Very interesting post by Kevin's father, containing this nugget:

When asked whether people should be allowed to express unpopular views, 97 percent of teachers and 99 percent of school principals said yes. Only 83 percent of students did.

Here's why: Because everyone keeps telling them they're wrong.

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Matt knows blogging

Everyone's got their own gig, but personally, I completely agree with Matt's reasoning on why some of us blog, and why it matters - a least to us. If you're here, you might be interested in some of his other posts too; check it out. (Disclosure: I've known Matt since about 1987 and though we rarely see each other in person, I'd like to think we could pick up a conversation if we did. :)

"Intelligent Design" or Artful Obfuscation?

Very interesting discussion, trying to find the actual theory - if any - behind "Intelligent Design" -- since the whole thrust of the argument, seems to be: "Well, science says that we have to test any theory, right? So here's mine: Intelligent Design. Now you have to put it right next to Darwin's theory of Evolution, right?" Well, no, not really...

Weatherman fetish

OK, so there are people with just way too much time on their hands.

But thank the gods; some of this stuff is just too good:

• Bad Weatherman: So it's a college student, having a bad day - but it's quite a train wreck -- and he just doesn't give up; gotta give him that much.
• Tourette Weatherman - and this looks like it may really be Tourette Syndrome, so a little understanding, please.
• Last but not least: Sure it's way un-PC in places, but the guy is really trying, and appears to have some talent: Mark Mathis. But wait! There's more!

Alcohol in the Star Trek Universe

If you can put aside your "PC" for a few minutes, this is side-splittingly funny stuff - even if you're not a Trekkie. Thanks, again, to GMSV for the link.

The Ornery American: Orson Scott Card

You may or may not recognize the name Orson Scott Card from his SciFi, but you'll probably be interested in his essays regardless; good stuff.

The current one is a really good analysis of American healthcare.

UPDATE: Or at least it WAS good stuff - until it became yet another raging "neocon" forum; how depressing.

Bush is the real Social Security Crisis

Think: The Boomers are pulling out much faster than the smaller, following generations, are putting in. Of course. But the Boomers put in a huge amount, while the smaller, previous generations were taking not much out.

The system is not broken - but Bush sure is trying hard.

ITunes user sues Apple over iPod

"He says Apple is breaking anti-competition laws in refusing to let other music players work with the site."

How very interesting...

Let's just say, for the sake of argument, that this makes sense.

The logical conclusion then is: Every piece of software (heck, let's say hardware too!) must always be available for every format - a huge win for Apple and every other non-WinTel developer!

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