BC

Likely because a coherent signal from very, very far away is unlikely to reach us, and b, such signals may never have been sent in the first place. BT...

It's been decades since I read it, but didn't a few intrepid astronauts land on the nose of the ship and get admitted inside? (I don't remember their ...

"Enlightened self-interest" hasn't bulked large in my life as I've lived it, and it isn't something I usually argue for. Individuals, families, commun...

I suppose I am diluting the meaning of 'self interest' when I define it to include acting on the interests of others, at least to some degree. Feeding...

Why would anyone knowingly vote against their self interest? Self-interest can be define extremely narrowly, like Ebenezer Scrooge, or more broadly. I...

I would vote in favor of altruism, but I haven't seen it on the ballot. People vote in favor of their own interests (as they should) and they vote in ...

Americans, on a broad average, tend to be more liberal than their elected representatives. (Note, this is a very qualified generalization.). When voti...

And, to quote Dostoyevski, "If god is dead, everything is permitted."

I read about his theory, haven't read the book. Thanks for the link to the New Yorker article, Did Arthur C. Clark's Rendezvous With Rama inadvertentl...

Brenden Q. Morris (who is working on a space science degree in Europe) has written a batch of 'hard science fiction' novels involving exploration of m...

Thanks. I find it hard to picture the processes. Fortunately, it doesn't matter whether I understand it or not.

An example:

Just watched DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) - film noir. It's about pasta -- macaroni, baby, and make it snappy. Walter Neff has discovered Los Angeles store...

According to Google Ngram, hot dish or hotdish have never been very popular in printed text. Peak hot dish was 1895 give or take. Casserole has always...

Oh yeah, meth. I haven't tried that yet. You never see fat meth addicts, now that I think about it. Of course, maybe meth users are all thin to start ...

Budget tuna fish hot dish is a melange of noodles, store brand budget cream of mushroom soup, the cheapest tuna fish, and who knows, maybe Velveeta ch...

Minnesotans flock to the state fair in order to gobble fried cheese, fried corn dogs (disgusting), fried ice cream, fried snickers, fried tunafish hot...

A better new year to you. Have you abandoned wallowing for gazing? Abandoned swine for Providence? A major upgrade, to say the least. How much does th...

You have named an important truth (an over-used word): knowledge production and transmission is a social project. "New" ideas, inventions, art works, ...

Rabid or rable? Inviting the rabid over for lunch could pose a substantial risk to your wellbeing. A garlic garland around your neck won't help, btw. ...

Your higher socialist authority has revealed the future: You will sell vegan hotdogs on stale sugarless gluten free buns with ersatz condiments from a...

I have to go to the grocery store. Suppose they are out of bananas. Then what? What if somebody bought all my favorite flavor of ice cream, Then what?...

then a wrong decision is made and we live with the consequences. Warren Buffet might make the same wrong decision.

Bershire Hathaway is probably in no position to intervene in a strike. A guy who owns Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad and Dairy Queen both, and ...

turns out to be the old criminal cart cartel doing business under a new name. Look, gardeners, hot dog vendors, artisan needle workers, sculptors, wea...

If anything is political, it's the interpersonal stuff. A lot of interpersonal static stems from the stresses of life as we know it, under capitalism.

You know, Marx was a political economist, we'd say. He described how individuals (who are not at first even petite bourgeoisie accumulate wealth. The ...

How do you know he is content with his cart? He may be cruelly forced to sell hotdogs. Besides, I don't think selling hotdogs or popcorn on the street...

@"schopenhauer1" When we get into debates about capitalism vs. socialism we are often, under cover, debating essentialism vs. constructivism. "Man is ...

Management can get away with being total assholes in workplaces that are without organized workers--unions who stand up for the workers. In a socialis...

Marx thought that the employees of advanced capitalist operations--who actually run the companies--acquired the knowledge to effectively administer op...

From each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs. Karl Marx

Capitalist corporations are chartered to make a profit for the shareholders of the corporation. Companies make a profit by exploiting their workers (b...

yes, they do, but the existing companies and governments won't be in business after the revolution. They were built with somebody's money -- stockhold...

Data is data. It might be as useful in a socialist economy as in a capitalist one to know how the consumption of dark green leafy vegetables is correl...

Socialist joke: Leader: After the revolution, there will be strawberries for all. Peasant: But Leader, I don't like strawberries! Leader: After the re...

Does everything have to be planned? No. Cultural workers do not need permission to form a theatrical troupe, an orchestra, a band, a poetry reading, a...

A socialist economy, just like any other, will not be simply wished into existence. It will have to be built up over time. A socialist economy, like a...

"Wage slavery" will seem like rhetorical overkill to lots of people, but it is a 'term of art' that socialists use to describe the terms of labor in t...

The terms, "wage slave" and "wage slavery" apply to system, not to individual workers, employers, or supervisors. Marx and Engels were not citing part...

I'm in favor of bettering the breed, but that gets us into the difficult questions of how determinism determines outcomes. What, exactly, do we select...

You need to get an essential relationship straight: It isn't the case that employers create jobs for workers. The fact is that workers create all weal...

ln conclusion, let me add one thing: No war but the class war. Have I discharged my obligations to this thread now? I'm tired and want to go to bed.

First, working is not optional. No work, no money; no money, starvation. It's called wage slavery, So a work contract can be terrible but still have t...

Corporate chiefs have generally been rewarded well, but the incomes many have been receiving in the past 20 years are unprecedented and larcenous. In ...

There sure as hell is. I felt heavy static in my brain while posting above.

Is "having agency" determined or is it an individual virtue? There are several things I wanted to accomplish but I found that I did not have agency to...

Good topic, and I don't want to derail it. Sorry for whatever extent deraileurment has occurred. However, the reason for our resort to FW drives our s...

Aristotle started this discussion; but what the old philosopher meant to say (and would have said had we been there to help him) is that the forces of...

Happy New Year, Schopenhauer1. Here's the perfect New Yorker cartoon to go with the greeting: https://64.media.tumblr.com/c3727149603334891e7a71fedda9...