Journalism dropout turned philosophy dropout, and that does a better job at defining me than the business degree I do have. I’m an amateur science fiction writer.
polymathwannabe
Karma: 3,865
[Question] How do you survive in the humanities?
What do you like?
Mosquito killing begins
First, happy birthday. Keep shining.
Second: I’m 2 years older than you, but reading your blog feels like learning from a teacher who has advanced in the path of wisdom an unfathomable lot more than me. In my own circles I meet dull and thick PhDs all the time, so my perception of your wisdom cannot entirely be due to your having done three times the education I have.
Your writing is the most careful I know. You know when you’re right, but you never come off as overconfident. Time after time, you go out of your way to try to prove yourself wrong. And you care whether you’re wrong, which is a rare virtue these days.
A predictable retort is that I’m not much wise myself, so what do I know. Maybe. You’ll decide how much to weigh the admiration coming from people less wise than you vs. the admiration from people wiser than you. But the fact that you get admiration from both groups must count for something.
Upon first viewing, my brain wanted to think that the empty space in the middle was the “solid thing” and that the area corresponding to the leaves was “empty.”
Last night I had a similar experience while organizing my new apartment. I kept walking past this open door, and my brain kept misinterpreting the space within the frame as the “door” even though it was already open and what I was seeing was actually the wall beyond.
Neuropath by R. Scott Bakker. A crazy neurosurgeon dissects people’s selfhood while the good guys discuss evolutionary psychology and why the whole concept of crime may be misguided. The author keeps a blog on the same ideas (https://rsbakker.wordpress.com).
Physicists say simulation hypothesis is impossible in principle
At the barest minimum, your birth certificate (and associated papers that prove your relatedness to people you hope to inherit from), your high school diploma (unless you already have a university degree AND don’t intend to pursue another one), and any vitally important medical records.
“Revival” is the text I wrote.
I missed the reason why LW no longer has bragging threads, so allow me to brag here about my first published story in English at Antimatter Magazine.
Unfortunately I don’t travel much (although there’s a 50⁄50 chance I’ll move to Boston later this year), but you can find me on Facebook as carturo222.
ARARRRARGGGGHHH why do I only see this now.
Do you have any plans to come visit again?
Steve Reich’s Violin Phase.
Nick Bostrom says Google is winning the AI arms race
Make LW nice again.
I happen to be working on that at the office. Here is a snapshot of the opinion landscape (all from PubMed):
Iwamoto J. Vitamin K₂ therapy for postmenopausal osteoporosis. Nutrients. 2014 May 16;6(5):1971-80.
DiNicolantonio JJ, Bhutani J, O’Keefe JH. The health benefits of vitamin K. Open Heart. 2015 Oct 6;2(1):e000300.
Huang ZB, Wan SL, Lu YJ, Ning L, Liu C, Fan SW. Does vitamin K2 play a role in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis for postmenopausal women: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Osteoporos Int. 2015 Mar;26(3):1175-86.
Falcone TD, Kim SS, Cortazzo MH. Vitamin K: fracture prevention and beyond. PM R. 2011 Jun;3(6 Suppl 1):S82-7.
Maresz K. Proper Calcium Use: Vitamin K2 as a Promoter of Bone and Cardiovascular Health. Integr Med (Encinitas). 2015 Feb;14(1):34-9.
Hamidi MS, Cheung AM. Vitamin K and musculoskeletal health in postmenopausal women. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2014 Aug;58(8):1647-57.
Stevenson M, Lloyd-Jones M, Papaioannou D. Vitamin K to prevent fractures in older women: systematic review and economic evaluation. Health Technol Assess. 2009 Sep;13(45):iii-xi, 1-134.
Fang Y, Hu C, Tao X, Wan Y, Tao F. Effect of vitamin K on bone mineral density: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. J Bone Miner Metab. 2012 Jan;30(1):60-8.
Vermeer C, Theuwissen E. Vitamin K, osteoporosis and degenerative diseases of ageing. Menopause Int. 2011 Mar;17(1):19-23.
Azuma K, Ouchi Y, Inoue S. Vitamin K: novel molecular mechanisms of action and its roles in osteoporosis. Geriatr Gerontol Int. 2014 Jan;14(1):1-7.
Hamidi MS, Gajic-Veljanoski O, Cheung AM. Vitamin K and bone health. J Clin Densitom. 2013 Oct-Dec;16(4):409-13.
Shah K, Gleason L, Villareal DT. Vitamin K and bone health in older adults. J Nutr Gerontol Geriatr. 2014;33(1):10-22.
Iwamoto J, Takeda T, Sato Y. Menatetrenone (vitamin K2) and bone quality in the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis. Nutr Rev. 2006 Dec;64(12):509-17.
Pearson DA. Bone health and osteoporosis: the role of vitamin K and potential antagonism by anticoagulants. Nutr Clin Pract. 2007 Oct;22(5):517-44.
Gundberg CM, Lian JB, Booth SL. Vitamin K-dependent carboxylation of osteocalcin: friend or foe? Adv Nutr. 2012 Mar 1;3(2):149-57.
Bügel S. Vitamin K and bone health in adult humans. Vitam Horm. 2008;78:393-416.
Booth SL. Vitamin K status in the elderly. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2007 Jan;10(1):20-3.
Shea MK, Booth SL. Update on the role of vitamin K in skeletal health. Nutr Rev. 2008 Oct;66(10):549-57.
Iwamoto J, Sato Y, Takeda T, Matsumoto H. High-dose vitamin K supplementation reduces fracture incidence in postmenopausal women: a review of the literature. Nutr Res. 2009 Apr;29(4):221-8.
Iwamoto J, Matsumoto H, Takeda T. Efficacy of menatetrenone (vitamin K2) against non-vertebral and hip fractures in patients with neurological diseases: meta-analysis of three randomized, controlled trials. Clin Drug Investig. 2009;29(7):471-9.
Iwamoto J, Sato Y. Menatetrenone for the treatment of osteoporosis. Expert Opin Pharmacother. 2013 Mar;14(4):449-58.
Cranenburg EC, Schurgers LJ, Vermeer C. Vitamin K: the coagulation vitamin that became omnipotent. Thromb Haemost. 2007 Jul;98(1):120-5.
Guralp O, Erel CT. Effects of vitamin K in postmenopausal women: mini review. Maturitas. 2014 Mar;77(3):294-9.
NRx emerged from some of the ideas that also coalesced into LW, but their aims couldn’t be more different. A core item of the LW philosophy is altruism; NRx is systematized hatred.
Also, it being on Breitbart should be enough indication that its version of events is not to be trusted.
Open Thread, Aug. 22 − 28, 2016
I’m halfway through Italo Calvino’s Cosmicomics. They’re science-based creation myths, and they’re breathtaking.
What I wanted to tell the teacher was, “If arguments + evidence are compelling enough, you have no choice but to believe. In general, belief is not a choice.” But then she’d have thrown Sartre and radical freedom at me, which would have completely missed my point.