December 2010
November 2010
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Question of the Day?
The runaway trolley car is hurtling down a track where it will kill five people. You are standing on a bridge above the track and, aware of the imminent disaster, you decide to jump on the track to block the trolley car. Although you will die, the five people will be saved.
Just before your leap, you realise that you are too light to stop the trolley. Next to you, a fat man is standing on the...
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Question of the Day?
Yes, Capitalism is bad, but what is better? What is the best system to be put in place here? (It doesn’t have to have already been used)
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“Our life is like a journey on which, as we advance, the landscape takes a...”
– Arthur Schopenhauer
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Ten Rules for Being Human
1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it’s yours to keep for the entire period. 2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, “life.” 3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately “work.” 4....
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“A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.”
– Martin Luther King
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“Be careful what you pretend to be because you are what you pretend to be.”
– Kurt Vonnegut
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“Christianity was from the beginning, essentially and fundamentally, life’s...”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
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The Paradoxical Commandments (Do It Anyway)
People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and...
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Question of the Day?
“Sex is overrated. Lust is just a weakness of the glands. There are only two things a true man should dedicate himself to, knowledge or fine art. Or both. Sex, food and sleep are for animals. Man transcends those simple instincts.”
Is the world better without lust? Would it be better to (somehow) get rid of lust or to embrace lust?
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“The rioters are the culpable parties, not the artist whose work unintentionally...”
– Judge Posner. Nelson v. Streeter
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“A word becomes an insult, one would suppose, because it means something bad; but...”
– George Orwell on swearing
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Question of the Day?
A runaway trolley car is hurtling down a track. In its path are five people who will definitely be killed unless you, a bystander, flip a switch which will divert it on to another track, where it will kill one person. Should you flip the switch? Why?
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Question of the Day?
One day, you wake up in hospital. In the nearby bed lies a world famous violinist who is connected to you with various tubes and machines.
To your horror, you discover that you have been kidnapped by the Music Appreciation Society. Aware of the maestro’s impending death, they hooked you up to the violinist.
If you stay in the hospital bed, connected to the violinist, he will be totally...
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“They tell us that Suicide is the greatest piece of Cowardice… That Suicide...”
– Arthur Schopenhauer
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“Hope is the confusion of the desire for a thing with its probability.”
– Arthur Schopenhauer
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“All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed; Second, it is...”
– Arthur Schopenhauer
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“Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can...”
– Arthur Schopenhauer
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“Understanding is a kind of ecstasy.”
– Carl Sagan
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“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without...”
– Aristotle
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“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and...”
– Mark Twain
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“Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.”
– Voltaire
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“I am done with the monster of ‘We,’ the word of serfdom, of plunder,...”
– Ayn Rand
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“I don’t know which is more dangerous, that religious beliefs force some people...”
– Lawrence M. Krauss (via xavs42)
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“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.”
– Oscar Wilde
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“The lonely leaves are the last to fall”
– Jimmy Newquist
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“He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has...”
– Albert Einstein
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“If 50 million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.”
– Antole France
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Seven 'Sins' of the World
by Mahatma Gandhi
Wealth without work
Pleasure without conscience
Knowledge without character
Commerce without morality
Science without humanity
Worship without sacrifice
Politics without principle
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Question of the Day?
Why is patience considered a virtue when all your doing is wasting your life away? Should it remain a virtue or should ‘haste’ be?
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Question of the Day?
Are there different levels of sadness? Is the sadness you get from a breakup different from that of being in a war-zone?
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“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”
– Aldous Huxley
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