ottoborden

George Packer On Charlie Hebdo Murders

The Blame for the Charlie Hebdo Murders They are only the latest blows delivered by an ideology that has sought to achieve power through terror for decades. It’s the same ideology that sent Salman Rushdie into hiding for a decade under a death sentence for writing a novel, then killed his Japanese translator and tried … Continue reading →

Re: Blue Lives Matter

Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Blue Lives Matter is well written and thought provoking as usual. However I find myself in the unusual position of disagreeing with him. In the opening paragraph he says: The killing of police officers is not only the destruction of life but an attack on democracy itself. We do not live in a military dictatorship, … Continue reading →

The Golden Age — A Look at the Original Roots of Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science, and Neuroscience


How to Tell a True War Story

It’s not pretty, exactly. It’s astonishing. It fills the eye. It commands you. You hate it, yes, but your eyes do not. Like a killer forest fire, like cancer under a microscope, any battle or bombing raid or artillery barrage has the aesthetic purity of absolute moral indifference – a powerful, implacable beauty – and … Continue reading →

Calculating Object Difference in JavaScript

Populism and Progressivism as Constitutional Categories

Populism and Progressivism as Constitutional Categories I think the 21st century needs to move beyond the populist/progressivist split and forge a new middle ground. One that harnesses the two-way nature of the Internet to both diffuse education outward and take inward the suggestions of curious amateurs.

Banned TED Talk: Nick Hanauer “Rich people don’t create jobs”

A millionaire sets the record straight and the so-called “liberal” and “intellectual” TED community did not decide to promote his ideas. I wonder if it’s because TED is funded by the rich?

Beauty In Rationality?

The Outmoded Idea of the Selfish Gene

We have a more complicated understanding of football than we do genetics and evolution. Nobody thinks just the quarterback wins the game. http://aeon.co/magazine/nature-and-cosmos/why-its-time-to-lay-the-selfish-gene-to-rest/

Undercover Journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas

A man doing amazing work in Sub-Saharan Africa. He uses undercover journalism to ‘name, shame and jail’ corrupt officials and those who violate human rights. http://anasaremeyawanas.org/bio/ http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/africainvestigates/