CapitalistImperialistPig

Ayn Rand did not invent the "up is down" ploy.  Orwell used it ironically, and Stalin probably standardized it, but Rand, slavish follower of Lenin that she was, pushed it pretty hard too.  Here is my current favorite: He saw defensively belligerent men and tastelessly dressed women-he saw mean, rancorous, suspicious faces that bore the one mark incompatible with a standard bearer of the intellect: the mark of uncertainty ...

It's possible to create a fairly consistent world picture, if you are willing to disregard that nasty old reality stuff.  Listen, for a few seconds, to Galt's explanation: Did it ever occur to you, Miss Taggart,” said Galt...”that there is no conflict of interests among men, neither in business nor in trade nor in their most personal desires-if they omit the irrational from their view of the possible and destruction from their view of the practical?  There is no conflict, and no call for sacrifice, and no man is a threat to the aims of another- if men understand that reality is an absolute not to be faked , that lies do not work, that the unearned cannot be had, that the undeserved cannot be given, that the destruction of a value which is, will not bring value to that which isn’t.  The businessman who wishes to gain a market by throttling a superior competitor,  the worker who wants a share of his employers wealth,  the artist who envies a rivals higher talent...

...This is E. Coli, do you copy? As you probably know, the ten trillion or so cells that constitute our bodies share our space with about ten times as many bacteria who are along for the ride.  It seems that they may be communicating by radio ... Chemical reactions can be induced at a distance due to the propagation of electromagnetic signals during intermediate chemical stages. Although is is well known at optical frequencies, e.g. photosynthetic reactions, electromagnetic signals hold true for muck [sic: much] lower frequencies. In E. coli bacteria such electromagnetic signals can be generated by electric transitions between energy levels describing electrons moving around DNA loops. The electromagnetic signals between different bacteria within a community is a "wireless" version of intercellular communication found in bacterial communities connected by "nanowires". The wireless broadcasts can in principle be of both the AM and FM variety due to the magnetic fl...

American's are agreed that about half their fellow citizens are unfit to vote.  Which half remains a point of contention.

My guess is that most people don't pursue PhD's (at least in Physics) becuase they want a career - at least I didn't.  I wanted to learn the secrets of the Universe. Well, I didn't learn any new secrets, or at least no major ones, but I did wind up with a career. Life seems to be like that.

Mark Taylor thinks the PhD production line is broken , and needs to be reformed or junked. The system of PhD education in the United States and many other countries is broken and unsustainable, and needs to be reconceived. In many fields, it creates only a cruel fantasy of future employment that promotes the self-interest of faculty members at the expense of students. The reality is that there are very few jobs for people who might have spent up to 12 years on their degrees. Most doctoral-education programmes conform to a model defined in European universities during the Middle Ages, in which education is a process of cloning that trains students to do what their mentors do. The clones now vastly outnumber their mentors. The academic job market collapsed in the 1970s, yet universities have not adjusted their admissions policies, because they need graduate students to work in laboratories and as teaching assistants. But once those students finish their education, there are no academ...

Having reached Rivendell*, where formerly fierce industrialists now cavort happily as janitors and handmen - because now they don't have to pay taxes, I guess, I find myself excruciatingly bored.  I fear the feel of an oncoming interminable speech, maybe, from that ferret faced little shit Galt. I may need to abandon this ship for a bit. *Or whatever the hell it is.