ideonexus

Author: ideonexus

  • The Media

    Media Bias Who controls the media? Conservatives claim the liberals hold more sway over it, the liberals accuse conservatives of owning it. Both sides of the debate actually have very compelling arguments to make their case, but the debate over ideological media-dominance ignores other important dimensions of bias and fails to address the question of…

  • Lifepartnerships for All Consenting Citizens

    “Marriage” seems to be a nebulous concept on its own without sexual orientation entering the debate. Civil unions, marriages, lifepartnerships benefit communities by providing stability, and this benefit alone is sufficient for promoting them, but the debate over lifepartnerships extends into definitions that include the potential to produce viable offspring, religious requirements, appeals to tradition,…

  • Campaign Finance Laws

    Note: This is a series of three posts on campaign finance laws, my thoughts on the matter evolve through the debate. Repeal Campaign Finance Laws How do I like my crow? This thought has been rolling around in my mind for some time now. You see, I was one of those people who vociferously advocated…

  • Wile E Coyote, Tragic Hero of Science

    Wile E. Coyote Wile E. Coyote, self-proclaimed “Super Genius,” goes by the scientific name “Eternalii Famishus,” has one all-consuming goal in life, to catch the Road Runner, scientific name “Acceleratii Incredibilus.” To accomplish this, Wile E implements a wide variety of weapons, state of the art technologies, and McGuyveresque (which should really be “Wile E…

  • Humanism

    Basic Humanism Somewhere in the list of articles in the “Hypotheses” section of this site is an article entitled “Scientism 2.0,” where I define my faith in Science as my closest estimation of a religion. My reasons for creating my own religion was that I had failed to find a School of Thought that mirrored…

  • The Implications of Cosmetic Prosthesis

    Modifications to our genetic expressions are commonplace and extend back to ancient times. Men shave their facial hair; women use makeup. Primitive peoples paint their bodies, tattoo and scar their skins into complex, meaningful designs. Lip-plates, nose-bones, piercings, all of these are attempts to modify, decorate, or otherwise enhance our genetic foundation. Practices not used…

  • Great Books: Dr. J. Bronowski’s “The Ascent of Man”

    The Ascent of Man Dr. J.Bronowski begins this story, our story, five million years ago with the emergence of Australopithecus africanus, ancestors to the human race, and continues through our modern adventures into the Quantum World. The Human Race’s social, architectural, agricultural, metallurgical, and scientific accomplishments are all catalogued with rich and wonderful detail. Although…

  • Great Films: Renoir’s “La Grande Illusion”

    La Grande Illusion Poster Illusion takes place during a time of epic cultural change, the first World War. The French Revolution has produced a burgeoning middle-class and the advent of modern warfare meant a new definition of honor in battle. Noblemen and commoners were forced into fraternization. The opening scene seems almost satirical. The German…

  • School Tracking Sucks

    I consider myself a victim of tracking. My sixth-grade elementary school teacher, completely on her own perceptions of my aptitude, placed me in remedial mathematics and average English for my first year of Junior High School (that’s “Middle School” for most of you out there). I don’t bare that woman any ill-will for passing such…

  • Democracy’s Renaissance Online

    The invention of the printing press dramatically enhanced the average human being’s intelligence. Suddenly all the great written works of time were made accessible to any literate person regardless of income. Now the World Wide Web brings us all of this and more almost instantaneously. Instead of having to run to a bookstore or contact…

  • Rights for Brights

    “I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.” – George Bush Sr. August 27, 1987 British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s statement on military action in Afghanistan contained a sentence that struck me like a bolt from the blue on October 7,…

  • E=mc^2: The Universe Condenses from Energy to Mass Over Time

    There is something very Zen about Einstein’s most famous equation. E=mc2. mc2=E. Energy and matter are related through the equal sign. They are like Yin and Yang, opposites that are different presentations of the same stuff. Keeping this equation in mind, which direction is our Cosmos moving? Observing the history of our Cosmos from the…