Odracirys

Wang Chong Sometimes when looking for something great, you find something even greater.  I was originally looking for the 80s band "Wang Chung" on Wikipedia, and I came across Wang Chong, a philosopher/pre-scientist who lived from c. 27-100 CE. He was scientific about everything, and didn't give in to the beliefs which were common at the time.  He made some remarkable hypotheses - many of which turned out to be true.  He was wrong that the sun, stars and moon weren't spheres (although they're not perfect spheres), but he had some decent reasons.  He said that from far away, any glowing object (like the sun and stars) appears round, and he said that asteroids that had landed on earth weren't spheres, so his deductions were based on evidence, though not enough in that case.  Anyway, what he did get right was startling, and more than what he discovered was the method he used to discover them - logic. I think more people should know about him, and hopefull...

Sokal-style hoaxes work for religious postmodernists, but (post) modernism is the real hoax Modernism in art and architecture, and postmodernism in philosophy are, like religion, insults to human intelligence.  Unfortunately, many people fall for their hollow propaganda. The "Sokal Affair" was a hoax whereby a man called Alan Sokal submitted a postmodern-sounding article to a postmodern journal.  It turns out that the English you hear isn't just unintelligible to you, but it's unintelligible to the people at the journal as well.  But if it's unintelligible, it must be profound, right?  The journal quickly accepted it, not knowing that it was all fake B.S.  They then got embarrassed when they were told that it was pompous-sounding drivel. Religion has done the same thing.  When people can't understand something, they generally think it's much more profound than if they can understand it.  If a priest speaks Latin, wears some weird costume, and sp...

I recently found myself at a website.  It is called "Turn To Islam: Towards Correcting The Common Misconceptions About Islam" .  I must admit that one of my misconceptions was corrected, after I read this forum thread: "Are we (Muslims) allowed to draw anime?" Some excerpts are below.  (But I wrote a lot more after the excerpts, so please check out the rest of what I posted!) Zelim123: "Assalamu aleykum Brothers en Sisters, I just wanted to know, are we are allowed to draw anime, like Bleach ? Cuz i've drawn much drawings of anime's, and some peole say it's allowed and others say its haram" Ibn Uthaymin: "Bro I think its not permissible. Since Bleach is about Shinigami and Hollows which have heads, eyes etc. All these are essential for life.  This is a answer from Sheikh Sami el Majid: 'Drawing an image with all the essential parts for life - such as the chest area, the abdomen, the head - will surely be prohibited even if...

A LESSON IN LOGIC  (Especially useful for the America-haters.) In the aftermath of attacks against innocent people by violent mobs, I have seen as much hatred directed at the victims' group (Americans) as at the perpetrators of the crimes.  This is normal.  There is rampant anti-Americanism throughout the world.  Hatred against Americans is as illogical as hatred against someone born of a certain race.  In both cases, the people had NO CHOICE in the matter.  With religion, assuming people are thinking beings which can theoretically free themselves from brainwashing, faith IS A CHOICE.  This is the thing that so many people (I'm sorry to say, mostly liberals), can't get through their heads. Americans are simply people who were born within certain borders (or moved there).  They have no common ideology which they subscribe to.  They are individuals.  This also applies to the people of every country and race. Religions, on the oth...

You're welcome for saving your lives from Gaddafi's Army. (Update: At least 4 Americans were killed in Benghazi, including the American ambassador.) In Benghazi (you remember that place...the beacon of freedom and liberalism in Libya that was fighting Gaddafi for the sake of human rights), giant mobs invaded the U.S. embassy (which is U.S. territory) and killed an American.  So much for gratitude. In Egypt, a land which is now free from tyran....haha!...oh, man!...I just couldn't finish it with a straight face!  Anyway, in post "Arab Spring" Egypt, they also took over the U.S. embassy and put an Islamic flag where the U.S. flag once flew.  In fact, I'm happy to remove all embassies from the Middle East, perhaps excepting the United Arab Emirates (where Dubai is located).  If they can't get visas to visit civilized lands, so much the better!  I don't want America to be swamped by this disease like Europe has been and is continuing to be!  Letti...

Modernist's Response Back on July 5th, I shared an email I wrote to Roger Lewis.  He is a professor of architecture who wrote an article criticizing people who want Washington D.C. to maintain its Classical spirit instead being turned into a showcase for Modernism.  Below is a link to my July 5th post: http://odracirys.blogspot.jp/2012/07/my-response-email-to-k.html Well, quite a while back, he replied to me, which was pretty nice of him.  I also wrote a reply back to him.  My response was not super well-thought-out, but was rather spur of the moment, reaching for what I had at hand.  But it has quite a few links to pictures comparing Modernist to Classical buildings.  Here are both his and my replies: Roger Lewis' Email: Dear Odaricirys Mediys, I just returned from three weeks teaching and traveling in Russia, which is why I did not respond promptly to your July 4 email. The headline for my column, "Why classical architecture makes little sen...

Scientific Sadism This just in!  Existing forever on the verge of starvation doesn't help to prolong your life. http://health.heraldtribune.com/2012/08/30/severe-diet-doesnt-prolong-life-at-least-in-monkeys/ "For 25 years, the rhesus monkeys were kept semistarved, lean and hungry. The males’ weights were so low they were the equivalent of a 6-foot-tall man who tipped the scales at just 120 to 133 pounds." However, the study failed.  Starved rhesus monkeys didn't live longer than their (non-obese) well-fed counterparts.  Still, "The study is continuing until the youngest monkeys are 22 years old. While the data pretty much rule out any notion that the low-calorie diet will increase average lifespans, there still is a chance that the study might find that the diet increases the animals’ maximum lifespan" , said Julie A. Mattison So, they failed at their experiment, but decided to continue to ruin the lives of more monkeys just to see what mi...