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Contents contributed and discussions participated by Erin Hamson

Erin Hamson

The Business Cycle: Krugman vs. Austrian Economic Theory - 0 views

  • Stimulus payments to consumers is analogous to dumping frosting onto a cake mix, before the ingredients have been mixed and baked. All elements of the economy, from raw materials, to intermediate goods, to consumer goods, must return to a supply-demand balance before the economy can gain Krugman’s “traction.” That necessarily takes time, because mining companies and other producers of basic raw materials have time scales for increased output and employment that are very different from the time scales of intermediate goods producers and consumer goods manufacturers.
  • Keynesian economics, as expounded by New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, is essentially a black box theory. Stand on the outside of the economic box and dump into it endless baskets of inflationary fiat money, and things supposedly just happen automatically inside the black box to produce permanent prosperity and near zero unemployment.
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    Blog on economic theories
Erin Hamson

Free Exchange « Krishna's Mercy - 0 views

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    Blog about the benefits of a Free Market system over one that forces benefits to be spread to more people. 
Erin Hamson

Entertainment: More people are watching movies online, but few are buying them - latime... - 0 views

  • tudio executives say they're optimistic that particular headache will be resolved soon. But the pay channels are unlikely to allow movies to be sold online while they have the rights unless they negotiate a reduction in rights fees worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year.
    • Erin Hamson
       
      Everyone wants their share of the money.
Erin Hamson

Cathedral and the Bazaar - 0 views

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    Web 3 of this name. Appears to be same/similar to Raymond's online version. 
Erin Hamson

The Cathedral & the Bazaar - O'Reilly Media - 0 views

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    Link to a description of the published book of that name. Apparently we have been looking at chapter 2 of said book of that name?
Erin Hamson

The Cathedral and the Bazaar - 0 views

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    Web1 Eric Raymond's Work
Erin Hamson

The Cathedral and the Bazaar - 0 views

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    Website 2 w/ some of Eric Raymond's work on it.
Erin Hamson

Audio Cathedral and Bazaar - 0 views

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    The audio file for the Cathedral and the Bazaar
Erin Hamson

A Logic Named Joe (MemeMachineGo!) - 0 views

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    Analysis of A Logic Named Joe
Erin Hamson

Freud, "Civilization and its Discontents," 1930 (excerpt) - 0 views

  • horrors of the recent World War
    • Erin Hamson
       
      Something people would like to forget, but which shapes their world views. 
  • s the factor which disturbs our relations with our neighbor and which forces civilization into such a high expenditure [of energy]
  • civilized society is perpetually threatened with disintegration
    • Erin Hamson
       
      Tyranny to Anarchy to Tyranny
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  • instinctual passions are stronger than reasonable interests.
  • commandment to love one's neighbor as oneself -- a commandment which is really justified by the fact that nothing else runs so strongly counter to the original nature of man
  • liverance from our evil
  • The communists believe they have found  the path to de
  • Since everyone's needs would be satisfied, no one would have any reason to regard another as his enemy; all would willingly undertake the work that was necessary.
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      The problem is that people have more than needs. 
  • but we have in no way altered the differences in power and influence which are misused by aggressiveness, nor have we altered anything in its nature. Aggressiveness was not created by property
  • If we were to remove this factor, too, by allowing complete freedom of sexual life and thus abolishing the family, the germ-cell of civilization, we cannot, it is true, easily foresee what new paths the development of civilization could take; but one thing we can expect, and that is that this indestructible feature of human nature will follow at there.
  • We can now see that it is a convenient and relatively harmless satisfaction of the inclination to aggression, by means of which cohesion between the members of the community is made easier
  • n this respect the Jewish people, scattered everywhere, have rendered most useful services to the civilizations of the countries that have been their hosts;
  • find its psychological support in the persecution of the bourgeois
  • s Civilization imposes such great sacrifices not only on man's sexuality but on his aggressivity, we can understand better why it is hard for him to be happy in that civilization.
  • primitive man was better off in knowing no restrictions of instinct.  To counterbalance this, his prospects of enjoying this happiness for any length of time were very slender.
  • Civilized man has exchanged a portion of his possibilities of happiness for a portion of security.
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      John Locke
  • But I shall avoid the temptation of entering upon a critique of American civilization; I do not wish to give an impression of wanting myself to employ American methods.
Erin Hamson

1. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Eliot, T.S. 1917. Prufrock and Other Observations - 0 views

shared by Erin Hamson on 28 Oct 10 - Cached
  • Though I have seen my head [grown slightly bald] brought in upon a platter, I am no prophe
    • Erin Hamson
       
      John the Baptist
  • “I am Lazarus, come from the dead
    • Erin Hamson
       
      Another religious reference
Erin Hamson

MIT OpenCourseWare | Biology | 7.012 Introduction to Biology, Fall 2004 | Video Lecture... - 0 views

  • And what this means is that if you look at a pedigree like this, and for example, here we have a mother and a father, girls are always round, boys are square. And here you'll see the mitochondrial DNA, it's donated to all of the children, but the fact is that these boys, when they mate, when they have offspring, they will no longer pass along her mitochondrial DNA, so it will be lost. And the only way the mitochondrial DNA can be transmitted is through one of her daughters, who in turn, have daughters.
  • Here's some other interesting principles. Mitochondrial DNA passes always from the mother, so when a fertilized egg is formed, Dad gives his chromosomes, but he doesn't donate for any, doesn't donate any mitochondrial DNA.
  • animals are related to one another. This is kind of a fun undertaking. Look at this. Why is it fun? Well it's, it's kind of an amusing idea, how often were cows domesticated during the history of humanity? How often were sheep domesticated? Pigs, water buffalos, and horses. And what you see here is that cattle were domesticated on two occasions, probably once in Western Asia, the middle east, and once in Eastern Asia. Sheep were domesticated twice, all modern sheep following these two families here
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  • And that is, certain genes can evolve progressively over a long period of time, because they don't encode vital functions, or they may even be sequences between genes that don't encode phenotype at all. Imagine, for example, we have a situation were here we have a gene which encodes a vital function, like the eye, here's another gene that encodes another function, oh I don't know, a leg. And here we have intergenic sequences. After all, as you have learned by now, more than 96% of the DNA in our genome, doesn't encode proteins, and probably isn't even responsible for regulating genes. So these sequences, right in here, can mutate freely during the course of evolution, without having a deleterious effect on the phenotype of the organism. There's no evolutionary pressure to constrain the evolution of these genes
  • And many of these neutral mutations, which have no effect on organismic fitness, but are simply evolutionary neutral, are sometimes called polymorphisms. The term polymorphism, -morph is once again morphology, derives from the fact that species tend to be polymorphic, we don't all have blond hair, we don't all have brown eyes.
  • If you look at two chimpanzees living on opposite sides of the same hill in West Africa, they are genetically far more distantly related to one another, than any one of us, by a factor of 10 to 15. Two chimpanzees, they look exactly the same, they have the same peculiar habits, but they're genetically far more distantly-related than we are to one-another, than I am to any one of you, or than any one of you is to one another. And what does that mean? It means that, roughly speaking, the species of chimpanzees is, at least, 10 or 15 times older than our species are. We're a young species, chimpanzees probably first speciated three or four million years ago, if the paleontological record is, is accurate. Paleontology is the study of old, dusty bones, so you can begin to imagine when chimpanzee bones become recognizable in the earth.
  • And what you see already, in such small populations, is that for example, this male here has two girls, and right away, to the extent he had an interesting Y chromosome, that Y chromosome was lost from the gene pool. This girl, here, had an interesting mitochondrial DNA, but right away that's lost, because she has, she has just two boys. And what you see, in very rapid order, in small populations, there's a homogenization of the genetic compliment, just because the alleles are lost within what's called, genetic drif
  • And if you ask that question, the answer is that we all had a common ancestress who lived about 150,000 years ago. All of us trace our mitochondrial DNA to her. Does that mean that there was only one woman alive there, she's called, Mitochondrial-Eve, again, we don't know her name. Does that mean there was only one woman alive, well it doesn't mean that at all because of what I just told you, in small populations the proto-human population.
  • How much are all of our mitochondrial DNA are related to one another, how distantly related are they to one another, given the rate of evolution of mitochondrial DNA sequences?
  • So where do we all come from, all of us human beings? How closely related are we to one another? Here's, here's a measurement of the distances between different mitochondrial DNA's from different branches of humanity. And what you see is something really quite extraordinary and stunning. Here, you'll see that the people, the non-African lineages here and here, are actually relatively closely related to one another.
  • And by the way, all the genes that are present here, the alleles that are present here, can also be found in Africa, but in relatively small proportions in Africa
    • Erin Hamson
       
      Suggesting that all people came from Africa
  • So, what happens there, that's a testimonial to the tragic fate of the Indians, where the conquistadors from Spain came in, killed all the men, and took all the women, to be their brides. How else can you explain the fact that there's no Indian Y chromosomes, there's all, there is instead only European Y chromosomes.
  • When you do genetic counseling of family these days, one of the strictures is, that you never tell the family if the children have genetic polymorphisms that don't match that of the person whom they think is their father. They don't look like their, the person whom they regard as father, but that's always assumed to be a role of the genetic dice.
  • Here's a fun story I like to tell each year, and it's about the Cohen and Y chromosome, and you'll see what an amusing story this is, just from genetics. Now the name Cohen, in Hebrew means, a high priest, and you've heard people named Cohen, it's not such an uncommon name among the Jews. And it says, in the Bible, in Genesis and Exodus, that all the high priests in the Bible are the descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses.
  • hen it should be the case that all male Cohen's should have the same Y chromosome, right?
  • Because keep in mind, any single affair with the milkman or the mailman, over 3,000 years, would've broke this chain of inheritance, any single incidence of non-paternity. It's a really astounding story, and it's hard, there can be no artifact to it, there's no bias in it, there's no other way to explain it.
  • And what they found was that all members of the, almost all members of the ruling cast among the Lembas, had the same Y chromosome, and the Y chromosome had exactly the same polymorphisms of the Cohen Y chromosome
  • What I'm telling you is that these two genes are totally interchangeable, that they are effectively indistinguishable from one another, functionally they have some sequence relatedness, but in terms of the way they program development, they are effectively equivalent. And what this means is that the progenitor of these two genes must've already existed at the time that the flies and we diverged, which six or seven-hundred million years ago, and in the intervening six or seven-hundred million years, these genes have been totally unchanged.
  • once the gene was developed, evolution could not tinker with it, and begin to change it in different ways, ostensibly because such tinkering would render these genes dysfunctional, and thereby would inactivate them, thereby depriving the organism of a critical sensory organ.
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    An excellent discourse on who evolution works, and what it means for us today.
Erin Hamson

http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111dar.html - 1 views

    • Erin Hamson
       
      Selective breeding 
  • There is no obvious reason why the principles which have acted so efficiently under domestication should not have acted under nature.
    • Erin Hamson
       
      Logical Conclusion
  • With animals having separated sexes there will in most cases be a struggle between the males for possession of the females.
    • Erin Hamson
       
      One type of competition
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  • No one can draw any clear distinction between individual differences and slight varieties; or between more plainly marked varieties and subspecies, and species.
  • why should we doubt that variations in any way useful to beings, under their excessively complex relations of life, would be preserved, accumulated, and inherited?
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      Progression, in species rather than individual people.
  • The theory of natural selection, even if we looked no further than this, seems to me to be in itself probable. I have already recapitulated, as fairly as I could, the opposed difficulties and objections: now let us turn to the special facts and arguments in favour of the theory.
    • Erin Hamson
       
      It seems perfectly logical.
  • On the view that species are only strongly marked and permanent varieties, and that each species first existed as a variety, we can see why it is that no line of demarcation can be drawn between species, commonly supposed to have been produced by special acts of creation, and varieties which are acknowledged to have been produced by secondary laws. On this same view we can understand how it is that in each region where many species of a genus have been produced, and where they now flourish, these same species should present many varieties; for where the manufactory of species has been active, we might expect, as a general rule, to find it still in action; and this is the case if varieties be incipient species.
    • Erin Hamson
       
      Starting with the premise that species came from one, ie "first existed as a variety", if they were each distinctly created, then this logic is false, because the premise is false. 
  • preserve the most divergent offspring
  • Hence during a long-continued course of modification, the slight differences, characteristic of varieties of the same species, tend to be augmented into the greater differences characteristic of species of the same genus.
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      How species come about.
  • New and improved varieties will inevitably supplant and exterminate the older, less improved and intermediate varieties; and thus species are rendered to a large extent defined and distinct objects.
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      Extinction
  • This grand fact of the grouping of all organic beings seems to me utterly inexplicable on the theory of creation.
    • Erin Hamson
       
      The fact that there are relations among different species. 
  • But why this should be a law of nature if each species has been independently created, no man can explain.
  • As natural selection acts solely by accumulating slight, successive, favourable variations, it can produce no great or sudden modification; it can act only by very short and slow steps
    • Erin Hamson
       
      Where is the evidence for these short steps? 
  • The wonder indeed is, on the theory of natural selection, that more cases of the want of absolute perfection have not been observed.
  • As natural selection acts by competition, it adapts the inhabitants of each country only in relation to the degree of perfection of their associates;
    • Erin Hamson
       
      Imperfection of Nature
  • we believ
    • Erin Hamson
       
      STILL NEEDS FAITH?
Erin Hamson

The Frontier In American History: Chapter X - 0 views

  • As the American pioneer passed on in advance of this new tide of European immigration, he found lands increasingly limited
    • Erin Hamson
       
      The close of the Frontier
  • . But the captains of industry by applying squatter doctrines to the evolution of American industrial society, have made the process so clear that he who runs may read.
  • it seemed not impossible that the outcome of free competition under individualism was to be monopoly of the most important natural resources and processes by a limited group of men whose vast fortunes were so invested in allied and dependent industries that they constituted the dominating force in the industrial life of the nation
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      Unregulated turn of events, the people were turned loose and made the best of it. What is wrong with this? They set the standards, and there is no room for competition.
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  • Mr. Harriman
  • mastering the economic forces of the nation
    • Erin Hamson
       
      According to Adam Smith and the free market economy theory, the people are the best regulators. This sounds like socialism...
  • The Granger and the Populist were prophets of this reform movement. Mr. Bryan's Democracy, Mr. Debs' Socialism, and Mr. Roosevelt's Republicanism all had in common the emphasis upon the need of governmental regulation of industrial tendencies in the interest of the common man
  • "the State University and the public school system which it crowns would be the strongest evidence of its fitness which it could offer."
  • "general system of education ascending in regular gradations from township schools to a State University, wherein tuition shall be gratis and equally open to all," expresses the Middle Western conception born in the days of pioneer society and doubtless deeply influenced by Jeffersonian democracy.
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      applying pioneer principles of avaliability and indivdualism to education and other opportunities to suceed in life as presently constituted.
  • propaganda to induce students to continue
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      Want everyone to go to college to become their best individual self.
  • all under the ideal of service to democracy rather than of individual advancement alone
  • The times call for educated leaders.
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      And have yet to cease to call for experienced leaders. Which is why we are all sitting here reading this, to become educated leaders.
  • The test tube and the microscope are needed rather than ax and rifle in this new ideal of conquest
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      influence of technology on life
  • It is hardly too much to say that the best hope of intelligent and principled progress in economic and social legislation and administration lies in the increasing influence of American universities.
  • able to think for themselves, governed Dot by ignorance, by prejudice or by impulse, but by knowledge and reason and high-mindedness,
  • The learning of the few is despotism; the learning of the many is liberty.
  • At first pioneer democracy had scant respect for the expert.
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      individualism
  • That they may perform their work they must be left free, as the pioneer was free, to explore new regions and to report what they find; for like the pioneers they have the ideal of investigation, they seek new horizons.
    • Erin Hamson
       
      application of pioneer ideals
  • Thus it is the function of the university to reveal to the individual the mystery and the glory of life as a whole
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      opening the mind to new ideas and ideals
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