Ranjit Mathoda › Comments

pirates invade europe - Ranjit Mathoda

a dialogue between two aliens, talking about humans... - Ranjit Mathoda

"Thanks @AndrewWarner ! I started with Disqus, but Wordpress bought IntenseDebate so I bet that'd be better long term." - Ranjit Mathoda

"Thanks for pointing out that interpretation of Socrates' statement, for mentioning Kraut's interesting book and for the praise of my thoughts on the topic. One of the reasons I phrased my essay the way I did is that this is the common English translation of what Plato said about what Socrates said. That does introduce multiple potentials for errors. I'm therefore more about criticizing the statement itself, the way it is parroted, than really criticizing Socrates himself, who seemed like a great chap to have a chat with, and who may have intended to say something different. Since he could have kept examining his life in exile from Athenian society, what he may have been saying is that it was his life's work to teach others in his society how to examine their lives, and if he was denied that right by Athenian authorities, than he would use his conscious choice of death as a final lesson to his society of how much worth he ascribed to what he was trying to teach. That sentiment I find..." - Ranjit Mathoda

"Since we can't actually read each other's minds, arguably none of us really knows who our friends truly are. We rely on a belief that our friends are our friends, backed up by some circumstantial evidence, which we'd perhaps prefer not to test, to help maintain our happiness. I get your point though that examining the strength of your friendships at an early stage successfully would be useful to maintain happiness later when life throws you a curveball and the friendship comes under stress. But I'm not sure that really is analogous to the link between self examination and self worth. Do you have to live a moral life to have a life worth living? Do you have to know you lived a moral life to have a life worth living? A lot of people find great worth in their pets, and I'm not really sure their pets are that self aware. Does a person who is in too much pain to examine their life have a life no longer worth living?" - Ranjit Mathoda

"Yes, my blog post was based on the Trevor Corson book The Zen of Fish, The Story of Sushi, from Samurai to Supermarket" - Ranjit Mathoda

"amusing how communist rebels become the symbol for capitalist creative destruction..." - Ranjit Mathoda

"The discussion of how medical services should be funded (private by wealth and desire, public by majority rule coercing resources from all, some hybrid or out of the box approach) and delivered (competitive providers, monopoly provider, etc.) often does involve a discussion of whether capitalism or socialism or something else is better, but to my mind those terms are fairly crude and vague, and really are about how you organize the effort to get to the goal, rather than a goal itself. The goal, what I called the just society, is for everyone to be healthy, which surely includes receiving a certain amount of basic services. How that can best be created is worth discussing." - Ranjit Mathoda

"It's a fact Google simply wouldn't hire most of the people at a Walmart skill level. I don't disagree that Google gives the people it hires a very high level of pay and perks (including 20% time to work on self directed projects), but that doesn't mean they give any perks or pay to people that Walmart will hire and give pay and benefits to. In pointing out that Google is very profitable my intent was not to say it is evil for making a profit, but to point out the criticisms of Walmart relating to its dominance, market share, mind share, profit per employee, etc., pale in comparison to that of Google. With respect to your point about Walmart treating its employees badly, my point is that Google treats those same people worse (not offering them a job, pay, or perks). I actually think it is fantastic that someone figured out a way to utilize workers at a low level of skill profitably. I do think it is terrible that such workers aren't given more opportunities to obtain higher levels of..." - Ranjit Mathoda

"Some people do seem to get bored by their loving relationships, and craving excitement, do self harmful things... I suppose it varies by individual and context how much "novelty" matters." - Ranjit Mathoda

Barack Obama on how to create a team and lead it - Ranjit Mathoda

slides from my lecture. may be hard to understand without the accompanying words :-) - Ranjit Mathoda

how iraq perceives obama becoming president? - Ranjit Mathoda

an autobiographical short story of mine - Ranjit Mathoda

i posted on mathoda.com a short story i wrote in high school of my own earlier childhood trauma - Ranjit Mathoda

jon stewart's daily show on sanjay gupta's appointment. 1:57 minutes in is the best part - Ranjit Mathoda

"Thanks for your extensive thoughts Anita. There's two issues I'll tackle. The first is what Socrates really chose between. The second is what role examination has in determining worth. As you mention, what Socrates really chose was death via hemlock over exile. Arguably he saw exile as being deprived of the right to teach the examination of life in the manner he thought wise to the community he wanted to belong to, and saw this as worse than choosing death. By choosing death he could transform himself in the minds of his philosopher student community into the protector of the community's ideals. He would also be proving to his society and all future persons the strength of his conviction. The small irony is he could still have examined his life all he wanted, while in exile. He would have lost the ability to teach his current students in his current society. He would also have lost his halo of respect to the like minded community of philosophers that have followed him in time. To..." - Ranjit Mathoda

"If Socrates said "If you have the wisdom to correctly examine your life and you fail to examine your life you may make mistakes that you later regret" I would agree with your interpretation of his statement. On the other hand if someone doesn't examine their life at all perhaps their life has more worth to them then if they do start examining it. If someone is unwise in how they approach examining it perhaps they'd be better off not starting on such an examination. A flaw in what Socrates said is that every human life is examined to some extent. What I really think he meant was "If I am not allowed to teach the examination of life in the manner I consider wise then my life is not worth living." If that is what he meant, the statement is definitely vague and ill written in terms of communicating an idea. Vague statements are fodder for scholars to ponder, so it certainly hasn't hurt his brand any. But as I suggest that may have more to do with philosopher's receptivity to the statement..." - Ranjit Mathoda

"burning hydrogen in the sense you're using it (eg, not referring to reactions inside a star) is another name for oxydization. so you burn hydrogen by adding adding oxygen to it, forming water. this releases some energy. splitting water also takes energy, which for plants comes from light (photons). the point of this blog post is that you can use less energy than before by using a catalyst. the amount of energy obtained from burning hydrogen or used up in splitting water depends on the specifics of how each is done. notice that according to the law of conservation of energy, the energy doesn't disappear... it always goes somewhere, just perhaps in a different form." - Ranjit Mathoda

"assuming there's an available oxygen atom and nothing else for two hydrogen atoms to bond to, i'd say the number of times you can split the H20 is equal to the lifespan of the universe divided by the time it takes to split and recombine once" - Ranjit Mathoda

"what is it you're trying to do in your project?" - Ranjit Mathoda

Love. One of the others is subjective and the other can be attained. Love, though? We could all use a little more of that. - Jason Toney

Definitely love. Family, friends, partners. Beauty fades, wealth runs out. Love is eternal. - Haggis (Sean Loyless)

if you've got credit card debt, now's the time to settle - Ranjit Mathoda

NASA's new spaceships - Ranjit Mathoda

"I think one place where commenting and conversation may cause change is actually with government, as I hinted at in my essay The Coming Digital Presidency (http://mathoda.com/archive...). Of course with politics people are even more likely to rant than elsewhere, so having the proper feedback systems matters more." - Ranjit Mathoda

"Nice! I've always liked this quote about journeys: "We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." T.S. Eliot" - Ranjit Mathoda

the punjabi language comes to ice hockey - Ranjit Mathoda

how was it? - edythe

pretty cool. it describes: how to become a robber baron. the dynamics of industry collusion before antitrust law came into effect. the advantages of riding out industry cycles at full production. the usefulness of quoting byron and shakespeare. managing using very little time. the danger of perceiving the threat of world war one but being unable to stop it. - Ranjit Mathoda

Discovering Mr Obama's transition team would not trade favors for getting their preferred candidate to fill the president-elect's vacant seat, Mr Blagojevich described Mr Obama as a "motherfucker", adding, "Fuck him. For nothing? Fuck him. ... They're not willing to give me anything [in exchange for Obama's friend Ms Jarrett's appointment to the seat] except appreciation. Fuck them." An unnamed adviser then tells the Illinois governor the "president-elect can do almost anything he sets his mind to," the complaint says, to which Mr Blagojevich allegedly responded "But if they feel like they can do this and not fucking give me anything ... then I'll fucking go to [another candidate]." - Ranjit Mathoda

must see tv - Ranjit Mathoda