pacquola.org

Author: pacquo

  • Fallacies

    “These pages provide information about a variety of informal fallacies.
    Put roughly, a fallacy is a mistake in reasoning.”.
    (Michael C. LaBossiere)
    For example:

    Appeal to Common Practice

    “If what is moral is determined by what is commonly practiced, then this argument:

    • Most people do X.
    • Therefore X is morally correct.

    would not be a fallacy. This would however entail some odd results.

    For example, imagine that there are only 100 people on earth.
    60 of them do not steal or cheat and 40 do.
    At this time, stealing and cheating would be wrong.

    The next day, a natural disaster kills 30 of the 60 people who do not cheat or steal.
    Now it is morally correct to cheat and steal.

    Thus, it would be possible to change the moral order of the world to one’s view simply by eliminating those who disagree.”.

    Reasoning: Fallacies, by Michael C. LaBossiere, from Opifex Phoenix.

    Extract reproduced under ©Dr. Michael C. LaBossiere.

  • Strida

    “The Strida is the only folding bike that is greaseless, corrosion resistant, and virtually maintenance free. It’s also the world’s lightest folding production bike and can easily be rolled when folded.”.

    strida

  • Bennett Robot Works

    “These robot sculptures are made form a mixture of found objects which are both old and new.

    The materials are wood, metal, bakelite, glass, plastic, rubber and paint.

    Each robot takes about a month to build.
    They are not meant to be a toy.
    New robots are always in the works.”.

    Bennett Robot Works, by Gordon Bennet.

    		 Galileo

    Right: Galileo, ©Bennet Robot Works.

  • Hel Looks

    “I mostly wear second hand or clothes that used to belong to my parents.
    I love hoodies.
    My obsession is to play trumpet.”.

    (Akuliina, age 19)

    		 Hel Looks

    “Hel Looks is selected street fashion from Helsinki, the capital of Finland.
    The pictures are taken in the streets and clubs of Helsinki from July 2005 onwards.”.

    By Liisa Jokinen and Sampo Karjalainen.

  • Limerence

    “Since at the beginning of an attraction that will become limerent, you feel both free and happy
    (you walk on air), it is hard to resist once it starts.”.
    “….And although it resembles a disease in some ways, I see it as a normal adaptation, an instinctual reaction, if you will, that through the course of evolutionary history proved valuable to species endurance.”.
    (Dorothy Tennov, Q and A on Limerence)

    Limerence:
    “an involuntary cognitive and emotional state in which a person feels an intense romantic desire for another person.”.
    (from Wikipedia)

  • Me

    “The idea is simple, the result is stunning.”
    “Starting in November of 2001, I have been taking a picture of myself every day and I haven’t stopped yet.”
    (Ahree Lee)
    Me, by Ahree Lee. Music by Nathan Melsted.

  • This is Your Brain on Music

    “In the summer of 1969, when I was 11, I bought a stereo system at the local hi-fi shop.

    It cost all of the $100 I had earned weeding neighbor’s gardens that spring at 75 cents an hour.
    My father made me a proposition: he would buy me a pair of headphones if I would promise to use them when he was home.

    Those headphones changed the way I listened to music forever.”.

    This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession , by Daniel J. Levitin.

    Requires Flash Player

  • Tees

    “If you’re driving down the highway with your girlfriend, a really cute thing to do when you pass a smokestack is to naively ask her if that building is a cloud factory.“.

    (Sometimes Clouds Just Look Like Clouds, from Defunker)

    		 Life t-shirt
    “We still get about two or three emails a week telling us that we’re idiots for mixing up countries.”. Greece t-shirt

    From the top:
    Life shirt, detail, from Defunker. “It’s life, and it happens to the best of us.”;
    Greece shirt, detail, from Busted Tees.

  • EggBaconChipsandBeans

    “Love to watch people coming in unsure of what they want, peering up at the board, realising they can”t really read it and they’re keeping everyone waiting and ordering something random in a panic.”.

    “Then there’s eggbaconchipsandbeans which should be fairly self-explanatory and a good place for a cup of tea and a think, which is similarly obvious.”.

    “Crispy little chips and a triangular egg. Formidable!
    A big pile of bacon and a mass of beans with a splendid smear of juice up the side of the plate.”.
    By Russell Davies.

  • The Idler

    “The intention of the magazine is to return dignity to the art of loafing.”.

    “The current edition of The Idler is titled How To Save The World Without Really Trying
     and argues that idleness is eco-friendly and that to save the planet we need to do a lot less.”.

    "And what would you like to be when you grow up?"
    I asked my 5 year old grand-daughter.

    Blythly she came back with a show-stopper of an answer:
    "A butterfly."

    (Joan Bakewell, On Not Having A Career)

    The Idler, by Tom Hodgkinson and Gavin Pretor-Pinney.