Existence First published Wed Oct 10, 2012 Existence raises deep and important problems in metaphysics, philosophy of language, and philosophical logic. Many of the issues can be organized around the following two questions: Is existence a property of individuals? and Assuming that existence is a property of individuals, are there individuals that lack it? What does it mean to ask if existence is a property? There is a debate in the literature on properties between the abundant conception of properties, according to which there is a property corresponding to every natural language predicate and, more generally, every class of individuals, and the sparse conception of properties, according to which a predicate expresses a property only if the objects that predicate is true of resemble one another in an intrinsic way. The view that existence is not a property of individuals became the common view in the early 20th Century. 1. Russell's strategy depends on two claims.
Wyden Statement at Senate Intelligence Committee’s Open Hearing WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) delivered the following statement prior to questioning senior Intelligence Community officials during the Senate Intelligence Committee’s open hearing. Wyden is a senior member of the Intelligence committee. “The men and women of America’s intelligence agencies are overwhelmingly dedicated professionals and they deserve to have leadership that is trusted by the American people. Unfortunately, that trust has been seriously undermined by senior officials’ reckless reliance on secret interpretations of the law and battered by years of misleading and deceptive statements that senior officials made to the American people. For example, the director of the NSA said publicly that the NSA doesn’t hold data on U.S. citizens. The statement and subsequent questions may be viewed below or here:
60 Small Ways to Improve Your Life in the Next 100 Days Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to make drastic changes in order to notice an improvement in the quality of your life. At the same time, you don’t need to wait a long time in order to see the measurable results that come from taking positive action. All you have to do is take small steps, and take them consistently, for a period of 100 days. Below you’ll find 60 small ways to improve all areas of your life in the next 100 days. Home 1. Day 1: Declutter MagazinesDay 2: Declutter DVD’sDay 3: Declutter booksDay 4: Declutter kitchen appliances 2. If you take it out, put it back.If you open it, close it.If you throw it down, pick it up.If you take it off, hang it up. 3. A burnt light bulb that needs to be changed.A button that’s missing on your favorite shirt.The fact that every time you open your top kitchen cabinet all of the plastic food containers fall out. Happiness 4. 5. 6. How many times do you beat yourself up during the day? 7. Learning/Personal Development 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.
Edward Snowden Tells German TV That US Gov Officials "Want To Kill Me", Full English Version. Edward Snowden in an interview that aired on German television ARD on Jan 26th. Fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has claimed that US government officials “want to kill me” in an exclusive interview which German television says it conducted in Moscow. “These people, and they are government officials, have said they would love to put a bullet in my head or poison me when I come out of the supermarket, and then watch as I die in the shower,” he told NDR interviewer Hubert Seipel, who said the interview took place last Thursday. Snowden, who was granted temporary asylum in Russia in August, referred in the interview to a report by US website BuzzFeed of explicit threats against him from unnamed Pentagon and National Security Agency (NSA) officials. The former NSA contractor is wanted by US authorities on treason charges for disclosing details of a vast intelligence operation that monitored millions of phone calls and emails across the world. SourcesARDInternet ArchiveDW.DE
Symptoms You Shouldn't Ignore 3. SHARP PAIN IN THE ABDOMENWhat it feels like: All the metaphors apply—knife in the gut, bullet in the belly, skewer in the stomach—except this attack is from within. What it could be: Since the area between your ribs and your hips is jam-packed with organs, the pain can be a symptom of either appendicitis, pancreatitis, or an inflamed gallbladder. In all three cases, the cause is the same: Something has blocked up the organ in question, resulting in a potentially fatal infection. How to fix it: If the pain is in your lower-right abdomen and your white-blood-cell count is up, says Dr. Kra, it's probably appendicitis (out comes the appendix). Pain in your upper abdomen with high white blood cells usually means an inflamed gallbladder (goodbye, gallbladder). And if it hurts below your breastbone and certain enzymes in the blood are elevated, then pancreatitis is probably the culprit. NEXT: Transient Chest Pain >>
For investigating private intelligence practices, American journalist faces 105 years in prison Reporters Without Borders is alarmed by the charges currently facing the American investigative journalist, Barrett Brown, who has written for The Guardian and Vanity Fair. Brown, 31, had been investigating before his arrest, in September 2012, the contents of over five million internal emails released through a hack on the private intelligence company, Stratfor, which were later published by WikiLeaks. Brown is currently in federal custody, facing charges that add up to 105 years in prison. His trial should start next September. “Barrett Brown is not a hacker, he is not a criminal” stated Reporters Without Borders General Secretary, Christophe Deloire, “He did not infiltrate any systems, nor did he appear to have the technical expertise to do so. Above all, Barrett was an investigative journalist who was merely doing his professional duty by looking into the Stratfor emails, an affair of public interest. For more information:
"How to Write a Paper at the Last Minute (Also Known As: The Procrastinator's Guide to BS-ing an Essay)" by Jessica L Let's face it: we've all been there. It's 9 p.m. on a Sunday night, and you have a 15-page research paper due tomorrow that you have barely started. You've had a month to do it, but somehow, all you've managed is to check out a few books from the library and jot down a working thesis. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. metanoia-films.org Plutocracy Counter-Intelligence The Power Principle Rise Like Lions Lifting The Veil Psywar Human Resources Memory Improvement Techniques - Improve Your Memory with MindTools © VeerPRZEMYSLAW PRZYBYLSKI Use these techniques to improve your memory. The tools in this section help you to improve your memory. They help you both to remember facts accurately and to remember the structure of information. The tools are split into two sections. As with other mind tools, the more practice you give yourself with these techniques, the more effectively you will use them. Mnemonics 'Mnemonic' is another word for memory tool. The idea behind using mnemonics is to encode difficult-to-remember information in a way that is much easier to remember. Our brains evolved to code and interpret complex stimuli such as images, colors, structures, sounds, smells, tastes, touch, positions, emotions and language. Unfortunately, a lot of the information we have to remember in modern life is presented differently – as words printed on a page. This section of Mind Tools shows you how to use all the memory resources available to you to remember information in a highly efficient way.
Russians Suspected In 'Uroburos' Digital Espionage Attacks Russian government hackers are suspected of creating a highly-sophisticated piece of malware designed to steal files from nation states’ digital infrastructure. The Uroburos malware, named after an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail that recently appeared in the Broken Sword 5 video game, worked in in peer-to-peer mode, meaning it can move across machines even if they’re not connected to the public Internet. G-Data said Uroburos was “one of the most advanced rootkits we have ever analysed in this environment”. It works on both 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows machines, again pointing to a well-funded effort. It’s likely the Uroburos attacks went undetected for at least three years, as a sample of a rootkit driver was dated back to 2011. “The development of a framework like Uroburos is a huge investment. “The network design is extraordinarily efficient, too; for an incident response team, it is always complicated to deal with peer-to-peer infrastructure.
50 Life Secrets and Tips Memorize something everyday.Not only will this leave your brain sharp and your memory functioning, you will also have a huge library of quotes to bust out at any moment. Poetry, sayings and philosophies are your best options.Constantly try to reduce your attachment to possessions.Those who are heavy-set with material desires will have a lot of trouble when their things are taken away from them or lost. Possessions do end up owning you, not the other way around. Read “Zen and the Art of Happiness” by Chris Prentiss.This book will give you the knowledge and instruction to be happy at all times regardless of the circumstances.
AEI Needs An Envy Intervention AEI's Arthur Brooks had an opinion piece in the New York Times over the weekend about the downside of inciting envy. By envy, of course, he means people who object to income differences that result from unjust distributive institutions. It was a silly piece, and what follows are some scattered remarks. 1. Arthur Brooks' colleague Andrew Biggs must be miserable. In his quest to wave away soaring economic inequality, Brooks tells us that "social comparison" is destructive and decreases happiness. I am left wondering then why Mr. This might seem like a cheap shot, but I am truly baffled by what the difference here is. 2. Brooks, like other conservatives, is really fond of the fact that Americans are unique in the world in thinking that those who wind up on the top of the economic hierarchy are personally responsible for that. It's understandable why Brooks does not like this. The richer your parents are, the richer you are, all the way up the income distribution. 3.
Alternative Sleep Cycles: You Don’t Really Need 6-8 Hours! Most people only think that there is one way to sleep: Go to sleep at night for 6-8 hours, wake up in the morning, stay awake for 16-18 hours and then repeat. Actually, that is called a monophasic sleep cycle, which is only 1 of 5 major sleep cycles that have been used successfully throughout history. The other 4 are considered polyphasic sleep cycles due to the multiple number of naps they require each day. Well the most important of every sleep cycle is the Stage 4 REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, which has been shown to provide the benefits of sleep to the brain above all other stages of sleep. This way, you still get the benefits of 8 hours of sleep without wasting all of the time it takes to get to REM cycles, resulting in a much more efficient sleep cycle. Uberman Cycle: 20 to 30 minute naps every 4 hours, resulting in 6 naps each day. Everyman Cycle: One longer “core” nap that is supplemented with several 20-30 minute naps. Dymaxion Cycle: Biphasic/Siesta Cycle: – Hang in there.
What you need to know: trends and news in surveillance and technology Please note that by playing this clip YouTube and Google will place a long term cookie on your computer. Here’s a quick run-down of some important, recent stories at the intersection of technology and privacy: Public/private surveillance partnership gone wild. Police in Florida used a cell phone tracking device—most likely a ‘stingray’ IMSI catcher—to spy on a suspect, but didn’t get a warrant before doing so. Why didn’t they get a warrant? Why wait for DHS to spy on you when you can spy on yourself? Civil rights and big data: Houston, we have a (bunch of) problem(s). Gaming the surveillance state. Millions more invested in failed border "security" project. Think you have nothing to hide? You have the right to view and challenge evidence against you...unless you don't. No privacy for ordinary people, but privacy for the spies.