Friday, March 29, 2019

The Vast Sea Of Worldviews

While total skepticism is entirely refuted by the necessary nature of logical axioms and the truths that follow from them, some skeptics of the self-refuting variety mistakenly claim that knowledge of every distinct worldview and fact is required to have even foundational knowledge.  To deny axioms is to affirm them, but I have addressed this contradiction extensively.  There is an alternate way to demonstrate the intrinsic errors of total skepticism (legitimate skepticism acknowledges that anything that cannot be logically proven is ultimately unknown).  The very nature of reason allows for knowledge of necessary truths even if one is not familiar with every worldview.

I do not need to know exactly what the sum of 32,541 and 78,905 is to know with absolute certainty that the answer is not five.  To refute any contrary claims in full, I only need to show that two plus three (like four plus one or five plus zero) is five; this alone proves that adding larger numbers by necessity results in a greater sum.  There is always a way to disprove every incorrect mathematical conclusion about which combinations of numbers equal five without resorting to something so simple.  Despite this, it is not as if one has to prove that three plus four--or four plus five, five plus six, and so on--does not equal five in order to know that two plus three infallibly amounts to five.

Mathematical truths form only a subset of logical truths.  Logical truths, therefore, are far broader than those merely pertaining to numeric values.  Proving any logical fact, like proving a specific truth about addition, automatically refutes all possible alternative claims, even if someone is not aware of just how many alternative ideas there are.  No one needs to comprehend how many different forms of theism there are, for example, to know with absolute certainty that there is an uncaused cause [1].  Similarly, no one needs to know how many different epistemological frameworks (rationalism, empiricism, sensory empiricism, etc.) there are to know that reason is true by necessity.

Epistemology is far more complex and simplistic than many people realize all at once.  Many articles of knowledge are far more difficult to obtain than the average person would like to pretend; simultaneously, many articles of knowledge are also far easier to obtain than is commonly imagined.  There is a vast sea of worldviews, but reason provides epistemological solidity due to the absolute certainty it imparts.  Refuting a host of philosophical positions is often as simple as proving a basic logical truth.  Cling to reason, and a legion of demonstrable truths will never be distant, even if some truths remain unknown or unknowable.


[1].  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-uncaused-cause.html

Best Bridge Camera 2019: 10 Cameras That Pack Huge Zoom Lenses - Ars Technica

Best bridge camera 2019: 10 cameras that pack huge zoom lenses

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Build A Kick Butt $1000 Computer This May 2013

This PC Build is so awesome, it looks cool, is small, bright and a great bang for your buck - and for only $1000. You will be able to play any games you want maxed out at 1920x1080 with good FPS.

The processor included is the infamous Intel 3570K, ready to be overclocked and when paired with this Radeon HD 7950 BOOST Graphics Card, there will be no looking back.

This build includes a compact Mini ITX motherboard with built in WiFi and Bluetooth that will fit very nicely into the included Orange BitFenix Mini ITX Prodigy PC case.

Take a look below, all the hardware is linked and ready to go!

Original Build Source: http://newbcomputerbuild.com/gaming-pc-builds-of-the-month-2/gaming-pc-builds-may-2013/#1000-may-2013-pc-build

Hardware Link
Estimated Price:$ 989.55
ProcessorIntel Core i5-3570K Quad-Core Processor 3.4 GHz 4 Core LGA 1155 – BX80637I53570KPrice: $209.99
Cooler*none – as it pushes this build over budget, however I would recommend the Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler – especially before you start overclocking the heck out of your Intel 3570K Processor.
MotherboardGigabyte LGA 1155 DDR3 1600 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Motherboard GA-Z77N-WIFIPrice: $114.99
Graphics CardPowerColor AMD Radeon HD 7950 3GB GDDR5 BOOST STATE DVI/HDMI/2Mini DisplayPort PCI-Express Video Card AX7950 3GBD5-2DHV4Price:$299.99
RAMCorsair Vengeance 8 GB ( 2 x 4 GB ) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) 240-Pin DDR3 Memory Kit for Core i3, i5, i7 and Platforms SDRAM CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9Price: $59.98
Hard DriveWD Blue 1 TB Desktop Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64 MB Cache – WD10EZEXPrice: $66.64
SSD*none – check the additions / alternatives section below for options!
Power SupplyCorsair Professional Series  HX 750 Watt ATX/EPS Modular 80 PLUS Gold (HX750)Price: $129.99
Computer CaseBitFenix OOXKO-RP Prodigy Mini-ITX Computer Case w/ USB 3.0 (Orange)Price: $89.98
Optical DriveSamsung 24x SATA DVD¡ARW Internal Drive without Software, Black SH-224BB/BEBEPrice: $17.99

Valkir Support Troopers - Another Amazing Review By Brückenkopf

Christian over at Brückenkopf supply's us with another amazing review. This time they are reviewing the Valkir Support Troopers .
 
Thank you again Christian and Brückenkopf for another great review!

As with every Brückenkopf review, tons of pictures and a well thought out review. I ran the review through Google Translate so that you might read the review as well. Google does a pretty good job but it not perfect, there will be some reading between the lines here and there but its pretty easy to understand.

Please pay them a visit and say hello Brückenkopf Review

Today we take another kit of Dreamforge Games under the microscope.


At a glance:

 Manufacturer: Dream Forge Games

 Product: iron core Valkir Support Troopers

 Price: 22,00 EUR (5 man)

 Material: Hard Plastic

 
The Support Troopers expand the range of Valkirs to another kit.  The Valkirs is the heavily armored "knight Warriors" the iron core soldier, presently there for you three kits, one of which we already Assault Troopers in an earlier review had come under scrutiny.
 
 The cast frame
Today, we start again with the cast frame.  The box contains a half-cast frames that are filled to the brim:
 
 
 
 
 


 Numerous items, which we'll discuss later.  First, it is time for a look at the details:

 
 
 
 


 Once again, the parts are cast absolutely sharp and full of detail.  The casting quality of support Troopers is at first glance at the level of Dreamforge already well-known, high.

  The assembly

  At the beginning of our building report, we take a look at the blueprint:

 


 Sometimes a little small and simple, but on the whole, all options will be sufficient well explained.  The main problem is once again that even with the support Troopers again parts were mislabeled in the cast frame.  Fortunately, the error affected only the numbers, the letters, which are assigned to the parts of a weapon / pose, were correct.

 

 First, we have rebuilt the legs also here:

 
 

 This was followed by the torsos:

 

 

 This was followed by the most difficult part: the weapons poses.  Show falls on the many small bits that assembly into a relatively complex action machen.Wie already earlier kits the iron core series are also Valkir Support Troopers rather a kit for advanced hobbyists.

 
 
 
 
 

 

 After gluing we obtain the following upper body:

 

 

 On the legs that looks like this (we even other bases used that match the rest of the army):



  
 


 This was followed by the shoulder pads and the heads (there are three designs to choose from) and at the end saw the models as follows:

 

 

 

 The size comparison  

 Of course, this should not be missed:

  

 As you can see, the fall Valkirs massive than the normal iron core Trooper, but as the Space Marines of GW since Snapfit Navy shown here have grown little, they offer themselves as proxies to absolutely.
 

 The Conclusion
Even with the support Troopers provide Dreamforge Games once again from a very high quality and excellently crafted kit.  The pieces fit together all problems, the mold lines are weak and can be removed quickly.  The assembly is characterized by the many small parts relatively complex, but the precision fit mitigates this issue somewhat.

 

 The poses of the Support Troopers are quite rigid and largely fixed at least in the upper bodies, in view of the over heavy weapons but this is more comprehensible than the Assaut Troopers, where slightly more poses and options would have been much more important.  That each weapon only once in the box is, on the one hand a pity, another solution would be due to the many parts and the associated space requirements to cast frame but not have been possible.  As the box is priced fair with 22 euros, provides in doubt, also a duplicate purchase.  

 So the conclusion is even more positive, and all those who Marines or other heavily armored Sci-Fi are troops on the lookout for old Natien Space, can strike without hesitation at the Valkirs.

The Trouble With Books

The Chinese invented printing, but their writing system required a large number of typefaces, which made for very high up-front capital costs to print even a single short book.  Centuries after the slow dawn of Chinese printing Gutenberg in Germany, taking advantage of a concise phonetic alphabet, requiring only a small number of typefaces, invented a printing method that required much less up-front capital than Chinese printers.  The Internet has even more radically lowered up-front capital costs to publish than did the Gutenberg revolution.

Chinese printed works were vast but rare. European books were smaller but still too long. Internet works are the actual length a reader needs, they are (or soon will be) available practically everywhere, and often readers can interact frequently with the author.

Most readers don't want to spend most of their time reading verbose works by single author, when a greater variety of more relevant and thoughtfully concise works are available from a much larger pool of thinkers. Prior to the Internet they had much less choice: books were just the way educated people learned and taught.  (And many people still believe that reading and writing books is the sine quo non of being educated, just as many Europeans in 1500 still lauded the superiority of scribal methods and scholastic thought).

Magazines and newspapers involve smaller form factors, but they still draw from a very small pool of authors.  These authors can only write in detail about a wider variety of subjects by pretending to know things that they don't: they take human institutions far more complicated than a single human can possibly comprehend and boil them down to a series of hypersimplified theories, what in less authoritative contexts we'd call ideologies or conspiracy theories.

Instead of being forced to read a vast number of words each from a small number and variety of authors, already widely read by many other people (making your reading of them often quite intellectually redundant), on the Internet you can read much less per-author text (and thus, potentially at least, far more thought out per word) from a much greater number and variety of authors.

The Internet also can be more interactive with more select groups than the old face-to-face + snail-mail + books regime— providing much more opportunity for Socratic dialog, glossing, and other intellectual processes that were too often neglected after Gutenberg.  And while the Internet can produce far higher amounts of garbage,  mixing up thoughtlessly popular haystacks with thoughtfully rare needles, search engines and links often make wading through these vasty spaces much easier.  The Internet allows you to meet people who share your specialized interests and dialog with them, making possible specific interactions that rarely happened in the old regime.  However, without actually reading the content, i.e. while initially searching for it, it is hard to distinguish thoughtless (even though textual) content from the thoughtful content -- a big reason why at least for the moment book-literacy retains its aura of intellectual superiority over Internet literacy: scholarly publishers with their monetary incentives often take the time to select the most thoughtful works for our consideration.  Nevertheless, they lack the knowledge needed to select the most relevant works to match the wide variety of interests and knowledge of their readers, or to judge well among works outside their specialties.

Much as more efficient and speedier transportation networks enabled labor and natural resources to be brought together in a much greater variety of ways, so does the Internet by providing more direct and speedy connections between minds enable a far greater division of knowledge than was possible with in the face-to-face+snail-mail+books regime. However, in contrast to the economy of things, that division of knowledge is largely (so far, at least, and still mostly for the foreseeable future) unmonetized: the information economy is a vastly different beast than the economy of things.

That said, there is a good book(!) that covers much of this (along with of course a bunch of introductory material redundant for most readers, as well as the typical trivial or thoughtless text added to pad it out to books size):  Smarter Than You Think by Clive Thompson.

tl;dr if you thought this blog post was too long, why would you ever pick up a book?

Classic Lishi Tools page:1