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Do you deny or confirm that the war is paid for by the American tax payer, i.e. essentiall every American adult? Do you deny or confirm that in the 2004 US presidential election, the overwhelming majority of the electorate either voted for a pro-war candidate (Bush, Kerry) or abstained from the...

There are lots of theories about humor, from antiquity onwards, it's a popular subject to write about. Writers usually adopt one of the following theories: Superiority theories: suggesting that by making jokes we ard expressing our superiority over others. Relief Theorien: some kind of tension...

Authorial intension is relevant in evaluating artworks in what sense? Do you also ask defenders of the movie to make one before they defend it?

I'm not sure which guy you are referring to. Presumably the crazy, reckless bomb disposal guy. This is the interesting thing about the script: that guy is introduced as distasteful, but in the course of the movie becomes the hero: he solves every problem, he disposes of every bomb, he's...

This is something I also noticed. For example if you read the comments on IMDB. It's quite astonishing. I guess the explanation is that most (all) mainstream war movies have a clear good/bad binary, and most viewers are so brainwashed into accepting it, that it does not register anymore, because...

After the film finished, I was buzzing. I wanted to join Blackwater. Yeah, but it's fun! Especially since 'we' can always outsmart the 'stupid arab'. Hell, we don't even have to wear our protective suits, we just pinch some cables, it's easy. 'They' are too stupid even to build a decent bomb...

Hurt Locker has no political perspective other than banalities like war is a drug and soldiers often repress their homosexual sides. In the film, all Arabs are sweating, dirty, creepy, whiney, unhealthy, badly dressed, randomly killing people, devoid of individuality. All Americans are strong...

In saying good-bye to X you make a (weak) promise about your future behaviour, and set up an expectation (in yourself) that X will expect you to leave (second-order expectation). When you meet again later, you expect that X will think that you have not honoured your promise, and you expect that...

You'd be surprised how many trained economists don't understand (to the point of being able to explain without consulting a textbook), concepts like cost of carry, fractional-reserve, money multiplier, geometric series, M0, M1, M2, M3 and so on. Try and ask some working economists. It seems...

I love khanacademy. Learned a lot there. I know people with advanced degrees in economics who are paid a lot of money who know a lot less about banking than what's on offer regarding that subject at khanacademy.

Beautiful, Cheb Mami's great. He's currently in prison though.

Absolutely. Probably a bit like pregnancy. You need a big push at the end.

The point of a PhD is to demonstrate that you can do original research independently for extended periods of time. This is surprisingly difficult. The main difficulty is mostly psychological: to work on something for 3/4 years in near total isolation (as soon as you become a real expert on...

Mistersloane, do you know anything about Varèse's political affiliations? I was once told that he was a very high-ranking communist party official, but I've never been able to confirm or contradict this.

Don't listen to the haters. I hope you'll make more Valutan as well.

I love the sounds you use. One think I'd recommend is to use a bit more variation in your beats. Currently, in both tracks, the drums just plod along without communicating with other musical changes, like sound changes or harmonic development. I don't think you need to much even, just the odd...

Your songwriting is great. I love the sound of your vox as well. Fits really well with the moody dark vibe of the music. Production-wise, you could probably make the vox more present, unless you are going for a somewhat muffled distorted sound. Compression seems all over the place on some...

What's really important is to be clear how to finance the whole thing (parents, independent wealth, scholarship, part-time job, TAing, RAing, or some combination thereof). It's irritating to run out of cash while writing up.

I think de Saussure studied under Schleiermacher (who was a theologian). Wilhelm von Humboldt introduced a distinction similar to that between signified and signifier much earlier, see e.g. here. There is no particular reason to believe v. Humboldt was the first to do so.

De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est.