A question for comparison: would you rather have a 1/Googolplex chance of being tortured for 50 years, or lose 1 cent?
Whenever I drive, I have a greater than a 1/googlolplex chance of getting into an accident which would leave me suffering for 50 years, and I still drive. I'm not sure how to measure the benefit I get from driving, but there are at least some cases where it's pretty small, even if it's not exactly a cent.
Whenever one bends down to pick up a dropped penny, one has more than a 1/Googolplex chance of a slip-and-fall accident which would leave one suffering for 50 years.
True for scientists. But for most people science is indeed a set of answers
Although I have read and enjoyed several Moorcock novels in years past, I did not see much of substance in Moorcock’s views as described by the New Yorker blog post (FWIW, The Anti-Tolkien is a blog post; it is not in the latest print issue). In particular, the passage you quoted sounds like empty rhetoric from an aging pseudo-intellectual Marxist. Specifically, it raises several questions: 1. What makes Moorcock think that members of the middle class are apt to be morally bankrupt? 2. Are members of the middle class more apt than members of the upper and lower class to be morally bankrupt? If so, what evidence is there for this? If not, wouldn’t it be more descriptive to refer to “morally bankrupt society”? 3. Even if you accept that the middle class is morally bankrupt (which I do not), how is Tolkien’s “vast catalogue of names, places, magic rings, and dwarven kings” a “pernicious confirmation of the values” of that middle class? I don’t see any connection between a vast catalog of names, places, etc., and middle-class values (whatever those might be).
Not to endorse the view, but criticism of specifically the middle class is not novel: (from a comment on Paul Fussell's Class):
Quoting Lord Melbourne, he notes: "The higher and lower classes, there's some good in them, but the middle classes are all affectation and conceit and pretense and concealment."
Cf. Tolstoy: all happy families are alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
What happens twice probably happens more than twice: are there other notable expressions of this idea?
(There's a well-known principle in software development that's pretty close, though I can't find a Famous Quotation of it right now: when you're choosing a name for a variable or function or whatever, avoid abbreviations: there's only one way to spell a word right, and lots of ways to spell it wrong. Though this is not always good advice.)
What happens twice probably happens more than twice: are there other notable expressions of this idea?
...
there's only one way to spell a word right, and lots of ways to spell it wrong.
Usually agreed, on both counts. But: color/colour (and other US/UK pairs...)
Problem is, "Fucking up when presented with surprising new situations" is actually a chronic human behavior. It's why purse snatchers are so effective -- by the time someone registers Wait, did somebody just yank my purse off my shoulder?, the snatcher is long gone.
But is it only a human behavior? I'd think anything with cached thoughts/results/computations would be similarly vulnerable.
I think you're quite miscalibrated... only 4x worse to get the flu than the shot ? The shot pain lasts a few seconds, while the flu means headache, nose pain and muscle pain for at least a day, usually more. It usually knocks you out for a day or two, where you can't do much.
Or maybe you're confusing the flu with the common cold ? Flu is similar, but usually much stronger than common cold.
The pain from the needle during the injection lasts just a few seconds, but the muscle pain at the injection site is noticeable for hours. That said, I'd rate it as much lower than ericyu3 rated it. For me, this is one of those situations where having the explanation for a sensation in hand, and knowing that it is self-limiting and harmless, makes a large difference. I'd be quite concerned if I had a pain of identical magnitude but with no explanation for what caused it.
With the truth, all given facts harmonize; but with what is false, the truth soon hits a wrong note.
-- Aristotle in The Nicomachean Ethics, pointing out entangled truths and contagious lies
"soon" can vary quite a bit, depending on what is false. Following the link, I'm skeptical of "From the study of that single pebble you could see the laws of physics and all they imply." Specifically, I'm skeptical that one can deduce the parts of the laws of physics that matter under extreme conditions (general relativity, physics at Plank-scale energies) by examining the behavior of matter under benchtop conditions, at achievable levels of accuracy. The motivation for building instruments like the LHC in the first place is that they allow probing parts of physical laws which would otherwise produce exceeding small effects or exceedingly rare phenomena.
As it turns out, there are actually two types of LDL,
Of course there are. For pretty much every X which is associated with human health, closer investigation will reveal that there are two types of X -- "Good X" and "Bad X."
for potassium, would potassium-40 be considered the bad kind? :)
a sufficient condition to motivate
Motivation may be necessary but it's not sufficient. The Federal Government is not exactly a shining example of competency.
Will the CDC handle Ebola like FEMA handled Katrina?
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No, but I did happen to read the citations in the back of the book. (Unfortunately, I borrowed the book from the library, so if you want me to post said citations, you'll have to wait until this Thursday.)
It's not that great of a book, on the whole (from what I remember of it, the author spends some time talking about Scientology), but the information about psychopathy, at least, mostly appears accurate.
Here's another link, which points to quite a body of research: http://bud-meyers.blogspot.com/2012/03/study-10-on-wall-street-are-psychopaths.html