Louis CK Joss Whedon Marilyn Manson allegations accusations

Separating Content Creator and Content: The Growth or Death of the Author?

Posted on by harpertom888

When an artist does something heinous (or, at least, is accused of something heinous), can we separate the artist from their art? This conundrum has become more salient in the Me Too era, where many people in film, TV, music, comedy, influencer, and other forms of entertainment and content creation are called out for their bad behavior. There doesn’t seem to be any readily available answers, but that doesn’t mean these aren’t important questions to ask.

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Abraham sacrificing Isaac MAGA Trump supporters Christian

New American Religion: The Church of MAGA and its Messiah QAnon

Posted on by harpertom888

When considering the religious aspect of the fanatical MAGA mob and their QAnon conspiracies, I can’t help but be reminded by Kierkegaard‘s leap of faith. Just as Abraham was told to do something heinous in the name of God, and despite the fact that nobody would understand why Abraham had done it, he must still do it.

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The Science of Tenet (Christopher Nolan movie)

Posted on by harpertom888

Christopher Nolan’s 2020 scifi movie Tenet has something they call inversion, which allows objects to be sent backward in time. This is sort of hand-wavingly explained as either reversing entropy or objects moving backward in time. In this video, I go through the science behind these ideas, including reversing entropy, moving backward through time, and CPT symmetry.

Trump supporter confederate flag in capitol

The Other Five Crises of the American Regime

Posted on by harpertom888

The article written by Michael Lind titled “The Five Crises of the American Regime” attempts to diagnose the underlying causes of the United States’ current situation – that of increasingly polarized politics and the anger and grievances of the polity. It is a great article, and I recommend reading the whole thing. Here, though, I want to discuss five other crises that are contributing to the decline and fall of the American Empire.

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MAGA Trump supporter protester mob storm capitol building

MAGA Mob Break Into Capitol Building: Where Does it Go From Here?

Posted on by harpertom888

Something tells me the storming of the capitol building wasn’t so much a putsch attempt as just a release of pent-up anger – more Storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 and less the takeover of the Winter Palace on October 25, 1917. However, we all know what the Storming of the Bastille eventually led to.

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schizoid personality disorder lonely

Schizoid Personality Disorder

Posted on by harpertom888

Schizoid Personality Disorder isn’t a well-known personality disorder. This is likely because most people who have it, true to the nature of the personality disorder, are not ones to be very public about it, and often don’t even really view it as negatively impacting their lives (so long as people just leave them alone). I’ve been diagnosed with Schizoid Personality Disorder. It negatively impacts me insofar as, in (attempting to) be an author, I’m extremely bad at marketing myself. Here I’m going to just sort of stream-of-consciousness write about Schizoid Personality Disorder – or, at least, my experience with it.

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Nutrition and Metabolism: From Macronutrients, Vitamins, and Minerals to Digestion, Absorption, and Metabolism

Posted on by harpertom888

This series of videos goes in-depth into the biochemistry and physiology of nutrition and metabolism. Starting with a quick primer on the general chemistry concepts needed to understand the basics of biochemistry and metabolism, I then go on to introduce all the key players involved – the macronutrients (carbohydrates, lipids and fats, amino acids and protein, and then nucleic acids and DNA) and micronutrients. After going through the biosynthesis of all the vitamins, as well as chemical properties of the minerals, I will then go into digestion, absorption, and metabolism, following the various molecules and metabolites throughout the body.

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possible worlds modality counterfactual

Are ‘Possible Worlds’ Possible?

Posted on by harpertom888

In recent decades, the idea in modal logic and metaphysics of possible worlds has become a widely used tool in philosophy. But are the hypotheticals discussed using possible worlds even, well, possible? To test this idea, I am going to try to construct an idea of possible worlds by way of mathematical models for making adjustments to the world as understood in both a metaphysically materialist/physicalist sense as well as what assumptions must be present for immaterialist/spiritualist claims to be true.

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