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Can moral judgments be true or false? Or is ethics, at bottom, a purely subjective matter, for individuals to choose, or perhaps relative to the culture of the society in which one lives? We might have just found out the answer. Derek Parfit’s entirely secular arguments, and the comprehensive way in which he tackles alternative positions, have, for the first time in decades, put those who reject objectivism in ethics on the defensive. His book, On What Matters, is an intellectual treat for anyone who wants to understand not so much “what matters” as whether anything really can matter, in an objective sense. Parfit’s real interest is in combating subjectivism and nihilism. Unless he can show that objectivism is true, he believes, nothing matters.

http://rdd.me/apwdijij

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According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the nation's population of mature adults has been pushed to the brink of extinction, with only 104 grown-ups remaining in the country today. The endangered demographic, which is projected to die out completely by 2060, is reportedly distinguished from other groups by numerous unique traits, including foresight, rationality, and personal responsibility.

"Our grown-ups are disappearing at a much faster rate than we previously believed," said Census Bureau chief Robert Groves, who believes the decline in responsible adults may now be irreversible. "If nothing is done, these individuals, with their special ability to consider the long-term consequences of their own behavior and act accordingly, will be wiped-out completely," Groves added.

The grown-up population has plummeted dramatically since 1950, when more than 24 million Americans could both admit when they were wrong and respect a viewpoint other than their own. Today, only one in three million citizens can provide thoughtful advice to a fellow human being instead of immediately shifting the topic to their own personal issues or what they had for lunch.

"It may seem odd to the rest of us, but for mature adults, occasionally putting the greater good ahead of their own interests or remaining calm when something does not go their way is commonplace," said anthropologist Arthur Ambler. "Imagine confronting a problem directly instead of pointing a finger, cowering in fear, or pretending it just is not happening," Ambler added.

Before I was in the Army, I never thought I would kill anyone, and even after I was in the Army, but before I went to Iraq, I never thought I would intentionally kill a civilian. When I was in Iraq, something happened to me that I can only explain by saying that I lost my mind. At some point while I was in Iraq, I stopped seeing Iraqis as good and bad, as men, women, and children. I started seeing them all as one, and evil, and less than human. When that happened, any natural, learned, or religious morality, that normally would have stopped this, was gone. [...] I see now that war is intrinsically evil, because killing is intrinsically evil. And, I am sorry I ever had anything to do with either.

~ Steven Green

http://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/05/28/statement.pdf

Early cavemen in Europe ate human meat as part of their everyday diet, new research suggests. A new study of fossil bones in the Gran Dolina cave in Spain shows that cannibalism was a normal part of daily life around 800,000 years ago among Europe's first humans.

The area surrounding the caves would have been a rich source of food so there would have been little need to turn to cannibalism as a last resort. Children will have been targeted as they would have been less capable of defending themselves, the study suggests.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1307936/Early-man-butchered-ate-brains-children-everyday-diet.html

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Nathan Pugh, described by authorities as a career criminal, walked into a Dallas bank -- where he's a customer -- on Monday, 26 July 2010, and pushed a note through the window to the teller that read "this is not a bag of food," referring to the Whataburger bag he was holding. The note claimed that the bag was actually a "bom."

The teller remained calm and told Pugh, 49, that she would need his ID in order to give him any money. He handed her his debit card from the bank. When he demanded $2,000, the teller then said she would need a second form of identification to take out that much money. Pugh then handed her a Texas ID card while she hit a silent alarm.

Pugh settled for the $900 in the till, put it in his shirt pocket, and turned to exit. He was greeted by two Dallas police officers standing near the door and took a hostage -- a woman holding a child. He ordered the woman to put down the baby and "if she didn't cooperate, he would kill her." The feisty mother wrestled him to the ground.

who go to Google every time instead of entering the address of the website they want to go to in the address field;

who design websites that require the visitor to type in "www" before the actual domain name;

who always click twice, on any button or any shortcut, and always send the same email twice;

who never pay any attention to the subject line in their emails, seldom related to what the subject of their email is;

who add an extra space in front of the subject line of their email message;

who write the full content of their email message into the subject line;

who place two spaces after a full stop;

who use the acute accent in place of the apostrophe;

who do not realise that traffic in spiral staircases is left-hand;

who always press the traffic light button -- "just in case" -- even though a person on the other side has already done so;

who always stop their car on the crosswalk when waiting to turn, thus blocking pedestrians and cyclists;

who never stop their car when they see a pedestrian about the cross the road, regardless of what the law says.

Please stop doing this. It is wrong.