As their minds are hard pressed at the best of times to focus on calculus, Shakespeare and landforms of outer Mongolia, during this last week of classes students from Homeboy's school launched themselves into the world of the less fortunate.
Spending the day working at a North Vancouver shelter for the homeless gave Homeboy a glimpse of a world very different from his own.
The students changed beds, folded sheets, stacked cans of food, and learned the message of the shelter is not one of pity but rather of hope.
A food exchange at the shelter allows food bank recipients to swap their canned lima beans for canned pork and beans, for example, giving some choice over the contents of the packages.
On a different day, students collected items for the food bank while others washed, scrubbed, raked and swept at a Bowen seniors' centre.
It impresses me that a school takes interest in its community and then acts on it. Too often we're encouraging kids to wash cars, have bake sales and sell chocolate bars so the community will support *them.* In these particular instances the students get nothing — nothing tangible, at least.
One hopes for a joyful heart, filled to overflowing.


text:
Capitalism: The Liberal Revolution
A Philosophy of the Unity of Science and Freedom
GALAMBOS & SNELSON
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A New Science: Volition
Posted on June 28, 2011 by fgmarks
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor."—Leviticus
To construct a science in the domain of volitional action, we must deal with the fact that we cannot predict the behavior of individual human beings with accuracy required of predictions in the physical sciences.
The postulates of volitional science deal with the relative unpredictability of human conduct from the outset. Scientific theories begin with postulates. The theory of volition has two: (1) All men live to pursue happiness; and (2) All concepts of happiness pursued through moral means are equally valid. Morality is defined as the absence of coercion.
The way to build a social structure that is peaceful, progressive, prosperous, just, humane and durable is to demonstrate to intelligent and educable people that coercion is at the root of all our social ills; and that innovators must be nurtured, protected, and properly rewarded because they are the principal source of human progress.
Today, the prevailing concept of government is called a "state." Its fundamental rôle is to protect its inhabitants from domestic criminals and foreign aggression. However, states operate coercively and injure their own citizens. They force their citizens to risk life and limb in aggressive wars of conquest and destruction. States finance their operations through coercive taxation and, as these lectures will argue, taxation is theft. State coercion may be limited at first, but always tends to evolve from a lesser to a greater amount of coercion.
Volitional science envisions government as a higher, non-coercive form of organized property protection that will eventually replace the state. In the theory of volition, a state is neither moral nor immoral. Morality is a standard that applies to the action of individuals. People use a state for coercive purposes, but it is their individual action and not the state organization itself that is immoral. The concept of the state is merely a flawed concept of true government.
Choice and unpredictability in human action
Human beings choose what they want to do, and having chosen a course of action, they can change their minds. That is why the criterion for rightness in the physical sciences has not been applied successfully in the volitional domain.
The physical sciences are characterized by the search for cause and effect predictability in the operation of non-living phenomena such as stars and planets, heat and light, the land and the sea, etc. Using the scientific method, scientists formulate hypotheses to explain and predict physical phenomena, such as the rise and fall of ocean tides, the re-appearance of a comet, the effect of heat on various forms of matter, etc. If the predictions always come true 100% of the time without exception, eventually the hypothesis is promoted to the status of a "theory" or law of nature. However, one wrong prediction is all it takes to invalidate the theory and demote it to a discredited hypothesis.
The phenomena studied in the physical sciences do not possess volition. Planets and atoms cannot consider different pathways of action and choose one. However, human beings can choose among various alternatives what they want to do. They can alter their choices at any time and make choices that seem irrational to others. Therefore, a science of volition must account for the fact that we cannot predict the behavior of individual human beings to the degree of accuracy required in the physical sciences.
In the nineteenth century Karl Marx developed what he claimed was "scientific socialism." However, Marxism makes no use of the scientific method. It is simply a discredited hypothesis that has been totally falsified by experience. Every country that has tried Marxism soon abandoned it in all but name.
The way to build a peaceful, progressive, prosperous, just, humane and durable social structure is to demonstrate to intelligent, educable people that coercion is the root cause of all our social ills; and that since innovators are the principal source of human progress, they must be nurtured, protected, and properly rewarded.
Intellectual property, herein referred to as primary property, is the highest form of property because it is the source of all other property except life itself. Yet, intellectual property always has heretofore been poorly protected or entirely unprotected. The social system known as liberal capitalism has failed adequately to protect and reward innovators for the creation of their intellectual property. As a result, for the past two hundred years or so, most innovators have been in favor of socialism. They thought it would provide the creators of intellectual property with higher status, better protection, and more appropriate rewards.
The theory of volition sets forth a new concept of capitalism that will bring full protection to innovators and their intellectual property.
Science starts with precise definitions. Precise definitions are essential to a science: they are used to formulate postulates; and scientific theories are built up from postulates. The theory of volition employs the following defined terms.
"Good" is the subjective evaluation of a preferred action, or a preferred transition from one state to another.
"Bad" is equivalent to non-good or negative good. It is anything one would prefer to avoid.
"Happiness" is the subjective evaluation of all the "goods" that a person has experienced throughout his life up to that point less all the "bads" that he has experienced.
Happiness is the integrated subjective evaluation of all good and bad experiences in one's memory plus all expected goods and bads.
In simple terms, happiness is the scale of subjective preferences of each individual. As such it is the ultimate governor of individual action. When we act, we seek goods and seek to avoid bads.
"Absolute good" is a subjective good to at least one person that is not imposed on any other volitional being.
"Morality" is the absence of coercion
"Absolute rightness" in volition is that which is both rational and moral.
"Profit" is any increase in happiness acquired by moral means.
A corollary to the definition of profits: that which is profitable is necessarily moral.
Note that the definition of "profit," like the definition of "property" (in lecture #1) is not framed in economic terms. Rather, property and profit are defined in terms of life and its derivatives. Profit—an increase in happiness achieved non coercively—is a universal concept. It is as valid for those with little or no interest in acquiring material wealth as those who are obsessed with financial or material gains.
Someone may decide that the most profitable use of his time is to pursue an activity that earns little or no monetary reward, such as learning to play a musical instrument. Other than the financial reward that accompanied his Nobel Prize, Albert Einstein never received much money for his work. Rather than money, he was motivated by an all-consuming curiosity that led him to search for new knowledge in physics. So, per the foregoing definition of profit, according to his subjective determination Einstein's work was profitable to him.
"Plunder" is defined as any increase in happiness acquired by immoral means.
Profit and plunder are both means of pursuing happiness. But they define two fundamentally different ways of doing so: by moral (non-coercive) means in the case of profit and by immoral (coercive) means in the case of plunder. That distinction is important , first of all, because in science we do not use the same word to mean two different things. But, more importantly, making this distinction will have a large, positive impact on our social structure and our way of understanding society.
"Absolute importance" is the measure of the total amount of property that is affected. Thus, the highest achievements in sports or business are far less important than virtually any scientific discovery or technical innovation. Newton's law of gravitation and Einstein's theory of relativity have produced a lasting affect on human culture has led, and will continue to lead, to massive increases in the quality and quantity of property across our entire civilization. Can you say that of even the most stupendous achievements in sports or business?
"Property" is an individual's life and all non-procreative derivatives of his or her life, including thoughts and ideas. The word "non-procreative" in the definition signifies that children are not the property of their parents, even though children are derivatives of the lives of the parents. Galambos identified three types of property. (1) primordial property is life itself; thus an individual's life is his or her primordial property. (2) Primary property is thoughts and ideas. Thus, a discovery and invention are primary property; for example James Clerk Maxwell's discovery embodied in his theory of electromagnetic wave propagation is an idea that is primary property; inventions based on Maxwell's theory, such as radio, telephone, and television, are inventions that are primary property of the inventor. An artistic creation is primary property, for example the music of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, or the plays and sonnets of William Shakespeare. (3) Secondary property includes tangible assets ranging from something as rare and highly prized as a fine violin made by Antonio Stradivarius, to the mundane such as tables, chairs, and other household furniture and furnishings.
It is worth nothing that Galambos' definition of property is similar in concept and scope to the description of property by James Madison, fourth President of the United States of America. Madison's definition is set forth in the accompanying note. 1
"Capitalism" is that societal structure whose mechanism is capable of protecting all forms of property completely. It is, therefore, the only form of social structure that can produce freedom. This definition of capitalism includes but is not limited to private ownership of the tangible means of production. It encompasses the protection of all forms of property, including individual liberty and, most importantly, the full protection of intellectual property.
The term capitalism is repugnant to many creative people because they see that allegedly capitalist societies do not properly value higher cultural achievements and thus provide disproportionately scant rewards for scientific and artistic innovators. In contrast, volitional science envisions a different kind of capitalism, in which the work of innovators and other creative people is rewarded in a manner commensurate with the value it produces for others.
The postulates of volitional science
Scientific theories start with postulates—unproven statements that we assume to be true and that serve as the basis upon which we build the logical framework of the theory. Although a postulate, by definition, is an assumption, successful postulates must be observationally true without exception and of universal application. The theory of volition has two postulates:
All men live to pursue happiness.
All concepts of happiness pursued exclusively through moral (non-coercive) means are equally valid.
The first postulate is inspired by the following statement from the American Declaration of Independence:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."
This poetic, inspirational statement offers no proof that all men are created equal and are endowed with certain rights. Rather, it simply asserts those beliefs as "self-evident" truths to justify the principal purpose of the Declaration of Independence, which is to argue that America does not need a king and that the American colonists ought to separate themselves from Great Britain. While that part of the statement points to certain valuable principles, from the standpoint of scientific rigor, it is imprecise and frequently misinterpreted. However, the "pursuit of happiness" concept is logically irrefutable. Men do pursue states they value more and seek to avoid states they value less than their current state. All human action is the striving for happiness and it is a striving that will never be completely satisfied. If this were not so, men would lose the incentive to act at all and thus lose the motivation to achieve more happiness and progress.
The first postulate has a corollary: "Morally acting man seeks to profit and immorally acting man seeks to plunder."
The second postulate of volition was suggested by the second postulate of Einstein's theory of relativity, which states, in effect, that all frames of reference are equally valid for the purpose of formulating the laws of nature.
The first postulate is the "happiness" postulate. It describes the fundamental nature of volitional beings in the simplest possible terms. The second postulate is the "democracy" postulate, for reasons to be set forth in the sixth lecture in which a new and higher concept of democracy is defined.
The concept of "good" is entirely subjective and relative to each individual's frame of reference. What is considered good differs from person to person, and differs within each individual depending on time, place, and circumstances. Volitional science establishes the absolute standard of good defined above, that is: "Absolute good" is a subjective good to at least one person that is not imposed on any other volitional being. Absolute good is closely connected with the 2nd postulate because it applies to any subjective preference of any individual, no matter how trivial, as long as a preference involves no coercion.
The definition of "absolute good" is a scientific concept. Just because absolute good describes an utterly subjective phenomenon does not meant that it is not rigorously scientific. In fact, all knowledge in science is acquired subjectively. Science is based on observation, first and last. The first step of the scientific method is observation for data gathering. The last step of the scientific method is observation to corroborate or falsify a hypothesis based on the original observations. Who else but individual human observers make such observations.
Natural law compared to political law
Science distinguishes between absolute subjectivism and relative subjectivism. A hallucination is relatively subjective. It may seem totally real to the person having the hallucination. However, it is relatively subjective because other people cannot confirm another person's hallucination by independent observation. Galileo's law of falling bodies is an example of absolute subjectivism. Galileo conducted an experiment to observe and compare the rate of fall of heavy and light objects. He consistently found that heavy objects fall at the same rate as light objects. Furthermore, he found that under the constant acceleration of the earth's gravitational field, the distance of the fall is directly proportional to the square of the elapsed time. That observation can be duplicated and the theory he derived from it tested by anyone else, any place, at any time. Since we've never found an exception, Galileo's observation is a case of absolute subjectivism.
What are called laws of nature are subjective opinions. They are man-made. Newton's law of gravitation, Faraday's law of electromagnetic induction and Einstein's law of relativity were theories conceived in the minds of those individuals. The critical characteristic that makes such opinions laws of nature is that they are found to be universally true and they are discoveries rather than inventions. Newton, Faraday and Einstein did not invent the above theories. They discovered them. Their theories have achieved the status of laws of nature because every independent subjective observation by other people confirmed their absolute rightness.
Political laws are also man-made. However, that is the only thing they have in common with the laws of nature. A political law is invented; a natural law is discovered. A political law is enforced coercively; but coercion is entirely alien to the process by which one discovers laws of nature. No one is forced to believe in the natural laws discovered by Galileo, Newton, Maxwell and Einstein or anyone else. Other scientists accept such laws, and inventors & entrepreneurs use them to develop technological innovations such as electric power and lighting because continual observation confirms they are a true description of the way things work in the universe.
Volitional science is based on natural law. People accept natural laws, whether or not they understand them, because they work. We simply find that natural laws describe and are compatible with the universe in which we live. These lectures deal with political law because it is a current fact of life. Volitional theory will demonstrate that due to their coercive nature political laws have never and can never protect life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that politics has brought us war not peace; institutionalized theft rather than property protection; enslavement rather than freedom.
Morality in volitional science compared to religious morality; the rightness of the original biblical "Golden Rule"
Absolute rightness in volition is that which is both rational and moral, with moral meaning the absence of coercion. Religion and volitional science both deal with morality. However, in volitional science, while morality is not the morality of religion, its foundation is roughly equivalent to the following original statement of the biblical Golden Rule: "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor." The Golden Rule appears in all religions and cultures of the world that have survived for any appreciable length of time.
In Christianity, the Golden Rule is stated in the positive—as an altruistic command—that people should do to others as they would have others do to them. This version of the Golden Rule can be interpreted as permitting, even encouraging, one to meddle in the affairs of others, for example by religious proselytizing.
The original Golden Rule is superior because it states a basic principle of property protection: leave other people alone. This is compatible with the 18th century liberal philosophy of "laissez-faire" that the state should not interfere in individual affairs and that individual enterprise should be free of state controls.
Except for recognizing the truth and validity of the original Golden Rule, volitional science does not deal with religion, which is humanity's attempt to explain our place in the universe and set forth supposedly god-given rules of human conduct. Humanity's organized religions have been a source of conflict and coercion, as shown by the attempts of various organized religions to impose their beliefs and rules upon others.
Volitional science is not atheistic. Atheism is a form of religious belief, and a point of view that is not rationally tenable, because it teaches the non-existence of God, whose existence can neither be proved nor disproved by the methods of science.
Rationality and morality may be in conflict in the short term, but not in the long term
In the short run there are conflicts between morality and rationality. It may be rational to steal—in the short run. In the long run it is irrational to steal, because persistent, successful theft causes productive people to stop producing what the thief wants to steal. In a crime-ridden neighborhood there will be less and less for a criminal to steal. In a crime-ridden country production of even the necessities of life, such as food, will diminish. When stealing reaches its maximum in a society, production drops to the primitive level of a tribal culture where people produce only what they can consume themselves.
Comparison of the coercive, political state and a higher, non-coercive form of government
The present common conception of government is called a "state." Its supposed fundamental rôle is to protect the people within its borders from domestic criminals and foreign aggression. However, states operate coercively and, thus consistently injure their own citizens. They force their citizens to risk life and limb in aggressive wars of conquest and destruction. States finance their operations through the coercive means of taxation. As these lectures will argue, taxation is theft, which evolves from theft on a limited scale to theft on a grand scale, from a lesser amount of coercion to a greater amount of coercion.
Volitional science envisions a higher, non-coercive form of government to protect all forms of property, as defined herein, namely life itself and all of its non-procreative derivatives including most importantly intellectual property. Only such organized property-protecting activity is deserving of the title "government."
In the theory of volition, a state cannot be moral nor immoral. Morality is a volitional concept and applies only at the level of individual behavior. People can use a state for coercive purposes, but the state is an abstract concept describing a certain type of organization and, as such, cannot be deemed immoral. It is the people using the state organization coercively who are immoral. The concept of the state is merely a flawed precursor of true government.
Majority rule is not a solution to the problems of mankind
In a political democracy the majority may authorize the state to tax, i.e., to steal property, because in political democracy right is what the majority makes it to be.
The reader may think that the alternative to majority rule is rule by a minority, such as an aristocracy, or rule by monarch. It is a false alternative to consider minority rule or monarchy the only alternatives to majority rule. Volitional science presents a new positive alternative, a higher form of democracy called the natural republic in which no one, not even by authorization of the majority, is empowered to seize the property of others. In the natural republic, property is fully (100%) protected on a non-coercive basis.
In political democracy the majority does not actually rule. A minority rules, and a rather small minority at that, with the sanction of the majority. The majority may even approve rule of a dictator. Adolph Hitler (1889-1945) was the absolute dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945. At the height of his powers he had the approval of a large majority of the German people.
COMMENTARY ON LECTURE # 3
In Galambos' lexicon, property and profit are not defined solely in terms of money and wealth; rather, they include ideas and actions. This is an important distinction because of the widespread idea among thoughtful and creative people that the higher things in life—the arts and sciences—are not property. However, they are the creation of artists and scientists and therefore, in these definitions, are their intellectual property.
In the words of Jacob Bronowski: "Man is unique not because he does science, and he is unique not because he does art, but because science and art equally are expressions of his marvelous [creativity] and plasticity of mind." 2
In lecture number 3 Galambos identifies a key innovation–the concept that morality must be independent of arbitrary standards of determination–just as in physics, testing the truth of an observation or the validity of a hypothesis must be independent of arbitrary standards of measurement.
An early colleague of Galambos argued that the concept of morality is outside the subject of volition, because volition is the study of voluntary human interaction, and therefore coercion, which is immoral in Galambos' teaching, is excluded by definition since coercive interaction is involuntary on the part of those subjected to coercion. In this point of view Galambos' use of the concept of morality is circular in its definition, is unnecessary, and a violation of Occam's razor.
However, much of the V-50 lectures was devoted to showing how coercive social structures are destined to fail and have always failed. Elimination of all forms of coercion is central to Galambos' philosophy of freedom. Accordingly, it appears appropriate and essential to construct his new science of volition on the foundational postulate of morality being the absence of coercion.
Another criticism of Galambos' ideas by some who are familiar with them is that he is arbitrary, rather than scientific, in his concepts of "moral" and "immoral," and of right and wrong conduct. This criticism finds fault with the way Galambos arrived at his conclusions. The author of this internet book chooses to leave such judgments to the reader, and to the operation of the intellectual market place of ideas.
Galambos tried to simplify the concepts of morality and rightness by adopting the absence of coercion as a test for morality and right human conduct. Galambos' teaching did not and could not solve all the problems of human action and interaction. How could any one person or any one idea accomplish an eternal solution to all the problems of human existence? However, Galambos did offer an approach to achieving peace, freedom and prosperity that is based soundly on observation of human society and the history of ideas about human conduct. That is, what ideas lead to peace, freedom and prosperity and what ideas lead rather to war, slavery and poverty.
Galambos' approach is reminiscent of the attitude of Warren Buffett, the renowned entrepreneur and investor who once observed about his specialized field of knowledge that he would rather be approximately right than precisely wrong.
The quotation of the "Golden Rule" herein is in its original form, found in that portion of the Torah known as "The Holiness Code" (Leviticus, Chapter 19). It is a basic principle underlying the traditional Jewish commitment to fairness, human responsibility, and social justice.
Legend has it that the great Jewish scholar, Hillel (fl. 30 B.C. to 10 C.E.) was asked by a Roman soldier to summarize Judaism "while standing on one foot"–in other words, to put all of Jewish theology in a nutshell. Hillel's response was "That which is hateful to yourself, do not do unto others. That is the heart of the Torah; all the rest is commentary."
Jay Snelson, in his book entitled Taming the Violence of Faith (2011), 3 reports that historians of religion observe that for over 2,500 years a form of the biblical Golden Rule has been a central tenet not only of Judaism and Christianity, but also of other prominent religious belief systems, including Zoroastrian (ancient Babylon and Persia), Hindu (India), Buddhist (a number of countries in east Asia), Confucian and Taoist (China) and Muslim. For example, the following statement is attributed to the Chinese teacher and philosopher Confucius (551-479 B.C.E.):
"What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others." 4
In the biblical story of Cain and Abel from Genesis, after Cain kills his brother, Abel, the biblical text continues as follows: "Then the Lord said to Cain, Where is your brother Abel? I don't know, he replied. Am I my brother's keeper?" (Genesis 4:9). God punished Cain not only for his act of murder, but also for his callous and evasive response, "Am I my brother's keeper?" According to the teaching of both Judaism and Christianity the lesson of this dialogue between God and Cain is an ethical requirement as important as the Golden Rule: that is each person is a member of an extended family consisting of all humanity, and each person is under an obligation to care for not only his or her immediate family, but also every other member of the entire human family.
People who believe sincerely and deeply in this idea may have strong philosophical sympathy with the idea of the welfare state—that through the operation of the state we can and must care for those in need by taking from others via taxation. People of that persuasion may be antagonistic to the idea that taxation by the state is stealing—itself a violation of a commandment not to steal that the bible says emanates from God. Such people see no conflict between the injunction to be thy brother's keeper and the commandment not to steal.
A resolution of the seeming conflict between these two ethical principles becomes apparent when one takes a long-term view of human civilization. The decline and fall of every civilization is caused by the state attacking property and producers, via taxation and other means. In contrast, a society on the whole prospers in direct proportion to the freedom of individuals to keep and enjoy the fruit of their labor. Then individuals are able to accumulate enough property to take care of not only their own basic needs but to help others—that is to be "their brother's keeper" on a voluntary basis.
One can see voluntary generosity to strangers in operation at its utmost in America, which has more charitable giving than any other contemporary society, including the well-known American voluntary generosity to people in other countries afflicted by natural or man-made disasters.
Famed economist F. A. Hayek (1899-1992) observed that the idea of being thy brother's keeper is sensible within a small circle of family and close friends, but is counter-productive when applied on a society-wide basis. Hayek posits that beyond the immediate family the greatest social good consists in individual initiative that motivates people to achieve high levels of productivity by serving their own interests rather than engaging in altruistic behavior. 5 This is a reiteration of the "invisible hand" idea expressed as follows by Adam Smith in his great treatise An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776):
"Every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By . . . directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good." 6
The decline of a civilization starts when attacks on producers cause a fall in production. When production falls below the subsistence level the civilization fails. That happened in ancient Rome which evolved in its last era into a prototypical welfare state that self-destructed. It happened also in the former Soviet Union, of which Russia was the central component.
The Soviet Union was established in 1917 on the communist idea "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need," a concept in which everybody is the keeper of everybody else, except that the state makes virtually all the decisions of economic life. The Soviet Union perished in 1991, when after just 74 years in existence it became evident to almost everybody in that society, including some of its political elite, that the state's imposition of communist ideas was the cause of the constant shortages of basic human necessities and wants, ranging from food and shelter to health care, the latter as indicated by the short life expectancy in the Soviet Union.
Furthermore, from the outset of its seizure of political power in 1917 the Soviet Communists deliberately instituted rule by terror to force everybody else to submit to their communist ideal. In order to eliminate private property in agriculture, the Soviet state committed mass murder on a scale unprecedented in recent human history. Between 1929 and 1933 the Soviet state deliberately caused the dispossession, deportation and starvation of fifteen million members of peasant farmer families out of a population of forty million in the Ukraine and neighboring areas because of their unwillingness to give up their farms and become employees of state-run "collective farms." 7
Galambos defined "absolute rightness" in volition as that which is both rational and moral. Some of Galambos' colleagues and students have challenged the use of the word "absolute" as a qualifier of "rightness." Their thesis is that the idea of an "absolute rightness" or even an absolute rationality is incompatible with science and the scientific method.
In human action the concept of absolute rightness appears to be fraught with error and deadly consequences. Giordano Bruno was burned alive in 1600 C.E. by people who believed they were absolutely right and Bruno was absolutely wrong about whether the sun revolved around the earth.
Galambos used his concept of absolute rightness as a criterion for resolving disputes without violence. Rationality and morality together are Galambos' criteria for resolving disputes without violence, as "moral" means without coercion in Galambos' definition. The people who ordered Bruno burned alive employed the ultimate coercion because they disagreed with Bruno.
In the name of the absolute rightness of a "one true faith" or a "one true God," religious warfare has ravaged mankind over past centuries. In the 20th century political rulers believing in absolutely right secular ideologies caused most of the century's 165 wars and 180 million total deaths from war and another 100 million deaths by political and civil repression and genocide.
The concept of "absolute" is important in science, where it means that there is a presumption that the universe has an underlying structure that is understandable and immutable at its deepest level. The term "absolute zero" temperature is used in the physics of thermodynamics.
With absolute rightness Galambos was seeking a universal decision criterion that would allow volitional beings to resolve disputes without violence, as is clear from the discussion at the beginning of V-50 lecture number 2—entitled How Do You Know You Are Right?
Non-coercion is the criterion Galambos chose as an absolute constraint on all volitional interactions including dispute resolution.
Even if everyone agrees with the "rightness" of a conclusion, the conclusion will always and forever be subject to revision as we learn more. Through conjecture and criticism we are working toward some sort of non-arbitrary underlying structure that is truly independent of arbitrary means of determination, and is thus absolute.
It does not appear that Galambos was necessarily wrong in his concept of an absolute rightness. He was seeking a universal or absolute criterion for determining what we accept as right and not right. The semantic and pragmatic problem with the term "absolute right" has been in its use to justify coercive actions. If one incorporates the concept of non-coercion into the definition of absolute right that removes the ability to pervert the term absolute right in service of tyrannical and coercive actions.
Physicist David Deutsch discusses the fallibility of human knowledge in his book The Beginning of Infinity. He says, in effect, that rejection of the idea of absolute rightness was the key cause of the huge acceleration in acquisition of new knowledge beginning with Galileo and Newton. Deutsch calls this new attitude toward knowledge acquisition a process of conjecture and criticism.
By a leap of the imagination Newton and Einstein propounded hypotheses which went beyond prior observations. Their hypotheses were conjectures that were subject to criticism, by means of continuing observation and evaluation. In the process of criticism new knowledge can arise through further conjecture–that is through further formulation of hypotheses based upon a leap of the imagination.
The idea of conjecture and criticism means that there is never a final truth in science. However, human-conceived laws of nature become conditional truths after sufficient verification and corroboration by observation. That is what happened to Newton's universal law of gravitation. Einstein criticized Newton, not by denying the value of Newton's achievement, far from it. He criticized it in the sense expressed by Deutsch. Einstein came up with different conclusions about the nature of gravity. Newton took it to be a force acting at a distance, whereas Einstein described gravity not as a force at all but as an effect of the curvature of space.
Thus, Einstein's relativistic explanation and Newton's description of gravity as an attractive force acting between bodies of mass are both conditional absolutes. By the process of continual examination and re-examination (called criticism by Deutsch) these absolutes were or could be modified.
Newton's ideas work correctly in building bridges, automobiles and rockets. This has been proven, for example, by our ability to launch man-made satellites for communication with rocket technology based on Newton's laws of motion and to keep the satellites in orbit around planet earth based on Newton's law of gravitation.
"Absolute" in volition as used by Galambos appears to be a most useful definition—independent of arbitrary standards of determination.
"Right" or "rightness" as used by Galambos also appears to be a most useful definition—that which is both rational and moral.
The rationality component of "rightness" also is useful. It is based on the ideas of truth and validity. Something is rational that is observationally true and is the basis for conclusions developed by logically valid thought processes.
Most importantly for the subject of human interaction, Galambos' definition of "moral" appears to be indispensable, and as close to an absolute as there can be in human conduct. I.e., there must be zero coercion in a human act for it to be moral. Individuals can use that standard of morality to guide their behavior. Humans cannot expect to attain perfection, but the more closely the behavior of individuals in a society approaches zero coercion, the more successful will be that society. That is a value judgment, but history appears to validate that judgment.
If Galambos' concept of morality does not gain widespread acceptance as the most fundamental rule governing human action or behavior, it appears that our species will be in danger either of becoming extinct or falling back into a protracted dark ages.
The way human society has been governed in every political system that has ever existed, including political democracy, stripped of all disguise, is the idea that might makes right. This idea has brought humanity perpetual conflict and violence.
Albert Einstein commenting on the danger to humanity from war and from the misuse of science and technology said that "we shall require a substantially new method of thinking if mankind is to survive."
David Deutsch has as the sub-title of his book The Beginning of Infinity: "Explanations that Transform the World." Deutsch says that the search for better explanations of nature is what accelerated the acquisition of new knowledge starting with the Age of Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution.
Deutsch posits that better explanations are "hard to vary." As an example he compares the explanation of seasons on Earth in the mythological thinking of the past which all boil down to "The Gods did it." That explanation is easy to vary by changing the way the gods did it or which Gods did it.
In comparison, the astronomical explanation of the seasons is based on the movement of Earth in its orbit around the sun; that is its tilt in its orbit around the sun creates what we call winter and summer by varying the amount and duration of sunlight on the various portions of earth. When it is winter in the northern hemisphere it is summer in the southern hemisphere and vice versa. Thus earth's tilt is a better explanation than mythological explanations because the earth's tilt is an explanation that is "hard to vary."
Galambos' explanation of non-coercion as the best way for humans to maximize peace, freedom, and prosperity is a "hard to vary" explanation. As a corollary, less coercion and greater freedom improves the quality of human life. In recent history we see ample corroboration of the positive effect of reduced coercion. Compare life in North and South Korea since 1953, life in East and West Germany from 1945 to 1989, and life in mainland China since 1949 under the rule of the Chinese communist party before and after 1976.
In the realm of intellectual property (IP) creation, compare the creation of IP under Russian soviet communism from 1918 to 1989 to the creation of IP in America and the rest of what is called "the west" over the same time.
Galambos offered us a better explanation of the way to maximize human happiness—by moving beyond the "state" and making a transition to proprietary property protection to avoid war, servitude, and poverty. He discovered principles on which we can build a civilization that will maximize peace, freedom, and prosperity.
Galambos' thesis is that humanity would benefit enormously from discarding the might-makes-right form of rule; and that non-coercive, proprietary, non-monopolistic governmental services can actually realize the goal of best protecting life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. That thesis appears to be a "better explanation" in the sense that Galambos' explanation is "hard to vary." I.e., Galambos posits the criterion of zero coercion as an absolute, invariant principle. Once you vary the standard to accept even a little coercion, you have opened the floodgates to the destruction of any society, something to which history bears witness over and over again.
Regarding morality in human action, there appears to be a large gray area at the boundary between moral and immoral actions. For example, is it moral or immoral to take preemptive action to stop commission of a threatened crime, or to apprehend a criminal after he has committed a crime but while he is not in the process of committing another crime?
Another example of current uncertainty between moral and immoral actions is in how we define with precision and accuracy the boundaries around each individual's property, particularly when it comes to intellectual property. Once the principle of property sanctity is accepted, such things will be worked out and resolved in negotiations between property owners. As in the history of English common law from the eighth through the eighteenth centuries, effective resolutions of such boundary disputes (a form of better explanation) will be circulated and used by others with proper credit paid those who originally produce such resolutions and dispute resolution methodologies.
Perhaps the free market will gradually reduce and eliminate that gray area at the boundary of morality and immorality. It seems realistic to foresee the free market doing this through negative consequences for immoral actions—as already occurs when credit is denied to someone who does not pay his or her debts.
Galambos' concept of morality appears to come close to a principle that may be an absolute. However, in terms of science it has to be accepted as conditional or the best we can do at the present. It seems highly unlikely that Galambos' concept of morality would ever be replaced. But that doesn't mean it won't be some day.
Music Selection:
Vivaldi – Concerto in A minor for 2 violins – Larghetto – Isaac Stern and David Oistrakh – violins – the Philadelphia Orchestra
https://capitalismtheliberalrevolution.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/01-Vivaldi-Concerto-for-two-violins-in-A-minor.mp3
"Property is every thing to which a many may attach a value . . . and which leaves to everyone else a like advantage. . . A man has property in his opinions and the free communication of them . . . He has property very dear to him in the safety and liberty of his person." Stated in The Writings of James Madison, ed. Gaillard Hunt, VI (New York and London, 1906), quoted in Pipes, Richard, Property and Freedom (1999), page xii ↩
Quoted from The Ascent of Man (1973), page 412, the book version of Bronowski's BBC television series of the same name first transmitted in 1973 and still published as a video early in the 21st century. ↩
Reviewed in a blog post herein dated August 2, 2012 ↩
Quoted from The Analects of Confucius according to Wikipedia, Confucius, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius#Ethics ↩
Hayek thought deeply about the distinction between what kind of conduct serves best for the survival of a small group such as a troop or band of people in a primitive society, or a family, in comparison to what serves best to advance widespread economic welfare in what he calls "the extender order," i.e., human society as a whole. That is one of the themes of his last book The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism (University of Chicago Press 1988) ↩
Quoted from "Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand," by Helen Joyce, http://plus.maths.org/content/os/issue14/features/smith/index ↩
See The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine (1986) by Robert Conquest. ↩
The act of choosing.
Logical thought processes.
Truth is that which is observationally known to be corroborable and is common to all observers.
A turning around or change in attitude about the means for protecting life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
A corroborated hypothesis.
A state is any person or organization that claims to protect property by coercing the owner of the property to use and pay for its "services," claiming "legality" as its justification.
The Scientific Method is the full, total substitute and alternative for coercion and, when properly understood and applied, will make it completely unnecessary to have violent, destructive, and socially harmful practices. The Scientific Method consists of:1. Observation (for gathering data) 2. Hypothesis formulation 3. Extrapolation 4. Observation (for corroboration) Plus Occam's Razor
Organized knowledge; a search for absolutes in a world of relative observation.
A change which increases an individual's overall happiness and betters his or her overall condition.
Control over action.
A postulate is a proposition with a truth content which you did not derive from any earlier set of propositions by logical reasoning, but whose validity you accept as an input into the subject that you are developing.A successful postulate must contain not only a true proposition, but also a universal application.
Politics and ideology are two entirely different things; one involves coercion and the other involves ideas. While this is not a definition, it is an important distinction.
Any increase in happiness acquired by immoral means, that is, by the employment of coercion.
The total, permanent and moral control of property until voluntarily transferred by the owner, where possible. Note: ownership of primary property can not be transferred from its creator.
Observation is the ability to get inputs through our five senses.
Natural Republic
A contractual society where coercion is inapplicable, and the whole social structure is open to the general use of all on a proprietary, contractual basis.
Absence of coercion.
Ownership of your actions.
The interaction between the observer and the observed.
(a) The elimination of injustice, that is the elimination of crime, the elimination of interference with property to which there is no recourse(b) The natural, rational and moral consequence any act, for example loss of reputation of a person who injures another, and gratitude to a person for an act that benefits another
A person who arrives at conclusions completely by the use of the Scientific Method.
An organized connection of various facts which are derived from observation and which provide an attempt at an explanation. A hypothesis is not necessarily a correct explanation; it's just an attempt at an explanation.
There are those who create and those who destroy, and all of history is simply interplay between those two opposite directions with respect to property. One direction adds to property, and the other direction subtracts from property; one is positive, the other is negative.
Any person or organization that sells products or services to protect property, to which the owner of the property may voluntarily subscribe.
The subjective evaluation of a preferred action, or a preferred transition from one state to another.
An assigned meaning that is attributed to a word or a phrase or a concept, from which you never deviate.
Crime is a successful, intentional interference with the property of another. In other words, it is an act of successful coercion.
A corollary is the restatement of information you already know into other words for a utilitarian reason.
Coercion is an attempted, intentional interference with property.
Independent of arbitrary standards of determination.
Liber = free, al = pertaining to. Therefore "liberal" means pertaining to freedom.
Capitalism is that societal structure whose mechanism is capable of protecting all forms of private property completely.
Property is an individual's life and all non-procreative derivatives of his life, including thoughts and ideas. NOTE: For an expanded definition of property see Chapter 5, text accompanying note 1.
Freedom is the societal condition that exists when every individual has full (i.e. 100%) control over his or her own property.

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a Idaho water bodies only.
b The uses listed here are only those as defined in Idaho's rules.
Three of these subbasins are also addressed by other TMDLs. For more information, see the TMDL pages for the Lower Salmon River and Hells Canyon, Middle Snake River - Succor Creek, and Brownlee Reservoir.
The Snake River watershed includes areas of Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. The Snake River is the 10th longest river system in the United States, extending over 1,000 miles from its headwaters in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, to its confluence with the Columbia River near Pasco, Washington. Over its length, the river falls nearly 7,000 feet in elevation. It passes through some of the richest farmland and the deepest canyons in North America. The Snake River is the major tributary to the Columbia River system. It drains about 87 percent of the State of Idaho (roughly 73,000 square miles); approximately 17 percent of the State of Oregon (about 16,900 square miles); and over 18 percent of the State of Washington (approximately 19,600 square miles). The Snake River flows nearly 760 miles through southern and southwestern Idaho, with about 270 miles of this segment acting as the border between Oregon and Idaho. Near the town of Lewiston, the Snake River leaves Idaho (having left Oregon upstream near China Garden Creek), traveling the remainder of its length westward across Washington to its confluence with the Columbia River.
Within these segments, all designated beneficial uses and the following listed pollutants have been addressed by the TMDL: bacteria, nutrients, nuisance algae, dissolved oxygen, pesticides, pH, sediment, temperature, and total dissolved gas. The document recommends that the segment addressed by this TMDL be delisted for bacteria and pH. The mercury TMDL has been postponed to 2006 due to a lack of water column data.
Recognizing the complexity of the Snake River-Hells Canyon system, the TMDL adopts a phased approach to implementation that will identify interim milestones to determine the effectiveness of management measures or other action controls being implemented. It also includes a process for reviewing and revising management approaches.
The TMDL document includes two separate, state-specific implementation plans. Together, these documents represent the water quality management plan for the Snake River-Hells Canyon TMDL.


text:
Subpoena: Hard to Spell, Harder to Spin
The word subpoena is harder to spin than it is to spell. The Washington Post reports on the investigation into Bill Frist's sale of his holdings in HCA:
A spokesman said Frist's office has been contacted by both the SEC and the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan about his divestiture of the stock. HCA disclosed separately that it was subpoenaed by the same U.S. attorney's office for documents that were related to Frist's sale. Frist and HCA said they are cooperating.
Historians said they cannot recall any other congressional leaders who have faced federal inquiries into stock sales. Frist has denied any wrongdoing.
These investigations turn on details such as the timing of disclosures. Mistakes, inconsistencies and misstatements of facts tend to multiply in significance as investigators review the documents:
Separately, documents unearthed yesterday by the Associated Press showed that Frist was told about stock trades in his blind trust. In documents filed with the Senate, trustee M. Kirk Scobey Jr. told Frist in 2002 that HCA stock had been transferred to his trust. Scobey, reached by phone last night, declined to comment.
The AP said that the documents disclosed that HCA stock worth hundreds of thousands of dollars was placed into Frist's blind trusts several other times in 2002 as well. Frist maintained in a television interview in 2003 that he did not know how much HCA stock he owned, if any.
The Times reports on the question of what did he know he owned and when did he know he owned it:
Mr. Frist's decision to sell represented a departure from his previous position that his lack of control over the blind trusts that held his assets almost eliminated any conflict of interest. The Frist transaction also followed several months of heavy selling by many top executives inside the company as the stock reached its new peak, raising questions about whether Mr. Frist was following their lead.
"Right now, I don't know if I own HCA because it's a qualified blind trust," Mr. Frist told The National Journal two years ago.
How blind are these blind trusts?
Senate ethics rules and federal ethics laws allow members to own stocks and other assets directly, without putting them in trusts. Provisions in the ethics laws, however, allow government officials to create "qualified blind trusts." In such trusts, according to the rules, an appointed trustee manages the fund and communications with the official are strictly limited. Such arrangements are intended to minimize allegations of conflict of interest.
The law explicitly allows the official who created the trust to give "directions to the trustee to sell all of an asset initially placed in the trust" if the official determines that holding on to the asset creates the appearance of a conflict of interest, according to the Senate ethics manual. The rules also require the trustee to tell the official if all of one of the original assets is sold.
"Bill Frist has this all upside down," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), chairman of the House Democrats' campaign committee. "He thought Terri Schiavo could see and his trust was blind."
Although he may not see any jail time, the words "Documented Liar" should be permanently associated with the name Bill Frist.
11:28 AM, September 26, 2005
"I did not have sex with that woman" is considered by most liberals as the truth. Billy boy set the bar very low.
12:57 PM, September 30, 2005
The Feds Subpoena HCA in Frist Stock Sale
"Degrees of conjugation" in Delaware
The SEC Calls on Senator Frist
Karl Rove, Jack Abramoff and Timothy E. Flanigan
Russell Baker on our Can't-Do Government
"Good fortune, isn't it?"
The Legendary Boubacar Traore Plays in Arden
Wes Clark Keeps Winning Straw Polls at Kos and MyDD
Boubacar Traore in Arden Wednesday Night
Talk to Tommywonk Today on WDEL 1150 AM


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Frontiers for Young Minds enables young audiences to actively engage with the scientific process, connecting them with leaders of the scientific community and challenging them to ask questions about ideas still at the cutting edge of science. By involving Young Minds in the process of scientific review, we help them develop their ability to think critically about science and communicate the latest research to their peers.
Few 8-15 year olds have the opportunity to interact with scientists, and even fewer are ever asked to provide feedback on the work of a recognized expert. The Frontiers for Young Minds platform enables students to find out first-hand what it is to be a scientist, and how to work as part of a collaborative process towards a common goal.
Frontiers for Young Minds builds a bridge to more directly connect scientists with the public. All articles are written by the researchers themselves and are written in a form that can be understood and used by the broadest of audiences. This provides young minds, educators, and the general public with a reliable go-to source on the latest advances in science.
Frontiers for Young Minds is supported by the Jacobs Foundation, one of the world's leading charitable foundations dedicated to facilitating innovations for children and youth. In 2017, a partnership with the Patrick & Lina Drahi Foundation was formed to bring articles on cutting-edge science to children in new languages, starting with a Jerusalem-based pilot project for Hebrew-speaking kids. We are looking for other like-minded organizations deeply committed to STEM education and the communication of science to broader audiences.
As a non-profit project, free for readers and free for authors, Frontiers for Young Minds' success depends on the investment and partnership of sponsors and funders.
This support can take the shape of per-article support for specific sections or subject areas as well as funding for the broader functions of the project overall.
By supporting us you benefit not only from increased exposure within the scientific community but also get the chance to support and inspire science education both within and outside the classroom.
Position yourself next to the wave of new scientists and support innovation in education with Frontiers for Young Minds!
Participants with Frontiers for Young Minds share its commitment to creating a freely available and high-quality resource of cutting-edge research specifically for younger audiences. Participating Organizations can directly recommend accepted or published articles from their journals to be written as Young Minds versions through the FYM Portal. We will link directly back to original publisher articles from Young Minds versions and thank our partners on the FYM Sponsors and Partners page.
We would like to thank the following organizations on their efforts in working with us to provide a multilingual and international journal, accessible to all.
Other languages will be available on our website very soon!


text:
Brandon Williams Might Just Be the NFL's Most Intimidating Player
I certainly wouldn't want to line up across from him.
By Nathan Beaucage Sep 22, 2015, 8:22am EDT
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Matt Hazlett/Getty Images
Based on physical appearance alone, Brandon Williams could be the scariest man in the league. If his 6'1, 335 lb. frame wasn't enough to scare you, then his massive arms will.
Just. Wow. Like, damn son.
These are no ordinary arms, Chris Canty called them a gift from God, saying "God has blessed that young man with a big set of arms."
Williams isn't citing divine intervention for these guns, but rather attributes them to hard work.
"I've always been a big kid, but when I got a little older I found the weight room and I just lived in there,"
When Williams came into the league in 2013, he received a lot of attention for what he was able to do with those arms. While his school record 27 career sacks and 52.5 career TFL were both impressive, this video of Williams walking on his hands gained him more notoriety than any statistic. It even caught the attention of Coach John Harbaugh himself.
"There's a YouTube video out there of him walking on his hands," Harbaugh said. "For a big man, he's really an athletic guy. So, we're excited to have him."
While Williams may look menacing on the field, this video says otherwise of his off-the-field nature.
#Mood Excited to go to Philadelphia and hit someone else for a change #MyCarltonOnFleek #BetYouCantDoItLikeMe #Throwback
A video posted by Brandon Williams (@brandonw_66) on Aug 17, 2015 at 2:53pm PDT
We've also seen Williams do another dance, and his best rendition of Bon Jovi before.
The Ravens will certainly need Williams to step up this week against the Bengals, as he only posted one tackle this week.
Baltimore Beatdown Game Picks: Divisional Round Join the BB staff in picking winners for every game in Round 2 of the playoffs!


This flapjack recipe is adapted from one by Natasha Corrett at Honestly Healthy Food. I cut the amount of syrup by half and added orange zest and spice which I think adds a lovely autumnal flavour.
These chewy flapjacks make a great pre or post workout snack to help boost energy levels. The nuts and seeds provide a decent amount of zinc and protein to help with muscle repair. If you have a sporty vegan teen (don't use honey) these are a great snack to make in bulk and pop in the freezer. They take an hour or so to defrost.
Feel free to use any other nuts of seeds that you have in your cupboards.
Place the dates and half the water in a pan, bring to the boil, then simmer until the dates are soft. Transfer to a blender.
Place the oats, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds into a food processor and pulse for about 1 minute, or until roughly chopped. Add these to the mixture in the bowl. Stir in the maple syrup or honey, the mixed spice and orange zest. Mix thoroughly.
Transfer the mixture to a 23cm x 15cm baking tray lined with baking parchment and spread out the mixture to a thickness of 2cm. Sprinkle with the sesame seeds and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden.
Leave to cool on the baking tray and then cut into slices.
Jerusalem artichokes contain more iron, weight for weight, than lean beef.


I have been practicing along with the piano backup for these songs, so figured I would share it here and see what you guys think! Sorry its just audio, hope its ok I posted it here?! But I get better sound if i do it that way. hope you enjoy!!
It should probably be called, "Share a performance" but yes, your performances are super welcome here.
Thanks so much I am glad you liked them! Hours of practice might be starting to pay off, however I wouldn't really say performance quality tho lol, a few spots where the intonation is off, or bad bow conservation that need to be worked on. Everyone is their own worst critique right.
Oddly enough, Hallelujah is one of my "let's go have a play at that" when whatever I'm actually working on, or technique I am practicing, fails miserably! (LOL) It is by no means one of my "go-to" pieces "because it is something I can play easily" - I don't mean it like that, not at all - it is just a tune I like to "mess with" - and because I know the melody well in my head - every time I play it - I do something subtly different. It is a great tune, and very adaptable to improvisation.
It is always good to have a redemption song to get you back in the groove, and I cannot think of one more fitting LOL. For me I would have to say it's Ashoken being the first tune i learned.
I was not overly familiar with the tune accept for in the movie Shreck. Stumbling around the internet found a video of Lindsay Sterling playing it and wanted to learn it.
Been playing it for about a week now but you are absolutely correct, there are many ways to play and add to it. use a roll here or shift and slur there. The actual tune itself is not that hard so you are able to concentrate on different techniques, but for the recording tried to keep it pretty traditional not to mess it up lol.
Now I just have to think of a good song for the Patty's day Party, Need another badge lol 🙂 St Annes reel maybe? Thoughts?
makinnoise how beautiful is that????
Very nice... I love both performances!
Very nicely done @makinnoise ! Sounding great.
Is hallelujah sheet music on the site somewhere?
@makinnoise: I love the version of Hallelujah that you did, it is very nice. Sounds great with the background, will have to try that!
Thanks everyone you are all too nice!
@risk @intrepidgirl I didn't have any sheet music. but there is some play along tab on thestringclub.com pretty sure you could find sheet music for it no problem tho.
Bravo!! Love your Hallelujah interpretation!
I play both of those and that was very well done. I play them slower tempo which makes for a easier rendition... but to each his own.
Excellent work... I know how mucgh effort it takes to get that far! You did really really good!
Very nice performance. Your violin playing blended perfectly with the accompaniment.
@cdennyb I would normally play them slower myself but had to match the speed of the piano.
You nailed it. People that don't play I feel have no idea how much time and effort is involved in learning to playing a piece even half good lol specially when you are learning the violin. Thats why this is a great site. We all face that same challenges and others appreciate that. Just my 2c anyway!
makinnoise I have been inspired and playing Sad Romance a bit. My Hallelujah needs some work.. mainly i need back tracking for it. Anyway.. thanks for the inspiration.
coolpinkone then My work here is done. haha! Thats awesome, enjoy learning them!
A trick I use, don't know if many people know about it with you youtube, to download audio files. Its how I get my tracks to play along with.
Just find something you would like to play along with the type dlv in front of youtube url you are currently at.
that will take you to a page where you can select what you would like to download. video, audio or both.
I have not made a play list. I need to do that.
I have had such and issue with playing along. For a while...maybe some brain issue...(not kidding.. attention issue???) Anyway.. I have been overcoming that. I used to keep starting the track over and over and over... I have broken through.. I can make a mistake and pick back up and continue playing.. so much better than before.
I think I should make my play list then I can really just jam along and not have to keep selecting.
Sad Romance... I never really learned the last part by heart...I need to commit it to my brain and learn to get that shift in tune... its getting better though.
coolpinkone I think we all have our "attention issues" lol! For me i think its practicing just drawing the full bow with smooth changes, zzzzzz... but I really need to do it.
The fiddlerman vids on finding positions are a great resource if you haven't seen them. Very helpful!!!


A good Sunday Funday should consist of 3 main things: church, brunch, & $10 Mimosa pitchers! As usual , I met my best friend for brunch this past Sunday & it was nothing short of amazing. We were devastated to find out our favorite brunch spot (Royal Oak in Montrose) has been shut down for good. However, there are plans to remodel & reopen under a new name. Well we most definitely found an alternative, Pistoleros (also on Westheimer in Montrose) is just a corner away! With amazing specials on breakfast tacos & mimosas we had an absolutely amazing time! We found a color wall on the way out & had a random photo shoot. And well, we thoroughly enjoyed it!


text:
Q: Clearing all git patches How do you get rid of untracked patch files in git? I don't understand exactly how to get myself out of this state.
The commands that were run were:
git format-patch 'some-commit-hash'^..'some-commit-hash'
git am *.patch
And while that didn't exactly do what I was intending, I am stuck with various untracked .patch files. I've tried doing a hard reset to the branch, aborting the format-patch. Swapping to other branches. I'm at a loss here.

A: Indeed, git reset --hard SHA1 won't remove the untracked files. It will just reset the HEAD pointer to the SHA1/commit/branch specified, and overwrite the index and the working directory accordingly (changing there only the tracked files).
If you want to "clean up" your working directory in an automatic - but somewhat aggressive way, beware that the deletion of files cannot be canceled - a possible solution is to run:
git clean -d -x -n
# dry-run to inspect the untracked and ignored files
git clean -d -x -f
# to remove all these files

For more information on these commands, you can see e.g. the doc of git clean as well as the "Discussion" section of the doc of git reset.
Another solution if you want more flexibility, is to rely on git ls-files to display the list of such files, and possibly chain this with a bash pipe. Below is one such example, which is inspired by this answer to "How can I see list of ignored files in git?":
git ls-files --exclude-standard --ignored --others | grep '\.patch$'
# to display the ignored or untracked files with .patch file-extension
git ls-files --exclude-standard --ignored --others | grep '\.patch$' | xargs rm -v
# to remove these files

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text:
MLR může znamenat:

 Maďarská lidová republika
 Mongolská lidová republika

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text:
Daily Ratings & News for Ameresco
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Short Interest in Ameresco Inc (NYSE:AMRC) Rises By 32.8%
Ameresco Inc (NYSE:AMRC) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest during the month of June. As of June 30th, there was short interest totalling 976,200 shares, an increase of 32.8% from the May 30th total of 734,900 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 129,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 7.5 days. Currently, 5.4% of the company's stock are sold short.
Shares of NYSE AMRC opened at $14.29 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.28. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $14.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $692.68 million, a P/E ratio of 21.65, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 0.52. Ameresco has a 12-month low of $11.73 and a 12-month high of $18.05.
Get Ameresco alerts:
Ameresco (NYSE:AMRC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The utilities provider reported $0.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the Thomson Reuters' consensus estimate of $0.02. The business had revenue of $150.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $150.29 million. Ameresco had a return on equity of 8.44% and a net margin of 4.57%. The business's revenue was down 10.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.16 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Ameresco will post 0.78 earnings per share for the current year.
In related news, Director Nickolas Stavropoulos bought 4,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, May 6th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $15.19 per share, for a total transaction of $60,760.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 4,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $60,760. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP David J. Corrsin sold 1,756 shares of Ameresco stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.50, for a total value of $28,974.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 1,038,872 shares of the company's stock, valued at $17,141,388. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 51,756 shares of company stock valued at $854,834. 57.93% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AMRC. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA boosted its position in shares of Ameresco by 508.8% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA now owns 3,945 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $64,000 after buying an additional 3,297 shares during the period. Meeder Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ameresco by 134.0% during the first quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,205 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $68,000 after buying an additional 2,408 shares during the period. Advisor Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ameresco during the fourth quarter worth approximately $75,000. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. NY acquired a new position in shares of Ameresco during the fourth quarter worth approximately $99,000. Finally, MetLife Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ameresco during the fourth quarter worth approximately $136,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 28.92% of the company's stock.
Separately, Zacks Investment Research downgraded W. R. Grace & Co from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Ameresco presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $18.50.
About Ameresco
Ameresco, Inc provides comprehensive energy services for businesses and organizations in North America and Europe. It offers energy efficiency, infrastructure upgrades, energy security and resilience, asset sustainability, and renewable energy solutions. The company operates through U.S. Regions, U.S.
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Q: Is there a fast way (keyboard shortcut, etc...) to auto adjust button size to match image size using storyboards? When I add an image to a button, I often have to look back at the image to get the widht and height, then back to interface builder and set the button width and height to match the image.
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A: In Interface Builder use menu Editor/Size To Fit Content.  Shortcut Cmd+=.
You need the button selected. If that option is greyed out, deselect, and reselect the button again.


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Большая Итча — деревня в Якшур-Бодьинском районе Удмуртской республики.

География
Находится в центральной части Удмуртии на расстоянии приблизительно 18 км на запад-юго-запад по прямой от районного центра села Якшур-Бодья.

История
Основана в 1888 году переселенцами из починка Кургальского Сарапульского уезда. В 1893 году здесь (починок Заболотинский) было учтено 13 дворов, в 1905 — 17, в 1924 — 23. Настоящее название с 1916 года. До 2021 год входила в состав Чуровского сельского поселения.

Население
Постоянное население составляло 90 человек (1893), 121 (1905), 157 (1924), 29 человек в 2002 году (русские 69 %, удмурты 31 %), 49 в 2012.

Примечания

Населённые пункты Якшур-Бодьинского района