Brian Iverson

How does one abuse tobacco?

I’d say during the first couple dates, you should NEG the cigarette. Give it a compliment that is actually a cricism like “wow usually only slim cigarettes would try wearing such a beautiful dress”. This is really helpful if you want to beat down it’s confidence and increase it’s anxiety. And then the next date toss…[Read more]

LOL I thinking they were both smoking hot and pot. I would be very surprised if most of them don’t smoke pot at home. I smelt pot all over the place in Vermont. Although I’ve also been told random drug tests are VERY common at work in the USA.

Unseen, everyone of these Vermont firemen belonged in a firefighter’s calendar. I’m 185 cm (6 foot 1/2 inch) and 80kg (176 pounds) and I was the smallest guy in the room. As an extreme bonus, they were amicable and friendly . It is extremely unattractive…some “too cool for school” bros sitting around doing nothing but insulting/ragging-on each…[Read more]

Burn baby burn.

When you drive from Ottaws to NYC…most go via upper New York state. It is depressing land and unfriendly Hicks. To Boston is via NH which is insanely cheap gas for Canadians but otherwise meh. But I always chose via Vermont and took multiple long detours sometimes getting lost. Very beautoful territory all year long. Nothing but super friendly…[Read more]

The only advice I ever heard about stock trading is that people seriously under estimate the risk involved (especially long term investments). Day trading is a bit of a different game cause at the end of the day your money is not all in a stock that could go bust the next morning. But the advice was to never put most of your eggs in that basket. I…[Read more]

I had a darling cat who trained us very well to be at her beck and call and do what she wanted, when she wanted, only when she wanted and never take no for an answer. She owed us nothing and would give us nothing unless we gave her precisely what she demanded. A fantastic species really. They evolved in the most genius way. I’ll never own a cat…[Read more]

Saw a display of pumpkin-flavored dog treats!

You can feed a dog absolutely anything, and if you present it like its a special treat, they will take it as a special treat. We stopped buying our dogs “milk bones” as a special treat every other day. We got a different brand of kibble and gave him a couple as though they were “milk bones”. He was…[Read more]

Ethiopia is a bit of an anomaly in the area and they have diligently improved their political and economic system. But religious strife is a MAJOR problem, especially between Christians and Muslims near the Somali and Djibouti border. Their government may be secularish…but their defense policy most certainly is not. That’s not to mention…[Read more]

Wow. With a couple notable exceptions (exceptions that seem to define the rule) there appears to be, by total coincidence…a fascinating correspondence by how important citizens think religion is…with total dysfunction as a country. The closer you approach 100% the more likely you live in a failed state.

don’t be an asshole !

Isn’t that one of the most profound goals of humanism? And one of the great transformations in Western society since secularism began?

Look, I celebrate Xmas (as opposed to CHRISTmas). It’s a family togetherness thing only. No prayers, no saying grace, no going to a Christmas Eve or Morning service.

I love Christmas time. It’s a fabulous holiday, especially for children. I actually like Christmas songs, they have great tunes and friends and family love singing them. And we can s…[Read more]

Ahhh. If I hadn’t heard the comment about Edward Scisor hands, I would have thought you were “the crow”. Not being able to trick-or-treat. Sorry to hear that man. That is a major loss of opportunity. Make sure your kids can. It is utter bliss.

One of my dogs really wanted to make friends in the back yard and her tecnique was to run after them and bark. She never made any friends. But she did end up with porcupine quills in her face (several times) and got sprayed by a skunk twice. The first time she came in the house and after 10 seconds we kicked her out. It still took a very very very…[Read more]

There was no Haloween as a kid in Germany or the UK. Only in Canada. And I remember it was cold, one year it was -10ºC/14ºF and we had to wear our winter jackets and even snow pants. The only thing they could see was our face, which was often a cheap plastic mask (the cool dress up part under our jackets no one could see). By trick or treating f…[Read more]

Yes indeed…I totally screwed up on my conflation of sound Vs. valid argument which likely confused you so that’s my fault.  In the texts I wrote you should substitute sound with valid.

Valid = logically follows

Sound = yes yes yes

Yes indeed, an argument could be sound but still be false.

• All round metal objects are coins
• Washers are round metal objects
• Therefore washers are coins.

The argument is sound because the conclusion logically follows from the premises. However one of the premises is not the case (all round metal objects are coins) and therefore we cannot…[Read more]

Ehhh. I’d say your professor did not choose his examples well. Those two arguments are barely different. Certainly not distinctive enough to say one is deductive and the other inductive. Though yeah, I’d say B is a little more deductive than A but ONLY because of the kind of language used…not the arguments. The best trick I learnt to easily…[Read more]

Pope you are just asking us to twist and torture the terms we use so that you can square a circle. You’ve just given a bunch of “perhaps we can”. I agree that’s a good idea in the question of free will in general. We are so ignorant and lacking so much information it’s all a perhaps. But if you demarcate the universe as absolute determinist…[Read more]