Ask A Genius 946: I could have been a contender

[Recording Start]  Rick Rosner: My wife just turned on a documentary about the Brat Pack. It was filmed 35 years after the Brat Pack era by one of the actors characterized as being in the Brat Pack, Andrew McCarthy. Whenever I watch anything like this, or like tonight, when Jimmy Kimmel is hosting a fundraiser for …

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Ask A Genius 945: Rick Rosner on Israel Jacobson and Reformed Judaism

[Recording Start]  Rick Rosner: You had assigned homework for me, which I didn't complete because I took a nap. You wanted to discuss the role of God in Judaism? It's not only that, but a specific concept within a particular reform of Judaism. Scott Douglas Jacobsen: The idea involves the Hebrew word for Messiah, meaning anointed. In …

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Ask A Genius 944: Canadian and American Women’s Progress

[Recording Start]  Scott Douglas Jacobsen: I wanted to talk about the comparison and contrast between American styles of women's rights and Canadian styles, focusing on what Canadians and Americans are doing better. In my view, Canadians are probably doing better, even though the United States is a wealthier country. In the contemporary period, Canadian women …

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Ask A Genius 943: From the Top of the Informational Charts

[Recording Start]  Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, what if at the lowest level, the world, lowest magnitudes, time doesn't exist? While at the higher levels, higher magnitudes, time begins to emerge and, in fact, becomes a major factor in the general business of the universe, the general informational processing of reality. There is self-interaction between the …

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Ask A Genius 942: Information by the Definition, Boys

[Recording Start]  Rick Rosner: So, you sent me close to a dozen definitions of information as defined by various disciplines. Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Yes. Then I decided to take a broader, big-picture angle by examining the different levels of information. It fundamentally revolves around incompleteness. Our methods of understanding, such as the scientific method, rely …

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Ask A Genius 940: Marriage, Kids, and Scotty

[Recording Start]  Rick Rosner: Yesterday, we discussed the possible reasons why birth rates are declining globally. You are 32, correct? Scott Douglas Jacobsen: No, I am 34. Rosner: I see. At some point, do you wish to have a wife and children? Jacobsen: I don't know. Rosner: We could examine why you do not feel a sense …

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Ask A Genius 939: Population Decline Now

[Recording Start]  Rick Rosner: A few weeks ago, I read about rapidly changing estimates of the maximum human population, the peak human population, at which point we'll have the most humans ever, and then the total human population will subsequently decline. The estimate has been revised from about 10.8 billion in the year 2100 to …

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Ask A Genius 929: I offered to help clean: or, Diary of a grotesque foot in a messy office

[Recording Start]  Rick Rosner: Somewhere there is a photo if it exists, of Tom Cruise holding my grotesque foot, because it resided at Jimmy Kimmel’s for several years, he was at a party there. Somebody made him hold the foot. I saw the photo, but I didn’t get a copy sent. Then it is resting …

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Ask A Genius 928: More Chapters in Rick’s Forever Book

[Recording Start]  Rick Rosner: I'm just going through my chapter outlines here. Yesterday I think, we were talking about how we are used to crappy service and glitches and hacking of our devices. So, even though we've got these cutting-edge devices and tech that stream more information into our homes than ever before, we're also used to …

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