[Recording Start] Scott Douglas Jacobsen: “I don't have a girlfriend, but I do know a woman who’d be mad at me for saying that” - Mitch Hedberg. And the other one, I think, is H.L.Mencken “Puritanism; the haunting fear that someone somewhere may be happy”  Rick Rosner: Fucking Mencken, a guy from 90 or 100 …

Continue reading Ask A Genius 744: Mitch and Mencken

[Recording Start] Scott Douglas Jacobsen: “Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior” That was obviously not Aristotle; he had very different views to Plato.  Rick Rosner: How old is that quote? Well anyway, that brings up all sorts of issues including the issue that got the chancellor of Harvard fired 20 years ago, …

Continue reading Ask A Genius 743: Socrates Quote

[Recording Start] Scott Douglas Jacobsen: The quote – “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.” - William Congreve. Rick Rosner: I'm not super qualified to address this because we just had our 31st wedding anniversary plus we've been in couples counseling for like 27 years …

Continue reading Ask A Genius 742: William Congreve

[Recording Start] Scott Douglas Jacobsen: The electron is a theory we use. It is so useful in understanding the way nature works that we can almost call it real. Rick Rosner: Is that Feynman again?  Jacobsen: Yes. Rosner: So, that's his pragmatism again. As a kid, he would fix people's early radios. So he's a …

Continue reading Ask A Genius 741: Electrons as a Theory We Use

[Recording Start] Scott Douglas Jacobsen: It’s Feynman again. ““From a long view of the history of mankind, seen from, say, ten thousand years from now, there can be little doubt that the most significant event of the 19th century will be judged as Maxwell's discovery of the laws of electrodynamics. The American Civil War will …

Continue reading Ask A Genius 740: Feynman Again, Mr., Seriously

[Recording Start] Scott Douglas Jacobsen: This is from Goethe; Iphigenie auf Tauris from 1787. Number two; the quote is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – “Life teaches us to be less harsh with ourselves and with others.”  Rick Rosner: Life teaches us to be to be less harsh with ourselves than with others. Jacobsen: And with …

Continue reading Ask A Genius 739: Iphigenie auf Tauris from 1787

[Recording Start] Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, you've been thinking about the Turing test since we last talked. It's been a little bit. I've been at competition level equestrianism for show jumping and eventing.  Rick Rosner: Yeah, you've been tending to fancy horses and people. Jacobsen: Correct, this is a whole other side of things we …

Continue reading Ask A Genius 738: Turing Test in the Interim

[Recording Start] Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So Rick, what is the future of health food? I remember rambling in our sessions, both of us, over the last seven or eight years on and off about how stuff that actually is okay for you and it's delicious. Rick Rosner: Okay, so there's a bunch of different stuff. …

Continue reading Ask A Genius 737: Health Food Madness

[Recording Start] Rick Rosner: Right now in America obviously, the Democrats control the presidency and barely the House and by an even thinner margin the Senate and something like more than 80% of the time the party who has the presidency loses seats in the House and often in the Senate. So what you see …

Continue reading Ask A Genius 736: Democrats Control the Presidency

[Recording Start] Scott Douglas Jacobsen: We’re recording now, ramble me silly. Rick Rosner: All right. So right before you started taping we were talking about how our topics and discussions have gotten ramblier and I told you that I had a good topic and then you just happened to plug into it and the topic …

Continue reading Ask A Genius 735: “Ramble Me Silly”