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Action Talks Interview with Mars (火星 / 蔣榮發) hosted by Eric Jacobus
Mars / 火星 / 蔣榮發 is an actor, stuntman, and action director known for classic films like Project A and Police Story. He talks about his stunts and the origins of Jackie Chan’s unique action style. You can see his IMDB here and his HKMDB here. Edited by Milan Swagers English Voiceover by Phill Kismartoni…
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Off-Topic but Important: The Caffeine Epidemic
Beginning mid-2023 I began brewing and drinking a quad shot of espresso every morning, using the Natural Grocers Organic fair trade dark Espresso Roast, an Arabic bean which has 1.2% caffeine by weight. Filling my Mr. Coffee espresso maker to the 4-level, that was approximately 400mg of caffeine daily. It produced a significant laxative effect…
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Socap_404
If you’ve been wondering what I’ve been up to ever since starting a mocap studio in Vegas, this sums it up: Directed by Joseph Lee of Team Red Pro, co-starring Jason Chen and Trish Woo.
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Night of the Deadly Finger
Night of the Deadly Finger is Directed by Jose Montesinos. Be sure to check out Deadly Finger and Deadly Finger Returns:
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ROBA as Human-Exclusive Recursion
Steven Pinker was recently on EconTalk with Russ Roberts, who (shameless plug) featured me some years ago and urged me to write my book. Thanks Russ. Pinker tackles the problem of how humans acquire cultural knowledge, which he describes as an infinite regression (recursion) of beliefs. A quick summary: at 1:51 Pinker describes the Finite…
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The Useful Lie
One common claim made in the world of pseudoscience is that the government and mainstream science have incentives to ignore or hide evidence of aliens, nephilim, or non-human intelligences of whatever kind. These incentives include a desire to prevent mass panic, maintain control, or retain the illusion that humans are the only intelligent species in…
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Object-thinkers vs. Relation-thinkers
Recently I published my in-depth article on kinship. Shortly afterward I began reading Nelson Goodman’s Ways of Worldmaking (1978). Goodman’s hypothesis is that people create their own worlds through the use of language, and we verify these worlds through language. It recalled a discussion I had recently with a friend who’s an avid reader of…
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Kin and Caliber Part 1: A Kinship Primer
This is the first part of a series of kinship essays that will turn into a book called Kin & Caliber. Table of Contents Why Kinship? What Is Kinship? Blood from a Stone: The First Kinship Local Totemism Matrilineal Descent Matrilocal Marriage Patrilineal Descent Patrilocal Marriage and the City Big Man Theory of Origin Warfare…
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The Big Bang of Human Violence (and Answering Eric Gans)
Eric Gans has had arguably the most significant influence on my ROBA Hypothesis. His Originary Hypothesis posits a moment when the violence of the human community becomes so potentially apocalyptic that someone, or everyone, produces the first signal of deferral. In Gans’ configuration, the protohuman group gathers around an animal carcass, which they’ve hunted. In…
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A Vow of Non-Agitation
Or, Deferral as Default There are countless “culture war” agitators out there. They follow a program that is beyond political: it’s fiercely religious. It says, “Be willing to die for your political platform.” It even drops hints that you should be willing to kill for the culture war. I’ve had many agitators over the past…