Category: The Atlasphere

All things Atlasphere can be found here, columns, podcasts, interesting anecdotes, and more.

How to Follow the News Intelligently

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Philip Coates published the following on the OWL discussion forum. It’s one of the best commentaries I’ve seen on the subject of how to critically absorb the information handed down by the mass media.

* * * * *

Every few years, I break my rule about not following the news week in and week out (repetitious, lame, stupid, biased, non-essential) and follow an entire current event with complete thoroughness until it winds down.
I do this when it seems to tell me something about the culture or when something which could affect my life is at issue.
I did this with the OJ trial because I was interested in the philosophy of law and how the legal process works. I did this for similar reasons with the ‘Florida battle’ over whether Bush or Gore won fairly in that state. Today I did it one more time with Condoleeza Rice’s testimony before the 9-11 Commission on whether or not the Bush Administration did enough about terrorism prior to 9-11 and whether they could have prevented it or were warned about it.
Continue reading “How to Follow the News Intelligently”

India's Richest Woman: Kiran Majumdar-Shaw

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

Kiran Majumdar-ShawBiotech entrepreneur Kiran Majumdar-Shaw is the CEO of Biocon India Corp.
When her company opened publicly in the stock market yesterday, she also became India’s richest woman:

After a frenetic day of watching her baby make a billion dollar stock market debut on Wednesday, Kiran Majumdar-Shaw popped open the bubbly and thanked all who helped Biocon become India’s first big-ticket biotech listing.
On a balmy evening, the 50-year-old entrepreneur, who started her business with just Rs 10,000 from a garage in Bangalore, threw a party at the Taj Mahal Hotel at Mumbai’s southern tip of Colaba.
There was lots to celebrate — she is now the richest first generation woman promoter ever in the country with a net worth of $450-million […] — thanks to the 50 per cent premium commanded by her company valuing Biocon at $1.1 billion. Majumdar-Shaw owns 40 per cent of the firm.

And to whom does Indian’s richest woman turn to for personal inspiration? Ayn Rand, among others.

TOC Spring Conference Deadline Extended

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The Objectivist Center has announced that the early registration period for the Spring Conference: The Values of Capitalism will be extended to Friday, April 9. After this date, the conference fees will increase.
The Values of Capitalism conference will celebrate and explore capitalism in the heart of Las Vegas on April 17, 2004 at the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino.
Program information and secure, online registration are available from The Objectivist Center website or by calling 800-374-1776.

Canadian Authorities Confiscate ARI Article

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

An opinion editorial in the Jerusalem Post [requires free registration] notes evidence for increasing anti-semitism in Canada. Included in their long list of examples is the confiscation, by Canadian authorities, of an article published by the Ayn Rand Institute:

In early October, the Canadian Customs and Revenue Agency confiscated newsletters published by the Ayn Rand Institute entitled In Moral Defense of Israel, claiming they had to determine whether the material constituted “hate propaganda.” The newsletters were released a few days later.

See the full article for additional background.

TOC Spring Conference Deadline

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

The Objectivist Center has announced that conference fees for the Spring Conference will increase after April 7. The regular fee increases to $130 and the student fee increases to $100. (Student scholarships are available)
The Values of Capitalism conference will celebrate and explore capitalism in the heart of Las Vegas on April 17, 2004 at the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino.
Program information and secure, online registration are available from The Objectivist Center website or by calling 800-374-1776.

Language of Liberty Summer Camp in India

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

As many of you know, Ayn Rand is quite popular in India, and the Atlasphere has more members from India than from any other non-U.S. country.
Atlasphere member (and Liberty English Camp founder) Stephen Browne forwards the following news about the Liberty Institute in Delhi, India:

Liberty Institute, a Delhi-based think tank, won the [$10,000] Templeton Freedom Prize for Excellence in Promoting Liberty in the Social Entrepreneurship category for its Language of Liberty Summer Camp held in June 2003.
The month-long camp enabled low-income students from rural Himalayan villages in Nainital District, of the northern state of Uttaranchal, to learn English in an interactive manner, while discussing the ideas freedom, dignity and responsibility. The students were exposed to computers for the first time, and got a glimpse of the enormous opportunities that English and IT could open for them. The project demonstrated the tremendous awareness and demand for functional educational skills even among poor village communities, and reflected their willingness to meet part of the costs for value added education. The camp had to accommodate 120 students instead of 60 initially estimated.
Barun Mitra of Liberty Institute says, ?Projects such as this provide an opportunity for those who want to uphold individual freedom and human dignity, to take our case to the wider audiences. Demand for basic education can be met substantially through market economics, even for the poor, if the policy framework is conducive towards educational entrepreneurs.?
As a think tank Liberty Institute seeks to improve public understanding of the market forces, and advocate policies that would best harness the power of the market to meet the needs of the people. In this, the poor and the deprived are the natural allies of pro-market advocates, since they have anything to lose but their poverty. The summer camp project is a micro-level manifestation of principles, policies and practices of liberty ? of entrepreneurship, responsibility, and market.

Our congratulations to the Liberty Institute!

Social Change Workshop for Graduate Students

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We’ve reported before in this space about the free but valuable IHS Summer Seminars.
Will Wilkinson particularly recommends the Social Change Workshop for Graduate Students. From his comments:

Let me start here… I got an email a while back from one of last summer’s faculty–it was her first time teaching at the workshop. She told me that the workshop was like she’d always hoped grad school would be, but sadly wasn’t (having gone to Harvard for grad school and Berkeley for law). And that’s really it. That’s why I love it. At the Workshop you’re surrounded by brilliant people. It’s like the united nations of smart. Chinese students from Yale, Russians from Chicago, Poles from Oxford… Africans, Mexicans, you name it, and from some of the best grad programs in the world. (Interestingly, most of the european students come from central/eastern post-communist europe, and not France, Germany, etc, although we get those too.)

Will’s entire discussion of this subject is worth reading, if you think you (or a graduate student you know) might be interested.

Graduate Seminar in Objectivist Philosophy

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

As announced earlier in this space, The Objectivist Center will be hosting a Graduate Seminar in Objectivist Philosophy and Method. The Graduate Seminar is a week of lectures, discussions, and workshops designed for graduate students, junior faculty, and post-doctoral scholars of philosophy and related fields such as history and psychology. It will be held July 31?August 7 at Marist College, in Poughkeepsie, NY, near TOC’s offices.
The seminar is free of charge to qualified student and professional scholar participants. A limited number of travel stipends will also be available. Early application and travel stipend application deadline: May 15, 2004. Late applications accepted through July 12 as space permits.
More information and the application are available from The Objectivist Center website.

Student Scholarships for TOC Spring Conference

Posted on by s1e2t3u4p5

The Objectivist Center has announced two student scholarships to attend their Spring Conference: The Values of Capitalism on April 17 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Each scholarship consists in a waiver of the $75 student early registration fee. Applications received after April 7 will reduce the student’s registration fee to $25.
More information and the application are available from The Objectivist Center website.

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