Standardize that statement!

Kayla only likes music that's way out there off in space.

Philosophy Teachers

Both Prof. Silliman and my uncle Paul (Also a philosophy teacher) hace pony tails. Both have glasses. Both have a good selection of sweaters.
All philosophy teachers have pony tails, glasses, and good sweaters.

Tell me everything wrong with this argument.

The genius of Phish

It all comes down to radio. Either it plays your new single or you collapse. Live by the sword, die by the sword. Doesn't matter what you did in the past, if your new record ain't a hit on the radio, you're toast. Just look at Christina Aguilera. Her album stunk up the joint, she got no traction at radio, and she had to cancel her whole damn tour.

Didn't used to be this way. Used to be bands were developed slowly. The audience saw them as more than one hit wonders. These are the classic rock acts. Once we got to the video era, band shelf lifes shortened. Now it's nonexistent.

If you were made by the machine.

If you made it outside the system, if it was about touring and gaining fans slowly, you're laughing all the way to the bank. Recorded music revenue may be way down, but Phish is still cleaning up on the road, despite never having a mainstream radio hit, without having any radio airplay whatsoever, except for pockets of college and Triple-A exposure.  --  Bob Lefsetz

If you look at most popular musical groups today you see that each grosses the majority of their sales through albums. But in the digital age we are now a part of this seems silly considering how many ways there are to steal the newest album online for free. Why wouldn't bands try harder to make more money on the road? Phish tours extensively each year and consistently is ranked in the top grossing bands.  This is funny to me for a few reasons.

-Phish gets relatively zero radio play.
-Phish's albums are never the blowouts and money-makers of other popular artists today.
-Phish does what every group could do, play a different set every night, making each show special and unique, making fans want to attend multiple shows.

-Phish does things that often take away from revenue, such as their recent charity show in Vermont which raised over $1.2 million for flood recovery.

-Phish does as much as they can to reduce ticket prices, going as far as buying tickets from each venue so they can sell them directly to fans for face value instead of the ridiculous prices some venues charge.

-Phish allows the making of bootleg tapes.

-Phish accompanies each ticket with a free download of the show a fan has attended

-and most of all...Phish cares less about money than the majority of groups today.

Why don't more groups follow the outline that Phish has set out?
It seems like each premises shown is directly related to increased tour revenue when added together, yet no one jumps to the same conclusion and follows in their footsteps.

Response

Last week I asked if you thought a Utopia could exist, and also said that i would give my own answer. Here it is...

The main reason why people say that a Utopia is not possible is because most say that if everything were perfect all the time then it would lose its appeal.  If things were exactly how you wanted all the time, then would you still want them?  Because of this i say that we are living in a Utopia.  Things are ever changing, and we may not be happy all the time, but do we want to be?  Without the low points in our life would the highs feel as good?  I don't think they would, and that's why we are currently living in a Utopia.

Utopia

Can a Utopia truly exist?
I would love to hear your opinions about this!
Maybe forming them into a standard argument might help the thought process.
After seeing some responses I'll do my best to come up with my own answer.

Appeal to False Authority

"Your logical fallacies aren't logical fallacies at all because Einstein said so. Einstein also said that this one is better."

I've found that it's easy to learn fallacies better and retain the information if you look at them in a humorous way. Does anyone else have good examples funny fallacies to help everyone out?

Persuasion

Where do you most often see persuasion in definitions and arguments?

Guilty as Charged

So I'll start off by admitting, I am very late this week with my post. My apologies.
Well that gets me thinking. What would the world be like without time? Without a way to document what happened when? How was the concept of time created? Would life be able to go on is it does now without the perception of time? Maybe things would be better off! We could move on from a terrible moment in our lives with ease, because what's now is all that matters if there is no past tense. Could this work, a world without time? Ideas?

Substitutions for Religion

To me it seems that religion is a way for people to answer the great unknowns in life. How else do people cope with these questions? Obviously there are answers like science, but are there other ways as well?

Another post about Running...

How is it that people can love running? Bill Bowerman said this to his Oregon running team, including the great American distance runner Steve Prefonataine, "Running, one might say is basically an absurd pastime upon which to be exhausting ourselves. But if you can find meaning in the kind of running you have to do to stay on this team, chances are you can find meaning in another absurd pastime: Life."  In this one statement Bowerman says first how ridiculous running is and makes it seem pointless, then tells us that running can help us truly discover the meanings of our lives.  Obviously it is more than "an absurd pastime," and has greater meaning, but what is it, and why do people love it so much?

Friendship Between Runners

"As we've seen, Aristotle says that developing a friendship based on virtue requires time, familiarity, trust, mutual good will, and mutual sacrifice.  Running provides an excellent setting in which these requirements can be met.  Running with the same person gives you the chance to spend time with them.  Of course, merely spending time with someone doesn't necessarily lead to friendship, much less the type of friendship Aristotle argues is necessary for livinga good life.  But running together, because it involves meeting challenges together, and being with your running partner away from computers, cell phones, and television frees you up to develop a deeper friendship.  Running five miles with someone on a regular basis provides ample opportunity for familiarity, trust, mutual good will, and mutual sacrifice to develop." - Michael W. Austin - from Running & Philosophy: a marathon for the mind

Premise 1 - Friendship is based on many key qualities.
Premise 2 - Running is a good way to exhibit these qualities.
Conclusion - Running is a good way to create and develop friendships.

After running on cross country and track teams for two years I am a firm believer of this conclusion, but does it truly follow from the premises, and have I stated them correctly as they appear in the quote without changing their meanings?

"If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern."

So you might ask what the name of my blog means, well I took the name from this quote by William Blake.  Now I have a question for all of you, when you read this, what does it mean to you? Personally these two sentences are very important to me and have great value.  But I'm not interested in my thoughts, what are yours?

Fun Fact: Jim Morrison used this quote as inspiration to name his new music group, The Doors.