Welcome to the Temple of the Human Spirit

The Temple of the Human Spirit is founded on the movement began by Ayn Rand in 1943 with the publication of “The Fountainhead.” It is dedicated on the principles exemplified by Howard Roark; rationality, independence, integrity, honesty, justice, productivity, purpose, pride and self-esteem: which we perceive to be the highest form of the human spirit. It is the human spirit, the spirit of reason, which has lifted man out of the dark ages and into the heavens. The skyscraper, the airplane, and the space shuttle are all monuments to the awe inspiring power of the human spirit, a power which no mystical belief can rival in its ability to achieve health, happiness and success.

The Temple promotes a rational worldview which, in addition to basic philosophy, encompasses ideological positions the fields of the special sciences that we identify as congruent with our fundamental premises.

To the Glory of Man

This image is an incredible testament to the power of the human spirit. In one frame it captures the truth of our existence, and the key to our greatness. It is mans mind using reason, the foundation of the human spirit, not faith, that has raised him out of the mosquito filled swamps and into the heavens. It is man’s mind, not feeling, that has launched him out of insufferable child mortality and 30 year lifespans and into longevity and dominance on this planet. It is man’s mind, not fear, that has launched him out of poverty and into the prosperity of the Industrial Age. It is man’s mind, not revelation, that has launched him out of starvation and into a land of plenty. It is man’s mind, not whim, that has launched him out of the ugliness of the cave paintings and into the beauty of the Renaissance. It is man’s mind, not sentiment, that has launched man out of caves and huts and into skyscrapers. It is man’s mind, not instinct, that has launched him out of ignorance of the origins of such things as lightning and into the knowledge of all this world and its wonderful workings. All of these things cast their light upon the world, and it is for us, in the name of truth and justice, to unfurl a banner above the world that we have made that all may know what it proclaims: For the Glory of Man.

Zephyr

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The era of passenger streamliners reached a highpoint in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The entire era itself was part of the Art Deco Age, and trains quickly became a big part of this art movement. In the early 1930s The Budd Company, a major metal fabricator and passenger car builder, partnered with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad (“The Burlington” for short) to create a new locomotive that was equal parts speed and performance as it was eye catching and stylish.

Unveiled in 1934, the Burlington “Zephyr” was something no railroad had ever really ordered before. The Zephyrs were powered by a 600 horsepower Winton inline-eight diesel-electric engine shrouded in a welded stainless steel shell. Almost all locomotives at this time were constructed using riveting, however welding (though new to industrial America, especially in railroading) helped save weight over this practice. The Zephyrs were built as a permanent trainset that consisted of three (later four) train cars all connected by Jacob’s wheelsets. This design helped save weight since two cars shared a wheelset rather than the use of two conventionally separate wheelsets and couplers. A typical 3-car set weighed in at around 195,000 pounds and was just shy of 200 feet long. The locomotive was also streamlined in a way (known as a shovelnose) to give a commanding, full-faced and clean look to the front. Over top of the cab, the Zephyrs were equipped with both a steady headlight and a Mars light, which oscillate to draw attention to hazards.

The Zephyrs were lightweight and very fast by design. Upon its release, the Zephyr was set to do a promotional cross-country sprint between both ends of the Burlington’s mainline of Denver and Chicago. The Zephyr travelled the 1000 miles at an average speed of almost 80 miles per hour the entire way and at some points reached 113 miles per hour. The run was highly publicized and showcased a new era for passenger travel on the Burlington. Form, functionality and economy were all brought together and now, the right amount of passengers could be carried at a cheaper cost than before.

Almost immediately after its first trip, more Zephyrs were built and put in service. The Zephyrs served as power for almost 20 different named trains on the Burlington such as the “Twin Cities Zephyr” between Chicago – Minneapolis and the “Nebraska Zephyr” between Chicago – Lincoln, NE. They were known to be fast, capable and comfortable trains that held very tight schedules and got people where they needed to go. These engines helped to dramatically boost train ridership on the Burlington during the Great Depression.

In a normal three-car setup, the locomotive acted as both the powerplant and contained a Railroad Post Office (RPO) in the rear. Since the Zephyrs were designed as regional trains, the second car usually had a small baggage area and either a small restaurant and coach section or just a coach section. The last car was a coach/observation car. This set could hold 72 passengers total. As demand increased, a fourth car was added to this consist for more coach seating. The second car then became a full-baggage car and the third became a buffet/coach.

The Zephyrs were a huge success in most cases. There were problems in the beginning with the engine’s inline-eight motor, as it was not built to handle a railroading environment. The motor was swapped out in 1939 for EMD’s then-new 567 V16. This motor would go on to be one of the most popular prime movers in railroading. After this swap, the Zephyrs ran with relatively few problems. They were more economical to run over traditional trainsets (and especially steam locomotives). However after World War II the railroad passenger industry in America was on a sure, steady decline. Highways and airplanes quickly took over as the primary means of transportation. Despite this, the Zephyrs were continually used in regular service for their economy and it wasn’t until 1960 that they were retired; almost 30 years after their introduction into service.

Happy Darwin Day!

Happy Darwin day from the Temple of the Human Spirit!

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Darwin Day is a global celebration of science and reason held on or around Feb. 12, the birthday anniversary of evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin.

http://www.darwinday.org

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 19,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 4 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

Aristotle: Father of Logic

“If we consider the fact that to this day everything that makes us civilized beings, every rational value that we possess—including the birth of science, the industrial revolution, the creation of the United States, even the structure of our language—is the result of Aristotle’s influence, of the degree to which, explicitly or implicitly, men accepted his epistemological principles, we would have to say: never have so many owed so much to one man.” Ayn Rand – For the New Intellectual

The Road to Happiness

“To live, man must hold three things as the supreme and ruling values of his life: Reason—Purpose—Self-esteem. Reason, as his only tool of knowledge—Purpose, as his choice of the happiness which that tool must proceed to achieve—Self-esteem, as his inviolate certainty that his mind is competent to think and his person is worthy of happiness, which means: is worthy of living.” Ayn Rand

Thanks and credit to ‘bluecherry’ for the title.

The Heart of Civilization

“Those oil wells, Eddie thought suddenly, didn’t they have something in common with the blood vessels on the map? Wasn’t that the way the red stream of Taggart Transcontinental had shot across the country, years ago, a feat that seemed incredible now? He thought of the oil wells spouting a black stream that ran over a continent almost faster than the trains of the Phoenix-Durango could carry it. That oil field had been only a rocky patch in the mountains of Colorado, given up as exhausted long ago. Ellis Wyatt’s father had managed to squeeze an obscure living to the end of his days, out of the dying oil wells. Now it was as if somebody had given a shot of adrenalin to the heart of the mountain, the heart had started pumping, the black blood had burst through the rocks—of course it’s blood, thought Eddie Willers, because blood is supposed to feed, to give life, and that is what Wyatt Oil had done.” Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand