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Doonesbury provides a simple statistic: http://doonesbury.com/strip/archive/2011/08/21.

Good advice for parents. I actually posted this to my monitor to remind me to pay attention to my kid:

Doonsbury Sunday Strip

It's very unusual for a first-grader to use words like "arboreal" and "ichthyoid". He played by his own rules, often living in his own head, and shunned the status quo. The strip showcases the importance of imagination contributing to intelligence and richness of experience. Calvin and Hobbes was the single largest influence of my childhood and I am happy that Watterson never whored out his work, unlike the guy who wrote the preface of the first C&H book.[scroll down for the strip] Most of the parodies of Calvin and Hobbes revolve around the fact that Calvin's rambunctiousness would be considered abnormal, today. Very sad.

Well now. The fact that I too admired Calvin's rambunctiousness does not in any way mean that his behavior was admirable in an objective sense. Fact is that Watterson himself wrote (in his Tenth Anniversary collection annotations) that he would hate to have a kid like Calvin and that he frequently disagreed with Calvin's POVs.

On the other hand, there are aspects of his personality that I absolutely adore. I hate organized events, just like Calvin. That just means that I have a hard time having a social life because I find most social events to be unimaginative, mundane and frightfully limited in scope. Ditto for sports. Calvin would grow up into the kind of person for whom boredom would be a fate worse than death (it's a blessing and a curse, for obvious reasons). In a strip where Calvin complains in his wonderfully frank way - "Why can't I just have fun on my own?", his dad retorts (in an unusual burst of man-to-man honesty), "When you grow up, it's not allowed". That pretty much says it all. I think it comes from needing greater variety in entertainment (which obviously includes education) options at a lower tree level of organization (i.e. "I'm bored with music, switch to reading", as opposed to "I'm bored with classical, switch to punk rock").

Also, you speak of shunning the status quo. I know what you're trying to say, but I think Watterson's genius lay in specifically NOT portraying Calvin as a rebel. Any rebellion was accidental, as it usually is in the case of very young children. Many of Calvin's exploits stemmed from taking an adult principle literally or following it to the logical conclusion - something that adults almost never do. In that sense, I get some of the same vicarious thrill from several C&H strips that I got from Atlas Shrugged ;-). Essentially, he never deliberately shunned the status quo - he just didn't give a damn either way - something I found quite charming. It's sorta like Doctor Who - you just can't wait to see what he does next - there's an expectation of magic on the horizon :-). The deliberate rebels (as typified by the surly teen variety) are too predictable to be interesting. Simply negating something is neither subtle nor entertaining.

It's very unusual for a first-grader to use words like "arboreal" and "ichthyoid". He played by his own rules, often living in his own head, and shunned the status quo. The strip showcases the importance of imagination contributing to intelligence and richness of experience. Calvin and Hobbes was the single largest influence of my childhood and I am happy that Watterson never whored out his work, unlike the guy who wrote the preface of the first C&H book.[scroll down for the strip]

Most of the parodies of Calvin and Hobbes revolve around the fact that Calvin's rambunctiousness would be considered abnormal, today. Very sad.

There's a storyline on Doonesbury in a studio where they are recording celebrity SatNav voice-overs. What we really need is James Earl-Jones on our SatNav. http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20091207

Well there were a few reasons:

• Price. The original Newton was priced at $700. They never really came down that much, making them fairly expensive. You got the general argument, "Why should I spend $700 for a Newton when I can spend $5 for a datebook?"
• Size. The MessagePad was a fairly large device. It was a little too big to fit in your pocket.
• Handwriting Recognition. The impressive part of the Newton was that you would write and it would "read" your handwriting. One problem was that the Newton had to be "trained" to learn your handwriting, which Apple didn't really emphasize. So people ended up with the expectation that they would pull it out of the box and start writing and be off and running. When it didn't work well, people returned it. Doonesbury's famous cartoon let the world know that the product didn't work and it carried the stigma for years--even after the handwriting recognition improved.

I was more reminded of this Doonesbury.

Oh, but taking a position would violate the centrist creed!

God forbid that we actually might want to consider the circumstances of each decision rather than kowtowing to an all-holy ideology. Who cares about knowing how to fix your pipes (or run the country), at least your plumber (or representative, for the analogy-impared) agrees with your "position" on abortion.

So Bush won all his elections by default? Karl Rove's dirty tricks were all in vain, then. See the executive summary here.

11-13-91
Scores of newspapers and commentators denounce a Doonesbury series about Dan Quayle's DEA file and Brett Kimberlin, a federal prisoner put in solitary confinement to keep him from repeating his claim that he sold marijuana to the vice president. "Who cares what a comic strip may or may not say about me or anyone else," said Quayle. Trudeau is denounced on the floor of the U.S. Senate, as numerous papers withhold the series and some drop the strip.
-- Doonesbury timeline, 1990

Suddenly, last weeks' Doonesbury strips seem prescient:
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.ht ml?uc_full_date=20070604

As long as all of this stuff is not in my room so I can't sleep, I have no problems with the office looking like NASA.

You know, your comment reminds me of a Doonesbury strip from not too long ago. :-)

Isn't this just a dupe of this "article"?

- RG>

This reminds me of last Sunday's Doonesbury strip! I laughed until it hurt, with that I-wish-it-weren't-so-true kind of pain.

Next time you get an infection, please do us all a favor and take the ID challenge: http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.ht ml?uc_full_date=20060702

the intellectual arrogance here is overwhelming sometimes.

Science is the process of winnowing the not-true from the true. If we give greater credence to the resulting conclusions, does that make us arrogant? I suppose it does because we won't consider all points of view equally. Tough shit though, it's justified arrogance. If you don't believe in the results of the scientific method I invite you to think hard the next time you go to the doctor.

Learn more about how we know HIV causes AIDS

How timely

Is the [stem-cell issue] going to be a problem for the religious types who fret about these things?

Only until their own mortality comes into question.


There was a widely-copied Dooonesbury strip on this topic a while back.

This has always seemed like a good idea to me. Similarly the suggestion that people with racist ideologies should be denied the medical results of research done by members of the groups that they don't like. It could be a bit difficult to actually implement these in any formal manner, though. How do you get people to talk honestly about their moral/social ideas when they know that their medical treatment may depend on their answers?

Last word on THAT subject...

But if Pat Robertson grew an inoperable tumor tomorrow, I imagine we'd discover pretty soon that God is A-OK with gene therapy.

ObDoonesbury.

This comic strip is a great illustration of the kind of people you mentioned:

It could only be categorized as a "conspiracy to push evolution" in the same way that scientists conspire to push gravity. Got a better idea than evolution that fits the facts better?

ID? Pahlease!

What predictions does it make?
How can it be tested repeatedly?
How can it be falsified?

No predictions + no repeatability + no falsifiability = no science.

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I'll tell you what, let's make a deal. If you are willing to boycott any discovery made with evolution as one of its fundamental tenets, you will gain my respect. This is because you are putting your money where your mouth is, so to speak.

In other words, do you have the faith to tell a doctor that you want the treatment that presupposes that evolution is an utter falsehood? Is your faith that strong, or will you be just another hypocrite that denegrates a fundamental pillar of modern biology while taking advantage of discoveries made through it?

Here's the link. I loved that one.

If you learn political ideology from the Daily Show, you are an idiot.

I used to joke that I got all my news from The Daily Show, Doonesbury, and The Onion, but it's not really true. I actually do learn things from these, but mainly I like them because I am well informed about the news.

My alarm clock is set to NPR at 6:00 a.m., and I continue to listen to it during my commute. I read at least the headlines in my local paper and the New York Times every day, and of course, I read Slashdot obsessively. At least for me, the reason I love shows that make fun of the news, like The Daily Show, and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me is because I am liberal, intelligent, educated, and informed.

On a side note, and totally seriously, I'm not trying to troll, can you recommend a conservative pundit that isn't an idiot? For instance, I read the comic strip Prickly City which seems to me to have a conservative slant. Sometimes it aggravates me, but I keep reading it because sometimes I agree with it, and sometimes it's worth it to see another person's point of view. All I know about conservative pundits is O'Reilly, and Limbaugh. I agree that it's not worth it to listen to idiots. I think Al Franken took the wrong tack by trying to bring his views to their level. So, I would like to see conservative arguments presented intelligently, even humorously. Maybe I would enjoy them too.

It's marginally on-topic and since it hasn't been posted before, I thought I'd give a link to Garry Trudeau's brilliant skewering of intelligent design: Doonesbury 18th December 2005.

http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.ht ml?uc_full_date=20051218

Somebody seems to agree...

http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.ht ml?uc_full_date=20051218

Politically, you're probably right. We really should just cease all operations and abandon it, and push it into a safe re-entry to avoid unintended damage on earth. I can't see that happening any time soon, though.

Curiously, a similar rationale has taken shape regarding the Iraq invasion, and has been mocked recently in the Doonesbury comic strip.

+1, best comment so far.

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If you support dishonesty and violence, don't say you are Christian.

That's not the issue. The issue was that Mr. Chizen said something very inadvisable. His statement was immediately retracted by more sensible people at Adobe.

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If you support dishonesty and violence, don't say you are Christian.

Wow! Someone found some other pseudo-science: Dark chocolate is healthy.

P.R. agencies are often very successful at fraud.

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If you support dishonesty and violence, don't say you are Christian.

a comparison between the two would be great.

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If you support dishonesty and violence, don't say you are Christian.

I'm very interested in anyone's experience with Slashcode, as well.

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If you support dishonest and violence, don't say you are Christian.

Mod Parent UP!! Very interesting. I didn't know that AOL was pulling that with the CDs, as well.

I wonder about Ted Turner. Why did he sell to that old grey horse of a company Time-Warner?

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If you support dishonest and violence, don't say you are Christian.

6600GT "infinite loop". 7,900 hits.

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If you support dishonesty and violence, don't say you are Christian.

Other people who responded to your post seem not to have understood it.

Motherboard speeds vary by a small amount. So, the testers cut off the bottom of the graph bars. That makes a 1% improvement look like a reason to buy one motherboard over the other. It makes a 1% improvement on one look as though the others are slow for some reason. People think, Why? Maybe other things will be slow, as well.

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If you support dishonesty and violence, don't say you are Christian.

Questions taken from the Slashdot story: Is your boss a Psychopath?

How do you rate George W. Bush and Dick Cheney? -- Questions for Questions:

Q: When he harms other people, does he feel a lack of remorse or guilt? A: Does killing people qualify as harming them?

Q: Does he lie habitually even though he can easily be found out? A: Does lying to start a war qualify as lying? A2: Does pretending that you have reduced the violence in another country, rather than increased it, qualify as lying?

Q: When he's exposed, does he still act unconcerned because he thinks he can weasel out of it? A: Does saying it's all fine qualify as being unconcerned?

Q: Is he concerned about himself rather than the wreckage he inflicts on others or society at large? A: Does worrying only about election results qualify as being concerned only about oneself?

Q: Does he use his skill at lying to cheat or manipulate other people in his quest for money? A: When both Bush and Cheney have a long history of oil and weapons investments among family and friends, does starting a war in the world's second most oil-rich country qualify as a quest for money?

Q: Does he cruelly mock others? A: Does George W. Bush calling his deputy chief of staff, Karl Rove, "turd blossom" qualify as cruelly mocking him? A2: Does giving people disrespectful nicknames qualify as mocking them?

Q: Is he callous and lacking in empathy? A: Does taking habitual risks with the lives of other people while driving qualify as lacking in empathy? A2: George W. Bush DUI, 1st record of arrest A3: George W. Bush DUI, 2nd record of arrest George W. Bush was arrested 2 other times in his life, also, for stunts that were not something a sober person would find interesting. A4: Dick Cheney DUI, record of 1st arrest A5: Dick Cheney DUI, record of 2nd arrest

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If your government chooses killing as policy, expect others to choose the same.

I agree with the sense of what you said. However, I think it is not useful to use the terms "liberal" and "conservative". They no longer have significant meaning because those who want government corruption have been pretending that they have a legitimate political view, and calling that view "conservative".

Check out the government debt to see who is conserving the quality of government. The Bush administration is borrowing more money than any entity has borrowed in the history of the world.

Is dishonesty and violence "conservative"?

Is breaking the law "conservative"? Bush and Cheney are the most arrested U.S. president and vice-president in history. George W. Bush was arrested once for the crime of DUI and Dick Cheney twice:

George W. Bush DUI, 1st record of arrest

George W. Bush DUI, 2nd record of arrest

George W. Bush was arrested 2 other times in his life, also, for stunts that were not something a sober person would find interesting.

Dick Cheney DUI, record of 1st arrest

Dick Cheney DUI, record of 2nd arrest

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If your government chooses killing as policy, expect others to choose the same.

The U.S. government engages in more surveillance than any other country in the history of the world. The U.S. government spends more on surveillance than any country in the history of the world, and U.S. taxpayers are not allowed to know true total amount.

The departments of the U.S. government such as the CIA and NSA and FBI function as a world-wide secret police. Sure, they have openly acknowledged purposes, but much of what they do and how they do it is hidden from U.S. citizens. There are departments of the U.S. government that do secret police work whose names are even secret. United States taxpayers are expected to pay, and vote, and they are expected to accept that they won't have the full facts of the activities of their government. United States citizens are not allowed to know enough to base their vote on the facts.

Historically, U.S. government surveillance has had some political or economic benefit for those who wanted the surveillance.

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If you support dishonesty and violence, don't say you are Christian.

I've been having very serious stability problems here, too.

When Firefox crashes, all windows and tabs crash together. That means that if you were researching LCD monitors, and you had several tabs open for each manufacturer, when Firefox crashes, you lose ALL your work.

It's easy to understand why. The head of the Mozilla team was interviewed on the Charlie Rose show. She admitted she is a lawyer with NO technical experience. Her social skills are so limited, in comparison she makes the average computer professional look like a movie star.

Apparently because of bugs or inconsistencies in Window handling, Firefox does not work well with UltraVNC. Sometimes menus go way when they should, sometimes they don't. The page drawing problems mentioned in the parent post cause even worse problems with remote programs like UltraVNC.

Two other reasons why there are problems: 1) When you report crashes on Bugzilla, you often get unpleasant, unhelpful replies. This discourages reporting. 2) Often when Firefox crashes, TalkBack crashes, too, meaning that the Firefox team doesn't get a report of the crash. A crash reporting tool that itself crashes? Awesome mismanagement.

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If you support dishonesty and violence, don't say you are Christian.

The problems with terrorists were created by the U.S. government. Now the government is taking away our rights, using terrorists as an excuse.

It's an uphappy time for someone who loves the U.S. as much as I do.

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If you support dishonesty and violence, don't say you are Christian.

HTML Tidy cleans HTML, and has a special function for cleaning Word HTML junk.

It must be terrible to work at Microsoft and always do mediocre work.

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If you support dishonesty and violence, don't say you are Christian.

http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.ht ml?uc_full_date=20050703

It's shocking. Most of the people who comment here are facing a serious threat to their liberty, and all they can do is make lame jokes.

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If you support dishonesty and violence, don't say you are Christian.

It's terrible that anyone needs a citation for this. The U.S. government has been a major killer, and most U.S. citizens have not been paying attention.

Here's a short article: History surrounding the U.S. war with Iraq: Four short stories.

Recently I was talking with someone from another country. When I said that the U.S. government had killed 3,000,000 since the end of the Second World War, he said, "11,000,000". He's right. The lower figure includes just those killed directly by the U.S. government. The higher figure includes people who died because of indirect events caused by the U.S. government. For example, the U.S. government (not the people) bombed Cambodia. It is credibly estimated that the violence that happened after caused the deaths of millions of people.

Violence breeds violence, as the U.S. government's present war in Iraq demonstrates once again.

If your government chooses killing as policy, expect others to choose the same.

If you support dishonesty and violence, don't say you are Christian.

"Christianity has matured - it's a peaceful religion."

That's shocking that you would say that. George W. Bush is in office solely because of Karl Rove's tricking "Christian" religious extremists into believing that Mr. Bush agrees with them. These people call themselves "Christian", but their anger causes them to support violence.

I'll let a Doonesbury cartoon say it:

"And as a Christian, I greatly mourn the continuing loss of innocent Iraqi lives, the total of which is several times greater than the number lost at the World Trade Center."

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If your gov't chose killing as policy (CIA trained Arabs in 1980), expect others to choose the same.

The fact that most of the 'legal' stem cell lines were contaminated with animal products was well known back in 2001. Doonesbury even did a series of strips where Duke was selling a line that just happened not to have been contaminated in this way. I would link to the aforementioned strip, but Doonesbury seems to have changed its policy on viewing past strips to something I can't link to.

That's so weird - they are using the Duke 2000 campaign slogan. When's the "Compassionate Fascism" ad coming???

I ran into this in Kerry's wikipedia article initially.

The source: FamilyForest

I wouldn't make too much of the cousin relationship (honestly, if you're looking into this kind of thing, it's a lot more significant that they both went to Yale and were in Skull & Bones!), but the relationships are funny sometimes.

For example, Bush is actually more closely related to Gary Trudeau than he is to Kerry. (Trudeau is the author of Doonesbury... a political newspaper comic strip that's -- well -- not very Bush-friendly).

Bush is also a 9th cousin to John Edwards (though Kerry and Edwards are not related).

Bush is a 6th cousin (6 times removed) to Joseph Smith, Jr., who is a *very* interesting guy. He founded the Mormon faith in the 1820s after being visited by the angel "Moroni" and told about golden plates that had been hidden in a hill in upstate NY, by a race decended from the Jews who lived there 600-400 BC. He translated the text on the plates and returned them to the angel (so the plates are not available to be examined today). He and his followers moved west from NY gradually, in response to repeated episodes of mob violence until (led at this point by Brigham Young after Smith was killed) they eventually settled in Utah, which was then Mexican territory.

Page done in Macromedia Flash (for no reason)

Idiots.

gewg_