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Domain: litrix.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to litrix.com.

Comments · 10

  1. Re:Beware: there's another phrase by plopez · · Score: 1 · on Tech Companies Draw on 'Wisdom of the Crowds'

    Here's a link for that:
    http://www.litrix.com/madraven/madne001.htm

    "Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds"
    By Charles MacKay

    1841

    See also dot bomb.

  2. Clarification by VaticDart · · Score: 1 · on Meet Web Hypochondriacs
    It wasn't most diseases that he found he had, but rather everything except Housemaid's Knee.

    BTW, Three Men in a Boat is a phenomenally funny book. I highly recommend the Blackstone Audio Book version read by Frederic Davidson.

  3. Re:bubble? by slackerboy · · Score: 3, Insightful · on What The Bubble Got Right

    I believe the term came from the Japanese economy which, during the '80s, could do no wrong, until things popped. They've still not recovered. Those were called the "Bubble Years".

    Actually the term has been used for a lot longer than that. Charles MacKay talks about the "South Seas Bubble" in his book Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds way back in 1841.

  4. Re:How To Do It by AkkarAnadyr · · Score: 1 · on Computers, Unemployment and Wealth Creation

    Hence, the need for something outside of the system that will do the job of undercutting and buying off.


    That's the most important part - it has to come from outside the system, and even outside the environment that supports the system. The real-world implementations of government are a product of the S&M dynamic in the first place - grabbing votes/cash from the rich and poor by promising to protect each from the other. The morph of the gameboard will come from the attraction of success stories that broadcast the generosity meme: what's good for all of us is good for one of us. It has to come in easy steps, like solving a student's simple Net problems with a Knoppix CD. And it won't happen wholesale (Linux desktop dominance surpassing MS quickly), but it must remain unstoppable at the margins (the unsanctioned substance 'problem' has plagued gummints for centuries).

    I picked Big Drug for my example both for its involvement with DNA as information, and because its oppression is ripe for toppling (US citizens are finding out how unfree our markets can be when trying to get their meds in Canada). Fads like 'rejuvelac' or other mystery ferments that circulate the alt.supplement underground may be early examples. It won't even matter that few such things actually work right now - the meme will persist, if it does, because it speaks to real human need. The peptide companies today are zeroing in on cheaper IDs for your DNA of choice. Later the grad student underground may use it to find a 'cure beer' for $INFIRMITY; then the agitprop starts a la DARE/RIAA about how 'unsafe' it is; then a startup creates a test for God Fearing Parents to check the purity of Johnny's precious bodily fluids; then the mass underground can test for product quality; etc... ( I wonder if dealers today use pee test innards to check product quality?...). The solutions need to survive the game of 'telephone', such that the notion of benefit (however vague, e.g. 'solar power saves money') gets entrenched, against all Cheney-oid assurances of unfeasibility. Then as the tipping point hits, people are ready with a wink and a nod even as they salute the flag at their sewing circles. There are lots of sadder but wiser Californian squares putting up panels this fall...

    <insert musings here about women's social leverage , however gentle and constructive, being scary enough to provoke male oppression, yet survive against it>


    I think we're reinventing communism as something that only makes sense as the flip side of pure capitalism.


    $DEITY, I hope not. For the reasons above, any real step forward can't be an ideological exercise, but rather must be a set of nudges, of subtle decisions and one-on-one interactions that distribute the survival info among real-life humans in a real-life way, resistant to emotional hallucination. As it says here, "Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one."

    It's a hard road being a freak, but the well-behaved rarely make history. Cheers!

  5. Re:Simpsons parody on the title by rsidd · · Score: 1 · on TiVo++ from India

    Eh? Haven't you heard of Three men in a boat ?

  6. Re:FINALLY! by prizog · · Score: 1 · on Internet-Created Free Audio Dramas?

    Perhaps not surprisingly, there's actually some good stuff in the public domain. I recommend Three Men In A Boat, by Jerome K. Jerome. Heck, I can't even pick a section to quote, as it's all so good. Just start reading it.

  7. Re:You're right and wrong by MacAndrew · · Score: 2 · on Critics Pan Nemesis

    Actually, the TOS acting reminded me of "styrofoam boulders" as well. Neither made the show better, though perhaps more endearing.

    Of course the old show is cool, but I like it for what it was and not as great television (if those two words can go together). It did broach some good topics, though it was mostly adapting existing stories. I respect Roddenberry's decision to cobble a crew together from a Russian, a Japanese, a (gorgeous) African-American woman, and a guy who looked distinctly satanic. (The number of Jews is maybe a message, too.) There's a lot of great stuff to write and talk about.

    I hope you didn't pull all those episode titles from memory! You left out one of my favorites, "The Naked Time."

    Neil Diamond -- once I realized what the lyrics "turn on your heart light" really meant, it was all over. :)

    Shatner -- yech -- his character did serve a purpose at least. The one time I liked him most was in ST IV, when he was briefly genuinely charming ... and did not get the girl.

    Now I'm going to go read some Dostoyevsky, in the Russian of course. (kidding! I use a translation)

  8. History Lesson by Flynn777 · · Score: 1 · on Legality Of Linking To Be Tested In Court?
    "A Modest Proposal" was published by Rev. Jonathan Swift in 1729. Swift was also the author of "Gulliver's Travels" (1726) and is best known as the quintessential example of a satirist.

    Thomas Paine author of "Common Sense," "The Age of Reason" and "Rights of Man" is well-known American patriot and deist.

    The two are pretty far apart in all but age.

    It's also worth noting that the printing press was invented around 1437, and was hardly revolutionary when either "A Modest Proposal" or "Common Sense" were published.

  9. Re:What true democracy really is... by Steve+B · · Score: 2 · on View from the Censorware Trenches
    Democracy is about trusting the judgement of the masses more than you`ll trust the judgement of any individual.

    That is precisely why the founders of the American Republic specifically and emphatically rejected the notion of "democracy". They had a clear-headed understanding of the level of "judgment" to be expected from the masses on any emotionally-charged issue.
    /.

  10. Re:Nice: Now We're Condoning Criminal Activity by Tom+Christiansen · · Score: 2 · on Richard Stallman Calls for Amazon Boycott
    Scarcity is the root of all evil- people say money is, but we wouldn't need money without scarcity.
    You're just testing me, right? Didn't I fix this misquote yesterday? And last week? And the week before that?

    Sigh.

    You're thinking of either the "radix malorum" quote from the prologue to the Pardoner's Tale in Chaucer, or the more original reference from 1 Timothy 6:10, which reads, "For the love of money is a roo t of all kinds of evil." Note the emphasis. Here's one write-up on the misquote.

    Whatever the case, a thief is a still a thief. And someone who steals software is such a thief. I hope yo would take no umbrage when someone steals from your bank account or burgles your home, for it is the same ethic which you yourself espouse.

    You do not rape the rapist, just to show them how much you detest rape. You do not extort from the extorter, just to show them how much you detest exortion. And you certainly do not steal from someone you consider a thief just to show them how much you don't like what they're doing.

    Apparently ethics and morality have no place in your world, sir.