"In addition to facilitating private and commercial transportation, [the interstate highway system] would provide key ground transport routes for military supplies and troop deployments in case of an emergency or foreign invasion. Initial federal planning for a nationwide highway system began in 1921, when the Bureau of Public Roads asked the Army to provide a list of roads it considered necessary for national defense. "
The cost of (relatively) cheap gasoline? War, war, and more war. That cheap gasoline is only cheap because we're willing to bankrupt ourselves to get it.
"This is the CENTRAL SCRUTINIZER...it is my responsibility to enforce all the laws that haven't been passed yet. It is also my responsibility to alert each and every one of you to the potential consequences of various ordinary everyday activities you might be performing which could eventually lead to *The Death Penalty* (or affect your parents' credit rating). Our criminal institutions are full of little creeps like you who do wrong things...and many of them were driven to these crimes by a horrible force called MUSIC!
"Our studies have shown that this horrible force is so dangerous to society at large that laws are being drawn up at this very moment to stop it forever! Cruel and inhuman punishments are being carefully described in tiny paragraphs so they won't conflict with the Constitution (which, itself, is being modified in order to accommodate THE FUTURE).
"I bring you now a special presentation to show what can happen to you if you choose a career in MUSIC...The WHITE ZONE is for loading and unloading only...if you have to load or unload, go to the WHITE ZONE... you'll love it...it's a way of life...Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha...Hi, it's me, I'm back. This is the CENTRAL SCRUTINIZER...The WHITE ZONE is for loading and unloading only...If yah gotta load, or if yah gotta unload, go to the WHITE ZONE. You'll love it...it's a way of life. That's right, you'll love it, it's a way of life, that's right, you'll love it, it's a way of life, you'll love it. This, is, the CENTRAL SCRUTINIZER!"
Child falls into pool, drowns. Worse yet -- child playing in pool, pool drain unsafe, disembowels child by sucking out colon through anus -- not funny, happened in my home town recently, the girl died a couple of days later.
Are towns on a money grab? Probably.
Is it true that there is "too little discussion about community norms"...? Of course not -- go surf blogs, tweet some tweets -- this world is not lacking for discussion.
"My grandparents reported that the day after the Chernobyl meltdown every flower in their yard had bloomed overnight. They said it was beautiful and very frightening."
-- Anecdote related to me by a friend whose elderly grandparents live in Austria.
Historically, marriage is about property -- a commitment for the combined wealth of the participants (the couple, their extended family, the tribe) to stay together.
Marriage for love was remarkable in the ancient world: not unknown, but neither the norm.
Related note: Peter Farb argues (in Man's Rise to Civilization) that the incest taboo reflects economic reality: cultures that outbreed tend to accumulate more wealth (through marriage and other combinations) than cultures that inbreed.
Mary Renault's excellent historical novel The Mask of Apollo is a masterful portrait of -- among other things -- Plato and his world. Engaging, informative, and moving: highly recommended.
We commonly think of Plato as a philosopher, and philosophers as unworldly; but Renault reminds us that Plato was also a soldier, a statesman, a man who repeatedly put his life on the line, for his friends and for his ideals, in the face of deadly opposition.
1. I've read The Zap Gun (Dick's novel-length version of Project Plowshare ). The "plowsharing" metaphor is heavily ironic: "plowshared" consumer goods are useless, or purposeless, or trivial, or outright annoying -- e.g. there's a talking ashtray named "Ol' Orville", if memory serves.
2. "Operation Plowshare, better known as Project Plowshare, not to be confused with the anti-nuclear Plowshares Movement, was the overall United States term for the development of techniques to use nuclear explosives for peaceful construction purposes."
"Primitive" societies have involved children in engineering -- boatbuilding, weapons tech, housing construction, medicine, agriculture -- for millenia.
Good point. My brother the anthropologist (and parent of two boys) says much the same. He also says that what we call "multitasking" is not so different from what "primivitive" hunters do in the forest (keep alert to a million little details).
I should make clear: I have nothing but astonished contempt that anyone -- even a dogmatic nuthouse like the Heritage Foundation -- would try to rationalize away poverty in America.
Quoting the Heritage Foundation (or their ideological allies) is my way of saying: "My God -- people actually believe such things?"
According to a report cited (2004) by the Heritage Foundation:
Poverty is an important and emotional issue. Last year, the Census Bureau released its annual report on poverty in the United States declaring that there were nearly 35 million poor persons living in this country in 2002, a small increase from the preceding year. To understand poverty in America, it is important to look behind these numbers to look at the actual living conditions of the individuals the government deems to be poor.
For most Americans, the word "poverty" suggests destitution: an inability to provide a family with nutritious food, clothing, and reasonable shelter. But only a small number of the 35 million persons classified as "poor" by the Census Bureau fit that description. While real material hardship certainly does occur, it is limited in scope and severity. Most of America's "poor" live in material conditions that would be judged as comfortable or welloff just a few generations ago. Today, the expenditures per person of the lowestincome onefifth (or quintile) of households equal those of the median American household in the early 1970s, after adjusting for inflation.
"In 2008, 39.8 million [Americans] were in poverty, up from 37.3 million in 2007 -- the second consecutive annual increase in the number of people in poverty." -- Source
I'm very familiar with the phenomenon you're describing.
I call it "Fatal Utopianism" -- the overwhelming, irrational, and unrealistic desire to make Everything Perfect.
I'll bet this accounts for something like 75% of all late software deliverables. (Doesn't it just bug the hell out of you that the variable named "column3" doesn't really refer to a column, but rather to a pull quote? Okay okay, the usage is consistent, the program works perfectly, no one but me will ever see the variable name... but man, I so want to refactor that variable name!)
Slashdot Mirror
"In addition to facilitating private and commercial transportation, [the interstate highway system] would provide key ground transport routes for military supplies and troop deployments in case of an emergency or foreign invasion. Initial federal planning for a nationwide highway system began in 1921, when the Bureau of Public Roads asked the Army to provide a list of roads it considered necessary for national defense. "
Link
"It's not because my mind is made up that I don't want you to confuse me with any more facts.
"It's because my mind isn't made up. I already have more facts than I can cope with.
"So SHUT UP, do you hear me? SHUT UP!"
The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner
The cost of (relatively) cheap gasoline? War, war, and more war. That cheap gasoline is only cheap because we're willing to bankrupt ourselves to get it.
"Perceiving texture" means the texture of you-know-what, you-know-where.
Made me laugh!
I think Frank Zappa put it well ...:
"This is the CENTRAL SCRUTINIZER...it is my responsibility to enforce all the laws that haven't been passed yet. It is also my responsibility to alert each and every one of you to the potential consequences of various ordinary everyday activities you might be performing which could eventually lead to *The Death Penalty* (or affect your parents' credit rating). Our criminal institutions are full of little creeps like you who do wrong things...and many of them were driven to these crimes by a horrible force called MUSIC!
"Our studies have shown that this horrible force is so dangerous to society at large that laws are being drawn up at this very moment to stop it forever! Cruel and inhuman punishments are being carefully described in tiny paragraphs so they won't conflict with the Constitution (which, itself, is being modified in order to accommodate THE FUTURE).
"I bring you now a special presentation to show what can happen to you if you choose a career in MUSIC...The WHITE ZONE is for loading and unloading only...if you have to load or unload, go to the WHITE ZONE... you'll love it...it's a way of life...Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha...Hi, it's me, I'm back. This is the CENTRAL SCRUTINIZER...The WHITE ZONE is for loading and unloading only...If yah gotta load, or if yah gotta unload, go to the WHITE ZONE. You'll love it...it's a way of life. That's right, you'll love it, it's a way of life, that's right, you'll love it, it's a way of life, you'll love it. This, is, the CENTRAL SCRUTINIZER!"
-- Source
You're joking, right? About how "Ken Burns will revisit that period of the galactic history and we'll get a more neutral viewpoint of the conflict."
For "more neutral viewpoint", substitute:
"Ken sank his heart and soul into this thing, and it's obvious that he's still grieving for Alderaan."
Don't forget the soft, heart-felt banjo-centric soundtrack.
Monkeys Pay for Sex
It goes without saying that we're talking about male monkeys.
Hot virus-on-virus action, complete with gene swapping! Even got a taste of the 1918 action!
Man, it's booty call heaven for H1N1 -- bring on the mutations, baby!
Child falls into pool, drowns. Worse yet -- child playing in pool, pool drain unsafe, disembowels child by sucking out colon through anus -- not funny, happened in my home town recently, the girl died a couple of days later.
Are towns on a money grab? Probably.
Is it true that there is "too little discussion about community norms" ...? Of course not -- go surf blogs, tweet some tweets -- this world is not lacking for discussion.
"My grandparents reported that the day after the Chernobyl meltdown every flower in their yard had bloomed overnight. They said it was beautiful and very frightening."
-- Anecdote related to me by a friend whose elderly grandparents live in Austria.
Condoms. Something to do with condoms.
I don't know what, exactly ... responding to bioluminescent fungi?
Your argument is well written and persuasive, so I quoted you on my game design blog:
http://handyvandal.com/2010/07/making-blockbuster-is-poor-goal/
I quoted your post on my game design blog:
http://handyvandal.com/2010/07/making-blockbuster-is-poor-goal/
You nailed it.
Historically, marriage is about property -- a commitment for the combined wealth of the participants (the couple, their extended family, the tribe) to stay together.
Marriage for love was remarkable in the ancient world: not unknown, but neither the norm.
Related note: Peter Farb argues (in Man's Rise to Civilization) that the incest taboo reflects economic reality: cultures that outbreed tend to accumulate more wealth (through marriage and other combinations) than cultures that inbreed.
Admit it -- you're already thinking about how you can use this technology in bed.
Mary Renault's excellent historical novel The Mask of Apollo is a masterful portrait of -- among other things -- Plato and his world. Engaging, informative, and moving: highly recommended.
We commonly think of Plato as a philosopher, and philosophers as unworldly; but Renault reminds us that Plato was also a soldier, a statesman, a man who repeatedly put his life on the line, for his friends and for his ideals, in the face of deadly opposition.
1. I've read The Zap Gun (Dick's novel-length version of Project Plowshare ). The "plowsharing" metaphor is heavily ironic: "plowshared" consumer goods are useless, or purposeless, or trivial, or outright annoying -- e.g. there's a talking ashtray named "Ol' Orville", if memory serves.
2. "Operation Plowshare, better known as Project Plowshare, not to be confused with the anti-nuclear Plowshares Movement, was the overall United States term for the development of techniques to use nuclear explosives for peaceful construction purposes."
Made me laugh! Thanks!
Good point. My brother the anthropologist (and parent of two boys) says much the same. He also says that what we call "multitasking" is not so different from what "primivitive" hunters do in the forest (keep alert to a million little details).
I should make clear: I have nothing but astonished contempt that anyone -- even a dogmatic nuthouse like the Heritage Foundation -- would try to rationalize away poverty in America.
Quoting the Heritage Foundation (or their ideological allies) is my way of saying: "My God -- people actually believe such things?"
According to a report cited (2004) by the Heritage Foundation:
Well said; thanks for that humanitarian analysis.
According to the US Census Bureau:
"In 2008, 39.8 million [Americans] were in poverty, up from 37.3 million in 2007 -- the second consecutive annual increase in the number of people in poverty." -- Source
I'm very familiar with the phenomenon you're describing.
I call it "Fatal Utopianism" -- the overwhelming, irrational, and unrealistic desire to make Everything Perfect.
I'll bet this accounts for something like 75% of all late software deliverables. (Doesn't it just bug the hell out of you that the variable named "column3" doesn't really refer to a column, but rather to a pull quote? Okay okay, the usage is consistent, the program works perfectly, no one but me will ever see the variable name ... but man, I so want to refactor that variable name!)