Whatever » From the “People This Lacking in Self-Awareness Really Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Speak in Public Ever Again” Files
But, you know what, there’s “graduate from good schools and work hard in public service” elite, and then there’s “make millions in corporate America and marry into the family that owned the mortgage on Europe” elite. [...]
I guess I just think that the best way to honor the sacrifices of our veterans, and the service of our soldiers, and sailors, and marines and airmen, is to not ask them to be killed or maimed in a war we should never have started in the first place. To end the Russian Roulette [...]
There’s a misunderstanding that the right-hand-path in spirituality, to use a short hand term, is about abasing or losing yourself or demolishing yourself. Not true at all. It’s simply about being in right relationship to the divine source of consciousness, and the Bodhisatvas who try to mitigate, and eventually end, the world’s suffering. But it’s [...]
I often use the same example Cory uses here in discussing security issues at work: 99% effective means 10,000 failures over a million instances. Which in turn means that if you’re trying to detect a 1-in-a-million event, then you will get it 9999 false positives for every real event you detect–and at that rate, you [...]
“It has to be Guinness–dark, black and rich. It’s a scientifically proven fact, you know, that Guinness is forty-five percent fortitude.”
–Hal Duncan
Some of my cynical thoughts on “Earth Hour” tonight are echoed, and then turned up to 11 by Canadian hard SF author, Peter Watts.
Hundreds, maybe thousands of Torontonians will celebrate the event by climbing into their SUVs and driving out to Downsview Park, there to light candles in the darkness. The Eaton’s Center up at [...]
“The threat to men of great dignity, privilege and pretense is not from the radicals they revile; it is from accepting their own myth. Exposure to reality remains the nemesis of the great — a little understood thing.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith
“But going after the Scientologists in a world full of Christians, Muslims, and Trekkies is like surveying a world ravaged by AIDS and devoting yourself to the eradication of the hangnail.”
—Peter Watts
Most people acquire their beliefs through osmosis and observation, not investigation. We’d rather observe than derive. Raised in a society awash in certain ubiquitous beliefs, you tend to accept those beliefs without thinking. I think most people come to their faith in the same way they come to believe that not wearing a tie is [...]
Here’s the rub: reincarnation is a load of rubbish. There’s a slight problem of there being a striking lack of supporting evidence for it.
Yeah, that’s my favourite bit of Stross’ recent essay about how the media, and society in general, seems to abdicate responsibility for critical analysis in the face of religion.
Here’s another bit:
The knee-jerk [...]
(You may not think it’s the weekend, but since I have Friday and Monday off, and my late night meeting with Australians is done, I am now into my weekend.)
OK, let’s talk unexpected interpretations in cover tunes. Sarah Nixey covers Human League’s Black Hit Of Space [via jwz]. Petra Haden covers Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ [...]
Some days Steven Brust does a brilliant job of charmingly and knowingly talking a lot of bunk. Hell, I’ve seen him do it in a costume with a cheesy, fake accent, and that’s like the black diamond trail of bunk-talkin’.
Today is not one of those days. Today he hits it straight down the middle with [...]
We’ll grab a couple of them today:
Will Shetterly talking about Mormon underwear:
Here’s one way to tell a faith from a racket: If it makes you think you’re better than everyone else, it’s a racket, not a faith.
I kind of love that. It’s the answer to all the “One True Religion” and “Chose People of X” [...]
From the introductory page at Sean’s website:
Art is fundamentally embarrassing. It requires you to expose how you truly feel. It demands that you admit the things that make you laugh and cry, that scare you or turn you on. And when you do that, there will always be people to tell you you’re sentimental, or [...]
Over on his blog science fiction writer Nick Sagan (author of fun books Idlewild, Edenborn, and forthcoming Everfree) has a post about his favourite TV shows.
Now, while all five shows he lists are good shows, his numbers 5, 4, 3, and 2 would not make my list of “all time best” shows. (How can you [...]
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