Friday, August 20. 2010
This was my assignment to the class:
"Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. One of you will then write the first paragraph of a short story. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on back and forth. Remember to re-read what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. There is to be absolutely NO talking and anything you wish to say must be written on the paper. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached."
The following was actually turned in by two of my English students: Rebecca - last name deleted, and Gary - last name deleted.
Continue reading "From the BBS archives: The English Assignment"
I'm going to place these two videos below the fold because they contain language, violence and themes which might be upsetting to innocent young girls, liberals, and small children.
Continue reading ""That extra mile""
From Terry Pratchett's Making Money:
"How did you find out they were down there?"
"The usual way. One of our golems heard one singing. Imagine that. It's been underground for sixty thousand years..."
In the night under the world, in the pressure of the depth, in the crushing of the dark...a golem sang. There were no words. The song was older than words; it was older than tongues. It was the call of the common clay, and it carried for miles. It traveled along fault lines, made crystals sing in harmony in dark, unmeasured caverns, followed rivers that never saw the sun...
...and out of the ground and up the legs of a golem from the Golem Trust, who was pulling a wagon loaded with coal along the region's one road. When he arrived in Ankh-Morpork, he told the Trust. That was what the Trust did: it found golems.
Rock climbers and boulderers refer to those rocky hills/cliffs/mountains as "the Gunks." Famous challenges for climbers, but, since we are on the topic of family places with the de Medicis and the von Trapp family, we should not omit the Mohonk Mountain House. I have a good photo somewhere of my Grandpa fly-fishing on the lake.
It was a favorite of my grandfather, and remains a family favorite. Nowadays, they even serve alcohol which the Quaker Smiley family never used to permit (you had to sneak in your own, and secretly imbibe in the privacy of your room before dinner).
There was an intriguing ad on MSNBC's web site the other day. You hear about those "visual graphics tricks" that advertising people pull, and you have to figure this is just another example of it. I think it's one of those 'subliminal' things they talk about.
Which gender is this person?
Now, before you say 'guy', take a closer look. Guys don't usually wear frilly blouses with cute bows on the front and rounded collars, do they? And that hair looks kind of coifed for a guy, doesn't it? And do you see any chest hairs? Couldn't this just be a nice healthy German or Russian girl?
Or perhaps the ad agency is going for that 'artistic musician look', where it's okay for guys to wear sissy clothes as long as they're being musical about it?
But the fact that we're discussing it at all says something, doesn't it? It's still possible the question could go either way — if not both ways. Which gender IS this person??
Well, back to that "subliminal" stuff I was talking about:
 Regular News
Finally some sensibility comes to the world of fashion! For far too long have chubby models inspired impressionable young eaters out there to the point where obesity is now considered a 'national epidemic', imposing a massive burden on our health care system. But now that this agency is daring to use average women as models (see example), perhaps we'll start turning this evil scourge of obesity around, once and for all.
Say, here's a fun way to start the day. It's one of those "brain teasers" you see in puzzle books. Good luck!
Only a third of Americans say Obama is Christian
Nearly 1 in 5 Americans Think Obama is Muslim
Quick: What percentage of Americans think Obama is Hindu?
Bobby Thompson, he of the 'Shot Heard 'Round The World', has passed away. YouTube clip of the event is here.
Speaking of fallen heroes, are there any Vonnegut fans out there? I adored him back in the day. If I could only take one book with me to a deserted island, it'd be something by Vonnegut, but I'd be torn between "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater", "The Sirens of Titan", and "Galápagos".
Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library to open in Indianapolis
And another fallen hero:
Why 'Atlas Shrugged' is flying off the bookshelves
Well, I'm a little disappointed in my headline time machine. The calibration is a bit sensitive. It seems to either go 10 years into the future or 10 million years into the past. Let's try another one from the future.
BZZHSZZSHKZHTT!!
Human beings killed off by climate change
The following article is about "naughty acronyms". In some of these cases, it seems kind of silly that a company would care that some particular combination of letters would mean one little thing to some fringe group somewhere. Big deal.
On the other hand, you'd think the people forming the South Lake Union Trolley would have given the name just a wee bit more thought before making the final decision.
Acronyms that accidentally turned naughty
Political News
Obama thanks Facebook fans for birthday card
Thursday, August 19. 2010
Still looking for good, tasty, 15-minute ceegars for under $7-10 per smoke.
I am trying these, this week.
What do our readers enjoy?
 A young man wished to purchase a gift for his new sweetheart's birthday, and, as they had not been dating very long, after careful consideration he decided that a pair of gloves would strike the right note. Romantic, but not too personal.
Accompanied by his sweetheart's younger sister, he went to the store and bought a pair of white gloves. The younger sister purchased a pair of panties for herself.
During the wrapping, the clerk mixed up the items and the sister got the gloves and the sweetheart got the panties. Without checking the contents, he sealed the package and mailed it to his sweetheart along with this note:
My Dearest,
I choose these because I noticed that you are not in the habit of wearing any when we go out in the evening. If it had not been for your sister, I would have chosen the long ones with buttons, but she wears short ones that are easy to remove.
These are a delicate shade but the lady I bought them from showed me the pair she had been wearing for the last three weeks and they were hardly soiled. I had her try yours on for me and she looked really sharp.
I wish I was there to put them on you for the first time, as no doubt other hands will come in contact with them before I have a chance to see you again.
When you take them off, remember to blow in them before putting them away as they will naturally be a little damp from wearing.
Just think of how many times I will kiss them during the coming year. I hope you will wear them for me on Friday night.
All My Love, John
P.S. The latest style is to wear them folded down with just a little fur showing.
A useful term - a noun - for "a problem that severely tests the ability of an inexperienced person." More generally, a problem or challenge which will separate the bright and the perceptive from the not-so-bright and the not-so-perceptive.
"Bridge of asses." Donkeys do not like to cross bridges.
In mathematics, the term is applied to the problem from the first book of Euclid that if two sides of a triangle are equal then the angles opposite those sides are also equal.
Traditionally, the bridge of asses referred to Euclid's Fifth Theorem of planar geometry, the comprehension of which and the implications of which were and are a sticking point for less-bright students.
By the way, this is a good if somewhat challenging book: Experiencing Geometry. A bit of a pons asinorum itself.
No, you can not. Everybody has his personal limits; limits in talent, limits in intelligence, limits in endurance and perseverence, limits in initiative, limits in social skills, limits of personality style, limits in stress-tolerance, limits in judgement-making, etc, etc.
When people push against their limits, it is admirable. When they go past them, it is usually sadly obvious because, without great luck, defeat and failure are almost certain. Life and reality are stern schoolmasters.
I am a believer in rigorously honest self-appraisal as well as a "seaching, fearless moral inventory." These things are narcissistically injuring - but liberating. Furthermore, they can help us steer our ship and avoid the rocks.
 H/T: IOwnTheWorld.com
At Maggie’s Farm we’ve been debating how much nudity is safe for the protection of our readers’ sensitivities. The Raelians, who believe that alien scientists created humans and we should be prouder of our bodies, sponsor annual Go Topless Day “dedicated to the belief that in order for America to be a truly equal society, women should be able to bare their breasts without fear of being arrested.”
A video of their breast “outing” and beliefs is presented below the fold, in keeping with the Maggie’s Farm interest in philosophy.
Continue reading "Free Your Breasts, Free Your Minds?"
 I have a friend who is a bit of a watch collecter and amateur expert. He showed me the Vacheron Constantin watch he was wearing the other day.
It's the oldest surviving watch company in the world. Est. 1755. They make unostentatious fine watches, or "timepieces" as watch snobs term them. You have to wind them every morning which, if I understand it right, all very fine watches require.
I am a Timex guy - a watch I wear routinely needs to take plenty of abuse and needs to be disposable - but I have a couple of somewhat fancier watches which I rarely use. Consumption is not one of my hobbies (I don't own a lot, but I have enough of everything), but I can appreciate fine hand-made things.
My friend tells me that Obama wears a flashy and expensive IWC, assembled from innards made by other companies. "Typical Obama," said he.
Photo is a Vacheron Constantin Jubilee.
 1:30 am.
Sorry, no morning links today. I played hooky all day by romping up to Miami Beach for a fish fry. At the end of my heavily philosophical journey, I could only utter two fateful words:
Cuban girls.
Growing up in California, I always thought Mexican girls were hot, but Cuban girls really have that 'something extra' about them. Maybe it's the dark eyebrows. Either way, it was you guys or the dark eyebrows, and it's obvious who won.
I do have one interesting note about languages. My buddy is Cuban, been here 20 years, and he says that Spanish has variations that are just as wild as English. Like the way a Yankee might have a hard time understanding a native Alabaman and vice versa, and neither would be able to understand one Irish or Cockney word in ten from the guy on the next bar stool.
Likewise, in Spanish, he says he can't understand one word in ten from the Argentinian kid next door. He told me, and I kid you not, "It's all Greek to me."
Wednesday, August 18. 2010
 What's the origin of "the real McCoy"?
There are many theories - "folk etymologies," but this seems most likely:
It is a corruption of the Scots "The real MacKay", first recorded in 1856 as: "A drappie o’ the real MacKay," and this is widely accepted as the origin.
MacKay (and the Irish McCoy and Magee) are all basically the same name.
A quote from The Spirit of Independence: The Social Psychology of Freedom at The American:
In 1966, American psychologist Julian Rotter published a paper that introduced the concept known as locus of control. Human beings, according to Rotter, could be divided into two basic groups: those who believed their locus of control was within themselves, and those who see themselves as under the control of forces located outside themselves, such as luck, or fate, or other people whose will cannot be resisted. The first group, called internals, believe that they are the masters of their own destiny; they tend to be high-achievers, optimistic about their ability to improve their lot, and to discard bad habits. They believe in willpower and positive thinking. They are determined to control their own lives, for better or worse. Members of the second group are called externals. They look on themselves as victims of circumstances, the playthings of fate. If they go to bed drunk, light up a cigarette, and burn their house down, they explain the disaster as another instance of their bad luck, and not their poor judgment, much less their bad habits. On the other hand, if a drunk driver hits an internal, the internal will scold himself that he should have been more alert at the wheel, he should have seen the drunk coming and swerved in time to avoid him.
Yes, there is a spirit of freedom and a spirit of slavery and dependence. Another quote:
To natural libertarians, there can be no more existential conflict than the one they face today. Are they destined to perish from the earth along with their cherished cultural and religious traditions, pushed aside by those who claim to champion progress but who in fact promote learned helplessness in the general population, however benevolent their intentions? Will the natural libertarians’ roadblock to serfdom simply be brushed aside without a fight? Or will these roadblocks turn into barricades, to be manned by those who are willing to make the last sacrifice to preserve their spirit of independence?
My urbanologist friend tells me that we can thank the gays of NYC for being frequent pioneers of gentrification. He says they have plenty of spare cash and like to spend it, they like interesting restaurants, and they like to make things look pleasant.
A generation ago, the gays moved into the West Village. Recently, moving into Chelsea, which was once a neighborhood which many conflated with Hell's Kitchen. Today, it is known as a semi-gay neighborhood (nothing in your face, though), but with plenty of young families with kids (strollers and moms everywhere), and lots of young straight professionals too (including a BD pupette, which is why I have become so familiar with the area. She is in a new Chelsea high-rise, with doorman, a business center, a gym and a cool roof-top garden overlooking the Hudson for parties - all you have to do is sign up for the roof-top).
Chelsea is full of old brownstones, and peppered with new high-rises. It's a short walk to Chelsea Piers, the Intrepid Museum, and the 12-mile Westside Greenway (for biking, running, and hiking) which runs along the Hudson River from the Staten Island Ferry to the George Washington Bridge. Now there is the High Line "park" too, which will run all the way to the Meat Packing District.
(The Upper West Side, where I dwelled for a while, has come a long way too in the baby stroller department, but it never quite needed gentrification. It was always a mixed area with all of its grand pre-war buildings and brownstones. Its SROs are gone now, though, along with the street crime.)
One could spend a lifetime studying the changing neighborhoods of NYC. Curtis Sliwa knows it all.
Brownstones like these in Chelsea now go for 2-4 million:
From a review of Roger Scruton's new book, The Uses of Pessimism, And the Danger of False Hope:
Scruton identifies seven fallacies that he sees as underwriting false hope. Put briefly, these translate into a tendency to always look on the bright side, a belief that freedom is hampered by law, an unwillingness to countenance refutation, a belief that failure in one human quarter is directly connected to success in another, an inclination to impose solutions rather than letting them evolve over time, the idea that human history has an endpoint, and the tendency to assume agreeable concepts such as liberty and equality are mutually reinforcing.
In the final chapters, Scruton suggests these inclinations may be ineradicable, having evolved in response to particular dangers in hunter-gatherer societies.
Orange County, south of Los Angeles and north of San Diego, used to be a reliable Republican stronghold, but changing demographics and a hidebound Republican Party has changed that.
In 1994, Loretta Sanchez lost as a moderate Republican for the Anaheim City Council. In 1996, Sanchez had changed her registration to Democrat and, with the help of the 1990 reapportionment adding many Hispanics, won the Congressional District then represented by conservative Republican Bob Dornan.
Loretta Sanchez is not publicly as radical as her younger sister, Linda, elected to Congress from more liberal Los Angeles in 2002. Yet, in 2009 the liberal Americans for Democratic Action rated her 90%. Her composite conservative score at National Journal is 28%, better than her sister’s 5%. This primarily reflects less antagonistic votes on national security issues. She has expressed her desire for higher political office, so this year’s race is necessary to her ambitions.
Loretta Sanchez, to her credit, and representing the heavy Vietnamese expatriate community in the District – home of little Saigon – has been courageous in publicly damning human rights abuses and the despotism in Vietnam.
This year, Loretta Sanchez faces off against Van Tran, the highest elected Vietnamese in California, who is being termed-out of his state Assembly seat. Van Tran is decidedly conservative. The National Republican Congressional Campaign committee has named him to its Young Guns program for support.
Van Tran’s supporters have been active in the District. While all the major pollsters had rated the seat reliably for Sanchez, Charles Cook just broke from the pack and moved the seat into “leaning” Democrat. Van Tran’s facebook page is full of the hoped for boost from the widespread discredit of the Democrats. I’ve tried repeatedly to speak with Van Tran’s campaign to get a better feel for internal polling, and not received a response.
The District is about 65% Hispanic, 18% White and 14% Vietnamese. The District, where Democrat and Republican registration is near even, was carried by Sanchez with 69.5% of the vote and by Obama with 60.1% in 2008.
The race has not, yet, overtly become an ethnic battle – and shouldn’t -- but Van Tran is counting on the heavier voter turnout usual among Vietnamese to put him over the top. Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi has highlighted this District as a key concern.
There is momentum evident for Van Tran, as affirmed by the Cook Report shift, but it will take heavy funding and good campaigning for Van Tran to pull off this upset. It’s doable, and tough. Van Tran’s election webpage is here.
 This one is obviously for the gals only, since guys quit carrying handbags when pockets were invented.
Only parts of the female body are more private to them than their bags and pocketbooks.
What do you gals have in yours?
Please tell us in the comments...and, if a handgun, make and model please.
Krista Branch should be made the official songstress of the Republican Party for 2010, and then the Republican establishment better take heed or face the consequences of an aroused America that won't take any more BS.
 In my opinion, after all is said and done, there has really only been one president of the United States who in his heart was one of us, the lowly we, the people.
Teddy Roosevelt.
Oh, it could be argued that the Humble Log Cabin Crowd — Abe Lincoln springs to mind — were "one of us", but they all became that most horrid of things, politicians, once they achieved national status. Teddy, alone, never forgot we, the people.
Yeah, ol' TR. He was a Republican, right? Oh, of course he was. One of the most famous Republicans in history! Why, just look at some of his Republican platforms!
— Break up Big Business
— Give Big Labor national power
— Deplore the difference between the rich and poor
— Push for national health care
— Push for national workman's comp insurance
And, if those heinous crimes weren't enough, check this out!
— Give women the right to vote
Scandalous! That's what happens when you let a RINO take power, folks!
But then...
But then, at the time, the country really needed such progressive ideals. Some of the big business barons, alone, were pulling in more cash per year than the federal government, and big business was on a path to monopolize the only means of mass transportation in the country, the railroads. That's simply too much power in the private sector and Roosevelt correctly put an end to it.
He also put an end to the idiocy of women not voting, and he honestly tried to ease the plight of the black man through legislation, but society simply wasn't ready for a Civil Rights-type act. This was only two generations removed from the Civil War, so the South was still, in great part, the South.
And while he was never able to implement his national health and insurance programs, he did raise working conditions for the average slob considerably. This was in an era of mandatory 12-hour work shifts and child labor, both of which he abolished.
 He also racked up a number of global accomplishments, such as building the Panama Canal, sending our fleet of battleships around the world to establish ourselves as a world power (the first time a nation had ever done so), and what really put our fledgling nation in the big leagues was his negotiating an end to the bloody Russo-Japanese War, something no diplomat alive thought possible.
And no article on Teddy would be complete without mentioning how he brought the conservation of our natural resources into the public eye. In those days, most Americans viewed the country to be so vast that our resources were infinite, but TR saw otherwise. He strongly believed that we had the right to use the land, but believed just as strongly that we didn't have the right to waste it.
For your education, enlightenment and enjoyment, I highly recommend "Teddy Roosevelt: An American Lion", available on Netflix and presumably Blockbuster. It's reasonably even-handed, pointing out his mistakes as well as his victories, and does a decent job of putting things in historical perspective. As I noted above, when you start listing out his platforms, he sounds shockingly liberal, yet at the time it was exactly what America needed.
America being we, the people.
 Regular News
Well, let's start off with some good news. Usually when Congress puts bills right out in the open, people bitch and moan and complain and nothing gets done. But when they meet in a closed-door session, as they did last night, often 'miraculous' results ensue (see picture) that finally solve some nagging national problem, once and for all.
Congress passes bill making new low-energy car mandatory by 2016
(you'll have to excuse me — I'm not as good at this links stuff as the other guys and sometimes don't get the headlines exactly correct)
Well, good news for golfers. A new golf school has opened up using a revolutionary new technique that's apparently displaying remarkable results.
Hold on a sec.
(tinker-tinker)
Ah-ha! I fixed my time machine and now it looks like it'll snag two headlines from 10 years in the future. Here goes!
BZZHZHZZKHGRHZZZTT!!
More than half of America's wind farms built where there is not enough wind
Global temperatures much higher than 10 years ago, CO2 levels 20 times higher
All kidding aside, global warming is a serious subject and shouldn't be taken lightly.
As Muscovites suffer record high temperatures this summer, a Russian political scientist has claimed the United States may be using climate-change weapons to alter the temperatures and crop yields of Russia and other Central Asian countries.
On the other hand, it's nice to finally get our dirty little secret out in the open. Fry, Russkies!
Political News
White House gardener weighs in on world affairs
Since we have our signs up, we do not forgive your trespasses. Plus we have the fully operational services of the He Marks The Sparrow's Fall Security System in place at the farm.
Three justices of the 9th federal circuit, all appointed by Republican Presidents, disagree on the limits of free speech under the 1st Amendment. This presents an interesting appeal to the US Supreme Court.
Two of the justices rule that the Stolen Valor Act, which criminalizes knowingly wearing or claiming federally authorized military decorations and medals of valor, is unconstitutional. These justices describe stolen valor as vile and worse, and deny that they provide a constitutional right to lie. But they deny that there is any harm done that requires punishment. Their arguments are basically that, barring a demonstrable harm to another person, free speech should prevail. Interestingly, they point out that the Defense Department providing a public list of those who have been awarded medals of valor would help publicly reveal frauds. However, the Democrat Congress has failed to act and the Defense Department has quibbled away its responsibility. (I analyzed this here.)
On the other hand, the dissent presents judicial and legislative chapter and verse that demonstrable harm to an individual is not a necessary hurdle to restrictions on certain types of knowingly false speech (or actions) that go beyond the pale of acceptable or protected. He reaffirms, as did Congress in passing the Act, that knowingly representing oneself as a decorated hero disparages the valor of those who were awarded. He provides prominent examples of Congress’ authority to so legislate. Further, he dispels the contention that satire or theatrical performances would fall within the Act, or that it is overbroad in practice as only the clearest cases have been brought by federal prosecutors.
You may like or not the arguments raised by either side, but should also recognize that judging a law is about its lawfulness not the rhetoric. So, unless the Supreme Court decides to broaden or overturn existing case precedent, the Stolen Valor Act would be upheld. But, we’ll see.
The majority and minority opinions are here.
Josh Gerstein at Politico raises some interesting judicial undercurrents that may become clearer at the Supreme Court.
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