Dumb and Dumber: Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge?
NYTimes
I would say no. The vast majority of people have always been ignorant of a great many things that the 'educated' classes take as common knowledge. It's just that nowadays, the 'masses' have a lot more access to platforms upon which to display their ignorance.
Ah....technology.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Tribalism
I'm writing this on a cold morning in Tennessee, where I'm attending a conference. It being a fall weekend, there's a lot of buzz about today's football game. The flags are out, the signs are up. Supporters of the visiting team have invaded the town - I know because of their sweatshirts and other clothing.
What is it about college sports, football in particular, that engenders such passion, especially among 'highly educated' graduates and faculty of colleges?
I'm sure that this isn't a new observation (I should peruse the sociology literature to see what's been done on this), but we identify with our colleges like people identify with tribes. The human instinct for competition makes us want to compete with a dominate other tribes. How do we do this? Since these particular tribes are more intelectual and social than warlike, we do it through our sports teams. What other way is there for my tribe (college) to compete with yours? It engenders pride at belonging to the victorious group. I think that's why sports such as football are so important to a college's psyche, and are so important for getting alumni to contribute money to the school. For those two reasons, we put up with the various other crap that comes along with fielding a football team.
Of course, there is the US News & World Report rankings, but we won't go there now.
What is it about college sports, football in particular, that engenders such passion, especially among 'highly educated' graduates and faculty of colleges?
I'm sure that this isn't a new observation (I should peruse the sociology literature to see what's been done on this), but we identify with our colleges like people identify with tribes. The human instinct for competition makes us want to compete with a dominate other tribes. How do we do this? Since these particular tribes are more intelectual and social than warlike, we do it through our sports teams. What other way is there for my tribe (college) to compete with yours? It engenders pride at belonging to the victorious group. I think that's why sports such as football are so important to a college's psyche, and are so important for getting alumni to contribute money to the school. For those two reasons, we put up with the various other crap that comes along with fielding a football team.
Of course, there is the US News & World Report rankings, but we won't go there now.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Vista
Some initial thoughts on my 'upgrade' to Vista:
I now have 3gigs of RAM, but my damned video card is the slow link now. Never thought that would happen.
If you can, don't 'upgrade,' do a clean install. Mine failed both times I selected the upgrade option. After 2.5 hours of installation each time.
When it was finally done:
I guess that most of the improvements are under the hood, because there aren't really a lot of obvious changes. The look and feel is improved - I think this is where the need for the new graphics card comes in. Of course, they are once again copying the Mac OS here.
The sidebar is interesting, and long overdue. Again, a cue from Macs.
They've gone to putting all your personal files in a reasonably placed directory! C:\Users\Name
Wow! It's been since what, Windows 95 that I've been cursing the idiot who decided to hide the path to your personal files. In this regard, they're copying Unix.
I know that security is supposed to be better, but do I really have to go through two pop up confirmations each time I want to delete a file or access a control panel? I need to see if I can turn that off.
So in conclusion, yeah, it looks better, and probably works better, but most of the tangible improvements are just Microsoft catching up to Mac and Linux. But since I'm stuck with Windows, I'll take it.
I now have 3gigs of RAM, but my damned video card is the slow link now. Never thought that would happen.
If you can, don't 'upgrade,' do a clean install. Mine failed both times I selected the upgrade option. After 2.5 hours of installation each time.
When it was finally done:
I guess that most of the improvements are under the hood, because there aren't really a lot of obvious changes. The look and feel is improved - I think this is where the need for the new graphics card comes in. Of course, they are once again copying the Mac OS here.
The sidebar is interesting, and long overdue. Again, a cue from Macs.
They've gone to putting all your personal files in a reasonably placed directory! C:\Users\Name
Wow! It's been since what, Windows 95 that I've been cursing the idiot who decided to hide the path to your personal files. In this regard, they're copying Unix.
I know that security is supposed to be better, but do I really have to go through two pop up confirmations each time I want to delete a file or access a control panel? I need to see if I can turn that off.
So in conclusion, yeah, it looks better, and probably works better, but most of the tangible improvements are just Microsoft catching up to Mac and Linux. But since I'm stuck with Windows, I'll take it.
The Terror
I must admit that my memory of the history of the French Revolution has gotten a bit vague. A lot of my specific memories of studies that I used to be able to call up instantly have gone that way. I shall indeed have to go back and refresh my memory - I had never made the link in my head between today and the Reign of Terror:
Bush's Dangerous Liaisons - NYTimes
I do though, have to wonder if the author made that title, or was it by an editor whose only knowledge of French history is the movie with John Malkovic? It makes no sense to me in the context of the article.
The origin of the word terrorist is indeed interesting...
Bush's Dangerous Liaisons - NYTimes
I do though, have to wonder if the author made that title, or was it by an editor whose only knowledge of French history is the movie with John Malkovic? It makes no sense to me in the context of the article.
The origin of the word terrorist is indeed interesting...
Friday, October 26, 2007
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Friday, October 12, 2007
If you're surprised, you haven't been paying attention
I find it hard to believe that anyone is surprised by this. Maybe they're surprised that she actually came out and said it publicly, but everyone should know that this is what fundamentalists think of Jews...
Coulter: Christians as ‘Perfected Jews’ - NYTimes
Coulter: Christians as ‘Perfected Jews’ - NYTimes
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