myoclonus

Looking Back on the 90s: Political Correctness, an argument about it

2008-08-12T13:56:00.000-07:00

Overt, aggressive political correctness* seems to have faded from the scene over time. This is not, however, due to its expiration--we did not simply tire of it, like we did with grunge; rather, political correctness was assimilated completely into our culture, a massive argument-ending victory.
[My mother probably remembers the horrible diarrhea faces I made when she described a friend as "Oriental". That was probably 1996. Today she speaks polite, proper English, which means she does not make those kinds of mistakes anymore.]
It would be interesting to know more about how one goes about installing an entirely set of mores into a recalcitrant society like ours. It would be beneficial if we could install a similar set of injunctions against wasteful consumption**.

Anyhow, Americans nowdays collectively know not to do this kind of thing:

*I'm thinking of stuff like debating new gender-neutral pronouns, that kind of garbage.
**The only other successful campaign to install these kinds of mores that comes to mind is the "Don't Mess With Texas" campaign, which was apparently successful in reducing littering by appealing to Texans' weird chauvanism about our state.

Not News

2008-08-08T14:09:00.000-07:00

Is there a justification for the national news media covering the story of a missing child?

Unless there's some kind of "Amber Alert" situation in which the public is being asked to help look for the child, I think there is no reason for the national news media to cover cases of individual missing children. People interested in such matters can watch Nancy Grace.

The same goes for just about all murders. These are not national news.

Landlocked, Public Transit, etc. IV

2008-08-05T16:42:00.000-07:00

I think the problem we have with public transit (only for poor stinky people who will stand in the sun in 100+ degree weather) in Texas will become lessened when the town or the transit authority sets up some seriously good wifi and everyone has some kind of wireless internet applicance. Cooler, more comfortable bus shelters would help too. But it's really the ability to divorce the material world temporarily and ascend into the network for the course of our commutes that will wean us off our cars.

Landlocked, Public Transit, etc. III

2008-08-02T17:30:00.000-07:00

It is 105 degrees outside and 85 degrees is the best my A/C unit can muster.
I peeked at my parents electric bill yesterday and it was over $600, so I can't wait to see the final total on mine.
On MSNBC the heads keep talking about people taking "staycations", staying home for vacation because they don't have enough money to go anywhere. What if they can't afford to keep their home cool? I guess they could hang out at Starbucks, while they're still cool and plentiful...

Public Transit II

2008-07-30T16:50:00.000-07:00

I have been experimenting with alternative routes to school using public transit. My preferred route requires me to drive half a mile and park to ride a shuttle/trolly to campus. The idea of driving to public transit sounds bad, but actually it puts my car close to the greenhouse where I have to go every day (by car) regardless of how I get to campus.
The shuttle/trolly vehicles are cramped with wooden bench seating and just circle the downtown and campus, too uncomfortable for the homeless apparently. Most riders are female, some are tourists but more are state workers or community college students.
I prefer a short drive to an uncomfortable fake trolly to my alternative public transit commute, a 50 min trip door to door with a transfer downtown. The transfer is even more of a killer than the homeless weirdness. I don't like being more than 30 min from my car--the idea of it makes me cranky. I hate getting stranded with the homeless downtown during rush hour when it's 100 degrees.
I am hoping that the public transportation options increase when all the university shuttle routes start back up in the fall, but I'm not willing to give up my car for commuting purposes yet.

Public Transit

2008-07-29T15:01:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about moving back here from NYC was getting to drive, not having to wait for trains, not having to rub shoulders with the rude and homeless.

Riding the bus here really sucks because it's still primarily the preferred transportation of the homeless. The homeless here aren't as bad off as those in NYC--they seem not too cracked out and seem like they get to bathe every other day or so. They don't smell terrible but they also don't smell great: the bus has a distinct odor of sebum on these hot days. In NYC people are going to work; here it seems like half the riders are just on the bus for the free air conditioning.
There are way fewer homeless alcoholic schizophrenics in Texas.
White people who are homeless get a wicked Red Lobster tan from waiting around for the bus all the time. You can't hide that.

I dislike being crushed in with these people on the bus. I find it hard not to size up everyone's terrible tattoos. Lots of the women are cutters too--those scars don't react well to the Texas sun. Last week I was sitting behind a very dark skinned African-American male in his 20s; on the back of his neck was a barely-visible-despite-being-super-heavy, dark lettered tattoo saying "Respected by All".

I admit not having a ton of respect for my fellow man.

The Cracker Story

2008-07-25T13:01:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you all heard about the cracker dustup. Perhaps this is the best summary though.
It ended today. I think PZ Myers did a good job ending the whole saga. It's pretty eloquent, I'd say.

While I have no interest in helping Catholics further rationalize their delusional beliefs, I want to explore a line of argument open to them (disclaimer: I was forced to attend Mass until the age of 15-16 and refused to go through Confirmation). I think there's a way that a Catholic could come away from the cracker dustup not only being but also looking like the better man.

First, the Catholic must recall that most of the world is not Catholic. The rest of the world, theist and atheist alike, care nothing for Catholic dogmas and sacraments. Try explaining the details of Transubstantiation and Communion to anyone who isn't Catholic (or Lutheran or Episcopalian maybe) and they will find it all ridiculous and/or gross. This is just a cross you'll have to bear. You can try to bear it in some kind of Christlike manner (I'm not making any recommendations here!) or you can react like Bill Donahue.

It's important to remember how this whole thing started. There was no theft or even malice on the part of the student who took the communion wafer. It is Catholics who reacted monstrously.

The proper response (in my advice to Catholics) would have been not to respond monstrously to the initial incident. Whether out of ignorance or malice, people are going to insult your beliefs--live with it. And think how many actual communion wafer desecrations the Bill Donahues caused by their intemperate reaction to the guy who tried to walk off with his communion wafer to show a friend who was curious about Catholicism.

Landlocked

2008-07-15T15:55:00.000-07:00

So I started taking the bus to work most days a couple of days ago. It's not necessarily that fuel has gotten so expensive--driving 5 miles doesn't take a lot of gas--it's more that parking is a problem and there's a bus stop right outside my driveway, so I feel like I should start taking public transportation.
I guess I also feel like I'm getting ready for something. I'm preparing for a time in the very near future when our lives will be massively reorganized by the high price of transportation.
I recently had an opportunity to travel to another hemisphere for work, someplace I'd always wanted to go. I turned it down due to office politics, mostly, but I'm very worried that I will never get to go. It's not hard to imagine that soon it will cost many thousands of dollars to fly across an ocean.
People in Texas have sold their trucks and SUVs; when the students return in the fall, the mediocre public transportation infrastructure will sputter and gasp, and huge investments will have to be made to keep the city alive.
Previously I had thought that urban sprawl might not end during my lifetime, but I think it has ended. We will have to come up with a name for the contraction of populations back into urban centers that followed the age of of cheap gas and urban sprawl.

Arguments in lieu of stories: I

2008-07-03T14:31:00.000-07:00

Another reason I haven't felt like writing is that I'm happy with and interested in my work. That does not make for good blogging.

But I still have a rich inner life, right? And you'd love to hear about that?
Right on!

So, I used to hate the idea of the Singularity because this douche Ray Kurtzweil was pimping the idea. Kurzweil's model of the Singularity is rife with category mistakes. He assumes faster computers will spontaneously become conscious, a whole load of bullshit.
Here's my take on the Singularity:
The Singularity is well underway. The Singularity will have occurred when most humans are connected to the internet most of the time. This seems likely to be achieved relatively soon; the $199 no-contract iPhone is a move towards this...very little additional technology is required for the Singularity. Something like the iPhone can move downmarket and become as common as a wristwatch and completely transform us. The shape of the devices isn't important: they could be iPhones, watches, monacles, implants...
I'm relatively sure the Singularity will have occurred by 2060, so let me sum up my view thus: it will be clear that a teenager growing up the 1960s belongs to a separate species from a teenager growing up in 2060.
Agree or disagree!?

Ongoing

2008-06-29T12:57:00.000-07:00

Hi, I got bigtime data dropped on me, and that makes me have to work on the computer for long hours which makes me not want to blog!
We are talking about Excel spreadsheets so big they cannot be opened in Excel. Pity me!

One of the genomes I've been hurrying to get properly assembled is from an Australian plant.
I have an Australian fetish (manflesh, not plants) that is motivating me to try to get to travel down there. Anyone have any idea how a guy raised in Texas gets an Australian fetish?