Month: September 2007

Jane Smiley on the modern Republican party and it’s evolution:

[W]hen you reject common humanity, value profits above people, practice sectarian religion, feel contempt for the choices of others, exalt wealth, conflate consumersim with citizenship, join exclusive clubs, daily practice unkindness rather than kindness, and develop theories, such as those of free market capitalism, that allow you to congratulate yourself morally for selfishness and short-sightedness, then being a gang member is in your future.

The Paleolithic Diet “is the diet that man evolved on,…:

The Paleolithic Diet “is the diet that man evolved on, the diet that is coded for in our genes”. The diet consists of avoiding grains, beans, dairy, sugar, etc.; eating meat/chicken/fish, eggs, fruit, veggies, nuts, etc.; and increasing your intake of root veggies and organ meats like liver.

(link)

Put simply, that diet is what you would expect from animals whose existence is consumed with simple survival — food-gathering, procreation, and shelter. No herding, no agriculture, just an existence tied to the success of today’s hunting and gathering.

If we believe, as I do, that man is capable of making choices beyond the most basic ones — and given that I am writing this and someone else is reading it, with the technological underpinnings that requires, what else can be true? — perhaps we are post-evolution. Evolution moves too slowly for us to see it, in most cases, and the changes are subtle. And where evolutionary changes are a response to environmental pressures or the like, humans are more likely to stall evolution by adjusting the environment to suit their present needs.

topical comment from Tbogg’s commentariat:

Darwin wasn’t wrong, in controlling our environment we have allowed these people to survive. Even so, they’re struggling. Have you noticed the rates at which these people breed in an effort to guarantee their survival?
CJ | Homepage | 09.14.07 – 10:39 am | #

That Bush Speech:

Here’s the irony in this, and you’ll forgive me if I speak entirely bluntly here: I suspect the vast majority of Americans don’t care about Iraq in the slightest, except to the extent that it has Americans in it. If Bush were to say “screw it,” and brought every single American serviceperson home tomorrow, his ratings would shoot right through the roof, Americans would rejoice, and by and large any concern about Iraq would fall entirely off their radar. Mind you, Iraq would be an unspeakable mess: The Sunnis and the Shiites would fall on each other, Turkey would possibly invade Northern Iraq, where all the Kurds are, and Iran would be happily munching popcorn and wandering in from time to time to make mischief. But those would all be someone else’s problems, now, wouldn’t they? The “Pottery Barn” theory of war is all very nice, but the fact is most Americans would be happy to leave cleaning up the mess to someone else. Sure, everyone else in the world would hate us for it. But they hate us already, thanks to the last six years, and at least this way we’d not be spending billions and having our sons and daughters die for the privilege of being despised.

Find Your Candidate – VAJoe.com – Where The Military Matters Most:

Answer the questions below to find the 2008 Presidental candidate that best aligns with your beliefs. Give it a try!

Mark the column for ‘Yes’ if you support the issue and ‘No’ if you oppose it. After that, select how important the topic is to you. If you are unsure or have no opinion on a topic, just mark the unsure column. You will be scored based upon how well you match the current views of each of the 2008 presidental candidates.

Your Top Match:

Based on your responses, this is your top candidate for 2008.

Former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel (D)
91.30% match

Thoughts on Pavarotti:

The finest singers not only hit the notes but erase the difference between notes and words. Singing is most thrilling when it becomes a kind of heightened talking.

Even More Transport:

Barcelona has a recently new program called Bicing, which is a bike sharing program. Bike stations are placed strategically throughout the city, and subway stops usually have signs pointing to them. Members have a card which they swipe, they’re told which bike to grab, and off they go. It isn’t necessary to return the bikes to where you got them; they can be dropped off at any bicing station. The first half hour is free, and after that there’s a bit of a surcharge. When the program began they set the annual membership fee at some absurd low figure like 7 Euros, causing most of the city to sign up. That’s now been increased to 24 Euros.

It’s apparently become quite popular with seniors, who use them for leisurely afternoon bike rides.

And from the same source:

Philly Car Share now claims 25,000 members, and has lowered midweek rates on Priuses to $2.90/hour, $29/day.

Would They Share?:

We have launched wouldtheyshare.com, a website about whether Britain is a sharing nation. We want to spread the word about FON in the UK, and for that reason we created wouldtheyshare.com. Our site reveals the Brits’ attitudes towards sharing, and we are giving away 100 La Fonera+ among people who answer our daily sharing question and register at fon.com. And there is more! Amongst this month’s voters, we are giving away a trip to Madrid (flight + hotel) for two people. Check the details here.

Harry S Truman:

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”

• Slashdot | The Morality of Web Advertisement Blocking
  My first slashdotting.
  (tags: slashdot memes)
• 174 – The Nine Nations of North America
  Still relevant after 27 years.
  (tags: books history society culture)
• Flying to Toronto to learn about Christmas Lights?
  ‘Not only does this not seem “environmentally friendly” (to use the city’s words), but it seems, at least on the surface, the kind of thing that could be solved with a 30 minute telephone call.’ This from a guy who spends more time studying airline schedu
  (tags: transportation climatechange environment)