Nine hundred ninety-nine in a thousand

Occasionally I have a thought and immediately realize that thousands of others already have had exactly the same thought.  That happened today re the Chinese in space: how can I be sure they didn’t fake the whole thing?

The first sip of a bitter cup

Something very simple to ponder: we are on the way out. Every decade of this century will summon forth new humiliations for western democracy as its power and influence wanes irreversibly throughout the world. Our children will live to see a world where we are a second-rate power.

Politics, Scourge of Man

I’ve been to countries where the people care about politics. Elections are grand carnivals and the candidates are minor deities.  Presidential addresses are given attention equal to a soccer match.  Victories are celebrated with gunshots fired into the air (if you’re lucky).  It makes sense.  In those countries, where spoils sinecures and government largess are the people’s daily bread, it is worth great pains to see that one’s caste, tribe, or social class is well-represented in the Assembly.  It’s exhausting to live in such a democracy, akin to remaining in high school one’s entire life.

It is with great alarm that I note that our political conventions are breaking ratings records on television and that the forthcoming Presidential debates are being eagerly anticipated by Americans.  In times past, many folks proudly proclaimed their indifference to politics.  Who does that nowadays?  It can be taken as a sign that ours will soon be a country just like all the others, where politics is followed with all the devotion of professional sports.  After all, we all have a stake, right?  And the stakes just get bigger all the time.

Apropos of Nothing II

McElligot’s Pool kicks the pants off One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.

Apropos of nothing

It is mind-boggling to me—and, judging by their output, many film producers—how nitpicky science-fiction and fantasy fans will be about films set in existing universes whilst simultaneously liking any piece of crap without antecedents that throws them even the smallest of bones.

Sci-fi, Old and New

Gabe (a.k.a. RDGStout) is always pestering me to read about Allan Quatermain & Co.  I hadn’t realized until yesterday (thanks, Wikipedia) that I already knew a book by the same author, H. Rider Haggard.  The book was The People of the Mist, and it was a tale of head-hunters, helpful pygmies, gold-panning and fifty-foot crocodiles.  It was an adventure, and I was about seven years old.  I wondered about that book off and on for years and thought it might be obscure; thankfully no, it should be easy to locate another copy.

Does it seem odd to hunt down a hundred-year-old title, when there are so many newer titles easily available? Newer books seem to take the reader for granted, as though he isn’t owed a good story for his dime.  Take Years of Salt and Rice for an example of an unfortunate commonplace: a book with a great premise and an even better title that’s dull as dishwater to read.  The entire book feels like a pot-fueled undergraduate bull session (fun for the participants but torture for observers).  As literature it fails even on its own terms; twin non-fiction articles in the Atlantic, 1491 and The Diffusionists Have Landed, did a better job of singing for the ghost of the pre-Columbian world and what-iffing an alternative American colonization.

History’s the damndest thing, isn’t it?  A messenger gets delayed and suddenly Marathon goes the other way and we’re all writing right-to-left.  Even quantum theory is in love with these other worlds where the coin lands opposite. It’s a terrible burden to carry the one fragile, irreplaceable box on your own shoulders.  Much better to suppose that should things go wrong for us that there’s another us out there for whom things might still go right.  It’s no wonder our ancestors seized upon reincarnation early on; the alternative, that there’s only one chance at life for king and slave alike, is too horrible to contemplate.

Edited for length -nb

High on Bias

Studies show that the brain is wired to get a quick high from reading things that agree with our point of view. The same studies proved that, strangely, we also get a rush from intentionally dismissing information that disagrees, no matter how well supported it is. Yes, our brain rewards us for being closed-minded dicks.

WiiFit is Awesome!

I’m never exercising again, except in video game form.  Fresh air is for chumps!

The Arms Race

From CNN: Cocaine Smugglers Turn to Submarines.  What’s next, drug-laden ICBMs landing in the heartland?

Bad Ideas, Inc.

Though saved by lack of consequence from the ignominy of inclusion in the ranks of historically bad ideas, the decision by The Nation magazine to parody the New Yorker’s cover, substituting the Republican candidates for Mr. and Mrs. Obama, surely merits honorable mention.  If you’re going to steal another guy’s act, you’d better improve upon it or you’ll look like a chump.