Baxil [bakh-HEEL'], n. - Link roundup, 2007-10
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01:15 am
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Link roundup, 2007-10
Cleaning out my browser windows of all of the "I need to mention this later!" cruft from the last few weeks:
- I've been apathetic on The Golden Compass for months now. But something finally came along that got me interested in seeing it.
- Speaking of which, here's the site of an atheist rapper (sample lyrics).
- And if anyone ever tells you (as one of the Republican presidential candidates recently did) that the Declaration of Independence's signers were "mostly clergymen," send them to this beatdown.
- In the department of Science Telling Us Things That Are Obvious To Everyone But The Moral Majority, feminists have better relationships and sex lives. The study shows this also carries over to their partners.
- I should probably set this link on computer desk posture to be my home page.
- If you need more sleep, consider the benefits of planned power naps. (
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) roaminrob, I'm looking at you.)
- Exploitable OS bugs get the most publicity, but they're not the only virus risk to your computer.
- Another great link on fighting procrastination that I keep meaning to take the advice of. One of these years.
- Paul Krugman's introductory blog post hits hard in its summary of one of the worst modern American trends: Rising income inequality. The numbers alone tell the story -- we're back in a Gilded Age.
- And reading this article on why rich countries are rich and poor countries are poor was like a switch clicking on in my head. The basic revelation -- that high-trust conditions are profitable, and low-trust conditions impoverishing, and that it's easy to degrade trust but extremely hard to engender it -- applies far beyond macroeconomics, and (among other things) is the basis of a fantastic critique of Bastard Culture. Unpacking this is probably worth a post of its own.
- The origin of "DO NOT WANT."
- Currency as art. Adding a Dream Coin to my get-someday-when-I-can-buy-small-luxuries-without-guilt list now.
- And a new webcomic find: three beautiful, poignant riffs on hope, sportsmanship, and compassion [that last one might not make sense without the context of the previous strip].
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Here's today's parting shot -- a quotable definition by Jesse Walker (source):
Patriotism: I love my dad.
Nationalism: My dad can beat up your dad.
Imperialism: Here he comes now.
Current Location: ~spiral
Current Music: Simple Minds, "Don't You Forget About Me"
Tags: link roundup
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Ooo! I'll definitely want to see The Golden Compass now. When does it come out?
![[User Picture]](http://p-userpic.livejournal.com/9461209/240226) | | From: | baxil |
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| Date: | October 27th, 2007 09:10 am (UTC) |
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You know what would be funny? If we could somehow convince the religious right-wingers that the book it's based on was written by a Japanese guy. They'd jump all over the fact that the movie comes out on Pearl Harbor Day, and provide many unintentional laughs for the rest of us. >:}
![[User Picture]](http://p-userpic.livejournal.com/74135667/521063) | | From: | pathia |
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| Date: | October 27th, 2007 09:23 am (UTC) |
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I've read the trilogy. The quote that "My books are about killing God" is quite literally exactly true. It's literally a series about a second rebellion against heaven, and the rebels are the good guys.
Who's to say that the rebels weren't the good guys the first time? God has better press officers, but that doesn't make it fact.
A rebellion is always legal in the first person, such as "our rebellion." It is only in the third person - "their rebellion" - that it becomes illegal.
![[User Picture]](http://p-userpic.livejournal.com/3742064/303965) | | From: | heron61 |
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| Date: | October 27th, 2007 09:24 am (UTC) |
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And reading this article on why rich countries are rich and poor countries are poor was like a switch clicking on in my head. The basic revelation -- that high-trust conditions are profitable, and low-trust conditions impoverishing, and that it's easy to degrade trust but extremely hard to engender it -- applies far beyond macroeconomics, and (among other things) is the basis of a fantastic critique of Bastard Culture. Unpacking this is probably worth a post of its own.
It is also an implicit critique of libertarianism and also of neoconservative economics and politics. In both libertarianism and neoconservatism, cooperation, especially large-scale cooperation is considered both a choice for the weak and more importantly, non-cooperative action is considered both morally and economically superior.
In both libertarianism and neoconservatism, cooperation, especially large-scale cooperation is considered both a choice for the weak and more importantly, non-cooperative action is considered both morally and economically superior.
Well, no. Libertarians exalt the marketplace, which they reasonably view as a sort of cooperation. They're also fine with any other sort of voluntary cooperation. They certainly don't denounce it as "weak." There are some libertarians whose ideal lifestyle is one guy living alone in the woods fending for himself, but they're a pretty small bunch; the rest understand the value of cooperating.
Neoconservatives, meanwhile, adore "national greatness" and admire the sort of large-scale cooperation that goes into making war. So they aren't anti-cooperative either.
I should go back and reread the His Dark Materials trilogy. I did so for the first time in jr. high, and time and distance has made my memories of it's supposedly subversive, anti-religious content, a bit fuzzier. It was definitely there, yeah. But I kinda remember going, "Oh hey cool religious stuff. This author is doing neat and weird things. I'll keep reading."
Is the procrastination link author on LJ?
Their last habit of highly ineffective people is:
7. Constantly on information overload.
- It creates an urge to keep up with what's happening but there are always ten more things happening so you can't keep up. This makes life stressful.
This a a good point and I should discuss it in more detail after I check my FL.
I like the one guy in your icon who just sits there.
That's very interesting about The Golden Compass... I'd probably give my kids both that trilogy and Narnia, and let them figure it out.
The DO NOT WANT origin makes it much funnier.
I should probably read the procrastination article. Or get started on my schoolwork.
You know Chewbacca should have been called "Drag Along" to begin with.
... I remember reading His Dark Materials. Around the time when I was reading Narnia, actually... I don't remember anything overtly religious in that trilogy, although I spotted it in Narnia pretty quickly, but then again I think I was about thirteen. Both series annoyed me, I don't remember why. Kept wanting to slap some of the characters.
And, of course, people hearing about this movie who can't _stand_ the thought of kids seeing fantasy that neither ignores nor wholeheartedly embraces their views gasp, slap their palms to their cheeks, and dial the Waaambulance.
I read a book recently. I think it was called "How the Religious Right is Hijacking Our Declaration of Independence", and it had a lot of stuff about how most of the Founding Fathers were deists, and didn't recognize the supposed holiness of Christ and Christianity. Slacktivist didn't make the same points, but it was towards the same end. Church and state were intended to be separate.
*reads the Backstroke of the West entry*
*breaks down weeping*
That's just... that's just...
Okay, that was traumatizing. I think my faith in the basic intelligence of humanity just collapsed. Again. *rolls eyes*
Seriously, that's like the game kinkyturtle put up on his LJ where you use bablefish to turn things like "The horrifying ineptness of that translation makes me want to vomit" into "That Turns Translates Fears Fears Not Suitable When Causes I Thought Wants Vomits Spits".
That England Language To Chinese Language Turns Translates For Sentiment Festival 3. With Loses Defeat Fills in Installs.
![[User Picture]](http://p-userpic.livejournal.com/40902704/240226) | | From: | baxil |
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| Date: | October 31st, 2007 09:31 am (UTC) |
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> Okay, that was traumatizing. No arguments there. Although it's really not so much an issue of intelligence as it is the collision of incompatible linguistic frameworks. (And, I strongly suspect, poor tools to deal with that shift. The Engrish captions have the scent of being run through an automated translator not much more sophisticated than Babelfish.) I at least had a little preparation for encountering such travesty -- a few years ago I reported on Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-Up-To-Dragon. It was probably that which inspired my tongue-in-cheek reference to "Dragon's Westward Journey" in Dangerous Waters. (Which really has withstood the test of time, and is probably one of the best pieces of fiction I've ever written.) I hope you don't mind that I've friended you, btw. :)
![[User Picture]](http://p-userpic.livejournal.com/48935291/9805751) | | From: | joysweeper |
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| Date: | November 2nd, 2007 08:33 pm (UTC) |
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I love that icon!
True. I have kin who lived in China and sent us ripped-off copies of video games. Some were copies of games out in the US, and the text was just fine, although after a year they stopped recording save data. Others, however, were games that had been in Japan, gone over to China where they were(presumably) translated into some form of Chinese, and then were translated into English. _Badly._ Do I still have any of them- no, I think I threw them out. Just as well.
I remember your post about HP&LWUTD(it's just too long not to abbreviate) back before I had a LJ. I've only ever been moderately interested in Potter, though. It's worse when they do that to something you adore. *shrug* A little intensive therapy and all is well.
Dangerous Waters... that was good! I'm impressed with how well-thought-out it was- it didn't feel like a magic jaunt, it felt like exactly what it was, with real people. It reminded me of this TV documentary I saw once about a bunch of marine biologist-types out looking for giant squid. Definitely impressed. I think I'm envious. :P |
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