Tag Archives: archaeology

So Many Teeth, Bunches of History, Scifi and Comic News, and Good to Help Balance Out the Bad

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This entry is part 68 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Right now, a bunch of people I know are out on the West Coast at San Diego Comic Con.

Another few are bouncing around various European countries.

Still more are heading off for two weeks of Pennsic War.

And, in another month, some mix of those same bunches of people will be heading to Dragon*Con.

I won’t be doing any of those things. It’s just not possible. Won’t be for a while.

That makes me a little sad.

But, things are what they are, and only time will open some doors again.

(I should also be asleep right now…. speaking of time…)

Here’s the feed…

Innovation Squashed, Bigotry from the Bench, Hacking Hackers, Science Rap, and Work-life Balance

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This entry is part 53 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

As I mention frequently (perhaps too frequently), my own natural flow doesn’t fit exceptionally well with the standard 40-hour work week setup.

I’ve also said for years that we’ve become victims of our technology instead of masters of it.

Instead of allowing our advancing technology to give us modest gains in both free time and productivity, we’ve instead gone whole-hog for productivity at all costs. Creating a culture of utter consumption and quest for profit above all else.

This is unhealthy. It leads to people being continually unsatisfied–as they are regularly manipulated by advertising and cultural pressure to have more, to consume more, and to be conspicuous as hell about it. It’s devoured our culture and contributes stress beyond belief to our lives.

How I think it should have gone? Technology should have, at least in part, freed up more time for everyone to explore the things that interest them. Yes, progress would have been slower, but it also would have been deeper. And, I think, the modern world wouldn’t seem so shallow, trite, and cold as it often does.

We’d have more patience with each other (since competition and one-ups-manship wouldn’t be quite so big a part of our lives). We’d enjoy ourselves more (because we’d actually have time to).

Anyway, those are shorthand thoughts. The article in today’s stream (which I know I’ve posted before in years past, since it’s from 2010) says it all better (and if you click through to the comments, there’s another article there that goes even deeper).

Enjoy what free time you have and don’t let the machine grind you too much on your way through…

https://www.facebook.com/kierduros/activity/10152121073215981

Shocking Lightning, Soggy Bears, Militarized Police, Turing Test Fudge, Really Questionable Politics, and an End to Board Cheese

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I’m pretty open about the fact that I have a number of issues with the politicians who run the country, supposedly in our name. This has been the case through at least two decades at this point.

Today there’s a story about a state senator from Virginia who’s resigning from his position. Ostensibly in order to take a more prestigious political appointment and to clear the way for his daughter to get an appointment that his current position precludes her from holding. That in and of itself is pretty shady if you ask me. I mean, the guy was elected by his constituents to represent them and now he’s all, “Oh, yeah, sorry about that… you won’t mind if I just step down and get a better job over here, right?”

Not. Cool.

What makes it even less cool is that he’s a Democrat and his resignation tips the balance in the state legislature in favor of the Republicans.

So, not only is he stepping away from the position that those who voted for him entrusted to him in order to pursue personal gain and glory, in doing so he’s effectively handing over his hunk of the legislature to the other side. That’s totally: “Oh, yeah, and by the way, all that stuff I promised I’d represent you about… I’m just going to go and let it get outvoted by the people you disagree with the most. That’s not a problem, right?”

Doubly. Not. Cool.

The final tidbit is just icing on the cake at this point. Seems that shiny new appointment he’s leaving for (and the one that his daughter will get now that she’s free to do so)… those are positions that the Republican party has the power to grant. The scuttlebutt, of course, is that they’ve offered him these perks in order to get him out of the way so they can have a clear path to blocking anything the governor wants to do. So we can just tack on to the above two sentences, “Oh, and I’m doing it at the behest of those people that you sent me here to fight against.”

That’s just beyond “not cool.” That’s downright traitorous. That’s a full and complete middle finger to anyone who voted for him and trusted that he’d continue to do the job he’s been doing for years.

This is politics at its worst.

It makes me a bit ill to read about it.

Because it’s happening right in the open and, so far, no one’s doing anything about it.

Because it’s nothing new. This is how things have “worked” on and off since the first time one person was put in charge of the well being of others.

But just because it’s nothing new doesn’t mean it has to be business as usual. We know about it. We can do something about it (even if it is just shun the hell out of this guy). We can speak up and say “This sort of thing is more than unacceptable, it’s reprehensible.”

And, really, I hope a lot of people in Virginia do that.

Community News, Wolverine, a lot of Culture Talk, Some Science, a Little Food, and The Wonder Years Reunion

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This entry is part 37 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

I was asked in a comment stream today why I post (or, technically, share… since other people have found most of them first) the articles I do, especially about the whole misogynist culture stuff that’s really being talked about a lot right now.

The answer is simple: Awareness needs to grow.

I know far too many people–myself included–who either are or were blind to how their actions impact the lives of others.

You can’t consciously change things you don’t know you’re doing.

I can’t make anyone improve themselves. But I can at least, maybe, give them some insight into their own actions. (I know, long ago, I was utterly shocked at many of the things I was doing without realizing it.)

We can’t make anyone do anything… not without a whole lot of negatives that outstrip the positives. Plus, unless there’s a critical mass of awareness and will to begin with, forced change never sticks.

This is part of the build up to that critical mass of awareness and will to change.

If just one or two people are shaken awake, realize what they’re doing isn’t what they think they’re doing, and make personal change, then there is progress.

There’s always more than one or two people who are shaken awake.

In the particular case of this issue of entrenched male privileged and misogynist culture, we’re talking about something that is even more entrenched than racism or homophobia. It goes back thousands of years and is built into political discourse and religion like nothing else.

But just because we’ve never known a time that was different, doesn’t mean we can’t try to be better than we (as a species) have ever been before when it comes to equality.

That right there is the beauty of free will and not being trapped and controlled by our biology alone.

So, yeah, I think it’s kind of important.

Giger Passes, Giant Critters, Batman, Daredevil, Furry Walls, Cool History, Science, and a few really funny things

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This entry is part 27 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Sometime, my mind does really awesome things at night. Like craft amazing worlds and situations that put any movie to shame with their expanse and visual wonders.

Last night was not one of those night.

Last night the dream that my mind generated was, at best, a B-grade rode trip rock ‘n’ roll farce. Likely brought on by going to bed really wanting to watch Get Him to the Greek.

Mine involved some wild huge group trip to a big deal concert by some big name band. A total experience thing that involved staying up all night before in an airport before getting on board the secret plane to the concert location.

Well, hilarity ensued and there were baggage problems, missed connections, and a lot of running from point A to point B only to find out we actually needed to be at point C. Two of my friends made an appearance in the dream, on definitely as themselves, the other cast by whatever third rate casting director my brain employed for nothing more than their enthusiasm (because the character they played most certainly didn’t have the brains my actual friend does).

And just when all seemed lost, the hero arrived to save the day.

Billy Joel!

As played my Michael Keaton.

Seriously.

WTF mind? You couldn’t use the actual celebrity? It’s not like dream him is busy somewhere else. Right?

So, yeah, I woke up right before the (inevitable) big turn around in the brain film, so I was even cheated out of what would surely have been an epic (or epicly bad) grand finale… likely on the level of Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park.

~sigh~ Here’s hoping there’s more of a budget for tonight’s slumbering entertainment.