tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post8537634400744257321..comments2024-03-18T21:52:45.757-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: The Betrayal of the Smart SonsDavid Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger211125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-35745684485428235552010-01-09T22:12:28.706-08:002010-01-09T22:12:28.706-08:00On to next posting...On to next posting...David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-32336555759970553512010-01-09T22:04:33.147-08:002010-01-09T22:04:33.147-08:00You are all terrific and yes, it is difficult push...You are all terrific and yes, it is difficult pushing civilization forward in tiny increments. But I am proud that most of the people who drop in to be citizens of this community do seem to be the kind who want to leave civilization a little more worthy of the name.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-37913975769685785622010-01-09T20:53:09.879-08:002010-01-09T20:53:09.879-08:00Part of what talked me out of becoming a teacher w...Part of what talked me out of becoming a teacher was when a teenaged girl sexually harassed me when I was substitute teaching. That and the plot that was uncovered by a group of 3rd graders to torture and possibly kill their 3rd grade teacher.<br /><br />I realize that the "harassment" was a power play by the teenager. She didn't like the fact I was keeping her and her friends from talking loudly. But having some girl almost half my age (then) start alluding to one of those teachers in New Hampshire who'd gotten pregnant after an affair with a student while trying to put her hands on me and... ugh.<br /><br />Even though that happened many years ago... I still find myself seriously disturbed when I think of that encounter. <br /><br />Rob H.Acacia H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07678539067303911329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-40153153002755611272010-01-09T20:34:33.518-08:002010-01-09T20:34:33.518-08:00And I teach teenagers in the early morning and par...And I teach teenagers in the early morning and participate in a STEM mentoring program. But Conservatives around me don't think I'm much of a conservative, so maybe I don't count like Tacitus does. <br /><br />But this much I know: if you want your life to include self-humility, teach teenagers. At this point I think that nothing on earth takes more personal energy. Part of the reason I can never vote "no" on a teacher pay raise or a school levy.Rob Perkinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15618647194288598056noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-41999112741165881302010-01-09T19:03:48.657-08:002010-01-09T19:03:48.657-08:00Well, the next time you'all are feeling unhapp...Well, the next time you'all are feeling unhappy with me I will just remind you that I am in the tenth year of providing, gratis, an afterschool robotics program for our middle school. Like FIRST, but with virtually no budget and very few rules (almost all of which I encourage kids to subvert, so long as they maintain a modicum of sense and saftey).<br />The previous coordinator of the program was a ferocious progressive, very down on the Bush admin. We always joked that donating my time and odd talents was my penance for being a conservative.<br />And I must say, it has given me some insights into the whole teacher/union/work situation.<br />Tactitus2Tacitus2noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-25396722738052401662010-01-09T16:15:23.889-08:002010-01-09T16:15:23.889-08:00"All I need to do is figure out how to transf..."All I need to do is figure out how to transform myself from a loser who never accomplished anything worthwhile into someone who makes a difference in the world."<br /><br />Dang, talk about finding a way to disarm folks and make yourself look like a great guy.... I sure feel stupid now!<br /><br />The most heroic profession I can think of is Junior High School science teacher. DO it well and you are likely to create maybe 200 major problem solvers, over the course of your career, who remember you as the reason they went forth to save the world.<br /><br />It also leaves you summers to work on that novel, or build houses in Hondorus alongside beautiful Swedish volunteers.....David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-88428631605605965102010-01-09T15:31:22.735-08:002010-01-09T15:31:22.735-08:00Thank you, Tony Fisk, "Transition Towns"...Thank you, Tony Fisk, "Transition Towns" is exactly what I had in mind.QuantusPilatenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-5551095030249510422010-01-09T14:34:20.352-08:002010-01-09T14:34:20.352-08:00See this year's FIRST Robotics Challenge!
htt...See this year's FIRST Robotics Challenge!<br /><br />http://topweb.arc.nasa.gov/first/2010/animation/BreakawayLrg.mov<br /><br /><br />http://topweb.arc.nasa.gov/first/2010/<br />then<br />animation/BreakawayLrg.movDavid Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-56486067642207729582010-01-09T14:26:36.917-08:002010-01-09T14:26:36.917-08:00The attempted shoe bomber was under Bush. Exact s...The attempted shoe bomber was under Bush. Exact same circumstances. Bush did not interrupt his vacation and took 6 days to comment. Fox hammered Obama for taking 3 days to comment on this guy.<br /><br />What's more important is to diagnose the more general trend. ALL talking points from the right are stories. Anecdotes. It's always generalization from some particular. Some of the anecdotes are cogent and valid. Most are bogus. But it is that general nature of their reasoning that is infantile.<br /><br />Yes, liberals and lefties fixate on some stories, too. The difference being that they also have irrefutable statistical metrics they can also point to. <br /><br />Like the fact that the nation was spectacularly healthier and stronger, after Bill Clinton's reign, and is now staggeringly weaker, after republican rule. Or the fact that not a single prediction ever made by their core economic theory - supply side - has ever even remotely come true. Those are devastating, huge. <br /><br />Or the absolute statistical fact that the GOP is not engaged in the political process of negotiation and deliberation that our founders set up, instead acting and voting in such perfect ideological/dogmatic lockstep perfection and utter uniformity, that the only parallel is a centralized party system such as we saw under the USSR. If any conservative can actually defend that practice, they have left the conservatism of old far behind.<br /><br /><br />This is not a matter of lefty bias. Everyone knows I can savage the left for its siboleths, and I do. No, I have chosen one side to call "far worse" because the demonstrable effects of its policies have harmed the nation and civilization that I love.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-24948067794997497102010-01-09T11:35:30.572-08:002010-01-09T11:35:30.572-08:00Someone else apparently said it a week earlier. Wh...Someone else apparently said it a week earlier. Which just goes to show Giuliani not only is an idiot, but he can't even say anything original. ;)<br /><br />Rob H.Acacia H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07678539067303911329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-13631584660610198292010-01-09T11:27:06.782-08:002010-01-09T11:27:06.782-08:00Rob,
Didn't someone else do that? I thought I...Rob,<br /><br />Didn't someone else do that? I thought I just saw someone else saying that same thing in a different interview the other day... It's been a long week, though, so I might be crossing memories.Ilithi Dragonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10300247936272572280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-2967043703329808182010-01-09T11:06:19.996-08:002010-01-09T11:06:19.996-08:00And the winner of the "Dumbass Idiot Comments...And the winner of the "Dumbass Idiot Comments of the Month" award is Rudi Giuliani who, on national television, berated President Obama for not being more Bush-like because (and I quote) <a href="http://gothamist.com/2010/01/08/giuliani_terrorists_never_attacked.php" rel="nofollow">"We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We’ve had one under Obama."</a><br /><br />What is worse? The Deniers are buying it. (I've realized that Deniers are not about global warming. They are about Denying. It doesn't matter if it's global warming, the greed of the big bank execs, the failures of unregulated capitalism, or anything a legally popularly-elected Democrat President does, they Deny it.) Such defenses against 9/11 is that "you can't count that against Bush" because something of that scope could not be predicted.<br /><br />I have come up with the perfect defense against Ostrich Conservatives however. When they start <i>whining</i> about ACORN and corruption and how Democrats are all evil bastards and all of that, I point out such Conservatives as that Republican Congressman chap who got caught having gay sex in an airport bathroom, a certain governor who used public money in flying to another country to have an affair on his wife, and several other oh-so-wonderful Republican screwups and then look at them and ask "Does a couple bad apples in the Republican basket ruin the whole batch? Then don't do the same for Liberals."<br /><br />I can hear the whines of "But it's different!" already. *rolls eyes*<br /><br />Rob H.Acacia H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07678539067303911329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-58338953864358282192010-01-09T09:52:43.992-08:002010-01-09T09:52:43.992-08:00A fascinating re-appraisal of Atlas Shrugged, by a...A fascinating re-appraisal of Atlas Shrugged, by a former fanatical devotee of Ayn Rand:<br /><br />http://open.salon.com/blog/kent_pitman/2010/01/08/erik_naggum_on_atlas_shrugged<br /><br />http://open.salon.com/blog/kent_pitman/<br />followed by<br />2010/01/08/erik_naggum_on_atlas_shruggedDavid Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-53616865285371149202010-01-09T03:41:27.443-08:002010-01-09T03:41:27.443-08:00"One day, we'll have all of those things ..."One day, we'll have all of those things (though, sadly, the fusion reactor will probably not come with a free teleporter), but right now we cannot move about our civilization and impact our civilization, make changes in our civilization, without producing carbon. We really can't do anything in our civilization without producing carbon. Yes, some of the big names in the battle against AGW have huge carbon footprints, but that is part of the cost of having a very large, wide-spread influence (or, at the least, a very large, wide-spread voice) in today's society."<br /><br />Well, yes, but you can still have a powerful voice while living relatively ascetically. They can fly commercial like the rest of us, rather than take their private jet. While they're at it, they can move into small (but still nicely appointed) apartments, rather than massive estates. Ralph Nader and Alan Greenspan have lived in small apartments most of their lives, but look how influential THEY are...<br /><br />(alas, both of them have also been single most of their lives. There seems to be something about being married that forces rich people who would otherwise be downtown Manhattan or DC apartment-dwellers into massive exurban estates, even if they are childless or have all grown children...) As for me, I plan to be an urban apartment-dweller my whole life. No reason I can't raise my kids in such a place... most Chinese do, after all. And, if they need to run and play, I'll just pack them off to their grandparents for the summer...Joe Unlienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-58253324875978738542010-01-09T02:19:03.504-08:002010-01-09T02:19:03.504-08:00Quantius:
Sounds like you might want to check out...Quantius:<br /><br />Sounds like you might want to check out the <a href="http://www.transitiontowns.org/" rel="nofollow">Transition Town movement</a><br /><br />An interesting concept that is in the process of going viral (so much for small apexes of do-ers)<br /><br />An interesting critique is also to be found <a href="http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010672.html" rel="nofollow">here</a> (having since 'boned up' on the topic, I agree with many of the commenters that Alex was a bit harsh in his criticisms. Still, I do think his concerns are legitimate, and that it's a pity his thoughts weren't explored further).<br /><br />Oh, and I finally got around to seeing 'Avatar' this afternoon. Terrific!! I can see why Ilithi likes it (like avatars, eh?;-)<br /><br />Apart from 'Dances with Wolves etc., I also got a sense of Anderson's 'People of the Wind' (with a few brain cells removed) Still, this is a discussion in the making...<br /><br />polodl: a slow, meaningless conversationTony Fiskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578160528746657971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-8580753168351775612010-01-09T01:48:25.892-08:002010-01-09T01:48:25.892-08:00Hi QuantusPilate
Become an engineer, you get to p...Hi QuantusPilate<br /><br />Become an engineer, you get to play with other peoples expensive equipment and make changes to improve things - great fun<br />Even when it doesn't go exactly as expected!<br /><br />Make the difference an improvement at a time!Duncan Cairncrossnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-35738123422869825652010-01-09T00:50:47.512-08:002010-01-09T00:50:47.512-08:00Jeebus Ameobus! Threatening me with "hellfire...Jeebus Ameobus! Threatening me with "hellfire and brimstone" is very cultlike of you, David. ;><br /><br />But I'm past all that now. <br /><br />I have decided on a way I can help people change their part of the planet into something a little more eco-friendly, that will help reduce their carbon footprint and perhaps help them survive "peak oil" a little more comfortably. <br /><br />All I need to do is figure out how to transform myself from a loser who never accomplished anything worthwhile into someone who makes a difference in the world.<br /><br />Any suggestions?QuantusPilatenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-63170486062527879832010-01-08T20:23:58.119-08:002010-01-08T20:23:58.119-08:00Hi QuantumPilate
I disagree totally with your con...Hi QuantumPilate<br /><br />I disagree totally with your contention that the people who change and improve society are the small apex of a pyramid.<br />In my experience well over half of the people contribute and improve things.<br /><br />There is a small percentage of people who claim credit for things but these are not usually the ones who actually do do something.Duncan Cairncrossnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-63969299484344299602010-01-08T19:05:15.543-08:002010-01-08T19:05:15.543-08:00Ah, David, you know its my assignment (straight fr...Ah, David, you know its my assignment (straight from Grand Dragon Rove) to fact check you. I am doing a bit of looking around to see about the assertion regarding party identification and educational level. Not as easy a question as you would imagine it to be. I doubt I will have a riposte in the waning moments of this thread, and I do not discount the possiblity that you might be right.<br />Or perhaps not.* We shall see...<br /><br />Tacitus2<br /><br />*a really good reference would be current, large sample size, non partisan and include Independents. So far I have not found it.Tacitus2noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-88571797311689272182010-01-08T16:23:07.189-08:002010-01-08T16:23:07.189-08:00http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2005/09/another-paus...http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2005/09/another-pause-this-time-for-soa.html<br /><br />http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2005/<br />followed by<br />09/another-pause-this-time-for-soa.htmlDavid Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-6053772523040556242010-01-08T16:13:31.238-08:002010-01-08T16:13:31.238-08:00"Elsewhere I talk about how Suspicion of Auth..."Elsewhere I talk about how Suspicion of Authority (SOA) is the standard emotional coin of all Americans, left or right, across the last ten generations."<br /><br />David, this is something I've been thinking about a lot lately, can you give em a link to where you've written about it?Ianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01739671401151990700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-41505085782781861332010-01-08T15:42:22.536-08:002010-01-08T15:42:22.536-08:00Quintius, it is certainly legitimate of you to ask...Quintius, it is certainly legitimate of you to ask that the skilled-creative-knowledgable pwople in society come up with solutions to then offer to the masses.<br /><br />What you fail to note is that they are trying to do that, as hard as they can. And roughly half of the masses in America support that effort. <br /><br /> Meanwhile, about a third of America boils over with bile and utter hatred toward the "elites" who have skill or knowledge. <br /><br />Elsewhere I talk about how Suspicion of Authority (SOA) is the standard emotional coin of all Americans, left or right, across the last ten generations. We differ mostly over WHICH elites we suspect of trying to become Big Brother. The Fox News mythology tries to focus the SOA suspicion upon the caste of people who know stuff... the scientists, the civil servants, and so on. <i>Why do you think the average education level of GOP members has plummeted by TWO YEARS across the last decade or so?</i> A recent survey showed that only 5% of scientists call themselves Republican, anymore.<br /><br />BTW, I know a lot of generals and admirals. They have left the GOP in droves and universally tell me they never loathed a president as much as they hated GW Bush.<br /><br />WHY is Rupert Murdoch stoking populist rage against "smartypants"? The reason is simple. If that rage ever turns against the oligarchy, they'll be in huge trouble. <i>And don't even try to tell us that Red America already hates the oligarchs. </i>They march lockstep and disciplined to Murdoch's tune.<br /><br />Oh, and don't you DARE call me a "bleeding liberal" unless YOU have given a keynote address at a Libertarian Party National Convention. Anyone here will tell you how many times I have aimed skewers toward the left. I fought the commies all my life. But right now, our society is under siege from an older enemy than socialism. The enemy that ruined freedom in 99% of human generations. And your inability to recognize that enemy is plain sad.<br /><br /><i>Yet, let me add, YOU ARE WELCOME HERE. We have thick skins. Hang around.</i><br /><br />--- Followup<br /><br />Show me where the hell Toynbee said that. Toynbee would have found Rand (as I do) a screeching maniac. The Randroids have ruined libertarianism as a useful and creative force in American life.<br /><br />"The only ones who matter are the ones who are DOING something"<br /><br />Fine, then all wealth should be earned by delivery of better goods and services. Parasitic rent-seeking and inherited wealth... both of them despised by Adam Smith... should be eliminated in favor of results-oriented wealth? Aha! Then you ARE a true believer in enterprise, and not a shill for the neo-feudalists, after all.<br /><br />Of course your "AGW Cultists" mantra is sheerest tripe. If civilization is headed for a crisis, we should use our institutions to minimize the damage. Since there are MANY walls, including sending trillions to the Saudis, your should be shrugging and saying "let's all get efficient" even if you think that 99% of the atmospheric scientists are "cultists" and that you know SO MUCH more than they do, about the topic they spent their life studying.<br /><br />When a tipping point is reached, and methane comes fizzing out of the tundra and clathrate hydrates under the sea bed, I hope you guys remember why we all take the houses of the obstructionists and use them to house refugees. It will be a simple matter of tort fairness.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-9917013994343150302010-01-08T14:32:20.452-08:002010-01-08T14:32:20.452-08:00"Blood Music" was an excellent short sto..."Blood Music" was an excellent short story that got expanded in to a mediocre novel. IMNHOQuantusPilatenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-69786372562061790892010-01-08T14:30:35.303-08:002010-01-08T14:30:35.303-08:00Sorry, but expecting others to change while you co...Sorry, but expecting others to change while you continue with the same bad habits is precisely the definition of "hypocrisy."<br /><br />I also find the whole notion of "speaking truth to power" to be a liberal fantasy. "Power" already knows the truth, that is why they hire folks like Rupert Murdoch to spread lies.<br /><br />If humans really are the largest contributor to the global warming we're experiencing, then it is because of the cumulative effects of individuals, like drops of rain that carved the Grand Canyon. “Cumulative effects of individuals” is exactly what Adam Smith (and his intellectual ancestors) described as how free markets work. This means that AGW is primarily the result of market choices by individuals. Therefore, the best solution is to influence individuals to make better (for the environment and for them) choices when they enter the market.<br /><br />Knowing that the bad environmental habits of people are facilitated by government subsidies to big agra, big oil, big transportation – basically big businesses across all sectors, changing things from the “top” will be nearly impossible. This is because our elected officials pay big businesses to lobby them. That particular self-reinforcing feedback loop cannot be changed by participation in the system that ,<i>they control</i>.<br /><br />Sharon Astyk and others like her are leading the way. They are showing by their deeds that, while making the change is difficult and many mistakes are still ahead to be learned from, it is possible and very beneficial to put forth the effort to live in a low carbon way. I don't believe that everyone needs to go “back to the land” full time. Gradually replacing one's lawn with edibles that grow well in your climate is a good start. There are so many benefits from such a behavior that I don't know what their aren't roving bands of guerrilla gardeners wandering the land, “Johnny Appleseed” style, showing folks how to make the transition from big, flat grass lawns that are boring and very, very environmentally costly to low effort gardens full of local flora (which provide wonderful habitat for local fauna along the way).<br /><br />Well, what do you know?! I've just found my vocation. <br /><br />My only snag when I come up with good ideas like this is my crushing level of depression that keeps me wallowing in self-pity for weeks on end. The downward spiral of that particular feedback loop is that being so depressed means I can't keep enough money coming in to afford medical treatment, plus the fact that I have no idea how to find a mental health professional who isn't a quack – at least, all the ones I've met so far have been charlatans or fools.<br /><br />Any suggestions on how to beat depression when the most common voice I hear in my head is, “You'll always fail at everything, you loser!”QuantusPilatenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-75966557946336890132010-01-08T12:07:11.998-08:002010-01-08T12:07:11.998-08:00Just so.
And of course I did not mention the most ...Just so.<br />And of course I did not mention the most obvious example: smallpox going west and syphillis going east with the discovery of the Americas. The impact was Black Death plus on the native Americans, and approximately HIV level to Europe.<br />Tacitus2Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com