I just happened to be listening to this this morning.
Perhaps Mona could adopt it as her anthem (see previous post)?
Archive for the ‘Trivia’ Category
An anthem for Mona
May 8, 2016Ted Cruz will not get a job as a sports commentator
April 27, 2016It is now arithmetically impossible for Ted Cruz to win the Republican nomination by his own efforts. He is pinning his hopes on a contested convention and – somehow – coercing enough delegates to be able to beat Trump.
Improbable.
Another job Ted Cruz is never going to be offered is that of a basketball commentator (or a commentator for any sport for that matter).
From the Ted Cruz sports picture book
Democracies are condemned to a pursuit of the mediocre
April 14, 2016For any human characteristic or behaviour, and applying whatever set of values, the “best” are always in – and must always be – a minority.
A majority view – on anything – therefore cannot – ever – be the “best” view.
Which must mean therefore that a democracy can never be “best”. It may be good enough – but it can never be best. A democracy does not even lead to the pursuit of the “average” or even the “median”. If anything it tends to the “mode”. A democracy is inherently then for the pursuit of the nondescript, for being unexceptionable, for conformity. It is for sustaining the mediocre.
mode median mean
If the human objective is the pursuit of excellence – by whatever standard and for whatever characteristic – then a democracy is not the way to go. Excellence requires the selection, and the promotion, of minorities. In fact a democracy is incompatible with the quest for excellence.
Socialist democracies try to level down while capitalist democracies try to level up. But both favour mediocrity to excellence.
Smombies
April 12, 2016Smart phone zombies
“Beware the Smombies now, my son!
The ears that bud, the thumbs that swipe!
Beware the emoji birds, and shun
The frumious Bundersnipe!”
with apologies to Lewis Carroll
Millennial zombies (Twitter)
Beware the smart phone zombies
Writing for myself
April 11, 2016Someone asked me who I had in mind when I wrote – and I had no answer.
I know that some people read what I write – whether blog posts or articles or books. But I really have no idea who they are. I find I constantly misjudge what I think people may like to read. I find there is no correlation between pieces I am pleased with and proud of and the pieces that arouse the greatest interest. Some writings which I think are trivial get thousands of readers and other essays which I think contain a few real insights struggle to get up to readers in double figures.
I certainly imagine how certain types of readers may assess what I write while I am writing. But while that may lead to a reformulation of something I wish to say, a choice of different language, it rarely leads to any substantive change. Changes, when they occur during the writing, are due to the writing process itself. In fact, I find my position or viewpoint changes as I write. Ideas which were diffuse or thoughts which were incomplete coalesce and become conclusions during the process.
The satisfaction of writing comes primarily in completing the essay or article or blog post. It is of interest and gratifying when some piece attracts many readers, but that gratification is often negated when the readership does not match my own view of the quality of the piece. When some essay that I am quite pleased with also attracts many readers, then it is just a bonus. But even that gratification does not compare with the satisfaction of completing even a rarely read essay.
The writing process itself, for me, contains much reading and much thinking. I take positions and then start reading what others have written on the subject. I start writing something and then go into a bout of reading which means that essay may not be completed for many weeks or even months. I make assertions which I then feel obliged to fact-check and to reanalyse. The satisfaction of completing something increases with the effort expended.
The real answer, I suppose, is that I write for myself. I have some readers but I have no targeted audience.
Deer 5 – Crocuses1
April 3, 2016It’s that time of the year and the young deer are in the garden at dawn. The crocuses (except the yellow ones) don’t stand a chance.
But that’s as it should be and all’s well.
This morning they hung around for almost an hour.
Captain Kirk as Rocket Man – 38 years on
March 15, 2016Narnia this morning
March 7, 2016Winter hasn’t quite finished with us yet.
It was pure Narnia this morning.
Nigerian astronaut wants to come home
February 9, 2016I would have thought that there can be no internet user who is not familiar with the “Nigerian Letter”. But of course Internet users grow by about 200 million people every year. And no doubt some of them are sufficiently gullible.
This letter must be addressed to some of them.
It is nice to know that Nigeria has a “Code of Conduct Bureau (Civil Service Laws)” and government servants who know how to bypass their strictures. But it is disappointing that though they have now moved into space, the basic format remains unchanged.
Could it be that this actually works?
h/t Nessan
Self regulation for would-be terrorists
February 3, 2016Found on the net:
It’s the honour code.
If only Airport Security could work that way —
If you are dangerous,
You must not board
The k2p blog 