Here's a great site for all of you who enjoy optical illusions. Lots and lots of links are provided. Yes, here is a place that can be enjoyed by Believers and Atheists alike. Gays and homophobes, set aside your differences and enjoy these impressive illusions! Republicans, Democrats and even Green…
(In re Erich’s Snowflake Architecture) I have always been impressed by the history of snowflake photography, and all the forms of micro-, mega-, high-speed, etc. non-human-scale pictures.
But I often find many look-worthy things on human scale just walking around the neighborhood. Just walking and seeing the world around me. In this case, also listening to the tinkling and glinting chandeliers of iced trees in the breeze. Here are some digital snaps I took on a walk around the block the day after our November ice storm:
Check out this compelling photo.
Dangerous idea, that.
If you were in charge–if you were King–what would do? What would fix? What would you ignore?
The Socratic ideal is the philosopher king, whose first act upon accession to the throne is to abdicate. The idea being that a truly ethical thinker would refuse to accept the responsibility to rule a nation.
Pity the world doesn’t work that way.
The problem with such systems–and there are many, including those proposed by certain self-proclaimed Libertarians–is that human nature refuses to cooperate. There’s a kind of Malthusian coefficient involved–population growth always outstrips the potential for ideal behavior. All such utopian systems are based on one fallacy that keeps gumming up all the works of any system anyone cares to name.
The fallacy is that We’re All Alike.
It’s a widely touted formula–the things that we have in common outnumber those that divide us; underneath we’re all the same; people are people. The Libertarians believe as an article of faith that if government got out of everybody’s way, we’d all be fine because people basically know what’s best for themselves and their immediate circle of intimates. Socialists believe (mostly) that without class structures, everyone would get along quite nicely. Communists like to assume avarice is an aberration that can somehow be bred out of the species.
If only.
It’s not so much that we’re so very different–but that we’re alike in such individualized ways.
The fact is, we come in all shapes, sizes, talents, capacities, points of view, …
I've seen a couple of those independantly produced DVD "exposes" about the 9/11 disaster--you know, the ones attributing sinsister intent to the United States government, that, in fact, we "knew" and did nothing in order to promote subsequent insanity. I've been taking these things with large grains of salt for…