Random Thoughts

Call it contrarian stubborness, but I believe there remains that print journalism a critical aspect of American society.

That said, what's journalism?

Matt Bowden, in the October issue of The Atlantic, proposes that we are in a "post-journalistic age," created by the broadcast drive for ratings and the corporate drive for a bat bottom line, both of which are, of course, money.

"In this post-journalistic world, the model for all national debate becomes the trial, where adversaries face off, representing opposing points of view," Bowden said.

One of the basic lessons rookie reporters are taught is to follow the money. Who benefits, who pays, who receives. In Bowden's PJ world, journalists are lawyers, not recorders of facts.

Many politicians see government welfare as the best way to address the problem of poverty in society. President Barack Obama, for example, recently promised to halve poverty within ten years, and his Republican opponent, John McCain, similarly vowed to make poverty eradication a top priority of his Administration.

Others, however, say that even in the current economic situation, in developed countries, this kind of rhetoric about cutting "poverty" is misleadingly outmoded—because it implicitly suggests that government income transfers are the best vehicle for achieving substantial reductions in poverty.

Hubris is traditional defined as a man (or woman) acting as if they are the equal of the gods. This flavor of hubris has a tendency to piss off the gods, who know that humans are not the equals of the gods. The practitioner of the hubris also tends to come in for some serious smiting as a gentle reminder of their sub-god status. My favorite example is Bellerophon.

This was going to be a footnote, but the topic really gets my dander up; and dander is directly proportional to the number of words disgorged. Reflect for a moment on the terms "Western Medicine" and "Eastern Medicine". No matter how you parse your definitions they are racist and derogatory toward some ethnic group.

Heart disease is commonly considered a modern condition, but that may change thanks to research conducted by a collaborative team composed of imaging experts, Egyptologists and preservationists who have discovered evidence of the disease, which causes heart attacks and strokes, in ancient Egyptian mummies.

Their results, presented at  the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2009, indicate that  atherosclerosis is not only a disease of modern man, but was present and not unusual in humans living 3000 years ago.

Using six-slice computed X-ray tomography (CT) scans, they systematically examined 20 mummies housed in the Museum of Antiquities in Cairo, Egypt to see if heart and blood vessel tissue was present and to learn its condition.

No fact in the long history of the world is so startling as the wide and repeated extermination of its inhabitants.

- Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle



Read the feed:

A story in the local newspaper related how a pit bull was turned into the animal shelter after having been found abandoned in a ditch with all of its teeth filed down to the exposed roots, emaciated by starvation (weighing less than 40 pounds), and having just given birth to 9 puppies that morning.  The mother also had a few pressure sores from where bones rubbed against skin.  All the puppies still had the umbilical cords attached and were wet.

This level of human cruelty and stupidity is beyond understanding and one wonders what could be done to bring such behaviors under control.

I wish to report here the moves of a game of chess I played on the Internet Chess Club a moment ago, against a similarly rated opponent. This was a 5' game -all your moves have to be done in five minutes, or you lose on time. Under such circumstances, games are ridden with mistakes of all kinds, oversights, strategical blunders, howlers. But sometimes, a game which can be shown with pride appears magically out of sudden inspiration. Here is such an instance.

Tonno - datigoneptraskam, ICC 2009

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6

The Berlusconi government is about to force a devastating law through the Italian bicameral system. And I am appalled by the absurdity of the situation and by the straight face these clowns who govern my country have put up.

I imagine that, if you locked xkcd creator Randall Munroe and myself in a room with a bar, we would buy each other too many beers and then develop the definitive baseball euphemism lexicon*, firmly establishing the definition of the nebulous "third base".