Thoughts for the day

Here are two quotes to ponder the nature of teaching, and of thought, both quotes are by Bertrand Russell.

"Passive acceptance of the teacher's wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils; it is moreover the way to win the favor of the teacher unless he is a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. It causes man to seek and to accept a leader, and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position."


"Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin -- more even than death.... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man."

holy cow

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Antarctic shelf 'hangs by thread'

If you haven't seen this article it is frightening, not for it's impact on sea level - which is minimal, but for the effect that it will have on the reflective index and how that will increase the rate of warming.

Eek.

The common cold

Blech

Towards a more nuanced view

The Black Commentator - Colombia’s Attack on Ecuador:Why Should We Care? - The African World

This is the most well researched and balanced understanding of what happened in Ecuador last week that I've seen. Certainly it does not reflect well on America's foreign policy.

Least funny story with the funniest quote ever.

BBC NEWS | Health | Pratchett funds Alzheimer's study

"Personally, I'd eat the arse out of a dead mole if it offered a fighting chance."

Funniest news headline today

BBC NEWS | Business | Hunt for Liechtenstein tax mole

The news is somewhat less entertaining though.

Ecu-ombia

Now that Uribe and Chavez are getting along I do wonder what will become of this investigation?
I would write more, perhaps noting the salacious nature of U.S. reporting on internal scandals while utterly ignoring real issues, but my brain is fried due to lack of sleep.


BBC NEWS | Americas | Ecuador border raid probe begins

WV - tame and mediocre

West Virginia's old motto was Wild and Wonderful, they've changed that to Open for Business. As reprehensible as some of the land use policy is there (see mtn. top removal, the crap-shack condo resorts around the Canaan Valley, coal mining in general) I'd frankly see this site as opposed to a huge slag pile (which is right up the road from here). If we're going to use the energy it has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere right now is coal. So the choice between coal and wind is no moot argument.

hypothetically speaking

If the issue in Florida and Michigan was a question of McCain or Huckabee being denied any sort of representative vote I think I would probably be railing against the monarchist tendencies of the Republican party. So in all fairness I think that those states votes should count, however I do have some caveats.
Firstly, the national party should not be spending money it could use in the general election to re-run two state's primaries.
Secondly, the election results form January are unfairly skewed in one direction because only one candidate made appearances in those states - to the dismay of party bosses. In one sense that was a clever political ploy, but in another it was a bit underhanded.
Thirdly, this primary has to take place before the convention this summer - not as some demonstration primary.

Also, on a completely unrelated note: if you thought my dream was wacky please see the comment on my last post from Seth and Bug. Although, to be fair my dream was not inspired by any sort of subliminal outside influence.

oddly enough

Japan Today - News - Fossilized elephant footprints dating back 16 million years found

So, apparently there were elephants in Hokkaido16 million years ago. Which seems oddly dubious considering other estimates for the rise of complex life at 15 million years ago. However, I won't entirely disagree with an estimate from a discipline that I know shockingly little (ancient elephants).

All this is of course prompted by the rest of my elephant dream which I (somewhat disturbingly) described to Tara last night. The backstory to my dream is that the elephants were imported into Hokkaido to help the deforestation process in order to settle the slopes of some mountain. This mountain looked like a cross between Mt. Fuji and Mt. Ascutney, and had oddly symmetrical stone walls. The elephants escaped the clutches of the foresters and began running willy-nilly tearing up the soil and exposing this huge Mayan-esque temple. The presence of the elephants raised this ancient deity and it was my impression that he was sorely vexed. And then Tara woke me up...

I have no idea what this means, but it sure was the most interesting dream I've had in a very long time. I know the whole notion of a Mayan temple in Japan smacks of Thor Heyerdahl's dubious anthropology; the elephants are a another striking anomaly and the scenery was strangely reminiscent of Vermont. I have no idea where this dream came from, but I'm open to random interpretations.

nicht gut

#1. Troops massing on the borders of two South American countries bordering the U.S. backed Columbian regime seems like quite a bad thing.

#2. Is the U.S. having Obama buyers remorse? Or is this just the expected outcome being realized for Ohio and Texas (and was the result what was predicted 3 weeks ago when this news was breaking)?

#3. Why did I have a dream about Japanese Elephants digging up an ancient temple and raising a new god to rule the world last night?

These things bother me, especially #3.