stevengharms.com

This will be spoiler-laden, so if you want to keep the mystery, move on.

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Because they use internal cues — such as no longer feeling hungry — to stop eating, reports a new Cornell study. Americans, on the other hand, tend to use external cues — such as whether their plate is clean, they have run out of their beverage or the TV show they’re watching is over.

http://www.physorg.com/news121699614.html

Thre are many things in this world that I am not supposed to say, but I find it intolerable that the word “N#gger/a” be used. It such a vile term – and I don’t buy for a minute that whole story of “reclaiming”.

I’m glad to see some others are taking a stand within the community that has the exclusive monopoly on acceptable use of the term.

…at a Black Enterprise event. TMZ reveals that Griffin’s performance was cut short after magazine owner Earl Graves showed the not-so-funnyman the door due to his frequent use of the N-word. “We … will not allow our culture to go backwards … We will pay Mr. Griffin all that we owe him but we will not allow him to finish the show if that’s the way he’s going to talk,” Graves announced. … via

Wow.

• Adam riding a saddled dinosaur.
• WMD’s actually being found in Iraq.
• Evolution being denied for the sake of creationism, er, “Intelligent Design”.

Welcome to Idiot America. Where intellectuals are mocked and expertise is suspicious. The organ of wisdom is the gut, the organ of elimination.

Idiot America

I have a philosophy degree and, as such, I am uppity and snippy about a great many philosophical ideas that the non-philosophy-degree-holding public ( that is to say, those not asking “want fries with that” as the heart of their occupation ( I kid, I kid, my decadently over-educated bretheren )) believe they already know plenty about.

Much like an engineering magazine left in marketing, which leads to promises of Flux Capacitors in the next release, the non-Philosophy students occasionally get exposed to strange ideas which enamor them and which they begin to speak of regularly and, more dangerously, knowingly.

Exhibit A: “begging the question”.

“Begging the question” is a phrase that denotes a common type of logical fallacy. It’s where you assert what you’re trying to prove, as though it’s an established fact. Logically speaking it looks like

Premiss1 Premiss2 Conclusion

——

Conclusion

Versus

Premiss1 Premiss2 Premissn

——

Conclusion

Every time someone uses this phrase in the context of: “The car is broken, which begs the question of how we will get to school” my teeth grit. Why not say:

• “Which leads to…”
• “Which forces us to consider…”
• “Which immediately draws us to…”
• “Which, as a consequence, asks…”

Given that lack of options isn’t the reason for this misuse, it’s clear that there’s some sort of fascination with “beg the question”. Somehow people hear it once and, under its power, become like victims of Ampulex compressa. It’s compelling as an inter-sentence segue, it works a dark magic on the mind. As the pod-people continue to express the idea those of us with familiarity with the technical term chafe.

In this excellent article on how autistic children have a hard time understanding lying ( because they don’t have the ability to imagine minds with beliefs independent of fact ) the learned author writes:

If what other animals are doing when they appear to be dishonest is not real deception, this begs the question of what counts as real deception[1].

Now wait just a minute. Someone is writing scholarly work about autism research and misuses “beg the question”? Could it be? Have the scientists have been invaded by ampulex beggainterrogativa?

I think this phrase, quite like no other, is a shibboleth of “I went to a university and got a degree of consequence” . Ironically, it is usually the people who adopted the shibboleth for exactly that reason who most misuse it, leaving your fry cook’s teeth it ill-repair owing to the induced gnashing.

Footnotes:

1. Might I add, that for those who do know the meaning of “beg the question” it’s confusing as the author might actually mean the true technical usage…or may not. It took me several re-reads to decide if he was being logical about it or using this bastard usage.

I’ve recorded how I was recently in Boston at the beautiful Westin Boston Waterfront hotel. The foyer is beautiful, the bar dark and sleek, the staff courteous. In every way a high-calibre hotel should be enjoyable, it is.

Ancillary to this æsthetic, when turning on the beautiful plasma LG screen, you are given, instead of some graphic menu of “here are the movies we hope to bilk you an extra x bucks for”, a rotating series of interactive vignettes with this lovely, non-offensive, pretty, but not threateningly hot-pretty, conservatively-dressed, non-Caucasian ( because we’re down wit’ diversitay ) lady as your virtual interlocutor.

I named her Christina.

Christina reminds you that Westin wants to elevate all your senses, and advises you to buy White Tea scented candles - against a pseduo-shoji wall, perhaps taking the Asian thing a bit too far, we get it, yo.

Now, I was surprised when pretty, prim, Christina had the ignominious task of informing me of the movie selection options: “Hollywood Blockbusters, Children’s programing, and mature adult content”.

Say it with her “mature adult content”

She didn’t that, did she? Why Christina, you little minx, underneath your buttoned-up tweed there’s a scarlet A, eh? But then I thought about it a bit more…

• Adult content = naughty movies
• Mature content = naughty movies
• Mature adult content = naughty movies targeted at the elderly (cue Pulp’s “Help the Aged”)

I realize that they’re trying to give as many flags to parents in the facility that this is exactly what you don’t want your kids to be watching ( same reason, reversed, for road warrior salesfolk ), but in so doing they created a bit of a semantic conundrum.

As for you mature adults tuning in…well, boffo.

I realize this is coming some 2 months late from the event, nevertheless, in Google, every moment of history is now, so putting these words to bits late is no crime

During SXSW I saw this shirt everywhere.

Congratulations Target, with this particular item you hit your target demographic square in the chest.

You hit the:

Post-religious, but spiritual ( Buddha ), educated ( correlate to earning power and choices elsewhere in this summation ), making enough money to have disposable income but not so much that they’d be snobby about actually buying clothes at Target, working in the tech industry, Mac-inclined, likely to have relaxed workplace clothing strictures, buys pre-faded so that machine-wash isn’t a hassle male between 21 and 35.

Madison avenue I am your lapdog.

Had I been able to get over the sheer embarrassment that I associate with using Twitter during the conference I might well have organized a Buddha shirt guy meetup

Millions of dollars each year are spent figuring out how best to position a product within the aisles of a grocery store. For the pleasure of having a rickety cardboard kiosk set up on the corner a company will pay a premium to the store owner, or, in to the drug store chain that Lauren and I were patronizing this afternoon.

Now, as I walked past this kiosk I thought to myself: “This name is horrible, how can I improve this?”.

And then the answer became clear….

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Something that’s stuck with me, unlike vinegary BBQ, is this ad on the air of NC TV.

Man, the people in Atlanta dress well - especially the African-American community. Man, great threads, great taste, and worn with great attitude.

I guess it’s what Milan is to us Anglo types.