In light of the Imus crap and the Duke lacrosse fiasco I had an idea for a magazine. This is an excerpt from an email I sent a friend recently:
a magazine titled PC in which our crack staff of ethnically diverse reporters write stories informing "out races" about matters of "in races". So for instance we would have a black reporter get the inside story on how native born Asians pick their Americanized names when they come to the states and the struggle of deciding to go with an "American" name to begin with. Or Hispanics could interview white people about why many of us hold allegiances to the countries of our distant relatives despite never being there or even knowing people from there. The magazine would also include a series of racially insensitive jokes at the beginning of each issue as a way of informing our audience what to be offended by. I think this idea has legs.
And I really do.
Every time a racially charged event occurs, thousands of politicians, columnists, pundits and talking heads call for an "honest discussion of race in this country," and I don't even think they know what that means. I certainly don't, or didn't, until I had this idea. I mean a truly honest conversation about race in this country can only take place when we admit to ourselves that there are things about large portions of other races that we do not understand. Once we are informed about these matters we become far better equipped to interact with one another with civility and understanding.
Plus the magazine would be funny as hell.
Showing posts with label ramblings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ramblings. Show all posts
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Society Be Getting Stupider
A French architect is claiming to have discovered the process through which the Egyptian Pyramids were built. Which leaves only one question regarding the architectural novels that are the Egyptian Pyramids; How the fuck did it take us 5,000 years to figure out something that was done by people who defecated in the same river that they drank from?
I believe a theory that I first conceived while reading a book on the 7 wonders of the ancient world may be illuminating:
We as a species have been getting progressively dumber since shortly after the dawn of civilization (shortly being relative, probably around 1000-2000 years). This is due to a dilution of the gene pool resulting from excessive procreation amongst the dumber elements of society.
It is widely accepted that as countries become more developed their population growth slows and the wealthier elements of society tend to have fewer children than poorer elements. Now, I don't mean to suggest that all wealthy people are smart and all poor people are dumb, but I do believe that a correlation exists between wealth and intelligence. (Here's the wikipedia link to a controversial book entitled IQ and the Wealth of Nations that tangentially supports this argument). Said correlation has been amplified by capitalism which has provided those most savvy and capable among us a far better opportunity to become wealthy then had been the case under previous economic systems. Over time, this creates a situation whereby high IQ individuals represent a smaller portion of the gene pool than low IQ individuals. Further, the likelihood of high IQ individuals procreating with low IQ individuals increases thus creating a generation that is less intelligent than the one that preceded it.
I know that this idea is wildly politically incorrect and I'm not even sure I stand by it, but as I was reading about the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Lighthouse of Alexandria I couldn't help but think about how impressive those creations were particularly with the limited resources of the time.
A counter argument would suggest that the limited resources were due to the lack of intelligence of the people existing in those civilizations. This is of course nonsense as it stands to reason that over time inventions and discoveries are inevitable regardless of the intelligence of the human species as a whole.
Mike Judge, creator of Beavis and Butt-Head and Office Space made a movie about the future of our ever dumbing society titled Idiocracy, that tackles this very idea in a comical fashion. It's a pretty funny film and it does well to satirize some of the dumber aspects of society.
Be back tomorrow with YouTube clips.
I believe a theory that I first conceived while reading a book on the 7 wonders of the ancient world may be illuminating:
We as a species have been getting progressively dumber since shortly after the dawn of civilization (shortly being relative, probably around 1000-2000 years). This is due to a dilution of the gene pool resulting from excessive procreation amongst the dumber elements of society.
It is widely accepted that as countries become more developed their population growth slows and the wealthier elements of society tend to have fewer children than poorer elements. Now, I don't mean to suggest that all wealthy people are smart and all poor people are dumb, but I do believe that a correlation exists between wealth and intelligence. (Here's the wikipedia link to a controversial book entitled IQ and the Wealth of Nations that tangentially supports this argument). Said correlation has been amplified by capitalism which has provided those most savvy and capable among us a far better opportunity to become wealthy then had been the case under previous economic systems. Over time, this creates a situation whereby high IQ individuals represent a smaller portion of the gene pool than low IQ individuals. Further, the likelihood of high IQ individuals procreating with low IQ individuals increases thus creating a generation that is less intelligent than the one that preceded it.
I know that this idea is wildly politically incorrect and I'm not even sure I stand by it, but as I was reading about the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Lighthouse of Alexandria I couldn't help but think about how impressive those creations were particularly with the limited resources of the time.
A counter argument would suggest that the limited resources were due to the lack of intelligence of the people existing in those civilizations. This is of course nonsense as it stands to reason that over time inventions and discoveries are inevitable regardless of the intelligence of the human species as a whole.
Mike Judge, creator of Beavis and Butt-Head and Office Space made a movie about the future of our ever dumbing society titled Idiocracy, that tackles this very idea in a comical fashion. It's a pretty funny film and it does well to satirize some of the dumber aspects of society.
Be back tomorrow with YouTube clips.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
The invention inventory
So I was reading a Klosterman post from Esquire (http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0306KLOSTERMAN_124_2), and I had just had another idea for an invention, so I figured I'd write about a couple of them.
First: Flip flops with a pocket in the side of the sole. The pocket would be very small, such that it would be difficult to place anything in there other than money or credit cards (or ID's). I have also envisioned this as a zipper pocket with a carrying case that has a bit of rope at the end of it, so you place the money and card in the case (think baseball card plastic protectors) and you slip it into the pocket. When you need to get it out, you can pull the bit of rope, pay the bartender, and start drinking. Ideal for beach environs.
Second: For magazine subscriptions; the option of having the magazine sent to your home, or, having a credit card sent to your home that allows you to "purchase" one issue of the magazine at a newsstand per month. This is ideal for forgetful or oft-late individuals, who find themselves at airports/train stations, wishing they had the copy of a magazine that is sitting on their coffee table. Instead, the costumer would pay the annual subscription rate and the credit card would entitle them to one newsstand copy a month. The cards could be sponsored by actual credit card companies as a way of recouping production and tertiary costs.
Third: A program that turns a computer keyboard into a music keyboard. So when the application is accessed the "a" button becomes a certain sound, the "b" button a similar but somewhat higher pitched sound and so on and so forth. This program would also allow for recording, thus allowing any user to become a DIY music producer who could then upload their "beats" to a file sharing service and show their "skillz".
First: Flip flops with a pocket in the side of the sole. The pocket would be very small, such that it would be difficult to place anything in there other than money or credit cards (or ID's). I have also envisioned this as a zipper pocket with a carrying case that has a bit of rope at the end of it, so you place the money and card in the case (think baseball card plastic protectors) and you slip it into the pocket. When you need to get it out, you can pull the bit of rope, pay the bartender, and start drinking. Ideal for beach environs.
Second: For magazine subscriptions; the option of having the magazine sent to your home, or, having a credit card sent to your home that allows you to "purchase" one issue of the magazine at a newsstand per month. This is ideal for forgetful or oft-late individuals, who find themselves at airports/train stations, wishing they had the copy of a magazine that is sitting on their coffee table. Instead, the costumer would pay the annual subscription rate and the credit card would entitle them to one newsstand copy a month. The cards could be sponsored by actual credit card companies as a way of recouping production and tertiary costs.
Third: A program that turns a computer keyboard into a music keyboard. So when the application is accessed the "a" button becomes a certain sound, the "b" button a similar but somewhat higher pitched sound and so on and so forth. This program would also allow for recording, thus allowing any user to become a DIY music producer who could then upload their "beats" to a file sharing service and show their "skillz".
Monday, March 19, 2007
Jeoparity
Before thoughts on Jeopardy, here's the coolest site I've found in a long time...
http://blog.awswebshop.com/2006/10/15/turn-google-into-your-own-personal-free-napster/ Enjoy.
Otherwise, I had a thought while watching today's Jeopardy that I think is worthwhile. On Friday's show, the three contestants tied with $16000 a piece - the first time in the show's history that a three-way tie had occurred. My initial thought was that the gentleman with the lead going into Final Jeopardy, Scott, was a bit of a knob for not risking the extra dollar to take the victory. However, further examination led me to a different conclusion. Scott had been beating his opponents soundly going into Final Jeopardy; both of them were tied at $8,000 and had no choice but to wager everything. Therefore, by betting just enough to tie both of them, Scott assured that a correct answer would net him no less than $16,000 (as the victor) as well as the possibility of competing against one or two opponents he had already essentially defeated. In Jeopardy every new contestant is a serious threat to the previous day's victor, if a contestant can assure himself of beatable competition then he has a decided advantage over a contestant competing against unknown competition.
Today after running out to the early lead and being up something like $22,400 to 11,600 to 10,000 going into final Jeopardy, Scott failed to answer the question correctly (On May 5, 1961 he said this "Oh, what a beautiful view" - answer at bottom) and lost. Maybe this invalidates the argument, but as any good poker player will say, make the decision based on the odds, if the results don't work, you’ve still made the right play. If the move was made strategically on Scott's part - I applaud his creativity and believe future contestants should consider his approach; If the move was not made strategically, then I still (begrudgingly) applaud him for his altruism.
Answer: Alan Shepard (both Scott and the third place finisher said John Glenn)
http://blog.awswebshop.com/2006/10/15/turn-google-into-your-own-personal-free-napster/ Enjoy.
Otherwise, I had a thought while watching today's Jeopardy that I think is worthwhile. On Friday's show, the three contestants tied with $16000 a piece - the first time in the show's history that a three-way tie had occurred. My initial thought was that the gentleman with the lead going into Final Jeopardy, Scott, was a bit of a knob for not risking the extra dollar to take the victory. However, further examination led me to a different conclusion. Scott had been beating his opponents soundly going into Final Jeopardy; both of them were tied at $8,000 and had no choice but to wager everything. Therefore, by betting just enough to tie both of them, Scott assured that a correct answer would net him no less than $16,000 (as the victor) as well as the possibility of competing against one or two opponents he had already essentially defeated. In Jeopardy every new contestant is a serious threat to the previous day's victor, if a contestant can assure himself of beatable competition then he has a decided advantage over a contestant competing against unknown competition.
Today after running out to the early lead and being up something like $22,400 to 11,600 to 10,000 going into final Jeopardy, Scott failed to answer the question correctly (On May 5, 1961 he said this "Oh, what a beautiful view" - answer at bottom) and lost. Maybe this invalidates the argument, but as any good poker player will say, make the decision based on the odds, if the results don't work, you’ve still made the right play. If the move was made strategically on Scott's part - I applaud his creativity and believe future contestants should consider his approach; If the move was not made strategically, then I still (begrudgingly) applaud him for his altruism.
Answer: Alan Shepard (both Scott and the third place finisher said John Glenn)
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Couple posts and a clarification
I want to make clear what I'm doing here because it occurred to me that I hadn't put together a blog mission statement. I am going to be posting links, I think are worth sharing; articles, I think others might like; and thoughts that I've encountered or conceived that may be compelling. I will not be writing much about my life because there are enough websites devoted to masturbation to bother making my blog one of them. I may occasionally write a story from my past that I think is funny but only if there is a universality to the humor. Without further ado, some links.
The funniest YouTube clip of the last month: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHO8l-Bd1O4 - The "Mighty Finder" is by far my favorite character. I wish my - window's run - computer had the finder instead of its uninspired search function. Damn Bill Gates and his conventional thinking.
This is Chuck Klosterman's most recent post on Esquire.com: http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0406KLOSTERMAN_88 - I think Klosterman is one of the most entertaining writers of his generation (along with Gladwell and Simmons). I wish he'd take a more definitive stance from time to time but I think that's part of his charm. Further, I can't really fault him for struggling to be definitive about the death penalty as I believe that there are certain people who, by the very nature of their acts, deserve to die but I don't think we have the proper mechanisms in place to carry their executions out.
Also, I really recommend subscribing to the podcast of This American Life from WBEZ in Chicago: http://www.thislife.org/ - week in week out this is the best radio show I've ever heard. It really doesn't get any better, it's the Wire of radio programming.
Finally, I did not get today's final jeopardy question right as I was unable to name the most populated island in Indonesia (I was able to deduce that Indonesia was the forth most populated country in the world but the names of Indonesian islands are not something I learned in Global Studies) . Anyway, it's Java and here's the wikipedia listing if you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_island
The funniest YouTube clip of the last month: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHO8l-Bd1O4 - The "Mighty Finder" is by far my favorite character. I wish my - window's run - computer had the finder instead of its uninspired search function. Damn Bill Gates and his conventional thinking.
This is Chuck Klosterman's most recent post on Esquire.com: http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0406KLOSTERMAN_88 - I think Klosterman is one of the most entertaining writers of his generation (along with Gladwell and Simmons). I wish he'd take a more definitive stance from time to time but I think that's part of his charm. Further, I can't really fault him for struggling to be definitive about the death penalty as I believe that there are certain people who, by the very nature of their acts, deserve to die but I don't think we have the proper mechanisms in place to carry their executions out.
Also, I really recommend subscribing to the podcast of This American Life from WBEZ in Chicago: http://www.thislife.org/ - week in week out this is the best radio show I've ever heard. It really doesn't get any better, it's the Wire of radio programming.
Finally, I did not get today's final jeopardy question right as I was unable to name the most populated island in Indonesia (I was able to deduce that Indonesia was the forth most populated country in the world but the names of Indonesian islands are not something I learned in Global Studies) . Anyway, it's Java and here's the wikipedia listing if you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_island
Monday, March 5, 2007
The Meaning of Life, Part I
I'm currently sitting, staring at a building wall of snow, reminiscing about my weekend in tropical New York City, wondering how the fuck this is possible. Oh well. Anyway, I had an interesting conversation that I wanted to write down in order to flesh it out in my head (http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/flesh.html, in case you're curious like I was). Then I started fleshing it out and it was far too preachy so I cut it. The thrust of my argument was that history will look upon America favorably and sometimes we, as Americans (although I am aware that I now have a cult following in the Far East), forget all of the advances that we've made and all of the good that we've done. Regardless of political affiliation, sometimes it's good to step back and appreciate this country for its successes rather than wallowing in its failures.
Also, today I almost threw my shoe at the television when the contestants failed to finish both rounds of Jeopardy. How is it possible, with all of the advances in technology - when we can put a man on the moon and I can pay for McDonald's with an EZ pass - that Jeopardy has yet to assemble a team of editors that can eliminate the time element. It's not like they film the show live for fucks sake. And it's invariably one or two answers that don't get revealed. They could cut out 30 seconds of Trebek's witticisms each night and put a commercial in its place and i wouldn't notice the difference. I understand the time element within each question but for the overall board it just seems mind numbingly stupid that they can't get it all in, all the time.
Finally, I had an idea for a website today that is devoted entirely to people posting embarrassing information about themselves that they could never bring themselves to admit to others in public but could readily admit anonymously on-line. The first idea for said forum: the fact that [they] post anonymously on-line.
Also, today I almost threw my shoe at the television when the contestants failed to finish both rounds of Jeopardy. How is it possible, with all of the advances in technology - when we can put a man on the moon and I can pay for McDonald's with an EZ pass - that Jeopardy has yet to assemble a team of editors that can eliminate the time element. It's not like they film the show live for fucks sake. And it's invariably one or two answers that don't get revealed. They could cut out 30 seconds of Trebek's witticisms each night and put a commercial in its place and i wouldn't notice the difference. I understand the time element within each question but for the overall board it just seems mind numbingly stupid that they can't get it all in, all the time.
Finally, I had an idea for a website today that is devoted entirely to people posting embarrassing information about themselves that they could never bring themselves to admit to others in public but could readily admit anonymously on-line. The first idea for said forum: the fact that [they] post anonymously on-line.
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