New York magazine has posted personals ads from TheAtlasphere.com. The Atlas in Atlasphere alludes to Atlas Shrugged, Rand’s 1000 page Magnum Opus. Magnum opus is Latin for “doorstop.”
The Atlasphere’s mission is to “bring together admirers of Ayn Rand’s novels, from around the globe, to network both personally and professionally.” After all, Ayn Rand’s novels ennoble the human spirit, right? They “provide the framework for a unique moral vision…” Rrrrright.
Such as this guy’s unique moral vision:
[I am] short, stark, and mansome.
You should contact me if you are a skinny woman. If your words are a meaningful progression of concepts rather than a series of vocalizations induced by your spinal cord for the purpose of complementing my tone of voice. If you’ve seen the meatbot, the walking automaton, the pod-people, the dense, glazy-eyed substrate through which living organisms such as myself must escape to reach air and sunlight. If you’ve realized that if speech is to be regarded as a cognitive function, technically they aren’t speaking, and you don’t have to listen.
New York magazine has posted personals ads from TheAtlasphere.com. The Atlas in Atlasphere alludes to Atlas Shrugged, Rand’s 1000 page Magnum Opus. Magnum opus is Latin for “doorstop.”
The Atlasphere’s mission is to “bring together admirers of Ayn Rand’s novels, from around the globe, to network both personally and professionally.” After all, Ayn Rand’s novels ennoble the human spirit, right? They “provide the framework for a unique moral vision…” Rrrrright.
Such as this guy’s unique moral vision:
[I am] short, stark, and mansome.
You should contact me if you are a skinny woman. If your words are a meaningful progression of concepts rather than a series of vocalizations induced by your spinal cord for the purpose of complementing my tone of voice. If you’ve seen the meatbot, the walking automaton, the pod-people, the dense, glazy-eyed substrate through which living organisms such as myself must escape to reach air and sunlight. If you’ve realized that if speech is to be regarded as a cognitive function, technically they aren’t speaking, and you don’t have to listen.
Novel: a rambling, proportionally disorganized fictional prose narrative of considerable length (usually 60,000 words or more) that typically possesses some semblance of a plot (unless literary, see Literature) that is presented in between sequences of pointless actions, boring speeches, and unconnected thoughts of a cast of characters who bear a striking resemblance to those individuals in real life who have pissed off the author of the work.
Novel: a rambling, proportionally disorganized fictional prose narrative of considerable length (usually 60,000 words or more) that typically possesses some semblance of a plot (unless literary, see Literature) that is presented in between sequences of pointless actions, boring speeches, and unconnected thoughts of a cast of characters who bear a striking resemblance to those individuals in real life who have pissed off the author of the work.
For writing. For friends. For my wife. For great holiday stories, like the one I just heard about a couple arguing over who is more OCD.
Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone. If you’re one of my readers from outside of the US. It’s a day of gluttony in which we’re thankful that … well you get the idea. Pass the mashed potatoes.
What is the word or phrase which best characterizes the year 2008? What expression most reflects the ideas, events, and themes which have occupied the United States and its residents?
Nominations should be sent to woty@americandialect.org.
The best “word of the year” candidates will be:
—new or newly popular in 2008
—widely or prominently used in 2008
—indicative or reflective of the national discourse
I’m thinking of submitting, “Under the bus.” What do you think? Tell me you didn’t get sick of hearing it during the primaries.
The Fed and the Treasury are once again throwing good cash after bad business. This time the culprit is Citigroup, which could get bailed out—courtesy of you—to the tune of $100 billion.
And with that, we’d like to announce that Truthdig is officially too big to fail. For a mere $50 billion, we promise never to fly individually in our corporate jets.
I make the same pledge. Timberati is now too big to fail. I will only fly first class, if bailed out.
I love technological gadgets. I remember getting one of the first electronic handheld calculators in the 1970s. It cost about $100. Soon, Moore’s Law kicked in, the capacity increased and the price decreased, and in a few years places gave calculators away.
Moore’s Law has brought down the cost of electronic gadgets. Cellular phones used to be owned by the rich are now everywhere. Nigerian farmers use mobile phones to find the best price for their produce and many in the third-world use them for banking. Technology increases people’s quality of life. Peasants in Mexico capture sunlight in special fabrics and then can use it to light their shacks at night. I’m typing this article on an AlphaSmart portable, a keyboard with a screen that uses three AA batteries for its power source. The Amazon Kindle eReader that now goes for $359 will come down, if Moore’s Law has anything to do about it.
As the demand for technology increases, there is a need for more stuff used for manufacture. Everything comes from somewhere; that may not be incredibly profound, but you might be surprised how often one might forget that.
Quick–name one part of your computer, personal digital assistant, mobile phone, or e-reader that is grown by a forester or farmer. One part, any part that’s natural. Take your time … I’ll wait.
Bupkes, right?
And, if it isn’t grown, it’s mined (or recycled). And the numbers stagger the imagination.
What also staggers the imagination is the size of the mines and the amount of material they move. Check out the mine near Ruth, NV or the one near Salt Lake City, UT.
We talk a lot about our carbon footprint. Usually the discussion revolves around global warming and what comes out of tailpipes. While throwing CO2, methane, and other global warming gasses into our shared sky is profound, worth considering. Yet, it’s our ‘green’ technology which leaves behind carbon sequestered cyanide compounds such as sodium cyanide (NaCN), which really worries me. How technology and cyanide are tied to together is not talked about much. Cyanide is used to separate metals from the wastes.
Let’s consider just one of the metals used in the manufacture of electronics: gold for computer circuit boards.
For “one ounce of gold, miners dig up and haul away 30 tons of rock and sprinkle it with diluted cyanide, which culls the gold from the rock. Before they are through, miners at some of the largest mines move a half million tons of earth a day, pile it in mounds that can rival the Great Pyramids, and drizzle the ore with the poisonous solution for years.” – Behind Gold’s Glitter: Torn Lands and Pointed Questions
After all is said and done. It almost makes clearcuts look much more appealing.
As a licensed forester and certified treehugger, I don’t think so.
Trees don’t get cut down when you use electronic stuff, right? Well they may be, forever.
The argument that finding and using alternatives to wood will save trees ignores basic economics. Follow the money. Basic economics teaches the ‘law’ of supply and demand. That is the value of a product is based on its availability and the demand for the product. If people don’t use wood products, more wood is available, and the value (price) of wood falls. The result? More lovely forests? Woodland creatures frolicking contentedly? Not quite. Timber companies sell off their timberland and forests are converted to other uses. Most of the deforestation happening in the world is caused by forests being converted to farming.
The idea that going paperless will save trees is counter-productive. Worse, it may be quite hazardous to our planet’s health. Well, I’m a forester. You’d expect me to say something stupid like that, right? I’m not the only one. There are hidden costs to what is often termed green technology.
Well, my beloved Apple PowerBook G4 died in its sleep (mode) yesterday. And though I had backed up its contents frequently, it takes with it the latest versions/downloads of iTunes, RSS feeds, Word documents, and the only Apple product in the house with which to synchronize the iPod. It is survived by two atavistic cousins–uncool and non-portable PC desktops. It is preceded by four other and equally atavistic portable notebooks.
Nullius in Verba 