Boy that was a lot of fun until the last couple of centimeters. I suppose from a tropical fern's perpective, this is fantastic news.

That got intense. Affleck got too upset, chill out man!

Regardless of the winner of this debate, the problem will remain unsolved tomorrow morning. So everybody calm the fuck down. — my father, Thanksgiving dinner, 1987-present

I dropped out, got my GED, and joined the Navy. I don't recommend it. It sucked being 30 getting my BA.

I think that the general hatred for the whole Kardashian clan is a bit more complicated and has to do, whether people specifically recognize it or not, with the plutocracy of which it is indicative. In the simplest terms, a super rich person sucks a dick in a home movie, and a career is born complete with television shows, merchandise, and video games. Anyone else sucks a dick in a home movie and they end up on Pornhub.com or worse. Our cultural obsession with wealth above all else, especially things like intelligence and character, is a signal of cultural decline in my opinion. Not that I particularly care, as the result of all of this for me has meant a kind of mental expatriation from American culture. I'm not saying the Kardashians or Hiltons are the cause of cultural decline, they are symptoms exacerbated by a faltering education system and a kind of cut throat capitalism that labels those within society in binary terms like rich and poor, haves and have-nots.

Schadenfreude isn't random in the case of futbol. There is legitimate hatred involved here, between teams and players and countries and coaches. Sure, it's funny when a toddler drops her ice cream cone and starts to cry, that's schadenfreude as I understand the definition of the word. But this is purely about the vanquishing of one's enemies and relishing the lamentations of their women. :D

Besides, fierce competition makes for a better game. Even if your side loses. Probably. I think.

Every day I learn something I wish I could unlearn. Today, it was the "red pill." Nothing good seems to come from Reddit. I used to read it, until I found Hubski. Nostalgic backward glances to date: 0.0.

Puberty. Now almost 20 years behind me, what a train wreck that was.

I miss the internet not existing.

This is awesome.

1. The Odd Request

I know you say you love me,

You probably know what's best.

You're so pretty, I'm so ugly,

I feel I can't deny your request.

I don't mean to question smugly,

I gladly do all the rest.

I know I shouldn't let it bug me.

Okay, I'll poop on your chest.

2. Ode to Eileen

I wish you had a crazy switch.

I'd turn it on when we're in bed.

And I'd leave it off

All the rest of the time.

3. Final Attempt

I'm not a very good poet.

But I'm good at making rhyme.

Bob Dylan wrote a damn fine song,

But couldn't play in time.

Bobby needs a metronome,

I just need instruction.

The vacuum cleaner doesn't work,

It doesn't get the suction.

This is a terrible poem,

But it's just one verse.

I wrote one about chest poop,

So I guess it could be worse.

Leg-Coming-Out-of-His-Chest-Man, stop licking that tree and help me! Two-Heads-16-Toes-Girl has fallen down again and I can't help her up with my T-Rex arms!

Worst. Comic. Ever.

One cannot argue with the Chewbacca defense. It is airtight.

As "truth" in the realms of philosophy, critical theory, and literary studies is almost purely subjective, I find it irrelevant to the discussion. Interestingness is unquestionably a motivating factor in selecting who and what is taught, but it's not neccessarily the students whose interest is factored in when making that selection. Interestingness over time, to multiple groups and/or generations, seems more accurate a scale. In addition, it isn't too hard to defend thinkers like Nietzsche, Derrida, Zizek, Marx, Hegel, Lacan, Freud and the like on grounds well beyond those considered "interesting." Are Marx and Engels taught because they are interesting, or because their works are challenging and brilliant? Frankly, most of the people listed are so fucking boring to read and understand that after 4 years of undergrad work, I was ready to build a time machine so I could go back and edit in some illustrations just to break the castle-walls-of-text monotony. Zizek is cool, lot of movie references. Foucault is probably the most "interesting" of the possible selections, and he is really only featured in one or two departments on a whole campus, while Hegel and Nietzsche (much less interesting to read in my opinion) are all over campus, they even show up in some business and advertising classes.

Well, that was a rant to nowhere. What do the kids do in this situation? TL;DR - I disagree with the article that student interest dictates the canon on any given university campus, but concede that interestingness is a factor in canonization over time.

Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth. Can't believe it wasn't on the list. Also, in my humble opinion, fuck anyone who derives deep and insightful wisdom from Oh The Places You'll Go. It irritates me to no end.

Thanks for the mention am_Unition! The current state of global economics is based on the 20th century mainstay that demand is unlimited and that resources are limited. This is a purely global idea, and the reality that our asteroid belt contains a basically unlimited supply of capital resources (the bulk of the periodic table in one form or another) will eventually shatter it and force us to think in "solar" terms. The company or country who gets the head start on mining the asteroid belt will accrue more wealth than anyone or anything ever has before. Current technology makes this possible, but it is very inefficient and lacking puzzle pieces (like how to get the raw materials back to the surface of our planet). The country or company that finishes the puzzle will be the dominant force in human society for a long, long time. We have conceptualized the answers to these questions, space elevators and 0g mining robots, so really all that needs to happen is the actual manufacturing of them. This is all inevitable. If I, a double minor in Astronomy and Economics a decade ago can put the pieces together then you can bet your ass that someone with a lot more education on the matter and a lot more money is already on top of it. Or will be soon. It won't be NASA because that would require the bulk of the US population and (snicker) government to have this epiphany. My money is on a multi-national corporation that can shoulder the initial investment without a great deal of infighting, knowing that the return will be unprecedented. Poor NASA doesn't stand a chance, at this point their role is applied R&D in the larger picture. They should brace to have their ranks pilfered as corporate space programs build up, and can offer the greatest minds a salary that NASA could never match. Hope that was relevant to the discussion!

To retard, grammatically, is a verb. The word unquestionably outdates its use to identify people with Down's Syndrome. I don't really understand how a word that doesn't apply to people with DS anymore (medically speaking) is still considered an insult toward people with DS even when not talking about people with DS. I guess if you call a person "retarded," you are invoking that definition. But clearly if you call Playstation "retarded" you don't mean that it has DS. I'm not a fan of taking offense every time the word is used because my brother's sister-in-law's best friend's kid has DS.

How is a 3-year-old a "danger to staff?" I have kids and cannot understand this. It's a 36-pound human being, with two hands any reasonably sized adult could throw it over an 8-foot fence with ease. Like saying you were mauled by a Guinea pig. Danger to staff, Jesus Christ on a cracker. Change schools, lady. Fight the system some other way.

I can't imagine how putting people in federal prison would help anything. "You made a tasteless joke, to the gulag with you!" Thanks for the input, Stalin. We'll let you know if we need any other suggestions about how to be total authoritarian assholes.

Also, this girl was not a US citizen, and fortunately she lives in a country not run by troglodytes. Wish I could say the same.

I guess I don't travel enough. Never read an e-book, never thought I needed to. Can't even imagine not being able to read because my "book" isn't charged. That being said, as I think about it, I don't read much mass media paperback fiction, "Lusty Tarzan" or "Clever Detective" type books. For the love of rain forests I suppose those throw-away type of books make digital sense. Just not my bag, baby.

I'd like to re-read I, Robot. Would be cool to see some Kim Stanley Robinson on the list.

After many years in the US Navy, I've found any attempt to de-boxify and un-capitalize my handwritten script laborious and frustrating. This was interesting.

The children. They're mostly Cheeto anyway.

Thus far the narrative has been drama, genre wise, but I keep hoping the universe will inject a scifi adventure in before I croak. A la Close Encounters, preferably. Lol. Maybe Paul? Whatever. I'd be happy with Howard the Duck at this point.

Your bookshelf and my bookshelf are secret lovers.

You don't have to go hard scifi to find scientifically literate ship descriptions. While it is pretty fantasy-like in plot and many other aspects (lots of terraforming fails), Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos are pretty accurate ship-wise. The Consul's ship is a series of decks around a central ladder well, and down is down, ie the direction opposite the main rocket's thrust. The spin ships don't get a lot of deep decriptions, but the Archangel class courier ships in the third and fourth books, Endymion and Rise of Endymion, are also pretty gnarly. It travels at thrusts exceeding 100 gravities, which liquifies its occupants. Then they are ressurected with the help of a parasitic lifeform. Mas gnarles, homes.

I also enjoyed the slow progression of thrust technology in the Red Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson. Starts at fuel rockets, where we are today, and eventually progresses to ion drives. Travel times are actually pretty accurate, depending on orbits.

Apparently, the hippocampus is located directly adjacent to the part of the brain that interprets tastes and smells. Hence those senses being universally associated with nostalgia, aka long term memory recall.

Naturally.

I've studied several broads in my life, confusing but beautiful. Always enjoyed the exams. And they smell nice.

The NCAA has a similar problem.

What do you say to an OU Sooner football player in a three piece suit?

Should have driven up to Trinidad and relaxed with a spliff and arguably some of the best beer in recorded history. Up where dogs are welcome in bars and nobody has Facebook because neighbors actually know each other. It's mostly fucked, California, but there's still a slice of heaven here and there. No jobs in heaven, of course, but lots of food and beer and cannabis.