It doesn’t extinguish prejudice — it promotes it.
Category Archives: Social Commentary
One Of The Many Reasons That Facebook Sux
And yes, I know it’s the eve of the IPO. Ask me if I care.
First I get an invite from someone to friend them. I’ve never heard of them. I go to the Facebook page, and there’s no obvious place to see where people who invited you are. And when I follow the link in the email with the invitation, does it take me to that person’s invitation? No. Of course not. It takes me to the page of suggested friends and invitations, and I have to scroll down to find this particular one. There is absolutely no excuse for any of this in this day and age of web technology.
But wait! It gets worse.
The guy who invited me has zero information about himself publicly available, which is OK, I guess, but I still have no reason to accept FB friendship. It doesn’t even show me if we have friends in common (though maybe the fact that it doesn’t do that is a sign that we don’t, but it would be nice if it were more explicit). So I look at the options for dealing with his invitation. There are two. Delete invitation, or accept it. There is not option (c), which is the one I want, which is “Send an FB message to him to ask him who the eff he is, and why I should friend him”.
Really, folks, does it have to be this hard?
Rationalizing Space Safety Issues
As I mentioned last night on The Space Show, for my next project at CEI, I’m planning to do an Issue Analysis (similar to the one I did on space real estate) laying out the history of risk and safety regulations, to provide some context for what is happening with both commercial crew (and other human spaceflight) at NASA, and with potential regulations that the FAA-AST may impose when the moratorium ends in 2015 (it will also make the case for extension). Broadly, it will make the case for a flexible approach, and to avoid a one-size-fits-all regime that could stifle, or even prevent the creation of the human spaceflight industry, both because it is too immature to have the sort of rigorous certification system currently in place for modern aviation, and because different people will have different risk tolerances for different experiences and prices. There will also be some philosophy in it about nanny statism, and the fact that our current obsession with safety is a sign that space isn’t societally important (for example, I’ll point out that if it were, we’d be sending volunteers on one-way missions already). It will also become a chapter in a forthcoming book.
The only problem is, I haven’t found a donor for it, and my creditors won’t allow me to do it pro bono, for some reason. So what I’ve done is to initiate a Kickstarter project for it. I’m trying to raise seven grand, which is about what the last one cost, and will give me enough to focus on it for a few weeks without having to frantically write for other publications just to pay bills, and it will allow me to travel to DC for associated meetings and press briefings. Target funding completion is a month from now — no one will be charged until then. Obviously, I’ll appreciate both word spreading and donations. I’m offering an autographed copy of the paper for a ten-dollar donation, but I’d appreciate suggestions for other possible rewards and levels.
OWS
RIP.
Actually, I just say good riddance to odious rubbish.
The Elephant Whisperer Is Mourned
…by the elephants. I think that there remain, at least for now, some things beyond the realm of science.
Geert Wilders
Some meditations on him, and the troubled Netherlands, from Mark Steyn:
…in the end the quiet life isn’t an option. It’s not necessary to agree with everything Mr. Wilders says in this book — or, in fact, anything he says — to recognize that, when the leader of the third-biggest party in one of the oldest democratic legislatures on earth has to live under constant threat of murder and be forced to live in “safe houses” for almost a decade, something is badly wrong in “the most tolerant country in Europe” — and that we have a responsibility to address it honestly, before it gets worse.
A decade ago, in the run-up to the toppling of Saddam, many media pundits had a standard line on Iraq: It’s an artificial entity cobbled together from parties who don’t belong in the same state. And I used to joke that anyone who thinks Iraq’s various components are incompatible ought to take a look at the Netherlands. If Sunni and Shia, Kurds and Arabs can’t be expected to have enough in common to make a functioning state, what do you call a jurisdiction split between post-Christian bi-swinging stoners and anti-whoring anti-sodomite anti-everything-you-dig Muslims? If Kurdistan’s an awkward fit in Iraq, how well does Pornostan fit in the Islamic Republic of the Netherlands?
It’s long, but read the whole thing.
The First Gay President
A brief history of the rise, and decline of news weeklies. Really, they’ve become parodies of themselves.
The New Phrenology
Some thoughts on the supposedly broken brains of conservatives, from Andy Ferguson. While what Jon Haidt has been doing is interesting, most of this stuff is junk science.
Plus, related thoughts from Jonah Goldberg.
“Make It Happen, Or Let It Happen”
Lileks has some thoughts on sports stadia (with bonus mystery guests), but the phrase he uses (the title of this post) would apply as well to job creation.
Dreams Of The Girl I Bullied
Hasn’t anyone on the president’s campaign team read his autobiography? I mean, I know the president has, when he read it while moving his lips, but he probably only read it that one time, so he’s probably forgotten most of what’s in it by now.