Quotation - Max Frisch

"Technology ... the knack of so arranging the world that we don't have to experience it."

Max Frisch, Swiss writer

Poor innocent Max.  He wrote that in 1959.
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Memorial Day May 30 1960

Besides my self, there is only one other person alive today who knows the significant association of this date with the song.
The video, by the way,  is a clever blend of Sinatra singing mixed with a scene from the 1956 film High Society.
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The 'Science' of Economics

From U. S. News of April 30, 2010:


"...economists think many of the 8.4 million jobs lost during the recession are gone for good.
"There's a global paradigm shift going on", said Mohammed El-Arian, CEO of the huge investment firm PIMCO, at a recent conference in Los Angeles.  "There's always a recognition lag.  People hold onto the old paradigm until the evidence of a new paradigm is overwhelming."


So, we, the people, are supposed to understand that the financial meltdown was the result of some inexorable tectonic forces deep in the substructure of economics.  And it's our fault if we can't let it go and catch up with the latest ideas in chaos theory. 

What pompous puffery!   "Paradigm shift' is a fancy euphemism for system failure.
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Sometimes...

I wish that people who speak approvingly of the 'intelligent design' of the earth were equally ready to approve the intelligent 'use' of it.
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H L Mencken on Bad Writing

"He writes the worst English that I have ever encountered.  It reminds me of a string of wet sponges;  it reminds me of tattered washing on the line;  it reminds me of stale bean soup, of college yells, of dogs barking idiotically through endless nights.  It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it.  It drags itself out of the dark abysm of pish, and crawls insanely up to the topmost pinnacle of posh.  It is rumble and bumble.  It is flap and doodle.  It is balder and dash."

Reading this always gives me a chuckle.
The "He..." was a reference to Warren G. Harding.
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Red Light Cameras

The installation of cameras at troubled intersections to catch and fine red light runners has just become approved by state law in Florida.
Prior to the state-wide action, towns across the state were doing this on their own and running into legal challenges supported by the courts.
The new law, of course, bothers many people.  Not only those who habitually run red lights but lovers of freedom as well.  I hold myself in the last category.
I have a better idea, even if it is an old one.  Put a police officer in the middle of the intersection to control and direct traffic.  The officer's presence by itself will eliminate the problem.
This may come as a shock to half the American population, at least those born here, but, once upon a time, a traffic cop at busy intersections was as common an occurence as a teacher in a classroom.
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Maintenance Man!

Call him that, or janitor, or custodian, but the people who keep the workplace clean and whole perform a vital service. It is no small thing to maintain man's structures and machines from the assault of Time and Nature.  These are occupations that do not obtain a status equal to their value.
The daily routine of cleaning and sanitation serves to keep us healthy.
The oiling of hinges, tightening of screws, replacement of bulbs and fuses, the sharpening of blades, the testing of alarms, flushing, charging, breakdown & reassembly, cleanup, disposal, collection, refill, restore, replace, alter, modify and renew:  all these activities and more keep the social engine running.
Custodians are a kind of hero forming an aboveground resistance in the war to maintain stability which is the sea our ideas swim in.
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