Category: Uncategorized

Or should I say, the soon-to-be Dr. Sam Harris. A few weeks ago I mentioned that I’d exchanged email with Sam; it seems that he finds it somewhat easier to find atheist volunteers for his projects than Christians, or, one can only presume, Nzambi Mpunguists. Naturally, I volunteered the services of the Dread Ilk as a group encompassing a reasonable number of the former, if sadly not so many of the latter. This series of four surveys is part of Sam’s study intended to investigate the nature of various beliefs held by various humans. Since I asserted in TIA that religion has nothing to fear from science and I’m interested to see what sort of results he gets, I encourage everyone here to help him out by taking the following four surveys:

Belief Survey A

Belief Survey B

Belief Survey C

Belief Survey D

Please note that each survey begins with the same basic data page; the different questions won’t appear until you reach the second page. There’s about a hundred questions on each, but they’re much easier than the Thucydides quiz, so no fear. I’m somewhat skeptical that this method will provide particularly meaningful results, let alone prove anything, but there’s only one way to find out. So, please take the quizzes and let’s see what this sociological “science” tells us about the nature of belief.

Since a number of female blogs appear to be wondering where all the real men went, the answer is: anywhere where women who miss “Sex and the City” aren’t. “Spiting their pretty faces” would have applied here, except for the fact that Horseface was downright heinous, Slagantha was old, disease-infested and literally cancerous, the annoying lawyer was an unattractive, unknowing lesbian, and while the prissy WASP did actually have a pretty face, her body was shaped less like a woman’s than a mutated pear with cankles.

A lot of 21-century working women now view men as fun emotional rollercoasters, as a hobby rather than a vocation. To have singleness represented in such a glamorous way was a relief – in more traditional accounts, a single woman of that age is officially on the shelf…. The seventysomething novelist Fay Weldon, who found the series “impossible not to enjoy”, is reluctant to lend messages to the show, but suggests that one might be: “Find ways to enjoy yourself, but give up the hunt for men. It’s just debasing.”

So, traditional marriage is debasing, but lonely cat-collecting while watching civilization slowly devolve into the third world, that’s liberating! But it’s nice to know that women are now officially down with single men treating women as objects for temporary amusement. The amusing thing is that women traditionally viewed strippers as being lower class; in these equalitarian times, being worthy of the pole is the pinnacle of female achievement.

For once, I find myself agreeing with an Ivy League college boy:

“Harvard seniors have every right to demand a Harvard-calibre speaker. Harry Potter – and JK Rowling – is just a flash in the pan.

I rather liked the first three Harry Potter books myself, but then, there are many books I liked that didn’t cause me to be impressed by the writer. And that last one was howlingly bad. Anyhow, a brief perusal of the best-selling books of 100 years ago* should suffice to disabuse anyone who thinks Rowling will still be well-regarded or even read in 100 years, whereas the timeless themes of Lewis’s Narnia novels will still be read and loved in twice that time.

Somehow, I doubt Rowling’s creation has ever inspired a little girl to sigh wistfully and say “Daddy, for our next trip, can we go to Hogwarts?”

Dr. Helen foresees the fate of the universities:

It’s no wonder universities are turning into pink collar ghettos. Men are finding other avenues that are fulfilling and fit in with their lifestyle. With the rise of technology and alternative ways to make a living and live one’s lifestyle, I have no doubt that most men will find what works for them.

If you think the sex ratio is bad now, just wait until I get my next+1 technology gig rolling. Once it’s possible to take college courses on your Xbox 720 or PS/4 for anything you want anytime you want, no guy will ever bother with sitting in a lecture hall at 7 AM again.

There wasn’t much rhyme or reason to how people did on the quiz from section 1.1 to 1.115. I think the ebook readers were under a bit of a handicap, from not knowing precisely where to stop reading to not having handy maps and summary notes at their disposal like the readers of the Landmark edition. If you have any questions about the quiz, feel free to ask them now. I have to admit that I am amazed so many people got the question about the Potidaean rebellion right.

Thucydides makes for fascinating reading because his analysis of the events he describes is so much more sober and incisive than what we see provided by commentators and journalists today. I’m less impressed by his recitation of events, which tends to leap around in both space and time, than by his explanations for how those events came to pass. His ability to cut to the heart of the matter is particularly impressive when one considers that he was an Athenian actively involved in the war, and yet his take on the events leading up to the war tend to read in a manner that could reasonably be taken as pro-Spartan. Can you even imagine Donald Rumsfeld or any of the neocons involved in the Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism eventually writing a history of the War on Terror that gives equal time to al-Qaeda and takes the USA to task for its strategic, tactical and moral blunders?

The five lessons I took away from this initial reading were as follows:

1. The Law of Unintended Consequences has always applied to war and intelligent minds tempered by wisdom have long recognized this. Thucydides didn’t write that no plan survives contact with the enemy, he went well beyond it in implying that no plan survives the process of mental buy-in from one’s own side. Unfortunately, these wise and intelligent minds tend to be overruled by the excitable masses, the greedy for glory, and the hungry for wealth and power. From the refusal of the Spartans to heed the advice of King Archidamus to the inability of the Athenians to follow Pericles’s correct strategic vision, we see that the actual execution of the war inevitably departs, sooner rather than later, from the ideas of those theoretically charged with the responsibility of executing it.

2. The establishment of non-imperial empire and constant meddling in the affairs of others appears to be the unavoidable offspring of democracy and power. No one who reads this can fail to recognize and be worried by the many analogies between ancient Athens and modern America, whether it is the comparative wealth, the belief in an inherent superiority of character and system, the conviction that every action is to the benefit of both themselves and others, and the total confidence in their particular military advantages. Just as Athens felt that its primacy was more than justified by its heroic leadership in the trans-Hellenic war against the Persians, Americans believe they can do no wrong on the world stage due to their two wars against the Germans, and, to a lesser extent, the Cold War against the Soviets. And just as Athens badly overestimated the esteem in which they were held by their rebellious allies, the USA overestimates the way it is perceived by the rest of the world. The Delian league in some ways appears to disturbingly foreshadow the Coalition of the Willing.

3. Politics hasn’t changed much in 2,400 years. Neither George W. Bush nor Bill Clinton could avoid the salient points and offer mulish self-justification any more completely than the Athenian attempt to dissuade Sparta from following their lead and getting involved in the dispute between Corinth and Corcyra. And Themosticles’s successful effort to keep Sparta occupied while the Athenians rebuilt their walls is very remniscent of the European Unionists’ staunch denials of the intended nature of the EU over the decades, denials that were only ever intended to keep the opposition from forming until the necessary political infrastructure had been erected and it was too late to stop it.

4. Being one who grew up reading Plato and Demosthenes courtesy of the Collier’s Junior Classics, I’d long considered myself somewhat of a metaphorical Athenian. Thus, Thucydides comes as a bit of a shock when one realizes that the Spartans, for all their horrific attitude towards raising children for the good of the state, actually tend to come off as wiser, less grasping and more reasonable than those with whom I’ve long identified. It’s clear that the famous discipline of the Spartans served them well in areas beyond the battlefield. It certainly appears to provide some solid historical grounding for my skepticism about democracy and equalitarianism.

5. The arrogance of a naval/aerial power is understandable, but can be misplaced. The history of warfare shows that even huge technological advantages can be overcome in a surprisingly short period of time, especially if the side with the advantage foolishly expends its advantage on matters of strategic insignificance. When reading Thucydides, one finds oneself drawn time and time again to thinking of the long-term strategic positions of the USA and China.

The actual dialogue, for the record:

Q: the jurors said they were struck by a comment he made that implied “you’re just the little people” (I don’t recall that one, but I wasn’t always there). The also thought he seems “arrogant” and the fact he compared himself to moses and MLK in his opening made them feel “he was on a mission to be one of them.” -This seems contradictory to what Bob’s brothers and niece said, and even some of the employees who testified against him, who found him down to earth and often helpful. Did your dad have two opposite sides? Or was his courtroom personna misinterpreted?

A: I think like many of those who have worked their way up from the farm, he can be a bit of a snob. Not socially – he’s an engineer, after all – but in the sense of not really wanting to be around people who reminded him of what he worked so hard to escape. And then, being an engineer, he has the typical engineer’s disregard for those who don’t know the facts when he does. So, it doesn’t surprise me that this might have led to his courtroom persona creating a mistaken assumption of arrogance.

However, please note that I’m not in the least bit annoyed because the article was less wildly inaccurate than the usual newspaper story – let alone blog post – about my father. But I think it’s important to put a partially-quoted phrase that could easily be misunderstood in its proper context.

Or Atlanta, or Detroit….

Child welfare officials told the judge the children were living in an authoritarian environment that left girls at risk of sexual abuse and raised boys to become sexual perpetrators.

It’s also noteworthy that the warrant which was used to justify the raid on the FLDS property was just dropped. This isn’t the final confirmation that the call which prompted the warrant was a fake, but that’s obviously coming in the near future.

First, close your book and test your knowledge of the first 115 chapters. You’ve got five minutes, so don’t start it and then walk away. Then let us know how you did and share your thoughts on the first section; I’ll post mine later in the day. I recommend taking the quiz before reading the comments.

Next week’s reading is from 1.116 to 2.46, page 118. Ebook readers, stop when you get to the summer of the second year and the onset of the plague in Athens, where it says: “Such was the funeral that took place during this winter.”

Blackblade and company think they’ve figured out the truncated comment text issue and it looks like they’ll have it resolved early next week. In the meantime, I recommend copying and saving your comments before trying to enter them. As you can see, Lec has stripped out the avatars, reduced the namebar size, and modified the namebar colors in keeping with a color scheme suggested by SWW. The latter is an improvement, but I’m not sure that we can’t do better, so if you have any suggestions on that score please chime in. I think we’ll give #f9f9e2 a whirl next, it’s a bit more subtle.

By the way, while I encourage the report of problems and suggestions for a better implementation, I can’t stress enough how little I care about redundant repetitions of the obvious. All that accomplishes is to demonstrate an annoying ignorance of the way software development works. Speaking as one who has produced a software project that had the benefit of dozens of Intel testers, I can say with some authority that no amount of testing can compare with real world stress tests. Most problematic bugs are intermittent, so they often don’t show up in the artificial usage by the testers. As Blackblade mentioned, the average number of comments on all their other sites is 12.

It’s true that this commenting system isn’t ready for prime time. It isn’t supposed to be, not yet, and it might interest you to know that this blog is serving as a practical laboratory for a few much bigger sites that are interested in some of the forthcoming new features that they can’t get via Haloscan, WordPress, or other commenting systems.

Here’s a list of requests I sent to Blackblade on Wednesday. Some of them have already been implemented and are indicated by strikethrough, but if anything is missing, let me know:

FIXES

1. Display the correct number of comments. For example, on the “Overrated” post, it indicates there are 47 comments. In both Expanded and Collapsed mode, I count 25.
2. Remove everything from the main page except a single line in between the post text and “POSTED BY VOX @ TIMESTAMP”. That line should have the blue CO logo, “Comments (X)”, and “Comment page”. “Comments (X)” should be hotlinked to bring up the comments in the frame. The “Comment page” should bring up the separate post page which contains the post and all of the comments in expanded mode, with the oldest comments on top. The boxes for Username and so forth should go at the bottom, as now. Until the frame is ready, just have the “Comments (X)” hotlink bring up the separate post page. Depending upon which people find they prefer, frame or page, we may eventually elect to switch option attached to “Comments (X)” and replace “Comment Page” with “Comment Pop-up”.
3. After a comment is submitted, the view should be centered on the new comment that has just appeared. Presently, it appears to try to center one on the entire page or something, which is usually nowhere near the new comment.
4. Reverse Order should remember the state of the comments and respect that. Hitting Reverse Order twice does not return the user to the original state as it should, but in a collapsed state.
5. Rip out that useless “There are currently no comments” text. It already says “0 comments”.
6. If you’re storing a cookie anyhow, you should be able to remember the non-registered users ID if he is commenting multiple times in a single session.
7. Trying to post without a Username should bring up red text saying “anonymous comments not permitted” rather than “outsourced.poster.mandatory”.
8. Timestamp in “04.29.08 – 3:40 pm” format. Eastern Standard Time.
9. Truncated comment entry problem. Use a 10k character limit.
10. “Slow down” and black box display after estimated 120+ comments.
11. Username and Comment not aligned quite properly with white text boxes

FEATURES

1. The frame should have a dark blue border like the sidebars, not transparent.
2. The size should be 750 pixels high and 600 pixels wide. Resizable is preferable; if that’s not technically possible, it might be a nice coComment feature to allow registered users to set their preferred frame size in their own settings.
3. There should be three basic modes, Expanded, Collapsed, and Recent. Expanded is all expanded, Collapsed is all collapsed to name bars, Recent should show the last three comments and last five name bars and nothing else. No collection of horizontal bars. The frame should open in Recent mode.
4. The frame needs to have a Refresh button. Perhaps at the bottom left, on the same line as Submit.
5. When a new comment is made, the number of comments is updated and either the number blinks coComment blue or the blue co logo flashes green. This will prevent needless refreshes. Bold text on the new number.
6. I need an edit function as well as delete.
7. Dynamic word and phrase blacklists for both Username and Comment boxes implemented.
8. Take out the “No &, +, /, %, |, @, , characters allowed “. This is confusing because it causes some to assume that HTML cannot be used. Have it pop up as a message in red text if someone tries to enter one.
9. Preview function for commenters. A Reply button with autoformatted quoting would also be nice.
10. Ability to use name that is not Username.