Net Neutrality is a great big buzz-item right now, but I hate to tell you that battle has already been lost. It was lost in the late 90s, when marketing firms took over. All that the current controversy is arguing about is how much worse things are going to get.
Memories of the Hofstadters are pretty minimal: we used to walk down the stairs of the apartment building on Claremont Ave – we were on the 11th floor and they were on 9. I remember the hollow echo of the stairwell, and the dizzying height.
There are lots of stories around flat Earth theories – so many that I’ve lost interest in keeping up with all the various debunkings and origin stories. Since Ptolemy was working on longitude and latitude in the 2nd century AD, I’m willing to say our knowledge goes back at least that far and probably much farther.
Warning: Discussion of Butts, particularly squeezing thereof.
I’m going to vent for just a second.
In the late 90s, I was in an abusive relationship with someone who had serious trust issues – or, who pretended to as a way of manipulating me. My view is that it was the latter, but I’m willing believe that they believed what they said. Life gets complicated like that, sometimes.
Caine said this, which I agree with 100%: [aff]
The rich are different, they operate by different rules. I have no particular reason to think they don’t ‘share’ such stuff with others of their kind. *shrug* Their lives don’t impact with reality much; they have the ability and power to shape their realities.
I call them “Renfields” after the vampire’s slave in Dracula. They’re the weak, beglamoured, cowardly, venal, crippled, soul-dead followers of a master vampire: their sense of right or wrong is completely overruled and all that’s left is fear of the master’s displeasure.
Warning: Rape, Anger, (Long)
This is not an attempt to equivocate. The victim of an assault is the victim and nothing anyone ever says can or should reduce in any way the victim’s subjective assessment of what they’ve experienced.
I have heard of pyramids in Mexico and South America, and the ones the space aliens made in Africa, but it took a piece of spam email to make me learn about the pyramids in Bosnia.
In the last few months we’ve seen attempts by Kurdistan and Catalonia to gain independence. Both attempts were shot down with non-lethal but overwhelming military force. That’s clearly one difference between those break-aways and the more successful on in Crimea. These events ought to force any thinking person to ask “what is a ‘nation’?” and to wonder how nations establish their legitimacy.