Yadayadayada…

Much of common interaction between people is just meaningless noise. Take common greetings and leave-takings. “How are you?” is just noise from the lips of someone who really doesn’t give a damn how you are and isn’t even remotely considering wondering about it. “Have a nice day,” is equally empty noise in almost all cases.

I tend to try making folks minds lurch a bit and wonder about such things. When I greet someone, frequently I’ll simply ask, “How am I?” That alone is usually just enough to jar them out of their dull lack of contemplation as they drift vaguely through the day–IF they have enough wit to be paying even the slightest bit of attention to their surroundings. I get some interesting, though usually delayed by double-takes, replies from time to time as the occasional person stops to consider that two actual people are interacting… Not often enough to be encouraging, but often enough to give me a wee glimmer of hope.

Then there’s my semi-frequent reply to an empty, “Have a nice day.”

“Kind of pushy aren’t you? I mean, what if I want to have a bad day?” Or, “Who made you the boss of me? I can have a bad day if I want to!”

Now, admittedly, each of those is deliberately delivered with a wry smile, looking the person square in the eyes if possible, so the sting ought to be taken out of such comments, but still. The cognitive dissonance created with statements like this might–might–lead folks to consider what they’re really saying and whether they really mean the blessing they unconsciously pronounce as empty words.

I just try to do my small part to wake the sleepers from their slumber. 😉

Oh, Yes: Buy This Company’s Products, Riiiight

On the product label of a 3-piece ethernet cable/adapter set:

“Idea for connect almost anything to your USB devices”

WTF?!? The cable has two RJ-45 connectors. One adapter is a marginally useful (very marginally useful in an emergency situation, I suppose) Female/Female RJ-45 connector and one completely useless RJ-45 splitter (anyone who’d use such a thing instead of using a router, hub or switch needs their head examined, IMO).

No USB cable or adapters whatsoever.

And note the fractured English, which was probably intended to convey, “Ideal for connecting… ” Yep. Made by slave labor in China.

Oh, I read the back for more amusement, such as,

“This product contains chemicals, including lead; know [sic] to the states [sic] of California… “

Wow. Chinese slave labor as founts of wisdom noting the gaseous, liquid and solid states of California? Somnolent state vs waking state? What?

And,

“When you open package please use scissors and cut along perforation… “

You guessed it: no perforations.

There was more, but these were enough to provide me with a bit of amusement.

If W.H. Auden Was Right…

…I might just live forever!

As the poets have mournfully sung,
Death takes the innocent young,
The rolling-in-money,
The screamingly-funny,
And those who are very well hung.

How Are Congresscritters and Slinkys Alike?

They’re both useless, but it is fun watching them fall down the stairs.


Note that I did not form the plural of “Slinky” as “Slinkies”. Why? Because Slinky is a proper noun, of course. “Congresscritters,” OTOH, is just about the most UNproper noun in existence… Just about.

I Don’t Know About You, But…

…it seems to me that being pricked with a pin would be better than being pinned with a prick.

Just a thought from somewhere off the wall.


Yeh, yeh: I post these things so you won’t have to. Either that or it’s the voices in my head making me do it.

Academia Nut Fruitcakes Get a Kick in the… Nuts

Jonathan Haidt, confirmed Liberal and atheist takes his colleagues to task.

Sample:

I submit to you that the under-representation of conservatives in social psychology, by a factor of several hundred, is evidence that we are a tribal moral community that actively discourages conservatives from entering. … We should take our own rhetoric about the benefits of diversity seriously and apply it to ourselves. … Just imagine if we had a true diversity of perspectives in social psychology. Imagine if conservative students felt free enough to challenge our dominant ideas, and bold enough to pull us out of our deepest ideological ruts. That is my vision for our bright post-partisan future.

There’s more at the linked article, a demonstration of an exception proving (“proving” here meaning “testing” as most of my readers would know) the rule that contemporary “liberals” are anything but. Liberal, that is. Haidt apparently is one of the few genuine liberals left in the American Academia Nut Fruitcake Bakeries laughingly called “institutions of higher learning”.