NonlinearMatters CoolStuff #4 February 2006
a random picture stream of what makes my juices flowing
blog.nonlinearmatters.com
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Quotes
HOW TO DETECT A 2-WAY MIRROR When we visit bathrooms, hotel rooms, changing rooms, etc., how many of you know for sure that the seemingly ordinary mirror hanging on the wall is a real mirror, or actually a 2-way mirror (i.e. they can see you, but you can't see them)?
Too Bad Ignorance isn't painful!
There have been many cases of people installing 2-way mirrors in female changing rooms. It is very difficult to positively identify the surface by just looking at it. It's time to get paranoid. So, how do we determine with any amount of certainty? Just conduct this simple test: Place the tip of your fingernail against the reflective surface and if there is a GAP between your fingernail and the image of the nail, then it is a GENUINE mirror. However, if your fingernail DIRECTLY TOUCHES the image of your nail, then BEWARE, for it is a 2-way mirror! So if not at home and changing before a mirror, do the "fingernail test". It doesn't cost you anything. It is simple to do, and it might save you from getting "visually raped"! Share this with your girlfriends.
The only difference between a cult and a religion is the amount of real estate they own
Unless you are a dead kid. The use of the term intention is a bit difficult here. Our nation's actions were taken on the macro level with the foreknowledge that lots of kids would die. That we might prefer it if, by some wizard's spell, not single child were to die as a result of us blowing up and burning down places where they live does not absolve us morally.
babies more like we do. Would that make them right and us wrong?
Now my point is ultimately that the manner in which we blow up babies has nothing to do with morality and everything to do with our power. Any hope of taking the moral highroad on this one, and I believe we have it relative to the terrorists, is by having a superior definition of the greater good. However, that our morality is better than that of the terrorists is a small We blow up babies because the loss is acceptable in the service of the greater good comfort, almost the smallest comfort I can as we define it. The terrorists blow up babies imagine like siting in the Malebolge and priding because the loss is acceptable to the greater myself on not being in Cocytus. good as they define it. If the terrorists could I think the US ought to have a higher threshold get what they wanted without blowing up as far as what we're willing to kill babies for babies they wouldn't blow up babies. If the terrorists had the organization and resources than we've displayed in this war. I would like our greater good to be better. that we have they would probably blow up The day that somebody can explain to me why this war was the absolute best way to make americans safer (or hell, why it's even in the top ten), is the day I'll sign up to blindly follow the Republican party for life, no matter how insane they get. As it stands, I look at the horrible carnage and I see their family and friends, many of whom will want revenge. I see a cycle that will only get worse, never better. I look at the enormous tab, and think of the many things it could've done to prevent American deaths (or just to reduce American debt) and it's just a horrible crime. I don't believe President Bush had bad intentions, I really do believe he thought it would be a cakewalk, and that it would do some good to the world. At this point, it's clear that President Bush needs to humbly and sincerely apologize for this debacle, and it's equally clear that a majority of the Republican party needs to eat a gigantic slice of humble pie. This war was not a Conservative action. It was the work of radical extremists who took advantage of a trusting President. It flies in the face of true Republican values, and true American values. It's a stain on the party.
i thought it was a pretty well known fact that we knew the attack on pearl harbor was imminent but that we allowed it to happen because 1) thwarting it would indicate that we had broken the german code (which was crucial to our eventual victory and certainly not something we wanted to expose...) and 2) the response of the american people to such an attack would galvanize us, etc. given the shady practices of this administration, documented intentions toward iraq pre-9/11, and an amazingly efficient spin on the attacks that put us in iraq despite world-wide criticism of our intentions, i think there may be merit to a notion that a pearl harbor-esque parallel took place...