Let’s talk about the rise of fascism in Europe and other recurring trends…
Category Archives: Talk
Talk about politics, society, science, computers, internet, psychology, and philosophy.
Do you Really Understand Climate Change?
At the doctor’s office
Doctor: We’ve found a shadow on your MRI. We can’t be sure exactly what it is before we operate, and that operation will be painful, but there is a very high risk this is a malignant tumor. You could die!
Patient: What are we waiting for! Let’s act now!
At the IPCC
Scientist: We’ve found some very disturbing links between carbon dioxide emissions and temperature rise. We recommend immediate action, even if that action will be painful. Temperature rise is bad news and there is a very high risk that several hundreds of millions of people will die if we do nothing.
Politician: Let’s wait and see what happens.
Now swap the answers!
Do you trust a politician that has not been able to do what must be done when hundreds of millions of lives are at stake, but will (if they are wired like any sane person) risk suffering to save their own life?
Header image: By pxhere.com, CC0, Link
Waking up in the middle of a wonderful dream
Life is like waking up in the middle of a wonderful dream: if you hadn’t been awakened, you wouldn’t have remembered the dream at all.
Why aren’t airplanes made of the same material as black boxes?
If the black boxes almost always survive a crash why aren’t the whole airplane made of the same material?
Because then it wouldn’t be an airplane. It would be an entirely different type of vehicle.
In fact, this type:
Self-defense
A: I don’t give a damn about your problems! This must be delivered this week!
B punches A in the face.
A: What the hell are you doing?
B: You just gave me such an urge to jump in front of a train when you said that, so I acted in self-defense…
UFO skeptics
A: I don’t get UFO-skeptics. They seem to say we’ve never been visited by aliens from other planets… but hey! Mexicans!
B: They are from Mexico.
A: Yes.
B: Mexico isn’t another planet.
A: It isn’t?!
How many millennials?
So, I’m carving out my manifesto, but I’ve hit a snag: should I go for a millennial kingdom, a kingdom that lasts for 2000 years or just keep it eternal? 3000? 5000? How many millennials do you usually need?
(I wonder what StackExchange would do if I asked them that… :o)
Talk to the Form
Remember in the old days when someone really rude didn’t want to talk to you? They’d push their hand in your face telling you to “talk to the hand.”
The modern equivalent of this, performed by every company on the web?
Talk to the Form.
You click on the “Start a Chat” button and get a search form. You type your question there and get a search result (duh!) Or you click on links until you reach a dead-end page with some generally worded advice equivalent to “have you made sure the power cable is attached properly?”
And then the company has “satisfied” your needs.
It is soooo great. And ssssoooo cheap.
I’m sure some types of managers are getting their rocks off right now. Good for them.
Trust but Verify — A Cure for Prejudice
A cure for prejudice: Trust, but verify. Trust yourself, but verify. Trust your friend, but verify. Trust your local politician, but verify. Trust your mom, but verify.
BUT VERIFY!
She knows when you’re lying…
Polly Graf — she knows when you’re lying!
