freeborn's New Writeups

Evolution of sleep (idea)

2000-08-05T22:57:36Z

I wouldn't say asinine but still some loopholes which is normal for evolutionary hypotheses. (And I would like to point out that, YEAH!, the Pragmatists & Evolutionists have taken over the teleological argument. Nyah-nyah.) *cough*

Another idea is that sleep-attacks might just have simply selected for other characteristics: light sleep, improved hearing, better vision, habitat-matching fur/feathers/scales/etc. And, it is reasonable enough to say that a species switched from diurnal to nocturnal or the other way around due to evolutionary forces. All of these can be clearly driven by evolution.

Sleep, on the other hand, not so. The argument that an animal after sleep performs better is not answering the question. The problem here is that evolution "should" have selected for an animal that didn't sleep yet still performed. Since it didn't, there are 3 choices: 1) oops, 2) it's not actually more beneficial to survival, 3) sleep is über-evolution…

Trained Monkeys, Inc. (place)

2000-08-05T20:41:13Z

I would suggest the Southeast Asian islands for The World's Best Monkey Trainer. Why?

Namely, there is a coconut farmer (what exactly does one call a coconut man?) there who in fact uses trained monkeys.

(Following information taken from TLC. Surgeon General's Warning : Don't believe everything you see on TV.)

This one Polynesian man who raised monkeys from birth (apparently very caringly, but who knows what happened off-camera). At a certain age, he took them and held their little monkey hands and used them to spin a coconut. They slapped and slapped the coconut in order to keep it turning. Eventually, he would let go and let the little monkeys keep slapping and spinning. If they did it properly, they received food. (Who knows what if they didn't! Monkey stew?)

Then, the monkeys were trained to retrieve coconuts. Again, with food as a reward. And, finally, they were sent up into the trees where, due to proficient…

Americans are rude (idea)

2000-08-05T09:08:45Z

Point one: generalisations drive me nuts. To say something to the effect of "group X is Y" is to forget that group X is infinitely differentiated. Each member has something not in common with every member of that group. It's just bad logic. (Props to iain : clearly the rude ones are the ones that stand out. People who try to blend in are more likely just assumed to be fellow citizens.)

But, we tend to do this constantly as our way of understanding the world. It's easier to group and diminish in worth. Or on the flip side, it helps in group identification and increasing self-importance (Alone one tends to never be of much importance).

A Slovakian friend whom I met in Germany once told me as I scribbled on a 5 Mark coin that "Europeans don't do that." She identified herself with Europeans, noble people that they are, and made such an obviously absurd comment, well, for reasons of self-importance I assume. Which leads to:

Point two: A Theory…

The Problem with Name Calling (thing)

2000-08-03T17:51:35Z

Idiot!

Wussy!

Commie-bastard!!!

When I read these terms, I can only think of one thing: "Poophead". Poophead, that quintessential childhood insult. All insults, all name calling is nothing more than calling someone a poop-head.

Think about it. Why do people call other people any name? It's because they are angry or hurt or they just don't like the other person. And, in the absence of a logical argument or anything else intelligent to say for that matter, they resort to name calling.

The goal: to hurt.

Nothing else. It's meant as an insult, as an injury. It's an attempt to hurt another individual and as such I see no place for it anywhere, including E2.

Before the p.c. discussion comes up, I just want to say: nope. There's a difference: P.C. says…

de-brand-name (idea)

2000-08-02T19:15:57Z

v.: The act of taking a pocket knife or a small pair of scissors and very carefully clipping all the many, many threads holding on those DAMN labels which get stuck all over the friggin' place.

Let's face it: things weren't always as crazy as they are. It used to be that the reputation of a company was based quite simply on quality . Go figure.

Somwhere along the line, namely the post-war boom, we got all wacky and decided to take capitalism from any senseful level it may have been on, pump it full of steroids, and produce raging, maniacal, uncontrollable consumerism.

You have to imagine in America during the war things were naturally very tight. People had to conserve, eat less meat, grow vegetables, and recycle. People were hard…

Kike (thing)

2000-08-01T00:27:18Z

Yet another example of stupid name calling.

"Kike" was (is sadly) a derogative term for "Jew". According to Leo Rosten, author of Joys of Yiddish, the word might come from the fact that when arriving at Ellis Island, Jewish immigrants who were unwilling to sign an "X" (possibly due to its resemblance to a cross) signed an "O". The term for circles in yiddish is "Kikel" or "Keikl" (KY-Kel) and little circle "Kikeleh".

Apparently, the immigrants continued using the Kikel even after Ellis Island; and eventually to both the immigration inspectors and the rest of the nation, they became known as "kikel men" or "kikes".

I do hope that it isn't fear of a word that has kept this node so long empty and rather oversight. To not define a word with the hope that its meaning be forgotten or that ignoring it will allow the same is to hope that our mistakes will be similarly forgotten. Such a thing should not be allowed to happen.