http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification earthli News 3.7 en-us 720 https://www.earthli.com/news/ Wed, 06 May 2026 22:21:07 +0200 Wed, 06 May 2026 22:21:07 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/ https://www.earthli.com/news/icons/webcore_png/app/news_100px.png https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=6106 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=6106 Sat, 18 Apr 2026 10:18:00 +0200 joke, "I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to, too." [Girlfriends] "I don’t have a girlfriend but I know a girl who would be really mad if she heard me say that." [Baked potatoes] [image] "I like baked potatoes. I don't have a microwave oven, and it takes forever to bake a potato in a conventional oven. Sometimes I'll just throw one in there, even if I don't want one, because by the time it's done, who knows?" [Slip covers] "This one commercial said "Forget everything you know about slip covers," so I did. And it was a load off my mind. Then the commercial tried to sell slip covers, but I didn't know what the fuck they were." [Laziness] "I write jokes for a living, man. See I sit in my hotel at night, I think of something that's funny and then I go get a pen and I write it down. Or, if the pen's too far away, I have to convince myself that what I thought of ain't funny." [Bananas] "My friend asked me if I wanted a frozen banana, and I said "No... but I want a regular banana later, so yeah."" [Escalators] "I like escalators, because an escalator can never break; it can only become stairs." That's "graceful degradation" for you. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=6103 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=6103 Sun, 12 Apr 2026 23:07:02 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=6101 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=6101 Fri, 10 Apr 2026 09:48:43 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=6060 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=6060 Sat, 28 Feb 2026 17:10:51 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=6024 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=6024 Sun, 08 Feb 2026 21:45:35 +0100 (How like us the ape, this utterly hideous animal!) ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5923 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5923 Wed, 17 Dec 2025 21:12:20 +0100 , which I read in "2005" . -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The title is a play on the expression, "There are no atheists in foxholes." ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5850 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5850 Sun, 07 Dec 2025 15:12:50 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5800 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5800 Fri, 05 Dec 2025 08:53:41 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5799 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5799 Fri, 05 Dec 2025 08:49:43 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5719 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5719 Tue, 11 Nov 2025 21:59:57 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5718 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5718 Tue, 11 Nov 2025 21:21:16 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5717 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5717 Mon, 10 Nov 2025 22:40:06 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5716 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5716 Mon, 10 Nov 2025 22:18:32 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5682 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5682 Wed, 03 Sep 2025 14:50:02 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5673 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5673 Tue, 19 Aug 2025 15:18:13 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5623 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5623 Fri, 01 Aug 2025 22:35:38 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5517 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5517 Mon, 19 May 2025 12:28:18 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5480 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5480 Sun, 18 May 2025 22:07:00 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5505 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5505 Sun, 18 May 2025 14:36:09 +0200 , where it was described as "We’ll probably never hear another president speak as forcefully in defense of forests as LBJ did on signing the legislation creating Redwoods National Park." That's probably true. People don't talk like this anymore in the U.S. Other presidents would say things like this, though. Claudia Scheinbaum, for example. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5503 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5503 Fri, 16 May 2025 11:43:32 +0200 , a short article about NYU's craven response to "NYU student denounced Israel’s genocide in Gaza during his graduation speech to roaring applause." "Try to imagine at least once a day that you are not an American. Go even further: try to imagine at least once a day that you belong to the vast, the overwhelming majority of people on this planet who don’t have passports, don’t live in dwellings equipped with both refrigerators and telephones, who have never even once flown in a plane." It also included this brilliant quote of Salman Rushdie, "Since I have come to believe that such defiance is an inevitable and essential aspect of what we call freedom, I thought I might commend it to you. For in the years to come you will find yourselves up against gods of all sorts, big and little gods, corporate and incorporeal gods, all of them demanding to be worshipped and obeyed – the myriad deities of money and power, of convention and custom, that will seek to limit and control your thoughts and lives. "Defy them; that’s my advice to you. Thumb your noses; cock your snooks. For, as the myths tell us, it is by defying the gods that human beings have best expressed their humanity." [image]As Robin writes, this is not how the elites act. "what do the leaders of NYU do? Freak out about this student, their commencement speaker, who had the audacity to refer to “the atrocities currently happening in Palestine,” and, so, naturally, is having his diploma revoked. "[...] "What a juvenile society we live in." ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5500 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5500 Sun, 04 May 2025 07:58:30 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5488 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5488 Sun, 20 Apr 2025 11:56:33 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5479 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5479 Sun, 13 Apr 2025 11:03:06 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5458 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5458 Sat, 05 Apr 2025 21:02:13 +0200 "[image]In May, 1886, Chekhov wrote to his brother Alexander, who had literary ambitions: “In descriptions of Nature one must seize on small details, grouping them so that when the reader closes his eyes he gets a picture. For instance, you’ll have a moonlit night if you write that on the mill dam a piece of glass from a broken bottle glittered like a bright little star, and that the black shadow of a dog or a wolf rolled past like a ball.”" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Found the original on "Мастер-класс по текстам от Чехова" by turizmufa <Источник: https://tenchat.ru/media/2663632-masterklass-po-tekstam-ot-chekhova>, "Не говори мне, что светит луна; покажи мне отблеск света на битом стекле." ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5348 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5348 Sun, 26 Jan 2025 18:08:55 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5314 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5314 Tue, 07 Jan 2025 08:58:08 +0100 , it was a then-young Bill Moyers himself to whom Johnson said this, presumably in the 60s. Moyers quotes him as having said it in response to " some ugly racial epithets scrawled on signs [he's spotted during the motorcade.]" So, it seems that he was not describing a recipe he'd planned on using, but simply the power of the idea of racism. The article states further, "One of the secrets of his success was the ability to speak the racially insensitive language of his fellow Southerners. He understood them. He understood their reluctance and in some cases downright refusal to tear down the walls of racial segregation. He knew racism from the inside, and he knew well the role the rich and powerful played in promulgating it." To balance this just a bit, I also found this other quote from good ol' boy Lyndon B. Johnson, "I'll have those n**gers voting Democratic for the next 200 years." This is the same man who turned up the heat on the Vietnam War to the temperature that would end up cooking at least two million Vietnamese, whom he considered to be "hordes of barbaric yellow dwarves". ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5275 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5275 Sun, 24 Nov 2024 21:51:43 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5268 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5268 Sat, 09 Nov 2024 20:32:53 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5257 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5257 Sun, 03 Nov 2024 18:11:14 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5255 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5255 Mon, 28 Oct 2024 08:19:26 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5236 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5236 Sat, 26 Oct 2024 22:50:26 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5198 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5198 Sat, 12 Oct 2024 22:01:58 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5169 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5169 Sun, 15 Sep 2024 12:45:57 +0200 is"[image]Ich glaube, man sollte überhaupt nur solche Bücher lesen, die einen beißen und stechen. Wenn das Buch, das wir lesen, uns nicht mit einem Faustschlag auf den Schädel weckt, wozu lesen wir dann das Buch? Damit es uns glücklich macht, wie Du schreibst? Mein Gott, glücklich wären wir eben auch, wenn wir keine Bücher hätten, und solche Bücher, die uns glücklich machen, könnten wir zur Not selber schreiben. Wir brauchen aber die Bücher, die auf uns wirken wie ein Unglück, das uns sehr schmerzt, wie der Tod eines, den wir lieber hatten als uns, wie wenn wir in Wälder verstoßen würden, von allen Menschen weg, wie ein Selbstmord, ein Buch muß die Axt sein für das gefrorene Meer in uns. Das glaube ich." ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5163 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5163 Fri, 06 Sep 2024 18:09:32 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5055 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5055 Sun, 28 Apr 2024 10:38:22 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5035 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5035 Thu, 18 Apr 2024 12:03:48 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5017 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=5017 Mon, 15 Apr 2024 14:36:05 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4995 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4995 Sun, 03 Mar 2024 20:36:50 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4991 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4991 Thu, 22 Feb 2024 07:45:56 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4990 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4990 Thu, 22 Feb 2024 07:42:13 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4989 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4989 Wed, 21 Feb 2024 08:08:10 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4980 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4980 Sun, 18 Feb 2024 00:09:48 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4965 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4965 Sat, 03 Feb 2024 19:46:15 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4961 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4961 Fri, 02 Feb 2024 22:57:21 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4959 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4959 Mon, 29 Jan 2024 19:46:45 +0100 . ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4926 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4926 Mon, 08 Jan 2024 22:02:36 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4920 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4920 Sat, 30 Dec 2023 10:04:59 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4907 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4907 Tue, 26 Dec 2023 09:36:08 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4891 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4891 Sun, 10 Dec 2023 12:33:27 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4884 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4884 Fri, 08 Dec 2023 20:53:33 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4885 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4885 Fri, 08 Dec 2023 20:52:40 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4883 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4883 Fri, 08 Dec 2023 10:57:57 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4872 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4872 Sat, 25 Nov 2023 19:54:30 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4841 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4841 Wed, 25 Oct 2023 21:33:52 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4829 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4829 Sun, 15 Oct 2023 00:25:37 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4761 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4761 Sat, 29 Jul 2023 13:25:25 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4758 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4758 Mon, 17 Jul 2023 06:10:00 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4757 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4757 Sun, 16 Jul 2023 22:19:19 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4754 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4754 Fri, 07 Jul 2023 13:24:44 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4751 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4751 Wed, 28 Jun 2023 21:08:52 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4749 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4749 Mon, 19 Jun 2023 18:11:50 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4728 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4728 Fri, 28 Apr 2023 17:58:34 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4718 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4718 Sun, 16 Apr 2023 20:36:09 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4704 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4704 Tue, 14 Mar 2023 22:03:36 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4662 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4662 Sun, 22 Jan 2023 13:42:10 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4659 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4659 Mon, 16 Jan 2023 22:10:46 +0100 . [image] ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4658 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4658 Fri, 13 Jan 2023 16:25:49 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4625 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4625 Sat, 03 Dec 2022 13:06:00 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4619 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4619 Sat, 26 Nov 2022 20:27:18 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4605 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4605 Fri, 11 Nov 2022 11:53:11 +0100 . ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4594 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4594 Sun, 06 Nov 2022 22:11:36 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4590 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4590 Mon, 24 Oct 2022 22:19:39 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4577 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4577 Sat, 01 Oct 2022 12:41:32 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4562 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4562 Fri, 09 Sep 2022 22:30:34 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4557 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4557 Sun, 04 Sep 2022 03:14:14 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4550 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4550 Tue, 16 Aug 2022 17:13:43 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4549 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4549 Mon, 15 Aug 2022 04:46:15 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4547 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4547 Fri, 12 Aug 2022 14:21:39 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4545 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4545 Fri, 05 Aug 2022 16:14:37 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4544 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4544 Mon, 01 Aug 2022 01:33:04 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4513 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4513 Sat, 04 Jun 2022 00:30:48 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4494 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4494 Mon, 18 Apr 2022 12:01:49 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4488 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4488 Sun, 10 Apr 2022 13:59:00 +0200 . Alternatives are, "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." "The greatest problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished." "The most serious danger in communication is the illusion of having achieved it." "The great enemy of communication is the illusion of it." I like what the quote investigator determined to be the original version. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4472 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4472 Sun, 13 Mar 2022 21:14:58 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4471 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4471 Sun, 13 Mar 2022 18:43:13 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4455 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4455 Thu, 24 Feb 2022 22:15:30 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4445 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4445 Tue, 15 Feb 2022 10:45:39 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4381 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4381 Fri, 10 Dec 2021 22:16:48 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4375 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4375 Tue, 30 Nov 2021 17:04:18 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4374 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4374 Tue, 30 Nov 2021 16:59:45 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4367 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4367 Tue, 16 Nov 2021 23:20:52 +0100 . But the first time I heard something similar was on the "Dress to Kill comedy album" by Eddie Izzard , where he did the following bit, "You know, we think if somebody kills someone, that's murder, you go to prison. "You kill 10 people, you go to Texas, they hit you with a brick, that's what they do. "20 people, you go to a hospital, they look through a small window at you forever. "And over that, we can't deal with it, you know? Someone's killed 100,000 people, we're almost going, "Well done! You killed 100,000 people? You must get up very early in the morning. I can't even get down the gym!" ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4365 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4365 Fri, 12 Nov 2021 23:39:10 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4311 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4311 Mon, 25 Oct 2021 22:54:49 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4310 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4310 Thu, 05 Aug 2021 12:37:02 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4303 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4303 Sat, 24 Jul 2021 23:59:39 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4296 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4296 Fri, 09 Jul 2021 23:28:41 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4298 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4298 Fri, 09 Jul 2021 23:28:33 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4203 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4203 Thu, 11 Mar 2021 22:37:12 +0100 commemorates the recent death of Lawrence Ferlinghetti with a wonderful story, not directly about Ferlinghetti, but about one expert witness's testimony at his trial for obscenity for having published Howl. It wasn't so long ago in America that people were being prosecuted for obscenity. That trial was in 1957. Just over 60 years later and it seems kind of far-fetched to think we may see the like again. The goal is to sanction unsanctioned [1] ideas, to keep them from polluting people's minds, distracting them from the self-evident and officially accepted truth. Why bother with a trial and its messy rules of evidence -- why risk a public and official and potentially ideologically damaging loss -- when you can try and pillory heretics on social or the mainstream media or both? "Among other things, Ferlinghetti published Allen Ginsberg's Howl, and was prosecuted for obscenity because of that. One particular passage from that trial sticks in my head, as reported in Edward de Grazia, Girls Lean Back Everywhere 335-36 (1992); the colloquy was with an expert witness, literary critic Mark Schorer, who was testifying to the poem having ""redeeming social importance" ":" "Prosecutor: I presume you understand the whole thing, is that right?: "Schorer: I hope so. It's not always easy to know that one understands exactly what a contemporary poet is saying…. "Prosecutor: Do you understand what "angel-headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night" means? "Schorer: Sir, you can't translate poetry into prose. That's why it's poetry. (Emphasis added.)" Wonderful. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] I thought it would be fun to use the diametrically opposed definitions right next to each other. It was. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4181 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4181 Fri, 19 Feb 2021 21:52:12 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4180 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4180 Fri, 19 Feb 2021 21:49:27 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4178 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4178 Mon, 15 Feb 2021 14:07:21 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4113 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4113 Sun, 13 Dec 2020 16:11:22 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4080 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4080 Mon, 02 Nov 2020 21:23:06 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4065 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4065 Sat, 31 Oct 2020 17:13:51 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4078 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4078 Sat, 31 Oct 2020 17:13:12 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4062 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4062 Sun, 27 Sep 2020 14:27:06 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4057 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4057 Fri, 25 Sep 2020 23:05:04 +0200 . Both are quite nice. I had to look up "Thomas Merton" . ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3748 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3748 Fri, 25 Sep 2020 23:00:26 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3747 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3747 Fri, 25 Sep 2020 23:00:21 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3784 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3784 Fri, 25 Sep 2020 22:59:58 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4056 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4056 Fri, 25 Sep 2020 22:49:26 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4055 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=4055 Sat, 19 Sep 2020 12:22:53 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3970 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3970 Wed, 06 May 2020 21:10:05 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3969 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3969 Sun, 03 May 2020 18:01:24 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3967 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3967 Sat, 02 May 2020 23:10:56 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3966 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3966 Sat, 02 May 2020 20:57:48 +0200 referred to the image below, [image] It's nicely put together, but it's also not the original quote, which someone included in the comments in a giant wall of text from an English translation. I found the "original in German" : "Die kapitalistische Produktion entwickelt daher nur die Technik und Kombination des gesellschaftlichen Produktionsprozesses, indem sie zugleich die Springquellen alles Reichtums untergräbt: die Erde und den Arbeiter." The translation on the Reddit link is: "Capitalist production, therefore, develops technology, and the combining together of various processes into a social whole, only by sapping the original sources of all wealth—the soil and the laborer." The side-by-side English translation from the link to the original is: "Capitalist production, therefore, only develops the techniques and the degree of combination of the social process of production by simultaneously undermining the original sources of all wealth – the soil and the worker." I think a combination of the two would be more correct. The first one places the "only" in the wrong place whereas the second one invents "degree of" out of whole cloth. After that preamble, here's my translation: "The capitalist product therefore develops only the techniques and combination of social processes of production by undermining the two geysers of all wealth: the soil and the worker." As with "the Hegel quote going around" , it's not as sexy as the re-imagining in the poster. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3935 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3935 Sat, 04 Apr 2020 09:26:07 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3932 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3932 Sun, 29 Mar 2020 21:33:25 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3906 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3906 Sun, 16 Feb 2020 12:22:04 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3845 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3845 Fri, 15 Nov 2019 15:41:08 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3844 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3844 Fri, 15 Nov 2019 15:38:20 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3829 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3829 Tue, 29 Oct 2019 13:51:43 +0100 "Although holding a lock across process boundaries may sound questionable to you, most other platforms try to use imperfect heuristics to fix concurrency issues. Or they just hope race conditions don’t happen. In my experience, prayers are not a very effective concurrency primitive." ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3808 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3808 Sun, 06 Oct 2019 17:36:59 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3803 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3803 Sun, 06 Oct 2019 12:35:05 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3802 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3802 Sun, 06 Oct 2019 12:29:42 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3800 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3800 Fri, 04 Oct 2019 17:38:09 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3791 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3791 Fri, 30 Aug 2019 23:08:41 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3786 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3786 Wed, 28 Aug 2019 07:54:34 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3781 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3781 Fri, 16 Aug 2019 07:44:20 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3761 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3761 Sun, 07 Jul 2019 22:36:38 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3760 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3760 Sun, 07 Jul 2019 22:35:39 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3759 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3759 Sun, 07 Jul 2019 22:33:25 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3730 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3730 Sun, 14 Apr 2019 16:11:14 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3708 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3708 Sat, 23 Feb 2019 10:39:35 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3707 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3707 Sun, 17 Feb 2019 18:25:03 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3699 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3699 Sat, 09 Feb 2019 20:45:34 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3686 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3686 Tue, 22 Jan 2019 19:48:05 +0100 [1]. "I [suspect] that we are throwing more and more of our resources, including the cream of our youth, into financial activities remote from the production of goods and services, into activities that generate high private rewards disproportionate to their social productivity. I suspect that the immense power of the computer is being harnessed to this 'paper economy', not to do the same transactions more economically but to balloon the quantity and variety of financial exchanges." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] The quote seems to be quite real. I did a bit of digging and came up with the original paper (scanned, JPG), called "On the Efficiency of the Financial System" (PDF). It has been much-cited in several papers, like "How Big Is Too Big? On the Social Efficiency of the Financial Sector in the United States" (PDF), "Too Much Finance?" (PDF) as well as the article "Bankers: Who Needs Them?" by David Futrelle . The post "James Tobin on ‘paper economy’ and short-sighted speculation-generating financial instruments" has a link to the PDF above and includes a longer version of the citation, showing it to continue with, "[...] For this reason perhaps, high technology has so far yielded disappointing results in economy-wide productivity. I fear that, as Keynes saw even in his day, the advantages of the liquidity and negotiability of financial instruments come at the cost of facilitating nth-degree speculation which is short-sighted and inefficient." ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3661 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3661 Thu, 10 Jan 2019 21:13:52 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3660 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3660 Thu, 10 Jan 2019 21:08:58 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3658 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3658 Mon, 07 Jan 2019 20:59:41 +0100 offers quite a bit of clarification. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3593 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3593 Sun, 28 Oct 2018 22:12:04 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3581 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3581 Thu, 13 Sep 2018 21:55:49 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3560 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3560 Sun, 22 Jul 2018 08:47:45 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3523 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3523 Sat, 17 Feb 2018 12:39:04 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3516 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3516 Tue, 06 Feb 2018 18:17:41 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3489 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3489 Fri, 22 Dec 2017 07:20:50 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3467 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3467 Sat, 09 Dec 2017 08:57:20 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3449 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3449 Sat, 07 Oct 2017 11:10:01 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3446 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3446 Mon, 02 Oct 2017 16:38:06 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3438 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3438 Tue, 05 Sep 2017 10:25:10 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3425 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3425 Wed, 19 Jul 2017 22:55:58 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3422 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3422 Sat, 20 May 2017 10:17:55 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3421 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3421 Sun, 14 May 2017 20:17:58 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3420 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3420 Sun, 14 May 2017 20:14:19 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3417 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3417 Mon, 01 May 2017 14:33:56 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3409 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3409 Mon, 17 Apr 2017 13:42:39 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3404 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3404 Tue, 04 Apr 2017 07:25:58 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3403 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3403 Mon, 03 Apr 2017 20:09:48 +0200 , it is actually an English translation of the Latin proverb "Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur" ("what is freely asserted is freely dismissed"), which was commonly used in the 19th century. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3402 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3402 Mon, 03 Apr 2017 19:00:22 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3401 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3401 Sun, 02 Apr 2017 21:39:04 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3373 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3373 Mon, 13 Feb 2017 07:13:51 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3362 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3362 Thu, 26 Jan 2017 20:14:58 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3359 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3359 Fri, 20 Jan 2017 22:26:34 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3349 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3349 Fri, 06 Jan 2017 07:56:02 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3341 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3341 Mon, 02 Jan 2017 09:15:22 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3333 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3333 Fri, 30 Dec 2016 10:41:08 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3331 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3331 Thu, 29 Dec 2016 21:40:29 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3283 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3283 Wed, 15 Jun 2016 10:29:15 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3264 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3264 Mon, 16 May 2016 12:16:27 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3171 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3171 Tue, 17 Nov 2015 23:00:51 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3146 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3146 Sat, 25 Jul 2015 17:51:13 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3145 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3145 Mon, 20 Jul 2015 20:30:54 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2804 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2804 Tue, 26 May 2015 06:05:27 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3009 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3009 Tue, 26 May 2015 06:04:22 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3140 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3140 Fri, 22 May 2015 06:09:47 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3130 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3130 Sun, 05 Apr 2015 12:48:09 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3117 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3117 Sun, 01 Mar 2015 15:35:47 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3114 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3114 Sun, 01 Mar 2015 14:18:11 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3110 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3110 Sat, 28 Feb 2015 18:11:16 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3100 Wed, 21 Jan 2015 22:15:38 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3070 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3070 Fri, 05 Dec 2014 09:12:27 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3045 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3045 Thu, 09 Oct 2014 18:31:05 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3013 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=3013 Sun, 13 Jul 2014 11:06:13 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2923 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2923 Sun, 09 Feb 2014 23:03:12 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2946 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2946 Mon, 03 Feb 2014 23:03:11 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2918 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2918 Mon, 13 Jan 2014 22:01:41 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2896 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2896 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 22:42:05 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2892 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2892 Wed, 13 Nov 2013 21:33:23 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2868 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2868 Sun, 14 Jul 2013 22:06:21 +0200 puts some very interesting words in the wizard's mouth that explains his role quite well. After Dorothy and Co. have revealed him to be a fraud -- a mere man rather than the all-powerful wizard they'd imagined him to be -- he says, "[...] Now then, you can either persist in your dull revelation, or you can close the curtain and return to your world where good and power can allow without wicked dross, and where the broken vessels of your lives can be made whole by the caprice of an inscrutable demigod." I think it's safe to say that not many of us persist in the dull revelation. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2861 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2861 Sat, 29 Jun 2013 12:30:51 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2788 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2788 Sat, 29 Jun 2013 12:17:21 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2819 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2819 Sat, 29 Jun 2013 12:16:51 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2860 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2860 Sat, 29 Jun 2013 12:13:06 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2852 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2852 Mon, 10 Jun 2013 22:53:03 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2818 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2818 Sun, 28 Apr 2013 15:55:59 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2809 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2809 Wed, 06 Mar 2013 18:33:24 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2807 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2807 Wed, 06 Mar 2013 18:24:07 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2797 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2797 Sat, 02 Mar 2013 13:10:14 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2719 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2719 Sat, 24 Nov 2012 17:49:49 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2716 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2716 Fri, 16 Nov 2012 05:36:38 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2710 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2710 Wed, 07 Nov 2012 21:17:02 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2704 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2704 Tue, 06 Nov 2012 20:29:33 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2703 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2703 Sun, 28 Oct 2012 21:41:22 +0100 for the reference. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2674 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2674 Sun, 15 Jul 2012 20:23:40 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2645 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2645 Sun, 22 Apr 2012 15:50:04 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2594 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2594 Sat, 31 Dec 2011 09:36:48 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2581 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2581 Thu, 08 Dec 2011 22:50:24 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2577 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2577 Wed, 30 Nov 2011 20:40:55 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2574 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2574 Sun, 20 Nov 2011 20:03:54 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2566 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2566 Sat, 15 Oct 2011 23:03:49 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2540 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2540 Thu, 28 Jul 2011 17:34:27 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2526 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2526 Tue, 03 May 2011 22:38:13 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2511 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2511 Sun, 27 Mar 2011 13:38:26 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2498 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2498 Sun, 13 Mar 2011 15:07:12 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2494 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2494 Fri, 11 Mar 2011 23:38:16 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2489 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2489 Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:53:56 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2474 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2474 Sat, 22 Jan 2011 09:58:57 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2449 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2449 Fri, 24 Dec 2010 06:09:13 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2434 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2434 Mon, 04 Oct 2010 19:24:05 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2408 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2408 Sun, 13 Jun 2010 22:39:57 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2393 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2393 Sun, 23 May 2010 11:22:18 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2388 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2388 Sat, 15 May 2010 00:33:04 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2384 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2384 Sat, 08 May 2010 22:17:26 +0200 , which included photos from the war 35 years ago. It was one of the few thoughtful comments on a page full of jingoist fools defending the notion of America's essential goodness and the necessity of war in the face of all historical fact. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2377 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2377 Thu, 06 May 2010 06:23:38 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2353 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2353 Sat, 27 Mar 2010 10:42:50 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2335 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2335 Sun, 07 Feb 2010 12:34:02 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2326 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2326 Thu, 28 Jan 2010 08:17:54 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2308 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2308 Fri, 08 Jan 2010 22:50:48 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2301 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2301 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:32:26 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2298 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2298 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:10:55 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2293 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2293 Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:28:04 +0100 ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2281 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2281 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 22:17:19 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2267 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2267 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:57:54 +0100 about the death penalty. At a guess, 90% of the participants were in favor of killing for revenge or as punishment or to "serve as a lesson to others." Orwell's take on it -- having been up close and personal with revenge for the most heinous of acts -- is that it is much easier to see enemies as almost supernaturally powerful monsters capable of near-superhuman feats of evil in the abstract; up close and stripped of power, their base [1] humanity (and, in one case, clear mental illness) are overpoweringly evident. James-Bond-villain-like evil is mostly confined to stories and fantasy. That is not to say that evil does not exist or is not done -- quite the contrary -- but that the demonic intent ascribed to the perpetrators of such acts is, in almost all cases, absent and the cause is much more banal and, ultimately, less reassuring. If great evil is perpetrated for mundane reasons, it's all the more offensive; dressing it up in fantasy, however, does no-one any good, least of all a society's ethos. The entire essay is well worth a read (and is also quite short). A more recent example in the U.S. (but also elsewhere) is the incredible prevarication about the myth of Al Qaeda, where it is more reassuring to believe that "they" -- those heinous murderers -- are intent on destroying our entire civilization rather than that they are scattered, partially religiously brainwashed individuals with nothing left to live for except delusions of religious reward. Though the theory that acts ascribed to "Al Qaeda" are actually the work of desperate individuals or groups with very specific grievances is much more logical and actually borne out by evidence. However, those that lose loved ones to senseless acts of violence are easily susceptible to stories expanding their loved one's death as a part in a larger epic in which civilization hangs in the balance. No-one wants to lose anyone for some stupid reason and, yet, most such deaths are for stupid reasons. When a man loses an entire family in a bombing -- carried out inaccurately and acting on faulty information, but done anyway for bureaucratic or political reasons (stupid, stupid, stupid) -- he seeks revenge, but that is stupid as well. When that man takes several others with him in his self-immolation, the revenge exacted by the military or state on his countryman only multiplies the senselessness to ludicrous proportions. Can the individual be more easily excused for his act because of his desperate straits? Because he has nothing left to live for? Or what of the functionary simply doing his or her job, a cog in the works, and carrying out a small step in the procession that leads to a bombing run? Who is more to blame? Who is truly, humanly aware of the suffering being perpetrated? It can best be argued that those at the top, those in charge of enacting state terror are the most to blame. Though they too are abstracted far away from the consequences of their actions, it is their callousness and selfishness that catalyzes the cycle of violence. For they exact violence with a purpose: To take, to control, to win what belongs to someone else. But here we return to the question of evil; are those at the top evil because they make deals in which they and their friends profit but millions die? Confronted with such a pathetic monster in person -- take a Rumsfeld, for example -- one would see only a babbling old man. It is predominantly the innocent, the uninvolved and the helpless that suffer for all of these stupid acts. The cycle of revenge-taking does not end until one side acts on the realization of its futility. The only way to end it is to relieve desperation in the poor -- leave them and their resources in peace or, at the very least, recompense them fairly -- and, at the other end, to stop those in power from casually starting these fires of revenge simply for personal gain. We as a society tend to vastly underestimate the cost in terms of lives and wealth incurred by such actions. How often is a representative corrupted for what amounts to a pittance in order to allow something to happen that will cost billions? The representative gets a kickback (perhaps) or gets more jobs in his or her district and gets re-elected so that they can get more graft. The jobs are to build military equipment, which must be used somewhere, so that representative votes for war. The war costs us all hundreds of billions of dollars, millions of lives and untold lost opportunity costs, all so that the representative has a second home and a fat pension. The societal desire for revenge is so easily manipulated to support this system for, were society less thirsty for revenge for slights -- both real and perceived -- it would be much harder to get re-elected when one wages war. [1] The word "base" here is used in the sense of lowest and meanest. ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2250 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2250 Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:38:09 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2245 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2245 Fri, 27 Nov 2009 13:24:51 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2240 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2240 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:31:19 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2200 Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:01:52 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2198 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2198 Tue, 18 Aug 2009 22:02:30 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2193 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2193 Sun, 12 Jul 2009 22:55:05 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2192 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2192 Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:26:21 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2186 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2186 Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:33:22 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2179 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2179 Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:20:19 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2169 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2169 Thu, 21 May 2009 11:17:41 +0200 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2085 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2085 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:25:57 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1984 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=1984 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:22:21 +0100 writes, "The earliest known appearance of the adage discovered by QI occurred in a book titled “Mrs. Goose, Her Book” by Maurice Switzer. The publication date was 1907 and the copyright notice was 1906. The book was primarily filled with clever nonsense verse, and the phrasing in this early version was slightly different:5 "It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it. "Most of the humorous content of “Mrs. Goose, Her Book” has the imprint of originality, and based on currently available data QI believes that Maurice Switzer is the leading candidate for originator of the expression." ]]> https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2067 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2067 Sun, 04 Jan 2009 20:09:01 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2064 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2064 Sat, 03 Jan 2009 22:48:10 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2053 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2053 Fri, 02 Jan 2009 10:51:28 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2039 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2039 Sat, 27 Dec 2008 23:13:25 +0100 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2030 https://www.earthli.com/news/view_article.php?id=2030 Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:06:16 +0100