Category Archives: humanities

the horrors of anarchy

Since Somalia’s state collapsed in 1991, life expectancy has increased by two years, vaccination rates have increased, deaths from measles have dropped by close to a third, telephones and radios have multiplied . . . I wish I’d said that: The golden … Continue reading

Posted in law, politics | 1 Comment

what’s it called again?

I’m watching Dexter. In a flashback, teen Dexter says, “Jesus, Dad, it’s called being on time, did you ever hear of it?” The actors playing Dexter in the present and in the past were born in 1971 and 1987, so … Continue reading

Posted in cinema, language | 1 Comment

links

Charity finds that U.S. food aid for Africa hurts instead of helps. Oh dear, CARE has been taken over by evil selfish libertarians. What else could explain such a conclusion? What American accent do you have? I got Philadelphia on … Continue reading

Posted in economics, language, security theater | Leave a comment

classifying is hard

I decided to rearrange my books by broad subject rather than by author. So far I have: biology, medicine, psychology computing mathematics, physics, chemistry language arts those included in this classification fiction history, geography, ecology, heraldry Does religion belong with … Continue reading

Posted in humanities | 2 Comments

a higher grade of gibberish

Strange but true — People study for years to talk like this: Infant is status post initial ampicillin and gentamycin for rule out sepsis workup.

Posted in language, medicine | Leave a comment

O tempora, O mores!

I don’t suppose there’s any country where there wasn’t grumbling, when the French Republican system of measurement was proposed, that it is unnatural, lacking traditional measurement’s intimate link to human scale. And likewise I doubt there’s much agitation to go … Continue reading

Posted in futures, humanities | 2 Comments

twaddle generation

What, if anything, does this mean? The racial, ethnic, and gender diversity of the United States has increased exponentially over the past two decades . . . . Besides wondering whether the writer knows what exponential means, I’m curious about how much range … Continue reading

Posted in humanities, language | 1 Comment