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Meta
two dimensions of opinion
In November I linked to a “Political Compass” and mentioned some improvements I’d like to see. Chris Lightfoot apparently had already made them. Rather than assigning preconceived interpretations to the questions, Lightfoot waited until a large number of people had done his quiz, and then did a factor analysis to define the axes.
Lightfoot’s quiz was cited by Tim Lambert (Deltoid), who invites you to add your name to a chart. (I hope you will; only a few names on it are familiar to me.)
My score is {-1.37, +6.29}, near the top center of Lambert’s chart.
Posted in mathematics, politics
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the television-wide web
A chart of the crossovers linking many tv series. (cited by Nev Dull)
Tommy Westphall was an austistic child on ST ELSEWHERE who, it was revealed in the closing moments of the final episode of that series, had dreamt the entire run of the show. So if ST ELSEWHERE is part of his mind, so are the 167 other series to which it is connected.
And so is Henry Fonda, who played himself in an episode of Maude. A less drastic hypothesis is that only those episodes involving St Elsewhere characters are dreams. And even that is not necessary, if the revelation did not specify that the characters (as well as the events) were unreal.
Posted in cinema
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Popper on constitutional law
. . . Popper said that it is reasonable to assume that sooner or later some rotten scoundrels will gain power. It’s not important who they will be precisely, but whatever your politcal views might be you must agree that a likelihood of such event is rather high. So whatever law you want to have in you country, don’t ask yourself the question “how this law can be used in good hands”. Ask the question “how this law can be used when the filthiest, dirtest, stupidest bastards will rule my country (and sooner or later they probably will)”. Only the law that cannot be used to anything wrong EVEN by the most vicious ruler is truly good. . . .
(Cited by Aaron Krowne.)
Over the years I have occasionally quoted the principle as “write your constitution as if your worst enemy were in power,” but without knowing where I picked it up. Popper, eh?
Posted in constitution
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chimæra contest
The Ugly Zoo collects a hundred photographs of surprising creatures, the best of which include the eagle-headed Retriever, the lynx-headed squirrel, the salamander-legged antlered anteater.
(Cited by JoAnne Schmitz.)
Posted in arts
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type-casting
I wonder whether Tony Robinson got the part of Baldrick, flunky to Prince Edmund the Black Adder, partly because he resembles Gunnar Björnstrand who played Jöns the squire in The Seventh Seal (1957).
Posted in cinema
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