good times, great oldies

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imagine our culture is continuous for another 1,000 years.  what will Oldies radio stations play?

there are a few obvious ways it might go down.

1.  lump music based on release date.

"you're listening to WKZ, playing the best of the 20th-23rd centuries!"

2.  cheap digital storage and the internet will preserve all present and future music forever.  all genres/artists/songs will be instantly available on demand.

3.  define Oldies in relation to the target audience, with stations updating playlists as their demographic dies.  

if that's the case, people may only have a vague awareness of artists and chronology from past centuries.

"20th century...that was mozart, right?"  
"no, the beatles."  
"oh, that's right, the beatles."

also, movies.  will citizen kane and lawrence of arabia be among the best movies of all time in 1,000 years?  i doubt movies will even be experienced the same way.  maybe future technology will make movies more immersive, or interactive.  the 20th century movie experience might appear as quaint to our descendants as a living room gramophone appears to us.

thoughts?
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physio-what, or "never judge a Ming by his cover"

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physiognomy is a discredited practice that feels intuitively right.  (physiognomy is the "science" of accurately judging character based on outward appearance, esp. face.)

ever judge a person's curiosity and intelligence by the brightness of their eyes?  trust someone because they have an open face?  assume a tall and attractive person is confident?  on some level these intuitions shape my perception of others.  especially strangers and people i don't know well.

like this guy.

this, of course, is the devout muslim who intended to detonate a car bomb within a crowd for the glory of allah.  i saw this picture and immediately hated him.

but even if this picture accompanied a positive headline - maybe, "Youngest Nobel Recipient Ever, Cures Cancer, AIDS" - i would still judge him negatively.

physiognomically speaking, here's why:

eyes - shallow, almost painted on his face.  no emotional or intellectual depth.  

eyebrows - tilted, travel away from his eyes into his forehead.  reminiscent of Flash Gordon's nemesis, Ming the Merciless.

lips - a mix of petulance and condescension.  make him appear permanently scornful.

skull - vast forehead collapsing to a narrow chin.  meet upside-down-triangle-head man.  like the eyebrows, almost a caricature.

if i passed this face on the street i'd want to punch it. 

not an impulsion i'd act on, but he would certainly face obstacles to earning my trust. 

while mostly out of favor, physiognomy is making a partial comeback.  we might not be particularly skilled at telling if someone is honest, but apparently we can accurately judge if that person is a good candidate for flight school.  

regardless of whether physiognomy is ultimately validated or dismissed by science, we should try to be aware of its affect on our judgement.  listen to your intuition while remaining open to additional information.  not everyone who looks like Ming the Merciless is Ming the Merciless.  

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commercials

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i don't own a TV.  primarily because i find TV insulting.

on thanksgiving i watched part of a football game.  it was frequently interrupted by commercials.  most were a variation on the following:

smug man judges you for a few seconds, says,

"you're inadequate.
but you're in luck.  here's a product that can protect you from your ineptitude"






sure, companies sugarcoat their ads, but the basic assumption is that the viewer is an insecure, gullible fool ripe for exploitation.

here are a few templates i saw applied to multiple products.

cleaning products ~  you, dear woman, are the unsung hero of the house, managing several rowdy children and a bungling husband while maintaining equanimity that would impress buddha.  this product is your reward.

sports car / high-end electronics ~  your family is a noisy anchor that you tolerate with good humor.  hats off to you sir.  but sometimes you need to treat yourself.  here's the product for you.

toys / sugary cereal ~  hiiiiiiiiiii kids!  yea!  we don't need to tell you, adults are buffoons!  they don't understand what's really important!  yea!  it's up to you to manipulate them into buying this product!  you can do it!  yea!

cosmetics ~  go look in a mirror.  you are ugly, dirty, undesirable.  but this product, regularly applied, will trick potential mates into thinking you're younger, more fertile, and genetically gifted.

diamonds ~ it's impossible to truly love a woman if you don't buy her diamonds.  impossible.  she knows it and so does everyone else.  when you're ready to make this relationship real, you know where to shop.
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minus one emotion

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my cousin's recent facebook status update:

>.> If you could live without one emotion what would it be???

v.v i choose fear, so i can attempt a stupid front flip again.

great question.  like everyone else, i've ranked senses and limbs into order of sacrifice, but i've never considered losing an emotion.

(candidates for deletion)

responses to her update suggested: anger, jealousy, love, anxiety, fear.  you can make a decent case for each of those, except maybe love.  

personally, i'd jettison a secondary emotion of love.  lust.  no other emotion clouds my thinking, corrupts my judgement, and exerts such a strong and constant force as lust.  if i could take even a small fraction of the time i've idled away in fruitless sexual fantasy and apply it productively, i could have mastered any trade or language. 

people will say that an absence of lust will remove or reduce the pleasure of sex.  they're right.  but would you wish for an itch so you could experience the pleasure of scratching it?

which emotion would you live without?  why?

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thanksgiving, 2010

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thank you.  and you.  and you and you and you.

i'll soon enjoy the king's feast of the ages* with my sister-in-law's family.

whoever you are, wherever you are, great comfort and food to you.  reflect and be thankful.  remember, it could be worse.  unless you're that person who actually has the worst life of everyone.  then i'm really, really sorry.

*conquers hunger and temporarily fortifies all stats +3.
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the bloop

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yesterday was the first time i've heard of the bloop.  it's an extremely loud, unidentified sound recorded in the south pacific in 1997.  (if you follow the link, be sure to listen to the audio clip on the right hand side)

the bloop is one of many unidentified sounds recorded in the ocean.  my imagination immediately conjures cthulhu or some other malevolent leviathan, though that's probably the least likely explanation.  still, there's plenty we don't know about the ocean.  most remains unexplored and unmapped.

the open ocean fills me with awe and fear.  i'm aware i'm floating over an unfathomably deep abyss.  a short distance below is crushing pressure and endless darkness.  the environment is as foreign and hostile as the vacuum of space, yet creatures live there.  exotic, terrifying creatures that resemble nightmares more than fish.

the text in the below graphic is difficult to read, but the images provide perspective on the depth of the ocean.  the tiny dot at the surface represents a 6-foot tall person.

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hate hate hate

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BBC Shows Lessons of Hate at Some Islamic Schools in Britain - NYTimes.com

why wasn't I taught how to identify jews and efficiently amputate the hands and feet of thieves? there was never discussion in my classes of the most appropriate method of execution for homosexuals.

makes me wonder how far i live from a school like this.  that should be a function of google maps.  "click here to see how far you live from children being trained to hate you"

do islamic universities offer advanced degrees in these fields?  can you major in "jewish global conspiracy" or "sharia law enforcement"?  time to search iTunesU.
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