unintended consequences, example umptillion 26 March 2008
Posted by DSM in science.comments closed
I like the idea of saving the Earth. I grew up in a town with lots of parkland and I’ve never quite adjusted to the more urban environments I’ve lived in since.
Unfortunately I’m a natural sceptic, and so when people tell me that separating my papers from my plastics helps I can’t suppress the impulse to ask “how, exactly?” And when you start thinking about the energy budget involved in recycling, you rapidly come to the conclusion that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.
So when I read this article describing how an envirofriendly Toyota Prius was crushed in a miles-per-gallon test by a BMW 520d (!) I wasn’t entirely shocked. Sure, it wasn’t a scientific test, one data point doesn’t prove anything, and so on. I know. Still funny, and probably right.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I understand that it’s not fair that a bunch of science geeks and engineers sitting in offices playing networked FPS games and reading slashdot have done, and will do, more to save the environment than anything you can do, and that a lot of the things you’re encouraged to do are either useless or counterproductive. (Don’t forget: you can join the Hour of Power response to Earth Hour. Tim Blair assembles a helpful list of things you can do to participate!) That they’re going to do it for a paycheque from greedy capitalist exploiters is just the icing on the cake..
Genuine environmental protection requires honest and complete consideration of the tradeoffs involved. If that means recognizing the silliness of many of our secular sacraments, so be it.
darker than words 21 March 2008
Posted by DSM in faith.comments closed
On this day — the darkest of all days, darker even than the Last Day — it’s hard to find words appropriate. And that difficulty is only fitting: for today is the death of the Word.
One temptation should be resisted, though, and not every priest is up to the challenge.
The Cross isn’t God showing us how much He loves us; or showing us that we should renew our efforts to help the poor. It’s not God suffering to teach us how to sympathize by offering an example of an innocent being killed– if anything it’s an identification not with those who suffer but with those who cause it. The Cross is not a lesson that some people learn and others merely admire and some reject.
It’s an action. It’s an event. And it changes everything whether you’re sleeping in class or not.
The Cross has more in common with a hurricane or a supernova than it does the philosophizing of Socrates before his death.
We try to water it down and replace it by Hallmark sentiments. We try to escape by treating it as merely a dramatic example of a teacher who threatened the social order being suppressed.
We fail.
For there He hangs, and for this was He born, and from the effect of His death there is no hiding place.
Kneel, sons of men.
he’s right! give us hell, Quimby! 16 March 2008
Posted by DSM in faith.comments closed
As they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples, and said to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here.
“If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ you say, ‘The Lord has need of it’; and immediately he will send it back here.”
They went away and found a colt tied at the door, outside in the street; and they untied it. Some of the bystanders were saying to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” They spoke to them just as Jesus had told them, and they gave them permission.
They brought the colt to Jesus and put their coats on it; and He sat on it. And many spread their coats in the road, and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields.
Those who went in front and those who followed were shouting:
“Hosanna!
BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD;
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David;
Hosanna in the highest!”
Jesus entered Jerusalem and came into the temple; and after looking around at everything, He left for Bethany with the twelve, since it was already late.
The Gospel According to St Mark: XI
dear Lost writers 12 March 2008
Posted by DSM in television.comments closed
Hi. It’s me again.
I know it’s been a while since we’ve spoken, but that’s because I’ve been generally happy with your work. I even enjoyed the plot arcs that no one else did– although I would have handled Eko’s differently. It’s okay to have him discover that he couldn’t be who he was pretending to be, that deep in his heart he didn’t believe; or that he believed, but he couldn’t love. That works just fine dramatically. But the whole “first I’m going to build a church but then I’m going to change my mind” turn only works if his changing his mind becomes important.. and it wasn’t treated that way at all. It just looked random and pointless.
I digress.
I was very happy to see your recent Juliet-centric episode, because I’m on record as having a crush on her. She’s been one of my favourite characters ever since she was introduced.
Did you really need to bring an adultery plotline in to add a source of conflict, though? Again? I appreciate the fig leaf you offered, as you always do, that the couple was having marriage problems already, and that Juliet was lonely. Well, that’s not enough. And you know it, though characters in the Lost universe seem to have trouble with the idea.
Even if you hadn’t bothered to come up with a more creative idea for motivation than an affair, you could have kept the same storyline — and by Lost standards been refreshingly original — without the affair actually happening. All you’d need is for Juliet to be happy to have found a friend on the island to spend time with, and you could still keep the jealousy of Ben and the wife and the resulting consequences intact. You’d also have been far more faithful to the character of Juliet as portrayed to date.
I remain convinced that Jack & Juliet make a much better couple than Jack & Kate, and I’ve grown to like Kate & Sawyer. So choose the right ending, not the one you seem to be aiming at to bring the story full circle in some not-as-poetic-as-you-think fashion. This isn’t some harem anime where by tradition the hero has to end up with his childhood friend, or the one he met first, or whatever. You can improvise.
It’s not too late. I’m happy to tie things together for the finale if you’d like.
One final point. If you’re hinting at something by showing a flashback instead of a flashforward for Juliet, then you, sirs, should choose your seconds promptly, and we shall meet at dawn.
Yours very truly,
Doug
PS: More Juliet fan service ktxbye.
One More Epicycle 