Fahrenheit 451
What would high school be like if it was more like a video game? YouTube brings us the video "007 GoldenEye High" that gives one possible answer.
The site "A trip to North Korea" brings us an interesting photoset that shows this wretched little country firsthand. The whole place seems to be quite similar to the mental images that I acquired from reading the graphic novel "Pyongyang".
The post "Power Fantasies as Defined by Gender" at "Hell In a Handbasket" tells us an anecdote that might amuse Panu, at least a little bit. The princess fantasies that are so common for the little girls have their dark side, once we remember what exactly gives a princess her power.
By the way, the latest broadcast of Derb Radio is up. This broadcast not-so-unexpectedly discusses the recent events in Toronto, and then features the song "For he's a Canadian", to be sung with the melody of the famous Monty Python lumberjack song.
The post "Goths: as Original as a Xerox of a Ward Churchill Painting" at "Hog on Ice" examines the "rebellion" of certain teenagers. Birds and words are truly dying. In the front page alone of the same new-to-me blog, we should also note the posts "Rethinking Abortion", "Like a Nun Without a Bicycle" and "Advance in my Pants".
I went to apply for the Canadian passport earlier today, having finally gathered up all the documents. As I was sitting there peacefully, I thought of something that I read years ago, though I can't remember where. I don't know if the following story is true, but I read that when the French ruled Haiti over their slaves, they used to put 25 slaves to move some huge thing from point A to point B. When that thing didn't move fast enough and there was too much bickering among the slaves, they executed five of the slaves at random. Curiously enough, the remaining twenty then had no problem whatsoever keeping up the pace. Sitting there, patiently waiting for my number to ever-so-slowly come up, I started daydreaming whether something similar could be done with government employees. Incentives matter, as somebody famously once noted. But at least the people working at the passport office didn't behave like their colleagues in the news article "Civil servants 'jumped naked off filing cabinets'".
The site "A trip to North Korea" brings us an interesting photoset that shows this wretched little country firsthand. The whole place seems to be quite similar to the mental images that I acquired from reading the graphic novel "Pyongyang".
The post "Power Fantasies as Defined by Gender" at "Hell In a Handbasket" tells us an anecdote that might amuse Panu, at least a little bit. The princess fantasies that are so common for the little girls have their dark side, once we remember what exactly gives a princess her power.
By the way, the latest broadcast of Derb Radio is up. This broadcast not-so-unexpectedly discusses the recent events in Toronto, and then features the song "For he's a Canadian", to be sung with the melody of the famous Monty Python lumberjack song.
The post "Goths: as Original as a Xerox of a Ward Churchill Painting" at "Hog on Ice" examines the "rebellion" of certain teenagers. Birds and words are truly dying. In the front page alone of the same new-to-me blog, we should also note the posts "Rethinking Abortion", "Like a Nun Without a Bicycle" and "Advance in my Pants".
I went to apply for the Canadian passport earlier today, having finally gathered up all the documents. As I was sitting there peacefully, I thought of something that I read years ago, though I can't remember where. I don't know if the following story is true, but I read that when the French ruled Haiti over their slaves, they used to put 25 slaves to move some huge thing from point A to point B. When that thing didn't move fast enough and there was too much bickering among the slaves, they executed five of the slaves at random. Curiously enough, the remaining twenty then had no problem whatsoever keeping up the pace. Sitting there, patiently waiting for my number to ever-so-slowly come up, I started daydreaming whether something similar could be done with government employees. Incentives matter, as somebody famously once noted. But at least the people working at the passport office didn't behave like their colleagues in the news article "Civil servants 'jumped naked off filing cabinets'".
"I read that when the French ruled Haiti over their slaves, they used to put 25 slaves to move some huge thing from point A to point B..."
There is an old chinese story about Sunztu wich is practically same, so most likely it is only a story they tell in foreing countries.
Ancient Finnish poems are so much better and You gave up Your holy passport, You silly fool ;)
Posted by Huckleberry Finn | 6:19 AM
There's an even better account of a trip to North Korea at http://www.1stopkorea.com/?nk-trip1.htm~mainframe, because the author of this one can speak Korean, even if he didn't get a bunch of pictures of the slums
Posted by Rochelle | 7:34 AM