We the moderators, owners, creators of this site, this community board, this yahoo group, this NextDoor thread, this Facebook page, this Reddit sub, this forum, feed, or web site, have decreed: No political discussion whatsoever. We want this to be a fun place. And we can’t handle the disagreement of opinion that ensues once…
This week it came out that farms are worse than factories – for the environment, that is. The four major food producing firms produce more greenhouse gas than all factories combined. Shove that in your Prius and smoke it, Granola-breath. Where are the pitchforks? One would think we’d have an angry mob organized by now,…
The internet is dominated by feudal lords, say Google, Facebook, Reddit, Snapchat etc. These noble lords have great tracts of cyber real estate which they control in much the same way medieval feudal lords controlled the land in Europe. These organizations and web sites make strict rules that they enforce within their ecosystem to hold…
Photo by Sasha • Stories on Unsplash It was quite astonishing to read in the online journal Palimpest the other day a complete reinterpretation of Borges’ most famous story. The literary world has been stunned by the publication of such a bold and deliberate piece of provocation. Whatever the permanent effect on literature that Simon Black’s “‘Borges and I’ by Simon Black”…
Albert Einstein’s ostensibly racist observations that were recently unearthed in his private travel diary written in 1922 have been proven to be relatively unracist compared to your own racist thoughts. Yes, it’s true, he didn’t much seem to like the Chinese, whom he thought had too many children and appeared “spiritless and obtuse.” However, using…
Her name is Kelsey. She would like to make it known to the world that she has accomplished everything she hoped to accomplish on Instagram. And now she is at a loss. How should she proceed from here? What more is there to do, now that she has done it all? I am here to…
by Simon Black I used to get really frustrated driving around Los Angeles. Not any more. I figured out the secret to enjoying driving in heavy traffic. It’s all in your mind. For instance, you might think you’re stuck in traffic on the freeway. But observe your speedometer. You might be going 20 mph. That’s…
By Simon Black (with thanks to Terence Edwards) It’s very exciting how the advanced technology of Hollywood has mixed with the most primitive nonsense mankind has ever dreamed up, isn’t it? I sit eating my popcorn agog at the special effects created by these scientists, programmers and robotics experts and I feel that I am…
Can’t believe I fell for it again! This is undoubtedly the thousandth time I’ve taken the bait. An amazing link about some incredible thing in outer space. Some super great discovery about some galactic something or other. Some incredible telescope image or some images sent back from some satellite or orbiter. Alright, let’s face it. …
If a neurologist could somehow insert a camera deep into the human brain and show us on a primal level how we perceive one another, we would be quite surprised. We actually don’t see each other as people at all. The unconscious brain is not sophisticated enough to group its imagery under a coherent category…
Are Men Pigs? An Academic Responds What can Ovid, Faulkner and Tony Soprano teach us about Rape Culture? By Simon Black I was in the elevator in the English Department when a female colleague spoke about how she loved Dustin Hoffman’s performance in the movie that featured an English Professor, Stranger than Fiction. “Dustin Hoffman…