Quick Roundup 11
Monday, January 23, 2006
Whew! This weekend went by in a blur! Between a marathon session of submarine-blogging and having to work Sunday, there wasn't much time to blog. Bleh.
I stand relieved. Very relieved!
Eric Ryle, who runs the news desk at the submarine news site The Sub Report, had to suspend operations for a week, and so he had a few of us at Ultraquiet No More stand in for him on alternate days. I took part of the weekend due to my nutty work schedule.
The evening leading up to it was a blast from the past. I was at work late on a Friday evening (partly due to an equipment malfunction), with a fair amount of bare piping and electronics around. It was just me and a few other guys from work. I missed my wife. And I was thinking about submarines. It was like being on duty twelve years after I got out of the Navy! I was up until the not-so-wee hours Saturday morning for my feeble imitation of his efforts.
It was a blast once I got going, but I've concluded that if I have a nose for submarine news, I'm wearing a clothespin on it! I forgot to include a great parody in my lineup and missed one slam dunk of a story entirely. "So Chirac was at a submarine base," my mind brayed. "He had to give his speech somewhere." Blew a chance to get a shot of the frog hopping aboard the Vigilant.
In any case, it was loads of fun once I got going, thanks to the great news hunting advice Lubber's Line gave us volunteers. I also developed a keen appreciation for what Eric does every day at his site. I just hope my oddball sense of humor didn't offend or confuse anybody too much. (After my wife's reaction to my "Royal Baby" joke, I just had to shrug and say, "Well, it was a lot funnier at four a.m.!")
Blogroll Addition
And speaking of heavy hitters, I figure it's about time I stopped pussyfooting around and add The Rule of Reason to my blogroll. If you don't know who Nick Provenzo is, go there now, start scrolling, and get acquainted. I am glad to see that he's back in action.
I'm still pondering an idea (the "anti-inductive mentality") he came up with in this post, on antitrust law:
My musings aside, his overall point is very good, and his blog's focus on intellectual activism fills a void in the Objectivist blogosphere.
Jason Roberts is back!
Jason Roberts, whose blog, Letters from an Enthusiast, focuses on his adventures studying the classics of Greece and Rome, has returned to blogging!
The BookMeme Game Whatever
Last week, I decided to write my answers to a "book meme" I encountered recently. Not one to tag or be tagged, I invited others to join, and got one shy of a handful of volunteers, not to mentions some additional book recommendations. Others who wrote about five of their favorite books are:
Blair, at Secular Foxhole, who reminded me that I could stand to read Victor Hugo's 93.
Commenter Adrian Hester obliged with his list, which included a book on music that, had I remembered it when I wrote my answers, I might have included in my own list.
Myrhaf joined in, after first explaining his distaste for the word "meme".
He does bring up a good point. The term is often used to draw an analogy between ideas and genes. While this might have some value in the academic study of the transmission of ideas, I have also tended to dislike the term. On my first encounter with it, in graduate school, I left the conversation with the distinct impression that the other participant did not appreciate the fact that an individual human being is in full control of which ideas he accepts. Ever since, I have tended to avoid the term for fear of perpetuating this sort of confusion.
Jennifer Snow at Literatrix offers her answers, which mention an author I've never read, Neal Stephenson, a couple of times. And Asimov's Positronic Man. I haven't read that, but loved Bicentennial Man.
I had a blast reading everyone's answers!
The Objective Standard is out!
This is, by now, more along the lines of a reminder to myself to subscribe.
The Undercurrent is out.
The January issue of that nationwide campus Objectivist newsletter is out.
-- CAV
Updates
Today: Corrected a typo and supplied a link.
I stand relieved. Very relieved!
Eric Ryle, who runs the news desk at the submarine news site The Sub Report, had to suspend operations for a week, and so he had a few of us at Ultraquiet No More stand in for him on alternate days. I took part of the weekend due to my nutty work schedule.
The evening leading up to it was a blast from the past. I was at work late on a Friday evening (partly due to an equipment malfunction), with a fair amount of bare piping and electronics around. It was just me and a few other guys from work. I missed my wife. And I was thinking about submarines. It was like being on duty twelve years after I got out of the Navy! I was up until the not-so-wee hours Saturday morning for my feeble imitation of his efforts.
It was a blast once I got going, but I've concluded that if I have a nose for submarine news, I'm wearing a clothespin on it! I forgot to include a great parody in my lineup and missed one slam dunk of a story entirely. "So Chirac was at a submarine base," my mind brayed. "He had to give his speech somewhere." Blew a chance to get a shot of the frog hopping aboard the Vigilant.
In any case, it was loads of fun once I got going, thanks to the great news hunting advice Lubber's Line gave us volunteers. I also developed a keen appreciation for what Eric does every day at his site. I just hope my oddball sense of humor didn't offend or confuse anybody too much. (After my wife's reaction to my "Royal Baby" joke, I just had to shrug and say, "Well, it was a lot funnier at four a.m.!")
Blogroll Addition
And speaking of heavy hitters, I figure it's about time I stopped pussyfooting around and add The Rule of Reason to my blogroll. If you don't know who Nick Provenzo is, go there now, start scrolling, and get acquainted. I am glad to see that he's back in action.
I'm still pondering an idea (the "anti-inductive mentality") he came up with in this post, on antitrust law:
I doubt too many people who actually make money (that is, who actually create the thing of value that they later sell on the market, over looting it) will look at a case like the Visa/MasterCard antitrust case and conclude that it was a feat of justice. Yet by their inaction, they tacitly support its outcome. Why? Because these people do not grasp the moral basis of capitalism. I've been trying to think of a new name for this kind of thinking-the "anti-inductive mentality" comes to mind. It shouldn't be rocket science for someone to figure out that when a person creates something, they own it. Case closed, period. This is clearly not the situation today.The idea reminds me a little of the confusion between the metaphysical and the man-made that Ayn Rand pointed out in Philosophy: Who Needs It. But here, mountains of evidence that there is "something wrong" with antitrust is staring everyone in the face, so it's not really the same kind of error. Interesting idea.
My musings aside, his overall point is very good, and his blog's focus on intellectual activism fills a void in the Objectivist blogosphere.
Jason Roberts is back!
Jason Roberts, whose blog, Letters from an Enthusiast, focuses on his adventures studying the classics of Greece and Rome, has returned to blogging!
The Book
Last week, I decided to write my answers to a "book meme" I encountered recently. Not one to tag or be tagged, I invited others to join, and got one shy of a handful of volunteers, not to mentions some additional book recommendations. Others who wrote about five of their favorite books are:
Blair, at Secular Foxhole, who reminded me that I could stand to read Victor Hugo's 93.
Commenter Adrian Hester obliged with his list, which included a book on music that, had I remembered it when I wrote my answers, I might have included in my own list.
Myrhaf joined in, after first explaining his distaste for the word "meme".
When I started this blog I sacrificed a bull to Jupiter and vowed never to use the word “meme.” Since I don’t want to be struck by lightning, I’ll call it the Book Game.But he did use the word "meme". I guess Jove ain't such a hot shot with the lightning bolts, seeing how Myrhaf has posted a couple of times since.
He does bring up a good point. The term is often used to draw an analogy between ideas and genes. While this might have some value in the academic study of the transmission of ideas, I have also tended to dislike the term. On my first encounter with it, in graduate school, I left the conversation with the distinct impression that the other participant did not appreciate the fact that an individual human being is in full control of which ideas he accepts. Ever since, I have tended to avoid the term for fear of perpetuating this sort of confusion.
Jennifer Snow at Literatrix offers her answers, which mention an author I've never read, Neal Stephenson, a couple of times. And Asimov's Positronic Man. I haven't read that, but loved Bicentennial Man.
I had a blast reading everyone's answers!
The Objective Standard is out!
This is, by now, more along the lines of a reminder to myself to subscribe.
The Undercurrent is out.
The January issue of that nationwide campus Objectivist newsletter is out.
-- CAV
Updates
Today: Corrected a typo and supplied a link.
6 comments:
Yo, Gus, you write, "But he did use the word 'meme'." Heh, just to be persnickety, no he didn't, not by the conventions of modern logic for citation versus use. By putting it in quotes, he cited it. Had he not put it in quotes, then he would have used it.
Actually, Gus, I think you have read something by Neal Stephenson. He wrote the essay on operating systems that I think you forwarded to me from Raymund many years ago.
As for Asimov, he's definitely worth reading, though in general I prefer his short stories to his novels a great deal. (And I've mentioned before that I'm generally allergic to his style.) "The Bicentennial Man" is very good, as are most of the rest of his robot stories (the collection I, Robot is a classic, as are the robot novels). I'd also recommend his novel The End of Eternity. On the other hand, I'm very far from a fan of his Foundation novels, whose whole premise I find deeply flawed. (This essay is right on the money, but it's chock-full of spoilers. If that's what Asimov was doing, then the Foundation series ain't so bad, but I'm not convinced he was.) When I was younger, I liked Asimov much more than I do now; now of the Big Three I much prefer Heinlein, and I'd probably place Clarke ahead of him--both on the basis of their short stories and novellas, not their novels. In novels Heinlein bests Clarke up until the hyper-successful Stranger in a Strange Land, after which Heinlein was free to blather on and on and on and on like a long-winded dirty old man fancying himself a second Bernard Shaw. But leaving aside the sins of his old age, if you want a good SF novel, try Heinlein's Double Star.
Adrian,
Very astute of you to have noticed that that essay was Neal Stephenson, though I can still pretty safely say I've never read his fiction. I don't read that much sci-fi.
Gus
Well, of Stephenson's SF I've only read Snow Crash and several short stories. Snow Crash is one I would highly recommend.
Thanks. I'll keep that in mind.
Gus
Yo, Gus, at least you asked about books, not music. I'd have been at it forever if you had. Heh.
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