"Conversion to a different way of thinking and different beliefs appears in many different situations. Although the techniques here are drawn from studies of brainwashing and cult conversion, they are surprisingly common, at least in more acceptable forms, in many other groups and organizations."
"No one knows how many computer software projects go awry, but my observations as a software consultant in many corporations suggest that easily a majority are colossal failures, though such blunt labels offend sensibilities and are typically eschewed. ...
Still, even allowing for the way ambiguity and confusion thicken with increasing altitude, there must exist people with clout who suspect something is amiss. The systems, after all, are not working."
"One of the most famous pieces of Usenet trivia out there is
'if you mention
Hitler or Nazis in a post, you've automatically ended whatever discussion
you were taking part in'.
Known as Godwin's Law, this rule of Usenet has a
long and sordid history on the network - and is absolutely wrong."
"... Japanese (among other languages) uses Chinese characters too,
and it is a very different language from Chinese. However, we must look
at exactly how the Japanese use the Chinese characters. Generally they
borrowed both the characters and the words represented; it's rather as if
when we borrowed words like psychology from Greek, we wrote them in the
Greek alphabet."
A beautiful concise explanation. I feel constrained to point out that until quite recently, it was not at all odd for modern-European-language writers to print Greek words in the Greek alphabet -- you'll see this in Jung, for example,
if I'm remembering correctly.
"PlainTalk is talk that is meant to be understood. It is sort of ordinary, and its meant to serve a purpose. You could call it "functional," in some ways.
PlainTalk aims to neither talk above, nor below, the listener's intelligence. It is a kind way of speaking. The goal of Plain Talk is to be understood. You could call it "friendly," in some ways.
PlainTalk is not about eliminating jargon, nor is it about talking rough. It's not about being condescending, and it's not about treating everyone like a 12 year old. ...
PlainTalk is regularly misunderstood. In addition to ideas about what PlainTalk is, this wiki has ideas about what PlainTalk isn't."
"An online animated video sponsored by Planned Parenthood's San Francisco-area branch features a superhero character drowning an abstinence promoter in a trash can and blasting into oblivion several pro-life picketers protesting in front of one of the organization's facilities."
I haven't seen the video
(it seems to have been pulled from the website).
If the description in this article is accurate,
I'd say that it's in pooor taste and inappropriate.
Jahn is a strong proponent of nationalism;
I am a strong opponent of nationalism.
I quite like some of these neologisms,
but Jahn's inclusion here of some rather unpleasant slurs
(like we don't have enough of these already)
leads me to suspect that his usual rhetorical civility
may be less than entirely sincere.
"Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing software for cell phones that would analyze speech patterns and voice tones to rate people — on a scale of 0 to 100 percent — on how engaged they are in a conversation. ...
For now, the Jerk-O-Meter is set up to monitor the user's end of the conversation. If his attention is straying, a message pops up on the phone that warns,
'Don't be a jerk!' or
'Be a little nicer now.'
A score closer to 100 percent would prompt, 'Wow, you're a smooth talker.'
However, the Jerk-O-Meter also could be set up to test the voice on the other end of the line. Then it could send the tester such reports as: 'This person is acting like a jerk. Do you want to hang up?' "
Life in the 21st century -- people needing to use computer software to determine how other people are acting, and taking the advice of the software on how they should act in return.
As a group, the top figures in this administration have often seemed like so many aggressive children let loose in the neighborhood sandbox by deadbeat dads and moms. Does nobody wonder where those mommies and daddies, the people who should have taught them right from wrong, actually went? Certainly, their children are, in the best Sixties manner, all libido. Let me, in fact, suggest a label for them that, I hope, catches their truest political nature: They are immoral relativists.
Yet, even for the most self-absorbed among them, the ones most ready to twist reality (and the names we give it) into whatever shape best suits their needs of the moment, reality does have a way of biting back."
Of course, the big problem is that everybody else gets bitten too.
