Isegoria

If you find the notion of the four-hour workweek intriguing, listen to this audio of Tim Ferriss at SXSW.

If you find the notion of the four-hour workweek intriguing, listen to this audio of Tim Ferriss at SXSW.

Mac or Bonds: Who Roided It Up Better? That’s hard to say. Neither one resembles his rookie card — but I can’t say I’d look like my rookie card either, if I had one.

Mac or Bonds: Who Roided It Up Better? That’s hard to say. Neither one resembles his rookie card — but I can’t say I’d look like my rookie card either, if I had one.

National Survey Reveals More than 70% of Americans Don’t Know Plastic is Made from Oil:

• 72% of respondents do not know that plastic is made out of oil/petroleum

• On average, respondents estimated 38% of plastic is recycled (the reality is less than 6%, according to the EPA)
• Nearly 40% (38.1%) of respondents said plastic will biodegrade underground, in home compost, in landfills, or in the ocean (plastic will not biodegrade in any of these environments).

Senators Discuss Preventing College Attacks — and psychologists present some hard-to-believe statistics:

Some of the most disturbing testimony came from Russ Federman, director of counseling and psychological services at the University of Virginia.

Dr. Federman ticked off statistics from a recent survey about the extent of mental health problems on campuses. He said that 94 percent of students reported feeling overwhelmed by all they have to do, and that nearly 50 percent reported having felt so depressed that it was difficult to function.

In the same survey, 9 percent of students reported seriously considering suicide and 1.3 percent actually attempted suicide. Colleges’ counseling centers are struggling to keep up, Dr. Federman said.

National Survey Reveals More than 70% of Americans Don’t Know Plastic is Made from Oil:

• 72% of respondents do not know that plastic is made out of oil/petroleum

• On average, respondents estimated 38% of plastic is recycled (the reality is less than 6%, according to the EPA)
• Nearly 40% (38.1%) of respondents said plastic will biodegrade underground, in home compost, in landfills, or in the ocean (plastic will not biodegrade in any of these environments).

Senators Discuss Preventing College Attacks — and psychologists present some hard-to-believe statistics:

Some of the most disturbing testimony came from Russ Federman, director of counseling and psychological services at the University of Virginia.

Dr. Federman ticked off statistics from a recent survey about the extent of mental health problems on campuses. He said that 94 percent of students reported feeling overwhelmed by all they have to do, and that nearly 50 percent reported having felt so depressed that it was difficult to function.

In the same survey, 9 percent of students reported seriously considering suicide and 1.3 percent actually attempted suicide. Colleges’ counseling centers are struggling to keep up, Dr. Federman said.

What Time is Dinner? Well, that has changed over the years:

The names of meals and their general times were once quite standard. Everyone in medieval England knew that you ate breakfast first thing in the morning, dinner in the middle of the day, and supper not long before you went to bed, around sundown. The modern confusion arose from changing social customs and classes, political and economic developments, and even from technological innovations.

Despite our stereotypes of big English breakfasts of sausages, kippers (sardines), toast, tomatoes, etc., big breakfasts weren’t really common until the Victorian age. Breakfast before the 1800s was usually just toast or some variation of gruel or porridge, except when a lavish spread was offered to impress guests. The main meal of the day was dinner.

In the Middle Ages, great nobles ate the most formal dinner, around noon or one p.m. Their dinner was more than a meal; it was an ostentatious display, a statement of wealth and power, with dozens of servants attending in a ritualized performance. Cooking for this grand, daily show began hours in advance, and the preparations for presentation began at 10 or 11 a.m. The meal might take hours, and be eaten in the most formal and elaborately decorated chambers. Lesser nobles, knights and manor holders ate a far less formal dinner, but at the same time of day.

Middle-class tradesmen and merchants, however, had to eat a little later. Their day was bounded by work, not by feudal rituals. They couldn’t leave their shops to see to their own dinners until clients and customers had gone off to their own. So merchants and traders would eat at one or two in the afternoon, and then hurry back to meet the afternoon customers. The middle-class dinner might be served by one or two servants and consisted of bread, soups, pies, and perhaps meats and fish. The dishes varied with the season, and from country to country.

Peasants broke off after six or seven hours of work in the morning to have dinner around noon. This was their main meal too, consisting of bread or porridge, peas or beans, perhaps with some cabbage, turnip or onions thrown in. Sometimes they had meat, fish, cheese or whey (a byproduct of cheese-making). Their meal was much like that of the middle class except there was usually less to eat, and little variety. They ate far more at dinner than at breakfast or supper.

What Time is Dinner? Well, that has changed over the years:

The names of meals and their general times were once quite standard. Everyone in medieval England knew that you ate breakfast first thing in the morning, dinner in the middle of the day, and supper not long before you went to bed, around sundown. The modern confusion arose from changing social customs and classes, political and economic developments, and even from technological innovations.

Despite our stereotypes of big English breakfasts of sausages, kippers (sardines), toast, tomatoes, etc., big breakfasts weren’t really common until the Victorian age. Breakfast before the 1800s was usually just toast or some variation of gruel or porridge, except when a lavish spread was offered to impress guests. The main meal of the day was dinner.

In the Middle Ages, great nobles ate the most formal dinner, around noon or one p.m. Their dinner was more than a meal; it was an ostentatious display, a statement of wealth and power, with dozens of servants attending in a ritualized performance. Cooking for this grand, daily show began hours in advance, and the preparations for presentation began at 10 or 11 a.m. The meal might take hours, and be eaten in the most formal and elaborately decorated chambers. Lesser nobles, knights and manor holders ate a far less formal dinner, but at the same time of day.

Middle-class tradesmen and merchants, however, had to eat a little later. Their day was bounded by work, not by feudal rituals. They couldn’t leave their shops to see to their own dinners until clients and customers had gone off to their own. So merchants and traders would eat at one or two in the afternoon, and then hurry back to meet the afternoon customers. The middle-class dinner might be served by one or two servants and consisted of bread, soups, pies, and perhaps meats and fish. The dishes varied with the season, and from country to country.

Peasants broke off after six or seven hours of work in the morning to have dinner around noon. This was their main meal too, consisting of bread or porridge, peas or beans, perhaps with some cabbage, turnip or onions thrown in. Sometimes they had meat, fish, cheese or whey (a byproduct of cheese-making). Their meal was much like that of the middle class except there was usually less to eat, and little variety. They ate far more at dinner than at breakfast or supper.

Even in this day and age, the image of a Mursi Tribeswoman is still quite exotic — particularly with her AK-47 and iPod:

We’d been hearing for days about the Mursi tribe — the one where women split their lower lip and insert a round metal plate. As we were repeatedly told, the Mursi are neither fun nor friendly. And while they’ve kept their distance from the outside world — largely in part because their territory is a vast expanse of remote national park — they nevertheless have turned their small contact with foreigners into an art form of extortion. Pictures equal money. No exceptions.

Even in this day and age, the image of a Mursi Tribeswoman is still quite exotic — particularly with her AK-47 and iPod:

We’d been hearing for days about the Mursi tribe — the one where women split their lower lip and insert a round metal plate. As we were repeatedly told, the Mursi are neither fun nor friendly. And while they’ve kept their distance from the outside world — largely in part because their territory is a vast expanse of remote national park — they nevertheless have turned their small contact with foreigners into an art form of extortion. Pictures equal money. No exceptions.

Matt McIntosh cites an insightful comment that moral rules are Simple Approximations to a Fractal World:

The picture that results is of a set of limits, or metaphorically speaking a set of fences that you are not to cross, not to trespass. It is not a set of valuations assigned to every possible thing you might do. . . . morality is a set of fences where, if you cross them, you will be violating morality and will be in the wrong, but if you do not cross them, then you are fine. . . .

This also explains why the rules are easy to understand and to state, and why they have exceptions. They’re easy to understand because they need to be easily knowable by everyone. Simple rules are like straight fences. Rules aren’t actually visible, they’re in the mind and not in the physical world as actual fences. And similarly, if you were constructing invisible fences, the best sort of fence you could construct would be a straight fence, because it’s a lot easier to guess where all the different parts of an invisible straight fence are than it is to guess where all the different parts of a crazy curvy fence.

Seth Godin notes that the apostrophe was carefully designed to make you look stupid.

When it comes back in stock, I may need the ThinkGeek Power Tie:

100% silk ties with repeating silk power symbols woven into the ties themselves. Background of tie is black with silver/gray power symbols. Note: power symbols are actually woven into the tie and not screen printed so they are extremely durable. ThinkGeek simultaneously does and does not condone the use of ties.