Moving mathematically

[altivo]

Or at least cataloging. A substantial gift of recent books on mathematics and physics. At first glance, these seemed much too scholarly and we thought we should offer them to one of the nearby colleges. But when I looked more closely I realized that they were mostly popular works. I have started through them one by one, adding about half to the collection as I go. We are supposed to have a focus on math, astronomy, and physics according to a collection development plan we made up in cooperation with other nearby libraries some years ago. We also got military history and science, and history and travel for Oceania out of that. I think everyone has forgotten it but me at this point.

Polls are closed, the incessant robocalls have stopped. I'm really sour about the idea that democracy does anything functional in the US any more. As someone pointed out earlier today, so folks are dissatisfied with the performance of the firemen they brought in. That's understandable. But why do they think matters will improve if they put the arsonists who started the problem back into control? Why do Americans persist so stubbornly in believing that there can only be two choices, both of them bad, with no alternatives at all? Every election we end up voting AGAINST people rather than FOR anyone. I predict that this one will end in a gridlock situation very much like what we had in 1994, with a right wing-dominated Congress whose leaders simply scream "No, No, No!" at every suggestion, regardless of what it may be, and a harried and hog-tied executive branch that can only veto the reactionary attempts of Congress to move us backward to the post-World War 2 status quo. Why do people ask for these things? Can't they understand what they are actually doing? Apparently not.

Anyway, on the good news side, progress continues apace.

Nanowrimo word count: 3576 (1820 today)
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Story draft available here.

Comments

[schnee]

Why do Americans persist so stubbornly in believing that there can only be two choices, both of them bad, with no alternatives at all?

The Iron Law of Oligarchy at work, perhaps. I think voting for people rather against them is an important issue, though, and I cringe everytime an election here is held to reflect the opinion people have of something or someone ELSE; it's quite common, though, and anytime there is (for example) an election in one of the states, it'll inevitably be construed as a test for the federal government as well. The media, alas, are feeding into this (some by outright saying "if you want to stick it to the federal government, vote against their party in these unrelated elections", some by constantly reporting on how the election supposedly *is* a test of that sort, as if that is a fact set in stone), and quite a few people really do vote this way, too... which then lends a certain justification to the latter media's reporting, enough so that it won't be questioned by other media.

Of course, needless to say, politicians are feeding this as well, and the same politicians have absolutely no problem with encouraging it when it benefits them and decrying it when the tables are turned.

But yeah, I really wish people would keep in mind what elections they're voting in and focus on THAT. If you're voting for the local dog catcher, don't do it based on whether you like or dislike Obama's track record... do it based on the (past, or expected future) performances of the candidates.

[altivo]

The results are not as bad as they might have been, but still disheartening. It's going to be a singularly unpleasant two years, I fear.

[moonhare]

naif

Nice word. I've never used it, nor seen it before, actually. Contextual clues help, of course, but I always keep a tab open with a 'dictionary' when reading something worth reading :o)

I like the story thus far, and am curious as to why you align center and not left. I should recognize it as a style, and I like reading that way, but am curious nonetheless.

Finally, I'm disappointed that I haven't come across your infamous puns. Perhaps they're alluding eluding me, in which case I'm more disappointed with myself.

Write on!

reposted with strikeout- shameful.

[altivo]

It's a good French vocabulary word, so it seemed particularly appropriate in context.

The text should be aligned left, and was when I edited it. I'll check and fix it if something happened to it. The descriptive summaries are normally centered on that archive software.

No puns yet. I'm still struggling with the story line to get it going downhill. Literally. ;p Once it's coasting along on its own, I'll have time to fill it with insulting linguistic abuse.

(Just checked again. When I look at the story text on FurRag, it is left aligned and right justified. Is that not what you see? Which browser are you using? I'm in Firefox.)

[moonhare]

Once it's coasting along on its own, I'll have time to fill it with insulting linguistic abuse.

Rolling rolling rolling... good enough, I thought you'd grown too esoteric for me to follow ;o)

I was using FireFox 4 Beta last night (on Thunderbunny) when I read the story. I saw the layout and thought "Ambitious! He's doing this in some sort of Chaucerian verse!" ...but the meter was irregular and nothing rhymed. I'm on Thunderbear this morning, using FireFox 3.6.12, and everything is as you say. Perhaps they were doing something on FurRag last night that caused a slight ripple. I'll look again using the other pc later on.

[moonhare]

Quick update-

A cropped screenshot of what I see in FireFox 4 Beta can be seen here.

Odd, eh? I don't see it this way in FireFox 3.6.12

I'm off to work!

[altivo]

Why I don't mess with Firefox betas. Usually their latest "stable" version has enough bugs as it is. That looks like some problem with interpreting the CSS. The text is indeed set to be left aligned, and appears that way in FF 3.6.12 and also in Mozilla and IE.

Imitating Chaucer? Now there's an ambitious sort of project I might actually be stupid enough to try. But not in this story. Getting it rolling the way I want is difficult enough without adding versification. ;D

[lobowolf.livejournal.com]

I'm quite disappointed in the election. Unfortunately, the larger part of the American people can't think for themselves, are easily manipulated by fear, and only think about last week and next week and what's in it for them.


Woo...Republicans promised me more beer money in my pocket and more guns! Woohoo! Who cares about health care or the standard of living, education, the environment or any of that crap, I'm getting drunk on Saturday and go shoot me some deerz! Yeeeehaw!

[altivo]

Sigh. Yes, you're absolutely right.

I understand the GOP house leadership is already setting the stage for some "grand" hearings into the "global warming fraud." Nothing like bias before you even begin work.

Earlier in the week, someone pointed out that voter reaction in this election could be summed up as "These firemen didn't put the blaze out yet. Let's show them our disapproval by putting the arsonists back into power."

Sane news analysts are right, I hope, when they say that people are in for a nasty surprise. Business as usual for the republicans means they'll be trying to repeal everything that happened in the last two years and find some excuse to impeach the president. A lot of noise and drama while the economy and the nation crumble around their ears again, just like the Clinton years.

Here in Illinois I'm pleased to see that the Green Party got a surprising number of votes. They fielded a sane candidate for governor and quite a few reasonable alternatives for lesser offices. It's going to take forever to get voters to pay attention though and not think of voting outside the two empty-headed major parties as "wasting your vote."