Ideas About Crime

In his book, The Mechanical Bride, Folklore of Industrial Man, Marshall McLuhan writes about crime:

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"One hundred police working on a case can make a thousand mistakes before they strike on the right solution, but the criminal, working against these hundred police, cannot afford to make a single error.

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So far as human daring and courage go, this stacking of cards is a challenge. And the kids feel it as such. The criminal is the hero because he is fighting against hopeless odds. Against this kind of daredevil there is no use in talking up the mealy-mouthed righteousness of the respectable businessman. Not so far as adolescent generosity is concerned. The public heart goes with the criminal just because the official head is against him. Therefore, until some sort of moral heroism returns to the scenes of ordinary life, the kids will want to shoot it out with the cops."

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This observation from seventy-five years ago could easily be applied to the Luigi Mangione affair. Much of the nation has been engrossed in the motives involved but, as might be expected, to the consternation of the proles, the suspect was captured more quickly than they wished. The story continues in a much more uninteresting vein. 

A similar event occurred on the evening of Friday, June 17, 1994  on a 60-mile chase along California's Santa Ana Freeway (5), Artesia Freeway (91) and San Diego Freeway (405), which began at 5:56 p.m. until he reached his Brentwood home at 7:57 p.m., he being O.J. Simpson in the back seat of his white Ford Bronco. Over 95 million viewers watched this live pursuit, switching the channel from an NBA playoff game between the Knicks and Rockets.

Since it took place on a Friday after work, the saloons were full of enthusiastic witnesses to a live television broadcast of a police chase that lasted two hours. They were all cheering wildly for the celebrated gridiron star accused of killing his wife and another man. This and the following legalities made "The Juice" the most famous football star of all time and he remains so today, at least in part because of his impossible attempt at escape, if such it was.

Sadly, McLuhan was no longer with us on the evening of Simpson's adventure but it's interesting to speculate what his reaction to it might have been.

krwa.org

 

  

Cepheid Variables

And what might those be? As described in this article from the Smithsonian Magazine, they are pulsating stars in far away galaxies used to measure distances and speeds of travel. Apparently astronomers are concerned that their investigations seem to show that the universe is expanding at a speed even faster than was previously believed. 

So what? Who, except for a few cloistered academics, can possibly care about the movement of celestial bodies millions of light years away. Knowing their exact speed and direction has zero to do with anything happening or likely to happen here on earth, even if they could actually prove their measurements. Let's find out where the body of super Thoroughbred race horse Shergar ended up. Not that it's wrong to seek out answers to esoteric questions. It's just that public funding shouldn't be used to finance it. That's a role for people like Bill Gates or Juan Soto.

 

scitechdai 

The Urban Barbarian

   The aesthetic satisfaction derived from an elegant mathematical demonstration, a cosmological theory, a map of the human brain, or an ingenious chess problem, may equal that of any artistic experience--given a certain connoisseurship. But connoisseurship is equally required for the true appreciation of any but the most vulgar forms of art; and particularly for ancient, alien, and 'modern' art. However, the absurd division of our society into 'two cultures' produced the paradoxical phenomenon that the average educated person will be reluctant to admit that a work of art is beyond the level of his comprehension; but he will in the same breath and with a certain pride confess his complete ignorance of the principles which make his radio work, the forces which make the stars go round, the facts which determine the heredity of his children, and the location of his own viscera and glands.

   One of the consequences of this attitude is that he utilizes the products of science and technology in a purely possessive, exploitative manner without comprehension or feeling. His relationship to the objects of his daily use, the tap which supplies his bath, the pipes which keep him warm, the switch which  turns on the light--in a word, to the environment in which he lives, is impersonal and possessive--like the capitalist's attitude to his bank account, not the art collector's to his treasures which he cherishes because he 'understands' them, because he has a participatory relationship to them. Modern man lives isolated in his artificial environment, not because artificial is evil as such, but because of his lack of comprehension of the forces which make it work--of the principles which relate his gadgets to the forces of nature, to the universal order. It is not central heating which makes his existence 'unnatural', but his refusal to take an interest in the principles behind it. By being entirely dependent on science, yet closing his mind to it, he leads the life of an urban barbarian.

Arthur Koestler, The Act of Creation, Arkana, Penguin Group, London, England, 1989, pg. 264.

 

A Recommendation From The Wizard

 The young newspaper editor L. Frank Baum, later the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, wrote in the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer on January 3, 1891:

The Pioneer has before declared that our only safety depends upon the total extermination of the Indians. Having wronged them for centuries, we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth. In this lies future safety for our settlers and the soldiers who are under incompetent commands. Otherwise, we may expect future years to be as full of trouble with the redskins as those have been in the past.

Firefly Sparkle Discovered

thehindu.com

The incredibly useful $10 billion+ infrared James Webb Space Telescope, launched on Dec. 25, 2021 from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana was then parked  near the second Lagrange point (L₂) of the Sun–Earth system, which is 1,500,000 km (930,000 mi) farther from the Sun than the Earth's orbit, and about four times farther than the Moon's orbit. 

A number of important discoveries in the vast reaches of space have occurred since the telescope has been put in operation but the latest is what has become known as the "Firefly Sparkle". Discovered by a team of astronomers from Wellesley College in Massachusetts, USA, the galaxy seems to share many of the characteristics of "our own" Milky Way, at the same stage of its presumed development 600 million years after the Big Bang.

As interesting as this might be to astronomy buffs and academics doing the research, there doesn't seem to be much use of this information to literally anyone else on earth. What we know or surmise about celestial bodies millions of light years away from earth can have no effect, positive or negative, on anyone living on this planet in the past, present or forseeable future. Ergo, how would the hyper-Whigs that have confiscated public money to finance this and similar projects justify them?

According to the Wiki on the telescope:

The James Webb Space Telescope has four key goals:

• to search for light from the first stars and galaxies that formed in the universe after the Big Bang
• to study galaxy formation and evolution
• to understand star formation and planet formation
• to study planetary systems and the origins of life

 How does reaching these goals, even if possible, make life better for those who's confiscated assets were used? And how is it realistically possible to "understand star formation and the origins of life" by looking at infra-red images of a single point in time that have traveled over millions of light years.

Well, sure it would perhaps improve the life of the researchers at Wellesley College and others. Most of all it would lead to more and better paid positions at NASA. But even better yet, a huge proportion of the investment in the project would greatly improve the prospects of the stockholders, management and employees of Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, Ball Aerospace & Technologies and several thousand scientists, engineers, and technicians spanning 15 countries that have contributed to the build, test and integration of Webb. A total of 258 companies, government agencies, and academic institutions that participated in the pre-launch project; 142 from the United States, 104 from 12 European countries (including 21 from the U.K., 16 from France, 12 from Germany and 7 international), and 12 from Canada. Other countries as NASA partners, such as Australia, were involved in post-launch operation.(See "Institutional Partners Webb/NASA". jwst.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2 August 2023.)

While the design, construction, deployment and operation of the James Webb Space Telescope are marvels of technology, are the projects performed by it really science since there are no practical applications that can even be envisioned for its results? An innocent bystander might think that a few billion dollars devoted to this enterprise really doesn't harm anyone. If that were true the draconian IRS wouldn't be all over the schleps that fail to make tax payments. The reality is that it's one of the great Whig enterprises of all time. Public funds being directed to government cronies for ephemeral and unneeded programs wandering around the cosmos. "Science" run amok.

dhakatribune.com

Lamiya Mowla, Wellesley College

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bug-Out Bag

For some years "preppers" and survivalists have promoted the idea that wise individuals would assemble a collection of necessary items that would help insure their continued life in the event of some wide-spread and serious tragedy. These items would be kept in a backpack always close at hand so as to be immediately available when the event occurred  and the individual would find it necessary to leave his current surroundings for a safer spot. This implies that whatever the circumstances, nuclear attack, for instance, dangerous social upheaval and violence would be the aftermath.

Obviously, the issue isn't surviving a megaton blast, falling trees or a giant fissure opening in the earth. It's living through a breakdown in society, or more of a breakdown than seems to be going on presently. If that's true, "bugging out" isn't the solution. Leaving your accustomed surroundings and lugging your bag to a new, less-known location wouldn't be the best option. 

If you believe in preparing for such a disaster, it doesn't involve filling a pack sack with candy bars, bottled water, band aids and a .357. What you need to do is gather more information about your present surroundings, especially your neighbors and their capacities. Find out who among them, if any, share your concerns and discuss the most effective responses. A major calamity will mean that, at least for a time, no civil order will be enforced. You and your neighbors won't want individuals or groups wandering around your streets. Someone will need to take the lead in organizing security. In a dire and wide-spread situation no one will be going to work anyway. Determine what local spots are most secure and defensible. 

The reality is that even if only a minority buy into such a plan at first, eventually it will be necessary. Why wait until its too late? 

The Artemis Moon Mission

 

 It's been over 50 years since Americans have walked on the moon and it looks like it's going to be a few years more before it happens again. In a post-modern display of incompetence the current schedule of rocketing fragile humans to the lunar surface and back is being postponed until 2027. The ideas behind NASA's super project are here.

While those of us standing in the yard looking at a full moon on the evening of July 20, 1969 were amazed and proud that Americans had safely reached a place outside the earth's atmosphere, the novelty has worn off. It would have been nice if a large flare or strobe light had been made visible but we took their word for it.

There's really no connection between moon landings and the launching and use of satellites for communication and scientific research. People like Elon Musk, with a desire to move on to Mars are welcome to do so on their own dime but the rest of us are unlikely to enjoy any real benefits from their efforts. Of course, the Neo-Whigs enthusiastically point out the many benefits from the publicly financed space program trickle down to the consumer but those advantages could just as easily be produced more cheaply by directed research and development. There are genuine problems here on earth that need to be solved. Perhaps, since this is a "democratic" society, a vote needs to be taken to determine if the population wants vacations on Mars at some time in the distant future more than they do research on Alzheimer's disease, cancer and teen crime.