Recent Comments

1. about 5 hours ago on Pearls Before Swine

   I never said what you said was what I said.

   However, I will now. It does have to do with the dominion of one person over another. The term originates in the guild structures of Europe where the Guild “Master” was just exactly that. The person who trained you, promoted you, and eventually granted you a craft status. It became an extension of that as craft guilds gave way to formal educational structures. The final decision is that some “Masters”, who audit the student and grant the status are in control of the student’s future.

   You don’t agree with me that the quality of an education has declined over the years. I have never said that and would never say that.

   I probably would say that the amount of knowable things in any field has increased significantly and more rapidly as time goes on. This results in a proliferation of specialties and, thus more programs. That proliferation also increases in how often two new fields diverge from one last year.

   At some point in history, several people had read most of everything that had been written to date. Around 1075 a new manuscript was written each day. There are at least 11,000 a day published now. That darned Gutenberg really hosed that up.

   Von Neuman is the last acknowledged polymath. He died in 1957 and the diversity of fields and the extent to which he excelled in his accomplishments, as great as they were, paled in comparison to say Da Vinci, Newton or Leibniz.

   None of them could be as widely read or knowledgable today, from the perspective of how many fields they are expert in, as they were in their own day. There is just way to much to learn, way to many sources for learning and a much more rapid proliferation of both to do so.

2. about 6 hours ago on Pearls Before Swine

   So is it your proposition that “woke” people can remember who they are while “MAGA” people need a constant cue card?

   Interesting. I would suspect then that “MAGA” people would require someone else to read their hat for them when they need a cue, thus requiring another to tell them who they are. “What does my hat say I am gain? Thank you”.

   Unless of course they are dyslexic and then they might be able to parse the the word on their hat while looking in a mirror.

3. about 7 hours ago on Pearls Before Swine

   Not at all. I fully support advanced education to whatever limits it is applied. As I do the systems and methodologies deployed for said purpose.

   I just raise the point that the results for students and between institutions are not consistent. Getting a Master’s does not make you a Master and all Master’s in practice do not yield the same value or imbue one with infallibility even in their chosen field.

   In my business life, I have seen many more people who achieved acknowledgment of their conquest of a specific field and who found their applicable accomplishments in another field. The ability to pursue accreditation for an acknowledged area of expertise is most often more valuable than the accreditation itself.

   And of course, the right Mommy or Daddy can always buy you both access and achievement anywhere. Start with legacy and end with the family name on the new science building.

4. about 7 hours ago on Bottom Liners

   You needn’t apologize. Your statement indicates how sorry you are without the need for your personal confirmation.

   I know when the data does not support your lie it has to be wrong.

5. about 7 hours ago on Loose Parts

   You aren’t completely wrong. However one can sharpen the double-edged blades at different angles for different purposes rather than dull one side to a greater effect.

   I did much of this for years way up north in California timber country. No experienced person goes to the woods without at least a power saw, double-edged and single-edged. Some use a second smaller power saw for much climbing and when firewood is the target a maul gets added to the toolset.

6. about 7 hours ago on Pearls Before Swine

   OK then. I can see a certain even-handedness in that application though I think the actual issues of concern would be better understood and resolved if “woke” and “MAGA” were not the length to which one would go in describing them.

7. about 7 hours ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   We have ample evidence that grabbing and rape don’t evince pursuit.

   In general, pursuit is the immediate outcome of fleeing whether the initial trigger is felonious or not. The pursuit, including often the death and dismemberment of those pursued, occurs before a charge is leveled.

   I know we all want there to be a priority based on the actual crime but that is not the common case.

   In our own neighborhood text group right now a very contentious issue is that local police will take a report on hit and run or accidents but do nothing about it even if they are provided with videos and lists of witnesses to the event. Many feel the same way about their reports of theft on their property, particularly the someone who stole our mail or someone who stole our Amazon package and we have video evidence…

   One of my favorite teases is that everyone has a doorbell cam and most have cameras everywhere but the value of that provided evidence comes to naught as far as the local gendarmes are concerned.

   If you consider the frequency with which some express an absolute need for being armed to protect themselves you will realize that that is an exposure of how little we trust out police forces as well as how willingly we would put them in harm’s way when more guns are in the hands of the populace they police.

8. about 8 hours ago on Pearls Before Swine

   The use of “wing” in a political context is to differentiate from the middle. There is no middle wing nor is the middle the most rational at all times or necessarily at any time.

   In general, one considers their position as centrist and reasonable and concludes their reference for right and left wing is relative to their own position.

   The whole value of arguing who is right wing or left wing is really just one that professes a lack of knowledge about a topic and a lack of curiosity or capacity to investigate and validate an issue in exchange for the comfort of having an opinion that is exactly as functional as your effort.

9. about 8 hours ago on Pearls Before Swine

   Indicating a concurrence by a small group of people who believe your grasp of a defined subject meets their expectations and thus reflects “Mastery” as they would define it.

   These can always be purchased rather than earned and even the earning efforts are non-standard.

10. about 9 hours ago on Pearls Before Swine

    No, no no. It is still conservatives.