Clickbait Lists

 I sometimes will read through some of the lists offered among the new articles on my Yahoo News feed. Most of them are little more than advertising clickbait. Such as a picture of someone famous (or at least previously famous) with some vague and outrageous claim about them, but after going through the entire list, they are never even mentioned.

I digress. There are some interesting lists, such as the ones that tell about behind-the-scenes facts about the actors on some old TV show (The Andy Griffith Show and Gilligan’s Island are common). But even on the somewhat legitimate ones, the facts are often of little interest or are phrased in such a way that what they seem to be saying and what they are actually saying do not match.

Then today I see one that dangles a list of the worst colleges. The headline is “25 Colleges That Just Aren’t Worth the Tuition.” 25, eh? I’m probably getting close to 100 and the scroll bar on the side of the screen would indicate that there are maybe 50 to go. And while they have included few state schools from anywhere, and have identified a few true losers — like the ones that they state upfront have gone out of business for various reasons — the reasons are too often either unrelated to the quality of the school or are vague.

Thoughts on the 4th of July

About a week ago a friend on Facebook posted one of those memes making declarations about the flag and what it stands for. While I don’t disagree at one level, I believe that the biggest problem today is that we are unable to separate the progress and achievements of the past from the current reality that some of the goals memorialized in the past are still a work in progress.

The text of the post was: ”This flag does not represent slavery. It represents the Independence of an entire nation, against an adversary that wanted to enslave us all. It represents freedom.”

The flag in question was one of those with the 13 stars in a circle on the field of blue.

No Responsibility

I recognize that my previous post (almost 2 years ago) was not popular with some. The goal was not to inflame anyone. But it is a legitimate response to the news and is a position that should at least be entertained as having potential validity rather than being dismissed out-of-hand.

I have posted on related topics over the past years. The first was in July, 2008 (“Freedom”), and the second in August, 2009 (Tolerance, the New Intolerance).

In the first, I argue that we cherish freedom like it is a religion, and have elevated desires and wants to rights. But what rights we have generally come with responsibilities. And few of our wants (whether or not claimed to be rights) have guarantees. As an example, we have managed to convince most that a college education is a right. But we too often fail to recognize that only the attempt might be classified as a right (and even that is only tentative). The outcome requires that we actually complete the coursework with a satisfactory grade. There is no right to a degree that is not earned.

Disability Trumps . . . Everything?

A news article on my computer feed included one concerning an Outback that asked a family to finish their meal and leave because their 4-year-old son was too loud.

While these news links are not always permanent, it was here when I first drafted this. The Facebook post in which the mother detailed the complaint (from her perspective) is as follows:

Saturday night the family and I decided to go to Outback Steakhouse in Glen Burnie for dinner. We were seated almost immediately. We ordered our drinks while skimming the menu then finally ordered our dinner. Our meals came out in good time and all of us were enjoying ourselves up until we were asked to leave because of a noise complaint about my 4 year old son. My son Killian was born with a neurological disorder that affects his speech called Childhood Apraxia of Speech. This disorder affects Killian in many ways especially communication and behavioral. He is a very energetic kid with much to say, however when he speaks his words are unclear.

In Search of Truth

Some time back, I was reading a religious blog and came across a post that was concerned with something not within the ordinary for such sites. The topic was curiosity and its near absence in the current academic and scientific landscape. It referred to an online article, “How Ignorance Fuels Science and the Evolution of Knowledge” which is commenting on a book by Columbia biological sciences professor, Stuart Firestein, wrote titled Ignorance: How It Drives Science. Here is a bit from that post.

In an age obsessed with practicality, productivity, and efficiency, I frequently worry that we are leaving little room for abstract knowledge and for the kind of curiosity that invites just enough serendipity to allow for the discovery of ideas we didn’t know we were interested in until we are; ideas that we may later transform into new combinations with applications both practical and metaphysical . . . .

In his book, Firestein describes how grant applications for scientific research are now routinely denied on the grounds of being “curiosity-driven” — a term used in a pejorative sense whereas, ironically, it should describe the highest aspiration of science, something many a great scientist can speak to.

One of the things that I have tried to embrace in the past few years is the search for truth and knowledge. This is not just some hobby. I engage in it at my job. I work in US tax. More specifically, the US tax rules relating to US taxpayers doing business outside of the United States.

Still Too Soon

Yesterday was my mom’s 77th birthday. The gathering was not what it used to be. We met at Luby’s and ate lunch together and talked about a lot of things.

One of the more pressing discussions was the coming of the first great-grandchild (first grandchild for me). Still too early to know whether it will be a boy or a girl. But we’re all abuzz.

Just wished Mom could actually have been there for it. Different people have different thoughts about whether there is any awareness of what is going on “down here.” But whatever you think about it, it is what it is.

And I missed her. As I often do.

MAH. Beloved wife, mother, grandmother. 1934 – 2007. Too short. Shortest of the generation.

To borrow from a poet of our day:

I can’t believe your song is gone so soon.
I barely learned the tune.
So soon.
So soon.

Ignore Previous Cookie

When I was growing up, license plates were made using the labor of prison inmates. It was suggested that the reason that vowels were not included in those days was that they might run a batch with a bad word and it not get caught before it went out the door.

I’m sure that there are stories like that everywhere. Sort of “lunatics running the asylum” kind of things.

But last weekend was for real.

We had ordered Chinese food. As usual, there are several fortune cookies included in the order, typically more than the number of people actually eating the food. My wife actually likes the things and ate one. Then about 30 minutes later when went past the remainder and picked up another. She opened it and suddenly burst out laughing.

“Ignore previous cookie” was all that was written on the little slip of paper.

Maybe the inmates are running the asylum.