I also saw something on the History Channel about the Freemasons, which was about 58 minutes of "Is it a conspiracy? Do they rule the world? Listen to what these people have to say about it!" followed by about two minutes of, "Nah, just some middle-aged suburbanites doing some silly rituals."
Steve Martin and some people from SNL did a good parody of this sort of documentary back in the early '80s. It was a sketch called "Did Dinosaurs Build Stonehenge?" It had a bunch of ludicrous "evidence" that dinosaurs built Stonehenge, followed by the statement that since dinosaurs died out 63 million years ago, it wasn't possible.
Then they said, "Some of the rocks at Stonehenge were carried all the way from Wales. Did whales build Stonehenge?" Followed by some very crude animation of blue whales pushing giant stone blocks along the ground. Then they concluded that wasn't possible either, due to the thing that whales can't breathe on land (their weight collapses their lungs).
Well... those clever Welsh did train sheepdogs to herd LED-equipped sheep into crude signs and symbols, so I wouldn't completely discount the idea that they trained whales to breathe out of water.
ugh stupid internet-based friend drama is bumming me out today. You know, if you have a problem with me, maybe try telling me instead of posting about it on your blog?? sheesh.
anyway, I need food advice! I defrosted some butternut squash soup on Sunday and fried up some bacon to crumble on it that same day. I brought it for lunch yesterday but ended up going out. Do you think it would still be good?
No. Better skip the bacon.
ha, Perkins, I'm on to you!
Yes, still good!
Friend drama is a bummer.
Is anyone else having problems with Google Maps today?
I have nothing to say on the "History" Channel. But I think that, much like the "History" Book Club I joined in grad school, the fact that, as a professional historian, they still had nothing of interest to me is telling.
Friend drama is a bummer.
It's someone I really should have broken up with officially as a friend, I think. ugh.
The 10 Biggest Intellectual Fights Of All time
1. Socrates vs. The Gods: Triumph of Reason
Can't argue with that, I guess. 'Cept I don't know how much reason actually triumphed in practice....
Greek philosophy helped to shape the metaphysics of the civilized world in the last half of the first millennium b.c.e. There were many divergent schools of philosophy competing with one another by the time the Sophists came along maintaining that truth was entirely a matter of persuasion by argument rather than something absolute. Socrates rose from among Sophist ranks and became famous for walking the talk so well that he made some enemies in high places.
Socrates taught that ethics were not a matter of divine decree, but are best the result of human reason and individual conscience. Socrates was charged with impiety (disbelief in the state’s gods, corrupting the morals of the youth), convicted by a margin of 6 out of 50 votes, and committed suicide by drinking poison. Through his student Plato and Plato’s student Aristotle, the intellectual tools of reason and logic lived on to become part of the guiding philosophy of the Enlightenment and science.
Heh. A blog, reporting on the Pope/HIV/condom kerfuffle, called the Pope "Pope Bareback XVI."
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