I tend to agree with Min. There seems to be no incentive in being clever.
Today my wife purchased a new carpet sweeper, it came in a carton full of parts with a set of instructions for its assembly.
Having over the years struggled with Japanese English and Chinese English I was pleasantly surprised to good clear illustrations and English English, starting with that ever useful instruction, 'ASSEMBLE BEFORE USEING!'
I kid you not!
Liquid Plummer: Do not use bottle to store beverages.
-Scoopable Cat Litter: Safe to use around pets.
-Sleeping Pills: May cause drowsiness. (one would hope)
-Hair coloring: Do not use as an ice-cream topping (was the color strawberry blonde?)
-Hershey's Almond Bar: Caution, may contain traces of nuts.
-Dremel Rotary Drill: Not to be used as a dental drill (ow)
-Cheese-whiz: For best results, remove cap. (I'm not so sure)
-Christmas Lights: For indoor or outdoor use only. (What's my third choice?)
-Floodlight: This floodlight is capable of illuninating large areas, even in the dark.(It pays to buy the best.)
-Rain Gauge: Suitable for outdoor use.
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Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
Yep, even had Stephen visit a book publishing commune I was a part of. I was just appalled at the sychophancy. I've been told that there's been a quiet revolution at the farm, and Stephen is now only a figurehead. Women have taken over. Bout time for the midwives to get around to it.
Last time I was at Short Mountain, the no-seeums drove me nuts. I dunno how people stand being outside to get anything done. I was impressed with the timber, but the land prices were way outta my league. Course, now they are in the Ozarks too, but I already own land.
Priorities vary. My daughter moved her girls up here from Florida. Then, this year, got eye surgery done on the middle one, which she could never have afforded in Florida, but paid for by the "Our Kids First" state healthcare program started by former gov Clinton. That has a lot to do with why so many middle class families have moved here.
The welfare queens dont care, medicare covers their kids. The wives and girl friends of the meth heads have tended to move to the cities where there is more HUD approved housing and better benefits.
But if you are into farming, the dirt in TN hills is lots richer. Areas that havent had coal mining are prolly pretty clean, but I think acid rain has been an increasing problem the further east you go.
No matter what the economy does, these issues will be important, either from the standpoint of how much money you can make, or whether you get to survive at all. And the more smart money that moves into an area because of these environmental factors, the money there is to be made off those who brought it in.
A kind of economic hothouse effect. Another point about Ozark hill schools, is that they were so far behind the politically correct thinking, that they never took the paddles down off the wall in the offices. If you did not want corporal punishment used on your kid, you had to sign a form. Of course, no bully would permit a parent to wimp him out like that.
But I've seen the paddles adjust attitudes, and these schools are very orderly places without the shouting in the halls. Some of the schools not only dont have locks on the lockers, they dont even have doors. No locker doors to slam makes for quiet halls.
When there's only a few hundred kids in the school, theft dont work. Every teacher knows what every kid has. These communities are not that much larger than the ancient villages so many of our ancestors evolved in, so people's innate social skills are still valid.
Any god watching me hasta be bored, and needs to get a life.
These communities are not that much larger than the ancient villages so many of our ancestors evolved in, so people's innate social skills are still valid.
Very true DB. I'm glad to say I live in one.
I'm due in hospital shortly and my wife is having to fend off people offering to take her in to see me, and it's a 90 minute journey to get there.
That's community for you!
City life! You can keep it!
One of the cultural changes I see going on in my neck of Ozark woods, is the re-emergence of village life with so many moving out here. Its sorta like a suburb, but instead of the houses being 2.5 acre lots, its 25 acres, a house every 1/4 mile or so.
So- the county seats, like Clinton, have the same populations, 1000-3000. But now modern urban infrastructure moves in around them. Like Wall Mart. But also the new car dealers, the fast food joints, and in the case just mentioned, a new 3 story state of the art hospital less than 10 miles away from my door. With an adjacent specialist med campus.
"In the land of the Chin, wherever you go, you can hear the dogs of the next village barking." Different villages with different crafts. Tilly AR has "Superior Forestry". when you enter the office it looks the same as it does everywhere. Same furniture, copier machines, fax, computers, etc. And the same smiling sexy receptionist. Except her ass is in cutoff jeans.
And this high rise is on a ridge with a fine vew of the mountains, and the workers, who all also wear jeans, drive home on the same kind of steep twisty black top you see in the new car ads. No traffic jams.
Other businesses have figure this out, how to have the long range wireless communications and web presence, and been able to run a global business from the boonies.
Any god watching me hasta be bored, and needs to get a life.
Like Wall Mart. But also the new car dealers, the fast food joints, and in the case just mentioned, a new 3 story state of the art hospital less than 10 miles away from my door. With an adjacent specialist med campus.
Generally called "suburban sprawl."
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
It looks just like suburban sprawl, but... there's no urb. No central core, so there's no traffic jams. No slums. No heavy industrial zones. I guess they think that's what the cities are for.
Years ago, I bought land in the back side of Searcy County, about as far as you could get from the interstate, 100 miles. Then, a few years back, went over my back fence cause I heard noises. Found a dude building a house who had moved as far back as he could.. from the other direction, and now running into my backside.
Its an ancient cycle. I bought my land from the heir of pioneers, and got 20 of the 640 acres he inherited. Each generation inherits smaller chunks. Lotsa parcels were too small to provide a good living without careful management, so the meth heads sold out and moved to the suburbs. Some landed estates are being reassembled in this way, but nobody thinks they'll make the money it cost them from the land they bought.
Country villas are also an ancient form. The lakes and rivers have been lined with them for years, and now the rich are going for mountain tops.
The census bureau website has a rap about it. "X-urbs".
Any god watching me hasta be bored, and needs to get a life.
The same thing is happening here. People are fleeing the cities and this country as fast as they can. All the opinion polls claim the reasons are crime in the cities and immigration.
Government responce? Crime is falling, and immigration is good for the country, there fore place head in sand and business as usual.
Where are the competent people fleeing to? Along with all the illegals, America has had middle class professionals flee popular demagogues who raised the taxes on anyone smart enuf to make any real money.
Bush's tax cuts have encouraged that kind of thing. But, as with most of his agenda, was carried out ineptly. Had he conitinued high taxes on the top .001%, he still would have attracted competent professionals and entrepreneurs, but not had nearly the budget deficit that threatens to bring down the whole system that is top heavy with the cost of management.
Have EU social scientists picked up on the effects of melanin on behavior? IIRC, it was Steven Pinker "The Blank Slate" who reported on a Russian pychologist who was sent to Siberia, and ended up raising black foxes. For the popular black fur hats.
Thing is, that the foxes are difficult to manage, impulsively aggressive, and kept tearing holes in each other's hides. So he (I forget the name) selected just the most docile foxes and began breeding them. And in just 12 generations, he was successful. the fox kits were just like puppies. Just adorable. I've seen the video.
The only problem is... they are not all black any more. Can you imagine anyone in any US academic sociology or psychology saying a word about this? <snurk>
Any god watching me hasta be bored, and needs to get a life.
The word RACE is about to be removed from English if the do gooders have their way here. A young woman was recently turned down for a job here beacause she is white English! And it is legal so as to give our poor under acheiving, (our fault presumably) migrant and non-white population a helping hand.
Many of the 'under acheivers' are under acheiving because they don't attend school, so having been losers from the start, we now have the situation where those who do attend school must take second place.
It's called social justice. But not by me it isn't!
Thinking aloud here, maybe the general level of intelligence amongst the population is pretty much as it ever was, the only difference being that now through mass media and state sponsored lip service to the "voice of the people" is it apparent that despite having a voice, not many have anything to say. Politics (ie - who we get to run the show) has responded in an evolutionary fashion, with the relatively modern idea of the people of large societies now having some choice in who leads them (yeah - I know, I know, but I mean in contrast to feudal socities or out and out dictatorships) they choose someone with whom they can identify to some extent ie - someone who isn't going to alienate them with all sorts of fancy ideas, and so the process snowballs and you get idiots in charge. As Billus Burrus (to use the Latin classification of wife-shooting beat author) noted - politics is the one field wherein stupidity is a positive qualification: "I am just a plain-speaking man," etc.
