2010-12-05
Museum of Financial and War Technology
After visiting the Air and Space Museum with the family this Thanksgiving in DC, I could not help notice how weirdly dated everything seemed. How something so exciting from my early childhood is now a dated relic of a promised, but never quite materialized future. This got me thinking about what the future actually happened to be. And so, to be truthful to what actually happened, the Mall should now substitute the Air and Space museum, with a Museum for Financial and War Technology... Isn't there where most of money and brains went? Sure, there should be a museum for entertainment and computer technology, but that one should be on the West Coast...
2010-12-01
Exceptionalism
WOW. I usually dislike Friedman for his lack depth; but in this piece, and the quote below, show how his lack of subtlety can be used to powerfully explain the obvious:
"But the Americans are oblivious. They travel abroad so rarely that they don’t see how far they are falling behind. Which is why we at the embassy find it funny that Americans are now fighting over how “exceptional” they are. Once again, we are not making this up. On the front page of The Washington Post on Monday there was an article noting that Republicans Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee are denouncing Obama for denying “American exceptionalism.” The Americans have replaced working to be exceptional with talking about how exceptional they still are. They don’t seem to understand that you can’t declare yourself “exceptional,” only others can bestow that adjective upon you."
I also love: "[...] America’s politicians are mostly lawyers — not engineers or scientists like ours — so they’ll just say crazy things about science and nobody calls them on it."
See the full article @ From WikiChina - NYTimes.com
"But the Americans are oblivious. They travel abroad so rarely that they don’t see how far they are falling behind. Which is why we at the embassy find it funny that Americans are now fighting over how “exceptional” they are. Once again, we are not making this up. On the front page of The Washington Post on Monday there was an article noting that Republicans Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee are denouncing Obama for denying “American exceptionalism.” The Americans have replaced working to be exceptional with talking about how exceptional they still are. They don’t seem to understand that you can’t declare yourself “exceptional,” only others can bestow that adjective upon you."
I also love: "[...] America’s politicians are mostly lawyers — not engineers or scientists like ours — so they’ll just say crazy things about science and nobody calls them on it."
See the full article @ From WikiChina - NYTimes.com
