Arrr, it’s the Worst Date Ever. My friends Nat and Taylor once tried to think up the Worst Date Ever– it involved planning ahead to get random people to attack or insult them and their date on the street (“Hey, Nat, you still owe me those fifty bucks!”), to have the waitstaff at the restaurant spill things on them and be mean, then of course to be rude during the date. I can’t remember all the details but the description of the hypothetical evening just kept getting worse.
USA Today has covered Linux, which I think is a good sign. Mel Gibson has gone all religious-nut on us, though, which I don’t think is such a good idea. On the other hand, the concern about whether it’s antisemitic still strikes me as a little alarmist and conspiracy-minded.
But then again, I’m the sort who plays Massively Multiplayer Roleplaying Games (MMRPGs), so what the hell do I know.
One more thing: I’m still trying to think about humanity’s place in the natural world. The “Do we need nature” question is obviously just a tease, and I don’t think addressing it directly is a winner. What the essay really needs is a nuanced, but firm, statement of the role of humanity in the larger world. Obviously we depend on nature and are part of nature: but what part is that? How should we behave? What principles should guide our environmental, economic, industrial policy?
Secretly Ironic 