Archive for the 'Darwinism' Category

Miming

“The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.” -Gilbert K. Chesterton

I stopped by the local organic grocery store on my way home from work the other day and, as I was browsing for brown rice, I overheard people speaking in English. Specifically, American English.

It was three women, in their mid-thirties, discussing potential purchases. Hearing English, even American English, isn’t wholly unusual. Delft has a big university and there are a lot of internationals here. However, these women clearly weren’t students. Nor were they especially accustomed to life outside the US.

As I moved on from rice to white beans, I heard them discussing how the grocery store doesn’t accept “cards.” This is pretty standard Dutch business culture. Essentially no one, outside of big hotel chains and Ikea, accepts credit cards. Typically most places accept “pinnen,” the Dutch equivalent of a debit card, and cash. As an American who is used to swiping everywhere and as a person who is loath to carry cash, I understand the frustration. However, when in Rome and all that…

When I joined the check out line, I found myself behind the trio. They were discussing (loudly, of course) how weird it is that a grocery store doesn’t accept credit cards. The first woman was rung up, paid in cash, and then stared at the groceries that had accumulated on the belt. She looked at the teenage cashier and asked “Oh, do I have to bag these myself?” The kid, confused (because you have to bag your own groceries in every fucking grocery store in Holland), assumed she was asking about purchasing a bag and said “Yes” and pointed at the bags for sale. The woman, who thankfully wasn’t utterly clueless, realized that not only must she bag her own groceries, but if she wanted a bag in which to put them, she must buy one.

Aside from the stereotypical boorish American behavior, what I found most frustrating about this situation was the utter lack of observation these women engaged in. Others had checked out ahead of us. There were other checkout lines. Simply watching what everyone else in line was doing would have given a clue as to how you should behave.

Americans seem to assume that everyone else on the planet will do things exactly as it is done in the homeland. They seem to lack understanding that norms may be different in other parts of the world and you will be expected to abide by them.

Published on December 7, 2011 in Darwinism, Holland and Travel. 3 Comments

The Oregon Trail Teaches Us About Vaccines

“Violent video games are an ideal environment in which to learn violence.” – Donaldo Pereira Macedo

I was reading this article by Laura Turner Garrison, which discusses the current state of the diseases that killed you off when you played the video game Oregon Trail. In the US, two of the five diseases, diphtheria and measles, have been eradicated by a vaccination. Unfortunately, they are still prevalent in the developing world and thus unvaccinated people in the US are still susceptible.

I’ve been clear on my opinionof those who don’t vaccinate their children. Vaccines work by immunizing the “herd.” There are a number of people (infants, the eldery, the immunocompromised) who cannot be vaccinated and they depend on the rest of us to maintain immunity so they don’t get sick.

If you don’t vaccinate your kids, you should at least make them play Oregon Trail so they can learn what diseases they can die from. Or at least what diseases they can suffer from and then pass on to their infant sibling or the kid down the street with Leukemia to let them die from.

Published on October 14, 2011 in Dan Brown's Disciples and Darwinism. 0 Comments

Internet Drag

“We are what we pretend to be, but we better be very careful what we pretend.” -Kurt Vonnegut

Can someone explain to me why some older men pretend to be young, attractive women on the internet? No, I’m not talking about some creepy dateline show where an unattractive, fifty year old, potbellied man is pretending to be a 13 year old girl name Susie in an internet chatroom so he can lure some real 13 year old girl to his house for milk and cookies.

William Dafoe I’m talking about intelligent men who feel the need to set up online personalities as younger, attractive womenand then blog about how they experience the world. There was the Gay Girl In Damascus who turned out to be neither gay, nor a girl, nor in Damascus. There was Lez Get Real who was neither a lesbian nor real. Now, it’s Great Satan’s Girlfriend, who may be Satan’s girlfriend but wasn’t the attractive 21 year old they were pretending to be.

First, there’s the creep factor of an older man pretending to be a younger girl. I can’t put my finger on exactly why this bothers me, but it does.

Secondly, there’s a major problem with the photos used. Gay Girl In Damascus used real photos of a Croatian woman stolen from a Flickr account. Great Satan used photos of god (or satan) only knows who on the blog. My guess is that a lot of those young women are unaware their photos are being used to perpetrate a hoax.

Thirdly, when people do shit like this it makes it much more difficult for actual women or actual lesbians to spread their own message. How many people are satisfied that it wasn’t an attractive young woman writing intelligently about foreign policy? How many negative stereotypes does this reinforce? How many other LGBT writers, hiding behind pseudonyms for completely valid reasons, will be doubted?

Finally, what the fuck, dudes? What is the draw or desire to pretend to be a young, attractive woman? Or any type of woman? Seriously, knock it off.

Published on September 10, 2011 in Darwinism. 7 Comments

The Kiddie Pool

“Do not assume that because I am frivolous I am shallow; I don’t assume that because you are grave you are profound.” -Sydney Smith

A woman went on a date with a certain world champion of Magic: The Gathering, wrote about it for a website, and then the world ended. Or at least people on the internets seem to feel that way.

For the record, I disagree with her using his name in the article. Rejection, regardless of reason, is never pleasant and she made it more unpleasant by announcing to the world, his coworkers, friends, and second cousin Merville that he’d been rejected.

Magic cardsA number of critics, including this article and several commenters on the original post, allege that the author is shallow for rejecting a potential romantic partner based on his choice in extracurricular activities. I disagree.

First, pretty much all extracurricular activities are shallow. Mine are. I spend most of my free time running, going to yoga, cooking, baking, reading, watching TV, playing video games, and reading funny websites. There is nothing especially profound about those activities (especially since I’ve mostly been reading erotic vampire books lately). I’m not ashamed. Everyone needs distractions from working and paying bills and reading about terrible wars and famines. And everyone (except for maybe the Duggar kids) has selected or discarded a romantic partner based on extracurriculars. You spend a lot of time with a partner. You want most of that time to be enjoyable.

Secondly, I doubt she would have been called shallow if she’d rejected the current fantasy football champion or local marathon record holder. Magic is often considered dorky and therefore bad while sports are considered manly and therefore cool. I doubt you’d hear anyone calling her shallow for saying that she doesn’t like men with muscles or who are tall. Yet because society has deemed Magic dorky, she is shallow for not embracing it.

Maybe she is a horribly shallow human being. Maybe not. The act of rejecting a Magic player is not, in itself, a shallow act.

Published on September 9, 2011 in Balls and Chains, Darwinism and Procreation On Birth Control. 10 Comments

I Hate Coffee, Ergo All Coffee Sucks

“I have your review in front of me and soon it will be behind me.” -George Bernard Shaw to a critic who gave him a bad review.

If you follow me on Twitter, you know I’ve been using Goodreadsto track the books I am reading and I want to read. I am, and always have been, a voracious reader. When I as a kid, my worst punishment was that I couldn’t go to the library that week.

Huckleberry Finn

Two Thumbs Down.

Goodreads allows you to organize books you want to read, track progress on books you’re reading, and see what other people are reading. There is also a rating and reviews component. I’ve written before about my experiences with book reviews on Amazon and, unsurprisingly, I have found as much stupidity on Goodreads. That’s not to say I blame Amazon or Goodreads, only that lots of intellectually unendowed people exist and some of them post reviews on these sites.

Lately, I’ve noticed a number of people giving a book a negative rating and then starting their review with “I don’t like fantasy books” or “I don’t care for John Scalzi’s style.” If you hate the author or the genre, why are you reading the book? That’s akin to me reading a book about parenting and then giving it a negative review because I don’t like kids.

I’m glad, I guess, that people are trying books outside of their comfort zone. I’m just confused by why you’d rate a book you expected to dislike because of an element inherent in the book. Don’t lower a book’s rating because you don’t care for fairies or aliens or fiction books written in the present tense.

Published on September 2, 2011 in Darwinism. 5 Comments

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