Friday, January 10, 2025
Banned by Facebook
" 'Banned in Boston' is a phrase that was employed from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century, to describe a literary work, song, motion picture, or play which had been prohibited from distribution or exhibition in Boston, Massachusetts...Commercial distributors were often pleased when their works were banned in Boston—it gave them more appeal elsewhere."
The modern equivalent is "Banned by Facebook."
Thursday, January 9, 2025
TIL: The Evolution of Morality...in Politics
Source: The New Yorker.
In a book review in "The New Yorker" of Hanno Sauer's new book "The Invention of Good and Evil: A World History of Morality", Nikhil Krishnan writes:
It was five million years ago, Sauer tells us, that creatures rather like ourselves, having only just evolved from some now extinct ape, started to develop the psychological dispositions that made them capable of coöperation. Unlike the chimpanzees and bonobos of the dense forests around central Africa, our ancestors had to survive in exposed grasslands. Coöperating for mutual defense against our predators, and for collectively pursuing prey, was our way of compensating for our new vulnerability. Among the dispositions that emerged to help us get along, Sauer writes, was the capacity for altruistic behavior: “putting aside the interests of the individual in favour of a greater common good.”Source: Nikhil Krishnan.
In short, according to this theory, there was a competitive advantage for our species to cooperate. Today, when we're good, it's because we evolved that way. So, how do we explain wars? Or even closer to home, how do we explain the rancorous divisions in America's body politic?
Wednesday, January 8, 2025
WAIW: Guess the Neighborhood — Addendum
Source: City of Richardson.
In yesterday's special Tuesday edition of "Where Am I Wednesday?" we were in southwest Richardson, specifically in the Richardson Heights neighborhood where the City of Richardson has encroached with new sign toppers branding residential streets as "Heights." What is wrong with the "Richardson Heights" sign toppers already in use, you may ask? That's the subject of today's speculation.
Tuesday, January 7, 2025
WAIW: Guess the Neighborhood
Source: Google Maps.
Where Am I Wednesday! (Special Tuesday Edition)
Fifty points to the first person to identify where this photo was taken. Specifically, what is the name of the neighborhood? Before you answer, read on.