'Cum' vs. 'Come'

"Hustler" magazine has its own style guide on the sensitive question.

_ _ _

Copy editor Eric Althoff] said that the magazine prefers “come” as a verb and “cum” as a noun in references to ejaculation. But on the magazine’s cover, it would allow “cum” in either situation to get the attention of potential buyers. “‘Cum’ is going to jump out at consumers,” he said.

-- The Dish

'Cum' vs. 'Come'

"Hustler" magazine has its own style guide on the sensitive question.

_ _ _

Copy editor Eric Althoff] said that the magazine prefers “come” as a verb and “cum” as a noun in references to ejaculation. But on the magazine’s cover, it would allow “cum” in either situation to get the attention of potential buyers. “‘Cum’ is going to jump out at consumers,” he said.

-- The Dish

Lonely On the Internet

Another shot is taken at how we have let the pleasant illusions of e-life stand in for real society.

_ _ _

The history of our use of technology is a history of isolation desired and achieved. When the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company opened its A&P stores, giving Americans self-service access to groceries, customers stopped having relationships with their grocers. When the telephone arrived, people stopped knocking on their neighbors’ doors. Social media bring this process to a much wider set of relationships. ... The beauty of Facebook, the source of its power, is that it enables us to be social while sparing us the embarrassing reality of society—the accidental revelations we make at parties, the awkward pauses, the farting and the spilled drinks and the general gaucherie of face-to-face contact. Instead, we have the lovely smoothness of a seemingly social machine.

-- Stephen Marche at The Atlantic

_ _ _

One of the nice things about LiveJournal these days is that we no longer suffer many illusions about having a social life online. It is about as empty and lonely as real life. *sigh* I remember the old days when hot chicks from out of nowehere would be posting their boobs in my journal. I cannot even get comments now.

Lonely On the Internet

Another shot is taken at how we have let the pleasant illusions of e-life stand in for real society.

_ _ _

The history of our use of technology is a history of isolation desired and achieved. When the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company opened its A&P stores, giving Americans self-service access to groceries, customers stopped having relationships with their grocers. When the telephone arrived, people stopped knocking on their neighbors’ doors. Social media bring this process to a much wider set of relationships. ... The beauty of Facebook, the source of its power, is that it enables us to be social while sparing us the embarrassing reality of society—the accidental revelations we make at parties, the awkward pauses, the farting and the spilled drinks and the general gaucherie of face-to-face contact. Instead, we have the lovely smoothness of a seemingly social machine.

-- Stephen Marche at The Atlantic

_ _ _

One of the nice things about LiveJournal these days is that we no longer suffer many illusions about having a social life online. It is about as empty and lonely as real life. *sigh* I remember the old days when hot chicks from out of nowehere would be posting their boobs in my journal. I cannot even get comments now.

The Future of the Internet Age?

Ross Douthat jumps into the conversation about the pluses and minuses of the Internet Age, teeing off the possibilities suggested by this video of The Man with the Google Glasses.

( Excerpt )

The Future of the Internet Age?

Ross Douthat jumps into the conversation about the pluses and minuses of the Internet Age, teeing off the possibilities suggested by this video of The Man with the Google Glasses.

( Excerpt )

Atlas Shrugged (1,1) The Great Oak Tree

As Eddie Willers continues his walk downtown to the office, Ayn Rand continues to hammer home the idea and the mood of life declining and rotting away, all of it serving the theme of America being in decline, perhaps the last living fruit on the tree. Reflecting on his vague sense of unease and the sights around him, Willers recalls a great oak tree from his childhood.

_ _ _

The great oak tree had stood on a hill over the Hudson, in a lonely spot of the Taggart estate. Eddie Willers, aged seven, liked to come and look at that tree. It had stood there for hundreds of years, and he thought it would always stand there. Its roots clutched the hill like a fist with fingers sunk into the soil, and he thought that if a giant were to seize it by the top, he would not be able to uproot it, but would swing the hill and the whole of the earth with it, like a ball at the end of a string. He felt safe in the oak tree’s presence; it was a thing that nothing could change or threaten; it was his greatest symbol of strength.

One night, lightning struck the oak tree. Eddie saw it the next morning. It lay broken in half, and he looked into its trunk as into the mouth of a black tunnel. The trunk was only an empty shell; its heart had rotted away long ago; there was nothing inside - just a thin gray dust that was being dispersed by the whim of the faintest wind. The living power had gone, and the shape it left had not been able to stand without it.

-- “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand

Atlas Shrugged (1,1) The Great Oak Tree

As Eddie Willers continues his walk downtown to the office, Ayn Rand continues to hammer home the idea and the mood of life declining and rotting away, all of it serving the theme of America being in decline, perhaps the last living fruit on the tree. Reflecting on his vague sense of unease and the sights around him, Willers recalls a great oak tree from his childhood.

_ _ _

The great oak tree had stood on a hill over the Hudson, in a lonely spot of the Taggart estate. Eddie Willers, aged seven, liked to come and look at that tree. It had stood there for hundreds of years, and he thought it would always stand there. Its roots clutched the hill like a fist with fingers sunk into the soil, and he thought that if a giant were to seize it by the top, he would not be able to uproot it, but would swing the hill and the whole of the earth with it, like a ball at the end of a string. He felt safe in the oak tree’s presence; it was a thing that nothing could change or threaten; it was his greatest symbol of strength.

One night, lightning struck the oak tree. Eddie saw it the next morning. It lay broken in half, and he looked into its trunk as into the mouth of a black tunnel. The trunk was only an empty shell; its heart had rotted away long ago; there was nothing inside - just a thin gray dust that was being dispersed by the whim of the faintest wind. The living power had gone, and the shape it left had not been able to stand without it.

-- “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand

Quote of the Day

“Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.”

-- Albert Camus

Or rather he wishes to be something else, something more.

Quote of the Day

“Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.”

-- Albert Camus

Or rather he wishes to be something else, something more.

Arthur Schopenhauer

“In early youth, as we contemplate our coming life, we are like children in a theatre before the curtain is raised, sitting there in high spirits and eagerly waiting for the play to begin. It is a blessing that we do not know what is really going to happen.”

-- Arthur Schopenhauer, "On the Sufferings of the World"

Oh, god, yes!

Arthur Schopenhauer

“In early youth, as we contemplate our coming life, we are like children in a theatre before the curtain is raised, sitting there in high spirits and eagerly waiting for the play to begin. It is a blessing that we do not know what is really going to happen.”

-- Arthur Schopenhauer, "On the Sufferings of the World"

Oh, god, yes!