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It's never homo homini lupus

By TheophileEscargot (Mon Apr 16, 2012 at 09:30:24 AM EST) Theatre, Museums, MLP (all tags)

Theatre: "The Duchess of Malfi". Museums. Web.

Theatre
Saw The Duchess of Malfi at the Old Vic. Play by John Webster about a widowed duchess who falls in love, leading to the inevitable Jacobean bloodbath.

Liked it a lot. There are stylized touches like slow-motion processions which help give it the slightly unreal air I think you need: these plots can feel a bit too implausible if you try to make it realistic. Good performances from Eve Best as the Duchess and Harry Lloyd as her villainous Duke brother .

Well worth a look.

We got good value tickets as a Lastminute.com package: �20 for both the theatre and a two-course meal, got decent seats at the back of the stalls too. Not bad considering you'd pay that for a movie and a pizza.

Review, review, review.

Museums
Saw the British Design 1948-2012 exhibition at the V & A. Liked it a lot: though it's fairly familiar stuff, there's a lot of good things to look at. Includes Marc Bolan costumes, Festival of Britain posters, a Mini and an e-Type, and of course the inevitable unsittable chairs.

Museums 2
Saw the Hans-Peter Feldman exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery. German artist who mostly repurposes and draws over kitsch popular images and decorations. Not too bad: the cross-eyed distorted portraits and red noses are amusing, and there are some interesting photos like this one. Not terribly keen on the haw-haw-let's-poke-fun-at-the-tawdry-taste-of-the-masses vibe though.

Links
Socioeconomics. Should schools promote self-control: "Higher cognitive ability may not always be a good substitute for self-control in the acquisition of important academic and technical skills". Pedestrian behaviour "walking speed is correlated to socioeconomic standing".

Video. How blind people use the iPhone. Terry Wogan's secret pirate radio show, via cats and ladder. Google glasses video with ads added.

Articles. Apparently "Enemy Mine" novel had a gay subtext, via.

Pics. US juvenile detention, via Lego science fiction models. Moscow 1931. Distorted comics women.

Sci/tech. Video visualizing 18th, 19th century ship voyages.

< Pinky: "Gee, Brain, what do you want to do tonight?" | Whine List 2.0 >

It's never homo homini lupus | 11 comments (11 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

Teaching self-control by riceowlguy (4.00 / 1) #1 Mon Apr 16, 2012 at 10:16:54 AM EST

It's perfectly understandable that one might conclude that state intervention to teach self-control to young kids might be desirable, particularly at a very young age (I've read multiple accounts recently of studies that conclude that not just the best time but the ONLY time to teach basic "soft job skills" like how to not resolve workplace disputes with punches is pre-kindergarten). But it still comes across as creepy and totalitarian, in a "shaping the New Soviet Man" kind of way.

School is definitely too late by Herring

(4.00 / 1) #2 Mon Apr 16, 2012 at 10:36:33 AM EST

Mrs. H. teaches 5/6 year olds at the moment - she did 3 years of 4/5 year olds previously. If they've grown up in an environment where violence is a way of solving things then by the time they hit school, there really is fuck-all that can be done.

In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.
[ Parent ]

It isn't just violence by riceowlguy (4.00 / 1) #3 Mon Apr 16, 2012 at 10:52:49 AM EST

The whole "self-control may be more important than knowledge in predicting future life success" is just another way of stating "the people who get ahead in this world are the ones willing to do what the rest of us aren't willing to do" - depending on how you define "get ahead", that means either working longer hours at your job, or getting up early every morning to go to the gym, have a salad instead of a burger, or whatever.

[ Parent ]

Well by TheophileEscargot (2.00 / 0) #4 Mon Apr 16, 2012 at 11:05:42 AM EST

I see it as a pretty old-fashioned idea making a comeback: that a good education should be about building character as well as teaching facts.
--
It is unlikely that the good of a snail should reside in its shell: so is it likely that the good of a man should?
[ Parent ]

: Sorry by Herring (4.00 / 1) #9 Mon Apr 16, 2012 at 01:33:52 PM EST

(Read the article now) but I did read it as one more of those things: kids today are X why don't the schools sort it out. Having teachers in the family, the amount of crap they have to deal with when these great ideas come up. Mrs. H. gets 5 year olds who are barely toilet trained and can't hold a knife and fork.
I got distracted there and can't remember how I was going to finish.
Of course, the kids at the boy's school are lovely and polite but they're the bright ones who are interested in learning.

In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.
[ Parent ]

Disclaimer by Herring

(4.00 / 1) #6 Mon Apr 16, 2012 at 11:10:38 AM EST

I haven't read the article yet.

Fair point. The title of the article gives me pause though. The idea that schools should try fix kids or make up for the shortcomings of parents is a bit rich. And let's face it, kids are in lessons maybe 1,200 hours a year - a fraction of the time that they're at home.

In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.
[ Parent ]

I don't get the creepy/totalitarian angle by lm (4.00 / 1) #7 Mon Apr 16, 2012 at 11:38:18 AM EST

But creating the Department of Homeland Security didn't bother me much either. Well, at least not because of the name. But it certainly did bug quite a few people.

Grade schools have always had civics lessons and the like. They've always been somewhat focused on building good citizens rather than being a value-free education.

There is no more degenerate kind of state than that in which the richest are supposed to be the best.
Cicero, The Republic
[ Parent ]

Odd by wumpus (2.00 / 0) #10 Mon Apr 16, 2012 at 08:21:37 PM EST

Considering you have been questioned by the FBI for posts under the name "lm" and many creeped out by "homeland security" have not. On second thought, we should be glad it wasn't "freedom preservation department" or some such thing, although that might have been a bit too obvious.

Wumpus

[ Parent ]

: Two different issues at hand by lm (2.00 / 0) #11 Tue Apr 17, 2012 at 01:31:59 PM EST

But, before I get to them, I do want to make certain that you see see this if you're interested: http://www.hulver.com/scoop/story/2012/4/16/19323/5111
Now onto creepiness and homeland security.
Some people are creeped out just by the name of the agency because references to the `homeland' reminds them of Nazis. Likewise, some people are creeped out by schools attempting to mold character because (apparently) it reminds them of building the new `Soviet man.' Neither creeps me out per se.
Now, if you want to talk about actual programs rather than mere appearances or the names of agencies. There are some aspects to DHS and some aspects to education that I do find creepy. Of the top of my head, I can't think of any that creep me out more than big business does in the private sector, but that's kind of a non-issue. Just because big business can do really creepy things doesn't mean that the government can't also do creepy things.
Anyway, the FBI turns over all matters related to POTUS and successors to a different law enforcement agency. So I never really had to deal with the FBI. But that's really neither here nor there. Which agency matters less than what said agency was able to find on publicly available sources and what that agency decided to do with it.
I can imagine situations that I would have found creepy. Say, for example, I had been let go of my job with no warning and my friends and family were interviewed by some agency or the other without that agency contacting me directly. I would have found that extremely creepy.
But the creepiest part of my experience with the feds was how much information they had on the evangelical congregation I attended at the time. So far as I can tell, they keep extra special tabs on certain types of religious movements.
All in all, I've found run ins with the local authorities to be far creepier.
There is no more degenerate kind of state than that in which the richest are supposed to be the best.
Cicero, The Republic
[ Parent ]

The Google Glasses with Ads... by Metatone (4.00 / 1) #5 Mon Apr 16, 2012 at 11:07:48 AM EST

is very well done.

What's interesting to me is how easy it is to start to feel like the ads "don't get in the way too much" ... I think they could easily get people to go along with it.

Of course, at an analysis level, it's a wretched way to live...

Enemy Mine by ucblockhead

(4.00 / 1) #8 Mon Apr 16, 2012 at 12:30:21 PM EST

People didn't know this? I was a naive 14 year old when I read the novella and I picked up on it...
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[ucblockhead is] useless and subhuman

It's never homo homini lupus | 11 comments (11 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback