The Meaning of Life

If you were to ask what provides some meaning in life nowadays for a great many people, especially men, you could do worse than reply 'football.' Not many of them perhaps would be willing to admit as much; but sport stands in for all those noble causes—religious faith, national sovereignty, personal honor, ethnic identity—for which, over the centuries, people have been prepared to go to their deaths. It is sport, not religion, which is now the opium of the people.

The Meaning of Life

yourmorals.org questionnaire

I haven't tried it yet, but according to Nature magazine (14 June 2007, "The depths of disgust", page 768), this questionnaire promises to ask such delightful questions as

"Even if I was hungry, I would not drink a bowl of my favorite soup if had been stirred by a used but thoroughly washed fly swatter."

and

"I might be willing to try eating monkey meat, under some circumstances."

[ My sentiments exactly—tartare or nicely seared? ]

http://yourmorals.org/

Tailfins

The Triumph of the Fungi

Neil Sloane writes:

Funsters, I just read a truly great—funny, scholarly and deeply scary—book called The Triumph of the Fungi—A Rotten History by Nicholas P. Money. It's the kind of book you come across every ten years that you want to buy copies of for all your friends. It got a great review in Nature. It's scary in the way that The Hot Zone was: rusts and molds could easily destroy civilisation.

Sounds like it might make a good movie. I'm reminded that I still want to need to figure out a way to see The Host.

Anne Frank musical, Secret Service, 1937 Ford Roadster

1) At the University Club:

THANE: So, Julian, are you in any interesting plays now?

JULIAN: No, but I'm taking an acting class. And I'm writing a musical.

THANE: About what?

JULIAN: Anne Frank.

THANE: Hmmm—hard to write happy songs about that, I suppose? So, sad songs instead?

JULIAN: Yes, couldn't have "Anne Frank! Anne Frank!" [dances around like a vaudeville actor. Owen starts laughing].

2) Driving to the Stanford campus where Cole and Owen wanted to see a vintage auto show, we saw police cars and secret service guys outside Steve Jobs's house (maybe—at least they had earphones and dark suits). Barack or Hillary? When I waved to the the secret service guys, they waved back—so, I guessed Barack. But now that I look on his web site, he's in San Antonio today, and it looks like Hillary is somewhere else, too. Maybe just a high-profile iPhone customer.

3) At the auto show, a 1937 Ford Roadster

Did they really look like that, with that grill I wonder? "Just like in Tintin," Cole said.