I try to be good. I do. And really, isn't it all about how much effort you put into something?

See here, IaintBacchus. http://change.gov/americaserves/

It's legit.

I am actually quite conflicted on this topic (though not in the way John Derbyshire is.

...It appears to be a work in progress, that is the third iteration (though I did not see it there in the first form - I only went to the link and posted it after reading Alex' article). What is there now is different than my post above.

I really did think that this read well at first but the farther I got it lost its attraction.

I do think that he's pointing out that we're at a cusp of change, but it's not because he's cooked up an efficient algorithm to define American history. He's creating a looping equation to fit his hypothesis and it doesn't work if he has to wrestle it into place that hard.

I think we're at a time of profound "change" not because BO won the WH, but because there are just too many great technological advances that we are beginning to crack. Just yesterday, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute announced an all-time high of 96.21% photon absorption using a new antireflective coating. It also precludes the necessity of having to use a bunch of the energy collected to reposition for angle. That is _massive_. Solar power will be what fuels our next transformative period (short of figuring out how to just go ahead utilize the magnetosphere already). Wind is a close third, but we need to look at it on a micro-scale vs. building massive turbines. Nuclear power (and by reference fossil fuels) are dead sticks - they're based on utilizing decay.

We might just look back (well, I won't be there) in 72 (or 68) or 36 (or 32) years - whatever - and think that yes, George Bush was really quite a charming dunce-of-a-blip on world history when they write that had it not been for him and his ilk's strident insistence that the planet was fine, it was his inaction to do anything positive about planetary and socio-economic rape when he had the chance which forced the hands of the people who voted the neocons out and helped us usher someone(s) in who might actually lead us out of the wasteland.

I think Lind could take a closer look at what fueled transformative events and come up with a better hypothesis if he broadened his horizons when it came to the many scientific advances realized and causing change proliferation during the periods he's working with.

You know...life really, really must have completely sucked before flint's magical properties was standardized.

We have all kinds of anecdotal history to explain how much life sucked before coal and oil technologies.

We know it sucked before hygiene.

It would be interesting to see what happens when we grow up as a species about energy.

Another thought would be that the 'global economic crisis' is really global. No one in (name of area where cowri shells were traded) gave a hoot about whether someone in (name of area where...pretty rocks were traded) could afford to purchase that souped up spear-thrower they'd been saving [their pretty rocks] for. Tribes, fiefdoms, nations -- these are just places where people are trading the same things. Nowadays, we're all trading the same thing globally, regardless of whether we call them euros or dollars or yen. Maybe what we really need to take away from this formative moment is that oh, yeah...guess we're all citizens of the planet, and this nation notion doesn't make any sense any more.

I sure wish I could look back 72 years from now and see this was the point where we started thinking about world government and...well...the commonweal.

--dbp1954 "Mechanistic Categorizations of Hugely Complex Historical Processes....

Are almost always bound to fall apart under close analysis and attention to detail." --concur

That Rensselaer Polytechnic study is gonna' come in real handy with the Moon Thrusters...

...for everyone. Enjoy!

Sorry about the science experiment. I still recommend a toddie - to wash down the blondie.

I've read through this whole thing and am actually glad I missed out on last night's...well, um...meltdown.

I would like to see this

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/11/07/fourth_republic/index.html

livened up. Lind tried, bless his interesting premise. But I thought the 'futurality' of had interesting thread potential.

I also thought this could have been expanded. I worry that my glass of tap-water is being brought to me by the fine folks at Pfizer...

Imagine a brownie with no chocolate, but lots and lots of butterscotch chips.

(I made peanut butter cookies yesterday, but I wasn't really happy with them.)

Anytime!

(I miss beer. Sometimes I have an almost uncontrollable craving for a nice room-temperature Guinness. Post fundoplication and unable to burp, giving in would be a very BAD idea. I tried it once. That was a long ambulance ride. But by all means indulge. I am so happy that Stolichnaya has no bubbles...) :)

"Straights Against H8."

Good name. Copyright it immediately before some hateful troll does, though!

And even though your science experiment kept you from joining, wanting to have been there is important too.

Damn, do I remember marching for gay rights throughout my California sojourn...I was the shirtless guy famously tackled by six cops in the lobby of the capitol after Sneaky Pete didn't sign...whatever that bill was he'd promised to (36?) where all the news-stations had to cut the sound because of my profane death threats to Petey...that was a really expensive fine once they got it down from incitement to riot to resisting arrest...thank Ba'al I'd passed off the backpack full of naptha!