Income Disparity, The Trots and Ethereal DNA
Man, wasn’t the Kevin Bacon Oracle from yesterday’s post fun? Kudos to Mischa for finally finding an film actor who was un-linkable to Mr Bacon.
The astute among you will note that there is a new Auctions section to this website (see the navigation menu on the left). That’s right, I’ve decided to make my Ebay sales public, so that you, my droogies, can bid on the crap not deemed worthy of remaining in my hallowed presence. So break open your piggy banks and buy my outdated and broken electronic devices!
Are you, like me, annoyed by automated phone operators? This site gives hints on how to outsmart the automaton and get to a real human operator.
Now, this NY Times article mentions that the world’s 500 richest people have as much wealth as the world’s poorest 416 million! Frankly, I expected the number to be in the billions, but it’s still pretty shocking. The first response is naturally outrage that so much wealth disparity can exist in a world in which hundreds of millions are dying of starvation and lack of basic resources. But let me suggest that the issue here is not so much the disparity –our objection to which betrays a touch of schadenfreude– but rather that the disparity exists contemporaneously with widespread suffering. How would we feel, for example, if the same disparity existed, but at the same time no one in the world was starving, deprived of medicine, education or shelter? I suspect that probably we’d still be outraged, but somewhat irrationally so, no? Anyway, it’s something to think about.
It seems that British vacationers in Cyprus were freaked out when, on the anniversary of 9/11, two Pakistani Muslim passengers on an airplane were “acting suspiciously.” They pair was removed and questioned. What was their strange behaviour? Well, one of them spent too much time in the toilet before the plane took off. He apparently came out sweating. Jesus, people, maybe the man had diarrhea?!
Okay, remember that National Geographic DNA kit I sent away for? The one that will track my ancestors’ migration across the continents? Well here it is:
I’m about to swab my cheeks and put the sample in the mail. Hell, over the years I’ve sent over the Internet my standardized test scores, descriptions of my intimate life, photos of my driver’s licence and even my retinal scans! It was only a matter of time before I shipped my DNA into the ether, as well. Twenty years from now, I won’t be surprised to find a hampster in a lab proudly wearing my little rodent face.
Don’t forget… take my survey!
