Daleks — threatening time-travelers with plungers since 1963
Taking the Plunge
Archive | August, 2012
Cordial and Sanguine, Part 46: When Spontaneous Orders Attack, Part 6
My latest – and belated – contribution to the C4SS symposium on spontaneous order is now up.
O Mio Babbino Skaro
When I saw this Dalek assembly hall, or whatever it is, in the preview for the upcoming Doctor Who series 7 premiere:
I realised that it was exactly what I’d pictured the Dalek courtroom as looking like at the beginning of the 1996 tv-movie – so much so that I can half-believe I saw it there, though of course nothing is really shown at all:
Crisis Management
It’s commonly asserted that the Chinese word for “crisis” means “danger + opportunity.” This claim is usefully debunked here.
The debunker oddly seems to think, however, that the soundness of the advice to seek beneficial opportunities in times of crisis stands or falls with the accuracy of the translation. It doesn’t, of course; the advice could be good even if the translation is wrong, or bad even if the translation were correct. (I would add, boringly, that whether the advice is good or bad depends on what sort of crisis it is.)
Olympus on the Thames
Orgies for the elite, oppression for everybody else – it’s like Rome! (The miniseries, not the city.) CHT Jesse.
That’s Mighty Ethnically Neutral of Them
In case you were wondering what “white normativity” is. (CHT Ami.)
I’m reminded of the line in Double Crossing where the Russians practice speaking English with a British accent in case they defect to Britain, and with “no accent at all” in case they defect to America.