Brains: Well, She Turned Me Into A Newt!

[elfs]

Oklahoma School District Accuses Student Of Witchcraft

In one of those "What is this, the 16th century?" moments, Oklahoma School District 9 officials accused a 15-year-old girl of "casting spells" that caused a teacher's illness, and banned her from wearing any insignia or symbols that were not explicitly Christian.

Florida defies Supreme Court, enforces the Pledge of Allegiance

West Virginia vs. Barnette is a famous case in which the Supreme Court ruled that students could not be punished for failing to say the Pledge of Allegiance. The constitution does not requires oaths of its citizenry, and the conscience clause explicitly forbids such coercion. Well, Florida thinks it has a way around Barnette by saying students can be compelled unless they have a note from their parents. Let's hope the Supremes revisit and reaffirm Barnette, because otherwise we're one step further down the road toward requiring declarations of loyalty.

If you voted for Obama, you're supporting Paganism!

Michael Novak brings the crazy today with this observation:

President Obama recognizes no difference between the Jewish-Christian covenant between a woman and a man (a covenant that they will have and nurture children, if they are so blessed), and a civil contract between two persons of any sex, in order to set up a household of affection and sexual favors.

This is a relapse into paganism.

I have news for Novak: gay people have no problem finding sex outside of marriage. In fact, given his obsession with gay men and sex and, you know, the kind of sex gay man have, Novak ought to be advocating for gay marriage. (Link courtesy mundens, and in no way advocated by yours truly.)

Republican and Sex. Sex and Republicans.

I hate the whole stimulus bill. I really do. The case for 80% of it hasn't been made, and the correct solution to the infrastructure problem is a restructuring of the tax code for private parts of the infrastructure (like electricity and telecommunications) to make them more, not less, competetive, and to reconsider the local/federal interface for public infrastructure works like water and roads. Most of the bill is just crap.

But really, why do the Republicans immediately leap to and highlight the family planning and STD prevention funding in the bill? Those parts are tiny. Inappropriate in this bill, but also insignificant compared to the unpleasant trauma the rest of the bill will inflict on our national budget. What's up with that?

The Alluring Danger of Dilettantism

I've been puzzled by the popularity of the game Guitar Hero, for what seems to me like obvious reasons. It's like karaoke minus the trouble of having to hear the sounds you make. If you want a more interactive way to enjoy music, why not dance, or play air guitar? Or better yet, if holding a guitar appeals to you, why not try actually learning how to play? For the cost of an Xbox and the Guitar Hero game, you can get yourself a pretty good guitar. I assume I am missing the point of it, the competitive thrill, but I can't help but feel that Guitar Hero (much like Twitter) would have been utterly incomprehensible to earlier generations, that it is a symptom of some larger social refusal to embrace difficulty.

Complete Control: Nick Carr responds to the above

Distraction is the permanent end state of the perfected consumer, not least because distraction is a state that is eminently programmable. To buy a guitar is to open possibilities. To buy Guitar Hero is to close them.

As a side note, I would like to thank Alex Blumberg of All Things Considered for forcing me to explain things to my nine-year-old that she shouldn't have to yet know after he said, "Prescribing Keynesianism to some politicians is like prescribing crack to a coke addict."

Comments

[nukewolf.livejournal.com]

If they think playing Guitar Hero is a symptom of a refusal to embrace difficulty, they've obviously never tried to finish "Through The Fire And The Flames."

[solarbird]

Seriously. Also:

I've been puzzled by the popularity of the game Guitar Hero, for what seems to me like obvious reasons. It's like karaoke minus the trouble of having to hear the sounds you make

... which is clearly said by someone who has never actually played Guitar Hero, since you hear your fuckups (nasty twank noises), and do not hear music when you fuck up, which for me is totally key to the game being interesting.

[blaisepascal]

So how did you explain Keynesianism to your nine-year-old?

BTW, the witchcraft lawsuit press release is from 2000.

[dossy.livejournal.com]

+1 re: explaining Keynesianism to a 9-year old. I shudder trying to even start that conversation - economics and stimulus packages, oh my!

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Damn, you're right. My feed reader is messed up.

[blaisepascal]

You aren't the only one. I saw the oklahoma witchcraft story on Pharyngula as well.

The case was also settled in 2006

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

See here. Righteous indignation about Brandi Blackbear seems to be all over the place, and I would very much like to know why someone is raising shit over a 10 year old dead case. I'm sure Ms. Blackbear would like for it all to be forgotten.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, Chris Barnett of The nation is equally accurate when he says (paraphrasing) "Having the GOP plan economic strategy is like having the Quakers planning Army maneuvers."

[solarbird]

Seriously. After the Bush administration an the GOP's enthusiastic pushing of, well, every kind of fiscal and economic insanity, they GOP has absolutely zero, zero, ability to say one. goddamn. thing. Every time a Republican opens their goddamn trap about spending I want to punch them in the faces. Every. Time.

And some of them are trying it anyway, so I'm having to avoid listening to the radio a lot.

[feveredwritings.livejournal.com]

It's unclear whether you share the feelings about Guitar Hero, but I'd point out that people don't play Guitar Hero because they want to play music, any more than they play Half-Life 2 because they want to shoot people while wearing improbable clothing. Guitar Hero is a game of reflexes and skill challenge, with the window dressing of guitar-playing. Citizen Kane isn't about newspapers. Guitar Hero is no Citizen Kane, but it also isn't about guitars.

[sirfox.livejournal.com]

Along the same lines, DDR will not help you in ballroom dancing or ballet, other than being more practiced at a quickness and lightness to the feet.

It's still fun, though.

Also, i know guitarists who enjoy the hell out of DDR and Rock band. I've also run into a number of (admittedly anecdotal) stories of guitar sales and lessons going up as a direct result of people having fun with the game and wanting the next step.

Henry Phillips' song "Guitar pill" seems appropriate at this point. Must find it when i get home.

[ionotter.livejournal.com]

Quite frankly, if someone were to cast a Hex upon me, I'd be torn between slapping them upside the head, or just grinning at them and says, "Three-fold law, sweetykins. Enjoy reaping what you've sown."

[gromm.livejournal.com]

Yes, but that would imply that you had some kind of knowledge of Wicca, which any good little Christian girl would be sheltered from at all cost (including, I suspect, bringing charges against suspected Wiccans in her town).

[atheorist.livejournal.com]

Have you read Steven Berlin Johnson's "Everything Bad is Good for You (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everything_Bad_Is_Good_For_You)"? I think it's a partial answer to the implicit nostalgia in Rob Horning or Nicholas Carr.

My suspicion is, as we (Csikszentmihalyi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology))) understand the cognitive science of happiness better, we (society) will build institutions that can withstand the allure of "dilettantism". (I don't like the dilletantism term, because siloes of specialists are not good for society either). These institutions might be very simple (http://zenhabits.net/2007/06/8-practical-tips-to-cure-your-internet-add-attention-deficit-disorder/), or complex (Eric Horvitz (http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/horvitz/) works for Microsoft on attention-aware interfaces).

Or maybe Anathem-style maths will be built.

[erisiansaint]

The reason people play Guitar Hero is because it's air guitar with props, as well as a video game.

Amusingly, in Rock Band, it's hard to do the drumming unless you're a drummer, and you do have to sing for the microphone. It's only the guitar and bass guitar that are more of a video game.

[lisakit.livejournal.com]

I like their summation of Wicca:
"It stresses individual enlightenment and Celebrates the seasons and the four elements: earth, wind, fire and water. Proselytizing is forbidden."

[kengr]

The Oklahoma witchcraft thing was in *2000*, Eight years ago...

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

When I want to feel like a guitar hero, I pick up my Stratocaster.

People who play Dance Dance Revolution really are dancing. People who play Guitar Hero are just wanking.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't go quite that far. What I've seen, Guitar Hero does have some relation to stage performance. It's about a part of the skill set, but it doesn't teach you to play guitar. Might help with general rhythm.

Well, She Turned Me Into A Newt!

[edichka2.livejournal.com]

I guess he got better.

- E

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

Old story or not, if I were the Oklahoma Schoolgirl I'd wear a particular, explicitly non-religious, symbol which comprises 13 stripes and 50 stars.

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

Don't you know? The american flag is a christan symbol, because america is a christan nation. :P

[gromm.livejournal.com]

But the cost of the Xbox is the lion's share of that cost, and you can't play Assassins Creed, Space Invaders Extreme, or Quad Power Racing on a guitar.

If you want guitar tabs, you have to pay for them just like you have to pay for games, so I wouldn't exactly go so far as to say that a guitar opens possibilities while Xbox closes them. You could say you can compose your own music with a guitar, but you could also say you can compose your own games for the Xbox. Composing music may be somewhat less difficult though.

[lucky-otter.livejournal.com]

You can also learn music by listening to it. A search for "free guitar tabs" also turns up several sites which claim to be legal - given the profligate use of the trademarks of large labels by mxtabs.net, I'm leaning towards believing them.

Also, to develop games for the XBox 360, you need to buy Visual Studio 2008 (seems to be $300 or so) and a Premium membership in the XNA Creators Club ($99/year). You can also use the free C# kit, still with the $99/year Club membership, but good luck writing anything that actually uses the hardware with that.

Of course, if we include illegitimate methods, then both games and guitar tabs are free - though free guitar tabs are a lot easier to get than free XBox 360 games, requiring only a web browser, not a soldering iron. I'm assuming you wanted to avoid breaking any laws or contracts, though.