Brains From Another Planet...

[elfs]

James Scott, "Legibility," Flavius Apion, Anoup, the Emperor Justinian, Robin of Locksley, Rebecca Daughter of Mordecai, King Richard, and Others... Brad Delong tells a tale of "legibility." "Legibility" in this case is the ability of a centralized government power to discern what is going on in the periphery of its responsibilities. He starts with Emperor Justinian's inability to see clearly what is happening in the provinces, which are behaving more like feudal states with local lords than like the legal order of the Imperial Republic, and Justinian's inability to do anything about it because he relies on the local lords to inform him. "Illegibility" in this case is a description of The SNAFU Principle.

Police Tell Brooklyn Women Not To Wear Skirts If They Don’t Want To Be Raped. [Ads on this site probably NSFW]. The Department For The Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice strikes again. Look, whoever's assaulting women in Brooklyn would attack even if every woman wore a freakin' burqa. It is not the police's job to police the public dress of its citizenry.

On the other hand, I'm annoyed by Roche's attitude toward the gun thread on the news site. The world is full of assholes, and the cops can't hover over every single one of them. It's a sick and misogynistic attitude to believe that a woman who has been raped is somehow morally superior to the one who shoots an assailant, but that is the moral calculus at the extreme end of liberal sensibilities. It's as misogynistic to tell a woman that "carrying a gun is acting like a man," as it is to question my masculinity when I wear my kilt.

The Fermi Paradox solved: our galaxy farts, so no one will come near

Comments

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

You should probably mark the tinynibbles link as NSFW, given some of the side ads on that site.

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I would guess that the bubbles also mean a reduced chance for life in the universe. If the inner portion of every galaxy is periodically blasted with high amounts of gamma radiation, there won't be much living there, even deep underground. (At least per life as we know it)

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Good point, well-taken.

[sianmink.livejournal.com]

"Unfortunately, on the NBC News article about this topic, the comments are — at least, as I write this — solely concerned with how the “liberals” in Park Slope “deserve what they get” for NYC’s and NY State’s relatively strict gun laws."

yeah, disgusting right there. What NY residents deserve is a basic right to protect themselves by the most effective method available. I believe, that like in Chicago, this right will prevail *despite* majority opinion on the matter, because sometimes people really just don't know what is best for them.

Legibility

[(Anonymous)]

Actually, I don't think he's talking about the ability of a government to *discern* what is going on -- I think he's talking about the ability of a government to legislate, or control, what is going on. In the article, it's obvious that Justinian knows that Flavius Apion is usurping his authority; he just can't do anything about it.

The amusing thing to me is that this meaning of legibility comes from "legis", law, as opposed to the more common meaning which comes from "legere", to read. Of course, I'm pretty sure both of those roots ultimately come from logos, which means both word and law.

-Malthus