Brains: The United Nations, Fucked Up Again

The UN: Protecting You From Free Speech

The UN Rapporteur on Human Rights (the senior official charged with investigating and documenting human rights abuses) has demanded that his assignment be changed. One of the assigned purposes of the rapporteur is to expose those that curtail freedom of speech. But the current rapporteur, a Pakistani, has asked and been given consent to condemning those who "abuse free expression" and "defame religions and prophets."

Johann Hari documents how this has been used to silence critics of barbarity and asks us not to respect oppression, even when gussied up with the words of prophets.

Dalton Conley on modern polygamy

( Our 24/7 Culture )

Parkinson's Law + Always-on Internet = Depression.

I mentioned the Dalton Conley interview at Salon earlier today in the context of his quote about how we're effectively a polygamous society. I found it because Andrew Sullivan quoted it to add that all that was fine but snark about how gay marriage would destroy America.

Conley has much more to say in that interview, one of which has struck me throughout the day. He points out that knowledge workers are not limited by deliveries, resources, or materials on hand. Even in the past, office workers had to stop when they got home because the office materials were still at the office. "Bringing your work home" was a momentous event-- or an ominous one-- that often involved a heavy briefcase with files and books.

Parkinson's Law was first formulated by Major C. Northcote Parkinson, who worked in an administrative position in England during World War 2. He dealt with an unending stream of daily paperwork from on high to on low and vice versa, always just at the breaking point. One week, all three men above the Major are suddenly missing: one goes on leave, another becomes violently ill, and the third is called north on urgent business. The flood of paper ceased, and yet both the base operations and the entire war continued without pause. Major Parkinson later said, "There had never been anything to do. We'd just been making work for each other." He then went on to famously write Parkinson's First Law: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

Putting Conley and Parkinson together, I realized that my life, at least, is a recipie for exhaustion and depression. If work is always available, if there are no hard limits on what I can do, then "work" (which as Parkinson wryly notes does not add up to accomplishment) can easily expand to fill every waking moment.

I have struggled most of my life with an oppresive form of ADHD, an annoying combination of distractablity and a pressing, urgent, and constant wish to feel "informed." I am not informed, however; often I am merely reguritant. I am distracted by this comforting infobulimia from other pressing responsibilities that are not "work" but are life, like connecting with friends and taking care of my family.

This isn't news. I've written about this before. Sometimes, when the habit gets bad, I simply write one of these to remind myself that the tools are at hand, the to-do list with a thoughtful list of concrete accomplishments, not merely tasks, separated into two very important categories: my job, and my life, and never the twain shall overlap.

What do you mean, there's nothing in the house to cook?

Omaha told me it was my night to cook. I had little to no idea what was in the house. Solution: Uh, kinda a stir-fry fried-rice mashup. I had about fifteen minutes until I had to go retrieve the girls from their extracurricular activities, so a shoved a pound of frozen shrimp under the cold water to thaw, started a cup and a half of rice (basmati, an experiment!) in the rice cooker, and diced some broccoli, a carrot, some ginger and some garlic. Just before I left the shrimp was thawed enough to pull the tails off.

After picking up the girls, I went on to stage two: I heated up the wok with some peanut oil, threw in the shrimp for one minute, then the garlic and ginger for a minute, and then a mix of 1/2 cup vegetable broth, 2 tsp cornstarch, 2 tsp sherry, and I think some soy sauce. I stirred until it was thick and then poured it all back into the bowl where I had mixed up the cornstarch blend.

I wiped out the wok, added two tbsp peanut oil, and stir-fried the veggies until they were almost crisp, then tossed in one cup of frozen peas until they were thawed, then threw in all the rice with one egg, mixed it up a lot, and then tossed in the shrimp mixture, and stir-fried for ten minutes. I tossed in two tablespoons of soy sauce at the end.

It was surprisingly yummy. The girls ate it all.

Unfortunately, my vinagrette for the salad (two tbsp olive oil, 1/2 tbsp sherry, 1/2 tbsp rice wine vinegar, 1 tbsp sugar, and a few drops of sesame oil) was ruined when I realized the sesame oil was rancid. It's been there a long time; they ought to sell it in 4oz bottles, I use so little of it.

This has been another episode of what to cook when there's "nothing" in the house.