hopefully this site will contain a range of topics including "social balkanization" and the relationship of dinosaurs and modern reptiles"
archie, aferd27, mehetabel and dooey here.
,"TOWER OF BABEL" EFFECT?
OR "SOCIAL BALKANIZATION" EFFECT? archie: one of the things i would like to show on here is the diversification of cultures leading to a gradual breaking down of communication. in other words a "Tower of Babel" like effect where one part of a large group finds it more and more difficult to talk to another as subcultures diverge. One can sort of see this happening in American subcultures where the metal music people, the rap people, the country and western music people, propeller heads, etc. while not completely separate, are in some ways getting further apart and more specialized. Mehetabel: Subcultures tend to get their own special words and jargon such as as "flame", "do",and "scoop", some of which become more or less mainstream. Anyhow, this diversity seems to be spreading, and in some cases of opposites is polarizing. Aferd: Another couple of striking examples come from a look at the polls of issues along racial lines. The majority of African- Americans believe that O.J. Simpson is innocent whereas the reverse is true in the caucasian community. The majority of African- Americans also believe the reports accusing President Clinton of various wrongdoings are a right wing plot. Whereas this is not as true in the caucasian community. Perhaps these differences are due to insufficient data on divisive issues, but if they are thought out responses to the same set of data, this difference troubles me. While it seems that all the responses are defendable, the separation along racial lines is troubling. This even though the media accounts are sometimes hard to sort out, partly because of politcal bias. It seems that the political chasms between various factions of liberals and conservatives are growing deeper and wider, to the point where perceptions of reality are diverging to a very high level. Doo: Anyhow here's a quote from the "Technolizard Weakly" illustrating the differences between two "close" groups, who are very different.
Comment on slackerdom and Beta Males: Quote from an article of Richard von Busack on Beta Males being the topic for underground comics: "...salutes slackerdom..." "When I was a kid, I found out that Robert Williams, the underground cartoonist, was living on the same North Hollywood street as my best friend. How I longed for the guts to call on him. Later, I read an interview with this peerless limner of zombie clowns, diseased poodles and devil girls, and I learned that he was a hot- rodder, the kind of guy who carries a pack of Luckies rolled up in the T-shirt sleeve of one brawny arm. Williams said that he imagined his readers as being handsome physical specimens - "centaurs" is the word I think he used - then he went to a comic- book convention and got a load of his beta-male fan base." Richard von Busack in an article in the June 4-10, 1998 Metro, the "Silicon Valley Weekly" in San Jose, Cal. Of course I question whether or not the term "Beta" really refers to slackers and losers as opposed to regular guys, but the article really drives home the concept of the often wide cultural differences between fans and some entertainers."Doo: Another sign of polarization may be President Clinton's rise in popularity when he gets slammed for morality issues. While this is attributed to a backlash effect by people people in the middle who are offended by the attacks, it could also be a sign of political polarization, where some of Clinton's followers are so polarized that an "us against them" attitude overides issues to a large extent. Also it could be a sign of a somewhat silent morally liberal group or also an anti-holier-than-thou stance group. archie: also I don't know whether or not a huge monolithic culture should be a desired goal, though I am sure that a lot of people would think it desirable. Mehetabel: Hmm. The people who tried to build the tower at Babel were unable to complete their task when, according to the Bible, they started speaking different languages. Aferd: For more information on divisions due to language differences see the ideograph- pyramid connection section in the coming guest column 3. GUEST COLUMN
today's guest column is written by those two dynamic critters Queeks and Boobs who are using their powerful three cylinder minds to investigate the nature of Dinnosores. ---- Dinnosores? You must be mistaken, Queeks! ---- I'll do the thinnin around here, Boobs. You see, serpents = reptiles? = dinnosores?!! ---- Oh, Queeks! Dinosaurs... Too much learning has made you mad. ---- Mebbe so, faithful companion. Anyhoo, consider the main differences tween the modern reptiles and the dinnosores: 1. size and mass: 2. side profiles: (low slungness of the moderns) 3. cross section profiles (thinness of most of the moderns). Which makes sense as most snakes and lizards would not be as efficient moving if they were shaped like, say, a brontosaur with its legs cut off. ---- Oh, I see. Almost as if the dinosaurs had been cursed to crawl on their bellies, and were shrunk to boot. ---- Or forced to hippity hop under a death ray limbo bar a foot and a half from the ground. Hmm, it seems I lost my turtles. ---- Queeks, they may just have been misplaced. Some people believe that they should be classified as diapsids (modern reptiles)(Scientific American March l997 page 24). Their low-slungness might have suggested it, tho their cross section profile is a bit ambiguous. Their bodies are a lot thicker relative to their heads than most modern reptiles. Anyhow, their skull and ankle structures apparently suggest that they are modern reptiles.Any questions or comments can be emailed to fordy5@hotmail.com
Additional Contents of this site
To go to the "prince of this world" page: (PRINCE Page) To go to the next page: (NEXT PAGE) for stuff on shape of universe To go to the REINCARNATION PAGE : REINCARNATION for reincarnation and past lives info To go to the tech page: (TECH PAGE) for tech stuff To go to the Linux page: (Linux PAGE) for linux stuff To go to H4367's Religeous Stance Page: (H4367's Beliefs Page) To go to f9255's BLOGG: f9255's BLOGG To go to the BL0G page: (BLOGSTUFF PAGE) To go to Psalms of David Page: Psalms of David
For more information E-mail me at fordy5@hotmail.com or aferd24@rocketmail