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December 09, 2012
Overnight Open Thread (12-9-2012) – Case of the Sundays EditionThe Hidden Link Between Medieval Land Parceling and Modern American Psychology Did land division rules drive culture? The flight from Boston to Chicago isn't the most scenic, but if you're lucky enough to snag a window seat - no mean feat these days - study the patchwork landscape with a discerning eye. About 40 minutes into the flight, you'll notice something a bit peculiar (at least for North America): Instead of the usual tableau of square or rectangular farmsteads, you'll see ribbons of agronomy. So when the U.S. started with square farms, the process and the results were the exact opposite from ribbon farms: We plotted the farms first and then pondered the logistics. It's therefore no surprise that Americans feel transportation should come to us instead of the other way around. We pick a place to live and then figure out how to get where we need to go. If no way exists, we build it: roads, arterials, highways, interstates . and so on. Well I'm not so sure the specific differences in land parceling were quite as psychologically significant as the author claims or that the Canadian/French way is clearly superior. The French ribbon-farm layout may optimize for ease of transportation but assumes an existing road system and minimizes any choice in how to layout a farm. But the American system let people choose the locations to farm in and then roads were built based on demand and farm location. So I would argue the latter system was optimized for the greatest local personal choice and maximum agricultural output over central planning and easier transportation. And these differences in choice and priorities behind the systems do reflect different cultural values and traditions that are still visible today e.g. Anglo-Saxon capitalism versus Dirigisme.
Quote of the Day: James Lileks It is remarkable the amount of ire you collect nowadays, like lint, simply by being insufficiently worshipful of the State and its gentle intentions. Ken Burns: Leftist Cockholster Ken Burns is one of those people who become more unlikeable the more they open up. The filmmaker, who works primarily on projects for PBS, says there wouldn't be a birther movement with a President Joe Biden in the White House. Burns then turned his attention to the Tea Party, saying a friend who attended a Tea Party event told him "almost every one she met there invoked the 'n-word'" about the president, he recalls. Adam Carolla had Burns on his podcast last year and it was one of the few episodes I've ever turned off mid-cast and deleted. Burns insisted on making every single topic political and humorlessly spouting far left talking points until it was simply unlistenable. It's Transgressive Radical Sex, Not Ordinary Mortal Sex Nadia Cho, a student at UC Berkeley had sex in the campus library and wants all you close-minded squares to know about her super-edgy radical act. We decided that, out of the millions of books in the library, the shelves full of books on religion seemed like the best place to fuck. David Thompson snarks: The studiously uninhibited Ms Cho is keen to educate the rest of us in matters sexual and political. She tells us, for instance, that, "Sex-positive isn't a term that most people are familiar with. Look it up, learn and be amazed." Well as we all know hot sex was invented circa 1970 so this isn't quite as an amazing of a discovery as Cho thinks it is. And she's not quite hawt enough to be this tedious and annoying. By now most people have heard about the NYPD policeman who gave a shoe-less homeless man a nice pair of boots. Of course a few days later the man was spotted walking around barefoot and couldn't quite explain where the shoes went. This is a classic example showing that the problem with the homeless is in general not the lack of a home but the underlying mental illness and/or drug abuse that resulted in them being on the street. But Bookworm explains this far better than I could.
Full disclosure: I have worn socks with sandals but in my defense it was a yard emergency and there were no witnesses. Weekly AoSHQ Commenter Standings Top 10 commenters: Top 10 sockpuppeteers: The group. Yeah. Where it's at - the Twitter Tonight's post brought to you by a Christmas Story 2012: Notice: Posted by permission of AceCorp LLC. Please e-mail overnight open thread tips to maetenloch at gmail. Otherwise send tips to Ace. | Recent Comments
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Quarantine Cafe Open Thread CNN: We Need to Stop Permitting Conservatives to Communicate With Other Conservatives A Logical Flaw In Conservative Thought (And Open Thread) Washington Post: Any Black or Hispanic Trump Supporters You See Are Actually Examples of "Multiracial Whiteness" "Representative" Cohen: We Can't Trust the National Guard Because They're Mostly White Males Open Thread: The Forces of JEB! Try to Take Back the Party, Despite Representing Only 8% of Voters Open Thread: New York Times Writes That Somehow, The Positive News About Covid Has Been Buried Until Now! Open Thread Search
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