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a Yankee Gringo: From Mean Wien to Ugly, Unfriendly El Paso...get me out of here! )-:: THE INTERNET IS CRAP

http://meanwien.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-internet-is-crap.html

Saturday, July 4, 2015. THE INTERNET IS CRAP. From time to time, I glance at the blog of a retired philosopher, from whom, I dare to say, I've learned a few things. But I often find myself bothered by his tendency (occasional, to be sure) to be mesmerized by the possibilities of the internet. I think there's a simple explanation for why I find his attitude unfathomable. But, on the whole my overall judgment is that the internet is crap, and it is getting worse. So, it's the old problem of time and money.

meanwien.blogspot.com

a Yankee Gringo: From Mean Wien to Ugly, Unfriendly El Paso...get me out of here! )-:: damned unpleasant

http://meanwien.blogspot.com/2015/07/damned-unpleasant.html

Thursday, July 9, 2015. It's not pleasant to walk along a busy roadway, with cars screaming past. An occasional motorcycle has ear-splitting sounds. Some cars, too, seem to behave as if the driver thought he were in a race. The sound, the speed, the stupidity of it all makes me want to retreat to a place far from what is so misleadingly called 'civilization'. Then the bicyclists are impatient. Ridiculous! Some even have little bells. What the hell does that mean? Get out of my way! Formerly a wage slave.

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a Yankee Gringo: From Mean Wien to Ugly, Unfriendly El Paso...get me out of here! )-:: May 2015

http://meanwien.blogspot.com/2015_05_01_archive.html

Monday, May 18, 2015. I am the Law, and I will interfere with your life as I see fit." (Pseudo-Kafka). At Pardubice's main (and busiest) street, a man crossed the street when the light was red. Apparently, he got to the other side of the street uninjured, so there were no or few cars. In the video linked below, we see what happens next. A policeman (plainclothes but on duty) shouts "Stop", and the man does not. At that point the policeman throws him on the ground, handcuffs him, and calls for backup.

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a Yankee Gringo: From Mean Wien to Ugly, Unfriendly El Paso...get me out of here! )-:: April 2015

http://meanwien.blogspot.com/2015_04_01_archive.html

Thursday, April 30, 2015. What Pardubice does not have/know. There seemed an urgent need to create streets and spaces that made people feel they were planned for them. The Guardian, http:/ www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/jul/07/in-a-successful-modern-city-the-car-must-no-longer-be-king. Yeah, for people- not cars, not bicycles, not glorified roller skates. At every step, I must compete with bicycles, roller skaters and cars@! A bicycle almost hit me today because the cyclist was too impatient to wait.

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a Yankee Gringo: From Mean Wien to Ugly, Unfriendly El Paso...get me out of here! )-:: October 2014

http://meanwien.blogspot.com/2014_10_01_archive.html

Tuesday, October 21, 2014. Did I imagine it? A psychologist recommending African safaris? Because you can savour the memories for years. That's a wise way to spend your money, he said. But who was his audience? Surely not the majority of mankind. Has psychology given up all pretense of being a science? Is it now the psychology of the bourgeois, and not a science of human beings in general? Well, they tell us we are bad at "affective forecasting". The most terrible things will happen,. Errrrr, it's a bit ...

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a Yankee Gringo: From Mean Wien to Ugly, Unfriendly El Paso...get me out of here! )-:: July 2015

http://meanwien.blogspot.com/2015_07_01_archive.html

Wednesday, July 15, 2015. Don't Care Health Care. It is a bit more than a year after my father's death. He was killed by a system and a facility which didn't care about him. He was alone, without adequate attention, in a bed he could fall out. My mother would have gladly stayed with him, but the facility did not allow her to. My father was only allowed to return home because we have a lawyer in the family, and he threatened the facility. In fact, I wish they could hear the following story: When I was in ...

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a Yankee Gringo: From Mean Wien to Ugly, Unfriendly El Paso...get me out of here! )-:: June 2014

http://meanwien.blogspot.com/2014_06_01_archive.html

Saturday, June 14, 2014. They sit huddled under the walls which protect the palace. The winds howl and a storm is brewing. Their clothes are tattered. But their conversation is lively. They discuss the latest news:. War in a distant land,. Or rumors of a coming famine. The farmers have, once again,. Failed to produce enough food to feed us all,. And so they argue about who should go hungry. I am amazed to hear how their reasonableness,. It would be unreasonable to say that the wars are unnecessary,.

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a Yankee Gringo: From Mean Wien to Ugly, Unfriendly El Paso...get me out of here! )-:: July 2014

http://meanwien.blogspot.com/2014_07_01_archive.html

Saturday, July 26, 2014. After a trip to the doctor's office. America's new religion: Denialism. As I sat in a car which winded and wended through the traffic,. Just avoiding enormous trucks traveling at high speeds, I noticed the grayish-brown haze that had replaced the sky. So, that is what we are breathing. El Paso continues to seek fulfillment as a mini-L.A. Please don't tell me the frigid piercing air of the AC is pleasant. All that I see is ugly and inhuman. But all of this is invisible thanks to t...

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a Yankee Gringo: From Mean Wien to Ugly, Unfriendly El Paso...get me out of here! )-:: February 2015

http://meanwien.blogspot.com/2015_02_01_archive.html

Wednesday, February 25, 2015. I suppose that there are principles of psychology which are universal. Say, certain principles discovered by Gestalt psychologists lead us to see. Unity where there are only potential pieces of a thing visible. Or, alternatively put, on the basis of less than perfect and complete information,. We can attempt to draw a picture, or formulate a theory about something not observed. This applies very much to what I've heard from Czechs and Slovaks over the years. That's not quite...