06.26.08
Posted by 3 at 1:14 pm in "reality", Toys, Justice, Domestic Abuse, grammar
The results of DC v. Heller are finally in, and it seems to be a momentous victory for owners of both firearms and a sound understanding of the English language. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States reaffirmed the Second Amendment of the Constitution as an individual right to bear arms rather than a collective, a distinction that Justice Antonin Scalia outlines in a rather unsubtle verbal jab at fellow Justice John Stevens in his writing of the majority opinion.
In any event, the meaning of “bear arms” that petitioners
and JUSTICE STEVENS propose is not even the (sometimes)
idiomatic meaning. Rather, they manufacture a
hybrid definition, whereby “bear arms” connotes the
actual carrying of arms (and therefore is not really an
idiom) but only in the service of an organized militia. No
dictionary has ever adopted that definition, and we have
been apprised of no source that indicates that it carried
that meaning at the time of the founding. But it is easy
to see why petitioners and the dissent are driven to the
hybrid definition. Giving “bear Arms” its idiomatic meaning
would cause the protected right to consist of the right
to be a soldier or to wage war—an absurdity that no
commentator has ever endorsed. See L. Levy, Origins of
the Bill of Rights 135 (1999). Worse still, the phrase
“keep and bear Arms” would be incoherent. The word
“Arms” would have two different meanings at once:
“weapons” (as the object of “keep”) and (as the object of
“bear”) one-half of an idiom. It would be rather like saying
“He filled and kicked the bucket” to mean “He filled
the bucket and died.” Grotesque.
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04.26.08
Posted by Varies at 9:43 am in "reality"
- The Door Close button is there mostly to give passengers the illusion of control. In elevators built since the early ’90s. The button is only enabled in emergency situations with a key held by an authority.
- The only known occurence of an elevator car free falling due to a snapped cable (barring fire or structural collapse), was in 1945. A B25 Bomber crashed into the Empire State Building, severing the cables of two elevators. The elevator car on the 75th floor had a woman on it, but she survived due to the 1000 feet of coiled cable of fallen cable below, which lessened the impact.
- Elevators are twenty times safer than escalators. There are twenty times more elevators than escalators, but only 1/3 more accidents.
- Elevators are also safer than cars. An average of 26 people die in elevators each year in the U.S. There are 26 car deaths every five hours.
- Most people who die in elevators are elevator technicians.
- The Otis Elevator Company carries the equivalent of the world’s population in their elevators every five days.
- The New York Marriott was the first to introduce a smart elevator system that assigned passengers to elevators depending on what floor they were heading to.
- Elevators used to require a two-man dispatcher/operator team to function. The advent of navigational buttons rendered those jobs obsolete.
- The area required for personal space is 2.3 feet. The average amount on elevators is generally 2 feet.
- Elevator hatches are generally bolted shut for safety reasons. In times of elevator crisis, the safest place is inside the elevator.
- The myth about jumping just before impact in a falling elevator is just that — myth. You can’t jump fast enough to counteract the speed of falling. And you wouldn’t know when to jump.
- Due to the laws of physics, elevators can’t be any taller than 1700 feet. Hoist ropes become too heavy after that, snapping at 3200 feet.
Taken from The New Yorker
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02.29.08
Posted by jayto at 3:17 am in love, rock, stunts, "reality", street performers, review, and college, Domestic Abuse
i have a dream that keeps playing through my head. not the kind of dream that will change the world, or even the kind of dream that will change you. not even the the kind that will change me, and maybe that’s why i have this dream
this is the dream i dream when i’m red-eyed and wide awake, mind wild and racing numb. the dream i dream when i’m on my knees sitting uncomfortably, and making an imprint of the carpet on my forehead and elbows. the crash after the high with the giant question “why”. and the answer that stings in the place you feel warm when you’re happy and cold when you’re sad.
the dream is simple: i’m running on rooftops, chasing a kid with a smirk on his face. i don’t catch him.
that part comes in a different dream. that’s the dream than could change me. maybe even you. maybe even the world.but i don’t know yet. i’m still running.
self-depreciation
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01.30.08
Posted by Lulu at 11:46 am in "reality", and college
i used to tell people one of my goals in life was to become as big as possible, and absorb as much reality as possible until i couldn’t take it anymore, and then sort through everything to create a unified human being.
which just freaks people out
Read the rest of this entry »
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12.11.07
Posted by Lulu at 5:32 pm in love, "reality", and college
nietzsche, you are full of shit.
i should have realized this when we first met; you smelled. i figured it wasn’t you, but it was.
anyway, it’s not very nice to take the way a person perceives the world, thinks the world works, and shit on it.
but i guess you can’t help it, because you’re full. of shit.
Read the rest of this entry »
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12.05.07
Posted by jayto at 11:23 pm in rock, love, "reality"
yeah, i’m still pretty emo. i suppose the reason for that is because a lot of things make me sad. and i guess a lot of things make me sad because i have some pretty different ideas. different relative to a lot of my well-educated, jaded, faded peers.
ideas like reserving judgement, or forgiving every time, or trying to love everyone, or turning the other cheek, or admitting defeat, or accepting defeat when you’re in the right. you know, things that kinda take pride and kick it aside.
oh yeah, and the idea of holding standards to yourself you know you can’t keep.
hypocrisy? maybe if i’m not keeping that first standard. pretentious? probably, i guess so. i do think these standards are the most important ones. because (at the risk of looking like that sinfest kid) i figure Jesus knew what he was talking about. and that if i’m supposed to live my life for him, i should probably try to do what he says. even though i do get depressed, apathetic, angry, or just plain emo, i’m always at peace.
i also feel like everyone should have it! this peace business. it’s pretty cool. cooler than happiness, even. that’s not to say i’m not happy.
this post had no purpose other than to let you pretend you can read my mind.
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11.29.07
Posted by Bowman at 2:53 am in "reality", review, games
A while back, my status on Facebook was as follows:
Michael is contemplating the existential aspects of tetris.
Regardless as to whether or not my use of the term existential is properly placed or not, a lot of people were confused by this one, and wondered what I meant by this little term here. What are the existential aspects of Tetris? How can a rather simple little game with, you know, squares, be so crazily important to my worldview?
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11.26.07
Posted by Lulu at 4:47 pm in love, "reality", and college, Shoes, Domestic Abuse
hey. this is interesting. a conversation. or, monologue.
”It was intense, And sorry for going on about this, but can you imagine? And it’s such a Lauren thing to do, sitting in the bathtub, naked, with that sardonic smile on her face, knowing that she’s finally been caught. Really, it was like I was there, it was that moment when you know, and he doesn’t know, but you’re about to kill him, and it’s exhilarating. And I felt that. And she felt that.”
This is a boy. He had a dream. That was his dream.
mmmmm. I saw Ashley over Thanksgiving. You may not know who that is. But she gave me a bunch of her thongs because I need them, and she doesn’t. And a jacket. And a pair of shoes. And a bag. And AIDS.
No, I don’t think it’s weird. She’s sweet.
Oh, and my aunt got married. Does anyone know Diana Sun? She’s a senior at plano west. We are now step-cousins.
… jeeeesus. I feel bad for her. It must be tough.
look. this is all ridiculous. and irrelevant. But interesting, hopefully, at least.
ummmm. that’s what i think life is, pretty much.
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10.27.07
Posted by jayto at 2:03 am in "reality", and college
Originally, I had toyed with the idea of using this blog space to talk about how boring UTD is. I also toyed with the idea of writing in-character as someone very very emo, as the about page says. Then I remembered that UTD is only boring (partially) because of my laziness to get involved, and also that pretending to be emo would get boring, fast. So I guess I’ll just blog this blog normally. I suppose I can still try the emo character on Livejournal. Today I went to the Switchfoot concert. Ruth and Relient K were on tour with them. Some cool details include Relient K’s rendition of The Office theme song, Switchfoot freezing into a picture-perfect pose mid-song for 30 seconds, and several other cases of awesome. Some other unrelated observations are as follows:While they are relatively popular, it’s ridiculous that neither are as well know as some “secular” bands that are inferior in almost every way. Case in point: My Chemical Romance. I can’t personally attest to this, but Taysir tells me that they are horrible live musicians, and the lead singer has stage presence akin to Michael Jackson while he’s dangling a baby over a balcony, and asked during one concert for all the “boys” to take off their shirts. I suppose to closest Switchfoot got to something like that was when they said to put an arm around a neighbor’s shoulder. Is there no justice in the world? On a tangent, I remember hearing a band at last year’s stay day that called themselves “Axis”. They were comprised of nothing but 16-17 year olds, and rocked like it was still the 60s. Apparently, the most work they’ve done as a band is hiring themselves out to birthday parties for a couple hundred a show. I’m still waiting for them to explode. Next time, I will make a post at a time of day when I am thinking coherently.
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10.21.07
Posted by jayto at 1:06 am in "reality", and college, japan
today, i stayed up past my bedtime intentionally. tomorrow i will wish i was asleep.
life is pain.
kidding. sort of.
let us speak of college. but first… eat your words. it will amuse me.
i go to UTD. i did not choose to come to UTD because of their great chess team, awesome frisbee team, or really good pool players. i go to UTD because they throw money at me. many of my other classmates agree with me. this has therefore brought me to the conclusion that UTD is, in fact, not what it seems, but in fact, a miles wide transmutation circle for creating the philosopher’s stone.
kidding again. sort of.
more next friday night. or possibly saturday morning. what’s the difference?
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