Tag: US Naval Observatory

This funny text is doing the rounds atm: "This morning I woke to my alarm clock, powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US Department of Energy. I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the local water utility. After that, I turned on the TV to an FCC-regulated channel to see what the National Weather Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather will be, using satellites designed, built, and launched into orbit by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast, which has been inspected for safety by the US Department of Agriculture and took my medicine, which has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. At the appropriate time, as regulated by the US Congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the US Naval Observatory, I got into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration-certified and -approved automobile, and set out to work on the roads designed and built by the local, state, and national Departments of Transportation, possibly stopping to purchase fuel at a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, at a pump certified by the local Bureau of Weights and Measures to have dispensed what it says it did, using legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve Bank. On the way out the door, I drop my mail in the outbox for the US Postal Service, which can deliver a note anywhere in the country in less than a week, and drop my kids off at the local public school. After work, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to a house which has not burned down in my absence because of state and local building codes and a fire marshal's inspection, and which has not been vandalized or plundered of its valuables thanks to the local police department. I then log onto the Internet, which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and carp on freerepublic.com about how 'socialism' is bad because the government can't do anything right." Reminds me of this clip of Louis C.K. which CripesonFriday alerted me to: https://blip.tv/play/Ae2OFo6cMw Really are we bitching too much? (I'm not talking about the economy here or throwing bankers from the 15th floor - carry on with that) - James Gleick wrote in Faster that the elevator close button was the stress vector of a certain sort of person, it seems the refresh button has overtaken that role. From people kvetching that there aren't enough updates/posts on Livejournal (hmm there is an abundant spring elsewhere) to those who stress when Twitter is down or their mobile isn't working IMMEDIATELY or have to wait 5 minutes to get out of that tunnel, just seems this information junkie overload is breeding people who have even more advanced ADHD than MTV days. Does this also breed depression and alienation? Too much information at a shallow level about people and celebrities you don't really care about, washing over you, bathing in that vapid information can do nothing but alienate. Maybe time to sit back and think about normality, the friends we do have, the numbers we do have, the books lain unread, the albums and movies unwatched. This illusion of connection does nothing but harm especially when the drug is taken away.

Tag: US Naval Observatory

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