Geez David Brooks is stealing all my best glib stock comments, now? That can't be good.
It's a good thing you're cute, Ben.
I was expecting this to be about reinstating the draft.
Top of my browser page currently reads: "The SSS will propel local college sophomores at tremendous speeds into unf".
The diagram's great. Don't listen to HaterBen.
I'm just surprised there's still funding in the US for this kind of research. It'll all be done in solely Europe soon, though.
From the link:
Particle physics has been in the doldrums a bit lately, so they could do with some interdisciplinary reinvigoration. Also, their research budgets remain quite large.
While their budgets may be quite high relative to those of sociologists, US particle physicists are actually not doing so hot lately moneywise. [access to Science required]. SLAC had to lay off a bunch of people (and is supposedly going to change their name to since they're no longer running an accelerator there), and Fermilab was looking at doing the same until a last minute appropriations bill allowed them to save some jobs.
But the Tevatron at Fermilab is apparently the last major collider running in the US, and that's now going to be shut off next year. The funding for the monster collider that was to replace it, the ILC, was slashed awhile ago, IIRC.
I dunno, W-lfs-n. This is pretty good:
quirk-matrix (Up, Downer, Charm, Strange, Top Bloke, Asshole).
Somehow, it's "Top Bloke" that does it for me.
I'm just surprised there's still funding in the US for this kind of research. It'll all be done in solely Europe soon, though.
Such research is being sponsored in the U.S., but unfortunately most of the dollars are controlled by the Pentagon, which is interested in military applications. It has been theorized that the energy that would be released in a fission reaction (i.e. separating highly charged Hangerons from a Partyon while in an excited state) could produce a Hiroshima-like explosive.
There is also some theoretical discussion of the energy that could be released from forcing particles that naturally repel each other (e.g. the dungeonsanddragon and the cheertheteamon) to fuse. The military is interested in this fusion as a source of energy, but the repellent force is so strong that it has proved impossible to reproduce the reaction in an environment where net energy output is positive.
9: Awesome. But "World's Funniest Malapropism" is an awfully bold claim.
it's "Top Bloke" that does it for me.
...says SomeCallMeBottom.
10: true.
Don't listen to HaterBen.
Who was hating? I was just being characteristically stingy with praise.
The fusion reaction referenced in 11 has been achieved under certain conditions: a specialized reactor chamber surrounded by superconductive econs. The cheertheteamon is surrounded by high potency fermentrons and fixed in place by matter in a plasma TV state. It is then bombarded with dontleadmeons until the natural repulsion is overcome.
The reaction is very energy intensive, and often fails when the delicate equilibrium breaks down in a shower of ejaculons.
What would Parsons say? I guess Healy wouldn't know.
13: Sometimes it's better to give, but sometimes it's better to receive.
But the Tevatron...[is] now going to be shut off next year.
Good. We don't need a sandal-wearing robot cluttering up the lab with patchoulions anyway.
Do you mean Louella Parsons, Estelle Parsons, or the war profiteering corporation?
My money's on Talcott Parsons, the towering giant of 20th century sociology.
It's definitely an index of something that he had to say that, though.
I mean, sociology is really in too much disuse these days, as evidenced by limited interest in Parsons (not that he's a joy to read or anything). There are inherent problems in the "object": contemporary social forms are very Protean, or lots of stuff is hidden from public scrutiny, and a whole bunch of people think they know all about social situations from other standpoints (like the physics jerks studying social networks "right").
I guess Healy wouldn't know.
Are you trolling me or something, Jeff?
Didn't you once say on Crooked Timber that you had never read The Social System? In other words, yes, but in a sporting spirit: I'm not really out to score points on other people. For example, do you disagree with my analysis of sociology's role in the present? Seemed to me like you might agree. So the cumulative intent was not to cut.
What is this, Belgium? If you're going to troll someone, troll him on his own blog, not in neutral territory.
I was also trying to tweak you about Gerry Healy, but hey, there are more unfortunate last names.
Kieran reads and comments here regularly under another name.
You caught me. Okay, I'm Kieran Healy!
Please take your lumbering prose elsewhere, Jeff.
Actually, I'm Kieran Healy. I told y'all that "ben w-lfs-n" is a pseudonym.
Kieran is wrong about everything though, so Jeff has a point. Also, sociology is the Motley Crue of academia. Or is it the Britney Spears?
Sociology is the Motley Crue of Britney Spears? I don't think so.
Jeff has been banned by the mild-mannered, eager-to-please Adam Kotsko. A feather in his cap!
i was scared to comment on his blog last two days
people are irritable i thought and skipped
i usually read blogs for laughs, if i smiled i get the reflex like impulse to let the blogger know that he/she were funny
it's unnecessary maybe
Don't believe the hype, read; I'm never irritable.
Has this thread moved to trolling? Because...wait, #25, never mind.
I really wanted to read me some Talcott Parsons a while back, based on this:
His early work on the Structure of Social Action, he reviewed the output of his great predecessors, especially Max Weber, Vilfredo Pareto, and Émile Durkheim. Parsons attempted to derive from them a single "action theory" based on the assumptions that human action is voluntary, intentional, and symbolic.
And, well, other places I encountered the name while looking at Pareto.
i always thought the difference between :P and :D is the degree of the tongue protrusion
then i've learned it has two different meanings
hopefuly i'm not banned from AK's site, i often read the blog but do not comment
well, good night all
IIRC Parsons got stuck in a static homeostatic theory of society, with no way of representing change.
Grain of salt. He was big when I was an undergrad and I hated him without reading him, like the New Critics.
Read, you're not banned from anywhere. Don't worry.
And then there's :Þ aka the thmiley, and :� aka the tongue thtud. Long live the þorn.
What is this, Belgium? If you're going to troll someone, troll him on his own blog, not in neutral territory.
Ah, but zee plan is to destroy zee sociologists in a rapid thrust through unfogged, und dann, vee pivot our armies to zee east to take on zee Crooked Timberites. Zus vee vill take advantage of zee key veakness of Crooked Timber: zat zey reqvire a long time to mobilize zeir armies.