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W. H. Auden
Dec. 5th, 2012 08:00 am““Evil is unspectacular and always human,
And shares our bed and eats at our own table...”
-- W H Auden, Collected Poems
And shares our bed and eats at our own table...”
-- W H Auden, Collected Poems
Dec. 5th, 2012
those chikan videos
Dec. 5th, 2012 02:19 pm"What? You aren't going to save those chikan videos?"
I think I've seen them all at least a dozen times. They all blur into each other. I suppose it's like Pop and his "Gunsmoke" and cowboy movies. And it just doesn't matter to me anymore.
But I remember how dry it was before we got on the Internet. God, back in the nineties, I would have killed to get access to such a stash as this. It's kind of nice to be surfeited on this stuff. And it is free!! But it's not happiness.
I think I've seen them all at least a dozen times. They all blur into each other. I suppose it's like Pop and his "Gunsmoke" and cowboy movies. And it just doesn't matter to me anymore.
But I remember how dry it was before we got on the Internet. God, back in the nineties, I would have killed to get access to such a stash as this. It's kind of nice to be surfeited on this stuff. And it is free!! But it's not happiness.
Kant's "Practical Reason"
Dec. 5th, 2012 03:55 pmIn his “Critique of Pure Reason”, Kant disallows our ability to know of such supernatural concepts as God and immortality, but he then rescues these concepts in his “Critique of Practical Reason”, and premises his argument on the needs of “common souls such as his servant Lampe”. Heinrich Heine roasts Kant over this philosophical argument.
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Tragedy is followed by farce... Immanuel Kant has played the merciful philosopher, he has stormed the heavens, he has routed the whole garrison, the supreme ruler lies unproved, no fatherly love, no reward in the other world for the restraint shown in this one, the immortality of the soul is breathing its last - there is groaning and moaning - and the old Lampe stands there with his umbrella under his arm, a mournful observer, cold sweat and tears running down his cheeks. Then Immanuel Kant takes pity and shows that he is not only a great philosopher but also a good man, and he ponders, and then, half in earnest and half in jest, he says, “the old Lampe must have a God, otherwise the poor man will never be happy - man should be happy on this earth - so practical reason tells us - oh, well, let practical reason guarantee the existence of God.” In consequence of this argument, Kant draws the distinction between theoretical reason and practical reason, and with the latter, as with a magic wand, he resurrects the corpse of deism, which theoretical reason had put to death.
-- Heinrich Heine (quoted in J. Miller’s “Examined Lives”)
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Tragedy is followed by farce... Immanuel Kant has played the merciful philosopher, he has stormed the heavens, he has routed the whole garrison, the supreme ruler lies unproved, no fatherly love, no reward in the other world for the restraint shown in this one, the immortality of the soul is breathing its last - there is groaning and moaning - and the old Lampe stands there with his umbrella under his arm, a mournful observer, cold sweat and tears running down his cheeks. Then Immanuel Kant takes pity and shows that he is not only a great philosopher but also a good man, and he ponders, and then, half in earnest and half in jest, he says, “the old Lampe must have a God, otherwise the poor man will never be happy - man should be happy on this earth - so practical reason tells us - oh, well, let practical reason guarantee the existence of God.” In consequence of this argument, Kant draws the distinction between theoretical reason and practical reason, and with the latter, as with a magic wand, he resurrects the corpse of deism, which theoretical reason had put to death.
-- Heinrich Heine (quoted in J. Miller’s “Examined Lives”)
Walmart wants to take its low-rent empire online.
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Walmart can succeed online without becoming the Amazon of the web. The phrase I hear most often from Walmart people is that the only way the company will win online is "by being Walmart." And they're right. Walmart doesn't need to be something radically different. The company that mastered IT in the service of unbeatable prices must now master web technology. It doesn't need to chase Amazon so much as it needs to identify how a digital Walmart can be as much a part of its customers' lives as the stores are today.
And it has to think long term. It may take a decade or more for Walmart to be a successful digital retailer. "Somebody at one of the board meetings asked me, 'Neil, how long is this going to take, and how much is it going to cost?'" [Neil Ashe, the company's top-ranking e-commerce executive] recalls. "And I said, 'It's going to take the rest of our careers, and it's going to cost whatever it costs. Because this isn't a project, this is the company.'"
-- Farhad Manjoo
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Doesn't the world feel shitty enough already?
_ _ _
Walmart can succeed online without becoming the Amazon of the web. The phrase I hear most often from Walmart people is that the only way the company will win online is "by being Walmart." And they're right. Walmart doesn't need to be something radically different. The company that mastered IT in the service of unbeatable prices must now master web technology. It doesn't need to chase Amazon so much as it needs to identify how a digital Walmart can be as much a part of its customers' lives as the stores are today.
And it has to think long term. It may take a decade or more for Walmart to be a successful digital retailer. "Somebody at one of the board meetings asked me, 'Neil, how long is this going to take, and how much is it going to cost?'" [Neil Ashe, the company's top-ranking e-commerce executive] recalls. "And I said, 'It's going to take the rest of our careers, and it's going to cost whatever it costs. Because this isn't a project, this is the company.'"
-- Farhad Manjoo
_ _ _
Doesn't the world feel shitty enough already?