but to [rejoice] in splendour

NYtimes has a blog... written by Steven Levitt, author of Freakonomics The blog is aptly titled freakonomics http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/ The first story is what a terrorist would bring on a plane. In short... TSA made lighters OKAY to travel... but still not toothpaste or deodorant. LIGHTERS: objects that START fires. Sheesh. Our government in its ill effect glory. here is the official release from TSA: http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/sop/index.shtm Lifting the lighter ban is consistent with TSA's risk-based approach to aviation security. First and foremost, lighters no longer pose a significant threat. Oh, I'm sure there's a big population thats going to read the article and decide that we are giving ideas to the terrorists. *Sigh*

I had watched Idiocracy early this year and fell in love with the thesis, not to mention its beautiful set design (graphics we all know extrapolated for the future). The premise being those who were smart in society became extinct as the uneducated multiplied rapidly. I won't give away the whole story, but its a nice alternative to the many other thesis on how we will live in the future. Anyways, I just read the a article in nytimes that gave me hope for our future as long as we understand the past, which at times seems too high of a bar to accomplish. The article is, In Dusty Archives, a Theory of Affluence . "Generation after generation, the rich had more surviving children than the poor, his research showed. That meant there must have been constant downward social mobility as the poor failed to reproduce themselves and the progeny of the rich took over their occupations. “The modern population of the English is largely descended from the economic upper classes of the Middl...