Of White Whales and Dark Energies
Science and history made fascinating. A short but excellent read on the history and discoveries that led up to the current theories of Dark Matter.
Dylan Thuras should write textbooks.
Link: www.htmltimes.com
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You've let yourself go....
It's easy when you work from home. You don't need to dress up for work, and so you don't, you stay in all day, in PJ's or sweats sipping coffee.
It's a good life, there's no office politics, no commute you reflect as you sip your fourth cup of coffee for the day and wonder if it's still too early for a nap. You stop shaving, first every other day, then only whenever you remember, your new "time management" strategy, time saved shaving is time that can be used on projects. And bathing isn't so important, when you don't see people every day, and so you save time and money by not running the hot water.
The beard and hair grow longer, but you're not too concerned, you can get it cut the next time you're downtown.
And you love this working from home, no laundry for the dry cleaners, your schedule's your own, until one day you have to run downtown and you notice the homeless are guarding their shopping carts from you, are they afraid you might steal their bottles? And somebody you don't know offers to buy you a coffee, finally you run into an ex co-worker who stops you to chat, she's concerned, and you see yourself in the reflection of a window behind her, the uncomfortable realization growing, a painful flash of self consciousness....
You've let yourself go.
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She's a very foolish girl.
In the chair, deftly parrying questions, the conversation slips off course, off topic, circling around and around. It's a slippery interrogation.
Always these things, the elephant in the room.
She's evasive, holding her cards close to her chest. She has many admirers kept on hold, in the wings, at arms length, just far enough to keep their interest, the men in waiting. She loves to play the coquette, cherishes her scarlet reputation as the woman other women love to hate.
She wouldn't have it any other way.
She's beautiful, but it won't last forever, she knows this and the entourage that would pay homage to her favours needs to be fed on a light diet of hope and encouragement. There are no denials, only postponements. Today the phone will ring, tomorrow she will answer with some light excuse as to how busy she's been, busy today, but perhaps on the weekend....
We're equals, or so she thinks, because we're in this room together, she thinks that I want what everyone else has wanted from her, that I am somehow priviledged to be in her presence, fortunate to have been chosen when there are so many others.....
She's a very foolish girl.
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Kicking against the pricks...
It's easier to ignore, why fight it?
It's the way things are. Learn to live with it.
You're right, but what are you going to do about it?
We've surrounded ourselves with pricks. We've planted ourselves a rosebush and made our bed amongst the thorns, best plan: don't roll around.
You can fight, you won't get anywhere.
You have to fight, it's your obligation, your responsibility. If you don't fight, the pricks will multiply, they will take even more and greater liberties with your time and finances. Every fight, win or lose, is a victory.
By pricks I mean the City. I mean the Government. I mean the Corporations and Companies who waste our time on hold, in line, who rob us blind with service charges, with system access fees, with delivery fees. I mean the Banks who charge us to handle our money, charge us for everything, who have created artificial inflation and economies by printing and lending even more artificial money, then expecting us to bail them out when projected earnings fall short....
Corporations when dealing with other corporations have what are called "Service Level Agreements" - SLA's; wherin companies that don't honor their contracts within agreed response times to agreed standards are subject to financial penalties. Send the companies you deal with a Service Level Agreement outlining what you expect from them. Enclose it with your first bill payment, or send it via registered letter. Or don't send it - The contract they hold you to is implicit, not signed, by accepting their product it is presumed that you accept their standards and levels of service. Your own contract can be implicit as well, by accepting you as a customer make them accept your standards and expectations. But know what your standards and expectations are, write them down, be clear, know when they have been violated.
When necessary, make the businesses you deal with aware of your own personal SLA. If they have failed to live up to it, send them bills for your time and expenses. Charge them interest and service fees on unpaid balances. If they continue to resist, send the bills to collection agencies with adjustments for the commission the collection agency will charge. Don't take a lawyers word that you don't have a case, lawyers have been taught to "think" inside the system; their morality is for sale, realize that the jury you help select will not be comprised of lawyers, it will be comprised of people as irate, fed up, and pissed off as yourself. Share your pain, They will understand. Make them understand that their decision will be the first of many steps towards real change.
Deal with people, not companies. By this I mean find local businesses that will value your patronage. Consider the time you spend in line at a large supermarket to save possibly $5 on groceries, then think of the pleasure you'd take in bringing your business to a smaller enterprise that didn't keep you waiting in line and valued your business. Create value and diversity in your neighborhood, avoid the big box marts, the mega stores and shopping malls like the plague. Think of the diversity and choice that is lost as the smaller businesses give way to make room for the larger ones. And remember that the lower prices are offered by paying lower wages, skimping on benefits, shortened training and no enrichment programs. Their lower prices are only ever a temporary incentive to squash the smaller businesses; when all competition is gone you will be paying the highest price possible.
It's your responsibility.
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