Your leaking thatched hut during the restoration of a pre-Enlightenment state.

 

Hello, my name is Judas Gutenberg and this is my blaag (pronounced as you would the vomit noise "hyroop-bleuach").



links

decay & ruin
Biosphere II
Chernobyl
dead malls
Detroit
Irving housing

got that wrong
Paleofuture.com

appropriate tech
Arduino μcontrollers
Backwoods Home
Fractal antenna

fun social media stuff


Like asecular.com
(nobody does!)

Like my brownhouse:
   a couple minutes of superiority
Wednesday, June 20 2007
Democratainment, is that a word? Okay, there are 221 hits for it in Google, so I guess the answer is yes. It's the word I'd use to describe American Idol, the nationwide talent hunt for a popular R&B singer. I'm not particularly interested in R&B singers, particularly popular ones, but I am interested in creativity and inventions, so I've been watching this season of American Inventor. I like the formula, which is exactly the same as that used in American Idol. We're treated to a series of people with terrible ideas and often social problems as well and we, along with the judges, are granted a couple minutes of superiority. Only rarely does a good idea rise to the surface, and I've been surprised by the slim pickings. Few people have put much effort into their ideas. Many show up with just a drawing, no prototype, and a misplaced messianic conviction that their pathetic idea will "change the world." I see this and think that if I was going through the bother of competing on an invention show, I think I'd at least spend a week in the shop hammering something together. Or, perhaps instead of drawing a sketch in crayon on construction paper, I'd fire up the old compu-turb and try to scratch something out in Microsoft Pain[t].


For linking purposes this article's URL is:
http://asecular.com/blog.php?070620

feedback
previous | next