Urban transportation

The inappropriateness of stop signs for bicycles is interesting because I am starting to see stop signs on bike trails. In this country, we do not have a culture of yield and priority etiquette. People riding bicycles are actually car drivers using an alternative vehicle. The rules of the bike paths are the same as the rules of the roads. There needs to be a stop sign at busy interactions.

Gatekeeping the ability to sign ones name

The pandemic situation is turning our personal lives into corporate ones. To enter into personal contracts, we have to become like a miniature version of a corporation. To be able to sign anything, we need to maintain a good subscription relationship with the providers of the tools that make the signature possible, even if we want a contract for someone to walk our dog.

We once had salad bars

The grocery store still has the area for the salad bar, but they use it now for shelving of featured products. They could replace it with a more efficient and standard shelving but they keep the bar along with the side rails for holding the clamshells while filling them, when that was possible. Perhaps they are hopeful that the salad bar will be open again. Another reason is that it is an ideal spot to feature products, a lot of people will look at the salad bar with recollection of a better time.

2020s Prohibition Era 2.0

There is a case that the first prohibition failed because it was based on a moral justification and people can argue about what is moral or not. This second prohibition is on more solid ground based on a scientific justification. The justification now is scientific assurance that everyone will end up knowing someone who will die from this disease if the disease doesn’t kill them. We can’t deny science.

Humans shall not enjoy watering holes

Humans are not permitted to have watering hole experiences enjoyed freely by the rest of the animal kingdom and probably the plant kingdom as well. If left alone, we tend to restore the watering hole experience with a sense of relief of being open to strangers. Each time the collective society recognizes this happening, society finds an excuse to shut it down or to force some alternative.

A zero value god

Under this concept of Aten, there can be a more coherent understanding of the recent discussion about man’s value. By default, every man’s value is zero. To have value, a man has to do something with the timestamp he is given. In particular, he has to spend that timestamp on actions that builds and grows his relationships along a scale that has a high-value end. Such effort is optional in Aten’s mind. The motivation for man is that if he plays his provision of timestamps well, he will reap rewards for himself as well as those in his network.

A zero value man

It is important to define value as a scale that has at one end the term “high value”. if there is a scale for value, then that scale must have a zero. If we allow the fact that there are a select group who can attain high-value status, then we must accept that others are in the low value end. I assert there must even be an absolute zero. There is the possibility of a zero value man. I’ll further assert that they are abundant.

Dehumanizing little people

The privileged panel insisted that the small business owner should be satisfied with the handouts from government. The overall image was repulsive. There was clearly a class divide on display: privileged people permitted full freedom to pursue their happiness are telling the unprivileged that they had no right to do likewise.