Frightening! Stephen Von Worley says, “As I hurtled down the highway, a pair of golden arches crept over the horizon, and the proverbial lightbulb smacked me in the forehead. To gauge the creep of cookie-cutter commercialism, there?
In a further sign of our culture’s coarsening—or militarization—we may soon have to start paying for that typically abused flight privilege of facing forward. As The Daily Mail reports:
Air travel is being overhauled with a new aircraft design which plans to seat passengers facing each other in rows. The controversial design is intended to save space and money and could see 50 percent more passengers packed on to each plane.
Howard Guy, director of the UK company Design Q, acknowledges that some people will not be happy with the plan, but says they will be able to pay less for any inconvenience. ‘Having passengers face each other is not an ideal situation,’ he said. ‘But this will see increased revenue for the operator and more economical tickets for the passenger—so by keeping both happy, this concept makes an attractive alternative. Sure the passenger can choose a flight facing forward in a traditional seating position, but he or she will have to pay more for the luxury.’
Nevermind that having passengers sitting beside each other isn’t usually an ideal situation, either, the air travel of today hardly evokes glamour or luxury. To better remind ourselves of where we came from, take a look at the Pan Am promo spot in your lower window:
New Aircraft Design Puts Passengers Face-To-Face In Rows For Budget Travel
A six-year-old girl has become a media darling in China on her first day of school by expressing her aspiration to become a “corrupt official” when she grows up.
The young student stated her aspirations in a televised interview.
“When I grow up I want to be an official,” said the girl.
“What kind of official?” the interviewer asked. “A corrupt official because they have lots of stuff,” she replied.
(via Arbroath)
Today’s NYT brings a pretty clear-headed look at—sorry—budding cable access show Cannabis Planet, and suggests how, along with Weeds and Pineapple Express, it’s yet another sign of marijuana’s mainstreaming:
?
From Andrew Wolfson, The (Louisville) Courier Journal:
A mother is angry about a trip led by the head football coach at Breckinridge County High School took about 20 players on a school bus late last month to his church, where nearly half of them - including her son - were baptized.
Michelle Ammons said her 16-year-old son was baptized without her knowledge and consent, and she is upset that a public school bus was used to take players to a church service - and that the school district’s superintendent was there and did not object.
“Nobody should push their faith on anybody else,” said Ammons, whose son, Robert Coffey, said coach Scott Mooney told him and other players that the Aug. 26 outing would include only a motivational speaker and a free steak dinner.
Ky. school trip to church that included baptisms raises questions
Chalk one up for civil society! We here at Dangerous Minds loudly applaud the decision of San Francisco talk radio station KNEW 910 AM to fire hateful, racist sociopath Michael Savage. From the KNEW blog:
“Why did you take Michael Savage off the air?”
Here’s your no-spin direct answer; we have decided to go in a different philosophical and ideological direction, featuring more contemporary content and more local information.
The Savage Nation does not fit into that vision.
Again, nice one KNEW 910 AM management. This almost makes up for the fact that you’ve given this nasty asshat a platform for his cockamamie views for the past decade… Still it’s a step in the right direction and good for the country.
Michael Savage hangs up on us: “Why don’t you call Mao Zedong? He’s your boss”
Fascinating article about legal psychedelic Salvia Divinorum from Dangerous Minds pal David Jay Brown at Reality Sandwich:
While under the influence of salvia, people often report radical shifts in perception, seeing visions with their eyes closed and visual changes with eyes open. Sometimes people find themselves laughing uncontrollably, even though they don’t find anything to be particularly funny. Time and space can become distorted in strange ways. The sensation of being pushed, pulled, twisted, or taken into alternative dimensions and other realities is common, as is the feeling of other presences, other people, and nonhuman entity contact. The plant itself is often perceived by the user as a female spirit.
Higher doses can cause people to completely dissociate from their body, and people who ingest strong doses need to be watched carefully so that they don’t accidentally harm themselves. With higher doses, sometimes people get up and walk around, completely oblivious to their physical surroundings, and start bumping into furniture and walls. Experienced salvia users insist that a sober sitter always be present when one is experimenting with the plant. With strong doses of salvinorin A, all thinking in the brain shuts down, although a very lucid awareness remains, and people become completely immersed in another world. Often people completely forget that they are under the influence of a psychoactive substance. After the experience ends, many people describe feeling an “afterglow,” an upbeat, life-affirming antidepressant effect that lasts for around a day or more.
