I’m not in the cohort discussed in this article, but I’ll often go weeks without carrying any cash. I find the only time that I need it is on business trips when dining out with others, and have to split a bill. Even then, though, we often either have the waitperson split the bill on separate cards, or I’ll be the one to take the cash and put it on my mine (after which I have cash for the next time).
Maybe the difference between me and the people being discussed here is that I use credit, rather than debit cards. I can see how it would be tough to track your balance if you charged everything to your checking account.
Lots of good stuff at this week’s Carnival of Space (which seems so far to be a successful venture for Henry Cate), with a focus on ISDC. Lots of new space bloggers out there (including “Flying Singer, the carnival host) that I hadn’t seen before, and should add to the blogroll.
it is precisely the weirdness of Meon Nara that proves the stubbornness and ubiquity of the ugly ideological weed we call anti-Semitism. It is a weed most commonly found among those desperate for scapegoats — such as failed Muslim societies and impoverished communist dictatorships. But South Korea ranks among the most dynamic, successful and well educated nations on Earth. The fact that Rhie’s comic could become a best-seller in this sort of locale provides bizarre but convincing proof of Ruth Wisse’s famous description of anti-Semitism as “the most successful ideology of the 20th century.”
Why won’t anti-Semitism die? The Muslim world’s bloodthirsty demonization of Israel and the Jews who inhabit it obviously plays a major role. But another factor — which is more relevant in capitalist, secular nations such as Korea — is that Rhie’s caricature of the all-powerful Jew, like all stereotypes and prejudices, has a tiny grain of truth behind it.
While I take Virginia Postrel’s general point that beauty is as genetic as any other attribute, I think that there’s a slight category error here, in that it is much more subjective than the other characteristics (taller, more agile, smarter). For this reason, we have a better shot at all being beautiful, since it might be possible to be beautiful to someone, and this isn’t subject to objective dispute.
Dr. Foster: Would you please tell your son to stop?
Ned’s Dad: We can’t do it, man! That’s discipline! That’s like tellin’ Gene Krupa not to go [starts banging on the desk] “boom boom bam bam bam, boom boom bam bam bam, boom boom boom bam ba ba ba ba, da boo boo tss!”
Ned’s Dad: We don’t believe in rules, like, we gave them up when we started livin’ like freaky beatniks!
Dr. Foster: You don’t believe in rules, yet you want to control Ned’s anger.
Ned’s Mom: Yeah. You gotta help us, Doc. We’ve tried nothin’ and we’re all out of ideas.