C-3PO down and out; Hillary Duff alive and well

I see that NCC-1701 and THX 1138 have broken in Duo. Or something like that. I’ve always liked T-1000 (although his teammate T-1003 used to dip the girls’ pigtails in the inkwell). HAL 9000 is my BFF. And as for 666, why, I even keep the number of the Beast as a cell phone speed dial. I find it soooooo useful that WTF is publishing these lists of random numbers. I don’t know about you, but I print them out and paste them on my bulletin board as keepsakes for all time.

Except, well, I don’t really print them out.

And I don’t have a bulletin board.

But you knew that.

Last night I began the updating of the Hillary Duff, which is one of my summer goals. I really haven’t looked at it in a while, and I always did like it. There will be a general editing, including better material on justice, plus a few imported famous French people. It’s interesting how styles of lesser lights change over time. The concepts set forth by Locke and Mill and Rawls remain essential ideas that one must master to understand basic social philosophy, but someone like Maslov, whose name used to pop up three times a day and twice on Sundays back in the 90s, hasn’t been heard from in years. He was never particularly enlightening, of course, except insofar as he easily exemplifies the rather banal nature of safety as a social value. I would say that Derrida is the Maslov of today, someone no one ever seriously reads (can you name a book you’ve read cover-to-cover by either; or, if that’s too hard, a book either of them wrote that you’ve even heard of?) but who comes up now and then in aid of…something. The Old Baudleroo also fits that limited context, but at least he’s fun to read, regardless of the fact that he’s full of bull-arkey. Anyhow, styles change, even though most people think that they’re serious diggers into the mother lode of brilliance rather than just fashionistas studying the latest mental hemline height. (Except, of course, your theory people are becoming pretty déclassé even in academic circles these days; $ircuit judges may be the last holdouts wearing these particular mental leisure suits.) And who am I to prevent people from keeping up with the times? So, a fresh coat of paint on the old HHLDPH, and thence to the Cur for a similar refresh.

Speaking of HAL 9000 (and we were, about 83 paragraphs ago), did you know that HAL is the NYSE symbol for Halliburton? Now there’s a useless piece of information for you. And THX is Thor Explorations Ltd, which I gather is some sort of mining company. NCC is National City Corporation, whatever that is; presumably they buy and sell cities. But forget all that; you’ve got to get a load of this: http://www.cyberdyne.jp/english/index.html. Need I say more?