Its Trouble...

Sunday, May 17, 2015

The long evenings would wear on during the days I worked in the empty malls after the start of the Persian Gulf War...

The long evenings would wear on during the days I worked in the empty malls after the start of the Persian Gulf War. So much so, it felt like I could turn to dust and melt away into the wind. This surviving work of shoe polish on scrap card stock depicts these feelings. This is why this work is titled "Blown". Here I am a disappearing face that is dissolving, even as I grin outwardly. The image could also been seen as my acceptance of futility, like the rock battered by ocean tides. The colors show my despair and anguish (I was only 17 or 18 then, so yeah, despair over boredom seemed perfectly reasonable). Are there other figures in the background mocking me? Is that my blood polluting a body of water? Via Instagram http://ift.tt/1LbjCaB

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Royals pride is on display in #KansasCity #Missouri #ClassicCup #ClassicCupRestuarant ##countryclubplaza #countryclubplazakc #Royals #flag #flaginthewind #lamppost #kansascityroyals

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1I0Aj92

U.S. Space & Rocket Center of Huntsville, AL

On a recent trip to Huntsville, AL, I was able to squeeze enough time for myself to visit the world famous U.S. Space & Rocket Center. When you first walk into the museum, the first couple of exhibits are a little underwhelming, given the grandeur of the purpose of the site. There is a display of patented inventions, then a tribute to Dr. Wernher von Braun.

It is interesting, but very museum-like. Where's the rockets?

Well, once you are thru there, you can go outside! Rockets! Rockets! Rockets! None of them blasting off, but still impressive, nonetheless.

Of course, there is a lot more than just rockets that go into space. Without giving too much away, here's a few more photos. This is really a place you should visit just to see the shear scale of these massive machines.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Begs the question is the idiom that you aren't using wrong, but some think you do

Are you begging the question? What is begging a question? Well, it depends. There are two different terms that are very similar, but have very different uses. The first is beg the question fallacy. This is the traditional use of the term. This is a type of fallacy where a premise includes the claim or assumption that its conclusion is true. (This is covered in some brief detail at Fallacy: Begging the Question (backup link).)

For example, "All cats are evil, otherwise you would not see cats do evil things."

The premise of this statement is that cats are evil, and the justification is that you see cats do evil things. The statement forms a circular argument.

But, there's another common use of the term that often appears as , "begs the question", as in, "your statement begs the question of who will do this work". It means that there is an obvious or ignored question that arises from a statement.

There are grammarians and logicians that will argue that this is somehow the wrong use of the term, such as the website begthequestion.info (backup link) (which dedicates itself to this topic). Ironically, these individuals often employ logical fallacies to disregard the modern usage of the term. There are people that seem gleefully unaware of how English works. Common usage is correct usage. Dictionaries now list the modern usage on equal weight as the logical fallacy definition. See idioms area on freedictionary.com (backup link).

There is often a claim that using the phrase in the modern sense is somehow confusing (see some of these claims on QuickAndDirty.com (backup link) by Grammar Girl). However, common usage is so prevalent, there is no confusion as to when the term is being used one way or another. If someone wishes to distinguish between the logical fallacy and the assertion of an obvious/ignored question, then they do so with context, just as they would for the use of any other common terms with multiple meanings. This begs the question, why is denial of the validity of the modern definition so important to some people?