[Futurework] Re: with friends gov't like these, who needs al-Qaeda?
just reading the first one that came up is a terrible way to do research, Harry. Indeed. OTOH, the net is loaded with contradictory assertions, claims and observations, largely indistinguisable from fabrications and deliberate disinformation. It's unlikely that we or anyone other than the original players will ever know the truth. This is generally the case with any event in which powerful entities -- governments, corporations, cliques or individuals -- have sufficient motivation for obfuscation that they go to great lengths and expense to muddy the waters. But should you have the time and inclination, this: http://cryptome.org/nsa-liberty.htm http://www.nsa.gov/liberty/ is perhaps your best source for further reading. - Mike -- Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~. /V\ [EMAIL PROTECTED] /( )\ http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/^^-^^ ___ Futurework mailing list Futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
[Futurework] Re: Bill Gates, Rockefellers Africa's biopiracy
Pete Organic flax is inherently expensive... Why is that so? And are there detectable amounts of herbicide in ordinary linseed oil? - Mike -- Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~. /V\ [EMAIL PROTECTED] /( )\ http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/^^-^^ ___ Futurework mailing list Futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
[Futurework] [META] Re: Bill Gates, Rockefellers Africa's biopiracy
Hello all -- I dropped off the FutureWork list a couple of years ago, not only because Harry was trolling [1] the list, trying to provoke opportunities for his condescending barbs and his free-market-cures-all polemics but as well because all the other bright folks on the list were politely responding to him as if his posts were mature and sensible contributions and his jibes and provocations were unintentional oversights. I quite missed the dialog so now I've subscribed again and, oh dear, oh dear, what do I find? That Harry is still trolling for arguments, intentionally provoking them and pointlessly prolonging them. It's a bit reassuring that others are no longer tolerating his provocations with good grace in the interest of decorum. On the other hand, allowing the list discourse to degenerate into the kind of shouting match that makes Harry feel righteous and important is not a big win, either. I would hesitate to suggest that the list owner(s) bar Harry from the list but perhaps it would be constructive to simply ignore all of his posts that are devoid of redeeming value or which serve chiefly as a launching platform for his belligerent rhetoric. Harry's skill is an ability to be so irritating that one feels compelled to respond. Suppressing that compulsion might improve the FW conversation. - Mike -- /| /| | | ||__|| |Please| / O O\__ do not feed | / \ the troll. | / \ \| / _\ \ -- /|\\ \ || / | | | |\/ || / \|_|_|/ |__|| / / \|| || / | | /|| --| | | |// | --| * _| |_|_|_| | \-/ *-- _--\ _ \ // | / _ \\ _ // |/ * / \_ /- | - | | * ___ c_c_c_C/ \C_c_c_c [1] On the off chance that you haven't encountered the term troll in a net context, here's a snippet from Wikipedia : In Internet terminology, a troll is someone who intentionally posts derogatory or otherwise inflammatory messages about sensitive topics in an established online community such as an online discussion forum to bait users into responding. They may also plant images and data...in order to cause confrontation. [...] The contemporary use of the term first appeared on Usenet groups in the late 1980s. It is widely thought to be a truncation of the phrase trolling for suckers, itself derived from the sport fishing technique of trolling. -- Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~. /V\ [EMAIL PROTECTED] /( )\ http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/^^-^^ ___ Futurework mailing list Futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
[Futurework] Re: Changing some of the rules
This is particularly hilarious: The [new Chinese] law is like going 20 years backward, said the monthly magazine of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, which represents 1,300 U.S. companies. Right, 20 years backward to, what would that be? 1987! The 2nd Reagan administration, the financial cowboys shooting up the saloon and the decades-long campaign to revoke the New Deal and its sequellae finaly getting some traction. I think they meant that its like going back, however feebly, tardily and tentatively, 50 years. Ho hum. - Mike -- Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~. /V\ [EMAIL PROTECTED] /( )\ http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/^^-^^ ___ Futurework mailing list Futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
[Futurework] Re: Different kinds of money
Verdon There is no need to get rid of money, there is only need to Verdon provide better access to it (in its function as a mean of Verdon exchange) as the result of the aggregated subjective Verdon perception of the value of individual and group contribution Verdon (as opposed to need to sell our labour to a particular Verdon employer). I'm not sure I understand this. It sounds a bit like the outcome of face to face negotiation in the better class of 19th c. or 1960s communes. Verdon That is to add information to the bits that represent Verdon money/value. Creating smart money. So that not only is Verdon subjective perception of value scored by all, but extra Verdon information is added on. So for instance should a dollar Verdon earned speculating on millions of dollars on the stock market Verdon actually be worth the same as a dollar earned digging a ditch, Verdon or teaching a child? On a large scale, who is to have (so to speak) franking privileges to set those meta-bits? Moreover, this seems to defeat two of the most basic qualities of money, first that it is fungible and second that it allows a single-valued measure of almost everything. On a small and private scale, I can refuse to accept money from someone I think is a scumbag -- his dollars aren't *totally* fungible. On a large scale, that's perhaps possible but fraught with risks such as potential discrimination suits. A business may be able to discourage a toxic customer who costs it more in free advice, support, returns etc. that it makes on a sale but it can't mark his money as of less value than mine. If that were possible, well, um, would his money still be, you know, money? I'm quite in agreement that money doesn't fully capture value. If I've spent 40 years carefully nurturing what is now a spectacular shade tree and someone wantonly cuts it down, the value I lose is a big piece of my life and the privilege of sitting under it in my waning years. But the most I can recover is likely to be the value of the boards made from it and the reduction in market value, if any, of my real estate. That isn't right but it's dictated by the notion of money and its reduction of everything to a single market value. In the past, there was a notion of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, based on an assumption that the common human condition established similar values for my eye and yours. How will we make smart money compensate me for the obviously non-pecuniary value of a tree or eye and extract a matching value from the aggressor? Verdon Furthermore, there need not be only one currency, what there Verdon needs to be is a standard way for currency exchange. In this Verdon way, my Canadian Tire money, my Ithica dollars, my air mile Verdon points, all become exchangable currency because as bits they Verdon can carry contextual descriptors and meta or semantic Verdon information allowing equivalencies to be established (or Verdon translated). That brings to mind some conversations I've had that may be a bit of a digression. A friend visited Newfoundland in the 70s and stopped to buy some cold drinks and a tiny village store. For his $20 bill, they gave him in change some coins, some Canadian Tire money at face value and a candy bar. So there's an exchange rate of some sort. But these corporate tokens -- in Canada, Canadian Tire money most notably -- aren't money and are hedged about with fine print restrictions that make it clear that they exist solely for the benefit of the issuer. When you buy something for $100 at Canadian Tire, they deliver an item that they can profitably sell you for $97 and require you to give them a no-interest loan of $3 which will only be repaid in merchandise and upon making them a further loan. I'd be keen to know just how much outstanding Canadian Tire money there is at any one time and how much of it CTC reckons will never be returned. This is no model for real money, notwithstanding the trust (mis)placed in it by a rural Newfoundland community where, presumably, there is a shortage of Canadian currency. I have a hard time with the notion of local currency. I sounds great but it depends, AFAICS, on the stability of the issuer (if there is a unitary issuer) and trust. There are a dozen people or perhaps two within an hour's drive that I strongly trust and, if we -- they -- all shared a commitment to the notion of local currency, similar expectations and similar ethics, I suppose we could do it. But there are very many people in that range that I don't trust on general principles or have learned not to trust from experience. I can't imagine a local currency for, say the county of circa 40,000, yet that level of inclusiveness would be necessary to make available the goods and services I would want to buy with it. Bruce Sterling's novel _Distraction_ explores the matter of trust within communities in a near and not quite Blade Runner future. In some of the book's instances you might even
[Futurework] Re: Four sentences and a request
Chris The future of work could also be summarized in one word: China ! If I recall correctly, in the original charter for FutureWork there was mention of avoiding a Blade Runner future. The breakdown of industry and commerce in Iraq seems to have become a boost for blacksmiths there to work with whatever is at hand to make whatever is needed. Just a bit Blade-Runnerish compared our stereotype of modern work. Not to mention, of course, doing it surrounded by foreign occupation and sectarian death squads, http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/3920/Iraqi_Blacksmiths_Putting_Metal_to_Fire ['Ware line wrap.] Gail 1on the one hand densely urban, high tech and widely Gail networked...on the other hand environmental and energy Gail disruptions, population crashes, smaller communities and much Gail hand labour Yeah. Those guys are working with big hammrs in a sweltering climate over blazing fires among urban scrap heaps. But the pics are on the net. - Mike -- Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~. /V\ [EMAIL PROTECTED] /( )\ http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/^^-^^ ___ Futurework mailing list Futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
[Futurework] Re: Four sentences and a request
Hi, Gail -- This may be a bit much to ask (and indeed is half in jest)... Oh, good. Then you will not take it amiss if my reply is also half in jest. I find myself, among others, having promised to produce four sentences... Half in jest, I have to say that no one will ever read such stupifyingly convoluted sentences carefully unless contractually bound to do so or (as in my case) there is ego gratification to be had just in proving that one still can. Recall Arthur's post: Infomania is the mental state of continuous stress and distraction caused by the combination of queued messaging overload... ...comments on the following four sentences would be greatly appreciated. I've taken the liberty of severely editing your four sentences: 1. The world is unstable and the future promises to be chaotic, yet we find it hard to believe it can get any worse than it already is though it very well may. 2. We have to learn to do necessary and useful stuff for ourselves, invest in the tools to to it; do it for ourselves; do it for or with our neighbors when or as appropriate; and encourage our neighbors to reciprocate. 3. See 2. Doing this will make us happier and better off in general, especially if all our friends and neighbors do the same. 4. If we do this, we can hope that work will come to be much like we imagine it to have been in an idealized small, mid-19th century New England town and strive to make it so. If the criteria of your group are not too strict, you can append your original, carefully constructed but mind boggling sentences as footnotes. :-) - Mike -- Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~. /V\ [EMAIL PROTECTED] /( )\ http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/^^-^^ ___ Futurework mailing list Futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
[Futurework] Re: Modernizing the market economy
Gail wrote: For example, in raising a barn, the persons involved may be of equal status, e.g., local farmers, but they will be pursuing different functions at each stage of the task. Even though the team may be composed of the same members, it will probably have a different leader in raising the beams from the one who sets the foundations and from the one leads the roofers. In each case the team may organize itself in a manner that is hierarchical, even steeply hierarchical, for these functional tasks. They are nonetheless working with each other as persons of equal status. Well, I can confirm that. I worked several weekends on raising the frame of a detailed reproduction of a 1740s, framed overhang, two storey house. The owner had spent two or three years locating suitable trees, felling them, hauling the logs to his secluded site in an old pickup, hewing the timbers and cutting all the joints, some of them rather complicated. Then he invited all his friends to come on weekends and raise it. And what you describe was just the case. Authority (or command or whatever you may call it) passed from hand to hand as needed. Of course the owner was The Boss but when a 16' oak beam was 20 feet in the air on a jin pole, everybody followed the word of the riggers. When it came to fitting a tight dovetail together, the joiner's word determined that it be rammed home with a big mallet or, if not, how much to pare off of which part to get a perfect fit. But this was a hugely unrepresentative convocation. Most were university educated people who had also learned a trade. Some were artists. Some, with less formal education, were very bright guys in trades or crafts who got a kick out of hanging out with the aforementioned. There were no morons or power trippers and no one (excepting the owner) was making a career out of this. The only capital was the frame timbers and the only return on capital a perfectly fitted house frame. There were no investors, loans, insurance; no competitors in the house-raising market segment; no budget, cost accounting, grants, subsidies or quarterly reports. In retrospect, that was a remarkable experience. Since then, I've worked in collaborative situations where there were idiots; people with credentials but no (or only formulaic) knowledge; people with a private or conspiratorial power agenda; people used to Being In Charge who expected to be in charge in a situation for which they had no qualifications; people, like the current US president, who were sure that decisiveness trumped knowing what they were doing; and on and on. You can surely add to the list. The result of even one such person in a collaborative project can be chaos. With two or three, the whole thing can become pathological. Cf. the dysfunctional family. In my half-in-jest edit of Gail's sentences, me 4. If we do this, we can hope that work will come to be much like me we imagine it to have been in an idealized small, mid-19th me century New England town and strive to make it so. I didn't mean to suggest a return to small village life, Charles I don't see what you are struggling to describe as being some Charles sort of return to small village life, I see it as a Charles reinvention of some of the good parts of that life in a 21st Charles century context. only that one might hope that, for a significant part of the workforce, work and the workplace might come to have similar features. I think Gail was suggesting that with the barn raising model. But I'm not very sanguine about that hope. Pre-industrial North American villages had a social infrastructure -- social fabric -- that made change-work, barn raising, threshing and other practices workable. It was not efficient. E.g. the village idiot might be given a task within his abilities and people would keep an eye on him to ensure that he didn't cause a disaster because he was, after all, my family or yours or Aunt Grace's. The community worked out the difficulties of other problem personalities in similar ways. Some of the communes of the 1960s -- the one that were not just a bunch of stoned losers crashing together -- tried all sorts of things to try to reconstruct this kind of community, where authority devolved onto whoever had the skill or knowledge needed at a particular time. The ones of which I have first hand knowledge have all faded away (although one lasted, from 1968, for over 25 years.) So I feel kinda stumped when I think about embodying the notions and relations of the pre-industrial village or the ideals for which some of the 60s communes strove in the contemporary industrial or post-industrial economy. Gail 19. The path will be strewn with misunderstandings but, as Gail William James said, First a new theory is attached as absurd; Gail then it is admitted to be true, but obvious and insignificant; Gail finally it is seen to be so important that its adversaries claim Gail they
[Futurework] The Collapse of Globalism
To the extent that globalism is a significant factor work work, this should be on-topic. I just found John Ralston Saul's 2005 book, _The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World_ [1] on the remainder shelf for a couple of bucks. (I guess I should get out more if the remainder shelf is the first I've heard of a new book by our former First Gentleman. :-) Has anybody (or everybody) else already seen and read this? If so, I'd like to hear comments. Browsing it in the store, when I saw that it had a chapter entitled A Short History of Economics Becoming a Religion, I was sold. I've observed before (possibly on this list) that one of the chief targets of 1950s rhetoric opposing godless communism was the allegation that communism made economics the foundation of civilization. Get labor, production, capital, resources, trade and bookkeeping all tidied up and and we'll enter the Eternal Golden Age. And of course, loyal Americans (Canucks, Brits et al.) knew that there's more, way more, to civilization than the least common denominator of economics. Fast forward to the fall of the Berlin wall and the Soviet empire. Then George Bush (41) is talking about free markets and free men, in that order and the current dogma, spoken or unspoken, has become that free markets, unregulated trade and unrestrained capital flows will resolve all the world's ills and lead to democracy, liberty, wealth and [drumroll] the Eternal Golden Age [rimshot]. Anyhow, I haven't quite gotten to that chapter yet -- I find Saul a source both of fulminating ideas and insights and of rather hard to follow prose -- but I'd welcome others' comments on the book. It would be nice to believe the the role of ordinary people (vs. that of global investors) has been upgraded from biomass to something more closely resembling citizenship. - Mike [1] Viking Canada/Penguin, 2005, ISBN 0-670-06367-3 -- Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~. /V\ [EMAIL PROTECTED] /( )\ http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/^^-^^ ___ Futurework mailing list Futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
[Futurework] Re: The Collapse of Globalism
me ...John Ralston Saul's 2005 book, _The Collapse of Globalism and me the Reinvention of the World_... Harry Have to ask the obvious question: Harry Harry What is globalization? That would be covered in chapters 1-4. What does Globalization mean? Defining received wisdom is often a scholastic trap. Worse still, as the British Liberal John Morley put it a century ago, If we want a platitude, there is nothing like a definition. It is better to come at a subject in context. (op. cit. p.5) Harry What is globalization? Chris The completion of Manifest Destiny on this planet. No smiley? I can't tell if you're being sarcastic here or not. Assuming that you are, I could say that one of the subjects of Saul's book is pointing to the risible manifest destiny proclamations of the globalists. There is no alternative. Free markets as the definiens of eschatology. rneedham Saul's book is great and my students thought so too. Ah! Interesting. Would that be for economics majors who have already absorbed much of the standard cant? (Not to give offense. A quick browse of your uwaterloo web page doesn't reveal much of the standard cant. BTW, were you acquainted with Leonard Rapping?) Pete I'm pretty sure we discussed this book here... Sorry if my question is a rehash. There was quite a spell there when I wasn't subscribed to FW. - Mike -- Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~. /V\ [EMAIL PROTECTED] /( )\ http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/^^-^^ ___ Futurework mailing list Futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
[Futurework] Re: Idle thoughts on turbulent times
Ed wrote: Ever so many houses financed by subprime mortgages have now gone into foreclosure and can only be resold at a loss if they can be resold at all. We've all seen pictures of neighborhoods in Cleveland or Chicago with their streets of boarded up houses. And rapidly stripped of copper wiring and plumbing, sometimes of aluminum siding. So the entity holding the bag has to pay for demolition and possible environmental remediation. And then try to sell a vacant lot in a bombed-out neighborhood during a recession. So why not just forgive the loan and transfer title to the borrower? After a certain watershed point, it's cheaper than holding the nearly worthless property and paying or litigating the liabilities. I'm guessing that the principle underlying the preference to hold the liabilities and dump the borrower is that It's Just Not Done because to do so would open a crack, however tiny, if the stone wall of property rights through which a trickle of the common good might enter. Someone with a better background in history will perhaps say if this isn't reminiscent of the Shays rebellion and the hijacking of the American revolution by the federalists. But there are deeper foreground factors, including the belief that Americans, whether they have money or not, whether they have saved anything or not, are entitled to own homes and other expensive life-style assets almost as a birthright. And how would they do this? Why, by accessing cheap money. Well, kinda cheap maybe, by the standard of debt for business that's calculated to pay for itself and return a profit. It has always seemed insane to me that it is conventional, when buying a dwelling, to pay the vendor the agreed price, then pay the bank roughly the same amount of money, pay a significant fraction of the same amount to an insurer and commit to paying for anything the insurer may order you to have. Building codes, safety and fire codes, unsightly premises regulations etc. do not ensure that people won't live in dangerous, ugly, crumbling slums and hovels. Instead they conspire to make it extremely difficult to provide one's own shelter within one's means and without carrying the financial weasels on one's back. FWIW, - Mike -- Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~. /V\ [EMAIL PROTECTED] /( )\ http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/^^-^^ ___ Futurework mailing list Futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
Re: [Futurework] Hey, we're Americans! It's what we do!
With 750 inmates per 100,000 people, imprisonment cost the 50 states more than $49bn last year, up from less than $11bn 20 years earlier. Now that we've made a good run a privatizing prisons, I assume there's a substantial and active biz lobby wherever sentencing policy can be influenced. More inmates is more profit. Longer sentences mean more billable product delivered. It's a wonder that defense lawyers, especially those who try to negotiate sentences downward, aren't being sued by corporations operating privatized prisons for tortious interference with trade. Moreover, it's in the interest of such businesses to allow or even encourage the prisons to function as training grounds for crime and acculturation centers for future career criminals. They owe it to their shareholders, after all, to ensure an adequate and, above all, *growing* market for their product. - Mike -- Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~. /V\ [EMAIL PROTECTED] /( )\ http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/^^-^^ ___ Futurework mailing list Futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
Re: [Futurework] FW: [TriumphOfContent] At Megastores, Hagglers Find Prices Are Flexible
Arthur wrote: It also depends on how we value our time. When shopping, I prefer to spend as little time as possible in the act. I would rather be doing something else with my time than haggling. Almost anything else. So someone spends 10 minutes to save a few dollars or even 20 dollars. May be OK for some, not for me. For some its a game, for me its a waste of time and demeaning to all concerned. I'm with Arthur. With private sellers, where I can reasonably anticipate that the vendor has planned dickering into his asking price, and for something over, say $1000, I'll make a counter offer. But by my lights, making a counter offer asserts that the vendor knows he's overpriced and is trying to jerk me around. For some people, there's deeply felt belief that the true market price hasn't been properly established and no meeting of minds can occur until extensive dickering has taken place (although they likely wouldn't use the terms I've put in scare quotes.) For these people, any asking price is a declaration that the seller's estimate of the true value is 20%to 40% lower. There's an interesting take on the subject in Neal Stephenson's _Quicksilver_. Half-cocked Jack the vagabond has just been introduced to an Armenian coffee seller by the primo rat catcher of Paris in 1684. Jack dickers over the price of a cup of coffee and the author explains his thinking that this is absolutely essential to maintain the dignity of both parties and establish mutual trust and respect. I get it but I don't grok it. - Mike -- Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~. /V\ [EMAIL PROTECTED] /( )\ http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/^^-^^ ___ Futurework mailing list Futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
[Futurework] Re: Signs of the times
Signs of the times EDMONDTHORPE, England -- Thieves peeled long strips of lead from the roof of St. Michael and All Angels... 1963? Wasn't the last scene in Heavens Above that of Peter Sellers delivering a sermon during a thunderstorm in the church from which the poor, deserving family, beneficiary of his charity, had stolen the roof lead? - Mike -- Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~. /V\ [EMAIL PROTECTED] /( )\ http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/^^-^^ ___ Futurework mailing list Futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
[Futurework] Re: Fw: English will be the official language
As the article says, no other language except french and english are impaired by this idea some batty academics have that the spelling of words is supposed to reflect its history, instead of how it is pronounced. Except Chinese where, if you can write the language correctly, you can commuicate with people whose spoken language is totally incomprehensible to you. Happens in English to a lesser degree. I knew a guy from the US south who had stock in Guff Ol and played Goff and said, Getchaseffa cuppa coffee. Around here it's polite to say K'mintha hice. Chatinka dat? Ever shop at the heppy seffy? And in Boston they would say Foah skoah and seven yeahs ago, aowah fathas brought foahth The reason for demanding good, consistent spelling (not to mention grammar) is somewhat parallel to that for requiring organic chemistry so that morons don't get to be doctors or calculus so that morons don't get to be engineers. FWIW, - Mike -- Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~. /V\ [EMAIL PROTECTED] /( )\ http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/^^-^^ ___ Futurework mailing list Futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
[Futurework] Re: FW: nettime Unions Forge Secret Pacts with Major Employers
Mike Gurstsein wrote: It looks now that in the interests of efficiency the labour movement has decided to give up on the first part of the equation. There was the same hearty cheering as before, and the mugs were emptied to the dregs. But as the animals outside gazed at the scene, it seemed to them that some strange thing was happening. What was it that had altered in the faces of the pigs? Clover's old dim eyes flitted from one face to another. Some of them had five chins, some had four, some had three. But what was it that seemed to be melting and changing? Then, the applause having come to an end, the company took up their cards and continued the game that had been interrupted, and the animals crept silently away. [] Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which. George Orwell, _Animal Farm_ - Mike -- Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~. /V\ [EMAIL PROTECTED] /( )\ http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/^^-^^ ___ Futurework mailing list Futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
