Both the Nobel Prizes and the Oscars are televised. Which do you think gets more viewers? That's right, it's the one about all the people who go on camera and play make believe, and get paid more than the GNP of the Algeria. Meanwhile, Nobel winners and candidates are hard at work in their labs, scraping by, searching for cures to many of the world's problems. It is odd that the vast majority of the population consider entertainment more important than knowledge or world peace.

However, this should perhaps not be surprising. In truth, we live in a world where any form of nonessential knowledge or wisdom is frowned upon, though this does not stop us from using the products of that knowledge, such as radios, TVs, the Internet, cars, CD players,
and medicine. We all want this stuff, yet the people who actually go out and try to create them are derided as nerds. In recent years, however, this has led a few people (myself included) to attempt to reclaim the word 'nerd' and put it in its proper place as an
important position in any culture.

Humatons hate culture. I have gone over what they do to popular culture in the two previous editions, and have no need to repeat myself. If you really want to know, there is an Archive link at the bottom of this page. However, they also at best pay no heed to the
classical stuff. Great artists and musicians such as Raphael, Leonardo, Mozart, Bach, Chaucer and Shakespeare are often totally ignored in favour of things such as nude photography, pop 'music,' and other soul-stealing pursuits. At worst, these people are actively disliked, and there are those who would consider the world a better place without
them. (I do not particularly like Shakespeare myself, but this probably has more to do with the way he is taught in schools.)

Similarly, if a child points out that a teacher is wrong, they are punished or ignored, even if they are right. For example, in fifth class, our substitute teacher organized some sort of table quiz, and one of the questions was 'Is a sponge a plant or and animal?' The
answer is animal, but the guy she asked said plant and got the point. I attempted to point out that he was wrong, a sponge is in fact an animal, but all the teacher said was that the question wasn't asked to me.*

I am starting to run out of ideas here, so let's get back to the Oscars. I wonder... imagine the scandal if a woman turned up to them decently dressed. They way they do arrive could give one cause to mistake this thing for the porno Oscars, except that the people who
pay attention to that are a little more intelligent, plus are nicer to be around and still have their souls. Also, porn stars likely turn up to their version a bit more modestly clothed. On the other hand, if a man shows up wearing anything other than a black tuxedo, he is either weird or gay - and in Hollywood, those amount to the same thing.

Humatons will only ever give to charity if they get something out of it as well. 'Getting something out of it,' of course, means that they get to go to a fancy party where the men all look alike and the women wear almost nothing, but it is scandalous to wear the same nothing as another, or the same nothing twice. Perhaps the evening will be capped off by the appearance of a famous celebrity, ie someone who has been on TV at some point, or perhaps shagged a guy who kicks a ball around for a living. What a way to bring some joy into their dull, insignificant lives. Quite why they feel the need to go to an event in
order to raise money for poor people has never been explained. Could someone enlighten me? Anyway, a lot of these shindigs end up costing more to hold than the total amount of money raised. This money could be used much better to sponsor someone running a marathon for charity or something. At least the runner goes out of their way and inconveniences themself for those less fortunate, so people feel better about giving their soft-earned cash away. You may think that, as long as the poor get money, it doesn't really matter how it happens and you are partially right. However, a lot of money spent on raising money for charity would be better spent on actual donations. Modern celebrities give to charity because it is fashionable and perhaps as a way of justifying their existence in the faces of matrix warriors. When they simply make a donation, they always seem to spend more on publicity and
photo shoots than the do on the actual donation. I wonder what their karma looks like...

Until we meet again, my friend, this is Hussassan, signing off.

Thee Incredible Weirdness of Being Archive

Hussassan

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