I am thirty three years old and have not once seriously considered moving to Bolivia. [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue on Oct 12, 2010 - 144 comments

The judge-umpire analogy has a long historical pedigree. [more inside]
posted by shakespeherian on Mar 9, 2010 - 5 comments

NASCAR as an example of a meritocracy with equal opportunity for all. While frequently maligned for it's relatively primitive technology (excluding safety ), the total lack of mechanical resemblance (other than appearance) of the "stock" cars to the brand they represent, soap-opera-slash-professional wrestling story lines, and being ripe political target for both the right and the left as well as marketers, it is a strong cultural force. The entrance of Toyota (likely to surpass GM as #2 US automaker in the near-future) into NASCAR (with the hopes of "winning on Sunday and selling on Monday" in the heartland) and the cheating scandal currently unravelling highlight an important concept woven into NASCAR's culture. [more]
posted by rzklkng on Feb 15, 2007 - 80 comments

Donald Rumsfeld's recent speech at the American Legion Convention has revived interest in the 1938 Munich pact between Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler and its use as an analogy in foreign policy debates. Military historian Jeffrey Record weighs in with Appeasement Reconsidered: Investigating the Mythology of the 1930s. Michael Cairo examines how analogical reasoning based on "the lesson of Munich" influenced the first Gulf War and Clinton's intervention in Kosovo. Juan Cole argues against "the crock of appeasement" as applied to the Middle East, whereas MacGregor Duncan claims that the Munich analogy has caused us to underestimate the diplomatic value of appeasement. Finally, Pat Buchanan claims the Islamo-fascist label is historically inaccurate (or is he worried that non-Islamic fascists get a bad rap?).
posted by jonp72 on Sep 2, 2006 - 40 comments

A story of village life A witty analogy for the current world situation. Here is another one. If anyone has a good justification for war I would like to hear it, come on convince me!
posted by cohiba on Oct 1, 2002 - 23 comments

Holy mackerel! Image analogies are an NYU-developed technique for "teaching" the computer an image filter. Their software can do things like fill in the blank in the analogy (photo of a swan):(pastel rendering of a swan)::(photo of a landscape):________. I'm not doing it justice. Their site has some compelling examples of what they can do. Gee-whiz factor of 8.5!
posted by MonkeyMeat on Oct 30, 2001 - 17 comments