In light of their current theocracy and our current theocracy I thought this link would be of interest.

There is some truth to the assertion that warm water freezes faster than cold water afterall. That said, its much more complicated and should be change to “In certain very specific instances, warm water can freeze sooner than cold water, but your not likely see it on a regular basis.”

So for those of you who keep filling up the ice tray with warm water, stop…before I hit you.

The Mpemba Effect

In 1968 something happened that changed the lives of millions, maybe billions of people world wide. That year the Tet Offensive played out on network TV, Johnny Cash recorded his album “Live at Folsom Prison”, Martin Luther King was assassinated, after a coup d’état Saddam Hussein became Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Council in Iraq, Nixon won the Presidency, Apollo 8 entered orbit around the Moon, and Tasmania abolished the death penalty. Also that year, in a sleepy part of Michigan, a man named Robert Propst busily finished work on a project with monumental expectations. Mr. Propst’s invention promised to liberate the worker from encumbrances and would lead the way to massive improvements to the economy. The hopes of millions lay rested on his creation called The Action Office.

Unfortunately his invention was an resounding failure. Even Propst admitted before his death in 2000 that his invention was “monolithic insanity”. Herman Miller Inc., an office furniture manufacturer, retailed the new product and sadly for us it was seized upon by the corporate powers to reduce costs. Life would never be the same for the working stiffs who lumber to Tech Drive, and Enterprise Lane in droves day in and day out, depressed at the thought of yet another day staring off into the abyss.

In the years to follow the landscape of our lives would become dull and drab, repetitive, sinister, partitioned and covered in a rough canvas, grey and flecked with highlights of brown, cream and red. Colors that are supposed to imply spontaneity, vivaciousness and fortitude but which leave the soul poorer and more empty. The new corporate landscape became littered with the glistening, still warm, after birth of Mr. Propsts brain child and for but a lucky few with corner offices, personal fridges, and secretaries (the term administrative assistant wouldn’t be used until much later), the masses were left to muck about for eternity in this purgatory.

Yes folks, I’m talking about the cubicle. The unholiest of unholy creations that is the bane of office workers from Sandusky, to San Diego, Boston to Berlin, Budapest to Bejing.

Propst was looking for an alternative to open bull-pen office that characterized the first half of the 20^th century. The theory went that if people could see more of their work splayed out in front of them, productivity would increase. Up to that point, the employee would spend countless hours rummaging around in boxes, drawers and cabinets looking for documents that may or may not exist. With more work space, shelves for storing books and material, and partitions for a modicum of privacy, we’d achieve greatness, there would be no more rummaging right?

What Bob failed to recognize was that the increasing cost of office space and the boom of white collar work force would drive office managers to maximize the number of people he or she could cram into a finite area. They saw his Action Office, or cubicle as it would become, not in the light he envisioned but as a way to achieve maximum profit per square foot.

If fate was vengeful and timing bitter, fate and timing, after one too many gin martinis, slipped under the covers and created the cube’s loving and faithful companion the personal computer. And right now, more than likely, you are reading this from the confines of your cube on a Windows based PC and now you know why.

Mr. Propst, originally from Colorado, the Centennial State, has about 120 inventions to his name and we should not scrutinize him too harshly for just one. And hey, let’s admit it, your cube is no Abu Ghraib.

Project: send me a picture of you and your cube and I’ll post it in this article.