For those who are worried about Upstate New Yorkers slipping into total economic oblivion, there is some good news today. Although Mark Bitz of Plainville Farms once said that the economic situation here was analogous to putting a frog in lukewarm water and slowly raising the temperature until it politely boils to death, it turns out that this is not possible. You can’t boil a frog that way. Even if you raise the temperature slowly, it will still get agitated and eventually seek to escape.
So yes, eventually Upstate New York will be empty, but at least it won’t be littered with dead frogs. Good to know.
Oh thank you! This had been weighing heavily on my mind. Why wasn’t this on Drudge Report?!?!
April 16th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
James Fallows, the excellent writer for the Atlantic, has been decrying the boiled frog fallacy for quite a long time. Check out his “Boiled Frog” archive on his blog: http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/boiledfrog/
April 17th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
considering that frogs and toads appear to be under environmental assault - http://www.livescience.com/mysteries/070501_frog_decline.html - the whole topic seems to lead to an interesting conclusion …
maybe we’re the ones who don’t know enough to get out of the pot, even if we’re the ones who made it boil in the first place.
sean
April 20th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
But we’re not frogs… we’re people.
April 21st, 2008 at 7:52 am
exactly. frogs have sense.
April 21st, 2008 at 9:58 pm
That doesn’t seem to stop them from getting run over in the highway afterward, though!
It’s not easy being green, regardless of your species…
April 21st, 2008 at 11:08 pm