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Weird fortean shit

#11
C C Offline
(Oct 12, 2016 06:59 PM)Magical Realist Wrote: "A Hazard unique to Venezuelan highways is a slippery goo called La Mancha Negra (the black stain), although it is more of a sludge with the consistency of chewing gum. Although the government has spent millions of dollars in research, no one knows what the goo is and where it comes from, or how to get rid of it. It first appeared in 1987 on the road from Caracas to the airport, covering 50 yards, and spread inexorably every year. By 1992 it was a major road hazard all around the capital and it was claimed 1,800 motorists had died after losing control. The problem remains to this day."---http://listverse.com/2007/07/06/top-15-b...e-stories/


The shortcut to dismissing a failure to explain La Mancha Negra -- and to elaborate on what even its very nature is -- rests on the international community being able to declare it simply the research ineptitude of a banana republic.

But key to this easy, pejorative way out is whether or not it is politically acceptable to classify Venezuela as a BR. The ambassador back in 2010 objected to that label. But now it seems in vogue again, at least in popular circles: 10 Signs Your Country Is A Banana Republic.

If Venezuela and its level of scientific abilities must be valued and respected on a priori grounds (that is, regardless of its actual empirical conditions either now or at other recent periods in its history), then there is something of a puzzle here that has been resistant to studies.

Arguably, there's an unsolved puzzle running amok anytime apologists can only point to a set of multiple, suggested explanations without culling them down to one (or validating any of them). Which is to say, a world that subscribes to concrete realism for its affairs should be demanding particulars as "the cause" and "the essence" of _X_, and not settling for a generalized manner of answering suitable for a Platonic / conceptual realm.
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