October 21, 2005
Mapgate?
The New York Times reports on a missing map that's important in determining the use of land for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Now there's a new map but some say it's a bit different from the earlier map. The new map makes more land accessible. (PVL)
"People have asked me several times, 'Do you think someone took this intentionally?' " said Doug Vandegraft, the cartographer for the Fish and Wildlife Service who was the last known person to see the old map. "I hope to God not. So few people knew about it. I'm able to sleep at night because I don't think it was maliciously taken. I do think it was thrown out." (PVM)
Mr. Vandegraft said he had folded the map in half, cushioned within its foam-board backing, and put it behind the filing cabinet in the locked room for safekeeping. (PVN)
He said he was distraught when he learned of the loss. In its place in the original nook, he said, he found a new, folded piece of foam board similar to the old one - but with no map attached. (PVO)
Who throws out a map and replaces it with some foam board without intention? (PVP)
January 09, 2005
December 17, 2004
creepy
Even when you know something to be true, it is creepy when it is revealed in action. (OVG)
I added an international roaming feature to my phone today, to prepare for my trip to the UK. I had to get checked out. After speaking with one number I was directed to another (I had to make the call, no nice forwarding) where my account details were validated, and then: (OVH)
- I had to spell my first and last name (OVI)
- Pick amongst a variety of age ranges for (OVJ)
- Tell in which of several cities my step-mom owns property (OVM)
My answers were then validated and since valid, I was validated. (OVN)
brrrr (OVO)
October 19, 2004
Categorizing and Classes
Sometimes it feels like I ought to save some of the things I say so I can recall what I preach and perhaps manage to practice it someday (or at least spread the good word widely): (OPJ)
me:that's the inevitable result of being a critic (OPL)
me:if you wish to be thought of as someone aligned to a particular set of values, you have to talk about those values, not the people who don't represent them (OPM)
Dr. Surly:I think that sentence probably deserves to be a paragraph (OPN)
This lines up nicely with last night's partial viewing of High Fidelity wherein our man Rob, through a series of events, realizes the value found in being a creator, not solely a professional critic or appreciator. (OPO)
October 09, 2004
State of Affairs
My mom just asked about Hijacking Catastrophe: (OKN)
(CJ: do you have any info/opinion on this film? Also have you seen the big double page ad from George Soros that is in today's newspapers?) (OKO)
I've heard of it, I think it went through Bloomington while I was still there. It's more of the "if you're already convinced, this will just confirm and if you aren't already convinced this will just make you think it is a bunch of lies" kind of stuff. I'm sick of it. I just started watching a rerun of tonight's debate and before they even started talking I got disgusted with the smarminess of it all and got behind the tv with my computer and headphones so I could neither see nor hear. (OKP)
I've not seen the George Soros thing. What's happening with that? (OKQ)
Clearly I need to be reminded that people can change (quickly) through delivery of information from the outside. I'm not convinced they can. Predisposition, osmosis and diffusion make things go. Thus things like structured argumentation and the like are just facades masking a different process. (OKR)
But happy news, in celebration of entering a new bracket in the life-insurance actuarial tables, I'm taking a spaceship to Mars tomorrow to stay in a dumpster. I'm told I should pack light as leaving things in the dumpster may get them carried off by homeless (Martians? Rovers? Lost Kim Stanley Robinson characters?). I'll take a camera and rain coat. I hear Mars is nice but a bit damp this time of year. (OKS)
July 23, 2004
Embodied Perception
In a very nice synthesis, DavePollard provides another of his excellent "this is the way the world works" pieces. He starts with a letter from a grumpy old man, crosses through a bit of Lakoff and Merleau-Ponty and ends with: (A86)
We are all born liberals. We have to be trained to be conservatives. (A87)
Please read it. (A88)
July 22, 2004
Pizza Privacy
blinc has pointed out a charming animation from the ACLU that supports their summer surveillance campaign. (A80)
July 05, 2004
Independence
It's no secret that nationalism and patriotism are two of my least favorite things. I want no part of them, especially in a time when nation building and being patriotic mean killing or ratting out your neighbor. (9IO)
That doesn't mean, though, that I won't enjoy the fireworks. (9IP)
Tonight Stan and Malinda joined me on the roof of the house to view the annual Bloomington fireworks. Bloomington puts on a small but pleasant show, launched from the parking lot of the university stadium just down the street. (9IQ)
My camera has a special fireworks mode, which seems to amount to leaving the shutter open for a while. I took it up on the roof too, with a small tripod. Of the 130 semi-random shots, about 30 can be found at FourthOfJulyThumb. Some highlights: (9IR)
Dictionaries are weird but helpful things. WordNet? defines a patriot as "one who loves and defends his or her country" and points to nationalist as a synonym. (9IT)
Webster's 1913 edition states "One who loves his country, and zealously supports its authority and interests." (9IV)
Meanwhile the Devil's Dictionary claims a patriot is "One to whom the interests of a part seem superior to those of the whole. The dupe of statesman and the tool of conquerors." (9IX)
Does one have a country, or does a country have one? When a country acts, who is acting? The country, the people of the country, the government? (9IZ)
People tell me that the fourth is a celebration of the country and its people, not the government and its actions, but when surrounded everyday by jingoistic propaganda, aren't these fireworks just another ad to maintain shareholder confidence? (9J1)
Give the people a spectacle, wave the flag a bit, be reminded that we're all part of a nice big group and while the details of our activity may be a bit bleak, don't forget: the vision is grand. (9J3)
Sublimate the rage in a sea of pretty colors. Put off the revulsion and revolution for one more year. (9J5)
And there on the roof, as the fireworks boomed on our left and the impending thunderstorm rolled in from the right, things were good: Amongst friends, in (on) a home, well fed with more entertainment and comfort in store. (9J7)
But still: (9J8)
June 21, 2004
In Today's Reading
Two somewhat related (think oil as that which motivates) things I read today that I wanted to remember: (8TC)
From World Changing, Planting the Future: (8TD)
Reuters reports that a group of British scientists is recommending an aggressive shift towards the planting of crops not for food, but for a wholesale replacement of petrochemicals. The combination of declining supplies of petroleum (used for much more than fuel) and a still-growing global population means that replacements will be needed soon -- and it's better to start planning now for that event than to wait until oil (effectively) runs out. (8TE)
Something has to be done, but out context this blurb has me imagining a future where the world is paved in corn and soy bean and any last shred of raw nature has fallen to the need for organic chemicals. Less babies please, that should help some. (8TF)
From The Christian Science Monitor, Lessons of another Reconstruction, an opinion piece by Kenneth Mayer, of Howards University: (8TG)
Most pundits and officials have compared the situation in Iraq to Germany, Japan, or even France after World War II. However, a better analogy lies closer to home. Reconstruction of the Confederate states in the South was America's largest and longest such operation, and its most spectacular failure. (8TH)
Reading the article (very well written) is an enlightening experience. Comparison reveals. (8TI)
May 15, 2004
Truth and Ugliness
A friend forwarded an article in the London Times written by Matthew Parris. He worked in Thatcher's administration back in the day. The article, for which I can't find an accessible URL, has the title Why I will be rooting for a George Bush election victory. It begins: (4RB)
GEORGE W. BUSH needs a second term at the White House. This US presidency is halfway through an experiment whose importance is almost literally earth-shattering. Its success or failure could be a beacon for the future. I want to see that experiment properly concluded. (4RC)
What the President and his advisers are trying to do will be a colossal failure. But failure takes time to show itself beyond contradiction. The theory that liberal values and a capitalist economic system can be spread across the world by force of arms, and that the United States of America is competent to undertake this task, is the first big idea of the 21st Century. It should be tested to destruction. (4RD)
It's becoming trendy for folk on both the right and the left to put forth this idea: let's make sure this situation plays out so that truth is clear. (4RE)
How many people will be dead? How many environments ruined? How many countries collapsed into civil war? How many mom and pop business turned into fast food restaurants and wal-marts? (4RF)
There are limits to the purist pursuit of principle. No one's vision of truth and honor, not the neocon's, not Matthew's, not ours, can stand in the face of the sort of ignorance and suffering that will rise from Bush's friends trying to run the world. (4RG)
April 17, 2004
Obviously, They're Dumb
Adlai E. Stevenson III takes a turn through 20th century history to review the intelligence failures of the Bush Administration. (42M)
= A Different Kind of Intelligence Failure (42N)
Before 9/11, neoconservatives like Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, and Vice President Dick Cheney inhabited a world of contending great powers in which force and technology were transcendent. Terrorists armed with box cutters — and now Iraqis resisting the occupation — have exploded their fantasy. The failures of the Bush administration are not those of foreign intelligence but of a cerebral sort of intelligence. (42O)
That's the last paragraph of the editorial. (42P)
This reminds me of an email conversation where I complained about the apparent value of stating the obvious from a position of authority. (42Q)
February 17, 2004
Learned Horror
ArthurSilber has posted part one in a series of articles he is calling "Roots of Horror": (2VF)
I have discussed these two stories to make one point above all: in our current cultural climate, people will do almost anything to distract themselves from the issues and the facts that ought to matter. The great majority of people spend almost all their time discussing issues about which it is close to impossible to obtain a complete version of the facts, issues which are largely irrelevant in any case -- when facts which are staring them in the face, and which carry unmistakably significant implications, are completely ignored. (2VG)
He appears to be headed in the direction of repression of childhood pain as the source of much that is ill in modern culture. I suspect there are ties between his ideas and the issues with learned helplessness, brought up by DavePollard, that I mentioned earlier. I'm curious to see where it goes. (2VH)
February 13, 2004
Courageous Thoughts
DavePollard is having the courage to say some unpalatable things about overpopulation: (2QJ)
I am increasingly and reluctantly coming to the conclusion that the only answer -- if there is an answer at all -- is coercive. Not in the political sense -- people are already doing all the unnatural things they can bear, and no political edict to reduce population could ever succeed. We must sabotage the system. We must run the careening SUV off the road before it crashes and kills us all. (2QK)
Drastic change is often far easier to think about than to make happen. There is usually a dramatic cost of some kind. For instances, one's free to be you and me shine beomes severely tarnished when considering solutions to overpopulation that might work. And any complex system has so many variables that it is hard to prioritize. (2QL)
A similar balance comes into play when considering "anyone but Bush in 2004" versus supporting the development and validation of third parties. (2QM)
January 21, 2004
Eternal Damnation
ArthurSilber offers his personal judgement of damnation to President Bush: (2IL)
When all the other rationalizations are stripped away, what remains is only this: the President and all those who share his views merely maintain that their views mandate this conception of marriage. And their views in this area are inextricably bound up with their religious views, as they constantly remind us (those values instilled in us by "fundamental institutions, such as families, and schools, and religious congregations"). Believe them, and take them at their word. In essence, and in principle, this is the basis of theocracy -- the idea that government is properly utilized to force all men to live in accord withsome people's conception of their God and His commandments. I repeat: the issue at the heart of this debate, and the only issue of any consequence, is whether the state has the right to enforce a particular view of morality on an entire country,entirely apart from the issue of recognition of individual rights which properly ought to be enjoyed by all men. Moreover, the President does all this in large part to appease certain of his constituents -- most significantly, religious conservatives -- and thus hopes to help assure his own reelection. (2IM)
Read the whole thing. It describes one more large step down the slippery slope to a country where diverse thinking and behavior is unacceptable. A land where what you profess to believe grants access to full rights and what you do is irrelevant. (2IN)
January 08, 2004
Learned Helplessness
DavePollard has yet another fine post summarizing an article by MalcolmGladwell about why American's love the SUV. Dave extends the argument to raise an important point: (2H2)
Gladwell leaves it at that, but the reader's mind cannot. The reality is that this delusion of danger, and the illusion that something can or has to be done, that someone -- British cows, Canadian farmers, Chinese cats, Firestone, Saddam Hussein -- must be brought to account in order to give us back control, is literally making us all crazy. It causes us to believe we cannot let children out of our sight even for a moment. It causes us to wildly change our diets, to avoid visiting whole countries, to fingerprint whole nations of visitors, to suspend civil liberties, to put barbed wire around our communities, to drink only bottled water, to wear masks, to introduce five levels of increasingly hysterical 'threat' to everyone's safety. (2H3)
It is irrational, neurotic, panic-stricken behaviour, a wild over-reaction to a tiny uncontrollable risk while we recklessly disregard risks we could control and which kill and destroy lives in large numbers everyday -- air and water pollution, tainted food from corrupt and underregulated meat packers, drugs in sport and airplane cockpits, drunk drivers, kids with guns, corporate frauds, a prison system that incarcerates the mentally ill and encourages criminal recidivism -- and on and on and on. Unfortunately, it is also in the best interest of the media and governments to focus on the uncontrollable risks, and to pander to public fear and fascination with them. They're more sensational, more visceral. And since there's really nothing that can be done about them, you can do anything, or nothing, in response to them, and not be held accountable, or responsible. (2H4)
Imagine the world we could have if we used the resources spent on the uncontrollable on realistic improvements to our lives. (2H5)
December 10, 2003
When Does the Door Get Kicked In?
Some Republicans want to put Reagan on the dime, replacing FDR. It's hard to tell how serious they are, they are responding to the TV mini-series of recent infamy. (25G)
The last paragraph in the article, though, raised some thoughts: (25H)
And Souder said, "It is particularly fitting to honor the freedom president on this particular piece of coinage" because he was "wounded under the left arm by a bullet that had ricocheted and flattened to the size of a dime." (25I)
When Reagan was shot, I was in sixth grade. By that time I was already a committed non-Republican. I didn't know what I was but I knew I was not a Republican. I still don't know what I am but I'm still not a Republican. (25J)
When John Lennon was shot and killed a few months prior (twenty-three years ago, Monday) one of the few people I've ever thought a hero was removed before I had a chance to be old enough to appreciate him. I was horrified, I despaired, I lost faith. (25K)
When Reagan was shot, and there I was in the sixth grade, I hoped desperately for his death. I thought if there was any justice in the world a man like that would be taken away. There's always been, for me, something especially chilling about a person, supposedly good--marketed as good, acting in the name of good, volunteering for and elected to a position to do good--that is not good. More chilling than the obviously and/or marketed as evil: the megalomaniacs like Saddam and Kim Jong Il. Perhaps I'm overcompensating somehow. (25L)
I wanted Reagan dead and I was not ashamed of it. If he had died I would have said good riddance. (25M)
But Reagan survived, I lost more faith, and he went on to gain the number one spot in my list of hated, supposedly good, western politicians. Until I spent some time in Thatcher's Britain. (25N)
Thatcher roosted comfortably at the number one position until George W Bush. He strut upon on the stage with his big mouth, big pointing fingers and giant stroking brush, painting things whatever color was convenient. It was clear from very early on that here, in this puppet that didn't even bother to attempt to conceal the strings--while still trumpeting about his righteousness--was the new winner. (25O)
And so I'm left with some confusing questions: if, hypothetically speaking(tm) of course, I feel about Bush as I did about Reagan does that make me a terrorist(tm) and a threat to national security(tm)? Will I, at any minute, be extradited back across the pond to take tea with Maggie T? (25P)
Is it still safe to make and wear a t-shirt that says something like "Help Kill The President"? How about a baseball cap that says "Terrorist"? Is it still safe to talk about it? Is it still safe to joke about it? When won't it be? How will we know? (25Q)
November 18, 2003
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military's code...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military's code name for a crackdown on resistance in Iraq was also used by the Nazis for an aborted operation to damage the Soviet power grid during World War II. "Operation Iron Hammer" this week... die puny humans (1RP)
Yet another in a series of "we forgot to be literate and thus named things like the enemy does in the books" mistakes. (1RQ)
Homeland Security. Total Information Awareness. Ministry of Information. (1RR)
etc etc etc (1RS)
I'm sure there are plenty more that I'm not remembering, help me out. (1RT)
Heartbroken. (1RU)
Less is More
An article in Fast Company about Wal-Mart's impact on the economy is getting a fair amount of discussion. I found comments at How to Save the World and Teledyn (where I found the article) interesting. (1QX)
Over the past several years I have developed a bizarre fascination with toothbrush technology. I am not a religious toothbrusher. I'm lucky to have no cavities but this comes from genes rather than brush. I admit, sometimes I forget, sometimes I have stinky mouth. (1QY)
Initially my fascination eschewed fancy electric or ultrasonic models. I sought out the toothbrush section of my local retailers to review the complex manipulation of plastic. Manipulations seeking, I thought, the fundamental form of the toothbrush. The ideal. The perfect tooth cleaning device. I sought these things not because I wanted perfect cleanliness but because I admire the union of form and function (and you should too!). (1QZ)
Of late the shelves have teemed with a multiplicity of devices (say it like Zappa), more than a body could possibly need. Many are powered. I recently saw and heard one of these powered devices in the mouth of a friend. I resisted for several days but now, I too have a whirring, spinning, gyrating device. Without the instructions and packaging I wouldn't know whether to put it in my mouth or up my butt. (1R0)
These toothbrushes are not cheap throwaways. The battery operated ones are up over seven bucks. Meanwhile, the fancier non-powered items are two to three dollars. (1R1)
As the years have passed what was once my pleasant fancy has now turned to ennui. Something is wrong in the toothbrush biz, and it's wrong elsewhere. (1R2)
(A momentary aside. It's curious to note the changes in definition of "ennui". Webster's 1913 edition: (1R3)
A feeling of weariness and disgust; dullness and languor of spirits, arising from satiety or want of interest; tedium. (1R4)
Wordnet (modern): (1R5)
n : the feeling of being bored by something tedious [syn: boredom, tedium] (1R6)
It's the weariness and disgust I want to imply here. With a liberal dash of despair and unwilling resignation.) (1R7)
The Fast Company article has some explanations: (1R8)
There has been an explosion of "innovation" in toothbrushes and toothpastes in the past five years, for instance; but a pickle is a pickle is a pickle. (1R9)
Why the square quotes on innovation? Well, it turns out that in order to maintain any profits in the face of the Wal-Mart machine, a manufacturer has to make new stuff for which Wal-Mart has no historical data (which they leverage in negotiations): (1RA)
The way to avoid being trapped in a spiral of growing business and shrinking profits, says Carey, is to innovate. "You need to bring Wal-Mart new products--products consumers need. Because with those, Wal-Mart doesn't have benchmarks to drive you down in price. They don't have historical data, you don't have competitors, they haven't bid the products out to private-label makers. That's how you can have higher prices and higher margins." (1RB)
Carey enters into mushy territory by saying "products consumers need". It would be more accurate to say products for which manufacturers are able to generate apparent need through marketing. A couple of paragraphs down the article: (1RC)
Bain's other critical discovery is that consumers are often more loyal to product companies than to Wal-Mart. With strongly branded items people develop a preference for--things like toothpaste or laundry detergent--Wal-Mart rarely forces shoppers to switch to a second choice. It would simply punish itself by seeing sales fall, and it won't put up with that for long. (1RD)
(Bain is Carey's employer) (1RE)
So, what have we got here? To survive, manufacturers have to do three things: (1RF)
- Cut costs as much as possible. Much of the time this means moving manufacturing offshore. (1RG)
- Continuously create need for new "innovative" products, through marketing and diversification. (1RH)
- Constantly maintain brand loyalty through marketing. (1RI)
More shiny useless advertising for more shiny useless products. A growing cycle of emptiness. (1RJ)
(Emptiness that pervades. A world that floats around on sound bites and colorful pictures. What's holding this stuff up? It's becoming increasingly difficult to participate.) (1RK)
Dave Pollard suggests some solutions, mostly revolving around sanctions and tariffs to maintain prices. I don't think this is enough and besides it's based in the belief that some nation is better than some other: it is retaliatory and thus subject to escalation. (1RL)
The real issue is the stock market. When a company is solely responsible to its shareholders and the vast majority of shareholders are operating at a distance (through mutual funds and other instruments) corporate responsibility is inappropriately directed and valued through inappropriate measurements. Dave says: (1RM)
And the answer is not to blame Wal-Mart either: They're doing what their corporate charter dictates, using their immense buying power (they sell a quarter trillion dollars worth of goods each year) to increase earnings per share, and in the process they have introduced some unarguably beneficial innovations into their, and their suppliers', business processes. (1RN)
Perhaps we shouldn't blame Wal-Mart, but we should blame their corporate charter. Earnings per share is a false requirement, created to support an artificial system, much like my guilty new toothbrush. (1RO)
September 18, 2003
Sig Change II
Last time I changed my email signature, I felt like it was important to note it. It had been: (LM)
then i fantasized the future i want..i wanna be walkin in a crowd smiling n luffin..waving at evryone i know..no one is faking it..no one has hatred hidden in them..evryone's honest frank cool and easy.. T (LN)
I've changed it again, this time to a KennethRexroth quote (LO)
The accepted official version of anything is most likely false . . . all authority is based on fraud (LQ)
suggested by my step-dad. (LR)
I had been complaining that although the previous signature described a vision of reality that I desperately want, it lacks the aggressive tone that's necessary to reflect where I'm at the moment. (LS)
Sure, I want everybody to be smiling and loving some day. But at the moment, things need to change, and while smiling and loving would get it over the long term, action needs to happen now and that's going to take some anger. (LT)
We have in the governments around the world a bunch of small minded liars and ideologues. They spend their time trashing opportunities for change, development and progress with their limited self interest. Read the news. (LU)
Thanks. (LV)
September 16, 2003
Free Market Banking
I just ended a phone call with a representative from a credit card company. I recently signed up for one of their cards. The usual deal: zero percent interest until some distant future, transfer your other credit card bills. (L9)
During this phone call I was asked to verify some information and activate my card. I had already activated my card. (LA)
They then offered to send me a check for $X (many many dollars) as an interest free (for the time being) loan. I declined, they pushed, I hung up. (LB)
That $X represents my existing available credit with that company. So they get you like this: (LC)
- To compete they have to have 0% interest. (LD)
- So they then hook you into taking a bunch of money that many will think is free and clear but then won't budget for repayment. (LE)
- That distant future will arrive and much of that $X will still be on the credit card, subject to interest. (LF)
- The bank finally gets to make money, when they've got you by the curlies. (LG)
Bastards. This is the glorious (and obvious) result of deregulated banking. Mmmm, thank you very very very much. (LH)
The left behind folks claim these are the ends times, Christ is coming, prepare yourself, etc. These are the ends times, but not that kind. Empire USA is in the decline, our Rome will burn and when it does I'll be dancing. (LI)
Is everywhere else in the toilet too? (LJ)
August 20, 2003
Crony Capitalism in a Potemkin village
Things worth reading, that fit together, and fill me with dread: (0001IC)
From Guardian Unlimited Private Passion: (0001ID)
It is impossible to say whether the cult of privatisation owes its grip more to an ideological commitment by the White House, or the close personal ties between its inhabitants and the businesses they used to work in. (0001IE)
As in most regimes built on crony capitalism, the two have become indistinguishable. (0001IF)
From Toby's Political Diary: A Bad Day in Bush’s World: (0001IG)
All this is not what Bush imagined when he was recruited for the presidency. So why is Bush’s world upside down? (0001IH)
The reason is that never before in his life did he have to achieve anything on his own, or ever take responsibility for his own actions. As a result, he missed the experiences that teach most people the difference between empty slogans and fantasies and reality. We have a President who has basically spent his life in a Potemkin village, and is now overwhelmed when real world experience confounds expectations. (0001II)
And my good pal Jeremy points out from Chuck Palahniuk's Lullaby the following recapitulation of Marcuse that ties it together nicely: (0001IJ)
Old George Orwell got it backward. (0001IK)
Big Brother isn't watching. He's singing and dancing. He's pulling rabbits out of a hat. Big Brother's busy holding your attention every moment you're awake. He's making sure you're always distracted. He's making sure you're fully absorbed. (0001IM)
He's making sure your imagination whithers. Until it's as useful as your appendix. He's making sure your attention is always filled. (0001IO)
And this being fed, it's worse than being watched. With the world always filling you, no one has to worry about what's in your mind. With everyone's imagination atrophied, no one will ever be a threat to the world. (0001IQ)
August 13, 2003
Dudes, hang loose
Someone to Believe In (0001HH)
I expect to see Governor Whybark making great strides in public transportation and the revitalization of urban living. (0001HK)
Mike, I think cafepress can probably help with your campaign. Get thee with the t-shirt making. (0001HL)
Yeah, what he said
TeledyN: Power of the Superpower (0001H8)
Power is work done over distance, so if there was any 'spontaneous organization' going on, why should the social impetus anneal to Theatre of the Absurd instead of Random Acts of Kindness? (0001H9)
Have there been any instances of Flash Mobs doing positive action? Smart Mobs swarming for the Greater Good? (0001HA)
Read it. And then think about how to make it happen. It made me feel rather guilty. (0001HB)
Even though I'm on Friendster, Ryze (which because of its general lack of use goes without a needed update) and now even have some FOAF, this is where I should be. Hundreds of people hanging out with a dinosaur? No thanks, but if you'd like a cup of coffee, stop by, you might even bring one or two friends, but if its more than that we'll need to make some plans and then I'll hedge and soon I'll have wiggled my way out of things. (0001HC)
But for random acts of kindness, change or action, I might be able to find some courage, motivation, desire, will, fortitude. But those things take some time in the oven, and we are back, and I've wiggled my way out again. (0001HD)
I need to do something about that. (0001HE)
On why it hasn't happened much: Perhaps because 'good' and 'kind' take on new weight when paired with power and action. What actions I choose to be good and an appropriate act of power are born out of more substantial thinking and feeling than a playful lark. You and I can agree that bowing to the dinosaur is good for a giggle, but should we feed the masses or teach them to fish? (0001HF)
July 31, 2003
People Are Not Tools
I've had occassion to write some long email messages today that have some bits I thought should go here. The following is in response to some discussion on security policy documents. (0001EL)
I think formalized, overwrought security policies are the product of a fearful environment where through action and inaction what's important has been obscured by lack of foresight and good planning. People write security policies in an effort to make a stand against the lack of foresight. As the policies rarely get actively read and are time consuming to enforce they are rarely successful in their bid to counter lacks elsewhere. (0001EN)
Like many of my attitudes I think that successful security comes from removing doubt and removing choice. Being able to remove doubt and remove choice comes from having foresight, then identifying goals and sticking to them (wheels within wheels). (0001EO)
Computers are tools which, when they have well defined tasks, are easy to maintain. Easy maintenance leads to better security. A tool which is poorly described leads to stopgaps, confusion, too many choices, and plenty of doubt: all holes for error. (0001EQ)
People are not tools, primarily because that's gross but also because it is diversity of choice that makes people human. An effective human is one that is able to make good, informed choices from among several, with little doubt. People make good choices by being informed. Information flows through communication and experimentation. (0001ES)
Abuse of tools comes about when the tools provide handles for experimentation to people who have not been provided with enough information (through implicit or explicit means) to make good decisions about appropriate use of the tools. (0001EU)
Security, then, comes down to three things: providing focused and well-defined services, controlling exposure of handles and keeping users informed. (0001EV)
Later in the mail message I noted that my attitude doesn't really apply in situations where the data being protected actually matters. I think those situations are more rare than it may initially seem. (0001EW)
July 30, 2003
Let he without sin
Yahoo! News - Bush Shuns Calls to Legalize Gay Marriage (0001E7)
Oh please. Here's a few choice words from the prez: (0001E8)
I believe marriage is between a man and a woman and I believe we ought to codify that one way or the other and we have lawyers looking at the best way to do that. (0001E9)
I am mindful that we're all sinners and I caution those who may try to take a speck out of the neighbor's eye when they got a log in their own...I think it is important for our society to respect each individual, to welcome those with good hearts. (0001EA)
On the other hand, that does not mean that someone like me needs to compromise on the issue of marriage. (0001EB)
"Someone like me?" Who the hell is that? Something that only reacts in fear is not a person. (0001EC)
I was talking with some folk the other day about Bush's ability to call on religion to justify his actions. Evoking Jesus or God is a classic use of the deferment of responsibility principle: calling on a higher or external power to be the motivator of action so that later when things go wrong it is possible to say, "It wasn't me, it's Jesus!" or "It's not me, it's the Enron corporate culture that encouraged outrageous avarice." (0001ED)
I suspect with a little work we could codify this principle. Maybe somebody already has? (0001EE)
July 22, 2003
Serendipitous Epiphytal Being
Traditionally, when reading a book, if I encounter a word for which I don't have a full grasp of its connotative spectrum I take a best guess and move on. (0001DF)
I'm in the midst of reading Edward Wilson's The Future of Life. At times Wilson writes with such grace that I've been driven to the dictionary (OED) when I've stumbled. I don't want to be a bad dance partner. (0001DG)
- Disguised briefly with the voice of an optimistic economist, Wilson speaks of humanity's evolution to a more "irenic international culture". (0001DH)
- Further in, the end of the battle between market and natural economies is a "Cadmean victory" unless changes are made. (0001DI)
- "Epiphytes" in chunks of Amazonian forests separated by clear cutting and burning suffer from the drying effects of winds once buffered by the trees. They themselves help manage moisture, locally. (0001DJ)
I looked these up as they happened. (0001DK)
My first reaction to this was, "yeah, right, whatever": any pretensions the international economic community has toward peace create an unstable veneer maintained in the pursuit of profit, easily broken. Humans fight because it is good for breeding (Wilson goes on to suggest this, in a later chapter). (0001DN)
- Cadmean victory (0001DO)
- a prryhic victory (won at too great a cost to be of use to the victor). (0001DP)
My negativity blossomed at this stage. I thought of god-fearing politicians, burning away the present day in pursuit of greatness with nary a concern for the future, secure in their knowledge of the second coming and the termination of this time ("EschatonsRUs?"). (0001DQ)
And then this. The meaning of epiphyte was unknown to me. I read the definition and felt warm and fuzzy again: the network of connotations, moving with the metaphors of these three words had come into harmony. (0001DT)
To avoid the Cadmean victory and reach a greater good, to be irenic in our doings and our beings we can remember that we all can be epiphytes: growing on one another, present but not parasitic. Epiphytes the whole way down, but also the whole way up. I'm on you and you're on me. Somewhere in the cycle we connect with one another and we connect with everything else. (0001DU)
I've trackbacked this posting to Eric quoting me because this everybody's an epiphyte world view is the source of statements such as the one he quotes: (0001DV)
Transcluding is a good tool in the process of presenting thesis and antithesis, but at some point we want to crystallize out the synthesis. (0001DW)
Knowledge is the result of a collaborative dialectic dance. Sometimes we collaborate directly with others, sometimes we do it apparently alone, but always we do it in a network of many things: each thing presenting its own thesis, our many reactions a multitude of antitheses. (0001DX)
Just as we go to parks to see the epiphytes and other wonders of nature to be informed and enlivened, so too we go to people and their artifacts. And we protect, preserve and make accessible. (0001DY)
MEGO
Some moons ago, colleagues somewhere in the support organization of the university I was working for started using the term MEGO: My Eyes Glaze(d) Over. A term used when describing the effect of tedious documentation or perhaps a meeting trapped in a whirlpool of repetition. (0001D3)
I and my trusty blog habit have been abed with a near terminal case of MEGO. In an effort to address the sludge I've slashed my RSS subscriptions down to something a bit more manageable. Will this help? I don't know. The hope is that the veil will soon lift and once more I'll feel engaged, non-drowsy and ready to subscribe. (0001D4)
Elsewhere in the news: (0001D5)
- It's satisfying to pull grape vines out of trees and bushes, but it can make you kinda dirty. (0001D6)
- My mother declares the-maybe-a-cherry-tree tree a decorative crabapple of some kind. (0001D7)
- The other crabapple tree is sick. (0001D8)
- Cataract Falls, in Indiana, has a distinctly un-Indiana feel to it. Simply because they are big (for Indiana). (0001D9)
- I think the executive branch of the of the US Government should resign, or better yet maybe they would consider sepaku? (0001DA)
July 04, 2003
June 04, 2003
Everywhere, Nearly
A former employer, Kiva Networking, is offering free wireless in various areas of downtown Bloomington for the summer. (0000ZB)
The picture was taken five minutes ago, I'm still on the square, writing this entry and enjoying the weather. (0000ZC)
When this is really everywhere, we'll be somewhere. (0000ZD)
May 29, 2003
Sig Change
I changed my email sig recently, but there's no room for a link to the source, so I'll put it here. Here's the text: (0000UJ)
then i fantasized the future i want..i wanna be walkin in a crowd smiling n luffin..waving at evryone i know..no one is faking it..no one has hatred hidden in them..evryone's honest frank cool and easy.. (0000UK)
It comes from the blog of someone calling themself 'squid'. Poupou found it in her wanderings. (0000UL)
The blog is something of a spectacle. At first I found it depressing: I had the reaction of an oldster: "Oh, what's becoming of kids these days, this is nonsense." (0000UM)
And then I found the bit I've quoted and things looked up. Those are words to live by. We could all do with being a bit more honest, frank, cool and easy. (0000UN)
May 20, 2003
Flexing your time into the toilet
I'm not sure how I found this, but at a clever sheep is a posting that deserves some thought. (0000P1)
We need flexibility... to screw ourselves: (0000P2)
This one snuck under the radar, while we were being barraged by war news: In an article entitled "Fleecing The Family", Molly Ivins reports on a pair of bills making their way through Congress which, in the guise of providing flexibility in working hours to employees, actually serve to undermine many of the goals of the New Deal-era Fair Labor Standards Act. The Senate bill (S.317), entitled The Family Time and Workplace Flexibility Act and the House bill (H.1119), entitled the Family Time Flexibility Act, amend the law requiring employers to pay time-and-a-half for hourly workers who work more than 40 hours in a given week. (0000P3)
Instead of paying for the extra hours the employer, with the "voluntary" permission of the employee, may bank those hours as compensation in the form of time-off at a later time. (0000P4)
At first it sounds good but the details, as described by the clever sheep, shows that this is a fine way for a clever employer to get overtime out of the workers without having to pay. (0000P5)
People in the US already work far too much. Many in the group self-servingly called the creative class or knowledge workers have already given away their options for overtime while the boss walks away with the cash. (0000P6)
I did that for several years, and while I certainly gathered a lot of knowledge my creativity was flushed. (0000P7)
There are, though, some signs of improvement: GlaxoSmithKline shareholders have voted against a new executive compensation package. (0000P8)
May 18, 2003
Candygram, Landshark, Bunker-Buster
Push for smaller nuclear arms stirs Congress (0000OX)
Dem Ellen Tauscher responds to plans to relax restrictions on the development of smaller nuclear weapons: (0000OY)
It's part of a mosaic of this neoconservative positioning that is deeply troubling, I think some of these folks would put nuclear tips on ice cream cones if they could. (0000OZ)
I know, I know, this issue has been beaten to death, but these apocolyptic neocon fundies, secure in their righteousness, paving their way to their own heaven on earth with cheap SUVs, polished teeth, and no interest on corporate dividends are ruining it for the rest of us. While some of us hope for a world where open dialogue and thoughtful compromise work to lower barriers to sharing, heaven on earth has a giant gated country called the US. A country with secret codes for entry and subjugated workers delivering product from client nations. Nations brought under the thumb of the mighty US who support their right in antiquated notions of god, country and family. (0000P0)
May 06, 2003
Weird Economy
I've started doing my part to help the economy by doing my short story reading at Borders. (0000IN)
If a collection has about twenty short stories and costs around seven dollars to take home but I sit down to read one and only one chapter with one double soy latte at $3.71 per sitting (including tax), after a few hundred years I should have fixed things up nicely. (0000IO)
I reckon I shouldn't have to pay sales tax as I'm providing a charitable service. (0000IP)
Current reading at Borders is The Martians by Kim Stanley Robinson. If you liked the Mars trilogy a great deal (I did) you'll probably like at least some of these stories. If you think Robinson is a windbag (some do, with good reason) pass on this one. (0000IQ)
May 03, 2003
Others Rights
Toby's Political Diary continues to deliver compelling analysis of how the world looks. Go read In Every Generation and let it sink in for a while. Some exerpts: (0000I6)
For it seems to me that indeed every generation faces the same struggles for freedom and liberty, over and over again. Why is it that there is no single victory, no point when freedom for all, equality, abundance is ever achieved. (0000I7)
... (0000I8)
The destruction comes in little bites, as more and more people in America are defined as outsiders, as enemies, as "other", coupled with the idea that the “others” have no human rights. (0000I9)
April 18, 2003
Do Not Go Gently
From Toby's Political Diary (0000GJ)
I'm going out to the woods this weekend to get away from all this. (0000GL)
April 14, 2003
Anarchic Emergent Collaboration
Here's some more of a continuing exploration of the politics of collaboration. (0000DY)
I find it helpful to distinguish between two dimensions of collaboration: Emergent versus Imposed and Loose versus Tight. There are presumably many more. (0000DZ)
Emergent collaboration comes about in response to a discovered need that is shared amongst a group of people. This is often seen in the group-forming associated with weblog networks. (0000E0)
Imposed collaboration is arbitrary group work where frequently the shared need is given (by some outside force) to a group that has been created for the task. People get this in their work as employees or students. (0000E1)
Loose collaboration occurs when there is no formal relationship between the participants. They are associated by their shared understandings and shared beliefs, often across distance and time. I'm in Seb Paquet's creative network and I think of him as being in mine. I've never met him, and emailed only twice. (0000E2)
Tight collaboration occurs where there are relationships and roles which are more formal: co-workers, teammates on sports teams. (0000E3)
Any collaborative event can presumably be mapped onto a coordinate plane representing these dimensions. Blog-style collaboration is highly emergent and loose, for example. (0000E4)
My contention is that emergent and loose collaboration is the most natural style. By this I mean that it is the most in tune with human nature. From this I'm willing to state that emergent collaboration and consensus building is not simply emergent democracy in action as some people like to think, but is in fact communal anarchism in action. (0000E5)
Anarchism can be about the emergence of communal process and communal authority. That is, process and authority is not imposed but rather is emergent because the forces that create enabling processes and structuring authority are allowed to act and evolve; through consensus, through willful appreciation of diverse voices (see ThinkOutLoud), through attention to simple needs. (0000E6)
A community which is the result of communal anarchism has participants that believe themselves to be in a CovenantingGroup and act accordingly: in accordance with one another. (0000E7)
Take ExtremeProgramming? from a political perspective. It eschews the external authority of leads and specifications for adherence to an evolving set of shared understandings and shared goals. The developers perform well because they are performing "naturally". They are doing what they do best in an environment that is supportive of them. That's Anarchy (with the capital A) in a nutshell. (0000E8)
Unfortunately Anarchy is probably a lost cause at the macro scale, but in smallish groups it has a huge amount of potential and is directly aligned with buzzword compliant terms of the day like emergence, complexity theory, systems theory and can probably even be rolled back to intersect with ideas such as AutoPoesis?. (0000E9)
So I wonder if there are threads of connection that we can draw between extremist political theory (and history), systems theory and discussions of collaboration. Even if the threads prove ephemeral the exploration will probably be productive. (0000EA)
Collaboration -> Discipline -> Profession -> Stink
This past week, Blue Oxen released its first research report, An Introduction to Open Source Communities. The paper was released on the same day as the launch party. For reasons I don't yet understand Richard Stallman happened to be at the party. When I got a moment I introduced myself to him and he expressed his (understandable) displeasure at our use of the term "Open Source" in a way that subsumed the Free Software movement. He suggested we consider the term FLOSS (Free/Libre?/Open? Source Software). (0000DL)
His gripe was that Open Source was something worse than a bastardization of Free Software, pursuing a set of goals that have little to do with ensuring freedom for people and everything to do with economic benefits (giant, low-cost pools of talent for finding and fixing bugs). (0000DM)
When I was able to get a word in, I expressed my agreement. (0000DN)
It's interesting that we had this encounter because I've been having similar thoughts about the nature of collaboration as a discipline. I've gathered some of them here to see what they look like lined up. Much of this is pulled from different emails so excuse the lack of continuity. (0000DO)
Set aside for a moment that at least in the contexts I've been using it collaboration is not well defined and consider ways in which and why collaboration might be used: (0000DP)
In the rosy picture, collaboration is a way to generate ideas and consensus; to use freedom of thinking and access to knowledge to create more freedom. (0000DQ)
In the stinky picture, collaboration is a set of tools and processes that could be co-opted by existing power holders into a suite of methods for increasing access to workers and worker productivity (see Open Source above). (0000DR)
In both of these scenarios collaboration is a tool and thus its use is an exercise of power. Wherever power is used, we have politics. Professionals (those trained in a profession) tend to pretend to a face of political neutrality: Journalists have their objectivity; Scientists their method; Doctors their oaths. I'm in the process of reading Howard Zinn's Declarations of Independence. He suggests that professional training installs an essential conservatism that insures the continuation of the power granted a professional and belies the pretense of neutrality. He quotes Jarold Auerbach's Unequal Justice: (0000DS)
It is the essence of the professionalization process to divorce law from politics, to elevate technique and craft over power, to search for 'neutral principles,' and to deny ideological purpose. (0000DT)
An early goal of Blue Oxen has been to take steps towards the establishment of a discipline of collaboration. Discussions have been occurring internally and in the Collaboration Collaboratory. Care must be taken because one step beyond discipline is profession. What will we have when collaboration is a profession in which people engage rather than a tool people use? Will we have the stinky picture described above where worker productivity takes precedence over freedom? (0000DU)
This is plenty long already. More to come soon. Your comments are much appreciated. (0000DV)
April 01, 2003
compelling
The writing going on at How to Save the World is downright compelling, along the lines of: thanks for writing so I don't have to. See these most recent postings for example: (0000CJ)
- Losing The Game (0000D2)
- A description of a game of SurvivalBowl, Man on one side, Earth on the other. Earth has had the trophy since the beginning of time. The rules state that a tie means both sides win but Man just can't get a handle on this and is botching it. (0000CL)
- He's Really a Good Man at Heart, Officer (0000D3)
- America described as a family, repeatedly brutalized by a drunk, that is always making excuses for the drunk. (0000CN)
Lot's of people get annoyed with this metaphoric way of thinking. I was recently told to get out of fantasyland for using it. I think, though, that it is a powerful tool for getting ideas into our heads that are otherwise just too big to handle. Metaphors are handles on large concepts, much like the names of Patterns in PatternLanguages?. (0000CO)
March 28, 2003
March 13, 2003
Protest Fantasy
I've been mulling an idea of reporting protests fantasies that I've had. (0000BB)
Here's something I posted to a local newsgroup today, to express my frustration with warmongerers, local and remote: (0000BC)
The thing to do now is to gather some happy little activists, raid as many pharmacies as possible for all the viagra we can find and make a mission to the white house, to the pentagon, to Downing Street, to France, to the security council, to Bagdhad, to Israel, to Turkey, to India, to Pakistan, etc etc etc ad infinitum so that all these bastards can have the following moment: (0000BD)
Wow! My penis! It's alive! Oh beautiful penis, for so long I have missed you, let me touch you. Why did you forsake me and make me want to oppress everyone else. I've felt so repressed. I needed to act out. But no more, you are back! I love you little penis, never go away again. (0000BE)
March 11, 2003
Troubled Love
Blair and Bush love song. Brings a tear to the eye and a rueful smile to the face knowing the trouble this tortured and tortuous pair will be seeing soon.
March 05, 2003
Welcome to America
It's not like it's really any better anywhere else, but holy shit: (0000AH)
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast/03/04/iraq.usa.shirt.reut/index.html (0000AI)
A lawyer was arrested late Monday and charged with trespassing at a public mall in the state of New York after refusing to take off a T-shirt advocating peace that he had just purchased at the mall. (0000AJ)
UPDATE: As ever, things are more complicated than they initially seem: (0000AK)
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/crossgates1.html (0000AL)
There was apparently "stopping other shoppers" involved. (0000AM)
I know, let's all stay home and be naked. (0000AN)
February 28, 2003
You lookin' at me?
The FBI has planes in the sky above Bloomington. They are apparently doing "physical surveillance" to assist ongoing classified investigations of "non-Americans". Here's today's story at the HoosierTimes. (00009S)
I'm a non-American, I better check under the bed for agents. (00009T)
I have three witnesses that can solemnly swear that I did, in fact, get the ecstatic giggles while listening to the Violent Femmes sing "I hate the TV" and "America Is" last Sunday while driving home from Wisconsin where we did, in fact, go ice climbing in the Ice Pit. (00009U)
EveryOne? knows that all forms of climbing have nothing to do with recreation, exercise or addiction. Climbing is, pure and simple, a stealth incursion technique. CL, DP, JH and I were up there in Wisconsin expanding our repetoire. We're now ready to ascend the stairs of the Capitol building after an ice storm. Power to the people at last! (00009V)
February 15, 2003
Winer's War
This is a response to Dave Winer's weblog entry:
A common response from across the ocean. Unlike the US, France and Germany know what war is like. There's the disconnect. Click here. Clue: That's not Germany or France.
Following "here" leads to a picture of the devastation in New York after 9/11. There is no doubt that was a tragic day, but it was not war.
There are many sources of information on the number of people that died in World War I and II, and they rarely agree. They do agree, however, that many million is far more than a few thousand.
Here's one that attributes 37,215,153 civilian and military deaths to World War II. Of those 4,200,000 were German and 563,000 French. US? 298,000.
Similar information is available for World War I. Grand total of 8,538,315 deaths. German: 1,1773,700. French: 1,357,800. US: 126,000.
9/11 was one day. While the event was the result of malicious intent, the degree of devastation was essentially a horrible accident.
In London, the blitz lasted from September 7, 1940 until May 11, 1941. On the first day 348 bombers and 617 fighters came in two hours.
Despite the tragedy, life still goes on for New York. That's good. Lot's of people are proud of New York and should be.
But. A one day terrorist attack is quite unlike several years of the two most killing wars ever. Wars that included events such as the holocaust. Wars that featured a new emphasis on killing civilians and efforts to break the spirit.
The US played a crucial role in both wars. Everyone knows the world would be a different place if the US had not gone to war. But the war wasn't in the US. It was elsewhere, across the ocean, in places like Germany and France.
My apologies to all the various people who remember a particular act of war that I've left out as the one that is most meaningful to them. If you have something to add, please feel free to leave a comment.
February 05, 2003
Introspection
President Delivers "State of the Union"
My friend Nate pointed out an important moment of farce, introspection, irony etc etc etc in the State of the Union speech:
Throughout the 20th century, small groups of men seized control of great nations, built armies and arsenals, and set out to dominate the weak and intimidate the world. In each case, their ambitions of cruelty and murder had no limit.
Meanwhile, somewhere near the Pentagon, advisors are clamoring to fragment NATO. Richard Pearle, chairmain of the Pentagon's Policy Advisory Board says:
It is now reasonable to ask whether the United States should now or on any other occasion subordinate vital national interests to a show of hands by nations who do not share our interests.
The sky is falling.
January 29, 2003
Calling all Deconstructionists
"Freedom is not a gift America gives the world; it is a gift God gives humanity." -G.W. Bush, in today's State of the Union addressOkay, let's take this apart for the screaming propaganda it is.
Back in my lit crit pomo days this crap from Bush would be excellent fodder. Especially out of context like this.
God? Who or what is that? Humanity? Freedom? American? Bush (his speechwriters and handlers) throw around these sorts of terms as if the self-righteous, bull-headed meaning he has chosen is the same for everyone.
It's supposed to be fun to play deconstructionist but Bush takes all the fun out of it. He's just a pig. He makes me want to go back to playing with my groundhog puppet.
January 27, 2003
Yay for Anne: polite peacemonger
Bells and Whistles: I Sent a Letter to the Government Today
I am a shameless peacemonger, as are many of the people I know. But what drove me to write, finally, was not only the threat of war but the relentless belligerence of the administration's rhetoric. I got mad, in short, because I don't like their tone. I don't like it, and I don't want to give the impression that it represents me.
Yes. Right on.
January 21, 2003
Office of Global Propaganda
New White House Office Coordinates Global Communications
I've been trained. Everything the White House does these days my reaction is the same: I wonder "Don't these guys read? Don't they know that their actions are just the same as the evil fascists in the history books, and the fiction books, and the movies and on TV and, well, everywhere?"
It started for me with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Duh. Homeland. Racists and paranoid people have homelands.
And now, just looking around that website, I find the Citizen Preparedness Guide with self protection, reporting and shrubbery pruning advice all in lovely red, white and blue.
I realize I'm late entering the game here, but still...
Or maybe I'm just being naive, but I'm relatively certain that the naivety is what encourages striving for a better life and prevents me from closing and locking the doors, trimming the shrubs, and staring out the windows at my neighbors, wondering if that smoke is a barbeque or a bomb.
