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)