:: a spooky hqs ::
:: ideas go forth ::
:: color coded concepts ::
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Well Hello There
Thinking about Objects
objects get allocated within the heap, a finite space for objects. The Python interpreter thinks through partially overlapping namespaces connected by dot notation in temporary tree structures (import hierarchies). The top-level namespace is identified with the interpreting process.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Juggling Hats
I'm somewhat wearing my AFSC hat these days, having been drawn back to my foci from Asia-Pacific Issues News days, when I was editor.
I drove Carol to the meeting this morning, but didn't attend. She's continuing to meet with one of our program committee in this coffee shop, where I'm doing my day job. I can't help but listen in a bit.
I'll be joining this same committee for its first formal meeting, now that we've recruited our new Regional Director. She'll be based in SF instead of Seattle, the way Susan was.
The neocon ideology goes on the rocks of hypocrisy quite often, most especially when "the spread of democracy" is proffered as a goal, but then what happens is non-democratically managed permanent cities are dropped in and stuffed with Americans living in slavery (stop-loss) or deliberately escaping from freedom (per Fromm). No, it's not officially a POW camp (usually), but it's hardly a democracy, hardly one of Disney's experimental prototypes of tomorrow.
Case in point: the island of Okinawa is riddled with non-democracies, which gives Japanese the impression that USAers are nothing but a bunch of Roman soldiers who don't realize the war is over (lots of jokes at the Romans' expense). Or they think they're a part of the Fourth Reich or some foolish business (stand up comics are having a field day).
The curriculum is weak and kids graduate with little sense of history. They get sent off to Occupy (one of the bases), and end up thinking, like Gen. Smedley Butler, that "war is a racket" and/or some kind of Business Plot. But is it even that well thought out?
So the best place to focus on improving the curriculum, if the Feds plan to walk their talk, is right there on the bases, where Feds have the most control. Show us how your curriculum is paving the way for a bright future, for the Okinawans included. Don't just kick the can down the road, like Gen. Colin Powell did, by making militarism the solution for yet another decade.
Getting kids in base schools to report back should not be a problem. I'm sure some enjoy the lifestyle and wouldn't want it to end. But I'm not saying so-called "Girl Scout Math" (an operation) and the like has to mean giving up access to airstrips. Small planes would come and go.
The new base wouldn't be needed, but that was a lavish and unnecessary expense anyway, on the chopping block like Manas (easier to chop given it doesn't belong to the Russians and Kyrgystanis the way Manas does).
:: old recruiting poster (click for larger view) ::
Friday, May 18, 2012
Loneliness
Dr. John Cacioppo was given a highly laudatory introduction by Dr. Art Kohn of Portland State. I ran into Art at Peet's recently. He's a Wanderer like me.
Art made the case that humans suffer more for psychological than technical reasons these days. He saw this as a potential snub to engineers, but I didn't take it that way. Means we're doing our job. If your physical needs are being met and your remaining issues are psychological and/or metaphysical, that's a huge step.
Dr. Cacioppo doesn't exactly draw a mind/brain line like Bucky does, but the same dichotomy between conditioned reflexes on the one hand, and consideration / reflection on the other, bears some similarities, especially where mind-over-brain is concerned i.e. reprogramming or upgrading one's pattern of responses (or response-abilities).
The empirical studies John has been engaged with over the years have sharpened the focus on humans as social animals who tend to waste away when self perceived as cut off from their fellows.
"Perceived" because sometimes so-called objective measures of one's degree of isolation come out differently, and in any case never correlate as closely with diseases and discomforts the way self perceived isolation does. One is one's own best judge and/or worst enemy in these situations.
Heart attacks are more deadly when induced in lonely rats, he warns.
How to fight back against loneliness?
If you're forced into masking your identity and getting reinforcement for a persona you're not, that may be alienating.
I felt the absence of philosophy, which used to have more to say about the human condition, before getting run over by computer science. Philosophers would tease apart the many components of loneliness and help build vocabulary, in itself a way of fostering communication and fighting back.
I wanted to ask an anthropological question about ethnicities that accepted communication with the dead. You're a lot less lonely when you have lots of ancestors to chat with, or at least feel observed by. To what degree are belief systems isolating? Might not belief in ghosts mean less loneliness, greater mental health?
Instead I picked up another thread in anthropology: his recent service to several US Army forts, to help them study and deal with high suicide and depression rates.
Given the way Madison Avenue and others leverage the herd instinct to boost insecurities, with various products the answer, and given wars are sold to the public as products, with the same appeal to our insecurities and worries (nurtured and refined for this purpose), I was wanting some reassurance that he wasn't just a motivational psychologist in disguise, trying to get soldiers to escape from freedom as dutiful slaves with no minds of their own.
Dr. Cacioppo replied that the army was sincere about its concern and responsive to his requirement that all the research stay open and unclassified.
Another questioner asked if he was "embedded" and he demurred, saying that's not how it was.
The loneliness suffered by insurgents, insurrectionists and subversives, might also be addressed by his trainings (he doesn't lead them himself and they go for eight hours).
He's not trying to stop that percentage of humans who buck the herd, deviate from norms, uphold new ethics.
Terry explained I was Quaker, so stereotypically concerned about the treatment of freaks (including peace freaks) and weirdos at the hands of so-called "normal" people ("the herd" to crib from Nietzsche).
Trevor joined me for this event, including the Heathman dinner (where much of this dialog occurred). This was also my birthday dinner (54). The waiters were kind to me, gave me lots to drink (Trevor and I were bussing home anyway, took the 15).
Elizabeth Braithwaite, in the meantime, joined Tara at Cleveland High, to experience debate culture and bid on a cake at silent auction, a fundraiser for the Cleveland Cannibals. They got me a good one from Helen Bernhard's.
I liked it that Dr. Cacioppo recommended serving food to people in need as a way to enjoy the benefits of community. It's a two way street in that you get to eat too, on many levels. FNB has been like that.
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
Segue
I continued with the theme below on the Wittgenstein list (Sean's). The Yahoo! archives is as valuable as what's in any bank vault, from some points of view. Where the word "securities" comes from in some degree: scraps may be treasure, a phone number, a key name.
The distance education world is one I've frequented in several roles: current and former high school teacher (back then it was current); contributing editorial consultant with McGraw-Hill; and then more as a lobbyist / reformer / geek about town.
Oregon Curriculum Network grew out of the latter efforts, subsequent to five or so years with CUE (Center for Urban Education).
These days, I provide instruction via distance education circuits, to a faceless crowd. Having everyone veiled, not just the women, and because of technology, not garments, makes this a somewhat different experience.
The narrow bandwidth is nevertheless right where it needs to be, in terms of advancing learners towards their goals. The annual staff meeting is underway. Last night some of us stayed up to watch The Birds (Hitchcock) which mentions Sebastopol.
Russian River is also nearby (check Google Earth).
The school has its origins in the University of Illinois and Ohio State. Lots of thinking about andragogy and what helps students get real results, led the school's founders, a core team, to implement a "useractive" approach which emphasizes active (versus passive) engagement.
"Active" might just mean typing and mousing around, versus watching videos or taking in text.
Only some disciplines are narrowly focused to this set of skills.
No, this is not appropriate circuitry for all kinds of learning, obviously. That's why the teachers themselves need to get together in person, in clumps or as an almost complete crew. We did something like this a year ago, and so on going back, though I only joined in the winter of 2010.
The distance education world is one I've frequented in several roles: current and former high school teacher (back then it was current); contributing editorial consultant with McGraw-Hill; and then more as a lobbyist / reformer / geek about town.
Oregon Curriculum Network grew out of the latter efforts, subsequent to five or so years with CUE (Center for Urban Education).
These days, I provide instruction via distance education circuits, to a faceless crowd. Having everyone veiled, not just the women, and because of technology, not garments, makes this a somewhat different experience.
The narrow bandwidth is nevertheless right where it needs to be, in terms of advancing learners towards their goals. The annual staff meeting is underway. Last night some of us stayed up to watch The Birds (Hitchcock) which mentions Sebastopol.
Russian River is also nearby (check Google Earth).
The school has its origins in the University of Illinois and Ohio State. Lots of thinking about andragogy and what helps students get real results, led the school's founders, a core team, to implement a "useractive" approach which emphasizes active (versus passive) engagement.
"Active" might just mean typing and mousing around, versus watching videos or taking in text.
Only some disciplines are narrowly focused to this set of skills.
No, this is not appropriate circuitry for all kinds of learning, obviously. That's why the teachers themselves need to get together in person, in clumps or as an almost complete crew. We did something like this a year ago, and so on going back, though I only joined in the winter of 2010.
Saturday, May 05, 2012
Transitions
I huddled with parents of other prom goers. We snapped our cameras furiously, capturing these precious moments.
I was happy to get to know these people better, even as we come to the end of a chapter.
Then I drove to the pharmacy with only seconds to spare.
In my book it's not sinful to hate the suffering in this world. In this case, hate is a kind of furious fighting back.
A sword of compassion is a sword nonetheless.
A scenario, or time tunnel, is both a tunnel of sorrows, and a tunnel of joys.
Much sadness and grieving is with us at all times.
There is no need to paper over this reality. Why waste energy in denial of what's real?
Joys are real also.
I was happy to get to know these people better, even as we come to the end of a chapter.
Then I drove to the pharmacy with only seconds to spare.
In my book it's not sinful to hate the suffering in this world. In this case, hate is a kind of furious fighting back.
A sword of compassion is a sword nonetheless.
A scenario, or time tunnel, is both a tunnel of sorrows, and a tunnel of joys.
Much sadness and grieving is with us at all times.
There is no need to paper over this reality. Why waste energy in denial of what's real?
Joys are real also.
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
Beltane
Wittgenstein actually wrote about Beltane some. Not everyone knows that.
He investigated disturbing aspects of the Highlander ritual, finding echoes of pointless cruelty.
An "echo" need not be interpreted as meaning "from distant times" ala Frazer. These associations have an immediacy in everyday grammar.
See Brian R. Clack's Wittgenstein, Frazer and Religion (Palgrave, 1999), 135-54, Chapter 8: Frazerian Reflections: Wittgenstein on Beltane and Human Sacrifice.
Uncle Bill Lightfoot came by for lunch at Bagdad. I gave him the Bayard Rustin DVD, Brother Outsider.
Good to see UE starting up again (picture below).
I've had an engagement with Multnomah Friends to present about AFSC as a part of the Quakers 101 workshop that's ongoing.
I spoke about Bayard Rustin and Smedley Butler as two pivotal Friends. The study of their lives will connect many dots, if you're looking to construct your own reality.
Then a fire later. It's Beltane, after all. HB2U Trevor, good to share those cigars.
He investigated disturbing aspects of the Highlander ritual, finding echoes of pointless cruelty.
An "echo" need not be interpreted as meaning "from distant times" ala Frazer. These associations have an immediacy in everyday grammar.
See Brian R. Clack's Wittgenstein, Frazer and Religion (Palgrave, 1999), 135-54, Chapter 8: Frazerian Reflections: Wittgenstein on Beltane and Human Sacrifice.
Uncle Bill Lightfoot came by for lunch at Bagdad. I gave him the Bayard Rustin DVD, Brother Outsider.
Good to see UE starting up again (picture below).
I've had an engagement with Multnomah Friends to present about AFSC as a part of the Quakers 101 workshop that's ongoing.
I spoke about Bayard Rustin and Smedley Butler as two pivotal Friends. The study of their lives will connect many dots, if you're looking to construct your own reality.
Then a fire later. It's Beltane, after all. HB2U Trevor, good to share those cigars.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
HB2U LW
Paying my respects to Dr. Wittgenstein, a philosopher of strong character and commitment. A really serious guy, as Sean points out.
HB2U, from Kirby. PS: here's some Religious Art FYI, from today:
HB2U, from Kirby. PS: here's some Religious Art FYI, from today:
Friday, April 20, 2012
New Atlantis
That's a heavy-hearted title. Who knew, when they built this city in the forests, made a Stump Town, then Portlandia, that they were building atop jello pudding. Shake time is roughly 300 years mas o meno.
There's a sense of the past tense in living here, sweet mortality. As if we're already gone.
What happened in Japan is haunting as we feel next in line.
At OMSI we watched some places in Turkey in the danger zone, a film.
Is this what they call "escapism"?
Is it only an "ism" because it doesn't really work?
Our zip code might shake a little less, being on the Mt. Tabor shield. The local martial arts studio has already reinforced. People take training classes, watch movies of their impending doom.
Life is sweeter in that light, which no doubt accounts for some of the atmosphere.
There's a sense of the past tense in living here, sweet mortality. As if we're already gone.
What happened in Japan is haunting as we feel next in line.
At OMSI we watched some places in Turkey in the danger zone, a film.
Is this what they call "escapism"?
Is it only an "ism" because it doesn't really work?
Our zip code might shake a little less, being on the Mt. Tabor shield. The local martial arts studio has already reinforced. People take training classes, watch movies of their impending doom.
Life is sweeter in that light, which no doubt accounts for some of the atmosphere.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Exit Through the Gift Shop (movie review)
I got back from Wanderers to find Lindsey and Melody exulting over this documentary, saying it was right up my ally. I had just been exposed to Drunk History at the meeting and was still reeling from all the fun there, so went upstairs to the Ikea (my mattress -- way better than the pile I had before).
The very next morning though, I was abrim with schemes to view this thing and do work at the same time. An exercise in multi-tasking. I took it to Glenn's place (it's a library borrowing). The story was so compelling I had to shut the laptop and just watch. Glenn was highly amused also.
This is a movie about street art. Two of the artists are already in my book collection: Shepard Fairey and Ron English. Banksey is here in my blogs as well. So many dots connected, by Mr. Brainwash, the French guy videographer who then joins their ranks as "one of them".
The DVD has great extras but pointedly does not get into "the making of" the main feature, even though much of the feature was about how the film had been made -- up to a point, then we're left guessing.
I learned so much from this film. My thanks to Melody for her excellent tastes and information.
The very next morning though, I was abrim with schemes to view this thing and do work at the same time. An exercise in multi-tasking. I took it to Glenn's place (it's a library borrowing). The story was so compelling I had to shut the laptop and just watch. Glenn was highly amused also.
This is a movie about street art. Two of the artists are already in my book collection: Shepard Fairey and Ron English. Banksey is here in my blogs as well. So many dots connected, by Mr. Brainwash, the French guy videographer who then joins their ranks as "one of them".
The DVD has great extras but pointedly does not get into "the making of" the main feature, even though much of the feature was about how the film had been made -- up to a point, then we're left guessing.
I learned so much from this film. My thanks to Melody for her excellent tastes and information.
Monday, April 09, 2012
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
Wanderers 2012.4.4
We talked about peak helium a lot today.
I was on my laptop a lot of the time, listening to Nate, Lew etc. Grading, posting, writing to Alexia.
Nate is working on the problem of providing better connectivity to large outdoor gatherings, such as folk music festivals, by means of aerostats.
That's one of several projects he works on, including electronic medical records (a place of overlap).
I was on my laptop a lot of the time, listening to Nate, Lew etc. Grading, posting, writing to Alexia.
Nate is working on the problem of providing better connectivity to large outdoor gatherings, such as folk music festivals, by means of aerostats.
That's one of several projects he works on, including electronic medical records (a place of overlap).
Monday, March 26, 2012
Friday, March 23, 2012
Middle East Studies
I was running some errands in delivery mode, taking some paperwork to La Salle High School near Clackamas Town Center and picking up a few wine bottles for the chairman's suite, getting passport pictures.
I got a call regarding the meetup organized by Portland State's Middle East Studies Center, part of its outreach to district school teachers. I'd attended this event once before. I was at the venue within minutes.
Sometimes these Middle East discussions get volatile. I learned that at a last meetup, two of the gentlemen, one in particular, had gotten really voluble discussing the issues and the restaurant was having second thoughts about allowing the group to return. I was the only male this time and the conversation remained quiet.
What occurs to me is a lot of these worries about "what to wear" (veil or no veil) go away in the distance education world I frequent. Middle Eastern women wanting to learn Python, Javascript, MongoDB, have plenty of opportunities, given ample bandwidth.
The course materials might be in the local language, even if some of the instructors only communicate in English. Tatia, of Lebanese heritage, had been clear on the model.
On my way to Tarboush, a venue my Wittgenstein Study Circle has also used, I followed a Prius with a 99% bumper sticker. Demonizing a full 1% of humanity, or around 70 million people, seems somewhat over the top and I chided Friends, during the workshop around Occupy at AFSC HQS, to be less exclusionary. It's "that of God in everyone" not just in some 99% (the criteria of division remain unclear).
Once I got there, one of the teachers introduced herself as retired from formal teaching, but currently representing Occupy "the education wing". I don't claim to know all the deputy ministers or whatever her position and was glad to get my picture taken next to her.
I'm glad our Ministry of Education is continuing to look at the Middle East -- at its refugee camps especially.
The 2-letter country code system may have broken down, leaving many people nationless, but that doesn't mean we can't provide better connectivity through subdomains. Several refugee camps might be linked together behind one umbrella domain, along with a university or two. Many URLs might take one to the same place.
Some of the dot mil facilities might be reachable by a different front door, in line with Marshall Plan type repurposing.
I talked about Hawo's Dinner Party (the DVD) and the work I learned about at the AFSC meeting in Philadelphia. Religious practices, practices in general, tend to be divisive. Dietary restrictions are just the beginning. When it comes to sharing houses, as we do around Portland quite a bit, we find ourselves using a lot of check lists.
Mixing vegans and carnivores is sometimes more trouble than its worth. Just because they don't live together doesn't mean they can't share commit rights to the same Subversion repository or whatever (we're converting to Subversion at work).
Tatia suggested we could get our course materials translated for free, and I think she might be right about that. Plus there's Google Translator and so on, for when the readings are not too technical.
Dr. Tag sees a lot of problems with patriarchy. I'm not sure what constitutes patriarchy exactly, but the Somali students have been asking good questions, such as why it took women so long to get the vote in the USA, and why there are still relatively few women in the US Congress. Getting USAers to talk about their own deficiencies, versus their ideas for how to fix other peoples, is usually good therapy.
:: poster child: arab spring ::
I got a call regarding the meetup organized by Portland State's Middle East Studies Center, part of its outreach to district school teachers. I'd attended this event once before. I was at the venue within minutes.
Sometimes these Middle East discussions get volatile. I learned that at a last meetup, two of the gentlemen, one in particular, had gotten really voluble discussing the issues and the restaurant was having second thoughts about allowing the group to return. I was the only male this time and the conversation remained quiet.
What occurs to me is a lot of these worries about "what to wear" (veil or no veil) go away in the distance education world I frequent. Middle Eastern women wanting to learn Python, Javascript, MongoDB, have plenty of opportunities, given ample bandwidth.
The course materials might be in the local language, even if some of the instructors only communicate in English. Tatia, of Lebanese heritage, had been clear on the model.
On my way to Tarboush, a venue my Wittgenstein Study Circle has also used, I followed a Prius with a 99% bumper sticker. Demonizing a full 1% of humanity, or around 70 million people, seems somewhat over the top and I chided Friends, during the workshop around Occupy at AFSC HQS, to be less exclusionary. It's "that of God in everyone" not just in some 99% (the criteria of division remain unclear).
Once I got there, one of the teachers introduced herself as retired from formal teaching, but currently representing Occupy "the education wing". I don't claim to know all the deputy ministers or whatever her position and was glad to get my picture taken next to her.
I'm glad our Ministry of Education is continuing to look at the Middle East -- at its refugee camps especially.
The 2-letter country code system may have broken down, leaving many people nationless, but that doesn't mean we can't provide better connectivity through subdomains. Several refugee camps might be linked together behind one umbrella domain, along with a university or two. Many URLs might take one to the same place.
Some of the dot mil facilities might be reachable by a different front door, in line with Marshall Plan type repurposing.
I talked about Hawo's Dinner Party (the DVD) and the work I learned about at the AFSC meeting in Philadelphia. Religious practices, practices in general, tend to be divisive. Dietary restrictions are just the beginning. When it comes to sharing houses, as we do around Portland quite a bit, we find ourselves using a lot of check lists.
Mixing vegans and carnivores is sometimes more trouble than its worth. Just because they don't live together doesn't mean they can't share commit rights to the same Subversion repository or whatever (we're converting to Subversion at work).
Tatia suggested we could get our course materials translated for free, and I think she might be right about that. Plus there's Google Translator and so on, for when the readings are not too technical.
Dr. Tag sees a lot of problems with patriarchy. I'm not sure what constitutes patriarchy exactly, but the Somali students have been asking good questions, such as why it took women so long to get the vote in the USA, and why there are still relatively few women in the US Congress. Getting USAers to talk about their own deficiencies, versus their ideas for how to fix other peoples, is usually good therapy.
:: poster child: arab spring ::
Saturday, March 17, 2012
From Bagdad Chat Room
Glenn and I welcomed Julie to Portland at Tabor Hill Cafe. She and Steve will be using the rental car to see more of what the Pacific Northwest has to offer. They drove back from Pycon.
I've been doing some more thinking about what spin to apply to some of this geometry content, whether "coordinate system of nature" is too much hype. As long as XYZ is not making that claim, I think we're past the point of needing to promote any human artifact too heavily or highhandedly.
The ISEPP lecture on Thursday reminded me of the importance of the power rule where omnidirectional growth is concerned. Volume goes up as a 3rd power, surface area as a 2nd power, meaning S/V = 1/r, which is roughly how we see the melting point of gold changing, as we shrink down to fewer and fewer atoms, more like ... 162, 92, 42, 12, 1 (the reverse of what I usually give).
Matt and I met up for dinner at Barley Mill last night, visiting Palio (Ladd's Addition) for coffee. Then I went by Food Not Bombs (SE 17th & Taylor) to check in with the cast. We have an additional house guest from back east who was taking it in. I actually skipped eating as I'd just done that with Matt.
I snagged Perez Zagorin's book Francis Bacon at Hawthorne Powell's this morning, while running errands in the neighborhood.
I'm having a couple Irish coffees. Physicians have a strong meaning for snakes, in bringing forward their caduceus. Most Irish I meet are jovial about St. Patrick's supposed feat.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Occupy Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a spread out motherboard accustomed to dealing with convergence / divergence. We were whisked in and out of San Jose airport by taxi, van and shuttle bus. Others simply drove from nearby digs and parked out behind the Convention Center, which is attached to the hotel, a Hyatt Regency (shades of Chicago).
Some critics of our Portland setup express frustration that the Oregon Convention Center, built to a similar scale, is unattached to a residential suite. However an overflow event such as Pycon occupies several hotels in the vicinity, so the question is moot in the experience of many attenders, or at least Portland's easy Max ride from DoubleTree should be contrasted with hoofing it from the Hilton in Santa Clara across the highway.
Python plays well with others, like I sat next to a Rails guy at lunch on the 2nd day. There's a natural affinity between our respective communities, with several revolving doors. The 1st day I was at the PSF members lunch, trying to herd Jack Diederich there in border collie fashion as he'd mentioned his intention to be dutiful at the party on Thursday night (I got a haircut on Hawthorne, but am still recognizably some blend of sheep dog (he got away)).
Facebook switched to the timeline format around now, so more like that long sheet of butcher paper in the D.W. Jacobs rendering for Portland Center Stage. That was the 2008 apogee of "Bucky Power" in Portland. I've been surfing the ripple effects ever since. Allegra joined in the opening festivities, where mom and my daughter got to meet her. Trevor was very much a part of these events, delivering a lecture on the Portland Center Stage mezzanine, as I had.
I was networking with the Friends of Fuller at Pycon for sure, with David Koski phoning from the vicinity of the TC Howard dome in Ohio, getting his shots, while I had the ESRI guy pause for this picture:
For contrast, distorted Mercators all over the place, with (some) geeks conscious of the discrepancies (cite Spotify meeting).
Having the OST badge made a difference in terms of who wanted to talk to me. We have little direct competition at the moment. Steve had hosted an all night gathering in his suite the night before and left Vern to discover me as the interviewer for a sampling of posters. I yakked with climatologists (including financial), the CERN software guy, and the guy from Bump, which runs Diesel (an open source project with adapters to MongoDB). You might try following links through Python.tv (not redirecting, texted Holden Web) if you want to find those and other snippets.
How was this an Occupy then? Well, you could say this is an economy contra to Wall Street's. Although JP Morgan had a booth, Silicon Valley is somewhat self feeding and not taking direction from any "bosses" in New York or its puppet DC (the latter being more about lawyers than engineers). That doesn't mean "non-compliant with government" though, as the latter has come to depend on the same GIS / GPS infrastructure. Google Earth and the space program (e.g. NASA) go hand in hand in a lot of ways. Geeks have their Ignite.gov and their GOSCON, so what else is new?
Yes, there's a counter-culture with hubs in California that thrives on diversity and is friendly to the world. That's really news to nobody, so it's not necessarily a CNN story when these kinds of Flying Circuses self-organize and happen, in the US, Brazil, Cuba or Singapore. The media trucks don't fill the parking lot.
I came back to my co-workers with news of potential recruits, pretty much as I had around Occupy Portland (OPDX). Interesting and talented people frequent these places. Call it a freak show if you like, we won't necessarily be offended (were you trying to be mean?).
(I come in at 29 mins 10 secs or so)
Some critics of our Portland setup express frustration that the Oregon Convention Center, built to a similar scale, is unattached to a residential suite. However an overflow event such as Pycon occupies several hotels in the vicinity, so the question is moot in the experience of many attenders, or at least Portland's easy Max ride from DoubleTree should be contrasted with hoofing it from the Hilton in Santa Clara across the highway.
Python plays well with others, like I sat next to a Rails guy at lunch on the 2nd day. There's a natural affinity between our respective communities, with several revolving doors. The 1st day I was at the PSF members lunch, trying to herd Jack Diederich there in border collie fashion as he'd mentioned his intention to be dutiful at the party on Thursday night (I got a haircut on Hawthorne, but am still recognizably some blend of sheep dog (he got away)).
Facebook switched to the timeline format around now, so more like that long sheet of butcher paper in the D.W. Jacobs rendering for Portland Center Stage. That was the 2008 apogee of "Bucky Power" in Portland. I've been surfing the ripple effects ever since. Allegra joined in the opening festivities, where mom and my daughter got to meet her. Trevor was very much a part of these events, delivering a lecture on the Portland Center Stage mezzanine, as I had.
I was networking with the Friends of Fuller at Pycon for sure, with David Koski phoning from the vicinity of the TC Howard dome in Ohio, getting his shots, while I had the ESRI guy pause for this picture:
For contrast, distorted Mercators all over the place, with (some) geeks conscious of the discrepancies (cite Spotify meeting).
Having the OST badge made a difference in terms of who wanted to talk to me. We have little direct competition at the moment. Steve had hosted an all night gathering in his suite the night before and left Vern to discover me as the interviewer for a sampling of posters. I yakked with climatologists (including financial), the CERN software guy, and the guy from Bump, which runs Diesel (an open source project with adapters to MongoDB). You might try following links through Python.tv (not redirecting, texted Holden Web) if you want to find those and other snippets.
How was this an Occupy then? Well, you could say this is an economy contra to Wall Street's. Although JP Morgan had a booth, Silicon Valley is somewhat self feeding and not taking direction from any "bosses" in New York or its puppet DC (the latter being more about lawyers than engineers). That doesn't mean "non-compliant with government" though, as the latter has come to depend on the same GIS / GPS infrastructure. Google Earth and the space program (e.g. NASA) go hand in hand in a lot of ways. Geeks have their Ignite.gov and their GOSCON, so what else is new?
Yes, there's a counter-culture with hubs in California that thrives on diversity and is friendly to the world. That's really news to nobody, so it's not necessarily a CNN story when these kinds of Flying Circuses self-organize and happen, in the US, Brazil, Cuba or Singapore. The media trucks don't fill the parking lot.
I came back to my co-workers with news of potential recruits, pretty much as I had around Occupy Portland (OPDX). Interesting and talented people frequent these places. Call it a freak show if you like, we won't necessarily be offended (were you trying to be mean?).
(I come in at 29 mins 10 secs or so)
Wednesday, March 07, 2012
Wanderers 2012.3.7
Dick Pugh and Barbara Stross were with us this morning, always big news. They were colleagues in my daughter's current school so many years later.
I devoted quite a few hours in on United -- which doesn't take cash in the cabin (OK by me) -- reading that Democracy Despite Itself book, as well as the Wittgenstein one. Lots of wheels turning. The politician in the opening, who says psychologists should wear pointy hats and brandish wands, had a point I think, and might be the kind of guy I'd vote for someday.
Is democracy a luxury that depends on darker underpinnings? More debates needed. We pretty much resolved at AFSC to keep the curtains raised on the blight of slavery, which has hardly gone away with the advent of privatized forced labor camps preying upon wayfarers and pressing them into service. Moving about one's planet, one's birthright, should not constitute a crime. Keep those public roads / channels open so that more wandering humans might fly their friendly skies.
Interesting to see Immanuel Kant writing on democracy. You shouldn't get away with calling yourself a "philosopher" and not have remarks on file that would constitute "sticking one's neck out" on the questions of the day. Kauffman was entitled to strut as braver in the positions he took, not just anyone could have delivered those lectures in the Princeton physics building (Frick was it?). Anyway, if I can't find what you said when it mattered, at the brink of this or that, then please accept my skepticism of you'd lay claim to that title. Nor is academic experience alone usually sufficient (Kauffman again).
My last day in Philly was with Chris and Jeannie, serious scholars and community organizers for our Synergetics Explorers Club (as it were). They've been immersing themselves in all manner of open courseware offering ala Glenn's "Open Source University" meme (he may have caught it from somewhere, as such memes are "blowing in the wind").
OPDX is not having much success with conventional mayoral politics, with Cameron, one of our candidates, expressing some relief that his competition, Tre, has been temporarily incarcerated once again. That latter detail came up at Wanderers this morning, which was mostly a meeting about chemical and/or radio toxic substances, lots of stories and lore. Dick was yakking about Teledyne Wau Chang when I got there, late from Noah's Bagels (I brought a baker's dozen, three kinds of shmear).
TarBoush was a splendid place for another catch up session last night. I hope Suzanne makes one of these meetups again soon. Note to self: I need to ask Maureen about the Moody kid, another Nietzsche scholar.
While visiting Upper Darby, I got to see some of the video from the RISD event. I'm sorry I missed this opportunity to meet up with Pearce. I don't think I'm going to make Gathering for Gardner again this year, though I've given it some serious consideration and posted the invite proudly in the Blue House kitchen. I saw where Dr. Nystrom mentions "quadrays" in his talk. He has to be one of the few explorers to take them up in earnest since their elaboration by David Chako et al (myself a part of that dev team).
Keeping up with other Pythonistas is the name of the game here. I wrote to Nate about the auto-mosque generator for Blender (it might do churches as well). Cyberspatial interiors can't face a physical Mecca maybe, but then the latter may have a cyber-interior as well, that we face towards. Speaking of which, I saw about hackers doing something with the Vatican website recently. I was having lunch and watching the LCD behind David NiNucci's head, so don't expect me to source any details. Ask CNN? CBN?
I devoted quite a few hours in on United -- which doesn't take cash in the cabin (OK by me) -- reading that Democracy Despite Itself book, as well as the Wittgenstein one. Lots of wheels turning. The politician in the opening, who says psychologists should wear pointy hats and brandish wands, had a point I think, and might be the kind of guy I'd vote for someday.
Is democracy a luxury that depends on darker underpinnings? More debates needed. We pretty much resolved at AFSC to keep the curtains raised on the blight of slavery, which has hardly gone away with the advent of privatized forced labor camps preying upon wayfarers and pressing them into service. Moving about one's planet, one's birthright, should not constitute a crime. Keep those public roads / channels open so that more wandering humans might fly their friendly skies.
Interesting to see Immanuel Kant writing on democracy. You shouldn't get away with calling yourself a "philosopher" and not have remarks on file that would constitute "sticking one's neck out" on the questions of the day. Kauffman was entitled to strut as braver in the positions he took, not just anyone could have delivered those lectures in the Princeton physics building (Frick was it?). Anyway, if I can't find what you said when it mattered, at the brink of this or that, then please accept my skepticism of you'd lay claim to that title. Nor is academic experience alone usually sufficient (Kauffman again).
My last day in Philly was with Chris and Jeannie, serious scholars and community organizers for our Synergetics Explorers Club (as it were). They've been immersing themselves in all manner of open courseware offering ala Glenn's "Open Source University" meme (he may have caught it from somewhere, as such memes are "blowing in the wind").
OPDX is not having much success with conventional mayoral politics, with Cameron, one of our candidates, expressing some relief that his competition, Tre, has been temporarily incarcerated once again. That latter detail came up at Wanderers this morning, which was mostly a meeting about chemical and/or radio toxic substances, lots of stories and lore. Dick was yakking about Teledyne Wau Chang when I got there, late from Noah's Bagels (I brought a baker's dozen, three kinds of shmear).
TarBoush was a splendid place for another catch up session last night. I hope Suzanne makes one of these meetups again soon. Note to self: I need to ask Maureen about the Moody kid, another Nietzsche scholar.
While visiting Upper Darby, I got to see some of the video from the RISD event. I'm sorry I missed this opportunity to meet up with Pearce. I don't think I'm going to make Gathering for Gardner again this year, though I've given it some serious consideration and posted the invite proudly in the Blue House kitchen. I saw where Dr. Nystrom mentions "quadrays" in his talk. He has to be one of the few explorers to take them up in earnest since their elaboration by David Chako et al (myself a part of that dev team).
Keeping up with other Pythonistas is the name of the game here. I wrote to Nate about the auto-mosque generator for Blender (it might do churches as well). Cyberspatial interiors can't face a physical Mecca maybe, but then the latter may have a cyber-interior as well, that we face towards. Speaking of which, I saw about hackers doing something with the Vatican website recently. I was having lunch and watching the LCD behind David NiNucci's head, so don't expect me to source any details. Ask CNN? CBN?
Friday, March 02, 2012
AFSC and Ethnic Phobias
We're getting briefed on some of the programs AFSC is engaged in.
Washington DC has a way of channeling refugees to targeted parts of North America. For example, after the USA ended its occupation of Vietnam, a lot of refugees from that region were directed to the Portland area.
The Center for Urban Education (CUE) where I worked, was involved in managing this influx. More recently, the obliteration of Somalia (people still pretend it exists -- nationalism is a lazy ideology, with lots of inertia) has resulted in lots of Somalis moving to Minnesota, Tennessee and so on.
After CUE, I did lots of program work with AFSC, as the program clerk, to work on tensions between ethnicities resulting from the various waves of immigration. Latino students were not necessarily getting along with the "Chinos" i.e. Asians.
Lots of different cultures get stereotyped e.g. just as a person from Mexico might have a hard time distinguishing a Laotian from a Filipino, so might a Vietnamese not appreciate the differences between Mexican and Guatemalan cultures.
The education process is a lot about geography, learning the stories of the different human scenarios and their inter-twining.
Jiway Tung joined us by voice from Yogjakarta. We learned about AFSC's work with partner organizations helping to promote some of the same inter-personal and leadership skills we nurtured in the Portland area. Bringing groups together and doing things in common, as well as having separate programming, is a fairly useful activity.
Hawo's Dinner Party was along the same lines. Shelbyville gets introspective about being at an historical cross-roads. Not so long ago, Anglos were a rarity in this region. The newest arrivals, from Somalia, have rocked the boat a little.
We should remember that European cultures have immigrated in huge numbers over the last few centuries. There's no one way street when it comes to Anglos either -- they're everywhere by now (witness Australia). Helping disparate ethnic groups find ways to get along is important work everywhere. Often the schools are having a hard time coping. That's where NGOs may step in, including religious groups of all stripes.
The Parliament of World Religions has a similar focus on inclusiveness, tolerance, getting along with aliens. If we're visited by ETs (e.g. Martians), similar skills may be required. Indeed, it's interesting to rank ethnicities on their ability to get along with other ethnicities. The patterns repeat over and over, but the outcomes are different based on some variables. How cosmopolitan are the people to begin with?
My "schools for diplomats" (a theme in these blogs) are really schools for everyone, as in a planet such as ours, where "intelligent life" has jet airplanes, lots of ships, satellites, television, everyone is a diplomat.
Washington DC has a way of channeling refugees to targeted parts of North America. For example, after the USA ended its occupation of Vietnam, a lot of refugees from that region were directed to the Portland area.
The Center for Urban Education (CUE) where I worked, was involved in managing this influx. More recently, the obliteration of Somalia (people still pretend it exists -- nationalism is a lazy ideology, with lots of inertia) has resulted in lots of Somalis moving to Minnesota, Tennessee and so on.
After CUE, I did lots of program work with AFSC, as the program clerk, to work on tensions between ethnicities resulting from the various waves of immigration. Latino students were not necessarily getting along with the "Chinos" i.e. Asians.
Lots of different cultures get stereotyped e.g. just as a person from Mexico might have a hard time distinguishing a Laotian from a Filipino, so might a Vietnamese not appreciate the differences between Mexican and Guatemalan cultures.
The education process is a lot about geography, learning the stories of the different human scenarios and their inter-twining.
Jiway Tung joined us by voice from Yogjakarta. We learned about AFSC's work with partner organizations helping to promote some of the same inter-personal and leadership skills we nurtured in the Portland area. Bringing groups together and doing things in common, as well as having separate programming, is a fairly useful activity.
Hawo's Dinner Party was along the same lines. Shelbyville gets introspective about being at an historical cross-roads. Not so long ago, Anglos were a rarity in this region. The newest arrivals, from Somalia, have rocked the boat a little.
We should remember that European cultures have immigrated in huge numbers over the last few centuries. There's no one way street when it comes to Anglos either -- they're everywhere by now (witness Australia). Helping disparate ethnic groups find ways to get along is important work everywhere. Often the schools are having a hard time coping. That's where NGOs may step in, including religious groups of all stripes.
The Parliament of World Religions has a similar focus on inclusiveness, tolerance, getting along with aliens. If we're visited by ETs (e.g. Martians), similar skills may be required. Indeed, it's interesting to rank ethnicities on their ability to get along with other ethnicities. The patterns repeat over and over, but the outcomes are different based on some variables. How cosmopolitan are the people to begin with?
My "schools for diplomats" (a theme in these blogs) are really schools for everyone, as in a planet such as ours, where "intelligent life" has jet airplanes, lots of ships, satellites, television, everyone is a diplomat.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Munching on Medical Data
ISEPP took the risk of inviting an industrialist versus an academician to address the Portland lay public, an audience reminiscent of Wittgenstein's Vienna by some accounts. Speakers like to unveil stuff in Portland, as do movie people. Several in our circle had known David Cox from their shared high school (same school as Tara's, and formerly a business school before joining the public fleet, accepting that charter).
Pfizer, and one extrapolates to other pharmaceutical companies, is seeing vast wastelands of useless patents in fields were the name of the game is to learn science, meaning one needs a culture of openness and open data (a true society). You can try to play lip service to those ideals, and get away with it for awhile, but then the physics of the inevitable kicks in and you realize you're stalled and/or slipping backwards, forgetting your science, your know-how. That sense of an impending dark age provokes an avoidance reflex.
Fortunately, we're surrounded by evidence of great civilizations, including some very recent ones, such as the Apollo Project, which put humans on the moon. More to come (in the pipeline and/or incubator right now).
The giant project to decipher the genome has yielded big data for sure, but the statistical correlations with diseases are relatively slight, giving subtle clues as to mechanisms. What you need to find are concentrations of shared diseases and find correlations there.
The individuals should be enrolled as responsible medical team members, to an MD level in specialty i.e. with respect to their own condition (MDs licensed to practice on people besides themselves are not permitted such narrow self-centeredness).
Dick Cox encouraged us to begin the ascent to a more enlightened society, not out of some altruistic do gooder sense so much as a need to get on with the business of learning science and really finding drugs that work. We just don't have that many yet and the side effects are killing us. Drug company people take drugs too, have an investment in being smart about self-administration. Some top researchers have first hand experience with the diseases they treat.
DNA research has opened plenty of doors, but to walk into this new world of medical science we have to be free and open with medical records in a way that doesn't miscast either government, industry or insurance as ipso facto "the bad guy" i.e. there are legitimate get-the-job done configurations that aren't interested in wasting anyone's time on scandalously poor ethics or impossibly wasteful and/or ineffective treatments.
There's too much ignorance about the body and how it works, about nature, to squander precious lives on soap operatics and melodrama. Dialing back to preventative therapies is still the best approach, but that means seeing the tendencies, knowing the signs. When you're preventing, you're preventing against, which means the diseases have shown themselves. This is more of an Asian attitude perhaps, in that you're not looking for "cures" so much as negotiated settlements, tolerable equilibria, steady states.
Happiness, including on into old age, is legit to pursue, and not just because the US Constitution says so.
At the dinner afterward, I asked if I were one of the bad guys per his model, in that I was in the business, at least until recently, of purging case records of identifiable traits, i.e. I was into anonymizing and pseudonymizing major data sets. Yes, I was a bad guy. He used the word "encrypt" but I don't see myself doing that so much as rendering petabytes of case data innocuous as a public good, e.g. not subject to blackmailing purposes or leading to divorce action because of revealed details in peoples private lives.
However, we've detoured into a technical footnote as the allegiance between medical sciences and free open source computing has only just begun, yet has been one of those exponentially more relevant curves. Many people have no problem being up front with their identity when presenting with various diseases and will not mind having their DNA fingerprint a part of the public record.
Those less interested in helping science in that way will not be coerced into doing so as protecting record privacy and security also relate to integrity i.e. if the data gathering models are not themselves clear and public, then the outcomes data will not be trusted -- could be just someone's faked / randomized noise, for sale at high prices.
The ability to authenticate to trusted sources needs to be part of the model as well. But then banking is not a complete stranger to these issues. Bank your genome. Consider it yours (whom else would it belong to -- nature herself maybe as you're her baby) and perhaps some of your income might come under a kind of "thanks for the memories" in the chart of accounts (i.e. thanks for the samples, the records). Pay people for being who they are, what a concept. That's usually more applied to horses these days.
I'm expecting some of the upcoming conference events on my calendar to give me more of a sense of Big Data and medicine. I'd say Pfizer is definitely not alone in thinking Portland has a role to play in designing the data collection centers and sharing the data. The local buzz matches the global in this case. Something like Google Earth but for the body, built with filters so you might see different demographic cross-sections... such public goods with pro versions might be one outcome of the upcoming data crunching and visualizing era.
People with exotic diseases have much to teach us and should not have to worry where their next meal is coming from as medical science works with its students -- as long as they don't mind cafeteria food (we hope there's a Food Not Bombs like end of the spectrum, fresh and vegan, with some of the healthier patients doing their own prep and serving). The Global U will have better and more humane infrastructure as we shluff off the old snake skin. To be continued.
Pfizer, and one extrapolates to other pharmaceutical companies, is seeing vast wastelands of useless patents in fields were the name of the game is to learn science, meaning one needs a culture of openness and open data (a true society). You can try to play lip service to those ideals, and get away with it for awhile, but then the physics of the inevitable kicks in and you realize you're stalled and/or slipping backwards, forgetting your science, your know-how. That sense of an impending dark age provokes an avoidance reflex.
Fortunately, we're surrounded by evidence of great civilizations, including some very recent ones, such as the Apollo Project, which put humans on the moon. More to come (in the pipeline and/or incubator right now).
The giant project to decipher the genome has yielded big data for sure, but the statistical correlations with diseases are relatively slight, giving subtle clues as to mechanisms. What you need to find are concentrations of shared diseases and find correlations there.
The individuals should be enrolled as responsible medical team members, to an MD level in specialty i.e. with respect to their own condition (MDs licensed to practice on people besides themselves are not permitted such narrow self-centeredness).
Dick Cox encouraged us to begin the ascent to a more enlightened society, not out of some altruistic do gooder sense so much as a need to get on with the business of learning science and really finding drugs that work. We just don't have that many yet and the side effects are killing us. Drug company people take drugs too, have an investment in being smart about self-administration. Some top researchers have first hand experience with the diseases they treat.
DNA research has opened plenty of doors, but to walk into this new world of medical science we have to be free and open with medical records in a way that doesn't miscast either government, industry or insurance as ipso facto "the bad guy" i.e. there are legitimate get-the-job done configurations that aren't interested in wasting anyone's time on scandalously poor ethics or impossibly wasteful and/or ineffective treatments.
There's too much ignorance about the body and how it works, about nature, to squander precious lives on soap operatics and melodrama. Dialing back to preventative therapies is still the best approach, but that means seeing the tendencies, knowing the signs. When you're preventing, you're preventing against, which means the diseases have shown themselves. This is more of an Asian attitude perhaps, in that you're not looking for "cures" so much as negotiated settlements, tolerable equilibria, steady states.
Happiness, including on into old age, is legit to pursue, and not just because the US Constitution says so.
At the dinner afterward, I asked if I were one of the bad guys per his model, in that I was in the business, at least until recently, of purging case records of identifiable traits, i.e. I was into anonymizing and pseudonymizing major data sets. Yes, I was a bad guy. He used the word "encrypt" but I don't see myself doing that so much as rendering petabytes of case data innocuous as a public good, e.g. not subject to blackmailing purposes or leading to divorce action because of revealed details in peoples private lives.
However, we've detoured into a technical footnote as the allegiance between medical sciences and free open source computing has only just begun, yet has been one of those exponentially more relevant curves. Many people have no problem being up front with their identity when presenting with various diseases and will not mind having their DNA fingerprint a part of the public record.
Those less interested in helping science in that way will not be coerced into doing so as protecting record privacy and security also relate to integrity i.e. if the data gathering models are not themselves clear and public, then the outcomes data will not be trusted -- could be just someone's faked / randomized noise, for sale at high prices.
The ability to authenticate to trusted sources needs to be part of the model as well. But then banking is not a complete stranger to these issues. Bank your genome. Consider it yours (whom else would it belong to -- nature herself maybe as you're her baby) and perhaps some of your income might come under a kind of "thanks for the memories" in the chart of accounts (i.e. thanks for the samples, the records). Pay people for being who they are, what a concept. That's usually more applied to horses these days.
I'm expecting some of the upcoming conference events on my calendar to give me more of a sense of Big Data and medicine. I'd say Pfizer is definitely not alone in thinking Portland has a role to play in designing the data collection centers and sharing the data. The local buzz matches the global in this case. Something like Google Earth but for the body, built with filters so you might see different demographic cross-sections... such public goods with pro versions might be one outcome of the upcoming data crunching and visualizing era.
People with exotic diseases have much to teach us and should not have to worry where their next meal is coming from as medical science works with its students -- as long as they don't mind cafeteria food (we hope there's a Food Not Bombs like end of the spectrum, fresh and vegan, with some of the healthier patients doing their own prep and serving). The Global U will have better and more humane infrastructure as we shluff off the old snake skin. To be continued.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Wanderers 2012.2.14
Lynne Taylor is here talking about her paintings, water colors.
The Internet domain name stuff from a previous meeting is still on the board. Linus Pauling House.
It's "two dog night" (Nirel has one in a bag, helping with her daughter's move), and Blueberry (a veteran attender).
Shomar is missed. I was thinking about David earlier, thinking we should have dinner.
The first painting represents the new hadron collider at CERN and the particles they seek.
The second has lots of nanotubes and DNA and stuff.
We have two bottles of double dog dare (cheap wine on the table).
Lynne's paintings have frequently featured as covers of ISEPP programs, handed out at the concert hall (usually the Schnitzer downtown).
We have some visitors tonight, first timers.
Tomorrow I'm giving a talk on the Bucky stuff at Quakers, having dropped the ball earlier.
One of our guests had been on Ken Kesey's bus that day. She was later a college English teacher, wrote poetry.
Her cousin, also present, was a career fireman with Portland's fire department.
Craigmore Creations has move out, taking the fancier table and chairs. We're using the standard institutional folding tables with an assortment of chairs, some stackable.
We talked about Henk Pander and his show.
David called last night. We talked about Nick Espinoza whom he knows, an inventor of "glitter bombing" -- a Blue House topic conversation sometimes. Speaking of acting up activists, I hear Tre might be campaigning for Mayor.
I was writing about democracy again today, on the Wittgenstein list, mentioning DemocracyLab.
We spent most of the evening going around the table. I brought one of the Pinot Noirs, and some cheese and crackers. I drank some coffee. Looked at pix of the newer stealth boats (still pretty secret).
The Internet domain name stuff from a previous meeting is still on the board. Linus Pauling House.
It's "two dog night" (Nirel has one in a bag, helping with her daughter's move), and Blueberry (a veteran attender).
Shomar is missed. I was thinking about David earlier, thinking we should have dinner.
The first painting represents the new hadron collider at CERN and the particles they seek.
The second has lots of nanotubes and DNA and stuff.
We have two bottles of double dog dare (cheap wine on the table).
Lynne's paintings have frequently featured as covers of ISEPP programs, handed out at the concert hall (usually the Schnitzer downtown).
We have some visitors tonight, first timers.
Tomorrow I'm giving a talk on the Bucky stuff at Quakers, having dropped the ball earlier.
One of our guests had been on Ken Kesey's bus that day. She was later a college English teacher, wrote poetry.
Her cousin, also present, was a career fireman with Portland's fire department.
Craigmore Creations has move out, taking the fancier table and chairs. We're using the standard institutional folding tables with an assortment of chairs, some stackable.
We talked about Henk Pander and his show.
David called last night. We talked about Nick Espinoza whom he knows, an inventor of "glitter bombing" -- a Blue House topic conversation sometimes. Speaking of acting up activists, I hear Tre might be campaigning for Mayor.
I was writing about democracy again today, on the Wittgenstein list, mentioning DemocracyLab.
We spent most of the evening going around the table. I brought one of the Pinot Noirs, and some cheese and crackers. I drank some coffee. Looked at pix of the newer stealth boats (still pretty secret).
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Yes Men Fix the World (movie review)
I recommend seeing both if you can deal with either. These films are great satire, but then the clowns are really high on that wire, which had better stay taut.
There's a Sesame Street air about the whole thing, a kind of lecturing to moral imbeciles. How does one get across a sense of top management?
Copy TV. Those newscasters are so good at pontificating -- there's a reason the preacher is in the pulpit.
The Halliburton disaster suits are especially rolling-in-this-aisles funny.
We watched it at Blue House, LW & M snuggled on the couch, me slogging through a standard workflow on the Air, chuckling along the way.
Dow tried to take 'em out, with the "cruel hoax" line (against the people of Bhopal -- I'd thought of that too), delivered perfectly.
That could have sunk 'em, and their only recourse was to head to Bhopal and hang out, actually get the reaction. Yes, some had wept for joy, but then understood the heroics, like the heroics behind that Other Tomorrow New York Times edition.
Shades of Sasha Cohen (another brave heart).
The guys express their fear levels in several ways, including during the opening credits. The fear of losing one's head, to the guillotine, for using it, is not empty paranoia when you really are about to address a few million people as the faux representative of an evil empire.
But then the real representatives have their fears too, in looking so greedy-inept with their lame form of faux capitalism (which is about using other peoples' heads, mostly -- Milton Friedman's especially if you can afford the look).
I understand the nightmare these guys live in. They win their battle over and over, keep making their point. But what really changes? The goal isn't winning then? It comes as a revelation. Conditioned reflexes don't change that fast and the three laws of robotics get broken left and right (positronic might have been better dontcha know (yes, an Asimov allusion)).
There's a Doppler Effect at work. Every event is also a potential time bomb, MIRVed to hit (have some impact) in multiple elsewheres in a chain reaction, leading to tipping points and avalanches. They teach about these patterns in Systems, at Wanderers, common as rain.
There's a Sesame Street air about the whole thing, a kind of lecturing to moral imbeciles. How does one get across a sense of top management?
Copy TV. Those newscasters are so good at pontificating -- there's a reason the preacher is in the pulpit.
The Halliburton disaster suits are especially rolling-in-this-aisles funny.
We watched it at Blue House, LW & M snuggled on the couch, me slogging through a standard workflow on the Air, chuckling along the way.
Dow tried to take 'em out, with the "cruel hoax" line (against the people of Bhopal -- I'd thought of that too), delivered perfectly.
That could have sunk 'em, and their only recourse was to head to Bhopal and hang out, actually get the reaction. Yes, some had wept for joy, but then understood the heroics, like the heroics behind that Other Tomorrow New York Times edition.
Shades of Sasha Cohen (another brave heart).
The guys express their fear levels in several ways, including during the opening credits. The fear of losing one's head, to the guillotine, for using it, is not empty paranoia when you really are about to address a few million people as the faux representative of an evil empire.
But then the real representatives have their fears too, in looking so greedy-inept with their lame form of faux capitalism (which is about using other peoples' heads, mostly -- Milton Friedman's especially if you can afford the look).
I understand the nightmare these guys live in. They win their battle over and over, keep making their point. But what really changes? The goal isn't winning then? It comes as a revelation. Conditioned reflexes don't change that fast and the three laws of robotics get broken left and right (positronic might have been better dontcha know (yes, an Asimov allusion)).
There's a Doppler Effect at work. Every event is also a potential time bomb, MIRVed to hit (have some impact) in multiple elsewheres in a chain reaction, leading to tipping points and avalanches. They teach about these patterns in Systems, at Wanderers, common as rain.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Journey of the Universe (movie review)
Once again, I wasn't sure what I was getting into. We wandered up to the 16th floor of the wrong building, finding a beautiful lobby, then entered 888 to make our way to what turned out to be a meeting of the State Bar (as in lawyers' guild). There's a subgroup or committee looking to improve the future -- "the only bar section in the country with a specific goal" or something like that.
At first I thought this was clever marketing, this Torporation (Torp) instead of a Corporation (Corp). The best way to avoid that "corporate personhood" stigma is to start up as a torporation instead, with torporate executives and so forth. "More benign than corporate persons, because they sleep a lot" was Glenn's joke. Anyway, it made a good skit in the theater of my mind.
Which brings us at long last to the movie. This had been on public TV I'm told (OPB), yet we were somewhat exclusive in getting to see it -- not clear on the details. Brian Swimme is the new James Burke and does a fine job in the microcosm / namespace of Samos (an island), where we've decided Pythogoras literally lived.
The narrative takes a bold move in that cave of his, suggesting we look at the imagination as like another eye (an imaginary eye), a wholly different way of seeing. Two other kinds of eye, including the water ball eye (what we also have) were discussed beforehand.
Anyway, as with most of my movie reviews, I somewhat assume the reader has seen the movie already -- backwards from most reviews, which read more like previews, but certainly a way to go: it's like we at least have this recording in common, so now lets share our takes / angles. Like a book club.
That was what this meeting was like: a focus group.
The organizers were honestly interested in getting some feedback, lawyers first. The group knew we had some scientists intermixed, including the identifiable physicist / cosmologist on the back bench, a credentialed authority (University of Chicago). So when it came time to relay impressions, it was stipulated we let the lawyers speak first, as this was, after all, a meeting of their guild.
One of those present suggest we raise our hands if we were lawyers, but the moderator immediately countered that this need not be revealed. Interesting culture, this.
Don talked about the movie Farewell (a spy movie) on the way back in his new motor vehicle, Glenn stuffed in a much roomier back. We'd had a good time.
Other Wanderers, such as Bob McGown and David Tver were there too (they both spoke).
I spoke as well, after the bar against non-lawyers was lifted. I was slightly self conscious when raising my hand, in geek costume (in my Python sweater-vest, army surplus jacket on the rack), especially of the leather cuffka, Nirel brand, about my wrist -- but I doubted it mattered too much (lots of people had styles).
My gray locks put me more in the "rounded elf" category and soon I had the entire room chuckling about how a lot of our dark side was missing. "If I'd been briefing a room full of ETs about what to expect upon encountering humans..." I suggested. But the film was upbeat, wanted us to feast on the images, not shield our eyes.
Shades of Koyannisqatsi and Winged Migration both.
Some of the lawyers present got more talkative with time. The physicist in the back was also diplomatic I thought, in requesting a moment to think. When the lawyers had been asked, they'd fallen into a profound silence reminiscent of a Quaker meeting, reluctant to have too easy opinions.
Gradually the ice thawed and opened the space for some real sharing. Lynne Taylor was there and spoke up before I did. She'd seen an earlier draft of this film at the Parliament of World Religions. She was eager for more of this genre.
There probably was some implicit tension in the film, as it used Samos as an integration point wherein to criss-cross psycho-spiritual and physio-scientific concerns.
Was this taking on too much of the role of the priest? Know-it-alls can be a problem.
I saw lots of hat-tipping to maternity and the child like nature of humankind, though the narrator was clearly an XY.
Several lawyers remarked on the interesting thesis that what set humans apart in an important way was their prolonged childhood and extended dependence on mothering, which translates into malleability / adaptability.
I will add my two additional cents: that the show closely adheres to cultural templates, as far as "television scoring" goes (following known examples), is to its credit.
Some of the latest state of the art images are shown in this frame, a visual feast is delivered. Having a frame stay familiar and friendly gives more room to the weird and strange.
Better to read the somewhat "cliche" or "formulaic" obeisance to convention as honest homage to admired prototypes / ancestors, in the language of film making and television. Why fix it if it ain't broke?
We're telling the greatest story ever told, that of the universe itself, and to take an "if you can't beat 'em join 'em" humble pie attitude is not a stupid move.
I thought of Universe too: "that which humans have expressed regarding the universe" (a kind of "shared poem" in RBF's lexicon).
That it all reduces to Pythagoras and number sets up a good vibe for simple storytelling (this is about passing the torch so memorability is key).
The final fade out on Europe is apropos. There's a deliberate Medittereanean flavor to all of this, an invitation to other regions to give it their own spin. Be bold, be regional, be place based.
We know that's an important ingredient in "gamefication" as well (to localize, in the form of some specific geography or vista, a world).
The film points to the future with some notes of hope, but doesn't really try to go there. I'd say it's more a summary of where they'd gotten by the end of the 1900s. It's an end-of-millennium piece.
Some of the next iterations will seem less cliche in some ways, as we're more disruptive of set mindsets (relic belief systems), or as nature is (not saying it's all about humans and their experience).
Down the road, maybe we'll see more about the transition from 90-degree to 60-degree-based thinking, more in harmony with nature, perhaps in the guise of East-meets-West.
On the way to the venue, we passed a by "fear panel", a public space LCD radiating fear into the room. Something about an extensive network of tunnels in the Persian vista. So? Are tunnels illegal all of a sudden? Sheesh.
How that commuter-TV based lifestyle serves people is beyond me. The amount of fear pumping through those veins, those urban capillaries, can't be good for a body.
So this is why we all wanted to get wired? So we could be afraid, so very afraid, in The Matrix?
Don't be a coward, kill your TV -- which might just be the "head channel" you're watching. Choose your channels wisely (use that "third eye").
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Sunrise (movie review)
I had little concept of what I was getting into, when Nick told me about some live cello music at the Hollywood Theater.
This turned out to be part of the ongoing silent films thread, this time featuring Sunrise by F.W. Murnau.
Fine musicians, in this case including Nick's friend Lori Goldston on cello, provided more "emotional bandwidth" as Nick put it.
At first I surmised I was watching a recent release, made to look like a 1920s pre-talkie. But later I realized we were watching the real deal.
The style of film making then is really quite different, creating a sense of surreality or other worldliness around the action portrayed.
Sunrise investigates a man planning to murder his wife in order to take off with a new interest, a woman from the city who smokes prodigiously and is of presumably dubious character.
The wife deserves better than this lout but there's no "good riddance" way out in this village.
After he bungles his murder attempt, the wife seeks to escape his clutches before he tries again, but is perversely seduced by his (sincere) sense of remorse.
They stumble in on a wedding-in-progress and he relives taking on a commitment to look after and protect his dyadic other, per the standard nuclear family contract. There's no possibility of a molecular family in this culture, with two moms and or two dads (this isn't Bhutan, with its above average happiness quotient).
Their faith in one another is renewed (or hers in him mainly), but then on the way home in the same row boat he planned to drown her from, a storm kicks up and it looks like he's lost her overboard, this time very much not according to plan. As omniscient viewers, we're positioned to judge him innocent (this time).
I found myself awed by the consistent look and feel of this film and thought just maybe I was seeing an all time great. The cityscapes are meticulously detailed, the trolley scenes superb.
Upon doing more research, I see other film critics share this view.
Nick and I adjourned to Columbia River Brew Pub, formerly Laurelwood, across the street. Then we bussed home so he could rest up before the journey back to Hillsboro. Since Tara had a driving class in Beaverton the next day, it made sense to do it this way.
Thanks to legislation passed in the Nixon Era, kidney dialysis patients are eligible for three visits a week. In Europe it's four, but with shorter hours.
Nick is aware of the research going on at ONAMI, as is his doc, but results from that effort aren't expected for some years. Nephrology is still in its infancy.
This turned out to be part of the ongoing silent films thread, this time featuring Sunrise by F.W. Murnau.
Fine musicians, in this case including Nick's friend Lori Goldston on cello, provided more "emotional bandwidth" as Nick put it.
At first I surmised I was watching a recent release, made to look like a 1920s pre-talkie. But later I realized we were watching the real deal.
The style of film making then is really quite different, creating a sense of surreality or other worldliness around the action portrayed.
Sunrise investigates a man planning to murder his wife in order to take off with a new interest, a woman from the city who smokes prodigiously and is of presumably dubious character.
The wife deserves better than this lout but there's no "good riddance" way out in this village.
After he bungles his murder attempt, the wife seeks to escape his clutches before he tries again, but is perversely seduced by his (sincere) sense of remorse.
They stumble in on a wedding-in-progress and he relives taking on a commitment to look after and protect his dyadic other, per the standard nuclear family contract. There's no possibility of a molecular family in this culture, with two moms and or two dads (this isn't Bhutan, with its above average happiness quotient).
Their faith in one another is renewed (or hers in him mainly), but then on the way home in the same row boat he planned to drown her from, a storm kicks up and it looks like he's lost her overboard, this time very much not according to plan. As omniscient viewers, we're positioned to judge him innocent (this time).
I found myself awed by the consistent look and feel of this film and thought just maybe I was seeing an all time great. The cityscapes are meticulously detailed, the trolley scenes superb.
Upon doing more research, I see other film critics share this view.
Nick and I adjourned to Columbia River Brew Pub, formerly Laurelwood, across the street. Then we bussed home so he could rest up before the journey back to Hillsboro. Since Tara had a driving class in Beaverton the next day, it made sense to do it this way.
Thanks to legislation passed in the Nixon Era, kidney dialysis patients are eligible for three visits a week. In Europe it's four, but with shorter hours.
Nick is aware of the research going on at ONAMI, as is his doc, but results from that effort aren't expected for some years. Nephrology is still in its infancy.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Looking Back
Outcomes research was hitting a peak in the medical world in tandem with the career of my boss, David Lansky. He was director of CUE when I got together with Dawn. He got me working on FORTRAN on this HP mini-computer, and before long I was in the operating theaters at night, debugging my point of care Visual FoxPro suite, named CORIS (the cath lab counterpart was named CLAIR).
Perfursionists stayed alert and interested, filling in my grids, a professional way to fill the time by feeding researchers useful numbers. Nurses entered some data. Paper forms went around later, for doctors to fill out. A picture of the surgery was developed in the data, as research numbers.
The reputation of the hospital, for doing outcomes research, was kept at a high level. Interesting work. Mostly heart related.
Perfursionists stayed alert and interested, filling in my grids, a professional way to fill the time by feeding researchers useful numbers. Nurses entered some data. Paper forms went around later, for doctors to fill out. A picture of the surgery was developed in the data, as research numbers.
The reputation of the hospital, for doing outcomes research, was kept at a high level. Interesting work. Mostly heart related.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Wanderers 2012.01.17
Pursuant to the previous installment, I did leave a follow-up voicemail with Tre, as he seemed truly distressed up that tree, not just playacting. Just climbing that thing was a feat, of circus quality. Add the red and blue lights, crowds, and you get the expectation of entertainment. We've seen this in cartoons, with people shouting "jump" and so on.
I wore my chauffeur hat again today (not literally, I have no special hat for when driving), picking up an MVP at PDX.
You might think, if we were truly a spiritual community, of this network of colored houses, this board game of assets (safehouses and so on), that our personnel would be rotating through retreat centers, heading off to meditations, disappearing on vision quests.
Indeed, that's how it is, and has been, for a long time. Dawn was far more active in her practice than I was, by so many measures.
Just today for example, two meditators from another house came by, in route by bike to their meditation center (a yurt in this case, at some higher altitude). Melody is away on retreat as well.
Now I'm at the Pauling House for a talk on Computability, Turing Machines, Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem and all that. One of the seniors, a professor by training, is holding forth. He's got his super duper unlimited registers machine with just four instructions, for defining computability.
We should not forget the Quakers have a meditative inward practice, sometimes labeled "unprogrammed" to distinguish it from a scripted service, or ceremony, led by a minister, teacher, pastor or rabbi.
Unprogrammed Friends are free to attend programmed services of course, and many do. There's no necessary either/or relationship between programmed and unprogrammed (a lesson that may apply to computability also).
A senior member of a meeting may minister informally, in an authoritative ("weighty") manner, both inside and outside the Meeting for Worship context. Indeed, a Meeting has its ritualistic aspects for creating a privileged space, a fact Dawn was adamant about recognizing.
I've been publishing some of my philosophy of mathematics around the Koski toons, taking off from the flapping 4sys (Gene Fowler). The Wittgenstein list gets a front row seat, not surprisingly.
I wore my chauffeur hat again today (not literally, I have no special hat for when driving), picking up an MVP at PDX.
You might think, if we were truly a spiritual community, of this network of colored houses, this board game of assets (safehouses and so on), that our personnel would be rotating through retreat centers, heading off to meditations, disappearing on vision quests.
Indeed, that's how it is, and has been, for a long time. Dawn was far more active in her practice than I was, by so many measures.
Just today for example, two meditators from another house came by, in route by bike to their meditation center (a yurt in this case, at some higher altitude). Melody is away on retreat as well.
Now I'm at the Pauling House for a talk on Computability, Turing Machines, Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem and all that. One of the seniors, a professor by training, is holding forth. He's got his super duper unlimited registers machine with just four instructions, for defining computability.
We should not forget the Quakers have a meditative inward practice, sometimes labeled "unprogrammed" to distinguish it from a scripted service, or ceremony, led by a minister, teacher, pastor or rabbi.
Unprogrammed Friends are free to attend programmed services of course, and many do. There's no necessary either/or relationship between programmed and unprogrammed (a lesson that may apply to computability also).
A senior member of a meeting may minister informally, in an authoritative ("weighty") manner, both inside and outside the Meeting for Worship context. Indeed, a Meeting has its ritualistic aspects for creating a privileged space, a fact Dawn was adamant about recognizing.
I've been publishing some of my philosophy of mathematics around the Koski toons, taking off from the flapping 4sys (Gene Fowler). The Wittgenstein list gets a front row seat, not surprisingly.
Sunday, January 08, 2012
Meeting House Haps
meetinghouse tree
Wilderness Way was having their regularly scheduled meeting when Tre showed up at the Stark Street meetinghouse, rapping on the window.
He asked if they knew Kirby, which they didn't, but then, when he climbed the tall tree outside and started ranting, they decided to call Lew Scholl, clerk of property management, their contact person for Friends. The neighbors just called the police.
I was on EmoKid (the bicycle) heading towards some union hall on Foster & SE 64th when I got the call from Oakland, CA. It was Lew. Did I know Tre Arrow? He was in our tree at the meetinghouse.
I revectored the bicycle and showed up there promptly (in about 10 minutes). Lew called back Wilderness Way and let them know to expect me.
The fire department had already responded and the police had blocked traffic on Stark St. The police had their lifting device, like for fixing phone poles but fancier, positioned high up. Someone was up there interviewing Tre.
I was asked not to contact him on my cell phone while this was going on. I called Lew back to let him know it was a pretty big production, and then Melody. Then my phone died (battery out) so I couldn't call anyone.
For the emergency teams, this was no big deal (that's what the sergeant said), but I thought it was a bigger ordeal than a cat stuck in a tree at least. The truck needed to hoist the interview booth required quite a bit of support logistics.
They said they wanted to ascertain if he was planning to jump or anything. He was not.
Rick Seifert, our clerk, showed up and talked to the police sergeant in charge. They were already in the process of dispersing. Dusk was swiftly turning to darkness. Rick later journaled about the event as well.
The Wilderness Way people understood Tre's ecological message and were willing to shout up their moral support.
Ranters gathered on each side of the sidewalk, starting a polarized debate familiar around Portland. They shouted about taxes versus the environment versus jobs, stuff like that. OPDX has somewhat changed the political climate and there's lots of passion for change.
Thanks to the Internet, bike swarms etc. were poised to offer more support and to send up gear were Tre planning to stay there a long time.
Lindsey caught the events on Livestream pretty much as they were happening, at least towards the end. Twitter and cell phones had spread the word and she just randomly happened to be tracking, had no foreknowledge of Tre's plans.
Channel 12 asked me off camera if we Quakers had foreknowledge of this action. I assured her we did not.
Rick really hoped John Munson would be reachable, and called Carl and Marge Abbott for his number from the clerk's office, but found out John's off serving in the Peace Corps someplace (that had been his plan all along). John and Tre have had communications in the past. I know John more from AFSC work.
Anyway, the police understood Tre was not really breaking any laws. He's a well known guy around here, an activist, in Wikipedia and everything. He does stuff like this.
I assured Tre the Quakers weren't looking at this as criminal trespass or anything, and there was no contemplation of seeing this as a criminal action (people are allowed to climb trees in Oregon). I think that's what he expected from me (kind of a no brainer), and said he'd be down shortly.
He came down in the darkness (with occasional flashes and TV lights) and made some eloquent remarks to the cameras. Channels 12, 6 and 8 each had small news teams. People crowded around and listened to his message.
He said we were raping the planet and needed to love Mother Earth. He wanted to know why more people weren't moved to defend her. He was quite coherent and everything. He's good at what he does.
:: tre addresses questioners ::
:: sharing on Facebook ::
Sunday, January 01, 2012
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Base Tours
As some of my readers know, I saw the Occupy camps as a recruiting opportunity.
Here in Portland, we specialize in disaster relief operations. The explanation for that is somewhat regional in that we live under the threat of impending doom, as a major earthquake is expected, if geology is any guide.
Another explanation is the pioneers who started coming here after the Lewis & Clark troupe were hardy campers and camping has never been far from the surface. That may be why Portland's was one of the largest Occupy demos, and one of the best organized.
The so-called Elk Club (the people who took the park and lived there in a demonstration community in the shadow of the Elk Statue) is rightly proud of its little window in the sun. We decided to end the demo before the eviction notice. When the evictors arrived, the A Camp kitchen and medical tents were already gone, as was the Food Not Bombs tent in B Camp.
You've probably heard of "eco-tours" (already popular) where tourists travel with experts in various aspects of ecology. They visit both hopeful cleanup sites and disaster sites. Hanford is of course on the list (there's already an interpretive center) as is OMSI (for a taste of Portland's science mindedness).
There's a different kind of tour I'll call "human rights tours" where you have these international groups coming through looking at the USA's prison systems. Of special interest are the holding pens for so-called "illegal" immigrants (per Anglo-Euro jurisprudence) and what work is performed there. The USA is known around the world for its prison-centric militaristic culture and many want to see it first hand, in some cases just to see what they're up against.
Recent meetings with PBI and Amnesty International folks etc., me wearing an AFSC / NPYM hat, have given me some ideas for steering the new recruits. The workshops will dovetail with the weapons inspector programs, a grad school major expected to be popular in this region, as a part of environmental sciences. The disaster relief and cleanup industry is already targeting visitation sites, with assistance from whatever agencies.
By this means, I think expanding travel opportunities for campers is in the cards. It's not "seen one seen them all" by any means. A given Elk Club veteran might start with some local visitations and then loop through a few more distance locations before returning to a local theater or meeting hall to deliver a report. We expect hundreds of such reports, becoming thousands as more become involved. Where the IAEA fits in I'm not sure, given it seems to have been banned from operating in North America (we have queries to State about this).
When monitoring a site, you need to camp out nearby, using whatever gear and sensing equipment the university has provided. How supply lines are managed depends on the scene of course. You might just use the local Wal*Mart, and / or you might need off road vehicles, perhaps electric (less noise, less footprint) to navigate to the kitchen. Some camps will grow a lot of their own food, perhaps with assistance from various biodome models (designed for permaculture).
The medical tent might need special equipment for over-exposure to whatever toxins had been determined to exist in this environment. GIS / GPS servers will be aggregating this data.
Outfitting all the frack sites with sensors is already jobs aplenty for an FDR-scale CCC. Anyone who thinks there's a shortage of work opportunities should think again. Foreign aid agencies, as well as church networks, have their role. I should draw on more contacts in Vilnius for more church involvement.
Here in Portland, we specialize in disaster relief operations. The explanation for that is somewhat regional in that we live under the threat of impending doom, as a major earthquake is expected, if geology is any guide.
Another explanation is the pioneers who started coming here after the Lewis & Clark troupe were hardy campers and camping has never been far from the surface. That may be why Portland's was one of the largest Occupy demos, and one of the best organized.
The so-called Elk Club (the people who took the park and lived there in a demonstration community in the shadow of the Elk Statue) is rightly proud of its little window in the sun. We decided to end the demo before the eviction notice. When the evictors arrived, the A Camp kitchen and medical tents were already gone, as was the Food Not Bombs tent in B Camp.
You've probably heard of "eco-tours" (already popular) where tourists travel with experts in various aspects of ecology. They visit both hopeful cleanup sites and disaster sites. Hanford is of course on the list (there's already an interpretive center) as is OMSI (for a taste of Portland's science mindedness).
There's a different kind of tour I'll call "human rights tours" where you have these international groups coming through looking at the USA's prison systems. Of special interest are the holding pens for so-called "illegal" immigrants (per Anglo-Euro jurisprudence) and what work is performed there. The USA is known around the world for its prison-centric militaristic culture and many want to see it first hand, in some cases just to see what they're up against.
Recent meetings with PBI and Amnesty International folks etc., me wearing an AFSC / NPYM hat, have given me some ideas for steering the new recruits. The workshops will dovetail with the weapons inspector programs, a grad school major expected to be popular in this region, as a part of environmental sciences. The disaster relief and cleanup industry is already targeting visitation sites, with assistance from whatever agencies.
By this means, I think expanding travel opportunities for campers is in the cards. It's not "seen one seen them all" by any means. A given Elk Club veteran might start with some local visitations and then loop through a few more distance locations before returning to a local theater or meeting hall to deliver a report. We expect hundreds of such reports, becoming thousands as more become involved. Where the IAEA fits in I'm not sure, given it seems to have been banned from operating in North America (we have queries to State about this).
When monitoring a site, you need to camp out nearby, using whatever gear and sensing equipment the university has provided. How supply lines are managed depends on the scene of course. You might just use the local Wal*Mart, and / or you might need off road vehicles, perhaps electric (less noise, less footprint) to navigate to the kitchen. Some camps will grow a lot of their own food, perhaps with assistance from various biodome models (designed for permaculture).
The medical tent might need special equipment for over-exposure to whatever toxins had been determined to exist in this environment. GIS / GPS servers will be aggregating this data.
Outfitting all the frack sites with sensors is already jobs aplenty for an FDR-scale CCC. Anyone who thinks there's a shortage of work opportunities should think again. Foreign aid agencies, as well as church networks, have their role. I should draw on more contacts in Vilnius for more church involvement.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Comic Interlude
:: occupation of world's smallest park, Mill Ends Park in Portland, Oregon ::
Sam was pounding the table today, saying we weren't ephemeralizing fast enough.
We were at Laurelwood Brew Pub planning a next gala event, in part a homecoming for those who'd been at RISD this year, for the SNEC event (yeah, insider jargon, I'm full of it).
On the ephemeralization front, Occupy is in the lead, taking over the world's smallest municiple park today, according to the Guiness Book of World Records. Hi Cameron.
It'll be a failure of capitalism this Xmas if we don't already have the action figure kits, manger scene scale (like toy army guys), with little anarchists with tents, little riot cops with vans.
Junior can line up the cops around the camp while the anarchists amass. Depending on political leanings, the narrative may go differently.
Some will put the baby Jesus right inside a tent (Food Not Bombs tent?), complete with straw, cute animals, and a few defectors from the 1% (the three Magi).
Others will have their policemen smash those dirty commies with gusto, MacArthur style (President Hoover as King Herod?), while mom & dad beam proudly.
Koski has been replying to Zubek on Youtube, sharing the war on Poly, where grown children are still grumbly-grumpy about Bucky getting a molecule named after himself 'n stuff, when he really didn't invent anything new.
How can you put a refrigerator in a dome shaped home anyway?
Gimme a break right?
I bet they talk like this at Harvard all the time (snicker, superior Princeton sniff).
Me to David (typo fixed):
This stuff about the fridge:I've been yukking it up on the Wittgenstein list too.
You should remind folks that many of the architects working with
Fuller came up with more conventional rectilinear "stage prop"
interiors, that would protect privacy, but not have to be weatherized,
as the surrounding dome was doing that. More efficient, by simple
back of the napkin computations. More green. More sustainable.
In fact, Fuller's designs were quite smart and his cultist followers,
e.g Kirby Urner, think the ambient culture just didn't have the IQ.
"It's Planet of the Apes around here" is his usual off-the-kuffka
remark (cuffka.com).
The usual picture, duh:
http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue22/ buckminsterfuller.htm
http://www.mydigitallife.co.za/index.php?option=com_ myblog&task=tag&category= buckyball&Itemid=29
(duh rectilinear as you like inside -- could be a city)
All this crap about the refrigerator is just teasing at recess, not
serious in any way. "Hey, your zipper's down!".
I'm something of a misanthropist when it comes to mean little children
that grew up to become mean little adults.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
POW Camps
A re-gearing may occur when a camp changes status. The Business Plot camps in the Occupy Iraq and Occupy Afghanistan movement have a POW flavor about them. Those caught in these so-called "face saving maneuvers" have become the cosmetology kit for Washington, DC.
As pawns of the privatized security industrial complex, active duty conscripts are prisoners of war-making institutions such as NATO. They are kept in a kind of limbo, akin to refugee status, with a minimum of human rights. The North Americans have developed a prison-minded culture, so spreading this non-democracy to overseas bases is actually just a matter of following the same playbill.
I ranted on the power of prayer in our Quaker adult discussion group this morning, talking about the integrity of a moral vision. This was somewhat in response to the neuroscientific jargon which some Quakers have picked up, part of a meme virus I'd trace to a murky liberalism, by some twisted path.
I also shared about David Koski finally getting to screen cast his work in a way that lets him stay in the environment he's most productive in, a home office setting. That's how my prayers are being answered of late too: in the comfort of the indoors, even though it's the great outdoors that I scheme about (in terms of bringing more interesting work to our state).
Tara came in second overall in the LD category, in the debate tournament just concluded.
I've been sharing about these events on Facebook as well.
I do agree with George Lakoff that people seem easy to program, a two edged sword. The jingo-jihadists who want more war strut out "Republican Guard" as a meme, and the two-stroke thinkers (lawn mower brains) get all fired up, perhaps because "Republican" is "our word" (makes 'em mad just reading about someone else using it).
Stoking hatred for the Pakistanis hasn't been working fast enough either, although WDC's professional hate-mongers have been at it 24/7. As more of this transparent saber-rattling goes on, it becomes easier to isolate the meme viruses to their sources, often tycoon types with out-of-control egos and no use for "checks and balances" -- lots of senile geezers who use their bank accounts to inspire awe among the sycophantic politicos.
OPDX is "bad for business" in the sense of serving with the non-aligned against the self-aggrandizing uber-powers. The camps we're story boarding are not for prisoners so much as for those willing to freely express their conscience by acting on behalf of the Global U, providing food services, sanitation, shelter. How these camps contribute to the betterment of humanity's condition is relatively easy to see.
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Kicked Back
I'm in the Michael Jennings Chair of Computer Science, a welcome hand-me-down from a darling FNB couple. This chair was presented pre the Chairman's trip to Brazil, which so far sounds marvelous. They drug it up to the 3rd floor, not far from Hawthorne Theater. Holden chose wisely, among neighborhoods. Welcome to 97214.
I got to Wanderers too late to blog anything about the electric bicycle fashion in Portland. It's a lifestyle option some opt for. My electric ATV and electric snowmobile fantasies somewhat dovetail. Anyway, the speaker had departed well before I got there. Not complaining, as I was having a lovely time down the street, near Angelo's.
I'm back on the front lines of Math Reform again today, an old beat of mine by now, count me as one of the grays. Speaking of which, I was riffling through Powell's on Hawthorne and found an old copy of Everything is Under Control by Robert Anton Wilson.
I bought it for under $13 in part for nostalgia value. Under GRUNCH there's my website teleport.com/~pdx4d/grunch.html
I bought it for under $13 in part for nostalgia value. Under GRUNCH there's my website teleport.com/~pdx4d/grunch.html
Thank you RAW. The then owner of Teleport married a member of our Quaker meeting (I was at the wedding) and I later bought the domain grunch.net to continue with that work.
Glenn has just arrived, with Amber, his daughter. We're saying good bye to Steve, who departs for Europe tomorrow. Alex Aris came by after, meeting me at the bus stop, bidding our Chairman adieu before he fell asleep.
Friday, December 02, 2011
AFSC Banter
:: federated states ::
The new maps have come out, of the new AFSC regions, as devised for North American states commonly considered to be part of a single Federation. That means British Columbia is out, and Hawaii is in. Guam and the Marshall Islands, important foci in my AFSC work, do not seem to have much focus. East coasters especially are not known for their attentiveness to Pacific Rim details and affairs. We take all these maps with a grain of salt therefore. Philly, like WDC, has its characteristic thought patterns.
The timidity of Christians in general is a theme I'd like to take up. I think there's a desperate race to the bottom as each tries to "out meek" the other, in a bid to inherit the Earth. According to Apocalyptic renderings, "the meek shall inherit" meaning if you just keep your head down and do a modest amount of good, then you'll have your reward in Heaven, and perhaps even on Earth, God Willing (InshaAllah). Besides, who wants to be bossy? Just a comfortable "go along to get along" attitude is what most people call "liberalism" these days, and many Quakers would count themselves among them.
"Geek" rhymes with "meek". What if we beat 'em to it? "World domination" was our stated goal as well. Could the prophets have heard wrong, misplaced a syllable? Something for theologians to mull over perhaps.
At the other end of the spectrum, you have your "dangerous Quakers", but then a lot of those are far from Christian (Praise Bob), in terms of branding. These brands have not been well represented as there's a tendency to demonize, forgetting we're still talking about Friends of Christ.
Having a "Christ" outside of Christianity may seem a contradiction in terms, but then Friends are comfortably free of most doctrines and breezily point out that Christ himself was not a Christian, as if that settles the matter.
As an NPYM delegate, I'm supposed to help the AFSC keep up to date on what Friends are doing to fill the vacuum, now that Christianity has dropped the ball.
That's not my only responsibility of course. I represent different lineages. NPYM is an umbrella organization with many branches and sub-types represented. Unless you're intimate with the history, you're probably not aware of how many brands of Quaker there already are.
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