Have I mentioned how glad I am that Obama is President and not someone else? Listened to a question/answer session the other day (this was before the public one, this was just reporters) and he just came across as thoughtful, responsible, and doing a good impression of serving the country's interests. I'm not saying I know how it's all going to work out or that his plan is perfect or that he has magic powers to fix the economy or that he doesn't make compromises. I'm just glad it's him and not someone else.
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10:42:46 PM,
Monday 30 March 2009
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first act of gardening: raked up 5 bags of last year's leaves. patio is still a mess due to running out of bags, but there are little green shoots all over the place.
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09:22:20 PM,
Sunday 29 March 2009
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Keywords:
Solitary Confinement;
Prisoners;
Inmates;
Isolation;
Torture;
Long-Term;
Human Rights
(this book is very good, much more background on the subject, not so much on solitary but prisons in general)
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06:59:39 PM,
Sunday 29 March 2009
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WHAT IS DOING IN SOCIETY The week continues to proceed quietly with the same measure of Lenten dullness. ...The season at Aiken will last until after Easter, although the gayeties are beginning to be a little dim. There are pigeon shoots and polo, which still lead in the recreations at that resort.this day in pigeons, New York Times, 1901 _
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10:14:16 AM, Saturday 28 March 2009
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The command and the enquiry can be heard any day on which an over-sea ocean liner arrives in port. ...It is a queer and interesting sight to watch the procession of half-dressed stokers, greasers and stewards. ...Another man with a chest like a gigantic pigeon, is hustled forward. The doctor gave the man a healthy slap on the chest to see if the abnormality was genuine. "Bricklayer," was the reply to the usual question. "Work?" "Yes been working these fifteen years; look at me hands. 'Ard? Yes."this day in pigeons, Evening Post, New Zealand, 1906 _
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07:28:48 AM, Friday 27 March 2009
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Pigeon raising is becoming hazardous on the East Side... When the boys opened the store yesterday morning they found it had been broken into during the night and all but about a dozen birds taken. ...the owners of the birds will keep a close watch for pigeon feathers in ash barrels and chance remarks about the excellences of pigeon pie and broiled squab.this day in pigeons, New York Times, 1905 _
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07:21:53 AM, Thursday 26 March 2009
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In the large forests and bush country are the native birds-- the beautiful wild pigeon, the koka (sic), the kuivi o weni (sic), the surviving wingless bird, the gorgeous green and gold kakafo (sic) or ground parrot, and others. ...New Zealanders will smile at the curious disguises under which the well-known "kaka" and "kiwi" and "kakapo" appear, but that is by the way.this day in pigeons, Wanganui Herald, New Zealand, 1903
Also, again in the Boston Daily Globe (so pay-per-view), "Pigeon Goes to Bank Every Day". These pigeons get up to all sorts of anthropomorphic activity in Boston, apparently. _
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07:37:15 AM, Wednesday 25 March 2009
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Close to the net was a stool, or stand, where the "stool pigeon," usually a tame or captured one, was placed. ...when the flock was passing the rope attached to the stool was pulled, causing the pigeon to rise and flap its wings in trying to escape. This attracted the attention of the passing flock and induced them to light where the grain had been scattered.this day in pigeons, The Bryan Times, Bryan, Ohio, 1908 _
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07:15:24 AM, Tuesday 24 March 2009
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Time and again the birds whirled through the flames, the flapping of their wings fanning the flames into heat which soon consumed them and sent the pigeons tumbling to the earth.this day in pigeons, New York Times, 1904 _
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10:27:04 PM, Monday 23 March 2009
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PIGEON BACK AFTER 3 YEARS. Carrier that Had Been in Naval Service Wanders to Connecticut Home.this day in pigeons, New York Times, 1908
Also forgot to mention yesterday, "PIGEON AS PHOTOGRAPHER" in the Boston Daily Globe. Unfortunately pay-per-view so what the story is I shall never know. _
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09:03:15 AM, Sunday 22 March 2009
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Just as confused now as I was three years ago about the mechanics of economic depressions. Thinking about it again...
When confronted with economics, I tend to stamp my feet and say things like "money is imaginary". I do actually kind of mean something by it-- my thoughts on economics are confused and uncertain, but it is not for lack of trying. Having read Adam Smith and Marx, and taken Econ 101, I am always suspicious that all the economic theorists are trying to sell me on some ideology or other. The very notion of economics, as an objective science, seems false to me. Economics does not deal with facts of nature. Economics deals with human relationships. Money is not an external object, does not exist separately from relation and intention. The false objectivity, the quantifying the unquantifiable, is quite necessary and part of how money works, but that's no reason to forget upon reflection that it is false.
Not only is money not an external reality, it is also often not the relational reality that it usually claims to be, namely a reward for socially useful behavior. (No time to expand on this now... more later).
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(1)
09:56:08 PM,
Saturday 21 March 2009
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I am actually grateful for this first opporunity to speak publicly about my crimes, for which I am so sorry and ashamed. As I engaged in my fraud, I knew what I was doing was wrong, indeed criminal.Madoff Allocution Statement. Interesting read. _
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08:55:54 PM, Saturday 21 March 2009
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wishlist for fantasy operating system (inspired by Nate's twitter about wanting gmail-like file management):
built-in efficient backup/syncing, to external hard disk, user-designated ftp site, or OS-supported cloud.
simple built-in revision control (attached to said backup system) for any sort of document (because it's not just code that needs it).
delicious-like tagging of files.
completely seamless integration of internet applications. there should be no distinction between a desktop application and a web application. sitting down at any terminal and logging in should give you access to to all your programs and stuff (assuming it's backed up in the cloud). this requires a somewhat different approach to security. more emphasis on protecting data stored in different applications from each other, and keeping the user informed of what is happening on their system.
the windowing api should natively support both HTML and traditional GUI components (this requirement comes after some frustration with finding a good way to present weblike data offline). in fact fantasy OS inc. will hire several designers and UI experts to come up with a slick new front end api combining the best of both worlds, which is useable from a single language, and the engineers will ensure that it is automatically translateable into an old-style html/javascript/flash web app for cloud access when you're stuck with an old OS. the windowing api should be clean and fast, no stupid effects that look good in a demo but need to be turned off the minute you really want to use the machine (even Ubuntu has this problem).
the multimedia support in fantasy OS is great. the audio system in particular has been re-worked so that instead of a nest of virtual cables plugged into virtual devices you have a clean panel showing what's what, and not letting applications step on each other's toes (so irritating when an app hogs the sound output). the file manager is good enough for multimedia that you don't need separate programs to manage different types of media (the built-in tagging and the auto-filtering by file type or media type help with that).
privacy. fantasy OS, while existing in the cloud, really does respect your privacy (unlike some corporations one might mention). personal data is actually encrypted, and only accessible with the express consent of the user. fantasy OS handles privacy and security so well that it is trusted by corporations and governments. building intranet, internet, and business-to-business applications is easy given the fine-grained control over data access for people and groups.
wow that got longer than I intended. I could really do with the first three. but as long as we're in fantasy-land what am I missing?
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04:10:45 PM,
Saturday 21 March 2009
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These are the all-big-gun ships which one hears so much of nowadays, vessels of such tremendouse offensive and defensive power, of such high speed and wide steam radius, that it is now admitted that upon their proponderance will rest the naval supremacy of the future.this day in pigeons, New York Times, 1909 _Although the idea of the all-big-gun ship originated on this side of the Atlantic and had its inception in target practice in the American Navy, that distinguished Italian, Cuniberti, of the Royal Italian Corps of Naval Engineers, has, by reason of the capaciousness of piegeon holes in Washington, been credited with the first design.
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11:42:45 AM, Saturday 21 March 2009
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happy equinox!
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10:14:41 AM,
Friday 20 March 2009
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I did not see more than two tuis and one pigeon, and I neither saw nor heard a bell-bird or a kaka. ... I can understand, in circumstances of this nature, how many people have run away with the idea that some species of our avifauna are becoming extinct.this day in pigeons, Evening Post, New Zealand, 1909 _
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07:01:37 AM, Friday 20 March 2009
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Whether the flying machine of the future is to use moving wings or to depend on motionless planes the writer of the article does not venture to decide, but he confidently predicts that the motive power in either case will be electricity from a storage battery. The present weight of all such batteries, though it is far in excess of that of the lightest steam engine of equal power, does not alarm him. "The weight of the average pigeon," he says, "is one pound, and the measurement of its muscle development shows it to posses 1-83 of a horsepower."this day in pigeons, New York Times, 1903 _
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09:02:13 PM, Thursday 19 March 2009
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I was just playing around with looping software and thought, I wonder what prime numbers sound like. Like, if you have loops of different prime lengths and play them together, what happens. Here is a beginning of an answer, up to 13. Disappointed I couldn't get it to start with a count-off-- I actually do get it going by counting up to 13 with rests but because the software records only the loop, and not the original, it doesn't sound that way. Will have to deal with that at some point, just in general.
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(1)
11:34:45 PM,
Tuesday 17 March 2009
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I'm glad I'm not the only one who had an extreme reaction to that story. It's no longer such a shock to me now of course, I've integrated this knowledge over the past couple of months, it has become one of the horrors of the known world, it has latched on to the extreme of "the sort of thing that happens". And, I don't know, I don't know why of all the things in the world it should have particularly shocked me so much. There are many many horrible things. There's torture, which pushes a lot of the same buttons. Having a body, being a body, the potential for suffering-- the potential for somewhat comprehensible suffering (because there may be suffering in black depths beyond knowledge, and maybe one has a sense that there is, and that can somehow be accepted, but actual physical black depths that can be excavated, those are harder to wave a blanket of acceptance over)-- is disturbing. And the only limit of it is the limit of the body itself. And, I don't know, this case, it may be no more than an extreme of the daily horrorshow but it really puts a dent into some of my easier assumptions about the nature of evil and the goodness of the universe.
A tangentially related thought, when I look at the case of U.S. torture I start to see that there's this great moral seriousness to the world, that there is evil, that there are reasons that people are evil, that someone like Dick Cheny can give a very mild-mannered explanation of why evil is necessary, and that it's very very easy to believe that-- easy for a self-admittedly soft person like me to want to be protected by the hard tough people who just want to get things done. In a way the Fritzl case could be too easy, just this one man is evil, and there's no need to identify with him, he's evil and that's it. But there's a lot of evil that is much closer to home. And just, you know, to think, in order not to be evil, not in order to be very good and heroic, but not to be evil, it may be necessary to make real and painful sacrifice, and that may or may not happen...
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11:03:06 PM,
Tuesday 17 March 2009
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A petition reaching the length of the State House and signed by 20,000 person remonstrating against the Ant-Pigeon Shoot bill that is being held up in an Assembly committee was received here today.this day in pigeons, New York Times, 1904
(started this project on twitter, moving it here, it's a daily quote from a newspaper 100 years or so ago on this day about pigeons) _
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07:22:11 AM, Tuesday 17 March 2009
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06:32:22 PM, Monday 16 March 2009
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06:32:07 PM, Monday 16 March 2009
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06:31:53 PM, Monday 16 March 2009
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07:44:44 AM, Sunday 15 March 2009
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Moving is continuing at a rapid pace thanks to Moss and Julia. The new house is awesome. I hope the fish survive.
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10:14:58 PM,
Saturday 14 March 2009
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Virtual barbershop is fairly impressive (listen through headphones).
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10:13:46 PM,
Saturday 14 March 2009
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took this a while ago at revere beach. decided that I could hear the waves better without the scratchy soundtrack.
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03:48:45 PM,
Tuesday 10 March 2009
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Infinite cat in motion. I would've added to the chain but our cat appears to be completely uninterested in videos of other cats (what are you pointing me at? the printer? why is the printer interesting?)
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(1)
09:35:15 PM,
Sunday 8 March 2009
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Dreamt about a city in the mountains, which featured 5 blue Eiffel Towers hanging over it, arranged so they appeared to recede into the mountains. I was asking someone how the suspension worked, and they were explaining that this was possible because it was the Future.
This is almost a parody of my art and architecture dreams. What's up with that, subconscious?
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10:06:33 AM,
Saturday 7 March 2009
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Here are the tracks on my latest blogswap, with the assigned theme "The Morning Commute". I'll get these off hopefully this weekend. If you're not doing the blogswap but want a copy, leave a comment.
Highway Noise
1. Canada Geese Honking
2. Driving School/Pylon
3. Drive my Car/The Beatles
4. I Drove All Night/Cyndi Lauper
5. There is a Light that Never Goes Out/The Smiths
Navigational Issues
6. Can’t Find my Way Home/Blind Faith
7. Map Ref. 41N 93W/Wire
8. Radio Nowhere/Bruce Springsteen
Alternative Modes of Transportation
9. The Wires from my Broken Record Player/Cars & Trains
10. Airplanes/Adron
11. If I had a Boat/Lyle Lovett
12. Walking in the King’s Highway/The Carter Family
13. Driver 8/R.E.M.
Destination
14. Take me to the Riot/Stars
15. Train of Thought/A-Ha
16. Don’t Worry about the Government/Talking Heads
17. Working is No Problem/Pylon
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07:59:13 AM,
Thursday 5 March 2009
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03:08:45 PM, Monday 2 March 2009
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I have drunk the twitter koolaid.
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10:33:47 AM,
Monday 2 March 2009
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I am touring an apartment I am thinking of renting. It's a large pretty apartment, though one of the bedrooms is being used for storage and is full of junk. Another of the rooms is a teenage girl's, with just one window. Her father is the landlord, and is talking about the importance of algebra, and finding out what A is.
In the news they are talking about a building, a tall yellow rectangular affair which is school for girls, which the local government would rather tear down, but they are being forced instead by some other branch of government to wire it for internet.
Later on, the girl in the apartment is looking out her window, where she can see the building in the distance, and thinking how sometimes, when she sees that building coming in and out of the fog, it is so beautiful it makes her forget about the solution to A, and x and y, and how all the numbers work out.
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07:27:21 AM,
Monday 2 March 2009
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More stop motion fun:
Sheep on 12seconds.tv
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02:46:36 PM,
Sunday 1 March 2009
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03:39:34 PM, Friday 27 February 2009
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So we went to Moss and Julia's on Saturday to do crafts. I decided my craft would be stop motion animation. We all ended up pitching in. Here is the result (Tim is behind the camera, and Julia is behind the hat):
Things Eating Things on 12seconds.tv
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10:43:28 PM,
Tuesday 24 February 2009
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site & script courtesy of Moss