Posted 11/23/2002 12:34:18 PM
Scott Ritter's Iraq Complex

Ritter is reliably convincing. He just doesn't always agree with himself.

intriguing read.

Posted 11/22/2002 09:06:09 PM
GEN H-4 via /.
the world's smallest co-axial helicopter

Posted 11/22/2002 06:38:35 PM
note to self:
acoustic - the hyper-oral; spoken word and text - bard, hand-written and mechanically printed texts
electric - the hyper-acoustic; analog media - radio, TV
digital - the hyper-electric; software systems and protocols of exchange - Linux, the Internet

Posted 11/22/2002 06:11:45 PM
aboutcsmonitor.com

i started reading CSMonitor in college. i always thought that it had an odd name, but appreciated their international journalistic approach to news rather than just relying on the wires. i read a bit about the paper's history tonight. a truly amazing story. seven Pulitzer Prizes later they continue to print the news five days a week... another oddity.

Mary Baker Eddy was quite an enterprising woman--especially given the time in which she lived. in 1883 she wrote, "Looking over the newspapers of the day, one naturally reflects that it is dangerous to live, so loaded with disease seems the very air. These descriptions carry fears to many minds..." too bad she was not around for Michael Moore to interview for Bowling for Columbine.

from the CSM site:

In an age of corporate conglomerates dominating news media, the Monitor combination of church ownership, a public-service mission, and commitment to covering the world (not to mention the fact that it was founded by a woman shortly after the turn of the century, when US women didn't yet have the vote!) gives the paper a uniquely independent voice in journalism.

Posted 11/22/2002 04:58:09 PM
there once lived a god named El....

El was the highest god of the Canaanite pantheon--El Elyon, the most high G-d. the one G-d from whom all regional Cannanite deities came. El was the G-d of Abraham.

Abram was a pagan. He worshipped the Sumerian gods of his ancestors. About fifteen years after the death of his ancestor Noah, El, called Abram to leave his country and his people to go to a land that his new G-d would show him. Abram was renamed Abraham and over time Abraham traded his Sumerian paganism for an El-oriented henotheism.

"but, wait a minute. isn't Yahweh the G-d of Abraham?"

no...

Posted 11/22/2002 03:53:01 PM
post: the apple of Apple's eye

Ellen Feiss finally talks...

Posted 11/22/2002 11:18:46 AM
Should scientists create new life?

Posted 11/22/2002 10:51:02 AM
lots of thinking about violence and justice and mercy ...

case in point: The Boondock Saints
what sets them apart from the thugs they cap?
what causes society to not cry for their incarceration?
i would initially answer, "they are not ideological warriors. they are oppression warriors."
but can this ever really be the case? is oppression itself ideological?
what is that thing that sets them apart?
a scrapping communal approach?
a certain selflessness?

thy will be done

btw, can't wait for Boondock II: The Second Coming

Posted 11/22/2002 10:46:06 AM

oh, happy day. what a nice clean package.
let's put on our vestal robes and sell the body of Christ to people.

Posted 11/22/2002 10:18:26 AM

why has the Catholic Church historically taken such a militant position on interpretation? why have they enforced it with the sword, with banishment and with disdain?

because the Catholic Church, unlike the majority of the Protestant Churches (until recently), has always realized that interpretation is all that we have.

does this make their posture of physical, ideological and social violence acceptable? by no means. nonetheless, it underscores what is at stake in the act of interpretation.

reality is interpretation. the stories we tell help establish the boundaries for our actions. our actions are partner in enacting destiny.

interpretation is all that we have.
engage it authentically.
hold it sacred.

Posted 11/22/2002 07:58:59 AM
Spy1d was half a mile from a rocket attack yesterday.

Posted 11/21/2002 06:43:25 PM
often i blog to take a centralized note that i want to develop more at a later date. i've lost too much on paper napkin scrawlings and illegible notes on the back of empty envelopes torn open in the rush of life. today i blog because i am doped up on Nyquil and don't know any better.

Posted 11/21/2002 06:42:12 PM
write more on entanglement theory and disproportionate impact.

entanglement theory: that subatomic particles can become so intertwined that whatever is done to one instantaneously impacts the other without concern for the experience of distance/time that normal matter encounters. this means that something effecting some subatomic particle will immediately impact its entwined particle even if it is 100 million light years away. somehow these particles make up a system that, at this moment, we cannot explain with our atomic science practices and vocabulary.

kinda like in that movie, Bybee...

Posted 11/21/2002 06:41:22 PM
people hold onto the smallest thing -- be careful how you live

it seems that i am only now learning with any real significance the power of the smallest thing i do. i've spoken of this more eloquently before, though, at this moment, it is far more real. i guess death makes life that way. more real that is.

Posted 11/21/2002 06:41:08 PM

so, i have been interacting with some old constituents of late... and upon reflection and under the influence of this cold medicine i will hover a moment on these experiences. feel free to skip this crazy rant.

in the recent old days doing ministry was a communicative technical-linguistic pursuit--the highest achievement being the capacity to muster some vocal authority to deliver some secret from G-d that was discovered that week in the pastor's study through texts written in dead languages that the religious professional had to translate (despite the fact that the best scholarship in the world had already done so literally tens of thousands of times in ways accessible to everyone who dutifully sit in the pew each Sunday). this language and oratory skill set became the dividing line between the religious elite and the parishioners. yes, it was a somewhat different as you cycle through the flavors of Christianity over time. Catholics massed in Latin and sold confession and the eucharist. the Orthodox gathered amidst incense chanting in Greek. i guess what i am talking about is my experience of the Napoleon ice cream Protestantism of my youth.

there seems to be a series of assumptions that either support or are created by this notion (the professional mediating strange ancient texts to the masses):

1. that the secrets of G-d are locked in the text and need to be unlocked by a "bible expert," who is defined in terms of technical literacy.

2. that somehow the received text is a sufficient answer to the question of the genealogy of the textual tradition. thus the task is simply one of translation and communication--questions of strata and critical texts being left to the side, or rather, not generally even acknowledged as questions.

3. that there is a right interpretation. that somehow we can possess the author's intent by translating and interpreting the text "objectively."

in this view we need experts to unlock the linguistic mysteries of G-d that come from inerrant texts which we can objectively know absolute truth from.

doesn't that make us feel all warm and fuzzy.

what a crock of shit. what a dangerous delusion. "Inerrant in the original manuscripts" is the traditional mantra. as if that solved anything. what does inerrancy mean in a world without recourse to objectivity? inerrant to whom? when? in which situations? interpretations can never be inerrant. interpretation is our ever present enterprise. i'll give you inerrancy if you demand it, but i warn you, it does you no good when over the perspectival line of contingency you step. and step you must! in practice if not in purpose.

some practical implications:

1. seminaries and colleges need to revise their language expectations for the vast majority and need to create an environment that seeks to empower patterns of research over mastery of language idiosyncrasies.

2. seminaries and colleges need to reconsider their presuppositions that they bring to the classroom with regard to the translation, interpretation and teaching of ancient texts. these pursuits need to be explicitly seen as a practice of art rather than a rigid scientific pursuit of the rationally objective. hell, the sciences are no longer working under a modern scientific paradigm. why do the churches continue to?

why? well, it seems that, at bottom, we cannot stand the teaching of Jesus that G-d sends his rain on the just and the unjust. we want to believe that we are special. that our group is the chosen of all the billions of souls who have inhabited this planet. we cannot bear the thought that we are people who tell the story that frames our existence. we cannot bear existence as the gift. we return the gift and get store credit to go buy some pretty brand name substitute for the gift. that way we fit in and don't have to think too much or extend ourselves outside of our comfort zones. that way we have perky friends that are just like us! oh, happy day! the cold wind of existence that is the very context for the great joys and sorrows that make life truly life is traded for some tribal King Dome. we all slouch in our stadium seat and watch "reality" play itself out on the field below. there is no real sport outside of our dome! come to our dome! our team is the only team that is going to make it to the Superbowl.

it is easier to sell sports crap, fast food and watery beer to people who have bought their ticket. everyone is selling something. we, variously, sell indulgence, eucharist, "engaging worship" (aka Christian entertainment), even salvation itself! all of these things come in era-appropriate, crisp cultural packaging from the empowered who hold monopoly over exchange within the Dome.

perhaps it is time to just leave. there is a whole world of sport outside of the Dome.

wow. i hate sports. that was an odd analogy. i do like international football.

why do i write this crap?

Posted 11/21/2002 12:47:39 PM

New Scientist: Software aims to put your life on a disk

MyLifeBits is a project, under the auspices of the Microsoft Media Presence lab in San Francisco, which is endeavoring to create an archival/cataloging/data mining system that anyone can use to preserve, look back on and research their life. Gordon Bell, one of the developers, says that it would be like "being able to run a Google-like search on your life."

this is very cool and very frightening.

cool: family tree implications, creating narratives and timelines, doing commingled searches based on a secured, agreed cross-database topic to merge what people did during a common timeframe, ....

uncool: you thought archived email that could be subpoenaed was bad? ha.

Posted 11/21/2002 11:05:21 AM

The Counting Crows Trader Network

the CC's have an open taping policy at all of their shows. that is cool.
the CC's have a special section for tapers at their shows. that is very cool.
the CC's have a website exchange for fans to trade audio. that is really, really, really ridiculously good loo.. uh, i mean cool.

Posted 11/21/2002 11:03:56 AM

Posted 11/21/2002 08:53:42 AM

remember the old dotCom days? remember when profitability was irrelevant--those naively heady days of "capturing market share?" do you remember that theory? it went something like this: we go out like crusaders of old and we bludgeon our competition out of business by offering everything better, faster, cheaper (remember the days of free?). then, after the bloody death or happy irrelevance of our competition we simply turn on the revenue spigot and watch the numbers soar from red to black. all of this in only three rounds of VC and a spectacular IPO! those were the days. too bad it was a fool’s game. it was a lot of fun at the time.

then one spring investors started getting antsy. all of the C-level startup bigwigs were cashing in and driving Lamborghini’s. investors wanted some return on their money too. so market sentiments shifted, rather radically, over a relatively short period of time and the long boom became the dotBomb. why? because when an organization is created and positioned to charge after a particular goal changing course is often an impossibility (if it ever happens it is 10% leadership, 15% great employees and 75% sheer luck).

there is this American brand of Christianity that is all about saving souls--market share if you will. this is a faith that has become a numbers game; a game of spiritual Risk in an attempt to dominate the planet by strategic intention. these are the folks that leave mindless tracts on urinals. funny thing that. what happens post-domination? Jesus "comes back?" we live in some paradise because we are all dominated in the same way? funny thing.

2 billion+ people out of the 6 billion people currently alive on this planet identify themselves as a follower of Jesus in some manner. that is pretty good market share. what has owning a third of the market gotten our planet? how has the earth become a more just place to live? a more beautiful place? a safer place? a happier place?

i think that the organization called church has postured itself for market domination for too long. i guess if i am honest any amount of time seeking domination is too long. the kingdom of which Jesus speaks is not about domination. if the church wants to have any part in this kingdom it seems time for a values shift. no more may domination drive mission! if one is to quantify outcomes of mission let them be beauty; let them be justice; let them be mercy. if one is to be quantified as a missional person let it by our love.

domination brings suffering not blessing.
the drive for domination brings burn-out not lives of joy.

Posted 11/20/2002 02:02:17 PM
we need some form of UN for the same reasons that we need monopoly laws. the free market does not regulate itself absolutely. no corporation or family of corporations should dominate an industry to the exclusion of others. similarly, no nation or alliance of nations should dominate the planet to the exclusion of others.

Posted 11/20/2002 08:57:09 AM

Bush Loves Mercenaries (easy login required)
via spy1d

this article needs a wide audience. the use of Private Military Corporations (PMCs) to carry out American dirty work and, yes, normal day-to-day stuff too, needs more scrutiny. who is making money from these deals? why is the US Govt paying for private sector, non-allied, mercenary armies to be built?

In short, by hiring private military contractors such as DynCorp, the U.S. government has found an effective way to conduct foreign policy by proxy and in secret. These proxies cannot be monitored, are effectively immune from all criminal sanctions, and are dangerously hard to control since they answer to corporate bosses, not military brass.

the details of big government political machinations in how war policy is carried out is something that those in power do not want people to consider closely. we must. some big ego TV (wo)man needs to break this in an engaging manner during prime time.

Posted 11/19/2002 10:10:42 PM
thank you Helvidius Priscus
thank you Robert Byrd

Posted 11/19/2002 12:51:28 PM
Kamen takes his latest dream to TV

speaking of the Segway... Kamen's latest invention is a modified Stirling engine he says can produce electricity and distill water. The gossip this time has moved beyond the space-age mail carriers and urban police officers who have been Segway's test pilots to the less photographed people of the developing world, whose needs are much more basic. Using antique principles of thermodynamics, Kamen has offered utopian images of clean drinking water and pollution-free, Stirling-powered homes in rural countries: the better world he promised us during its infancy.

i have yet to see anything that is "more important than the Internet" coming out of the Kamen lab. he is holding out on us...

Posted 11/19/2002 11:32:10 AM


Of Secret Courts and Civil Rights

Posted 11/19/2002 10:00:16 AM

A Boy, a Mother and a Rare Map of Autism's World

"When I was 4 or 5 years old," he wrote while living in India, "I hardly realized that I had a body except when I was hungry or when I realized that I was standing under the shower and my body got wet. I needed constant movement, which made me get the feeling of my body. The movement can be of a rotating type or just flapping of my hands. Every movement is a proof that I exist. I exist because I can move."
...
"I can concentrate either at what I am seeing or what I am hearing or what I am smelling," he wrote, not long after he began meeting neurologists. "It felt nothing unnatural to me until I realized that others could simultaneously see and hear and smell."
...
Others note that the brains of autistic children are larger than average and that the brain's basic building blocks, called cortical columns, contain many more cells than normal and make excess connections to other cells.

Such hyperconnectivity may cause autistic children to become overwhelmed by details because their minds are never free to integrate the whole picture. Moreover, their brains are wired in such a way that they are prone to associate things that do not normally go together.
...
When a mother at a large autism meeting asked Tito for his advice to parents, Tito replied simply, "Believe in your children."

Posted 11/18/2002 10:03:34 PM


Amazon.com: Segway Human Transporter

just in time for Eid/Hanukah/Christmas.

the science behind the Segway is cool.

Posted 11/18/2002 09:51:51 PM

Ray Kurzweil's Plan: Never Die

...I mean I have enough trouble looking after my interests when I'm alive and kicking. To look after your interests when you're not only frozen in a vat of liquid nitrogen, but don't even have legal status as a person....

Kurzweil is a lot of fun to read. i look forward to The Singularity Is Near. taking 150 supplements a day sounds expensive... wish i could afford to pretend i was going to live forever.

Posted 11/18/2002 09:35:11 PM

The Chamber of Secrets was very good. the 'odd and peculiar' prancing in our house is a sure sign of it.

we will miss Richard Harris. Ian McKellen may stand in well, but Richard will always be the beloved Albus Dumbledore.

Posted 11/18/2002 09:04:04 PM
darpa.mil down?

Posted 11/18/2002 08:55:07 AM

if you are reading this, you are an American citizen and your conscience will allow please call your senators today and ask them to vote against the Homeland Security Bill. it is simple. just call the number, state your name, where you are calling from and ask that Mr./Ms. whomever not support the Homeland Security Bill that is coming up today.

why?

the bill contains provisions that directly attack our civil liberties, giving government immense new powers to invade our privacy. Conservative columnist William Safire highlights these points in a recent New York Times column.

call. you rock.

Posted 11/17/2002 09:57:41 PM
i learned on the BBC today:

1,000+ UN workers in Afghanistan
UN cars have killed 39 people since their mission began
every five workers cost $1m+ per annum

Posted 11/17/2002 11:00:52 AM
Salon.com News | Grounded

it looks like the US government has lists of citizens that are being tracked, harassed and denied travel rights because of their political ideas.