I have a camera again: the F601
Zoom! I agonized for a long time and can't believe I waited this long,
but I finally bit the bullet and I'm very happy with it so far. (The good
thing about being without a camera is my eye and imagination are all the more
enthusiastic!)
Since my entry on Swinging the Seesaw I realized I think of many things in terms of a balancing act.
Mr. Schultz,
I just watched the new PBS program, Wide Angle, on "Saddam's Ultimate Solution" and was stunned at such a blatant piece of propaganda being passed off as journalism! When I turned to do some research on the topic I found your letter to the producers asking the same very questions that I left the show with!
Perhaps I've been spoiled by shows like Frontline, but I was not expecting this. At first, the show was simply confusing: the first segment was about Hussein's use of chemical weapons on the Kurds, yes a terrible thing. Then it, confusingly, changed topics to Al Qaeda and labored to make some thin allegations of a link between bin Laden and Hussein, perhaps. However, the focus of the show become crystal clear when James Rubin lobbed softball questions — I thought I was watching a scripted infomercial — on the eagerness with which we should rush to war (e.g., "How concerned should Americans be?!? Are we acting fast enough?!?"), I was stunned. Thank you for your letter and I'll link to it in the hopes that when people look for Wide Angle on the web, they'll find your questions.
"Sure, 90% of science fiction is crud. That's because 90% of everything is crud." Sturgeon's Law.
One of my greatest frustrations with implementations of Internet and Web specifications is incomplete (or non-conformant) implementations. Developers implement most, but not all, of the specification well, then the next greatest thing grabs the industry's attention with promises of greatness. Of course, had I complete and proper use of the existing technology, I could've done much the same — this is what the REST people seemingly argue. The well known Pareto Principle would posit that 80% of what everyone wants to do is addressed by 20% of the specification. I further posit:
Case in point, we're just now getting very good implementations of CSS2, a specification that's been a standard for four years. Work on CSS3 started two years ago.
I don't say this to fault standards organization nor implementors, it is a natural phenomanum, but these hypotheses act as evidence to support existing design maxims such as starting with a very tight scope: anything that hasn't been prototyped don't standardize, avoid optionality but permit extensibility, and release early and often. The problematic 80/20 spread on a sequence of specifications, each of which takes 50 units of effort versus 100 units, are much smaller.
Two odd connections I made while watching PBS's Red Gold: The Epic Story of Blood.
"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest" - Adam Smith.
The Internet runs on (open source and free) software written for the common good. When theorists try to explain this phenomona that defies Adam Smith's invisible hand, they look to exchange and gift cultures. I was surprised to learn this has also been studied in the context of the voluntary donation of blood:
"In the gift of blood . . . there is the absence of tangible immediate rewards in monetary or non-monetary forms; the absence of penalties, financial or otherwise, and the knowledge among donors that their donations are for unnamed strangers without distinctions of age, sex, medical condition, income, class, religion, or ethnic group." Richard Titmus, The Gift Relationship as excerpted in Giving Blood: The Development of Generosity.
"Blood transfusion was the first major biological technology to be used successfully in medicine. In recent times, as transfusion technology became more sophisticated, major pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporations began relying on the blood of those in the Third World for their profits. Grisly reports began to emerge of the new "Vampirism" occurring in South America and Asia as blood centres opened up to buy the blood of the poor. One well publicized instance involved Anastasio Somoza, the brutal dictator whose family occupied the Nicaraguan presidency for nearly half a century. In the 1970's Somoza opened a blood collection centre in Managua called "Plasmaferesis." The centre brought blood from the poor and undernourished and forced political prisoners to donate blood. Remarkably, the centre was licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the plasma collected was sold primarily to the United States and Western Europe. Each year over 100,000 "donations" were collected, two-thirds of which were sold for export. The centre, like so many throughout the Third World, was virtually unregulated." - Biocolonization: The Patenting of Life and the Global Market in Body Parts.
Joaqu°n Chamorro wrote critically of the blood bank's practices: the huge profits split between Somaza's private bank account and the American based plasma industry, and the poor renumeration and health consideration given to the donors. Because of his opposition, he was assasinated in 1978 leading to a general strike and the ousting of Somaza in 1979. [ Timeline: Nicaragua] Three years later, following the democratic election of Daniel Ortega, the US undertakes covert miltary actions against "soft-targets" in Nicaragua from Hondoras, leading to a judgement by the World Court.
Our present UN ambassador John Negroponte, the man responsible for attempting to derail the International Criminal Court this week, was our ambassador to Hondurus during our criminal actions in Nicaragua!
I'm a pretty good critique: I know what I like. (I'm no XML schema expert, but I know relaxNG is easy to use and powerful.) I'm a terrible cook, but I can throw together an occasional pastry. (Don't rely upon me to write any code, though I might put something together for my own pleasure that could be of use to someone else.) And I'm a competent kitchen manager. (In an organized manner, I can keep track of who's on the next shift, the supplies on hand, and the evenings' receipts.)
Often there are debates about the means used towards common ends: are we better served by being pragmatic or principled? I think both are useful positions. For example, some individuals might choose to be uncompromising, to stand far out on the edge of the lever. In their singular position they don't weigh much, but their extremity does increase the torque by reminding us of the principle at stake. Others might devote themselves to the process and institutions of consensus. The fulcrum itself is unwieldy and difficult to move, but if one can shift it, that too can have a profound effect on the ultimate balance.
I'm no longer making external links open in a new window after reading that it makes it difficult for those with disabilities.
I wake up at 6, but I don't mind too much. During the day it gives me an excuse to play in the fountains in the park next door. Last night Ann and I were splashing about till 10 P.M. — I think they forgot to set the shutdown timer this year! Tonight Nora and I plan on skinny dipping in Jamaica Pond, though the heat also brings out insomniacs walking off stilted bedroom air. But as long as we don't get bothered by police, or someone mischievously stealing our clothes, trying to be unseen in a perfectly clear and placid pond under the stars adds to the fun!
Last night, before I went to bed, I sat in the tub reading Micah Bazant's Timtum: A Trans Jew Zine. How great it is to be touched by someone both confused and wise — they often go together — in a self published booklet purchased on the other side of the country. When I purchase a zine during my travels, the zine itself and the references it makes to its locale become part of my memories of the trip.
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