August 28, 2005
A request for those bloggers out there...
...who have put me on their blogrolls.
Please let me know if I'm on your blogroll and you are not on mine. I am about to do some major renovations at Random Fate to both correct the commenting problem along with updating the look (I really don't like the way it looks now).
I am happy to reciprocate any blogrolling (within reason, Nazis and other hate-bloggers need not apply), but I cannot do so unless I know.
Please use the email link on the right, or you can contact me at:
randomfate-NO-@-SPAM-gmail.com
Remove the letters in CAPITALS and the dashes when you use the link or use cutting and pasting.
Thanks!
August 27, 2005
Pointed parody wherein I suspect the targets will completely miss the humor
I wonder if this will give the Darwin Fish a run for the money?
Jim Leftwich's Flying Spaghetti Monster T-shirt at Boing Boing storeJust what is the Flying Spaghetti Monster, you ask?
Well, here is one depiction:
From Wikipedia:
Flying Spaghetti Monsterism is a parody religion created to protest the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to allow intelligent design to be taught in science classes alongside evolution.The "religion" has since become an Internet phenomenon garnering many followers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (sometimes referring to themselves as "Pastafarians", a pun on Rastafarians) preaching the word of their "noodly master" as the one true religion.
It originated with an open letter to the Kansas State Board of Education:
I am writing you with much concern after having read of your hearing to decide whether the alternative theory of Intelligent Design should be taught along with the theory of Evolution. I think we can all agree that it is important for students to hear multiple viewpoints so they can choose for themselves the theory that makes the most sense to them. I am concerned, however, that students will only hear one theory of Intelligent Design.Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him.
It is for this reason that I’m writing you today, to formally request that this alternative theory be taught in your schools, along with the other two theories. In fact, I will go so far as to say, if you do not agree to do this, we will be forced to proceed with legal action. I’m sure you see where we are coming from. If the Intelligent Design theory is not based on faith, but instead another scientific theory, as is claimed, then you must also allow our theory to be taught, as it is also based on science, not on faith.
Given how poorly most American high school students understand the science that is taught in the schools, what sane person wants their faith taught in the schools?
Their beliefs would get distorted beyond all recognition. Believe me, I had to "unteach" all the strange things that the students in my college class had "learned" in high school about science; it was not pretty.
Be careful when you advocate teaching belief in a science class.
Technorati Tags: commentary, evolution, humor, intelligent design, parody, science
August 26, 2005
Music from the recent past
I've always been a fan of the music in the Charlie Brown
I'm at this moment listening to other music by the composer/performer, Vince Guaraldi
Good stuff...
Another item for the “not related to poltics” bin…
This is pretty damn cool:
Spirit rover sits atop Martian summitWhen I start to get down because of all the bad news I see, all the hatred, all the insanity, I remember that we can also do great things.
Corporations have rights that over-ride those of real people?
In the interests of full disclosure - I work at creating IP (intellectual property) and therefore am among those who might be affected by the outcome of this legal wrangling.As Shaggy would say, "Zoinks!!!":
Legal argument could hamper high-tech job-changers
Published: August 26, 2005, 12:29 PM PDTBy Ed Frauenheim
Staff Writer, CNET News.comBuried in Microsoft's lawsuit against its former executive Kai-Fu Lee and Google is a legal doctrine that could make tech professionals shiver.
The high-profile dispute largely hinges on a noncompete agreement Lee signed with Microsoft. But in court filings, the software giant has also mentioned the theory of "inevitable disclosure," which holds that in some circumstances people can't avoid sharing or relying on trade secrets from their former employer when moving to a competitor.
Thanks to this increasingly popular legal argument, techies and other employees could be in for a surprise when they try to switch companies. In states that accept the inevitable disclosure concept, employers can sue defectors even if they've signed only a confidentiality agreement--or even if they haven't signed an employment agreement at all, said Robin Meadow, an attorney with the firm Greines Martin Stein & Richland.
"It's sort of an unwritten noncompete contract, in effect," Meadow said. "The fact that you haven't signed something doesn't mean you're safe when you move to another company."
Chief scientists and engineers at high-tech companies, as well as executives, are particularly vulnerable to the inevitable disclosure argument, according to Martin Foley, an attorney with the law firm Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal. Courts making inevitable disclosure rulings tend to bar a worker from a new position for a year or less, but the concept conceivably could keep someone from taking a new job in their field forever, Foley said.
"Inevitable disclosure is ultimately, potentially, a form of indentured servitude, if it's applied in an extreme manner," Foley said.
A few years ago, Foley himself helped convince a California court of appeals to reject the inevitable disclosure doctrine. But it has been upheld in federal court. Employer suits that call on the inevitable disclosure doctrine are on the rise and now number in the hundreds each year, said Johnny Taylor, partner at the law firm McGuireWoods. It's difficult to say how many state courts have ruled in favor of at least a limited version of inevitable disclosure.
"It's become a trend," said Taylor, also chair of the Society for Human Resource Management professional group. "This theory or doctrine is taking hold."
Read the entire story.
Did Shakespeare really have it so right centuries ago when he wrote, "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" (Henry VI -Part 2, Act IV, Scene II)?
Where do the "rights" of "corporations" or "companies" (constructs of legal fiction, at best) end and the rights of an individual to have gainful employment in his or her chosen profession begin?
Is the "intellectual property" gambit of corporations getting out of hand, as evidenced both by this legal wrangling along with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which was essentially written by corporations?
We have known for quite a while that money has had an overweening influence on lawmaking in the United States. Has it finally crossed the line to where corporations now have more "rights" than citizens, including the "right" to keep individuals from being able to find and hold jobs in their profession?
Technorati Tags: politics, science, science & technology, science and technology, technology
Icons are shorthand, but what exactly do they mean?
An icon I have never seen before has just cropped up on one of my Konfabulator weather monitors: a sun partially obscured by a cloud with lightning and rain emerging beneath it.
So, does this mean "partly cloudy with a bit of rain and Zeus pissed off enough to shoot at you"?
Technorati Tags: humor
I've been busy this evening
I've been getting prepared to completely renew my MovableType installation on my host to see if that fixes the comment problem. I'll do the final work tomorrow morning when folks in the US are asleep (90% of my readers are there) so that in the event of a disaster I'm offline only when most of those who read me are fast asleep, or damn well should be.
I like WordPress, but I don't want to lose my template, as unhappy with it as I am.
I will decide over the weekend which system to go with, and get a new site design with whichever system makes the grade.
This is a hobby???
Geez, I don't do this much work on a lot of things that pay...
Times change
I knew this day would come.
Slide rules rule in Stanford exhibitStanford University is hosting an exhibit on the 350 year history of that hoary tool of the engineering world: the slide rule.
The slide rule was the most convenient calculator available to builders and scientists until the development of electronic calculators a few years ago. They also made great looking tie clips.
Scottish theologian John Napier laid the foundation for the invention of the slide rule in 1614 with the invention of logarithms. In 1622, the mathematician William Oughtred set two straight edges marked with logarithmic scales side by side and created the first rectilinear slide rule.
About 15 years ago I saw a slide rule on sale somewhere, I have no idea where it was.
I immediately bought it.
I haven't seen one on sale since.
I brought that slide rule to France with me, and I've shown it to many of my French colleagues, who didn't even know they ever existed.
Be careful of being too prideful in what you know how to do. I once knew how to perform calculations on a slide rule fairly quickly. Now, hardly anyone born after men landed on the moon even know they were used to design the ships of Apollo lunar landing program.
Sigh...
August 25, 2005
For those adventurous ones...
...who want to help me with my WordPress installation, you can go here:
You can tell me what works and does not work for you (yes, I know the format is the standard one, I'm working on it, I have a day-job, you know...).
Still having "issues" with comments
I've tried several things to fix the comments, but they are still not working.
I do not know what changed in the past few days to cause the comments to stop working, I suspect an "upgrade" of the software on my host.
Given that MT-Blacklist does not work with the host I am using, and that MovableType has had more than one problem with recent host upgrades,I am considering moving to WordPress for Random Fate.
My apologies for the lack of commenting available. You can always email me, my address is displayed prominently to your right.
August 24, 2005
Before subscribing to a conspiracy theory, remember...
Do not ascribe to malevolence what can be attributed to simple incompetence.
-Hanlon's Razor (most common name)
Project Valour-IT is still ongoing
Follow the link by clicking on the image to get more information about this project, and if you feel it is worthy, donate.
August 23, 2005
Quote of the day
...it was an unwise apprentice who worked for a carpenter who'd sawn off his own damned thumb once through incompetence.
-Velociman
Server issues
There is a problem with the comments here. I'm trying to address the problem as quickly as possible.
Some on the right are beginning to notice...
...that they are not getting what they voted for.
In other words, the neoconservative agenda is not what it promised to be.
Warning - this one is long... with subheadings...
Anyone who thinks this is black and white has not read up on the subject...
Professor Bainbridge, at his eponymous weblog, has apparently stopped toeing the party line:
It's time for us conservatives to face facts. George W. Bush has pissed away the conservative moment by pursuing a war of choice via policies that border on the criminally incompetent. We control the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives, and (more-or-less) the judiciary for one of the few times in my nearly 5 decades, but what have we really accomplished? Is government smaller? Have we hacked away at the nanny state? Are the unborn any more protected? Have we really set the stage for a durable conservative majority?Meanwhile, Bush continues to insult our intelligence with tripe like this:
"Our troops know that they're fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere to protect their fellow Americans from a savage enemy," Bush said in his weekly radio address. {Ed: Full text here}"They know that if we do not confront these evil men abroad, we will have to face them one day in our own cities and streets, and they know that the safety and security of every American is at stake in this war," he said.
I guess that's all he has left. After all, if Iraq's alleged WMD programs were the casus belli, why aren't we at war with Iran and North Korea? Not to mention Pakistan, which remains the odds-on favorite to supply the Islamofascists with a working nuke. If Saddam's cruelty to his own people was the casus belli, why aren't we taking out Kim Jong Il or any number of other nasty dictators? Indeed, what happened to the W of 2000, who correctly proclaimed nation building a failed cause and an inappropriate use of American military might? And why are we apparently going to allow the Islamists to write a more significant role for Islamic law into the new Iraqi constitution? If throwing a scare into the Saudis was the policy, so as to get them to rethink their deals with the jihadists, which has always struck me as the best rationale for the war, have things really improved on that front?The trouble with Bush's justification for the war is that it uses American troops as fly paper. Send US troops over to Iraq, where they'll attract all the terrorists, who otherwise would have come here, and whom we'll then kill. This theory has proven fallacious. The first problem is that the American people are unwilling to let their soldiers be used as fly paper. If Iraq has proven anything, it has confirmed for me the validity of the Powell Doctrine.
---
While we remain bogged down in Iraq, of course, Osama bin Laden remains at large somewhere. Multi-tasking is all the rage these days, but whatever happened to finishing a job you started? It strikes me that catching Osama would have done a lot more to discourage the jihadists than anything we've done in Iraq.
These are points that if made by someone on the left side of the political spectrum, they would be immediately be dismissed as "partisan politics" by the right-wingers in blogworld.
With them coming from an avowedly and proudly self-proclaimed conservative from the old mold, if the discussion quoted above is any indication of his provenance, can the accusation of "partisan" continue to be leveled at any and every one who condemns the new-mint neoconservative policies that appear to have if not completely failed, have fallen far, far short of what was promised by the acolytes of the new faith?
It's hard to answer what is wrong, when nothing is right...
Meanwhile, political science professor Dr. Stephen Taylor (who from my reading at least appears to be right-leaning) at PoliBlog offers this concern regarding the current draft of the proposed Iraq constitution:
I have long wondered if the usage of “federalism” in the press is accurate, and have thought for a while that it was not (and Shugart’s post today confirms it). Indeed, what seems to be on the table is a form of confederalism or a strange hybrid of kinda-sorta-federalism with a unitary government–neither of which is a very good idea.Indeed, this sounds like a potential disaster–but I will think some more on the topic and wait and see what is actually in the document.
In short: the confederal version (a Kurd zone, a Shiite zone and a Sunni zone) is a recipe for breakup, and a Kurd + the rest of Iraq version seems to equal a relatively quick exit for the Kurds, which would cause problems with the rest of Iraq, not to mention Turkey and Iran.
Did they not consult with anyone who knows something about constitution design and institution arrangements? It would appear not.
And at this point I am more prone to believe the negative assessment vis-a-vis getting a draft to parliament, rather than the optimistic one.
To say that his analysis and questions are troubling is an understatement.
Elsewhere in the world, since both Iran and Kim Jong Il, the dictator in charge of a North Korea that likely has the very nuclear weapons that Iraq was discovered to NOT have, a regime that desperately needs hard currency incidentally, has already been mentioned by Professor Bainbridge, perhaps we should discuss what I have often argued is the true medium to long-term existential threat to the United States, which is China, not terrorism (a tactic, not an ideology) or Islamofascism:
China today differs from Japan in 1980s
Country may be a far tougher force to reckon with going forwardAssociated Press
Updated: 4:59 p.m. ET Aug. 21, 2005NEW YORK - It sounds like history repeating itself: The United States faces a huge trade deficit with an Asian country, which is also under intense scrutiny for its interest in buying U.S. assets and having a currency many deem undervalued.
Today, that best describes how China is viewed. Two decades ago, Japan came under similar attack for its growing global presence, and that spurred all sorts of protectionist talk out of Washington.
The Japanese hysteria eventually died down as the country fell into a long recession. But don't look for that to happen with China, where its politics combined with its potential for growth may make it a far tougher force to reckon with going forward.
---
There are also significant political differences between the two. While the Chinese have been more open to foreign investment than Japan, there are some concerns that the communist political structure means that the Chinese won't embrace all kinds of foreign involvement such as an American company buying a big Chinese company.
In addition, Standard & Poor's chief economist David Wyss points out that China's huge population — which he estimates is 10 times as large as Japan's — means that China has the capability of taking over world production of just about everything.
So talking about China today as though it were Japan 20 years ago might not accurately size up the situation of this fast-growing empire. China's might just be beginning to build its power as an economic force.
To the dismay of many Americans, that will likely mean a bigger, bolder China to contend with for many years to come.
If we do not defeat ourselves through our over-reactions to perceived dangers by passing or making permanent laws such as the USA PATRIOT Act that arguably are unconstitutional (the requirement of judicial approval for search warrants, anyone?) and other ineffective but freedom-denying actions that degrade the very liberties we proclaim to be defending, then we may very well not be able to combat the economic threat posed by China.
Recall, we did not defeat the Soviet empire through a direct war. We won through other means.
In other words, "It's the economy, stupid."
Think of the Web as a big bathroom wall, and everyone has a marker...
Those bloggers and professional editorialists who repeat the current right-wing talking points blame the so-called "liberal media" for poisoning the atmosphere regarding Iraq by the insidious plan of the heinous MainStream Media (MSM) to only present the bad news out of Iraq while completely ignoring the good news.
An aside here, if I had to don body armor and only go out with an armed platoon of the US military to "report" on the situation outside the infamous Green Zone in Baghdad, I would question the efficacy of the occupation of Iraq, too.
However, returning to the substance of the accusation of a "biased media", it is interesting to observe that many of these same writers who are claiming that the supposedly biased media are turning the citizens of the United States against the policies of the administration in Iraq, implying that citizens are incapable of making their own judgments and instead swallow what they are fed by the MSM whole, are the very same writers who were proudly proclaiming that those very same average citizens are now miraculously smart enough to make their own choices regarding retirement planning and investing, so it is vital (according to the right-wing talking points) for both fairness and the future of the retirement system that we make Personal Accounts a key part of the Social Security system.
Do you sense an inconsistency here that is rather insulting to the "average Joe", just as insulting as is the arrogance of the left-wing?
At times I suspect that both extreme wings suffer from the same syndrome of hubris and smug certainty that they are the only ones who know what is right, but the right-wing is better able to come across as "folksy" while the left-wing doesn't hide their own version of the same elitist arrogance at all.
I wonder, which is truly more honest...
Anything can be put to use, even the dead...
In an ironic symmetry, recently John Donovan of Castle Argghhh!, a milblogger who leans right but is happy to engage in reasonable discussion, posted on his agreement with a Christopher Hitchens article in Slate decrying using the dead to make a political point, a condemnation that I agreed with if applied to both wings equally. Hitchens wrote:
Finally, I think one must deny to anyone the right to ventriloquize the dead. Casey Sheehan joined up as a responsible adult volunteer. Are we so sure that he would have wanted to see his mother acquiring "a knack for P.R." and announcing that he was killed in a war for a Jewish cabal? This is just as objectionable, on logical as well as moral grounds, as the old pro-war argument that the dead "must not have died in vain." I distrust anyone who claims to speak for the fallen, and I distrust even more the hysterical noncombatants who exploit the grief of those who have to bury them.Yet today, Blackfive, a milblogger who also leans right but doesn't seem to drink the right-wing kool-aid wrote this at his eponymous weblog (NOTE - bolded italics added):
One point (and not critical of the above post by my pal Andi), I really do object to using the name "Sheehan" to identify the protests. I doubt very much that Army Specialist Casey Sheehan would appreciate that. Instead, let's call it Cindy-fest or something else. Cindy-land. Cindy-stock. Anything but Casey's name.To put it bluntly, Blackfive has just ventriloquized the dead by stating that he knows better than what the mother of Army Specialist Casey Sheehan knows her son, the dead Casey Sheehan, would appreciate.
Ventriloquizing the dead? Everyone is doing it.
I know the irony was unintentional, but that is what makes it all the more cold and hard.
The only lesson history has taught us is that man has not yet learned anything from history...
Even though I did not like George W. Bush even before he became President of the United States, recent trends are not good for our nation (thanks to Jonathan Singer posting at The Moderate Voice for the link):
George W. Bush's overall job approval ratings have dropped from a month ago even as Americans who approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president are turning more optimistic about their personal financial situations according to the latest survey from the American Research Group. Among all Americans, 36% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 58% disapprove. When it comes to Bush's handling of the economy, 33% approve and 62% disapprove.Among Americans registered to vote, 38% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 56% disapprove, and 36% approve of the way Bush is handling the economy and 60% disapprove.
This is the second month in a row when improving economic ratings have not been matched by higher job approval ratings for Bush. A total of 24% of Americans now say their personal financial situations are getting better, up from 17% in July, and 27% say they believe that their personal financial situations will be better off a year from now, which is up from 21% in July.
(Full disclosure: I lived in Texas long before George W. Bush became President and observed his performance then... along with the very American tendency that I do not like sons of privilege who have never held a real job, or even any job that was not acquired through who your father is rather than what you have actually accomplished on your own... I ask the hyper-partisan among you to give me an example of where any business that George W. Bush was in charge of prospered under his leadership, or indeed any job he did not get through who he was related to but instead based upon his qualifications and what he had achieved)
How can any American who is interested in the success of his nation, regardless of his partisan leanings, take joy in this?
I take no joy in it, because it shows the failure we are undergoing despite the price we have paid in treasure and, far more importantly, lives both lost and damaged beyond any repair we can give them.
It only gets worse, however:
Militias wrest control across Iraq’s north, south
Newly empowered Shiite, Kurdish forces hold mixed allegiancesBy Anthony Shadid and Steve Fainaru
The Washington Post
Updated: 6:19 a.m. ET Aug. 21, 2005BASRA, Iraq - Shiite and Kurdish militias, often operating as part of Iraqi government security forces, have carried out a wave of abductions, assassinations and other acts of intimidation, consolidating their control over territory across northern and southern Iraq and deepening the country's divide along ethnic and sectarian lines, according to political leaders, families of the victims, human rights activists and Iraqi officials.
While Iraqi representatives wrangle over the drafting of a constitution in Baghdad, forces represented by the militias and the Shiite and Kurdish parties that control them are creating their own institutions of authority, unaccountable to elected governments, the activists and officials said. In Basra in the south, dominated by the Shiites, and Mosul in the north, ruled by the Kurds, as well as cities and villages around them, many residents say they are powerless before the growing sway of the militias, which instill a climate of fear that many see as redolent of the era of former president Saddam Hussein.
Militias gain power, but authority unclear
The parties and their armed wings are sometimes operating independently, and other times as part of Iraqi army and police units trained and equipped by the United States and Britain and controlled by the central government. Their growing authority has enabled them to seize territory, confront their perceived enemies and provide patronage to their followers. Their rise has come because of a power vacuum in Baghdad and their own success in the January elections.
Since the formation of a government this spring, Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, has witnessed dozens of assassinations, claiming members of the former ruling Baath Party, Sunni political leaders and officials of competing Shiite parties. Many have been carried out by uniformed men in police vehicles, according to political leaders and families of the victims, with some of the bullet-riddled bodies dumped at night in a trash-strewn parcel known as The Lot. The province's governor said in an interview that Shiite militias have penetrated the police force; an Iraqi official estimated that as many as 90 percent of officers were loyal to religious parties.
Across northern Iraq, Kurdish parties have employed a previously undisclosed network of at least five detention facilities to incarcerate hundreds of Sunni Arabs, Turkmens and other minorities abducted and secretly transferred from Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, and from territories stretching to the Iranian border, according to political leaders and detainees' families. Nominally under the authority of the U.S.-backed Iraqi army, the militias have beaten up and threatened government officials and political leaders deemed to be working against Kurdish interests; one bloodied official was paraded through a town in a pickup truck, witnesses said.
Violence a black mark on U.S.?
"I don't see any difference between Saddam and the way the Kurds are running things here," said Nahrain Toma, who heads a human rights organization, Betnahrain, with offices in northern Iraq and has faced several death threats.
Toma said the tactics were eroding what remained of U.S. credibility as the militias operate under what many Iraqis view as the blessing of American and British forces. "Nobody wants anything to do with the Americans anymore," she said. "Why? Because they gave the power to the Kurds and to the Shiites. No one else has any rights."
There is more, and none of it promising.
In other words, if not a complete and utter failure of the administration's handling of the post-war situation in Iraq, the reality there is far, far from a ringing endorsement of the policies and leadership.
Yet, the warbloggers who chanted "weapons of mass destruction" for months and months before and after March of 2003 until ultimately they were proven completely and totally wrong continue their drone of unquestioning support despite the incompetence their revered leaders have shown.
Is it any wonder that this poem from almost a century ago, written in the wake of the First World War seems even more applicable now?
Turning and turning in the widening gyreAfter pulling together all of these seemingly disparate threads and slogging through all of this text, one must ask what is the pattern?
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
-William Butler Yeats, January 1919
The answer is simple.
We are being distracted by things that are not true threats, and neglecting the real perils to our nation.
Islamofascism?
Yes, it is dangerous, but will it ever overthrow our government unless we help it from within through ill-considered laws that are contrary to the liberties envisioned by our founders?
No.
China and other rising powers in Asia (including India, the largest democracy in the world)?
That is where the real confrontation to our current pre-eminent position of power technologically, economically, and militarily (for the three are linked far more profoundly than most realize) in the world lies.
How do cultures die?
When they are more concerned with internecine conflicts over ideologies that are more similar than the fundamental culture is to the external threats opposed to them.
We have to step outside our ideology, outside our partisan talking points, and deliberately choose to look at the world as it is.
The consequences if we do not?
I leave the rest of the math as an exercise to the reader.
Technorati Tags: commentary, patterns in the white noise, politics, right-wing, right-wing politics, right-wing weblogs, some thoughts
August 21, 2005
Trying to wrap my brain around something
I've spent most of my evening trying to wrap my brain around several things I've been piecing together, along with much of what I've read over the past week in both blogworld and in the world at large, attempting to reconcile what I'm thinking with both rationality and with what I'm trying to accomplish in blogging by splitting my opinions versus my commentary between Radio Saigon and Random Fate respectively.
The world refuses to be so neatly categorized.
I'll work it all out, but not until tomorrow at the earliest.
Technorati Tags: commentary, weblogs
Seems obvious, but is completely obscure to some
All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others.
-Douglas Adams
Technorati Tags: quotes
A warning we ignore at our peril
When a culture become factionalized, when it becomes us vs. them, everyone starts setting up consistently smaller camps...first it's democrats vs. republicans...then it's mainstream republicans vs. conservative republicans...then it's conservative republicans vs. religious right republicans (with the democrats having equal problems on their side). As soon as we forget that we're *all* US, it begins to fall apart.
-J. Michael Straczynski
Technorati Tags: quotes
More developments in sensor technology
Almost a week ago, I briefly discussed how the world of sensors isn't the one you see on television, certainly not what you see on any incarnation of Star Trek.
This doesn't mean there isn't a lot of new sensor technology coming down the pike, though.
First, a passive sensor that can image a wide variety of objects. A passive sensor doesn't require a probe such as a radio wave (aka RADAR) or a laser beam (as mentioned in my previous post) or X-rays for detection. While the terminology isn't common, I typically refer to active sensors as "scanners" instead, to give a clear differentiation.
Sensor Could Detect Concealed Weapons Without X-rays
Source: Ohio State University
Date: 2005-08-18COLUMBUS , Ohio - A new sensor being patented by Ohio State University could be used to detect concealed weapons or help pilots see better through rain and fog.
Unlike X-ray machines or radar instruments, the sensor doesn't have to generate a signal to detect objects - it spots them based on how brightly they reflect the natural radiation that is all around us every day.
There is always a certain amount of radiation - light, heat, and even microwaves - in the environment. Every object - the human body, a gun or knife, or an asphalt runway - reflects this ambient radiation differently.
Paul Berger, professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics at Ohio State and head of the team that is developing the sensor, likened this reflection to the way glossy and satin-finish paints reflect light differently to the eye.
Once the sensor is further developed, it could be used to scan people or luggage without subjecting them to X-rays or other radiation. And if the sensor were embedded in an airplane nose, it might help pilots see a runway during bad weather.
The Ohio State sensor isn't the only ambient radiation sensor under development, but it is the only one Berger knows of that is compatible with silicon - a feature that makes it relatively inexpensive and easy to work with.
This compatibility with silicon is key.
The computer you are using to read this now is a product of decades of development in the manipulation of silicon.
Here is some perspective: It is a part of my job every day to build structures on silicon and out of silicon that are smaller than the average influenza virus. These structures contain films that are five atoms thick.
And I'm expected to come up with ways of doing this that are inexpensive enough that you can buy your cell phone for less than $20, a handheld piece of disposable equipment with more processing power than the computers used to help design the first atomic bomb or navigate or the moon.
From January of this year, another development that is an outgrowth of the techniques we have developed to make computer chips smaller and faster:
Tiny, Atom-based Detector Senses Weak Magnetic Fields
Source: National Institute Of Standards And Technology (NIST)
Date: 2005-01-07A low-power, magnetic sensor about the size of a grain of rice that can detect magnetic field changes as small as 50 picoteslas - a million times weaker than the Earth's magnetic field - has been demonstrated by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Described in the Dec. 27 issue of Applied Physics Letters,* the device can be powered with batteries and is about 100 times smaller than current atom-based sensors with similar sensitivities, which typically weigh several kilograms (about 6 pounds).
The new magnetic sensor is based on the principles of a NIST chip-scale atomic clock, announced in August 2004. Expected applications for a commercialized version of the new sensor could include hand-held devices for sensing unexploded ordnance, precision navigation, geophysical mapping to locate minerals or oil, and medical instruments.
Like the NIST chip-scale clock, the new magnetic sensor can be fabricated and assembled on semiconductor wafers using existing techniques for making microelectronics and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). This offers the potential for low-cost mass production of sensors about the size of a computer chip. When packaged with associated electronics, the researchers believe the mini magnetometer will measure about 1 cubic centimeter or about the size of a sugar cube.
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*P. Schwindt, S. Knappe, V. Shah, L. Hollberg, J. Kitching, L. Liew, J. Moreland. "Chip-scale atomic magnetometer." Applied Physics Letters. 27 Dec. 2004
Perhaps that tricorder on Star Trek isn't so far-fetched after all...
Technorati Tags: science & technology, science and technology, technology
August 20, 2005
It doesn't mention anything about hairy palms, though
From The Economist (sorry, subscription required, but it's worth it!):
Cor blimey
Aug 18th 2005
From The Economist print editionGory and erotic images can affect your vision
IT'S true. Pornography can make you blind. Look at a smutty picture and, according to research by Steven Most, of Yale University, and his colleagues, you will suffer from a temporary condition known as emotion-induced blindness.
Dr Most made this discovery while studying the rubbernecking effect (when people slow down to stare at a car accident). Rubbernecking represents a serious lapse of attention to the road, but he wondered if the initial reaction to such gory scenes could cause smaller lapses. The answer is, it does. What he found was that when people look at gory images - and also erotic ones - they fail to process what they see immediately afterwards. This period of blindness lasts between two-tenths and eight-tenths of a second. That is long enough for a driver transfixed by an erotic advert on a billboard to cause an accident.
Hmmm... this might explain a LOT.
Dr Most thinks that the explanation for this temporary blindness is that there is an information-processing bottleneck in the brain when it is presented with important stimuli. When the human brain was evolving, such stimuli would not have been two-dimensional images. They would, rather, have been part of the real world. Gory scenes would have had survival value (ie, "am I going to be next?"), while erotic ones would have had reproductive value. Paying attention to the landscape would have been a distraction.In the age of photography, though, it is the image that is the distraction, and if the distracted individual is traveling at speed in a car, such distraction could be fatal. So the team carried out a second series of experiments, still unpublished, that were intended to discover whether their subjects could override this emotion-induced temporary blindness by using what they rather grandiloquently called an "attentional strategy" (ie, focusing harder on the target image). This was arranged by asking the subjects to find not any rotated photo, but a rotated photo of a building, in the array of images. The fact that they had to pay attention to both content and orientation meant they focused harder. As the researchers had expected, in this version of the experiment subjects were, on average, better at spotting the target image.
But that average concealed some interesting differences that depended on a subject's personality. The researchers knew from previous studies that the more neurotic someone is, the worse he is at controlling his attention, so they decided to see how a measure of neuroses known as the harm-avoidance scale correlated with their results. The harm-avoidance scale is a measure of a person's reaction to negative or frightening stimuli. They found that the lower a subject's score on this scale was, the more successful he was at detecting the target. This information might be useful when considering the reliability of witnesses to crimes.
Interesting, even, dare I say, fascinating...
Technorati Tags: humor, science, science & technology, science and technology
Mark Twain on faith
I admire the serene assurance of those who have religous faith. It is wonderful to observe the calm confidence of a Christian with four aces.
-Mark Twain
Technorati Tags: quotes
What a maroon...
Senator Frist is demonstrating that he has no core beliefs beyond those that might get him nominated as the Republican candidate for President of the United States in the 2008 elections.
It would be pitiful, if it were not so disgusting...
Technorati Tags: commentary
August 19, 2005
After seeing the developments since the year 2000...
...this song title from King Crimson around 30 years ago seems rather prescient, don't you think?
21st Century Schizoid Man...or is it just me?
Technorati Tags: commentary
More on carbon nanotubes
In a continuation of my recent post on carbon nanotubes:
Nanotubes show their strength in numbers
Super-strong sheets could be used in future screens and surfacesBy Kathleen Wren
Science
Updated: 4:07 p.m. ET Aug. 18, 2005WASHINGTON - Carbon nanotubes, the wunderkind molecules of the nanoworld, are finally showing strength in numbers. Researchers have now made large nanotube sheets that have many of the same star qualities as the prima donna-like single molecules, bringing the promises of nanotechnology a step closer to reality.
The flexible, transparent sheets can conduct electricity and emit light or heat when a voltage is applied, leading their creators to propose that our car windows and the canopies of military aircraft could contain nearly invisible antennae, electrical heaters for defrost, or informative optical displays.
These sheets, which are presently several meters long but could potentially be much larger, might also be useful in everything from flexible computer screens that could be rolled into a sack, to light bulb-like devices providing uniform lighting, to strong sails that could be propelled in space by sunlight.
"When you have a remarkable material, it's easy to make advances in terms of applications," said Ray Baughman of the University of Texas, Dallas, who led the research team that made the nanotube sheets. The scientists report their findings in the 19 August issue of the journal Science, published by AAAS, the nonprofit science society.
I will make a prediction; it is always dangerous to prognosticate, but I am confident in what I am writing here.
We are leaving the research phase with carbon nanotubes into the development phase. Many new technologies will be appearing in the next decade that use this molecule set.
You thought the progress in microelectronics and communications in the past few decades were revolutionary. The use of these carbon-nanotube molecules has the potential to be even larger.
I am not prone to hyperbole, so take this as you will.
Technorati Tags: nanotubes, carbon nanotubes, science, science & technology, science and technology, technology
August 18, 2005
Chemical agents apparently being used by Gaza synagogue protesters against Israeli police
Protesters (as distinct from settlers) at a Gaza synagogue are being forcibly removed, and it appears that the protesters are using some type of chemical to repel the police (this chemical is being identified as "acid" by the Israeli police, as broadcast on CNN International - link).
Police officers were seen coming out of the synagogue in their underwear and being doused with water, and the reporter on the scene described a burning sensation in his eyes.
The protesters are being identified as having come to Gaza from elsewhere, such as the West Bank, as opposed to settlers that were removed from the synagogue earlier.
In this extremely difficult time for their nation, have these protesters in using some type of chemical agent to oppose the police given the enemies of Isreal a propaganda victory?
Technorati Tags: Gaza withdrawal, Israel
August 17, 2005
Separating the method from the message
Two different bloggers that I find insightful have posted links to the same article in Slate by Christopher Hitchens on the protests of Ms. Cindy Sheehan.
The key passage from that article:
Finally, I think one must deny to anyone the right to ventriloquize the dead. Casey Sheehan joined up as a responsible adult volunteer. Are we so sure that he would have wanted to see his mother acquiring "a knack for P.R." and announcing that he was killed in a war for a Jewish cabal? (a claim that has brought David Duke flying to Ms. Sheehan's side.) This is just as objectionable, on logical as well as moral grounds, as the old pro-war argument that the dead "must not have died in vain." I distrust anyone who claims to speak for the fallen, and I distrust even more the hysterical noncombatants who exploit the grief of those who have to bury them.Since I am in France, I haven't been subjected to the media overload that accompanies any "news" which has a "human-interest angle" along with being related to the big story of the day, the continued conflict in Iraq.
Because I'm not suffering from the same overexposure (although the international outlets are starting to pick up on this, CNN International had several multi-minute pieces on it today, when they had given it a mere 30 seconds or so during their news reports on the US up until now), I feel I can offer a relatively abstract view on the matter.
In inverse order of time, I present what was posted that caught my eye.
Dr. Steven Taylor at PoliBlog posted today in part:
I have heretofore avoided commenting on the Cindy Sheehan situation, but after a while these things become nearly impossible to avoid. I have compassion for Ms. Sheehan's grief and recognize that I cannot fully grasp her feelings. Still, she has allowed her grief to translate not only into a political opinion, but she has clearly made herself into a public figure. And, since the media have decided to cover the story ad infinitum, I find myself with thoughts on the subject.Some thoughts (some more developed than others):
* I am not big on stunts and this is a stunt-and made moreso by Ms. Sheehan's supporters (and by politicians).
* What, exactly, does she hope to accomplish? What will meeting with the President do for her? I sincerely would like to know what it is she thinks she is going to accomplish.
Although I will only address a few points he makes here, please read his entire post.
Even though it has turned into a media circus, and even though I am no better than the next person at reading the hearts of those whom I have never even met, somehow I doubt Ms. Sheehan had intended this to be a "stunt". Her recent remarks make her appear (to my eyes, at least) a wee bit unhinged; however, it is difficult for me to believe that any remotely rational person would expect the kind of "stunt" that this has turned into.
In other words, it may be a "stunt" now, but I doubt it was intended to be so at the beginning by Ms. Sheehan.
The more critical and key point regards the accusation of "ventriloquizing the dead" as Christopher Hitchens so eloquently put it.
Before I write more on this topic, however, I should present the first place where I saw link to the Slate article, where John Donovan at Castle Argghhh! wrote his opinion on the matter (John, since Dr. Taylor uses his "Dr." handle on his weblog, I'll be happy to use your rank here, but I don't know what it is!!! Let me know by email and I'll update). Read what John had to write, here is a short excerpt:
I'm from a military family, I don't really think I'd have that problem... but I was prepared, nonetheless.The few times I was ever sent to places where people might conceivably wish me harm... I left instructions for the family, left with my soldier father to be opened in the event of "The Visit".
In the event I have been captured or killed:
1. Please don't talk to the press.
2. If you must: Remember I was a soldier, and a volunteer. I went willingly, eyes wide open.
3. I believed in the mission - even if you may not.
4. Do not put words in my mouth that I cannot refute: I forbid you that, above all else. Say what you will of your own opinion, but beyond 2 & 3, do not presume to speak for me. My actions say all that is needful.
5. Lastly, please don't be mad at me - I really *did* mean to zig, but apparently I should have zagged.
There was lots more sentimental stuff, depending on what my point in life was, but that was all that's applicable here.
I do not want to quote out of context, so please read everything that John wrote, then read the comment I left:
John, this indirectly touches on my objection when the Bush campaign ran ads early in the Presidential race last year showing a dead fireman being carried away from the rubble of the World Trade Center. It was a way of "ventriloquizing the dead". The situations are not identical, but the underlying methods of gaining credibility by using the dead are very similar.I believe the anti-war crowd that is using the situation with Ms. Sheehan are just as wrong as the Bush campaign was.
In response to my comment, Beth wrote:
But Jack, No one said that the fireman believed this or that or had this or that political opinion - it was a strong and valid reminder of what happened on 9/11 - I don't think the two are at all related.I've been round and round with this, trying to compose a response that will not ignite a pointless conflict but instead try to explain fully the point I was trying to make.
I have not come up with something that I find satisfactory to meet the requirements I have imposed upon any reply, so I must ask those who read this to take in the spirit intended rather than in the emotional response that an issue of this nature will inevitably engender on such a political matter held close to so many hearts.
You see, I believe that while there are many surrounding Ms. Sheehan who are cynically manipulating the situation for momentary political gain, I want to believe that at least in the beginning Ms. Sheehan was honest in her intentions, no matter how unrealistic they were.
Having said that, I must point out that those surrounding Ms. Sheehan are practicing the same cold, politically calculated emotional blackmail that I perceived in the early advertisements by the Bush campaign in 2004 that used images from the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001.
Beth wrote, "... No one said that the fireman believed this or that or had this or that political opinion - it was a strong and valid reminder of what happened on 9/11 - I don't think the two are at all related."
While I readily admit that I have not had access to all that Ms. Sheehan has said, I have yet to read or hear anywhere that she has said, "Casey believed" whatever.
So... The argument that "No one said that the fireman believed this or that or had this or that political opinion," is rendered invalid, because both Ms. Sheehan and the Bush campaign used similar tactics, raising specters of the dead to say, "If you don't listen to their message, there will be more of me." In other words, threatening that there will be more of the dead to haunt us.
I am saying that we need to separate the message, which you may or may not agree with, from the methods used to deliver the message.
BOTH the Bush campaign in 2004 and Ms. Sheehan now have used the specters of the dead in an emotional blackmail of "this might happen again if you don't listen to me" to get their message out.
If you are willing to separate the message from the method, I am sure you will see the similarities.
It is a common trait, a human trait, to let the message and our view of it affect our opinion of the method used. That tendency is seen every day, in blogworld and in the larger real word. Methods that are decried when used by opponents are applauded when used by "our side".
I say that we must divorce the message from the method, and evaluate each independently.
If the method is unacceptable, regardless of how much we approve of the message, we must condemn the method.
If the message is unacceptable, regardless of the source of the message, we must condemn the message.
In this case, with Ms. Sheehan, just as in the case of the Bush campaign in 2004, the dead are being used as a source of credibility, and this is unacceptable, in BOTH cases.
As I condemned the Bush campaign in 2004 for their use of the imagery of a dead fireman to give credence to their message, I condemn those cynically using Ms. Sheehan now to give some kind of legitimacy to their message.
"We seem to have a botwar on our hands"
This sounds like something from a cyberpunk science fiction novel:
Computer virus writers at war, security firm says
News Story by Reuters
AUGUST 17, 2005 (REUTERS) - HELSINKI, Finland -- Computer worms that have brought down systems around the world in recent days are starting to attack each other, Finnish software security firm F-Secure Corp. said today.
"We seem to have a botwar on our hands," said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure. "There appear to be three different virus-writing gangs turning out new worms at an alarming rate, as if they were competing to build the biggest network of infected machines."
Hypponen said in a statement that varieties of three worms -- Zotob, Bozori and IRCbot -- were still exploiting a gap in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 2000 operating system on computers that had not had the flaw repaired and were not shielded by firewalls.
"The latest variants of Bozori even remove competing viruses like Zotob from the infected machines," Hypponen said.
In the larger scale of things, while this is creating disruption, it is nothing compared to the lives that are lost every day to hatred and stupidity.
Yet, this adds to the feeling that things are going too fast, running off the rails, barreling towards a wreck we do not want but are not taking any action to avoid.
As the world population rises and technology improves, the complexity inherent in the interaction of various societies, cultures, sub-cultures, and other groups increases, misunderstandings grow, and the potential to do harm blooms geometrically.
Is the human race wise enough to survive?
Project Valour-IT is still ongoing
Follow the link by clicking on the image to get more information about this project, and if you feel it is worthy, donate.
August 16, 2005
Nanotubes and buckyballs and diamonds and life - carbon doing its thing...
From Wired News:
Nanotubes May Heal Broken Bones
By Aaron Dalton
02:00 AM Aug. 15, 2005 PT
Human bones can shatter in accidents, or they can disintegrate when ravaged by disease and time. But scientists may have a new weapon in the battle against forces that damage the human skeleton.
Carbon nanotubes, incredibly strong molecules just billionths of a meter wide, can function as scaffolds for bone regrowth, according to researchers led by Robert Haddon at the University of California at Riverside. They have found a way to create a stronger and safer frame than the artificial bone scaffolds currently in use.
More carbon nanotube developments from ScienceDaily:
Customized Y-shaped Carbon Nanotubes Can Compute
August 14, 2005 -- Researchers at UCSD and Clemson University have discovered that specially synthesized carbon nanotube structures exhibit electronic properties that are improved over conventional transistors used in computers. In a paper published* in the September issue of Nature Materials and released online on August 14, UCSD Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering professors Prabhakar Bandaru and Sungho Jin, graduate student Chiara Daraio, and Clemson physicist Apparao M. Rao reported that Y-shaped nanotubes behave as electronic switches similar to conventional MOS (metal oxide semiconductor) transistors, the workhorses of modern microprocessors, digital memory, and application-specific integrated circuits.
"This is the first time that a transistor-like structure has been fabricated using a branched carbon nanotube," said Bandaru. "This discovery represents a new way of thinking about nano-electronic devices, and I think people interested in creating functionality at the nanoscale will be inspired to explore the ramifications of these Y-junction elements in greater detail."
The stunning increase in the speed and power efficiency of electronics over the past two decades was primarily due to the steady shrinkage in size of conventional transistors. Chip makers have reduced the minimum feature size of transistors to about 100 nanometers, and that dimension is expected to shrink by the end of this decade. However, industry experts predict that fundamental technological and financial limits will prevent the makers of conventional MOS transistors to reduce their size much further. The Y-shaped nanotubes discussed in the Nature Materials paper are only a few tens of nanometers thick and can be made as thin as a few nanometers.
"The small size and dramatic switching behavior of these nanotubes makes them candidates for a new class of transistor," said Bandaru.
Recently, I posted on how nanotubes can be used in conjunction with lasers to destroy cancer cells while not damaging healthy cells.
So, what is it that makes these nanotubes so special?
It's all about carbon.
For those who watched Star Trek (the original series, or even The Next Generation), likely you recall much discussion of "life as we know it" meaning "carbon-based life forms".
What exactly does that mean?
The fundamental chemistry behind life on Earth is based upon carbon.
There is an entire branch of Chemistry, called Organic Chemistry, that is devoted to molecules and reactions that involve carbon. This does not mean that all molecules that have carbon as a component are related to life, to the contrary, many if not most carbon-containing molecules are toxic or carcinogenic to most life.
However, almost all reactions related to life involve carbon as well.
Carbon is special because of its atomic structure.
Even though there are many other familiar names in the same column of the periodic table of the elements as carbon, such as silicon (the key material used to make the computer you are using to read this!), germanium (becoming more important in making high speed microprocessors), tin, and lead that all have similar chemical properties, none of these elements, nor any others, make the long chain molecules like carbon. There are some molecules based upon carbon that are as long as a millimeter!
Carbon also makes very strong bonds with itself. The hardest material known is diamond, which is a crystalline form of carbon. Strangely enough, one of the softer materials known, graphite (used in pencil lead, for those who still use pencils), is also made of carbon.
Nanotubes are made of carbon arranged in a structure that, naturally given the name, is a tube of carbon atoms. It is the strength of the carbon-carbon bond along with the long chaining that makes these molecules so special. A nanotube can be as long as a millimeter (perhaps even longer once we develop a method to fabricate them), and is very strong because of the carbon-carbon bonds.
Also, because of how carbon can make bonds with many other elements, the chemical and electrical characteristics of the nanotubes can be manipulated (within limits) to allow them to react with other chemicals in certain ways, or to behave under the influence of electric fields in certain ways.
In other words, carbon is unique in its chemical and electrical properties, and the molecular structures of nanotubes and buckyballs (more on that structure later) have many, many potential technological uses because the molecules can be manipulated more so than most other molecules known.
So, expect to see more news releases of how nanotubes and buckyballs are being applied to address different problems. This is the next technological revolution, and it may well have larger effects than even the microelectronic revolution of the last 15 years.
More on this topic later, if demand merits (in other words, if I get no comments or emails about this post, I won't follow up, if I get at least some interest, I'll spend the time and effort to write more... What, do you think it is easy to write about this stuff in non-scientific jargon???).
Technorati Tags: science, science & technology, science and technology, technology
Twenty-five years ago, the first cracks in the Iron Curtain appeared
The 25th anniversary of the founding of Solidarity in Poland is approaching. Spiegel Online (the web site of a German magazine) has an interview with a French sociologist who was the confidante of many of the early leaders of the movement that resulted in the formation of Solidarity.
It can be argued that the Solidarity movement in Poland was the first crack in the Iron Curtain that ultimately resulted in the disintegration of the Soviet empire. As that age fades into history, it is important that we gain what understanding is possible of the time and the people in it.
It is important to learn from history; we repeat it often enough as it is.
Technorati Tags: history, recommended reading
A few small repairs
Today is a holiday in France, Assumption Day. Despite being a fiercely secular nation, the majority of holidays here are based upon Roman Catholic feast days and days of obligation. Having a long weekend, I took the opportunity to go to Switzerland on Saturday, and today I'm cleaning the apartment and making some repairs.
I will also be making some changes to Random Fate. Some recent events have reminded me that this weblog is not going in the direction I prefer, so I am taking some actions to change paths.
I will continue to write commentary to post here, but opinion pieces and what can only be labeled as "rants" will be going on a weblog I have had as an experiment for several months, Radio Saigon.
Personal items along with photos and narratives from my travels in Europe will go on my personal site, jmgrant.net.
I want Random Fate to be a moderate site that takes a balanced look at issues, but also gives details on things outside politics in the United States, such as my "letters from Europe" along with increasing my writing on trends in science and technology.
I am also going to change how I handle comments in general. Up until now, unless it was obvious spam, I was approving all comments regardless of how hateful or insulting towards me.
I see no need to pay for the bandwidth enabling people to spew their bile.
So, all comments will remain moderated until I figure out how to set up "approved commenters" in MovableType.
I will approve comments for posting entirely at my discretion. If a commenter wants a forum to disgorge their hate for the world to read, there are many free (as in no-cost to them) resources out there for them to take advantage of without ruining what I would like to be open and productive discussion here, where I'm paying the bills.
I also hope to have a new look ready for Random Fate in the next few weeks.
So, don't be surprised when you see some changes.
I also have several non-blogging related projects I am working on that just may result in additional income for me, projects that will take at least SOME time away from the writing and posting needed to satisfy the beast that blogworld so readily breeds.
For those of you who have expressed your support of me in the past weeks, whether in the comments or by private emails, I appreciate what you have said. Be assured that these changes were merely accelerated by recent events, they were not prompted by them.
Technorati Tags: weblogs
August 15, 2005
More small tragedies
This will likely be the last "personal" post I put up on Random Fate, since I'm changing directions for this weblog, but I needed to write one final commentary on the human condition here.
When I was in high school, I was in a class called "Creative Writing" that was restricted to those students who had been classified as "gifted". They gave the same test to the students who were believed to be "gifted" as to those who were suspected of being "retarded" (to use the terminology of those pre-PC days of 27 years ago).
I took the test, which inv