Folksonomy

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folksonomy

"Folksonomy is a neologism for a practice of collaborative categorization using freely chosen keywords. More colloquially, this refers to a group of people cooperating spontaneously to organize information into categories."

"In contrast to formal classification methods, this phenomenon typically only arises in non-hierarchical communities, such as public websites, as opposed to multi-level teams."

"Since the organizers of the information are usually its primary users, advocates of folksonomy believe it produces results that reflect more accurately the population's conceptual model of the information."

This got me to thinking...

I've been doing a lot of musing lately with friends about the state of our current government's decay, and about how, personally, I believe that this is not due to widespread conspiracy, but rather due to the natural evolution of human social behavior, combined with a (slightly) flawed system of democracy.

Specifically, I think James Madison overlooked a few things when he came up with the Articles of Confederation, which ultimately made their way (in part) into the Constitution. I believe his idea of representation by a legislature may have worked well in the early days of American history, but as our government has grown in proportion to our population growth, the idea of a "system of representation" has not scaled.

In fact, it is failing.

As individuals, we are no longer a voice within our own government. The legislature is mostly ineffective; a giant bureaucracy buried in red-tape and tired politics; and in the few areas where actual "progress" is made in the legislature, the representation has shifted from citizens to corporate interests -- interests served by a powerful, well-connected system of wealth-peddling lobbyists.

Back to my point about folksonomy...

Folksonomy is this idea of letting the community decide what is important. It's usually done through "tagging" -- that is, assigning an arbitrary label to any object as you see fit. On the sites that have integrated tagging and folksonomy successfully, an interesting phenomenon occurs wherein the community suddenly finds it shares certain interests -- and in turn, these interests often peak around certain hot topics, social issues, world events, fads, and so on.

Examples of successful folksonomy are so far limited to the Internet. Flickr, Delicious, and YouTube are among the stars here.

And I'm finding an almost addictive aspect to each of these sites. It's just so... pardon the cliche... democratic.

Really though, it is democratic. Folksonomy means there is no hierarchy. No oligarchy. No empiricism or aristocracy.

Notice I crossed over from technical terms into terms usually reserved for societies.

This is my point: what if we could apply the lessons and principles of folksonomy to our government? To our society?

Is it possible? Am I dreaming?

Project for a New American Century

I read this:

http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm

I didn't believe it was real at first.

I looked over the site; I Googled; I looked again.

Then I was convinced... it's real. Then I nearly shit my pants. Then I started crying.

Why haven't I seen this before?

I've heard the term "PNAC - Project for a New American Century" before. But I'd always assumed that the conspiratorial toned comments I'd read before about the PNAC (mostly from Mike Ruppert) were questionable at best. Partly because the info was coming from "From the Wilderness", which I usually take in with a grain of salt, but also because the groups were supposedly so secretive that one "little person" such as myself couldn't truly know their goings on.

So, to say the least, I was caught off guard to discover that the accusations I'd heard were blatantly displayed on the PNAC's own website in the form of a "Statement of Principles".

This is basically the mission statement for the top "minds" behind our current administration -- the main movers behind American foreign policy and national defense. Noticeably absent from list of the signatories is either of the George Bush's; but not to fear because we have Jeb Bush along with Wolfowitz, Rumsfield, Cheney and Libby (among other scary characters).

Oh God, the more I read from this site's letters and statements (all from our "leaders"), the more I am just absolutely taken-aback by the arrogance. I'm thinking my worst fears are coming true. Empiricism has begun. Aristocracy and elitism are obvious. This just can't be good.

Even if I try to put myself on the other side, and imagine myself in my dad's shoes, for example; and I'm a Republican all of a sudden; and I don't have an inherit distrust for some of these famous names -- then we are still left with a very big problem.

This "Statement of Principles" is basically a blueprint for world domination. One world government led by American leadership. Let me repeat that this statement is signed by current our vice president.

It includes such phrases as:

"We aim to make the case and rally support for American global leadership."

"America has a vital role in maintaining peace and security in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East... The history of the 20th century should have taught us that it is important to shape circumstances before crises emerge, and to meet threats before they become dire."

If that isn't a philosophical slippery slope, I don't know what is.

It's also a license to destabilize and topple foreign governments, as the American cabal sees fit.

And it's an arrogant recipe for disaster.

I can't believe my eyes on this one.

From the news coming down the pipe in the past few weeks, it seems like they are just rubbing our noses in it at this point; flaunting it; just begging someone to speak up and give a shit.

And yet nothing happens.

The Irony

10 minutes after the last post, I checked my Inbox. Turns out I won a lawsuit against PayPal, and have been awarded a settlement.

No kidding.

Too bad it was one of those damn-near useless "class action lawsuits". Curses! Here's a verbatim excerpt:

Your payment of $8.00 as a statutory fund claimant in the In Re PayPal Litigation class action lawsuit has been credited to your PayPal account. No further action is required for you to claim these funds.

$8.

All I have to do is... wait for it... use PayPal to claim my $8 settlement! The same settlement that was awarded after the company lost this very lawsuit alleging that their service practices were unfair and that they violated several laws, including the Electronic Fund Transfer Act.

So justice is served, sort of. I'll be using PayPal to transfer my $8 settlement from PayPal into my "real" bank account. And PayPal will make money of the transaction.

The circle of capitalist life continues.

Epiphany

I just got off the phone with my parents. My conversation with my father was particularly enlightening.

Most of the time, in these hectic, crazy-ass days of our times, our conversations with our parents are cursory, polite, routine, and sometimes partially rehearsed. But sometimes, on certain days when things just happen in a particular way, you end up with something much more real. Something very real.

I've had several occasions over the past few days to reflect. Some of these reflections were in between other tasks and didn't last long; others were long and well thought out as I lounged about the house. During these reflections, I've had several climaxes of thought -- a problem presented, thoroughly reviewed, and then solved within my mind. These events are often referred to as "epiphanies".

The conversation with my dad was an interesting summation of several of my epiphanies from the week prior. It also spoke directly to some of the discussions I'd had with my closest friends.

And it answered some questions that I had specifically been formulating and preparing to ask my dad... questions that just needed the right time to be asked.

First off: Pops gets it.

I had begun to think that the entire populace of those over 50 years of age -- the baby boomer generation -- would never take off their rose colored glasses. These are the tinted glasses that developed post Depression, post World War II. The glasses that said we would prevail by pulling together for a common cause; by rebuilding; by creating a society that would thrive by encouraging production and consumption.

These glasses somehow stayed on through Vietnam and Watergate, with everyone willing to overlook the most blatant examples of corruption and deceit in exchange for security; and with the glasses still on, I thought that perhaps our parents' generation was unwilling or unable to penetrate the harsh reality of today's world.

In today's world, the truth is not pleasant. It's hard to take the glasses off.

Fortunately, my father gets it. The glasses are off.

The conversation itself, and the epiphanies before and after will be very difficult to articulate. I'll start with one main theme...

The division between rich and poor is clear. It never seemed so much so as when my dad and I started discussing it for the first time.

It's causes are not hard to find -- state-run lotteries, legalized gambling, easy credit throughout America, unregulated banks and lending agencies, non-traditional mortgages promising "no money down" in exchange for adjustable, variable rate loans (poised to rip into already indebted consumers at the first hint of rate hike) -- all of these things are easy to spot.

Our government "of the people, by the people, for the people" no longer cares.

America: your government does not care about the wedge being driven between rich and poor; in fact, it is encouraging it.

Forces of the Wild

Nature, the animals, "they live by the rhythm of the tides."

"In our cities, we are cocooned from the rythyms of nature. Each one of us could witness 25,000 sunrises in our lifetimes, but we no longer apprecaite the subtle changes in the year."

"We live by artificial time."

-- James Earl Jones in Forces of the Wild.

daisy exposed

daisy exposed, originally uploaded by goldenratio.

I bought a new D-SLR camera over the holiday weekend. I had been looking at a few models for at least a month.

After much homework I picked the Pentax *ist DS model, and I am very happy.

This photo is hosted on Flickr, click through for details and other pics from the new camera!

thanksgiving 0008

thanksgiving 0008, originally uploaded by goldenratio.

nora jane

i'm back!

whew! i'm back and i just finished editing all the links throughout my old posts. all of the links are either working now or labeled with "[DEAD]" tags. most links were fixable, with a few exceptions from msnbc.com -- they do a horrible, terrible job of archiving their stories!

i had to move my images and mirrors to a new web host. speaking of... check out my new areas:

http://www.xmlareas.com

it is still a bit sparse, but stay tuned.

Meatsicle

Meatsicle., originally uploaded by Vectorsnob..

Welcome the meat stick. That is all.

welcome back

wow, it's been 2 months since my last post. in case it isn't obvious, i became disenfranchised after the election in november. given that my blog here had turned mostly into a political soapbox in the run-up to nov 2nd, in the aftermath, i guess i didn't feel like looking back or saying anything else.

but now that i look at this content again, some of it seems interesting.

for me, it's also interesting to note which links (in old posts) are dead, and which ones are still active. i intend to go through and at least mark the dead links with "[dead]" tags, but i just don't have the time to edit all the posts right now.

interestingly though, when testing one of the msnbc links, i found that the link was pointed to a new, different story. and i didn't like the way that the new link pointed to a memorial on arafat and a story about the palestinian vote (coincidentally it is being held tomorrow). the story was originally about the days before arafat's death, when there were some highly suspicious circumstances occurring. i'm not suggesting a conspiracy, just bad journalism.

anyway, i think i will be back here, to update links, and to finish four posts that i have saved as drafts from months ago. posts i alluded to long ago. in the mean time, i'll be working on my new blog.

read for yourself

surprising florida election results (ustogether.org)

more of the florida data (ustogether.org)

kerry won - here are the facts (tompaine.com)

evidence mounts vote may have been hacked (commondreams.org)

the following movie is the low bandwidth version, meaning it has been scaled down in size in order to fit the 30 minute movie into a downloadable file. unfortunately the high bandwidth, high quality movie was removed from the site. but you owe it to yourself to watch it anyway. it contains physical evidence of hacked diebold machines, which is further corroborated by diebold's own public relations representative, who has a hard time keeping up with the questions, and admits to some of the more serious accusations in the movie.

this movie makes it really very hard to continue pretending that there isn't a serious problem:

the votergate movie [dead]

pessimistic moods

something stinks... i don't know enough to know exactly what is going on, but check out the following article:

abbas, qureia to visit critically ill arafat (msnbc.com) [moved]

and then there's this article:

assault to retake fallujah begins (msnbc.com) [moved]

allow me to speculate on why we are, as i type this, carrying out the beginning of a major military assault on fallujah.

given the timing of this action -- less than one week after bush's re-election -- this could be construed as a method of reassuring the american public that everything is "under control" in iraq. more specifically, this could be seen as a way to reassure bush's voter-base (the "retro" portion of the US population), that their vote for bush was a vote for a continued war in iraq, and for a greater and possibly never-ending "war on terror".

along the same line, bush (or is it rove?) may be attempting to somehow "reunite" the 55 million disenfranchised democrats and other independent voters who turned out in record numbers to vote against bush.

if you are willing to overlook the fact that the US went into iraq on false pretenses, and if you are willing to grant that iraq had no "weapons of mass destruction", and that they were not an "imminent threat", and if you still choose to accept the US occupation of iraq, then fine... i'll grant there are logical, strategically-sound reasons for an invasion into fallujah.

again, here is the problem: timing is everything. why is this happening one week after the US presidential election?

-----

for reference, here's a map showing how the thousands of counties throughout the US voted in the 2004 election. note the clear differences between the rural and urban areas. click on the image below for a larger version:



credit goes to the electoral-vote.com site for the above map.

missing the missiles

christ!

Missing Antiaircraft Missiles Alarm Aides (washingtonpost.com)

if you voted for bush, i hope you feel safer now.

one side of the story...

damn. this tape has been out for a few days now, but this is not the same interpretation that we've been given by the network news, at least up until now. i would not be surprised if this story resurfaces on the network news with the more accurate translation, as follows, but it will be after the election:

Bin Laden Lauds Costs Of War to U.S. (washingtonpost.com)

funny, all that nasty talk about how "the darkness of the black gold blurred his vision... and Bush became embroiled in the swamps of Iraq that threatened his future"... well... that just isn't how they told it on the nightly news, is it?

i don't remember nbc or cbs playing this sound-bite either: "the policy of the White House that demands the opening of war fronts to keep busy their various corporations -- whether they be working in the field of arms or oil or reconstruction -- has helped al Qaeda to achieve these enormous results."

oh, wait, he said this too, "Bush's hands are stained with the blood of all of those killed from both sides, all for the sake of oil and keeping their private companies in business," but i guess abc forgot to air it.

i'm pretty sure the only clip tom brokaw gave us was, "our security is not in the hands of Kerry, nor Bush", and even that was taken out of context.

sometimes i just feel used. if you don't, you're not paying attention.

reminder: i am not a terrorist, nor do i sympathize with their causes. i am a nonviolent, relatively pacifist, all-around mellow fellow.

why colorado is important

No one doubts this upcoming presidential election is going to be a close one, and I'm sure that I don't need to tell you one state alone could end up tipping the election. Looking back four years, and keeping the current polls in mind, there is no question that Florida is going to play a big part again. Perhaps you've read about Ohio’s role as well.

But what do you know about Colorado?

This year Colorado could end up being the next Florida. It's quite possible that in December or January, we'll still be waiting on Colorado’s local election boards, state appeals courts, and even the Supreme Court to (again) decide (for us) who will be our next president.

Why? This year, there is a state ballot measure, Amendment 36, which would change the way electoral votes are tallied in Colorado.

Currently, Colorado along with 47 other states -- all states except for Maine and Nebraska -- uses a winner-take-all system to determine which presidential candidate receives all of that state's electoral votes. However, if Amendment 36 passes, Colorado would become the first state to split its electoral votes using a proportional system. That means each candidate would take a number of electoral votes proportional to their corresponding popular vote. Unless something changes radically in less than two weeks, that would mean that Bush would take 5 electoral votes (because he would have the majority of the popular vote in Colorado), and Kerry would take 4 electoral votes (because he would still have a large percentage of the popular vote).

So what exactly is the problem? The US constitution does say that each state is responsible for determining how its electoral votes are to be tallied. But, here's the catch -- it goes on to say that determination must be made by the legislature and not the state's voters.

So, assuming the ballot measure passes, and it looks like it might, we could end up having a very lengthy court battle to determine whether or not the voter-approved measure is valid under the US constitution.

You might be thinking, "do the small number of electoral votes in Colorado really matter?" They could. To win the presidency, a candidate must accumulate at least 270 votes. As of this post, according to the site listed below, neither candidate has enough electoral votes to win. That would send the decision to the US House of Representatives. What if 4 or 5 more votes (the ones that would be lost if Amendment 36 passes) could tip the election by sending a candidate over the 270 mark? Obviously this would lengthen the Colorado court battle, as its importance would be increased by an order of magnitude.

Another valid question that arises: "is the Supreme Court really a suitable mechanism for choosing our president?" Many would argue that is exactly what happened in 2000 (although you can't overlook the political-bedfellows of Bush that were present throughout the Florida voting fiasco). The Supreme Court justices are appointed by US presidents, and currently they tend to lean towards the right. In fact, 6 of the 9 justices were appointed by Republican presidents.

For an extended explanation of the Electoral College, and for a discussion of why the electoral system is so hard to change, check out this great site:

The Electoral College (electoral-vote.com)

the backtrack

Remember my post "be afraid" from about a month ago? Guess what? It turns out the FBI had almost no real evidence to support the "heightened terrorism offensive" outlined in that previous Washington Post article.

I can't say I'm the least bit surprised to find out the whole thing was one giant piece of disinformation hype; on the contrary, the unfounded fear-peddling is exactly what I was upset about. I am, however, pleasantly surprised to see the same mainstream media outlet back-peddling in order to give us a more honest take on the facts:

No Direct Evidence of Plot To Attack Around Elections (washingtonpost.com)

words cannot explain...

it's 11:45 -- i find that blogs move funny backwards, especially when created in the present.

-----

at every turn on this day, i have had inspiration to think and to create. words are the only tool available for this place and time, so i shall attempt to recreate some of the ideas that have run through my mind today. i wish i was able to articulate all of the things that have happened, but i cannot.

so, instead, let's start with the most recent, most obscure piece of info -- a strange article found at 11:01 pm, monday october 18th, 2004, which surely demonstrates there is no lack of material to critique in this world:

who's watching who? (cnn.com) [dead]

now that we're done with that, i'm moving backward. yes, this post will move backwards in time.

let's go back to 10:47:



i just dropped off a guy named "mike" at the lloyd center max station. it's in northeast portland. the business owners in northeast portland like to call this area "downtown". it's across the river from the real downtown, however, and so i refuse to grant the title. in any case, mike was a nice guy. as interesting as my day started, i was never expecting to meet a guy like mike today. but nonetheless, there we were, two strangers wasting time on a monday night.

now, i had just come from a show (yes, another show) at the alladin, and frankly, i was trying to get away from there and home as quickly as possible. earlier in the day, much earlier (probably 1:07 pm), a friend and coworker called my desk. i was expecting a work-related and non-exciting question. instead i hear, "ryan, what are you doing tonight?". i reply, "nothing, unless you're calling to talk me into something fun." of course; i'd set myself up. "i have an extra ticket to see the old 97's." "who is that?", i said.

anyway, so i went to see these guys. my friend showed up with a cute girl, and of course, wouldn't let me pay her back for the ticket. and, again, of course, the bartender recognized me (if you pay any attention to this blog whatsoever, you'll note i've been hitting the alladin up for shows quite a bit recently) and called me out as a lush. so be it. anyway, i ended up buying the first couple rounds for my friend... after all, she did buy the ticket.

so these were the guys:



man, these pretty boys sure did suck!

yes. suck!

really, i'm sorry friend. i love you and all, platonically speaking, but this show sucked!

i'd go with you to another show in a heartbeat. i'd never leave you in the forest if a man-eating bear was after us. i'd dance at your wedding, really. but this show was bad.

now, granted... most of the ladies present seemed to be enjoying themselves... quite a bit. and i guess, if you're into staring at a pretty boy on stage, who's playing open chords on his telecaster at 240 beats per minute, swaying his hips like elvis's 432nd impressionist, batting at his long hair, and wearing pants tight enough to sterilize for life, then by all means, enjoy the show.

i'm sure if you're thinking about it at all, you're thinking this about me: "he is just jealous".

well... this is the first negative post on this blog (by the way, i hate the word "blog", and i always have). and this is my first bad show at the alladin. and this is a dramatically different ending to my day than i expected.

but... am i jealous? well... maybe a little bit. who wouldn't be jealous of a man who can look out and see three hundred and twenty seven women soaking wet only 23 minutes after picking up the guitar? i tried it once and i only saw two...

however, this does not mean the band did not suck. i could've written that material at age 15. but i knew then that it was destined to never leave my shoe-box full of four-track tapes in the basement. these guys either didn't care about self-respect, or they were just too caught up in the soaking wet crowd to care.

-----

anyway, i digress, and extremely... let's go back to 8:08 pm.

i was waiting outside the alladin. my mood from 6:30 - 7:57 pm had been quite excellent. i had just watched a funny seinfeld episode about jerry's accountant. they thought he was blowing jerry's money on blow. in reality, he was allergic to jerry's sweater that he had dug out of his closet. anyway, my mind was in a good state, but full of thoughts. i had just watched the nightly news on nbc with tom brokaw, and then most of the local portland news on nbc (the latter is completely yellow journalism, by the way, in case you were unsure). on the back of an old library card from a dewey-decimal card catalogue, i had jotted down three ideas for blog postings:

why colorado is important
why i can't be a republican
the great divide: indy vs big media

i fully intend to complete those postings, along with one titled "religion, god's golden cage". but for now, back again to 8:08. i was staring at the train around clinton and 12th. my friends, with my ticket, were in their car on the other side of the train. it couldn't have been going any slower. my mood started to change. i was getting a bit peeved. not at them, but just at life. it was wet and cold, and the people streaming into the venue seemed cold and transparent. the rest of my night at the alladin, save for a few patches of great conversation with my friend, and fun interaction with the bartender who always seems to be there to remember me, was an exercise in trying to leave gracefully...

-----

so... forward to 10:30 pm. i'm walking home, and rather quickly. i see a shady looking man up ahead on the sidewalk; clinging to the side of milwaukee ave fairly close to the bear paw pub (which is getting even closer to home).

he stops me. "have any jumpers?". i look at him, not comprehending. "do you have any jumpers?". i finally manage to blurt out, "jumper cables?". "yes," he says, "i'll give you a bump for a jump".

wow.

startled. unsettled. confused. was he gay? was he hitting on me? did he just have good drugs and nothing better to do? did he have bad intentions?

all that went through my mind rather quickly. he mumbled some things, and said some other things clearly -- but i wasn't listening to his words as much as trying to judge his character. did he need help, or was this a scam? at this point in my life, i'd seen plenty of both.

my intuition told me it was all right. when i saw his nice, well cared for truck, i was okay with it. but as i pulled my truck up to his to give him a jump-start, he opened the passenger door and hopped in. he told me he was okay with leaving his truck parked. he wondered if he could instead have a ride to the max station down the road. obviously, this raised more concern.

after some thought, and some rather direct questions for mike, i obliged his request. and i'm glad i did; he turned out to be an honest guy...

peter rowan

the 3rd show this week at the aladdin...




tony rice was supposed to play with peter, but he had an arm injury of some type so mike marshall played in his stead.

another great show. it's hard to call a favorite, but this one was damn good.

i won't even bother to comment on the presidential debate, but peter sure had some funny things to say. he was not blind to events outside of the venue...

weapons of mass deception

sad, stupid title... but appropriate...

our own weapons inspector has now reported that saddam's illegal weapons programs were destroyed by the 1991 gulf war, and through the subsequent UN sanctions and inspections that were working quite well:

U.S. 'Almost All Wrong' on Weapons (washingtonpost.com)

so now, we have a pretty good idea that not only were there no stockpiles of nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons, but on top of that, they were all dismantled over 10 years before we occupied iraq.

with no wmd, and no link to al-qaida or 911, there is really very little left to justify the war in iraq:

War's Rationales Are Undermined One More Time (washingtonpost.com)

there's only one lie, er... i mean argument, remaining -- the circumstantial, hypothetical argument:

Bush is beginning to sound desperate (msnbc.com)

4 more weeks.

fall is here

it finally feels like fall in portland, oregon. driving home, it was cloudy, foggy, and looking like it was ready to rain at any moment. dead red and yellow leaves were flying out of the back of my pickup truck as i drove.

last night, i walked with a friend to a cool venue down the street, the aladdin theater, and saw the legendary mavis staples. man, what a performer!




other than the inevitable effects of human aging (which are actually pretty limited in this case), mavis hasn't changed a bit. she has the same soul and energy she had back in the 70's when she performed with the band in the movie "the last waltz". it made my night when she pulled out the classic song "the weight" by the band.

two nights ago, i walked from my house to the same venue, and we caught another legendary performer. it was the kickin' jazz guitarist john scofield:




it was a rippin' performance.

both nights, it felt nice and cool outside... we made sure to take advatange of the outside night during the set breaks of both shows. we walked to a local park for a nice break. dead leaves crunching under our feet.

it's nice to have fall back. i guess the indian summer is over.

the truth shall set us free

After two years and 1,203 coalition deaths -- 1,065 Americans, 68 Britons, 6 Bulgarians, 1 Dane, 2 Dutch, 1 Estonian, 1 Hungarian, 19 Italians, 1 Latvian, 13 Poles, 1 Salvadoran, 3 Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, 2 Thai and 9 Ukrainians -- in the war in Iraq as of today's date, are we any better for it?

Today Rumsfield *finally* admits, after two years of denial, that there really was no link between Iraq and al Qaida. That means that basically, all of our justifications for going to war in Iraq are now moot. Colin Powell has been saying this for months, but the hawks have been steadfast in denying the truth, until today.

Rumsfeld: No evidence of al-Qaida-Iraq link (msnbc.com)

To drive home the point that the war may not be going as well as we are told, yesterday the former Iraqi Administrator from the US government, L. Paul Bremer, said: "the United States made two major mistakes: not deploying enough troops in Iraq and then not containing the violence and looting immediately after the ouster of Saddam Hussein."

Bremer criticizes troop levels in Iraq (msnbc.com) [dead]

Well, I'm sad to hear the news, but happy to hear the truth...

May God/Allah/Yahweh/Buddha/Jah have mercy on our souls!

be afraid

Election Heightens Terrorism Offensive (washingtonpost.com)

I feel like the title of this article should really read, "be afraid. be very afraid. only your government can protect you. do not use independent thought. do not question our authority."

Sorry.

But it really has gotten this bad.

Some of my favorite quotes:

"Counterterrorism officials concede they do not have new or specific intelligence outlining plans for an attack, but they say they remain alarmed..."

"The FBI... will focus heavily on individuals within the United States who are suspected of having ties to al Qaeda... or who sympathize with their causes, according to officials."

This just wreaks of the same kind of fear that was sold during the cold war. I'm probably going to be rounded up for posting this... this atmosphere is one step away from McCarthyism.

For the record, I am not a terrorist. Nor do I sympathize with their causes. However, I still believe in the Bill of Rights. I still want to believe in democracy in this country. I will not be quiet while we turn back the clock 50 years and repeat our same mistakes. There is a way to achieve security without giving up our freedom.

the long road to phi

if you'd like to see the golden number computed to a precision of 50640 digits after the decimal point, check out the first comment. it's too long for a normal post!

Bush's Withdrawal From the World

I find this to be a very well researched and well written article. I regret that the author chose to stick in a plug for Kerry at the end. Ignoring that, this is a good critique of Bush's recent (and pending) foreign policy failures in Europe and Asia...

Bush's Withdrawal From the World (washingtonpost.com)

the golden ratio =

1.618033988749895

.:.

oh sister:

http://www.xmlareas.com/music/oh-sister.mp3

stereotaxis

"sterotaxis: a substantial increase in the unusual" is how the CD's of the musical experiment at the art show were labeled. the bass player / drummer / keyboardist / sound engineer / orchestrator of the festivities (wow, he did a lot come to think of it!) was also responsible for the name. i think it's fitting. nice job on the recording too. i'll maybe try to drop a link to some mp3's later this week. about 28 minutes into CD 1 (of a 3 disc set), we hit a very cool pocket. drums are drumming, but guitars and basses and strange house-hold devices are making something that is beyond classification. not rock, not punk, not jams, not form nor timing; but still music.

here's all i have to offer in way of physical evidence as of yet:




another coworker (and a super sweet girl) took this cool photo of me making weird noises.

Ego Losses

Well, the Olympics are now almost over. I just watched the cocky US mens 4x100m relay team learn a lesson in humility as they were beat in the last strech by Great Britain. Great Britain deserved the gold...

But the US is looking good all around. Still winning the gold medal count, but just barely -- only 3 gold medals behind China as of right now. But who's counting?

The art show came and went, with much success. The experience in ambient music went strikingly well. We sounded like Sonic Youth mixed with Moby Grape. The video projected on the wall - created by two of my coworkers - was remarkable. Playing with so many people I've never played with before was inspiring. The unknown talent in the people I see everyday, but never get to know, is absolutely remarkable. Now I know them just a little bit better.

The gmail contest has been an interesting experiment. To be honest, I had two intentions for starting that post: to drive random visitors to this blog, but also, to give out those extra invites I don't know what else to do with. I've done both so far. But the contest has shown something else. Desire brings out the best in some people, and the worst in others. I thought about deleting some of the BS or negative comments, but thought it best to leave it uncensored for everyone instead.

By the way, the two posts I did delete were only removed because one winning poster requested it be removed after I gave her the invite, and also, I redacted a negative comment I made towards a specific individual because I decided it was not going to help anything...

The visit with my parents, sister, brother-in-law, and beautiful 10 month old niece has been awesome. She's learning sign language in addition to English and some Spanish. She understands all three, but can only communicate at this age through some basic signs. Motor skills and cognitive skills develop well before the ability to verbalize. It's really amazing.

Of all the positive things I've done, and the fun experiences I've had, and the sights I've seen over the past 48 hours, one image stands out in my mind over all the rest... the image of a beautiful woman smiling back at me after meeting my family and catching me at a rather vulnerable moment. I remember stepping backwards into the elevator, and as the doors shut, looking up at her, hoping for a last glance. The bottom half of her face was blocked by a desk, but as her eyes connected with mine, I could not control the smile coming over my face... and she could not resist smiling right back. I saw it in her eyes before she lifted her head above the desk, and by the time I could see her whole face, I realized I was seeing one of the warmest smiles I had seen in a long, long time.

free gmail

If anyone happens upon this blog, and is looking for a free invite to Google's new email service, Gmail, read on...

I've been loving my Gmail account since I got it a few weeks back. I now have 1 GB of online storage space, I can send messages with attachments up to 10 MB, Google's kick-ass search engine makes instant sense of my massive library of email, and I have an extremely useful new type of interface for emailing -- what's not to love!?

When I was trying to find an invite, I found out about blogspot.com, and now here we are... to bring it around full circle, I got a bunch of invites when I logged in today, so I'm sharing the wealth.

But, let's make it interesting. If you want an invite, post a funny story, or a promise to do something positive but unusual for someone else, or an explanation as to why you need 1000 MB of storage for email. Uncommon bribes and barter offers welcome too, why not? Make it interesting! Best story (or two or three) wins!

you can't please everyone

it's true. you can't please everyone at once. in fact, i think i've found a general principle: you can't please more than 4 people at a time.

this principle has come to light recently on road trips, during numerous jam sessions (in the form of live shows and informal improv jams), and also through various other social interactions.

a funny but clear example from tonight... 6 men in a room trying to practice for the unpredictable: an improv, ambient musical experiment from behind a wall, all in support of an art show at an unnamed (but long-standing) cultural institution. 1 left (read: went home) because we were being "too unstructured" and because we "changed keys" in the middle of a song. another left because we were playing "songs" and he thought it was going to be "less structured" and more "noise". the remaining 4 of us jammed for an hour plus, although 1 of us had to take repeated cigarette breaks. ha.

we'll see how the art show turns out. i just want to make sure we stay low key and don't undermine the actual artwork, artists, and lookers-on. my parents happen to be coming in from the southeast US the same day. let's hope they like the project too.

now of course, there are always exceptions to the rule. i must admit i've had a few 6 person jam sessions lately that kicked ass. major ass. 3 guitars, 1 fender rhodes keyboard, 1 bass, and a drum kit. kickin'. got it all on dat. cd too.

speaking of the golden ratio...

this photo from edward weston, ca. 1927, shows a beautiful nautilus:



the nautilus is a striking example of the golden ratio in nature:

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF7/716.html

it is only coincidence that the above article mentioned greece (a timely coincidence, and fitting for the night, no doubt) in its discussion of the golden ratio in architecture!

daisy

might as well add my dog's picture just to round things out...



this is daisy, a.k.a. "piper"

olympic opening ceremony

okay, so after the first bit of theatrics, the "procession of nations" was very cool.

frankly, i was surprised to see such a positive and warm (almost roaring) reaction from the mostly greek crowd when the US athletes made their entrance. i had assumed almost everyone in the world hated us at this point.

the usually inane bob costas made a comment that most greeks make a clear distinction between US foreign policy and government (which they have many reasons to dislike, going back 50+ years) and US citizens.

good to know, bob. seriously, it is good to see so many different people from all corners of the globe in one peaceful assembly. very good.

first post

well, here we are. as i write this first post, i'm watching the sappy opening ceremonies for the 2004 summer olympic games in athens, greece. it will be nice to see the actual games back on their home turf. let's all hope we don't see any violence.

i hope that 'the golden ratio' will serve mainly as an outlet for my never ending stream of thoughts. i don't know if i will ever share this blog site with anyone, other than those who stumble upon it. i will probably use this a place to record musical ideas (bits of lyrics and chords and melodies), philosophical thoughts (maybe *that's* why we're here!), and political frustrations (damn that W).

maybe i'll jot down some of my ideas for software and other technology too... who knows...