fractalnavel

this (Log on to be a satellite spy) gave me an idea: various projects use donated computer time via screensavers, etc. to attack various compute intensive problems, like protein folding or seti.  why not use the same sort of loosely coupled grid computing to solve national security problems ? these could be strictly cpu intensive - or they could include human input as well.  want to be an amateur spy ?  yes, there are clearly numerous problems to solve with that, but those could be solved and still let the internet group mind effectively solve what are otherwise uneconomical problems.  reduce your taxes by donating time.

an interesting by-product of this public effort would be the implicit creation of a tool that the official agencies could use as well to coordinate to a central intelligence repository.  and hell, this would be global. 

what to do about individuals or groups intentionally filing erroneous info ?  good question.  fun to solve.

so, the “homeland security” department/agency/whatever has kept such a low profile over the years as to appear to have been completely ineffective.  why haven't they done things like this ?  except for telling people to spy on their neighbors.  what a waste.

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always good to be around family. always ?  well, you know what i mean.  dinner was wonderful, the three liter quart bottle of arrogant bastard ale went over well, and we even managed to get some geocaching in (my log comments here and here).

rented movie watching seems more prevalent than ever.  i never remember that i can watch them too, on my laptop.  and then there's satellite tv movies (non-premium channels).  one strange one to note (on dvd) was renegade (aka “blueberry” ? you'd never have known from the us version). spaghetti western meets “altered states” meets “2001” meets “dances with wolves”.  if a book can be “an interesting read”, then this is “an interesting watch”.  probably would have been better had we not popped it in at midnight after a long day.  then again, that's also probably the best time (of day) to see something like this.

hungry.  crap.  i have to start hosting thanksgiving dinners myself.  that way i get to keep the leftovers !

we had snow on t-day last year too.  i forgot to build a snowman this time :-(

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physics, press and politics:

be sure to check out the links at the parent sites for both of these feeds. and no, i don't understand this stuff. bummer.

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of course, i hope to find at least one on a table.  just up to the detroit area this time, with a possible road trip up north, depending.  feels strange to be switching to winter gear. 

hmm.  i guess that's it.  just a note-to-blog. .

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not mine, though.

from craig: Coding Viruses for the Mind

thoughts:

• religion as virus, or otherly constructed meme, is kind of overdone, but it sure seems to have spurred some interesting posts there.
• meme virulence: was watching law & order, some cultist thing, occurred to me that successful cults have to have some limit to self-destructive behaviors.  diseases that kill before they can spread don't go far or last long.
• the initial article's description of viral mechanisms reminds me of the behavior of persons with borderline personality disorder towards family, friends, etc.  of course, stockholm syndrome and anything of the brainwashing family falls in the same camp.  but all acculturation is brainwashing.  wonder what a collection of humans who each individually developed in the raw state would look like.  actually, it looks like speciation, if allowed to progress for millions of years.
• perhaps it's better to consider such things in terms of “agents”, as the interaction of these things take on aspects of virusness or immune systemness or whatever depending on viewpoint.  the generality of masses of interacting agents along with emergence would enhance the viral concepts.
• religion as disease, rather than the other way around ?  using language with value based connotations might be best avoided.  we're sort of prejudiced against diseases.  all forms of life, right ? 
• aha, i see some comments approaching my “inevitable irrational certitude” formulation.  it's all mechanism papered over with 'lusions.

generally good discussion there, with the usual misconceptions and naivetes mixed in.

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”you stomp anyone, we stomp you”

now, what's wrong with that ? since you really can't prevent nuclear - or other wmd - proliferation in the long run, why not use one half of the old mad (mutually assured destruction) equation on the newcomers ?  apparently, it's the u.s.'s desire to be the promulgator and protector of “democracy“.  and we have/like the role of superpower / world-cop.  so, let's do it up, eh ?  so iran wants a bomb, or north korea.  ok, not a problem.  go ahead, try and use it - the u.s. has a policy to retalitate in kind for any country not so able.  and this applies to all nuclear capable countries / organizations, like pakistan, india, france, great britain, israel, former soviet republics. 

pax romana.

but we need to become much more militarized for that.  and we need to essentially force the participation of any protectorate states in that militarization.  you want an umbrella ? then you have to be a rib.  and that means they need to invest in their own military build up, and allow u.s. bases and control of such build up. 

this also means the u.s. has to be willing to forego national interests in those countries not willing to participate, at least insofar as they succumb to incursions from hostile parties.  or can we force our “help”, and demand payment ?  are we ready to run a global protection racket ?

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verrry eeenteresting - ?:

http://www.fuckthesouth.com/

worth a post of its own, nothing like a rant with references ;-)   and nice domain name; so where is fuckthenorth.com ?  coming soon, i'm sure.

but “the south” ? - maybe this time, but it's the western states historically that have been a thorn in the liberal/progressive's side.

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blah blah blah.  blah blah blah blah blah,  blah blah blah.   blah blah blah blah ?  blah blah.   blah,  blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

blah blah -  blah blah blah blah.   blah blah blah,  blah blah blah blah blah blah blah,  blah blah.   blah blah blah blah blah;  blah blah,  blah blah blah blah.  blah ?  blah,  blah blah blah blah blah -  blah blah,  blah blah blah blah.  blah blah blah blah (blah blah blah blah,  blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah)  blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

blah blah blah:

• blah blah blah,  blah blah blah blah blah¹;
• blah blah blah blah blah blah blah,  blah blah blah blah blah blah;
• blah,  blah blah.

blah,  blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.   blah blah blah blah blah;  blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.  blah blah blah,  blah blah blah blah blah.   blah blah - blah blah blah blah.

blah blah blah.

¹blah blah blah.  blah blah blah blah  “blah blah blah blah blah blah”,  blah blah blah blah blah blah. (blah blah,  blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah)

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current administration policies and programs, and the source of its “political capital” (laughable) get slammed roundly from multiple directions on this week's now [it may take a few days for this permanent archive link to resolve; meanwhile, go to the current week page].  it's nice to see the hypocracies¹ and lies pointed out so concisely.

last week, moyers mentioned that he was retiring in december.  well deserved, but i would like to hope he would postpone.  there is such a shortage of rational voices these days.

explore the site - show transcripts and videos, along with links to supplementary information.

¹hypocrisy - but i like my spelling better ;-)

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finally got the boat registered - all legal now !  well, it will be when i get the numbers and registration stickers on it.  only took me two months.  my procrastination is improving.  take that however you want ;-)

less than $5 for the numbers; not sure what a replacement registration sticker is.  i bring this up since i really need to scrape / sand / polish / wax the entire hull, but i want to get out sailing too, so i may end up going through more than one set of stickers.

beautiful day for a drive too.  there's a nice rather direct rural route to the dnr office (at east fork) that avoids all the little towns and lights and business districts using the larger roads.  i've always been impressed with ohio river valley countryside, ever since i had my first travel job take me here (portsmouth, actually) in the early 80's.  it didn't hurt that it was a sunny late fall day as well.  it's too narrow twisty turny up and downy to tow a boat along comfortably, though.  i may try it anyway ;)

anyone up for some dinghy sailing ?  bring your wet/dry suit !

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yeah, fuck you, all you conservative bastards, for cancelling a fucking phenomenal movie because it uses the fucking “f-word”.  if you want pablum for you and yours, you can fucking change the channel, but fucking do not fucking dictate to me what i can fucking watch and when.

just thought you'd like to know how i fucking felt.  fuckers.

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