fractalnavel : politics

bubble rap

fractalnavel — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:47:00 GMT

From: Craig

Sent: Monday, February 23, 2009 09:25

Subject: simple

Saw this on xkcd today -- http://simple.wikipedia.org/

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deflation

deflation bad, inflation opposite, we need things to make us go....

and in my typical long-winded manner:

depends on how you've been running your life, really. if you're in a hand-to-mouth mode, and wage-slave mode, mild inflation is the temporary way to go - but it's ultimately non-sustainable and encourages perpetuation of those modes - until everything crashes, of course.

thing is, there are some longer term phases in economic cycles that no one seems ready to plan for. at the onset of every one, people adapt and assume it's a steady-state thing, getting too deep into the rut (whatever rut it is), holding on for too long, as, inevitably, the phase shifts and "catastrophe" sets in (of various severity).

I dunno - I'm working on some ideas I haven't seen out there so far. I agree about the consensus regarding inflation / deflation, but there are some nasty implicit assumptions there about the "natural" order of things, that just ain't so. in some ways, this is similar to what I've been saying about longer term cycles in science & so on - we are merely in transient phases, these trends, of what we like to think of as more or less consistent growth / expansion of "knowledge", are not at all a given. over longer periods of time, there have always been movements forward, stagnation, and movements backward - and often it's only the perspectives that shift.

personally: I'm a weird animal - since I've had to have savings because of my (sense of?) isolation, deflation would actually benefit me - in the short term. heavy inflation would put me on the street.

consumption has been artificial for years, in the sense that people have been almost forced into buying all kinds of crap that's not needed, artificial demand created by mass media, etc. that "bubble" the government has been maintaining for quite some time now - regardless of party - masks the collapse of the "growth" driven economy that happened years ago - at least, a rational one.

to continue this, people would need to keep filling their ever larger paper-walled mcmansions with gluts of useless toys & knick-knacks. but in the end, even psychology & advertising can't keep things moving - reality has a habit of catching up to us. there are limits to resources, and limits to "new value" that can "created" with existing technology.

didn't I just mention recently something about important differences between studying static phenomena as a simplification, and the reality of dynamics that often mean those static approximations aren't even achievable ? with regards to black holes v. "frozen stars", I believe.

anyway, again, a work in progress... given the state of the planet, and the fact that this shit has been repeating itself to one extent or another every ten years or so for at least a few centuries, there really isn't much reason for taking to heart "accepted" "knowledge" in this area. however, those theories are useful in a limited short-term sense for certain groups and individuals - always the same ones.

"simple wikipedia" - good god, a reference for morons. someone has been insulted here. perhaps everyone.

that deflation article ? oversimplified to the point of being wrong. go read something worthy of your intellect. start with the main wikipedia article.

longish reply, eh ? one last comment: our profession in particular is notably deflationary - automation simultaneously increases productivity and decreases head-counts. this works out (again, short term) when there has been high demand and other areas of the economy can absorb dislocated workers, but in the end - haven't you ever done things personally in the course of your working life that have put people permanently out of jobs ? hell, that's always a big union thing too - can't be too productive, or else everyone loses.

anyway, I first started thinking of this way back when I started work, first with foundry automation equipment (no wonder one project was sabotaged), and afterwards at that actuarial consulting company. that place was already on a 35 hour work week, expecting to go lower. I kept thinking, what if I kept getting better, making things work very fast, shouldn't everyone continue to be paid the same or better, even if working less ? shouldn't they reap the benefits of what they had accomplished ? of course, we all know how that works out: workers get shed, and all newly "created" profits - the long-term benefits of those workers - gets pocketed by those in positions of power, those whose job it is to re-distribute the wealth. truly fair compensation would include the future value of one's efforts.

but ok, I'll stop before I start getting into monetary and tax theory, which starts to get necessary at this point. yeah, I've been thinking of these things off & on since childhood.

to which craig responded:

Blog blog blog….

yeah, i hear ya.

y.a.s.c.u.p. #(n + 1)

fractalnavel — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:16:10 GMT

seemed like a decent day to post. man, i haven't done anything since christmas. no laundry, no work outs - finally getting to it all today... dang shoulder just seems to keep getting worse, not sure what to do.

*whine*

* * * * * * * * * *

craig sent along a link to Bruce Sterling: State of the World, 2009, and that started me off onto a two and a half week intensive reading "program" on sustainable economies & lifestyles, aka peak oil, survivalism and The End of the World as We Know It ^TM. basically what i learned was that i'm gonna die - sooner rather than later, and after a good deal of uncertainty and suffering.

not that this is really any news to me. it was pretty apparent twenty years ago even from random bits & pieces of information. i was just never sure what could be done about it, at any scale from global to personal. coulda woulda shoulda - gotta deal with the here & now.

there's a lot of material related to this on the web of varying quality, as usual. the best jumping off point for me was dmitry orlov's stuff; he brings an interesting perspective to the current state of affairs, having been through the soviet version of it twenty years ago. he's more focused on pragmatics than mere doomsaying, and community rather than isolationism. read the articles linked to in the sidebar, and some of the linked blogs as well - there's not many, and the ones there are a good selection.

anyway, i still need to digest this, not that there's a lot of time left. i pretty much want to stick with actions that would be worthwhile to take even if the future was purely rosy. if i want a self-sufficient lifestyle, especially for eventual retirement, gotta start now. no need to be extreme about it, but certainly an elimination of unnecessary dependencies makes sense. problem is, i'm in the wrong place to start.

well, just need to apply the usual project approach to this. i do have some skills, the ability to identify and acquire new ones being the most important in this context. and it will go from there... more updates to come, i'm sure.

one personal observation: while immersed in this topic, the advertisement on tv, and other events, seemed downright surrealistic. things are coming down around our ears, while the tube runs merrily on, as if nothing was happening. oh, there's a mention of troubles, but then bang, onto next news item. the cognitive dissonance has been stunning.

* * * * * * * * * *

somewhere near the end of that i got sidetracked for a day or two into some mormonism reading. bottom line: yeah, it's a cult. somewhat benign, compared to many others, but a cult nonetheless. same applies to numerous other organizations, religions, academics, corporations, entire nations... mental and emotional abuse, deception and secrecy, in the name of god or an idea or any goal - sorry, not a good thing. of course, cultishness is a continuum; few groupings are exempt.

* * * * * * * * * *

let's see, what else has been happening. new national administration, sure. pretty impressed with the first few days. been watching news and various talk shows (moyers, rose), and there are a lot of popping eyeballs.

i gotta admit, i got a little teary at some points during the inaugural speech. took me a while to figure out why, since the language wasn't all that evocative, nothing earth shaking was being said, just good straight talk - and that was it. after all these years of outright idiocy from the previous holder of that office, it was the relief from the sheer humiliation and frustration of having to live with that jerk as the public face of a what could still be a great nation. the tears were a returning of a sense of pride that i hadn't even been aware that i had lost. not chest-thumping, nationalistic pride, but pride as a human, that's all - not the subhuman crap we've taken for the last eight years.

the contrast between bush and obama is breathtaking in just about every way. god knows where we'll be in days, months or years, but even just a few days of decency and honesty ^[1] makes a world of difference. i had some serious reservations about obama, and really, he seemed to be missing the point early on in many issues. but he learned! my god - the complete, asinine foolishness of "staying the path" when all evidence says otherwise. and not only that, but shit - much the same undertakings could have been attempted, but carried off far better, if that honesty and willingness to learn had been in place.

so - mccain or clinton ? at the moment, i'm glad it was neither of them. that's a change from my earlier opinion. what the fuck - let's give the new guy a chance. can't be a whole lot worse than the last century of bozos to date.

^[2]

i dunno - was that only more cognitive dissonance ?

^[1] well, apparent honesty at this point. we'll find out later - much later.

^[2] data from http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/popularity.php

feedback loops

fractalnavel — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:03:28 GMT

some thoughts from a brother on things auto industry:

Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 09:32

Subject: more car stuff & economics

...

"From some rough approximations, the car companies have added more value to the autoworker (and population) pocketbook than most other industries. Due to the automotive worker increasing wage, the average car price is going up; however, the recurring cost of gasoline has improved (mpg from 1970 to 2010+), while the $/gal gas cost has negatively impacted the car companies gains. Again, roughly - car companies have had a neutral effect on %take home pay, while housing, insurance (car & house), and health costs have reduced the take home. Taxes (income, property, sales, socsec, medicare) - I don't have enough information at this time to put this into perspective.

"Taking this into consideration, the next questions concern -

"is the automotive laborer wage chasing the cost of living or vice-versa?"

"how about other industries?"
i.e. if health care and general insurance costs (items everybody needs) rise, workers (union & non-union - both will feel the effect) will want compensation< to neutralize their effects.

"The three major increases in cost of living (excluding taxes, I'll still have to chase this) are;

housing

car insurance

health care (ins premium & treatment costs)
(house insurance a somewhat distant 4th)

"So - housing costs are up because raw materials are up? If so, then wouldn't house insurance increase also. Or are the claims not substantiating enough? Are house insurance claims less likely to be fraudulent, then the insurance model may be okay, and car insurance fraud should be minimized.

"car insurance costs are up because raw materials are up? True, however; here multiple factors are chasing themselves. The more cars are made the supply/demand pricing takes place, and labor wages are chasing themselves. However, those suppliers that failed to make the successful OEM original build bid, can still make aftermarket parts sold to PepBoys, AutoZone, Murrays, etc. I've seen similar initiatives at these places like GM's cost reduction to limit aftermarket increases. It's said that insurance customers should request OEM parts; however, all OEM's globally quote and source any component, including those Asian "counterfeits" who may have quoted on the OEM parts, and missed due to a number of reasons - price, timing, politics, procedures, lack of quality certificate (which doesn't always guarantee non-recalls, otherwise there wouldn't be recalls now, since all parts are sources with TS, ISO, or VDA qualifications).

"Insurance costs are minimal (low labor, low materials, low overhead), until claims are paid. Hence my comparison statement to housing insurance modeling rates against claims.

"So - should US car companies get a loan (not a bailout, like the underscrutinized finance industry)? Cars are globally made, each corporation having to adhere to each nations' specific emission controls and safety standards. But the unequalizer are tariffs. As was seen as lately as four years ago, US government steel tariffs requested by USSteel and other US steel makers, caused an increase in material cost until they were repealed, then the global market for construction boomed (construction uses about 70% of globally used mined ore), and supply/demand pricing once again flourished.

"Pricing including imaginary profit geometrically raises prices as OEM's raise outsourcing and their Tier1's have more Tier2's, then Tier3's, etc..... Then the Tier3's, and so on, don't have enough buying power to push the supply/demand principle to their favor. When the OEM's purchase material with their buying power for Tier1's to Tier3's+, then this is somewhat limited. But automotive is still competing with construction (industrial/commercial buildings, infrastructure/roads, transportation (shipping, rail, ...)."

...

which highlights the complex nature of any major industry in today's global economy.

funny that we merely blinked (really) at sending funds approaching $1T (that's $1,000,000,000,000 - !) to assist an "industry" that no one is sure is even real, but when it comes to actual physical goods, and a price tag less than %3 of what has been committed elsewhere, the prevalent attitude is decidedly unsympathetic - and that's stating it gently.

so many things wrong about all this (the national reaction, i mean). but it reflects more a historical antipathy towards detroit and organized labor (where did that come from?) than anything approaching a considered response to the matter at hand.

but what people miss is that (1) old concerns of a domestic car quality gap disappeared long ago, (2) a separable "domestic" auto industry has not even existed for a couple of decades now, and (3) outsourcing and anti-labor hiring practices undercut (sometimes costly) protections that people fought for for years in this country.

ask yourselves who all this benefits. again.

(2) is even more interesting, because of the interdependencies globally and between industries. a domino effect would ensue if the supplier / skill concentrations are lost, not only for "foreign" auto makers, but other heavy industries - and _light_ ones as well. one of two things could happen: all those "foreign" companies could pull out, there being too little appropriate labor resources available; or they could stay but demand - and get - large additional labor compensation slashes, amounting to this country switching to a non-"first world" status. already, we're seeing many people not only seriously considering, but actually acting, on taking employment overseas because of "domestic" economic issues. you know how you look at mexico today ? well, start looking out your front window.

"oh, that could never happen - we're America!"

morons - it's been happening for over a decade now.

granted, preserving the huge global inequity pattern that has prevailed to date is neither wise nor possible, but there are far better ways to handle transitions.

and in a deep sense, the current perspectives, attitudes and trends are tied to the underlying "scientism" and "secular mysticism" that causes everyone to believe that everything is controllable, and that there are responsible parties for everything that happens. this is further interestingly compounded by the contradictory attitude that everyone believes in the existence of free choice. so - perfect causal chains of responsibility (determinism), ending at persons who chose to start that chain of events (free will).

the last few years i've run into many examples of this glaring logical error- the poor chose to be that way (laziness, maliciousness, whatever); the hyper-rich deserve their wealth (personally, as if there was something trans-human about them). and so on.

but no one recognizes it. and no one recognizes their own greed and intolerance as well.

well, looky here...

fractalnavel — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 22:20:53 GMT

i never even thought to expect this:

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:00:00 UTC
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
******
Signs of Voldemort's return emerge as Harry's (Daniel Radcliffe) friends (Rupert Grint, Emma Watson) help him prepare for a tournament with Europe's best student wizards. (Fantasy, Adventure)

[157minutes]

PG-13

so what was that nonsense last week ? i have heard that part three of the potter saga is particularly problematic for "those" people. of course, it isn't yet time for this to start, so they may still bail.

burn censors, not books !

fractalnavel — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 01:57:59 GMT

... or movies.

big "wtf?!" moment this evening: getting back from the conference today, i think how i will be early enough to kick back with a beer or three and catch the the third harry potter movie (prisoner of azkaban) that was advertised by abc last week during the showing of the second harry potter movie. but i forgot what city i live in. flipping over to the channel, i see:

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 00:00:00 UTC
Your Reality Checked: Floral Designer
(#810006) A corporate executive contemplates leaving her job to become a florist. (House/garden, Series)

[2004-07-18]

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 01:00:00 UTC
The Insider's List With Julie Moran: Eco-Hotels
(#780016) The top 10 hotels that are ecologically-friendly. (House/garden, Cooking, Series)

[2004-10-18]

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 02:00:00 UTC
Chuckwagon Cook-Off
The annual competition takes place in Ruidoso, N.M. (Special, Cooking)

[2006-03-04]

proof ? hardly. but it's happened before here with this series and other flicks. you want me to believe that demand for the above garbage is higher than for a multiple academy award nominated film ?

bastards. not even so much the local station (cincinnati wcpo), but the fuckers in the community i live among. really, people, it only happens because you want it to. how fucking stupid do you think i am ? like you ?

this ~~also~~ especially goes for those who may not share those sentiments, but nevertheless stand by and let it happen. next time yuou hear this sort of attitude from a neighbor or coworker or whoever - challenge it.

intolerance is intolerable.

yeah. community "standards". sure, it's not like i have a right to view things on a private corporation's broadcast, and if it had never been placed on the schedule in the first place, what can i say ? but that isn't what happened, is it ? the garbage above is a local pre-emption of the national feed.

yes, y'all can do this crap and get away with it. way to go.

hard not to wonder what's been happening that's less noticeable. for that, a comparison to international programming is a start. not like that is any better in many cases.

"... i love my species. i love my species. i love my species. ..."

i can never seem to let things go

fractalnavel — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:42:39 GMT

craig writes:

"... The basic premise of having an army is to defend your territory. ..."

um, depends on who you are. perhaps that was the intent of those who founded this country, but armies are used for all sorts of things.

also:

"... it's time to put the toy soldiers away."

nope, not yet, they're kind of in the middle of something. but i get his meaning, in the context of longer term policies. even then, if you look at what happened in the non-standing-army periods, that's not exactly a safe proposition either. not to mention, geography has far less meaning in today's world in terms of distance as protection. so some sort of established military needs maintaining, including forward deployed force projection.

now, the extent to which that is done can be varied dramatically, along with how to provision quick build-ups on an ad-hoc basis. the us's force transformation initiative in a sense does lean on the citizen militia in the form of calling up national guard & reserve units; which is the fall back short of requiring (not simply permitting) an armed populace combined with a "draft".

israel has (had?) a good model for this, where everyone is required to serve a couple of years in the military. that training needs to be in place, as well as the arms.

and nope, americans will not allow any of this. this goes back to what was wrong about the civil rights movements of the 60s, where, along with the good stuff, people also started to get some warped ideas about entitlements and the "coddle-me" attitudes necessary to the formation of a nanny state, such as we have underway now.

*sigh*. these sorts of things have a habit of self-correcting, usually in not so pleasant ways, and almost certainly with permanent damage.

so, sure, loosen up the arsenal (and i mean everything, up to and including carriers), garrison the entire country. it's not all good, but then, nothing ever is.

also, "founders": sure, it helps to have the political dialogue in this country on the correct footing (things as they were, not as people want to re-interpret them for their own purposes), but that's just it: invoking the founding fathers as if they were gods just isn't responsible, and they likely wouldn't have wanted things that way either, for exactly these reasons of reinterpretive wrangling. so, yes, the enlightenment had good ideas, still does, and so do some more modern movements. we are supposed (?) to be adapting as we move along, not shutting down in reactionary bunker mentalities (neo-con, fundamentalism, etc.). that isn't even a real possibility, regardless of the illusions so many seem to harbor, here and elsewhere. "supposed to": hell, we have no choice. but backsliding and forgetting / corrupting valuable historic lessons - shame on us.

wish/tful thinking

fractalnavel — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 21:42:05 GMT

years ago, shortly after the first gulf war, it was very clear what was and was not to be done in such a situation, once the path had been chosen. it was very simple:

let the generals do their jobs
no half measures

these two points stood out especially in contrast to the conduct of the vietnam war, at least the little that i can directly remember.

but also important to consider in the original choice and planning:

do nothing that you cannot commit to

that's pretty clearly implied by the first two. there's ways of taking care of that; one is by using such overwhelming force and third party support that the actual hostilities are as contracted as possible; the other is by having a just cause, and a distinct goal. the gulf war filled all of these criteria, and it showed.

of course, things like length, justice and goal are highly contextual, not least of which is the supporting population's will to continue and commit, especially in a democracy. also, "commit": not just someone else's life & treasure, but one's own resources - across all the nation's various strata.

all of these considerations have been violated by the current enagement in iraq.

and yet - we are there.

compounding matters by not following through would be far worse. two wrongs don't make a right; we can't rewrite history, go home, and say "oops".

and then there's the issue of the very real likelihood of misinterpreted reality. despite the wrongheadedness of how we got into the position that we are in ("we" being the nation i'm born to), and how badly executed, we may have blundered onto what might be the correct path in the larger sense. sure, americans do some really stupid, dangerous, silly - and wonderful - things, but sometimes the world is less optimistic a place than we may have hoped.

some reading offered for your consideration:

some mental exercises to prepare for what follows
for those wanting a bit of a fictional introduction, dan simmons has a little "story"
and here's the point

not to mention that other religious ideologies have also all had their significant toxic periods for the rest of humanity / planet. nope, this isn't a war of religions, but many people are reflexively casting it that way.

short-cutting much more extensive discussion, what about practical matters ? there's a u.s. presidential election coming up shortly. are there any answers there, any message we can send ?

there is much more of distaste that i have with any of the frontrunners than anything to recommend them. strictly on domestic matters, i wouldn't go in the republican direction, but i don't see democrats offering much of intelligence either. perhaps just slightly less and/or different damage.

on the other hand, there is one clear difference from a foreign policy perspective: obama is clearly for early pull-out from iraq. and i think any such talk is dangerously premature.

leaves me with one distasteful alternative: clinton.

of course, this predicament is largely an artifact of the sheeple and their continued blind adherence to a two-party system; combined with a lack of historical knowledge.

i'll leave this hanging with something craig said the other day, referring to a slightly different topic, but related as to background:

" The US like any other country has it's mood swings with capitalism, "corporatacracy", big government, empire, isolationism. And I really thought early on in the Bush presidency when everyone kind of went wacko with 9/11 and the overreaction that followed that the boat would rollback to even keel at some point down the line. It always has. There's enough people who care enough to fight to right the boat. I read, listen and watch them all the time. They do exist. It just seems there are so many more people today than say 30 years who really don't care. They view all of this like the compressor on the refrigerator, it just works so we no longer hear it humming anymore. I don't know if it's apathy or accepting that it's all on automatic. Think about it. Since the late 70s, this country has really had it good. That's 30 years of nobody rocking the boat too bad. This is the younger generation who usually are the ones who would march in the streets, protest, have the idealism to demand change. Why mess with things when they see their parents never being involved and have lived the high life. The hippies grew up in the idyllic 50's and were use to having things their way and when Uncle Sam started carting them off to war they said hell no. The biggest complaint today is the overbearing entertainment industry. Wha? But anyway I just hope the critical mass of people are out there willing to right to the boat again. I try in my own way to bring up issues in conversations. Not so much my own opinion but "do you think the president has overstepped his bounds? do you think that congress is honest? do you think that journalistic integrity has a place on our tv anymore? etc. At least bring some of this up, raise awareness. I have to say I am concerned how things are going. I really am amazed at how far things have gotten out of hand in the 7-8 years since 9/11. And I think it's because nobody is around to say "stop that" or "lets try something different". "

we had been discussing Rick Falkvinge: Why the US is collapsing, which is food for thought, if not entirely credible.

tech notes: sucky is as sucky does

fractalnavel — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 02:01:41 GMT

broadband, that is. check this out:

nice site, by the way, if more than a bit bloated. and i swear they have some sort of memory leak there...

anyway, the story gets more interesting when you look at the comparisons they have available:

eh, downloads, not so bad. but according to the site, the top isps in the world are offering more than three times this now.

now for the uploads:

now i feel cheated. friggin' roadrunner doesn't even match up to the pathetic state average, much less national or international. and the top isps ? near symmetric speeds.

and to think i pay nearly $50 a month for this joke. there are other places getting twice the speed for half the price. so much for free market systems in this part of the world. this also ilustrates the corporate control over p2p. want to publish here ? well, we'll throttle you. don't like it ? then go to one of the big corporate hosting sites, or buy our premium services.

yet again, so much for independent voices, or "free" speech.

tech notes: if you're listening right this moment ...

fractalnavel — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:28:20 GMT

... you might want to put aside time for

The three 2008 TED Prize winners, each granted “a wish to change the world,” will unveil their wishes at the legendary conference. Streamed live on the Web: TED 2008 today at 5:15pm PST.

from Communication Arts, news.

previous events have been - eventful. yeah, that's the word.

tech notes: can you believe these morons ?

fractalnavel — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 02:50:41 GMT

so i go to the AWStats project home page - here's what i see:

now what kind of bullshit is that ?! i felt like ripping out their sorry-assed software just for spite. not to mention that all of their "points" are nonsense.

they must have been watching too many of those mac vs. pc commercials. or maybe they're fsj wannabes.

man, could you imagine if someone did that with ie ?! that would be so cool - at the microsoft site ;-) but only for bozos who do shit like this.

xo: getting closer ...

fractalnavel — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 16:30:00 GMT

so it took them a couple weeks / months to get their shit together, so what ? they're being responsive now, anyway:

From: service@laptopgiving.org
Sent: 2008.01.21 05:58:54 Eastern Standard Time
Subj: Your Give One Get One Donation

Dear Donor,

We are contacting you in regards to your Give One Get One donation and the shipment of your laptop. Your donation is in the queue for laptop shipment.

Please expect to receive another update from us by Wednesday, 1/23, with information on when you can expect to receive your laptop.

We appreciate your generosity and patience.

Sincerely,

OLPC Donor Services

the various snafus that they have been having sure caused a lot of upset. in retrospect, it's a "well, what did you expect?" kind of thing. unfortunately, it still adds to that program's bad pr, despite that a lot of it can be chalked up to the usual "ugly american"-ism.

there are people out there who have called lawyers, state attorney generals (or is that "attorneys general" ?), have spent hours on the phone for weeks, bombarded every inbox they could find at the partner organizations, filled forums... all this over a $200 ~~missing~~ slightly late item. good god - i can blow more than that in two weeks at the local bar. and i guess we've forgotten the days when all mail order items took "6-10 weeks" to be delivered. damned instant gratification world.

which kind of makes one ponder the reality that motivates the creation of this and other programs. i've said it before - there's now enough aggregate wealth on this planet to eliminate poverty - and so many associated conditions. and for most potential contributors, this would hardly make a noticeable dent in their lifestyles. (yet it seems most of what support does exist comes from the global middle class that is rapidly being wiped out. makes one wonder if it ever really existed - it hasn't, in historical terms. wups, another post.)

well, fine, but then there's ayn rand's warnings, and that's something to be considered as well. and our recent experience in iraq. you can't simply "give" economic, political, personal security. educate, you say ? thus, the olpc program.

[what was it that dylan had to say about change ?]

fractalnavel — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:37:37 GMT

Detroit Museum Reinvents Itself in an Effort to Stir Arts Renewal

The Detroit Institute of Arts completed a six-year, $158 million makeover in 2007, including the addition of interactive exhibits and a spotlight on local artists. Jeffrey Brown reports on the new efforts to attract visitors and survive amid state economic woes.

saw a bit of the report (left) on pbs last night. apparently, they've renovated the detroit institute of arts to make it more appealing to the masses. one striking part of this is the removal of the traditional notes and descriptions placards that accompany each work, replacing them with "exhibition style" presentations instead. they want to relate more to, well, the common man, not just the art connoisseurs or those with otherwise privileged perspectives. other changes reflect this as well.

the report goes on to mention that there are criticisms of this approach, that some are calling it "dumbing down" of art.

my own thoughts are a complex mix, but i'd have to agree with the critics. but not for the same reasons.

oh, i fear i will soon be mourning the loss of a beautiful institution, replaced by something with lesser historical and personal appeal, but that's not it. it's something else.

the motivation for these changes is not that the art world is too elite, it's that they think that joe sixpack won't value, and therefor show up and support, something he doesn't understand. or is that "won't" understand ? or, perhaps, "can't" understand ?

what does this say about us ? because sadly, it's probably true.

from a historical perspective, public art's main purpose was not aesthetic, it was communications. tell the common people what to think about so-and-so political figure, about such-and-such religious ideas. impress. persuade. subjugate. horrify. inform. the aesthetic was the vehicle, not the point.

it wasn't until we had climbed out of the dark ages that art began to take on a life of its own, where the exercise of the craft and associated intellect began to become a frequent primary motivator. in the twentieth century art - public art - attempted to throw off the last shackles of "message" in pursuit of the purity of the thing in itself.

that's quite a statement, really. a positive one, even though no such statement could have been intended. the statement was: each person is their own arbiter of taste. their own judge. they imbue art - and life - with a message of their own. in effect, it is a statement of ultimate liberty and democracy. it is the full bloom of the renaissance and the enlightenment.

and now it's being taken away.

who's scamming who ?

fractalnavel — Fri, 25 May 2007 00:12:41 GMT

a brother writes:

In a message dated 2007.05.23 09:10:50 Eastern Daylight Time, writes:

If you agree with this reporting, this sounds like more blog material.
(I've never heard of Ron Paul in written or audio media)

Maybe he doesn't fit the corporate image, or the presidential field is
to weak, or his ideals are not immediately recognized as non-pragmatic.

the material he is referring to:

http://www.infowars.com/articles/us/paul_ron_total_victory_yet_censorship_continues.htm

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Story?id=3147940

hard to really tell what's going on, and i know nothing about the candidate. if ABC's "explanation" is correct, then why wouldn't similar crap be happening to the other candidate's numbers ? there's too many of them to assume that only one has supporters with any technological adeptness. and hell, the numerical inflation would have skyrocketed to ridiculous numbers if "spamming" / stuffing were the case. etc. sorry, that doesn't hold water, and the fact that they offered a weak rationalization just makes things smell all the more.

meanwhile, as for me, i haven't been following any of this stuff. basically all i see is losers across the board, in any party. i need to figure out how to run myself. what the hell, eh ? i'll run on the "you're all idiots !" platform.

funeral for a friend

fractalnavel — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 03:21:00 GMT

In a message dated 2006.01.13 20:08:46 Eastern Standard Time, sowajf@ writes:

JEEP WRANGLER JK

Taking place of the current TJ.
It has many "features" that will be discussed for months (years?).

http://jpmagazine.com/featuredvehicles/154_0601_07jk/

piece of shit. it took sixty years, but the fucking germans finally figured out how to beat the american gp vehicle: buy it out from the greedy multinationals with the blessings of the "patriotic" republicans. and it wasn't enough just to kill it off - they had to turn it into a suburban weenie-mobile to destroy its reputation as well.

jeep is dead. long live jeep.

is it february second yet ?

fractalnavel — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 00:07:00 GMT

kinda thinking about that poor groundhog poking his head out of a hole, looking for spring.

that's me, finally showing up on a blog. this one sits in most of the categories here, just so's it covers bases.

just took 25 minutes to order a pizza by phone. good thing i have a couple beers in me, pretty funny, really. is technology crippling people ? i didn't use my usual order-over-the-web method since i wanted a couple of items added to one of their pizzas that the web page wouldn't let me do. hell, it wouldn't even let me order more than five items on a pizza. it's a sad, sad world ;-)

me? been workin', that's what. it seems our tiny, digital-local blogging group also took the holidays off. jon is doing bowling releases only. craig is off doing his other blog, rarely, and getting weirder by the moment. i resolved not to comment there, i wanted to see the unperturbed result. yeah, it curved off, higher order derivatives increasing.

lots of stuff of minor kinds happening over the last few weeks. went up to michigan to visit some family for christmas day. inadvertently decapitated a neighborhood snowman. had a pi [sic] fight with my brother. went out to maryland for new years. watched the crab drop. had some wonderful (bold, italic, underline) meals courtesy of my sister (venison tenderloin, and more - latkes, ...). a menorah in an advent wreath ? o-k. saw “narnia”. picked our own oysters and ate them as we got 'em, my nephew doing the shucking as eric & i ate. putted around the water a bit on a ten horse skiff, looking for non existent fish (i was following the birds before i figured that the birds were probably following me...).

fan belt came off halfway home, did repairs in the rain, since luckily the belt wrapped itself around the fan shaft instead of going away altogether. autoparts store in the boonies was closed, of course, on january second.

launched a website this week. it's ok, kind of mom & pop, but if you don't invest more than that golden threshold, that's what you get.

only a few weeks left of stuff to do, other projects, same place. kind of a shame, since working less than a mile and a half down the road has let me ride around with the jeep top & doors off most of the winter so far. very cool, no pun intended. stop at the coffee shop on the way in, coast through the park into the lot, under the overhangs so i don't worry about rain. i would love to work there longer. but i didn't apply to the openings they had. why ? i dunno. fear of failure ? partly. but also low pay (so what? beats none at all), and i really, really, should be moving on. always far better to be leaving something good than running from something bad.

anyway, that's the resolution to that last post. i didn't want that particular position, nor the long term commitment. i just wanted to stay on at this place. and be able to really stretch my skills. unfortunately, yet again, this is not to be. i see the unnecessary bogging down of vision and motivation at this place, like all places, and it's sad, since there is so much potential with only a little push.

which lesson i should apply to my own life, yet do not. anyway, here i am, and there i was, and the intent was not to leave people hangng, just had to work lots of hours.

on the metablogging topic, i've been trying to sort out why or why not to write. the purpose has changed. the rants are less of a motivator nowadays, likewise my celebration of personal weirdnesses. keeping in touch is still a good idea, though, so there's that, for a while.

the thinking and creating and discovering continues, however, whether exposed to others or not. i am tired of leaving breadcrumb trails for those who never had any intention of following. of little matter in any case, since i do those things for me. a shame to be lost to the world. that responsibility is shared, but i've done enough in that regards, since the obtuseness of the Other would otherwise destroy that which is being born.

not an issue, since the Idea exists in the environment, bound to persist and be expressed by any who lend an ear or a mind to the metaphysical ground.

the train is coming. it cannot stop.