Here, there, everywhere. We have to call it something, don't we? Who's got an idea? Let's call it Toponymy.

5.31.2004

Shooting hoops today I tried to perfect my shot. The rim is low and tilted down but the driveway is level. I was trying to perfect one shot in particular: the spinner. A brief description, the bottom of the ball hits the rim level and spins around the rim at high speed. It is more difficult than I first assumed. The bottom of the ball must touch the rim at the peak of the shot. The ball must be spun just slightly to help the acceleration. The shot must hit the rim on a specific angle so the ball doesn't lose its forward momentum.

MoBA, the museum of bad art. "Lucy in the field with flowers" is the piece that inspired the collection. "It was a wonderfully accurate likeness of her grandmother's face in an oddly postured and formed body against a bizarre, surreal background."

Waterfalls. Iceland [I think].

Fameclaim lets you make your claim to fame.

I haven't looked at this but I want to. Going to watch Signs now.

5.30.2004

The Indianapolis 500 and SPSS

Apparently there was this really cool demonstration of a camera that takes 7000 frames/second during the pre-race coverage. I missed most of it. I was working over here on this post and missed it. There is rain in Indianapolis and the race has been delayed. Wikipedia lists Indianapolis' Nicknames:

+ Circle City
+ Naptown
+ Railroad City

Naptown is interesting. The other two are pretty generic. For a ridiculious list of city nicknames, clicky clicky for the wiki. I don't know why I hadn't looked up Toponymy on Wikipedia yet. Too much there for me to look at. Mind boggling.

My work is using SPSS on the SOSS 33. Think AutoCAD for statistics, more features than you can ever possibly use and a dozen ways to execute each of them. If all works out I'll get my name on a final report about Internet use in Michigan.

Now for the useless crap links people seem to enjoy so much. The McGurk Effect is quite interesting. I fall into the .98 and not the .02 category. [Note, if you left because you saw a Quicktime movie loading, go back. This is a small QT movie, it should load fast, even on dial-ups, trust me.]

New zoning in Chitown.

Programming Language Inventor or Serial Killer [My score: 6/10]

Too much time, too many Cannon Copiers, rage, some programming/technical knowledge. These ingredients sum to this.

Something I'll keep my eyes on. Hivelogic's Cigar Project.

A VV article: No Such Thing as Paranoia - On the culture of conspiracism.


5.26.2004

How to win the war on terrorism

"Oh boy, I bet he's got some party-line idea for how to make those nasty Islamo-fascist terrorists all start to love the USA again. Well, isn't that just precious." - I can't blame you if those were your thoughts upon reading my headline. I would think the same thing. I think I might be onto something here, so bear with me.

The answer to Terrorism is Transportation.

We are NOT fighting a war. Any deployment of military efforts - unless with the most exacting intelligence and singularity of purpose - will NOT advance our cause in this "war on terror." We are suffering through a depression. A depression of our economic capacity, of our global responsibility, of our individual satisfaction. As Tyler Durden put it,

Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.


Now, I hate dwelling on who is to blame for this fiasco of a war, the scandals that demoralize millions, the economy that is being shipped due East, the policies that enforce poverty and segregate our society, the profiteers of political failure. What we are dealing with is called by us planners a "wicked problem," it has no agreed upon cause or solution. Tony Soprano would call it "fucked". N. Gregory Mankiw says "rational people think at the margin". Bull. In a world filled with wicked problems there is no margin, critical issues multiply and inflame one another, dealing with "margins" is incomprehensible and inappropriate. In this case, rational people think at the system level. People who believe that marginal improvements will eventually lead to a better society are in denial. At this point in our technological development and definitions for "just, free, and equitable" society, we must reconsider the ways we solve problems.

A new approach is needed. Not a theory but a solution, not an ideology but an escape route.

We need to learn from a past solution to this vast sensation of depression, fear, anxiety and hostility. The New Deal was largely an economic fix that also had social impacts. People who believe their work is serving some greater purpose are not so easily terrified by thoughts of the future. Without meaningful work people believe there is no hope, no future, no reason to fight. If we are fighting in a world without a future why should we care about issues like torture in prisons, or the Geneva Conventions. So, what I think we need is something akin to FDR's policy to work us out of our depression.

Why Transportation and what does that mean.


Two recent terrorist attacks: one on a rail line, one using an air line. Our methods of transportation are still largely vulnerable in spite of increased security. The use of non-renewable resources to power all but the simplest methods [walking, cycling] leaves us open to the threats of high prices, shortages, and potential resource exhaustion. So, how can we arrange our vast intelligence, mighty economy, skilled labor forces, and national agenda in a way that will positively encourage Americans [and restore international respect] and not increase our vulnerabilities. [Here's a hint: it has nothing to do with 'Staying the Course'.]

We need comprehensive transportation reform. We must be ready for the double-trouble problems of security and resource availability. We need solutions for urban areas [especially those which rely on autos and busses] and rural areas; plus we need solutions for our intra-urban and cross-country connections. In the last 100 years our national transportation policy has had its focus on one instrument of transit, the automobile. While the car is economically efficient, the policy focus on it has lowered the priority of improving and securing our "mass" transit methods. [Mass is in quotes because the label has become synomous with danger and delays in spite of all research.] In addition to improving our policy, a new system means new infrastructure, new building means new jobs, jobs mean hope, meaningful jobs lead to a better future. In addition, given our national strengths we can find some way to make these reforms sustainable in terms of resource usage and environmental impacts. Without that, any benefits from transportation reform would be short-term, they would not compel us to the lofty goals of such a program.

You might be asking, now...

does he actually believe he can title his post 'How to win the war on Terrorism' without mentioning the capture of Osama, our policy in Iraq and our military issues. The answer: Yes. To understand the war on terrorism, as it's inappropriately called, we musk realize that this is a war that takes place inside your mind. This war is all about perception, not about military presence. Sure, we'll have to deal with Iraq, but we can't change the past, we're already there and we will probably be there for a while. The thing about wars is they are notorious for unpredictable results. For instance, Eisenhower learned the durability of highways from Nazi Germany's Autobahn [link]. Maybe history repeats itself and we'll learn something from Iraq. Who knows.

[Before I started writing this I was reading this story on the BBC webpage. This is exactly why our nation needs to continue to be a beacon of hope to the world.]

5.25.2004

OH NO - CICADAS!



"You have taken the first step toward saving yourself! Cicadaville.com is the world's premier Cicada information source. Our mission is to reveal the deadly truth about Cicadas so you can arm yourself and your family against these vicious predators."


Via Itchy Robot [soon to be blogrolled]

5.22.2004

Great Essays

Some people just know how to write essays. Here is a small collection from students named Jeremy Lavine and Peter Nguyen. [For entertainment purposes only.]

Rick Beckett's Fridge to the Nth degree

I have long been interested in the final stages of decay for living dwellings. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, for instance, which causes people to collect meaningless, useless items for years. But, some people are just plain slobs.

"The smell was just plain evil, like serial killers had deposited their victims there many years ago. The brown stuff seems to be mud, their were feathers in there and some kinda of plant life. I pity the person that moves in next, I hope they remove the fridge."

5.21.2004

Nostalgia

I finished Watchmen today. Wow, what a ride. Dense and layered, amazing writing. Really great stuff. Would go into detali but you can find summaries everywhere. [Nostalgia is a perfume/cologne in the book].

Keep an eye on MATRIX. Could have they thought of a better acronym? But, really, keep an eye on it because it's in Michigan.

But, we've got a few feathers up our caps, too. Fred Meijer, Van Andel, Rupert Murdoch, DeVos, 49301, 90210,

5.16.2004

The Summer Reading List: Vol. 2

My loyal readers will remember last summer's list where I intended to cover a wide swath of popular and influential American (and some foreign) novelists. I was mostly successful in finding these books and recorded my response on Helmers83. The archives still contain the my reviews on these works. I haven't gone forward with the same amount of planning (not urban). However I have started a small collection of books that I want to read. I already read Dr. Eckner's Dream Machine, a non-fiction about the rigid airship and its patron Saint, Hugo Eckner. Very good. Someday I'll write more about it.

+ The Thornbirds, Colleen Mcullough
+ Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk [my third book by C.P.]
+ The Last Don, Mario Puzo
+ Watchmen, Alan Moore illustrated by Dave Gibbons
+ The Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick
+ Step Across This Line, Salman Rushdie [non-fiction]

I'm already ~500 pages into The Thornbirds. So far so good.

If you have a suggestion please leave a comment or send me some e-mail or call me or stop me in the supermarket or break into my bedroom and tell me at gunpoint.

Over the Archive Hurdle

I found the work-around I needed to get my archives to publish correctly. The "History" panel on your left should display months instead of weeks. There were two problems with the old method: a 31 character limit on filenames in AFS space and a "forbidden" message when I tried to store the archive HTMLs in a folder. The filenames as Blogger creates them are the date and then a specified name (2003_12_03_toponymy_archive.html, for example). With "toponymy" this is 32 characters. I was over by one letter.

That said, blogger has changed everything about its interface and added some great features. I'm looking into another template change. But not right now. I just lit the coals, now I have to tend to the fire.

5.10.2004

I can already feel things slacking off over here. I have some links I would like to share with you. Do you mind? - Well good then.

The train that exploded in North Korea - the imagery before and after.

Can you open your pills. I didn't think so.

Something I was very excited to see: a hall of fame for hackers. Some of them are familiar and some are total mysteries. [Too bad they couldn't make their website more 56K proof.]

Be very glad you didn't watch "10.5"

Also: read about

Pennies.