Saturday, March 08, 2008
Friday, March 07, 2008
Hey, It's Only Politics, It's Not Like Anyone's Life Is On The Line
Clinton's Hawkishness Ruffles Feathers in Obama Camp - Eli Lake @ NY Sun (via Spencer Ackerman)
Oh well, that's just peachy. So Sen. Clinton is against the war (finally disavowing her vote for it after what, six years?) but will 'listen to the generals on the ground' first before making her decision on withdrawal. A) This sounds like President Bush and his rhetoric; and B) this sounds like another CTV type scandal where Sen. Clinton's rhetoric won't match what she actually does. In other words, a vote for Sen. Clinton is a vote for war, unless the politics are just right. And we've already seen that she can't confront dictators and warlords face-to-face. If she can't say to his face what she says about Sen. Obama alone in front of the tv cameras then how can we expect her to stand up to dictators around the world? No wonder she's arguing that the lowest level of diplomacy is the most she's willing to do. Scared of dictators and unfavorable politics in withdrawing from Iraq. That's exactly what we need in a new president, a continuation of the old president. Oh yeah, get ready for real 'solutions'. Sen. McCain is going to slaughter her in the presidential debates. I can't wait to see a 71-year-old man throw Sen. Clinton to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
The Upmost in Luxury Blood
Okay, I'm calmed and heavily medicated so I think I'll take another shot at this. Samantha Powers makes an off-the-record comment about Sen. Clinton that included the description of 'monster'. The reporter Mrs. Powers was talking to worked for The Scotsman newspaper. Quote gets published, Sen. Clinton gets mad and suddenly Sen. Obama is without one of his top aides.
Now all of these events come after Sen. Clinton has declared war on Sen. Obama by preparing a 'kitchen sink' offensive against the black Senator. Sen. Clinton placed her approval on an ad by a 502 group that actually digitally darkened Sen. Obama. The ad played in Ohio and apparently, through the exit poll, we come to find that race played an important role in how people decided to vote. This ad comes after weeks of the Clinton campaign whining about their press coverage, blaming everything from the caucus system of the Democratic party to sexism and the 'vast right-wing conspiracy' to lessen the appearance of weakness in their campaign. And now Sen. Clinton is giving talking points to Sen. McCain by claiming that Sen. Obama lacks the expertise of a commander-in-chief.
I never really bought the argument that Sen. Clinton would take her party to the brink of destruction for her own ambition. I simply considered that a rightist talking point. But after witnessing Sen. Clinton get all huffy about campaign fliers and such on tv and then playing coy during the last debate, it's obvious that Sen. Clinton doesn't have the balls to say such destructive things to Sen. Obama's face. So she lacks the ability to speak her mind to someone when they are present but is willing to throw as many knives as she can when they aren't looking. Sen. Clinton has shown a complete lack of grace and civility throughout her campaign, particularly when it has come to acting with some goddamn common sense. Giving the Republicans talking points and basing her platform around ideas and ideology such as experience and her being a fighter only serves to weaken her against a candidate like Sen. McCain. If you want to talk about experience then he has it. If you want to talk about the ability to lead as commander-in-chief then he blows Sen. Clinton out of the water. The longer this primary season goes on the more Sen. Clinton looks and talks like a Republican. So essentially Democrats have a choice of either voting for a real liberal in Sen. Obama or a fake Republican in Sen. Clinton. And if Sen. Clinton does win the nomination then why would the electorate vote for a fake Republican when they have a real one they can vote for instead?
I'm not tired of this primary season but I am tired of the Clinton campaign getting away with bullshit in the same way the Bush administration has. No one is willing to step up and say that Sen. Clinton has slandered and attacked Sen. Obama unfairly. The mainstream media has gone quiet because they are afraid of the Clintons, just as they are afraid of the Bush administration. So we now have a situation where a candidate is allowed to say whatever she wishes and those who have the audacity to question her are clearly sexist, right-wing Clinton haters. It boils my blood to see the media so weak. After years of living with the Bush administration one would think the media would rather do their jobs than continue to act as if their careers depended on the good graces of Senators.
At this point, I have to believe that Sen. Clinton will win the nomination but in such a way that disenchants the African-American electorate, the youth electorate and the progressive electorate. Moreover, I think women voters will finally see how the Clinton machine has run roughshod over their supporters when serious women's issues come up and Sen. Clinton quickly runs to the most politically favorable position, or concedes the entire issue to the Republicans, just to maintain her power. It happened to gay supporters with Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act. Whenever push has come to shove the Clinton's have caved every time. Even when an important vote cam up in the Senate recently on telecom immunity Sen. Obama was there to cast his vote while Sen. Clinton was out campaigning still. So much for taking her responsibilities seriously. I believe another Clinton presidency will be the end of the party of Jefferson as we know it. The youth vote will either stop turning out or turn to third parties. The black vote will stay home knowing that the Democrats care about them just as much as the Republicans do. Women will get shafted and be told to be thankful for it. The working class will wonder what happened to those five million jobs they were promised. Our military will not leave Iraq in a year or four years. And we will witness a resurgence of a Republican party that has not learned the lessons of the last decade, will attack and stall Clinton at every turn, and probably do their damnedest to see her impeached, particularly if those tax returns have a few scandelous gems in them.
Thus ends a nearly two hundred year old party, thanks to the Clinton campaign. The politics of hope once again will be trashed and tarnished by the politics of fear, the same politics of the Bush administration. And the baby boomers will have their one last hurrah before the next president who was not born during that period comes along and not only says things have to drastically change but will actually do something about it. Sen. Obama could qwell the generational war brewing, but that kitchen sink will probably prevent smart decisions from coming to pass. The age of the baby boomer politics is over, but of course the boomers will hold on to the handles of power with all their might. Too bad really, since it's my generation that will wrest their grip away. And it won't be pretty.
Samantha Powers vs. The Monster
You Racist, You Bigot, That's Not the Problem, Now is It? - Spencer Ackerman
I sincerely hope no one from the Clinton campaign runs into Ackerman any time soon, because I'm pretty sure some one will end up dead and Ackerman in jail. You do not fuck with a campaign like this, period. If Hillary Clinton wins the nomination then I will vote for McCain now. No one who acts like Hillary Clinton has deserves to win the presidency.
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Pocket Change
Not With My Money - David Kurtz @ TPM
So the DNC has told Florida if they want their do-over primary election then they have to pay for it. Maybe the Clinton campaign could loan them the money.
The Graveyard Book
The one with the finished Dave McKean Graveyard Book cover - Neil Gaiman
Damn publishing schedules and whatnot. I want this book now! Too bad my kitten's too cute to punch because I want to punch a kitten right now.
Review: The Full Service
The Full Service @ MySpace
I probably should just let this one go. An unsolicited request to review, or at least preview, the Full Service from Austin. The two tracks I listened to--Blueberry Farm and Hi-Ho--are technically proficient. The composition of their music is thoughtful and lacking in many of the traditional indie rock band clichés. Being from Austin, they successfully avoid coming off sounding like a Voxtrot copy-cat, but I don't think that alone is necessarily a good thing. Being technically proficient and having the ability to write songs that are not overtly offensive to the ears, while far better than most, does not exactly endear one's self to the band. The music of the Full Service just kind of floated in, made a few funny faces, maybe told a sweet joke or two and then just as quietly took their leave. Unlike Satié who wanted to, and in fact did, write furniture music, the Full Service write wallpaper music. Yes, it's there, but after five minutes it fades into the background. If you'd like a comparison then I'd say they have a sound similar to that of Whitest Boy Alive but without the novelty of taking minimalist music to an extreme in a traditional indie rock band set up. So goddamnit, put some fucking substance into it. Fuck, just fill out the sound a little and the lyrics wouldn't sound so trite. Keyboards, jangly noise, just something to add that touch of indie cred would do it. The Full Service can save themselves and even standout in the music scene if they just tried to not be so small, soft and sweet.
Mind Reading - FAIL
Neuroscientists May Soon Be Able To Read Minds - evolution @ Truemors
I'm sorry, that's cute and all but come back when you have something real to tell me.
Fear of a Black President, Pt. 2
Why is Obama's Skin Blacker than Normal in Hillary's New Attack Ad? - AMERICAblog
Ah, thank you Spackerman for pointing this to me. Yeah, I think I have to agree that when it's about the tenth time that your campaign has done something to clearly allude to your opponent's race you can't claim that you knew nothing about it. Either Sen. Clinton and staff is so utterly clueless not to figure this out or they are doing it on purpose. Now, which of those options makes Sen. Clinton a better president again?
Politics of Fear - Politics of Hope = Politics of Frustration
Andrew Sullivan has taken a day to put the hammers to the Clinton campaign. It's a bit of venting of frustrations from Tuesday's polling results. A lot of bloggers have gone back to look at the prevailing winds and come to the conclusion that Sen. Clinton's attacking of Sen. Obama on his NAFTA rhetoric (while saying the same things to the Canadians) was what pulled enough votes away from Sen. Obama to prevent any more upsets. Oh, and apparently one of the pro-Clinton 502s thought it appropriate to darken Sen. Obama in campaign ads run in Ohio. So there's a bit of racism thrown in there for fun as well. But however you explain it, Tuesday was a depressing night for Obama supporters like myself. I've heard enough stories from Republicans who followed Rush Limbaugh's advice and voted in the Democratic primary just to help out McCain by voting for the weaker candidate. I've also heard the same people spouting the same "Obama is a Muslim sleeper agent" bullshit. So all in all there has been little good news to come out of this past election. Except for this--Sen. Obama still leads in pledged delegates, he still leads in the popular vote and he still hasn't taken the gloves off.
But for Sullivan, the important thing is to throw Sen. Clinton against a wall and have her try to explain her tax reports, why she hasn't released them and, if there's nothing scandelous there, then why the hell did the campaign take so long in releasing them? This is a case where we might just have an over-cooked ham or a conflageration the campaign is desperate to avoid making public. Either way, it's all to familiar to those of us who have watched the Bush administration block requests for information at every turn, even when that information might bolster their positions. It's this absolutism over secrecy that I, and Sullivan, find so troubling. We don't need another four years of this, if Sen. Clinton even makes it that long. An impeachment of President Clinton isn't a surprising thought really. Not when you still have enough Republicans ready to sink their teeth into the Clintons once again.
The other matter that Sullivan only lightly touches on is the need for Sen. Obama to rally back with some Chicago-style crowbar politics. Of course, Sen. Obama himself cannot place himself that the center of such a tactic, but certainly he should have surrogates out there pointing to all the inconsistancies and lack of unity within the Clinton campaign. I, on the other hand, do think that Sen. Obama should place himself front and center of such an attack as it shows that he can fight just as hard for what he believes in as the Clintons can for power. Taking Sen. Clinton down at the knees would scare the hell out of Republicans while potentially securing the nomination for Sen. Obama. It would become a clarion to Sen. Obama's 'toughness' and show that he is willing to get his hands dirty. Besides, it's far easier to lob these kinds of attacks from the position Sen. Obama is in and any retort by the Clinton campaign of 'unfairness' will come off as whiney. I say bring out the crowbars and show the Clintons how their kind of politics is actually played by the real pros. It's the schoolyard moment where the hero who has thus far not taken the baiting of the bully finally throws the knockout punch. Do it, Sen. Obama, and make it clear who did it.
Digital Media Versus The Book
Book lovers have emotional bond with paper - Nate Anderson @ Ars Technica
Books litter my house. Between my sister and I we have amassed quite a collection of fiction, nonfiction and everything in-between. I personally have books stacked in weird places just so I can move around. For me the attachment to printed media like books lies in its versatility. Now I know many Kindle users and other digital book readers will say that you lose nothing of said versatility but there's something ingrained in me that enjoys holding a book and physically turning pages. Perhaps the next generation of readers or the generation after that will have less of an attachment to books. Even so, there's something to be said for maintaining printed media alongside digital books. The key issue for me is longevity. A printed book will last far longer than digital media will in the original state it was printed in. There's a lot of concern as the digital age moves forward about having the hardware to read data from media like floppy disks, laserdiscs and even cds themselves. A hundred years in the future, will we still have working cd-rom drives? And what happens to that media if we don't? This is all to say really that the printed text will not die easily, if at all. Transposed into different forms perhaps, bound in new ways or even incorporating some tech into itself. But the writing, editing and publication of books is not the same as the composing of music or video. Books have spanned centuries in a mainly unchanged form while music has gone through constant changes. So I wouldn't bet on books disappearing too soon.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Rip Hunter
What we have here is what naturalists call a 'time kitten'. They are rarely seen away from a clock under their control. This cat here has decided to use the power of sleep to slow down time.
Texas Primary
6:24 PM – Just voted in the primary. A big black mark for Sen. Obama. The woman who I followed into the polling station was a serious 
a Republican to you?”
6:30 PM – So far there have been a steady stream of people walking to the Democrat side of the precinct. I was told when I received my caucusing card to expect a crowd. The caucusing is slated to begin at 7:15 but I haven’t the slightest clue when they will start seating people.
6:36 PM – Forgot to mention the news crew outside. I figure t
hat: a) they are waiting for exit polls and; b) this is the closest precinct to their news station. Beyond that, I don’t know nor really care. I wonder though, if the assumed crowd does come, where will they park? And what kind of parking hell will occur once everyone leaves?
6:41 PM – A lot of friendly talking going on. I live in a liberal neighborhood but if yards signs are any indication then this precinct will go for Sen. Clinton. I wonder what the caucus will actually look like? I’m eager to see if I need to beat a
6:45 PM – More white people. White people annoy me.
6:46 PM – Warren Ellis is threatening to change his name to WOLFMANGLER. Or GOATGOUGER. Damn Twitter.
6:48 PM – Youngish 30-something with a soul patch. Beginning to wonder about the sanity of my neighborhood.
6:49 PM – Ah, finally some black people have arrived.
Monday, March 03, 2008
Men Bring Out the Knives
Men Have a Harder Time Forgiving than Women Do - Science Daily
Now this I can believe. Being a Scorpio myself, I tend to take an all or nothing approach to things. Or at least I did until the wonderful world of anti-anxiety medication mellowed me out some more. Plus, studying cultural history played a role since a cultural historian is supposed to try their best to see the world through the eyes of people of the past. Even so, I can take a scorched-earth attitude towards those who piss me off sufficiently. I'm not above cutting a bitch.
Cyber Goggles Tells You Where the Guns Are
Cyber Goggles Record and Tag Your World for Future Reference - Wilson Rothman @ Gizmodo, via Miss Information
Fellow blogger and friend pointed me to this article on Gizmodo about a virtual reality interface, or cyber goggles as they are calling it, that allows the user to tag the real world in the same way information is tagged in the virtual world. It's an idea I first encountered in William Gibson's latest book Spook Country. It's an idea I adore, mostly due to its implications to the philosophy of language and the mind. When you can stop relying on your brain to recall the specific name of something what happens to your memory and language functions? What happens when language is encoded in a device that exist outside of our brains? And what does this say about the primacy of the brain in consciousness? A tagged reality is the next step towards the hyperreality simulation supplanting the real physical world. Okay, I'm started to geek out now so I'll stop here.
Review: The One
Shinichi Osawa @ MySpace
I discovered this electro artist by accident a couple of months ago and have loved his stuff ever since. Shinichi (I think that's his last name unless they've Americanized it) produces the same type of dance-floor fused pop music that the likes of Simian Mobile Disco and Digitalism produce, only, I think, more inventive. The One was release in October of last year but it's still not available in the States, which is a damn shame. Fans of Soulwax or Shitdisco would love what Shinichi has to offer. It's not italo by any means but the music does have the shimmering sound that makes italo-disco so lovable. Still, fat key basses and minimalist backgrounds are used to great effect, particular when Shinichi finally drops the beat. This is electro properly done with some real club bangers mixed in with a few softer, Ellen Allien-style numbers. Few of the songs actually top six minutes making this album distinctly different from the euro-style club music and more inline with the SMD and Soulwax format. Grab a couple of tracks from elbo.ws or wherever you can. The import, while worth it, is a touch pricey.
Review: Robotique Majestique
Ghostland Observatory @ MySpace
It's been about a week since I've been listening to Ghostland Observatory's latest album and I must say that it proves the power of electro-rock. Not to say that electro-rock is the only viable form of music right now, but it is the most versatile in terms of song structure, instrumentation and, perhaps most importantly, band composition. When a band can run on one or two people alone that says something about the genre. Some of the best acts from across the pond are two-man acts. But again, this is not to say that electro-rock is a superior genre. What it is, is the genre of the 21st century. I think James Murphy said it best in "Losing My Edge" with the lyric 'I hear that you and your band is throwing out your guitars and buying turntables/I hear you and your band is throwing out your turntables and buying guitars'.
This fusion of pop elements with the electro music of the European dance floors, on perfect display in Ghostland's music, allows for a different sort of thinking about composition and artform. Ghostland has chosen to take some basic punk elements and ditch the guitar parts for thick and heavy synths. The vocals sound almost as if they came from an 80s hair band, but the beat is an Americanized import of Euro beats. Moreover, they have the breakdowns of good dance-floor club bangers that tease the crowd and whip them into a frenzy. And all of this comes from a band from Austin, TX, not NYC, not Canada, not San Franscico, but Texas. How long electro-rock sticks around I really can't say. I think it is reaching a peaking, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The changes and directions electro can take at this point is fairly wide open. But for the moment, Ghostland Observatory captures the spirit of electro without feeling contrived or over-produced. They deserve your attention and, yes, money. Go see a show if you can, or even buy one of the albums.
Project Hyperreal
The next few changes include a short shifter for comfort in driving, a new crankshaft pulley to take some of the load off the engine and new polyurethane engine mounts for added stability in the engine. I need to change the timing belt since the time for that is coming up and I'd like to add some slotted brake discs for greater stopping power. Also, a Carbino air intake is in the future, but at the moment, I'm looking to fix what needs fixing and add some small (re: cheap) improvements. I'll update with pictures as I go along.
Marie Isabella V
Quote of the Day
Clocked - Ezra Klein @ The American Prospect
I generally bristle at Ezra Klein's sense of liberal politics but sometimes his use of language makes it worthwhile to suffer through another post about how mandated healthcare is better than Sen. Obama's eyebrows and just about everything else. Example: "but somehow I still don't think you can clock someone in the crotch with a baseball bat."
Winning on Hope
Advice to Clinton (and to Obama who already knows it): "Keep Your Sunny Side Up" - Paul Finkleman @ Balkinization
A very interesting post by guest blogger Paul Finkleman about the promise of hope in a presidential campaign leads me once again to the conclusion that Sen. Obama would whip Sen. McCain in a general election. It's not so much based on the organizational structure Sen. Obama has built that will work in his favor (although it certainly will), but the televised debates that will seal the deal for the American electorate I think. The image of the young, proming, animated and hopeful Sen. Obama debating the merits of the war, taxation and universal healthcare with the old, hardly mobile and quick to anger Sen. McCain will naturally favor Sen. Obama. For all of the times that either Sen. Clinton or the moderators of the Democratic debates tried to goad Sen. Obama into an angry response, you would witness a person who tempered his anger with smart, considered replies that, often times, allowed Sen. Obama to come out of the moment looking and acting presidential.
The sense of hope that Sen. Obama has based his campaign around isn't a false hope either. It's not uncommon to find Sen. Obama chiding parents for not taking a more active role in their children's lives, or pointing out how, while being the president affords him a great deal of power, the changes he wants to bring about in America rely just as much on the American people as they do on his leadership. Unlike Sen. Clinton who claims she is in the 'solutions' business, Sen. Obama's solution is to raise people up and offer them a promise of hope that is contigent on the American public taking a more active role in politics and governance. To me, it is the difference between a nanny-state of Sen. Clinton's doing and a self-governing state of Sen. Obama's making.
When it comes to a general election between Sens. Obama and McCain, you only have to look at how Sen. McCain has responded to criticism and how he has lead in the Senate to give you the sense that, while a great legislator he may be, a leader of a nation, of domestic and foreign policy, he is not. It's that promise of hope for a better future that Sen. Obama offers while Sens. Clinton and McCain offer only promises that they will try but if they fail then it's of no fault of their own. They will claim the American people were duped while Sen. Obama will personally admit momentary defeat and then go out to re-energize the American public. I get the sense that an Obama administration will see great victories and great failures while a Clinton or McCain administration will only see the same patterns of governance of the last twenty years.
I'm 27 years old now. The last twenty years of politics is not what I want. So, to put it simply, fuck McCain and Clinton.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Review: Sunshine
I know, I know, I'm late to the party as usual. I don't often go to theaters so most of my movie watching comes from Netflix these days. But I finally watched Sunshine and, while an excellent cast and directing make this a movie worthy of the scifi genre, I do have to say that the script is lacking in a way. Perhaps it's too simplistic for the suspense it's supposed to provide. Yes, there is suspense, but nothing out of the ordinary. I did like the way Boyle didn't dwell on the personal backgrounds, letting the in media res form let the characters speak for themselves. This is something Brian Wood and Brian K Vaughan do in their comics to great effect. It also allows for surprises in how the characters act when your assumptions of one character are drastically changed just by their actions.
Still, the real suspense just isn't there. Perhaps though, the suspense isn't the focus of this movie. I think Sunshine is more about the mysteries of space and our humanity within it. The captain of the previous mission loses it over his prolonged exposure to the sun and how we are all stardust, as it frequently mentioned throughout the film. And that is true, everything on Earth, or in fact, any element heavier than Iron is created in the heart of a sun, particularly during a supernova. Element heavier than iron cannot naturally develop without added pressure, the kind of pressure found in supernovae. So we all are stardust, formed by our first god, the god of the sun.
Overall, I enjoyed the movie. It wasn't filled with cliches and other standard sci-fi tropes. The characterization was good and the cinematography was excellent. I wasn't insulted by the movie and certainly felt that I gained something from watching this movie, although what that is I haven't figured out yet. So this is a recommendation to go a rent Sunshine and wonder for a moment about the mysteries of the universe.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
Elastica, In Memory of
Friday, February 29, 2008
Lukacs and the History of the Personal
One of the things that irked me to some degree with Lukacs' interpretation of history is his focus on the personal but the dismissal of the more cultural or psychoanalytical approach to personal histories. Being a cultural historian myself, of course I find his opinion short-sighted and mistaken. What goes into the creation of a person and how that person acts has a great deal to do with the culture into which they are born. Environmental factors, home life, genetics and a whole host of other elements go into the creation of a personality. If you want to understand the actions of a particular historical character you have to get into their head. Now the psychoanalytical approach does offer some assistance but only so much since most of that kind of history is based on behavior and writings. The cultural approach takes the same evidence and places it in a different context, specifically the world of representation surrounding that individual, what others were thinking at the same time and how particular cultural products were produced, consumed and then reinterpreted in future cultural products.
For instance, using my life as an example, one has to know a great deal of facts about me to even come close to understanding the way I think and why I behave the way I do. If you want to take a mystical, pseudo-science approach to this (of which I hold with a grain of salt, but I do still hold it) then you can consider my astrological sign, year of birth and even my own name. I am a Scorpio, born in the year of the metal Monkey, and given the name Jordan. Now these are perhaps the most coincidental aspects of my existence. These factors of time and pre-decision on the part of my parents had nothing to do with my own free will, environment or genetics. Even so, I was born into a fixed water sign (intensity and confidence inhabit me) during a year that the Chinese ascribe a great deal of creativity and loyalty (also traits of a Scorpio apparently) while the specific year of the Metal Monkey places a great deal of transformative power in me and claims the metals of silver and gold as my architypical metals (which I find strangely ironic since I work as a jeweler). My own name, a Hebrew (note, not necessarily Israeli) name derived from a river and claims the owner of this name to have a deep current running inside them.
So three disparate elements of astrology and superstitious meaning all indicate that I should be an intense, loyal, creative, adaptive and intuitive person while at the same time manipulative, passionate to a fault and given to attacking when threatened, even if the attack comes long after the initial skirmish (still waters and all that).
These are simply elements that exist whether I was born at that specific time or not. They are generalities and hokey ones at that. They give you hints and indications as to who I am but nothing in the way of specifics. Now I will admit that I do exhibit many of the characteristics but whether that is due to my unconscious behavior as ascribed by these supersitious beliefs or reinforced in a sort of feedback effect as I learn more about them I cannot say for certain. Still, they do exist, so while the generalities remain generalities, you can say that they do shape my personality in their own way.
On the other hand (wait for the pun) I am left-handed, relatively short for the average male with long legs but a short torso. I am a combination of both my father and grandfather, packing the muscle of a six-foot man into the frame of a five-foot-seven slender scrapper. I exhibit no strong tendency to the use of one side of my brain or the other and have feet that angle outwards like a penguin. Brown-eyed, brown hair, olive complexion and a "distinctive chin" I genetically in the middle of the pack.
Culturally, I was born in 1980, thus my consciousness of the world did not take shape until around 1992. Imbued with conservative tendencies by my parents I was also subject to an education that repeated the old 'white guys from Boston' history of the U.S. and a belief in the rule of law. A patriotism that was based on individuality (the competing educational interests of liberals and conservatives was the instigator for this) along with a desire to see the best of the U.S. come about informed my politics throughout my teens. College was different as philosophy and history took hold resulting in my transformation from a proto-conservative to a firm GDI (god-damned independent). Language and culture were my mental playground while a sense of the Political continued to take shape.
So those are the basic facts of my life, without getting into personal details. These are facts that one can glean from when I was born, who I was born to, where I went to school and what I wrote during that period. Does this constitute the totality of who I am, of my character and personality? Does Lukacs believe it? I doubt it. For one, how and why I act the way I do is also a product of the cultural elements surrounding me, whether I was consciously or unconsciously aware of them. My personality now is different than it was ten years ago, the product of time itself bearing down on me. How I interpret the world is different as well.
History is the attempt to make the specific general but when you deal with generality solely as your evidence you cannot create an accurate picture of me. This is why I get riled up at the exegetical focus on particular individual like Hitler or Nietzsche as the evidence available of their lives does not offer anything approaching a complete analysis. It avoids the psychoanalytical and the cultural forces at play. It takes the general facts as specific and then attempts to return them to the general. In doing so it offers neither a general nor a specific analysis. I am more than the sum of my parts and so are figures like FDR or Mussolini or Wittgenstein. The fact remains, contra Lukacs, that you still have to find a way to get into the head of the person or people you are examining. Often that requires taking radically different views of things and then attempting to craft a theory around those different perspectives on the evidence available. So while Lukacs argues that we are approaching a turning point in our historical consciousness I believe that we are simply acknowledging the limitations of any one perspective on historical evidence and the need to use multiple points of view to grasp the subjective-objective analysis necessary to understand a historical person or period.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Tasting Red
Neil Harbisson Home Page
Synesthesia @ Wikipedia
I like that the strangeness of synesthesia is used to allow a colorblind artist to see 360 colors as translated by sound. The mixing of our common five senses through the crosswiring of our brains is a personal favorite topic of mine. It combines the physicality of the brain itself with the mind-related perceptions of the world to offer new visions that otherwise would not have existed before. I do not believe that we are done in developing senses and that in the future (whether this is a hundred, a hundred thousand or a million years in the future I don't know) we will have new sense with which to experience the physical world. Of course, how we interpret those sensations and experiences is still dependent on the mind and the brain.
In the case of artist Neil Harbisson, the relay of color information through sound allows him to paint as if he can see colors, even if it is limited to 360 colors. While I'm sure the number of colors will increase with time I do have to wonder what kind of application this technology will have on the truly blind. If you can translate visual data through sound for someone who is merely colorblind when will we see the first use of this tech for the blind, or the opposite for the deaf? Moreover, what kind of mixture of sensation will such blind or deaf people experience? And will making visual data available to the blind affect their other sensations? Will evoloution play a role in how sensory data is experienced and relayed to the brain/mind? And will this relay happen quickly?
I think it's only appropriate to mention again Warren Ellis and his character The Drummer in Planetary in the context of this post. The Drummer had a sixth sense, one that allowed him to read information as if he were seeing sunlight or tasting coffee. When will this kind of new sensory experience come along and will technology play a role in how it evolves? It's fascinating to think of since our lives are ruled by the sensory data we receive and how the brain/mind molds that data into our perceptions.
The Density of Space
Scientists Seek Space Diamonds - JohnOneFive @ Truemors
It doesn't surprise me one bit that there are more diamonds in space than there are on Earth. The extreme pressures needed to create the crystalline structures of a diamond are far more common in certain regions of the cosmos than they are on this planet. Other planets and asteroids may play host to a whole range of minerals, metals and materials that are rare on this planet due to its relative lack of large pressure regions. It's even surmised that the center of Jupiter holds a core of metallic hydrogen--that's hydrogen that has not only been pressurized to phase change into a solid but form the crystalline structure of a metal as well. I wonder though, since there are diamonds on this planet that are harder than other diamonds (albeit not by much) if these diamonds dense cosmic regions are significantly harder than Earth-created ones?
They Just Disappeared Back Into The Jungle
I'm a sucker for guerrilla media, particularly the kind with a snarky political bend. The fellows who performed this Fight Club worthy feat are members of the Billboard Liberation Front. I like their style in not attempting to offend while offering a sharp critique of the Bush administration's policies. They avoided the vitriol common with the most leftist of the left and still got their point across. We need more media like this to combat the machine politics and mainstream media games politicians play.
Down the Rabbit Hole
First Peek Into Deepest Recesses of Human Brain - Science Daily
I still see a problem with overstating the physical role of the brain in our conscious thought. While the hard sciences have continued to make advances in our understanding of how the physical brain works and how those workings affect our mood, disposition and perception, I still haven't seen any attempt to bridge the mind-body gap that metaphysical philosophy has long dealt with. Wittgenstein did overturn Descartes' cogito ergo sum with his theory of language but that still hasn't produced a working metaphysical theory of how the mind interacts with the brain and whether there is a separation at all. I tend to believe there is, but it's hard to prove in an real way. Even so, I like these kinds of studies as they take apart the brain bit by bit. Once the hard sciences have had their way with the brain I get the feeling that they will still need the help of philosophers to understand just what the hell it all means.
Anti-Torture Propaganda
It's humbling to see such a reminder of our moral past as a nation that respects human rights. Without poster propaganda like this I don't think we could have come out of WWII as a nation with serious moral standing to go along with our military and economic might. The Vietnam War was a serious blow to that moral standing but President Reagan was able to restore some sense of right over might during his term, even if his overall platform didn't help the country economically or socially. A President Obama would, I think by virtue of him just being president, would cause many of our allies to at least give us the benefit of the doubt again while making our enemies worry that they will no longer have just a white elitist U.S. to contend with but one that gives even its most downtrodden citizens a chance to wield the power of the presidency. Even if you remove everything that makes him physically and culturally significant in this race you still have a man who acts with cool reserve and calculated responses. As he has often said, Sen. Obama would use the full array of tool at our disposal on the foreign policy front, with military options available as well. He's not a President Clinton who was afraid to commit troops or a President Bush who was all too willing. Instead, Sen. Obama is a person who would see both the strategic picture and the the tactical implications of his policies. Moreover, a President Obama would end the ridiculous, Kafkaesque attitude the current administration holds on 'enemy combatants.' Both as a Senator and as a law professor, Sen. Obama is a believer of the rule of law and would, I think, commit his administration to upholding that. You can tell, if campaigns are any metric to judge by, that Sen. Obama would not stoop to the level of his enemies.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Your Desk in Motion
So I've always taken an interest in what people consistently keep on their desk mixed with the everyday stuff that lands there. I'm not speaking of your desk at work, but the one at home where your real work begins. A desk isn't a requirement though. Coffee tables, floors, beds, countertops, or just anywhere in general where you compose, create or just lounge. I hold this strange belief that what you find on this space at any particular moment reflects a great deal of who you are and what kind of personality you keep.
This is my desk. This is where I spend a great deal of time writing, smoking and playing with media. But it also reflects some of the regular elements of my daily life, whether over the long term or the short term. A glass of water next to a prescription bottle is a regular thing while the dispenser of surgical gauze is reflective of my amazing week in personal injury. Coffee, smokes, cds and dvds are commonplace and travel with me most anywhere I go. What makes this picture of my desk so important is it's representation of the space I produce for myself, whether simulated or real. Each object has their own meaning, a myriad of meanings in fact. But in relation to each other what do they say? What does the totality of these objects reflect about myself and how I produce my reality, my space?
So, what does your creative space look like? If you send me pictures and brief descriptions then I'll post them, sans names and such if desired. I want to see how other creative spaces are produced and what they mean to the producer. So click away.
From 0 to Whore in Six Seconds
I'm think of more alternative uses for this sort of thing. I mean, what's better than aiming this bundle of joy at your favorite politician just before they give a speech or perhaps your sleeping grandmother. I wonder what the ballistic physics of glitter is?
Tattooing as a Business Expense
This is the kind of body-mesh with technology I like to see. I see a couple of problems with it however. While they may have solved the power problem, the saving of information is something that I don't know how they will successfully achieve until large memory storage chips that are super thin are produced. Another problem is more stylistic than functional for me. I would imagine having the tattoo on the inside of your forearm would better suit the needs of the user. Perhaps they can go with a clam shell design and have flip pads on both sides. Moreover, I wonder how this would compete with designs that incorporate the phone into the eye and ear, allowing the user to see in full color and not have to speak into their arm? It's all very Transmet though, so I love it anyway.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
I hear your band has sold your guitars and bought turntables
Robotique Majestique - Ghostland Observatory
An hour of listening and I can already tell this album will make it onto my regular car rotation. Now if only they would play a proper Dallas venue.
Three Days Later - Review: Finally Punk
Hyperrealism, The Production of Space and Dialectic Materialism
Since I've been reading Henri Lefebrve's The Production of Space along with some minor research in the fields of hyperrealism and supermodernism, I've had to relearn the dialectical and the differences between Hegel's notion of the dialectic and Marx's dialectical imperialism. I know, I know, I should still know this but I tended to avoid anything that smacked of Marxism when I was in school. Now the off-shoots and intellectual movements sparked in response to Marxism I've been all over. Lefebrve, in writing on the production of space, is taking it from a Marxist perspective, sort of. Thus the dialectical is important. For Marx, the dialectic was the attempt to transcend the contradictions of the material world in order to attain a new height of history and human experience. Lefebrve believes this kind of attitude towards space (space meaning social space, mental space and material space) overlooks the necessity of both the distinctiveness of different kinds of space while admitting their intertwined relation.
For me, this attempt to span the contradictions of the human experience shows a misunderstanding of what the human experience really is. Camus spoke of this in The Rebel as the concepts of freedom and justice are constantly at odds with each other, neither existing without the other but without any foreseeable way of reconciling that conflict. It's a matter of not 'transcending' the contradictions of the world but allowing those contradictions to exist as is. The gap exists but it isn't a failure of philosophy. It's an acknowledgment of the limitations of the human mind. The dialectic originally meant, in the pre-Hegelian sense, a way of reasoning to arrive at a truth. Hegel and Marx turned it into some world-historical method to achieve a more perfect form of history and humanity when none was needed. Even though the dialectic has allowed us to realize the limitations of human logic it is not a system that one should take too seriously. Instead, I think the dialectic is a starting point for understanding those limitations and realizing how production in the Marxist sense is only one way to look at things. Postmodern, it may be, but it also fits within the realm of the hyperreal as attempting to expose the contradictions of the simulated reality of hyperrealism is an important task for futurists as well as philosophers.
Ohio Debate Recap
I think Sen. Obama succeeded quite nicely in parrying Sen. Clinton's thrusts while not appearing to draw too much blood from her. Moreover, I think Sen. Clinton inflicted her worst wounds on herself (her snark about receiving the first question and whether Sen. Obama needs more pillows for his ass was particularly stupid). It was good that the debate over healthcare was dispensed with first as it has dominated the last couple of debates. Refreshing arguments over foreign policy, campaign tactics and rhetoric were welcomed.
Sen. Obama owned the first half of the debate but had a weird return after the commercial break. Sen. Clinton looked far more composed after that break which leads me to think that perhaps the 'kitchen sink' routine her campaign was promising wasn't so promising a tactic. Still, Sen. Obama kept his professorial air about him and never seemed fazed by some odd questions. His response to the Louis Farrakhan endorsement, while a little stilted, was appropriate and segued nicely into his potential problems with the Jewish vote. I think Sen. Obama could go a long way to repairing the divide between Jews and blacks in America. On the other hand, Sen. Clinton's 'me too' addendum to that question was rather self-serving.
The NAFTA question and the foreign policy questions were clearly Sen. Obama's best arenas. He struggled a bit with the public financing pledge, parsing his words carefully in a way I wasn't quite comfortable with. But I do take comfort that the way the Obama campaign has gone about raising fund through small donations goes a long way to supporting him philosophically if he doesn't take public financing, since, in a way, he already has.
Sen. Clinton had few moments to shine. Her closing remarks were good but not as good as in Austin a week earlier. Her defense of not releasing her tax returns was strained at best and her decision to continue hammering her 'fighter' aura was strange considering who the Democratic nominee will face in the general election. But at least she finally recanted her AUMF vote. I doubt that will do much good now but at least she made the effort.
I did like how both Russert and Williams continued to pressure the candidates for more direct answers and kept them within a certain set of time limits. The moment that Brian Williams had to cut off Sen. Clinton was both snarky and brilliant all at the same time. Overall, I enjoyed the MSNBC moderators better than CNN's. While there were a few good questions in the last debate, Sen. Clinton derailed them too often. This time around she wasn't able to do that and thus wasn't able to score some serious points over Sen. Obama.
In the end, Sen. Obama didn't exactly blow Sen. Clinton out of the water but he did continue to do what he has done in ever other debate. He remained claim, considered and composed at whatever was thrown at him while Sen. Clinton seemed to struggle at times once the healthcare debate passed. It was a good debate and Sen. Obama's refusal to let himself get drawn into a pissing match allowed him to maintain his presidential look. If he's able to keep this kind of attitude during the general election debates then there's no reason why he can't overwhelm the more antagonistic Sen. McCain. But there's still next Tuesday to get through and we'll see who has the nomination locked up by then.
Best Live Blog Quote
10:32 — "Barack: You know what I regret? Meeting God when I was 22, and becoming divine and immortal. Sometimes I want to live among the humans, you know? They have such nice things." The Wonkette
Monday, February 25, 2008
Like LBJ, Sometimes My Dick is the Answer
This post both confirms and denies my academic/nerd cred. I changed my own brakes yesterday on all four wheels. Six hours of sweating, unbolting, clamping down, plugging in, fitting, sitting, and seating. My hands still hurt and my knuckles look like I've been in a fight, which in a way I was. Not only did I save money I put higher performance brake pads on. Now I just need to find some big money for slotted rotors. What is it about taking things apart and making them better that appeals to me? I do it to my computer, to philosophical theory, to history, to just about everything. I guess it's just a character flaw in me, obsessiveness and single-mindedness. Maybe that's why I'm terrible at answering phone calls or IM's.
Being a Grammar Nazi
Clinton: Obama is to Foreign Policy as Bush was to Foreign Policy - Marc Ambinder
“We’ve seen the tragic results of having a president who didn’t have neither the experience nor the wisdom to manage our foreign policy and safeguard our national security. We can’t let that happen again.”
Now I'm not one to nit-pick (actually, I am) but the first sentence is really bad: "didn't have neither"? I can understand when giving speeches one can get their words a little mixed up but for someone like Sen. Clinton to make a freshman mistake like that is just silly.
On a more serious note, Sen. Clinton just made it easier on Sen. McCain on the national security front. If an election between Sens. Clinton and McCain was decided solely on foreign policy experience alone then Sen. Clinton would find herself beaten a foot into the ground by Sen. McCain. It's simply stupid of her to go on the attack on foreign policy when she doesn't have much of one and to claim experience in the matter when she will face a giant in the public's mind on national security.
One-Armed Political Fighting
The Foreign Policy Failure - Matt Yglesias
Yglesias makes a salient point here concerning the foreign policy positions of the two Democratic candidates. Sen. Obama has made it clear for some time now that he has put together a serious and dramatically different foreign policy than Sen. Clinton, who has attempted to avoid any deep probing of the issue. More than just the issue of meeting with our enemies are the issues of weapons technology and nuclear stockpiles. Yet the mainstream media has failed to grapple with the issue in any real way, most conspicuously in the arena of op-ed pieces. Yglesias points out that in the case of the Washington Post their op-ed staff lack someone who would tackle the foreign policy issue of the Democratic candidates in anything approaching even-handedness.
This lack of attention becomes a problem for the candidates, most particularly Sen. Obama, when their is little distinction between their domestic agendas. While Yglesias makes the point that the president has a greater freedom of movement in the foreign policy arena, I think the more important point is that the lack of foreign policy discussion has allowed not only Sen. Clinton to avoid any serious embarrassment during a debate, it has allowed Sen. McCain the opportunity to go unopposed when he turns his attention to foreign policy in his speeches. For a presumptive front-runner like Sen. Obama to have half of his entire policy agenda ignored is strange and potentially harmful when it comes to countering Sen. McCain's policy points. Outside of the regular blog readers, the majority of the public has little in the way to assess Sen. Obama on national security, an important issue for many still.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Shame On You!
Clinton Unloads on Obama's 'Destructive' Tactics - WaPo
So Sen. Clinton has decided to go on the attack about health-care a week before a debate on a network her campaign claims is against her. Also she decides to call out Sen. Obama on campaign tactics, thus opening up the debate to questions about her desire to seat the Michigan and Florida delegates along with her attempts to persuade the super (or automatic if you prefer) delegates to override the popular sentiment of the public thus far. Oh, and she complains about how Sen. Obama is able to draw large crowds. See for yourself and think it over.
Personally, I see a Senator losing her shit on national tv over ads that have been in circulation for a while now. I'm puzzled though. Why now? And why in this way? The video makes her look angry and verging on unhinged. Why bring up campaign tactics when her campaign has made the biggest missteps so far and has used far more underhanded tactics? Why attempt to force an entire debate on the one issue she has some seriousness about, health-care, when the moderators aren't going to let her do that. Unless she plans on taking over the debate and looking even more unhinged in the process, she will have to calmly detail where Sen. Obama is wrong and how. Moreover, she will have to rile Sen. Obama up to make him look like an angry black man, but thus far he has taken the hits with a cool sense of confidence and an air of wisdom about him. The soundbite lines Sen. Clinton has thrown out have all fallen flat while Sen. Obama continues to produce speeches that pull on the best of past speakers and his own sense of good rhetoric. The Hillary Clinton I saw today differs vastly from the calm and sensible Hillary Clinton of this past Thursday's debate. It's as if no one in her campaign told her about the fliers until today. Very strange.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Austin Debate, pt. 6,973
So the quick consensus is that the debate wasn't a knock-out for either candidate but that Sen. Obama still won since he made no major blunders. For some reason though, the common wisdom is that the defining moment of the night was Sen. Clinton's closing remarks, in which she nearly verged on tears. Some say she was showing genuine emotion while others say that she recognizes the position she is in and will place party over her own ambitions to concede the race to Sen. Obama. Somehow I don't think that's the moment most people will remember. I think her stupid science lab experiment of a line about Xeroxed speeches will resonate more. I believe Sen. Clinton was soundly beaten and showed it in several different ways. The first was that idiotic poll-tested line and then her ignoring the question of a Latino so she could continue talking about health-care and ending with her overly sentimental closing statement. She didn't look presidential nor did she act like one. Sen. Obama didn't knock her out, she did it to herself, and if the CW is right, Sen. Clinton knows that she will remain a Senator.
Best Live-Blogging Quote
9:24 PM — There is definitely a healthy breeze onstage, as evidenced by Obama’s flapping notepad. Maybe it is the radiance of Hillary’s hate.
- From the Wonkette
Spot the Price
Currencies and Commodities @ NYT 4:00PM CST
Watch me bitch about metal prices for a moment. Let me just say tha $940 for a troy ounce of gold is fucking ridiculous. And $2,100 for a troy ounce of platinum? My god, who is buying all of this? It can't all go to computer parts and catalytic converters. If you want a sign that the economy is shaky just keep your eye on the spot prices for precious metals. Three years ago a troy ounce of gold fetched around $350 to $400. Fucking ridiculous.
A Diamond for Vandels
Weaponized Diamond Engagement Ring - Cory Doctorow @ BoingBoing
Now that is cool, but not surprising considering how hard a diamond is. But what I think people don't realize that if you hit a diamond in just the right way, you can shatter it. So while this might look cool, it's impractical and actually dangerous to the stone. There's a reason why the old European cuts have a dot in the center when you look at the stone from the very top; people were afraid of breaking that point, the culet, off.
North American Scum
Okay, before we all forget about the Michelle Obama gaff in light of Sen. McCain's lobbyist problems I wanted to mention a couple of things. Now remember, I'm a supporter of Sen. Obama so go into reading this with that bias in mind. Even so, I do believe it was a gaff as a statement that she should have couched far more carefully than she did. I can understand the reasoning behind it, for the last twenty years of politics in America there have been few opportunities to feel proud of one's country. Love of country is one thing but we aren't always proud of our country, just as we aren't always proud of the people we love. But sometimes moments, events, history happens that make us stop and realize how good being an American feels.
I remember feeling a sense of pride after 9/11 when, for a brief moment we had a shared purpose, a real sense of unity, even if that unity was brought about by fear. But my experience of America is limited as my consciousness of the world didn't take shape until I was nearly in my teens in the early 90s. So I went through all of the Clinton years and the Bush years with few moments to find pride in my country. I can see Michelle Obama suffering from the same lack of pride as I did. Conversely, I can see Mrs. Obama as feeling an overwhelming sense of priding in watching a black man, her husband, have a genuine chance of becoming the president of the United States. Now if that doesn't make you feel damn proud then you obviously have a skewed sense of what pride for this country means.
As far as gaffs go however, I don't believe this is a serious one. Moreover, in a campaign so well run, this is the first mistake that even rises to the level of a gaff. Yes, some people are offended, but in general they are the same people who wouldn't have voted for Sen. Obama anyway. The damage done to the Obama campaign is at best minimal. It comes across as the same hullabaloo that Sen. Obama caused when he explained why he doesn't wear an American flag lapel pin; he's an American damnit, he doesn't need to advertise.
I think the best way of framing Michelle Obama's words are through LCD Soundsystem's song "North American Scum". Yeah, sure, Europeans look down on us, but this is our country and we love it, warts and all.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Ill Communication
No blogging tonight. I'm crawling into bed to listen to another rehash of a new mix tape. I hope she likes it.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Your Lying Eyes
How Believing Can Be Seeing: Context Dictates What We Believe We See - Science Daily
It only makes sense that context would provide meaning for what we see. I remember watching part of the mediocre movie "What the Bleep Do We Know" and learning about how the natives in America at first couldn't see Columbus' ships or Umberto Eco's description of native American's first experience with armored men on horses and how the natives believed the horse and the man to be one creature. When we see things that are outside of our contextual background, our minds attempt to take up the slack by interpreting the visual into something that makes sense or, in the case of the unseen ships of Columbus, completely block it from our sensory experience. Simply put, the neurons of perception are firing but they have nothing to connect to, nowhere to go.
It's a matter of how our minds categorize the world. Before the rise of Gothic literature in the 19th century, many of our fears about science overtaking man or the idea of playing God remained undefined and outside of our experience. Once Gothic literature came about we had a reference point from which to expand our experience and make the subconsciously frightening something less fearsome. Once we can put something into words, into language, can we examine it in a logical fashion. But that which remains outside of our logical realm are either ignored or unconsciously feared.
Plagiarism
Being of the academic mindset I tend to favor the citation of another author's work in one's own work. But the tempest in a tea pot that the Clinton campaign is making over Sen. Obama's speeches and his sharing of lines between him and Gov. Deval Patrick does not seem to rise to the charge of plagiarism. It's common practice among public speakers to use words and rhetoric from others to bolster their own speeches. And with the case of Gov. Patrick, it seems that not only has the governor given Sen. Obama his consent to use some lines of his speeches, but Gov. Patrick himself has used lines from Sen. Obama's speeches as well. Yes, perhaps Sen. Obama should preface the use of those lines with where he got them from but as long as he isn't, ala Joe Biden, lifting entire speeches without giving due credit then it's not plagiarism, it's recognizing good speechwriting that dove-tails into one's own ideas. If what Sen. Obama does is plagiarism then every time he uses Biblical references, or calls on the rhetoric of MLK or any other civil rights leader then every politician is guilty of plagiarism. Particularly in this instance, there's a case to be made that the Clinton campaign has lifted an idea from the Obama campaign when they altered the rally chant of 'Yes We Can' to 'Yes She Can' for their own purposes. To say that what Sen. Obama has done is plagiarism and what their own campaign has done isn't seems far-fetched, to say the least.
Now when it comes to Sen. Obama's backing away from public financing for the general election, one has to remember that his pledge was predicated on Sen. McCain being the nominee for the Republican party and then negotiating out what is acceptable and what is not. Since Sen. McCain is already gaming the public finance system somewhat, I'm not sure that Sen. Obama should be held to that pledge. Such a pledge requires the assent of both parties and both parties acting in good faith. Thus, with Sen. McCain using the public financing angle to secure a loan pre-general election, I think Sen. Obama is allowed to eschew his pledge in the face of bad faith action by the other party. Moreover, I think the way Sen. Obama has raised the sort of money he needs for a general election run is vital for the Democratic party in terms of future elections. By not relying on large contributors but instead on a widely distributed network of small donations, Sen. Obama has built a campaign financing system that not only will serve other Democrats running for election in the future, but also avoids the pitfalls of taking large donations from vested interests, the kind of interests Sen. Obama has spoken out against time and time again. So once more I see the Clinton campaign attempting to make something out of relatively nothing. It's desperation on the part of Sen. Clinton and while the supporters of Sen. Clinton will argue that Sen. Obama is no better than the rest, the supporters or independents leaning his way will see that he hasn't done anything morally wrong.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Searchable Clusters
Searching the Web by Clusters: Clusty Returns Group Results - Trend Hunter
Hmm...I'm wondering how the increase of tagging and tag clouds will affect the results returned by this search engine. As Trend Hunter said, it's no Google killer but it does offer a way of narrowing down one's search.
Cognition of the Real
Nature of Consciousness: How Activity of Single Neurons in Human Brain Reflect Conscious Perception - Science Daily
My quasi-girlfriend is working on her doctorate in neuroscience; specifically on the function of single neurons and their relation to other neurons. Thus I've taken a closer interest in the scientific aspects of consciousness. The philosophical implications are still there, at least until the soul cell is discovered or whatnot. This also intersects with my interest in hyperrealism and the effects of information technology on human consciousness and social practices. I'm currently reading a several decades old text by Henri Lefebvre on the relation between mental, social and physical space. This is all jumbled in my head at the moment, but suffice to say, reading about how conscious recognition is an 'all or nothing' sort of thing when it comes to the firing of single neurons it shows some of the physical component to the mental-social-physical relationship. My question has to do with whether a simulated reality can produce the same results in the physical brain. It's all terribly interesting but probably very boring to most of you. Still, it's what gets my brain going so it's what I'm going to write about.
Brian Michael Bendis Rewrites Matt Yglesias
Ultimate Blogs - Matt Yglesias
I do so love when comics are injected into the political blogosphere.
What You Don't Know Can Hurt You
That Clinton Competence - Jason Zengerle @ The Plank
Competence - hilzoy @ Andrew Sullivan
What? There Are Rules? - Matt Yglesias
Three posts from three different bloggers all hitting the web at the same time on the competence of the Clinton campaign. The issue sparking this concern on competency is the Texas primacaucus and the surprising revelation that the Clinton camp had no knowledge of how the Texas delegate system worked until earlier this month. According to Zengerle, Hilzoy and Yglesias, apparently the Clinton campaign was counting on the Latino vote in the southern sectors of Texas as a sort of 'firewall' against Sen. Obama. Unfortunately, the way the Texas primacaucus works, it favors more urban area such as Dallas and Houston, which to add insult to injury, hold a large black population. Now, I'm not sure what the standing is in cities like San Antonio, which is predominantly Latino, or Austin, which is distinctly liberal but has a large student population.
The main problem for the Clinton camp though, is that Latinos have traditionally shown a low turn-out during primaries, something that figures heavily into the number of delegates the next primary allocates. Each precinct receives a certain number of delegates that are dependent on the previous two primary elections. So if a precinct had a low turn-out in the last two primaries then that precinct will receive fewer delegates this time around. Moreover, during the last primary in 2006 there were two independents running for governor; one coming from the Republican side and poaching Republican votes, and one, Kinky Friedman, coming from nowhere to poach independents and Democrats. So the delegate count for most precincts is lower this election cycle than in previous cycles.
That the Clinton campaign never took the Texas system into account when boasting it as a firewall state speaks more to their ignorance, and yes, competence, than their ability to predict and adapt to changing circumstances. They had a plan that started and ended with Super Tuesday and have done nothing but scramble ever since. I do hate to say this since I don't think the comparison is completely accurate, but the actions of the Clinton campaign ever since Super Tuesday have reminded me a great deal of the Bush administrations reaction to the changing circumstances on the ground in Iraq. That is to say, the Clinton campaign has gone into a serious bout of denial about Sen. Obama's chances while maintaining their own superiority. Well, after learning about their recent education on the Texas delegate system, I have to say that superiority is seriously mistaken.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Denial is Perfectly Healthy
The First Step is Admitting You Have a Problem - John Scalzi @ Whatever
Hmm...I'm disappointed there's no picture. That would have made a good blog post.
The Supermodern as the Hyperreal as the Imagined Community
Hyperreality @ Wikipedia
Hypermodernity @ Wikipedia
I'm beginning to wonder whether the development of the hyperreal in art has any connection to the rise of supermodern architecture. Both are depictions of some beyond the reality of old. The supermodern in architecture invokes a simulated reality as it transposes context and places of rest with contextless and movement-oriented designs. Part of this has to do with the rise of the internationally recognized architect who receives bids and commissions from around the globe. Another part has to do with the business classes who travel from city to city to experience the same hotel rooms, the same airport terminals and the same rented cars on the same highways as the place they would call home. All of this, from the detachment of architecture from context to the building of simulated worlds for the business class to travel through are, in many ways, part and parcel with the ideas behind hyperrealism. The original reality become less important as the simulated one replaces it for those who actually do travel from country to country on a frequent basis. Home becomes the movement through things and a house becomes just another space to move through.
While the hyperreal in art offers a detailing of reality beyond the capability of the human mind to do by itself, it also offers a simulated reality that presents itself as somehow 'more real' than reality. How this interplay between the original and the simulation will play out in the future is something that cyberpunk writers have asked for years.
William Gibson, in describing an American's view of London as a sort of mirror world in his book Pattern Recognition, touches on that aspect of the hyperreal and the supermodern. Cayce goes from London to Tokyo to Moscow and finds the same stores, the same clothing, the same designs and the same sense of fashion. It's a simulated unity of the world through shops and attire, but then again, as Benedict Anderson argued in Imagined Communities, any identification with a group of people you have never actually met is a simulation of unity.
Viewed in this light, nationalism is the first kind of hyperrealism, as it asks us to deny the reality we see and accept that we are unified through common language, ancestry and history despite not needing to know the rest of those you are 'unified' with. Nationalism also asks us to accept the mobility of jobs and the ability to transplant one worker from one city to another, as Ernst Gellner would argue. The spiritual unity sought by the Germans and the Italians after their political unification in the 1870s could only be a simulated unification, an imagined one. Thus nationalism crafts a simulated united between people that doesn't exist in the everyday world.
Photos of the Universe as Hyperrealist Art
Personally I think this kind of art falls under the category of hyperrealism as it offers details of the world, or universe in this case, that would otherwise remain unknown to the eyes. That the radiation given off by the Cat's Eye Nebula is invisible to the naked eye is key to my believe that photos taken by the Hubble telescope belong to the realm of hyperrealist art, even if they are only photos taken with particular kinds of lenses. It's exactly that kind of human manipulation of the visual that makes this kind of art hyperrealistic versus abstract. These images are real, just presented in a way that we would have never seen before. That and I just love me some space porn like this.
The Visceral Math
There's a strange sort of beauty when mathematics is translated into art. The theories and formulas of various fields used in an artistic way produce some of the most stunning visual representations of a theorem that no description can possibly contain. The image I've used here is one created by Michael Field of the University of Houston. It's a simple creation using a simple formula, but the visual gives you an idea of what mathematics actually does in the real world, or at least is possible. Indeed, it is art, as it evokes an emotional, aesthetic response. What this reminds me of are the parasols of Japanese culture, intricate in detail but dead simple once you figure out how it works. For a nation worried about its students in the realms of math and science, I think using images like this to show how math can work in the real world would prove incredibly educational. I just wish teachers had more time to incorporate this kind of mathematical artwork into their class schedules.
Open WiFi Horizons
Give WiFi Leechers Computer Rage with Executable Command Fun - Haroon Malik @ Gizmodo
Steal This WiFi - Bruce Schneier @ Wired
I'm siding with Schneier on this one. I keep the WiFi portal in my house open for the neighbors to use, or anyone who visits the house with a wifi-capable device. I don't see much of a point in encrypting it since most of my neighbors aren't the sort to try and hack into my internet access.
Now, I do understand the situation is probably different for those of us who live in apartments and don't want someone a floor below piggybacking on your internet expenses. But that's nothing that closing the system or actually talking to the person and perhaps the rest of the tenants about a co-op wifi network wouldn't solve.
I don't see much of a point in closing off a wifi network on the basis of security or of good hospitality. The devices we use so frequently now actually require this kind of openness of wifi networks. While some cities are working on an open infrastructure it would make more sense to engage the community to open up wifi access. Plus, I have to agree with Schneier again when he says that if your computer or device is lacking the proper security then having a closed network at home or in an apartment or wherever isn't much comfort. Keeping an open network requires the users to actually keep their security up to date, which in the grand scheme of things, isn't a bad idea at all.
Bright Like Neon Love
Aside from the mad scientist desires I have for this laser, I want to see it 'boil the vacuum'. Spontaneous matter generation is one of the coolest whacked-out parts of particle physics. Finally, I have a laser that can both destroy my enemies and make me a cup of coffee out of thin air.
Rock Out
Breaking Rocks in the Hot Sun - Spencer Ackerman
Probably won't see this in the theater, but I do believe that's the best anti-Bush movie trailer I've seen.
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