Colorless Green Ideas

Someone posted an article today that breaks down five hours of average cable TV coverage - from a respected source : The Project for Excellence in Journalism just released The State of the News Media 2008, its annual analysis of cable television news. The mediascape proved barren: On average, five hours of viewing would yield 71 minutes of politics, 26 minutes of crime, 12 minutes of disasters and 10 minutes of celebrities. Science, technology, health and the environment received just six minutes of coverage (with health and health care accounting for half of that.) Science is all about exploration, and adventure. Its about asking deep questions -and its also about trusting your guts. You don't fire up a seven foot long gold vapor laser without trusting yourself first. It takes courage to throw the switch. Science also helps us to understand the world around us - and to ask deeper questions. To get at the truth. So much of what we see, in the above article - is interpretatio...

When we remove the impossible whatever remains however improbable must be the truth the plainsong ocean of language holds at its blue center whispers of truth and as our eyes trace the horizon and we make our way to the edge where on shores no man an island every wave becomes part of a set a piece of the whole and therefore no man's words are diminished to me the feedback of the wave before drawing against the shore we are all riders on the storm

Alright, so you've probably heard that the essence of the eternal 'Good' in the world, is this image of people fully clothed in long white robes, playing harp, drifting from cloud to cloud - sporting halo and wing. I think I see an image of the eternal Good somewhere in this photograph of Dita Von Teese. It's not just the fact that she gets involved with one of the worlds wealthiest men, discovers his infidelity, and decides to move on without demanding anything from him*. Nor that she seems to defy the laws of gravity and physics whenever she saunters into the room. There's really something else there. You may have to study the image very carefully. Of course, this also leaves the question open. "If this is a vision of Eternal Good, then what does Eternal Good , look like with a cool drink in her hand?" Glad you asked! * Manson, she says, had a party lifestyle she couldn't live with. "It was difficult, because I was trying to get him...

What is the essence of evil? Is it personified - as a horned devil, carrying a pitchfork? How about a strange black presence that fills the room, chilling the air preturnaturally causing your breath to be visible in midsummer? Is Evil the goose-stepping figure of a dictator, bent on genocide? I think we should carefully look at Clowns, and the Sham-Wow guy. There's just something there that says 'eternal evil' to me... take for example, this innocent looking clown.. That's John Gacy, notorious serial killer, and pederast. He killed more than 31 people, burying them in his basement or throwing them off bridges after choking them to death with a knotted cord. But what about a man, who wants to sell you something absorbent enough to be be able to suck up spilled OJ, milk, and ... even... bloodstains...? Something here just speaks of the essence of true evil. Your children will ask questions like, why does it rain? But what will you tell them, when they ask ...

Story just after the outtake about window blinds A YouTube user made a creative , and interesting video out of a very old song whose copyright had lapsed. The record company then tried to remove it, and YouTube yanked the video without warning. Then , as soon as it was noticed that they'd violated the user's rights - they put it right back up. The likely back story to this, is that the user's video was utilized as a tool to help sell advertising - and YouTube received the revenue proceeds. YouTube and the record company are violating user's first amendent rights. More to come...

Can anyone tell me what's going on with YouTube, these days? Almost every good music video is gone - and the ones that are left are locked in frame. Compared to YouTube of five years past, it's a nightmarish blend of really commercialized stuff that barely passes itself off as video. Searching through YouTube used to be very easy - you could find content by typing in elements of keywords, find what you needed and moved on. Is there a replacement site for YouTube, that doesn't kao-tao to really stupid copyright laws? I'm at the point where I'm beginning to believe that YouTube is broken beyond repair. It's nearly impossible to find a decent clip that either doesn't have its embedding disabled, isn't pre-loaded with some lame 10 second commercial, or has had its audio track raked out of it by some lame record company somewhere. First we see our government posting a 600% rise in the number of classified documents, declare an eternal war and grant thems...

Apple fought against people unlocking their iPhone, and lost. Get this: their claim was that downloading an application from an independent software vendor could "produce technological glitches" in their phone. Like what, the iPhone v.4? Every good software product depends entirely upon a strong field of support and development. In the case of, say, Microsoft Office - it's a large and highly trained team of testers and developers on Microsoft's payroll. In the case of Linux - it's a large and highly trained team on the net - that is somehow able to keep versions stable enough to make it from one to the next. As a result, there is a huge software industry employing millions of people and running to the trillions of dollars a year - feeding lots of little families and helping to better the existing software. You benefit by getting things like wizards, and better quality operating systems. Such software helps writers, artists, scientists and construction worker...

There's a semi-obscure film called TiMER, that I saw tonight. It's kind of cool. The basis of the film is that you can implant a sensor in your arm, and it will adapt and code an ideal match to yourself - based on whether or not someone enrolls or is present and already chipped. It's interesting how things work, in this future world. People who are not chipped are thought of as beyond the pale - either not interested or not interesting. And people who are chipped have a tendency to check their timers first, and if they don't match - they disregard the relationship that they're in - because, after all - it's not really 'the one' , is it? I liked the film, but I wondered aloud if the whole conscious aspect of choosing someone is really all of what it's supposed to be. Don't we more or less choose our mate, through an almost subconscious means? I mean, sure - we can try to rule out those that we don't think match - based on either this asp...

It's human nature, I suppose -to attempt to see the future. Perhaps this is because somewhere, deep in our genetic memory - we have an image of what will happen to all life on the planet. We know , somewhere deep down - that there's a very real benefit to achieving a kind of immortality - and a means by which we can traverse the cycles of life without having to end the long construction of our code, in only one generation. So, of course, we try to figure out what's going on in complex systems. We stare at the weather and attempt to make a prediction. We look at the stock market, craps tables, roulette wheels, and any other complex system involving nonlinear effects - and we try to guess what will happen. In my own state, there are alot of races that are converging to a November 2010 Finish. This is the post primary season, the few weeks after a primary in which most of the candidates are ramping up for the big run to the General Election in the fall. Painting in bro...

You may know her as Heather Renee Sweet

You may know her by her stage name - Dita Von Teese

( knock down the old gray wall )

Ok, first let's stop a minute. If you've been following my blog you've just heard Garrett Lisi lay down a pretty interesting theory. As best as we can tell, his theory is incorrect: there are mathematical problems with it. But first, you have to understand it. What's confusing is the concept that all possibilities exist - the so called many worlds hypothesis - at a really small level there are several things that can happen and the best way to deal with them is to think of them happening kind of at the same time. He opens up with a discussion about coral, which is really all aobut branching out into all different directions at the same time - and still being essentially one thing. But the killer part of it comes when he talks about Schroedinger's cat - he goes into detail (without looking anyone in the eye) explaining that the things that happen inside a closed box are things that we don't know about. Makes sense, right? And then, what he's trying to sa...

I am a pretty strong person, when it comes to relationships. Socially, I suppose I could be classed as an introvert. However, I am not shy or withdrawn. I do not shrink from discussion in group or before an audience, nor do I knowingly or willfully destroy friendships. I have a circle of friends, colleagues and acquaintances. And I am also married. But I have limits. These are wife-tested, and perhaps not wife-approved. My first limit has to do with being pushed into a catch-22 situation on the life/death aspect of my wedding vow. For example, I will not assist or aid in the death of my spouse. Til death do us part, means a natural death - and one that I will not help her to find. There are obvious exceptions to this - for example, if she is being eaten alive by a shark , or a zombie. Ok, well maybe not the shark. I would shoot the shark first. But if a zombie bites you, it's all over. The second limit relates to what I'm supposed to do regarding my own family, inclu...

Tomorrow is my primary day. I've developed a practical way to deal with obscure candidates, and a long ballot full of names on the state, local federal and city primary race. First, I'm going to get a sample ballot. I'll do that early - sometime today. Then, I'll track down each person and dig into their resume - use the net to find out as much as I can about them. I'll be careful of search results that can be modified by techniques like 'bombing', or paid relevant rank. Then, I'll fill out my sample ballot and then head over to youtube and try to listen to each candidate. If one of them doesn't sound like the right person for the job, I'll cross him or her off my list and re-evaluate the opponent. Finally, I'll head in on the way to work, and vote. No missed work, no hassle, no worries.

It's great for the NSA what can I say? let the monster eat We're all online every word recorded easily searched easily decoded categorized classified We live in the desert the Roman army rapes us going out and the Roman army burns us going back We live by and eye for an eye forum drama flame war status update and we look so cool staring down at our phone ex girlfriends ex lovers ex friends tasting steel flavored sin feeling the fabric of a silk stocking through a cold active matrix forty miles from the sun the chemicals displace there is no love thats safe in this place Jesus online nails up the cross in his living room and the chemicals between us drive straight through your wrist a sick ollie 360 mctwist shove-it And then you could say Jesus....! :D

To vote in a primary , is often the fastest and easiest way to get things done. General elections are usually given to higher turnout, and the issues discussed are often painted in watercolor. The general perception still exists that to win a general election, a candidate has to have alot of television advertisement. General election issue discussions often deal in alot of political consultant - derived nonsense about how to draw out the crowd. Primaries are a different ball of wax. Alot of the candidates in a primary are running on principle. They are often underfunded - the typical move these days for venture capital is to wait and see which candidate will prove themself, and politics is no exception. Owing to lower turnout, your primary vote will go much farther. Upset about the way things are being handled? Vote for someone you feel will do a better job. Ignore party affiliation. This is about voting your conscience. There is much to be said for doing your homework at a time...

This is for you and all that you do to your body your family your friends your meth dealer and the guy on the corner First, ok You're a nice person you made a few mistakes stealing a credit card and buying ten things counts as ten felon counts but hey, lets count our blessings at least you're eating again after all that methamphetamine Savannah I saw a picture of you wet, straight hair and thin face white skin, soft eyes I thought to myself somewhere deep inside part of you is alive maybe a little girl that plays in the place where you drifted away from the shining metal box that awaits all good girls who graduate It's ok to blind the pain but you should feel the hunger if your plan is to let the body eat itself remember to drink some water The police were at my door today At least someone dressed up, carrying a gun and a picture of you holding a number Come visit me sometime Savannah You can trust me I am still here A...

Yes, this blog can be random, at times. No, I don't really know exactly why. I think it has something to do with the fact that human behavior and predictability don't always go well together. Anyway, I thought this was... cool... If you stop and think about it, Air Conditioning in the middle of the summer - is a huge reason why power consumption goes way up. What if we could take heat from the air, and store it - so we could cook with it? Like, instead of pumping it from the inside of our house - to the outside... what if we could store it and use it for cooking and hot water? It should be pretty apparent that there is alot of technology out there that hasn't really changed, significantly - since the sixties. We have computers, that have been improved but not radically redesigned - since the 1960's invention of the transistor. Air Conditioners are good example. And of course , there is also Feminine Beauty - Invented in 1954 by Bettie Page. No dark haired vixen h...

Alot of us out there in the real world have , from time to time, dreamed up a new way of doing something, a new product - or a new business service. Not alot of us have actually done anything about it. Why? I am in a position to at least partially answer this question. I've successfully presented stock proposals to companies such as Microsoft, Angel Investor's Associations and a Consortium. In addition, I've rounded up investment from friends. Some of them are still my friend. The key is to never forget them even if their holding in your enterprise isn't on par with someone like Microsoft. I've also successfully applied for grant funding on a product or business idea, put the plan into action, and in at least one instance am well on my way to phase two - which is to put the product out into the real market place. Last night, a friend of ours came in from Britain and after a round of golf and dinner - where he seemed visibily disturbed that we declined a bottl...

I believe William Blake's statement is true. I have found a way in which it can be investigated. Blake said: If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite You may have noticed, upon occasion* Bettie Page can be found here. A simple observation: Her life was finite. The number of photographs of her, are a finite number. ( In fact, most of her photography was burned in a studio fire and only a few images survived. Definitely not an infinite number). And yet is it not true, that somehow her images retain a quality of being like new - each time? A character of the infinite as Blake described, can be found if you closely examine the following photograph... deep study is required. Examine carefully. Can you spot the hidden cornfield, and gasoline station pump in the picture above? * 'upon occasion' is taken here to mean about 36 times

"If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. " William Blake , "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"

A balance of dark and light , simple and bright you are the New Yorker and I read between the lines Today , Frida Kahlo's birthday I give as a gift the part of me that is still afraid the part of you that lives and whispers of eternal life looking up at the stars we color outside the line the edges of life, blurred I remember the moment I first held my child and surfed my first whitewater the physics of who we are is the geometry of what we become this , whispered into my ear in the dark tracing arc of a perfect curve a memory and the touch of skin proof that a man, and a woman can be friends especially when she wears special clothing