Sunday, July 18, 2010

Anonymous Comments a Right? NO! A privilege



Should people be allowed to comment anonymously online? That question is currently making its way through the U.S. legal system. A New York couple has issued dragnet subpoenas to Google and Yahoo demanding the identities of users behind 10 email accounts, 30 blog operators, website administrators, and the identities of anyone who had ever commented on those sites. That's hundreds of people! Riding to the rescue of our privacy and freedom are our heroes -- the EFF.


Anonymous comments should be a privilege.  Now here is the very hard part - this is a privilege earned not by position, reputation or political sway but by a much more rigorous criteria - content.  Anonymous comments should be allowed to exist only if the content warrants its existence.  Common sense, albeit scarce in these quickly evolving times, should be used to temper decisions about whether a given anonymous post should be allowed to exist or not.

If an anonymous poster's offering is denied on such grounds then that individual has three courses of action.  1.) Rewrite the posting in a manner that doesn't violate the common sense rules of valid content. 2.) Repost and own up to a possibly contrary perspective or point of view.  3. ) STFU

Contrary to the seemingly popular belief we do not have the unalienable right to say anything we want without owning up to it.

It is time for common sense to be the rule in our civilized society.

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Happy Birthday Nelson Madela (92)


Nelson Mandela is surrounded by children at his home in Johannesburg yesterday.
Debbie Yazbek / Nelson Mandela Foundation / AP


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EFF: many remain critical of Google

"...many remain critical of Google's decision to stay in China..."

Many Westerners remain critical because they haven't taken the time to learn the Chinese way.  A critical reading of this article shows that careful "cultural" concessions being made by the Chinese are engendering significant freedoms.  Simply to say that China should adopt Western values in the blink of an eye is very unrealistic, if not naive.

As for Google's relationship with China: Read the writing on the wall people!  Everyone would do well to have a working relationship with the #1 superpower on the planet.  Moreover, everyone would do well to have access to the largest national/cultural market in the world.

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Saturday, July 17, 2010

Friday, July 16, 2010

Rubens Tubes (Fun to say)


Thanks: Rubens Experiments

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Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Bad Day #19

Madhuri, an Indian elephant, swings a monitor lizard around by its tail. The unlucky creature had been swept off the ground and was carried around for a number of days by the elephant. With its tail firmly clamped in the animal’s trunk the lizard was swung around and occasionally put back on the ground. The scene was captured by Jagdeep Rajput during a trip to Corbett National Park in India

Picture: Jagdeep Rajput /Solent (via Pictures of the day: 14 July 2010 - Telegraph)


LINK 

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Reality Overated? Or, we don't need no stinking facts...

By MAX FISHER on July 13, 2010 11:48am

...
In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger. ... Instead of changing their minds to reflect the correct information, they can entrench themselves even deeper.

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Alternative Views...


'role reversal' 2005
acrylic plastic, 165 x 175 x 175 cm
courtesy of cosmic galerie, paris



'role reversal' 2005
acrylic plastic, 165 x 175 x 175 cm
courtesy of cosmic galerie, paris

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Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Very strange business model

By Mary Jo Foley | July 12, 2010, 8:03pm PDT

The way Microsoft is phrasing the new end of life dates for XP is less clear-cut. The Microsoft “Blogging Windows” blog, in a July 12 post, explained it this way:

“(W)e have decided to extend downgrade rights to Windows XP Professional beyond the previously planned end date at Windows 7 SP1. This will help maintain consistency for downgrade rights throughout the Windows 7 lifecycle. As a result, the OEM versions of Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate will continue to include downgrade rights to the similar versions of Windows Vista or Windows XP Professional.  Going forward, businesses can continue to purchase new PCs and utilize end user downgrade rights to Windows XP or Windows Vista until they are ready to use Windows 7.”

The only company I know that adheres to the maxim, "The aheader I go  the behinder I get."  Very strange business model.

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Isn't it FUDdy, isn't it lame...

Ballmer: Windows 7 Slates Coming Soon

I find it humorous in the extreme that Microsolth can't even mount a credible FUD campaign any more.

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Monday, July 12, 2010

'American Splendor' passes...

Harvey Pekar, Who Chronicled Ordinary Lives in ‘American Splendor’ Comics, Dies

Harvey Pekar


Link = New York Times

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Genius ... another perspective.

For the Romans, ‘genius’ was one word predating our contemporary idea of potential.  The Roman word ‘genius’ was used to designate the particular spirit of a place - that convergence in a landscape of plant, terrain and weather whereby, say, any specific tree has an utter, enchanting uniqueness.  In a sense, that tree can never exist in the same form at any other moment of time and space.

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Friday, July 09, 2010

If Jesus twittered:

Existentialism according to gapingvoid

Obvious signs have become necessary...

In a world where "Its OK as long as you don't get caught" has become the norm it is about time that we take the direct approach ... "DON'T COMMIT CRIME"

Further, 'me thinks they doth protest too much'.  To complain that such a direct approach is "an insult to people's intelligence" only bolsters my belief that the critics live in some rarefied ivory tower well away from Bubba and his pick-up truck. 
Herts Police poster
Campaigners have said the posters "assume a lack of intelligence"
A police service has been criticised for using blindingly obvious messages in its campaign posters.

"Don't Commit Crime" is stated on one of Hertfordshire Constabulary's posters - "All fuel must be paid for" has been added on posters at petrol stations.

Language watchdogs the Plain English Campaign said the notices were funny, but an insult to people's intelligence.

Herts police defended the notices saying the obvious was worth stating if it had any impact on crime.

A police spokeswoman said: "We are not saying it is going to stop hardened criminals but it may make someone who is nervous think twice."

The campaign group described the signs as examples of "talking in a vacuum".


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Thursday, July 08, 2010

Dick-o'-the-day!

Please, somebody paintball this fool...

Ramzan Kadyrov. Chechen President: 'I don't know who is responsible, but when I find them, I will express my gratitude'

AP

Ramzan Kadyrov. Chechen President: 'I don't know who is responsible, but when I find them, I will express my gratitude'

Chechnya's kremlin-backed President, Ramzan Kadyrov, has endorsed the growing practice of shooting at women in the street with paintball guns if they are not wearing traditional Muslim clothing.

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That’s what Chrome OS is, you know...

Google’s strategy has always been to use Chrome against Microsoft’s desktop monopoly...

Linux...

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." 
  --  Mahatma Gandhi 

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Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Monday, July 05, 2010

Planck telescope reveals ancient cosmic light

By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent, BBC News
This is the extraordinary place where we all live - the Universe.

The picture is the first full-sky image from Europe's Planck telescope which was sent into space last year to survey the "oldest light" in the cosmos.

It took the 600m-euro observatory just over six months to assemble the map.

It shows what is visible beyond the Earth to instruments that are sensitive to light at very long wavelengths - much longer than what we can sense with our eyes.

Researchers say it is a remarkable dataset that will help them understand better how the Universe came to look the way it does now.

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More zen?

# 14.  Support bacteria. They're the only culture some people have.

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Zazen, nah, takes too long.

Zen For Those Who Take Life Too Seriously

1.  Save the whales. Collect the whole set.

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Sunday, July 04, 2010

Saturday, July 03, 2010

The Guardian Prince of Albion

America, a Prophecy, Plates 3 and 4
by William Blake 

[PLATE 3]

The Guardian Prince of Albion burns in his nightly tent,
Sullen fires across the Atlantic glow to America's shore:
Piercing the souls of warlike men, who rise in silent night,
Washington, Franklin, Paine & Warren, Gates, Hancock & Green;
Meet on the coast glowing with blood from Albion's fiery Prince.

Washington spoke; Friends of America look over the Atlantic sea;
A bended bow is lifted in heaven, & a heavy iron chain
Descends link by link from Albion's cliffs across the sea to bind
Brothers & sons of America, till our faces pale and yellow;
Heads deprest, voices weak, eyes downcast, hands work-bruis'd,
Feet bleeding on the sultry sands, and the furrows of the whip
Descend to generations that in future times forget.—

The strong voice ceas'd; for a terrible blast swept over the heaving sea;
The eastern cloud rent; on his cliffs stood Albion's wrathful Prince
A dragon form clashing his scales at midnight he arose,
And flam'd red meteors round the land of Albion beneath.
His voice, his locks, his awful shoulders, and his glowing eyes,


[PLATE 4]

Appear to the Americans upon the cloudy night.

Solemn heave the Atlantic waves between the gloomy nations,
Swelling, belching from its deeps red clouds & raging Fires!
Albion is sick. America faints! enrag'd the Zenith grew.
As human blood shooting its veins all round the orbed heaven
Red rose the clouds from the Atlantic in vast wheels of blood
And in the red clouds rose a Wonder o'er the Atlantic sea;
Intense! naked! a Human fire fierce glowing, as the wedge
Of iron heated in the furnace; his terrible limbs were fire
With myriads of cloudy terrors banners dark & towers
Surrounded; heat but not light went thro' the murky atmosphere

The king of England looking westward trembles at the vision


William Blake @ Poets.org

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Born with a Silver spork....

 lost-plastic-casting in silver 

 4080 4752388284 Dd5F9Abed6 B

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Friday, July 02, 2010

Chapter 1:

Chapter 1:
        The story so far:
        In the beginning the Universe was created.  This has made
a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.

-- Slackware Fortune

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Thursday, July 01, 2010

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Bad Day #17

POTUS vs. GAGA

Perhaps the most telling social commentary of our times... POTUS vs. The Diva

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9 Deadly Words...

His Thumb

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Do you know her?

She looks familiar, yes?

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Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Deus Ex Malcontent: Picture of the Week - Says it all....

Picture of the Week


From the ocean floor, directly off the Alabama coast. That brown crust you see coating everything -- including the crab in the foreground? That's oil.

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Social Networking Bill Of Rights

Social Networking Bill Of Rights Released

Privacy advocates seek comments on a 14-point plan for protecting users' personal information online.


Computers, Freedom, and Privacy (CFP) conference spent last week creating a Users' Bill of Rights that is now available for public consumption, feedback, and approval.

1. Honesty: Honor your privacy policy and terms of service.

2. Clarity: Make sure that policies, terms of service, and settings are easy to find and understand. 

3. Freedom of speech: Do not delete or modify my data without a clear policy and justification. 

4. Empowerment: Support assistive technologies and universal accessibility. 

5. Self-protection: Support privacy-enhancing technologies. 

6. Data minimization: Minimize the information I am required to provide and share with others. 

7. Control: Let me control my data, and don't facilitate sharing it unless I agree first. 

8. Predictability: Obtain my prior consent before significantly changing who can see my data. 
9. Data portability: Make it easy for me to obtain a copy of my data. 

10. Protection: Treat my data as securely as your own confidential data unless I choose to share it, and notify me if it is compromised. 

11. Right to know: Show me how you are using my data and allow me to see who and what has access to it. 

12. Right to self-define: Let me create more than one identity and use pseudonyms. Do not link them without my permission. 

13. Right to appeal: Allow me to appeal punitive actions. 

14. Right to withdraw: Allow me to delete my account, and remove my data.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/privacy/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=225701171&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_All

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In simplicity great depth....

If My Voice Is Not Reaching You  
by Afzal Ahmed Syed

     If my voice is not reaching you
     add to it the echo—
     echo of ancient epics

     And to that—
     a princess

     And to the princess—your beauty

     And to your beauty—
     a lover's heart

     And in the lover's heart
     a dagger


Poets.org

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Monday, June 21, 2010

David Byrne...Building up the house...


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Saturday, June 19, 2010

Site Filtering By DNS

David Douthitt over at Unix Administratosphere offers a well thought out and rational criticism of "Site Filtering By DNS" ... for a geek.  However, the small town librarian Ms Marple is being pressured (back in the stacks) by Rev. Harrumph to protect those sweat innocent library patrons from such filth and degradation.  On a shoe string budget. With no technical support.  While trying to fend of Rev's advances.

Well-meaners and do-gooders, in keeping with the current aire of righteousness, simply have to protect little Jimmy and Susan from the scourge of the Internet.  By the force of LAW no public entity will knowingly allow our innocents to be at risk of ... exposure.  Well, at least not at the library.

The same Meaners and Gooders would repeal the Law of Gravity believing that in doing so they might prevent lil' Jim and his squeeze Suez from falling off their bicycles.

Full reference link: Why Site Filtering By DNS Fails

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Singularity

“We will transcend all of the limitations of our biology,” says Raymond Kurzweil,

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Sunday, June 13, 2010

Time and Culture


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Saturday, June 12, 2010

Fuggettabout the music, send us the musician...

Sitka Summer Music Festival cellist Armen Ksajikian plays for the resident bears at the Fortress of the Bears bear sanctuary in Sitka, Alaska. Ksajikian was inspired by the acoustics at the converted pulp mill clarifier tank and played a selection of music, including a composition by Hector Berlioz for the bears With Ksajikian is Les Kinnear director of the sanctuary.

JAMES POULSON | AP (via Day in Pictures - Sacramento Bee)

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Friday, June 11, 2010

Monday, June 07, 2010

fringe community helmet craze


Abstract

Among a fringe community of paranoids, aluminum helmets serve as the protective measure of choice against invasive radio signals. We investigate the efficacy of three aluminum helmet designs on a sample group of four individuals. Using a $250,000 network analyser, we find that although on average all helmets attenuate invasive radio frequencies in either directions (either emanating from an outside source, or emanating from the cranium of the subject), certain frequencies are in fact greatly amplified. These amplified frequencies coincide with radio bands reserved for government use according to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Statistical evidence suggests the use of helmets may in fact enhance the government's invasive abilities. We speculate that the government may in fact have started the helmet craze for this reason.

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Wednesday, June 02, 2010

High-Frequency Dog

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: Lou Reed's High-Frequency Dog Concert

Even for Lou Reed, this is pretty bizarre. This June, the former Velvet Underground frontman plans to perform a concert specifically for dogs. Most of the concert won't even be audible to humans ears. The "avant-garde" performance will be delivered at ultra-high, dog-friendly frequencies.

According to the BBC, Reed's wife, Laurie Anderson, got the inspiration for the show when she was backstage at a concert. She thought to herself: "Wouldn't it be great, if you were playing a concert and you look out and you see all dogs?"

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Tuesday, June 01, 2010

A Bill of Privacy Rights for Social Network Users | Electronic Frontier Foundation

A Bill of Privacy Rights for Social Network Users

Commentary by Kurt Opsahl

Social network service providers today are in a unique position. They are intermediaries and hosts to our communications, conversations and connections with loved ones, family, friends and colleagues. They have access to extremely sensitive information, including data gathered over time and from many different individuals.

#1: The Right to Informed Decision-Making

Users should have the right to a clear user interface that allows them to make informed choices about who sees their data and how it is used.

#2: The Right to Control

Social network services must ensure that users retain control over the use and disclosure of their data. A social network service should take only a limited license to use data for the purpose for which it was originally given to the provider.

#3: The Right to Leave

[A] user should have the right to delete data or her entire account from a social network service. And we mean really delete. It is not enough for a service to disable access to data while continuing to store or use it. It should be permanently eliminated from the service's servers.

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Monday, May 31, 2010

What is your pet peeve about a poor website?

LinkedIn Groups

  • Group: Albion College Alumni
  • Subject: New comment (15) on "What is your pet peeve about a poor website?"

The results are in! With over 30 respondents tallied, here is a collated version of the replies. If you'd like a doc version of this list to give to your company's web development team, just email me. (Note: there is some overlap in the Navigability/Information categories.)

A. Navigability
1. When I can't find the information that I NEED!!!
2. Navigation that takes me 10 clicks to find the information I need. 

3. Lack of a "Home" button on the menu.
4. Poor navigation
5. Landing pages where you have to click through to get to the home page
6. Lack of easy navigability
7. All comprehensive websites should have a USABLE search engine so I can find the content I'm looking for quickly and efficiently. Don't waste my time.
8. Useless search engines.
9. Sometimes you just need to send the company an email. Don't hide the contact information.
10. Corrupted or expired links to archival documents.
11. Like most, I want to grab and go. I hate it when the most obvious information is hidden or missing. Like store hours. 

12. There's no search engine or there's a search engine that can't find anything 

13. Vertical menu bars
14. Difficult to navigate
15. The inability to discover how to speak to someone ties in to poor navigability.
16. There is a flow that people are familiar with on websites telling us where to find contact information, where to look for job opportunities etc. Some site creators have the mentality that by moving things around they are creating a unique feel, but ultimately what this does is potentially prevent them from gaining business. Clients can miss important sections of the website, or become frustrated with the lack of ease and simply move on. 


17. Need to be BlackBerry friendly. 
18. Sites that lack consistent navigational tools. 

19. Poor navigability! I see more and more sites without a link back "home." 

20. It shouldn't take me 5 clicks to get to a phone number or address or other basic information!
21. Phone friendly is a must. 

22. Every website should have a link to Home, along with one to Contact Us and one to About Us. Those are almost standard features today. No website should leave you wondering about what to do next or where to go next. You should be able to tell where you are at all times and how to get to where you want to go. Navigation takes planning and testing and thinking like the user, not like the maker. 
23. Sites that show up in searches, but really have no way to find the information on the page.
Posted by Alan Headbloom

Go to complete discussion »

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R.I.P. Peter Orlovsky

Peter Orlovsky

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Peter Orlovsky (right) with Allen Ginsberg, 1978.

Peter Orlovsky (July 8, 1933 – May 30, 2010) was an American poet best known for his lifelong relationship with Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg.

Biography

Orlovsky was born to Russian parents Oleg and Katharina Orlovsky in the Lower East Side of New York City . Orlovsky was raised in poverty and was forced to drop out of high school in his senior year so he could support his impoverished family. After many odd jobs, he began working as an orderly at Creedmoor State Mental Hospital known today as Creedmoor Psychiatric Center.

Orlovsky was drafted into the Army for the Korean War in 1953 when he was 19 years old. Army psychiatrists ordered his transfer off the front to work as a medic in a San Francisco hospital.

He met Ginsberg while working as a model for the painter Robert La Vigne in San Francisco in December 1954. Prior to meeting Ginsberg, Orlovsky had made no deliberate attempts at becoming a poet.[1] With Ginsberg's encouragement, Orlovsky began writing in 1957 while the pair were living in Paris. Accompanied by other beat writers, Orlovsky traveled extensively for several years throughout the Middle East, Northern Africa, India, and Europe.

In 1974, Orlovsky joined the faculty of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, teaching poetry. In 1979 he received a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to continue his creative endeavors.

In May 2010 friends reported that Orlovsky, who had been battling lung cancer for several months, was moved from his home in St. Johnsbury, Vermont to the Vermont Respite House in Williston. He died there on May 30, 2010.

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How (and Why) to Stop Multitasking - Peter Bregman

First, it was delightful. 

Second, I made significant progress on challenging projects, the kind that — like writing or strategizing — require thought and persistence.

Fourth, I lost all patience for things I felt were not a good use of my time. 

Fifth, I had tremendous patience for things I felt were useful and enjoyable. 

Sixth, there was no downside.

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Sunday, May 30, 2010

David Lehman :: Bravo!

French Movie
by David Lehman


I was in a French movie 
and had only nine hours to live 
and I knew it 
not because I planned to take my life 
or swallowed a lethal but slow-working 
potion meant for a juror 
in a mob-related murder trial, 
nor did I expect to be assassinated 
like a chemical engineer mistaken 
for someone important in Milan 
or a Jew journalist kidnapped in Pakistan; 
no, none of that; no grounds for 
suspicion, no murderous plots 
centering on me with cryptic phone 
messages and clues like a scarf or 
lipstick left in the front seat of a car; 
and yet I knew I would die 
by the end of that day 
and I knew it with a dreadful certainty, 
and when I walked in the street 
and looked in the eyes of the woman 
walking toward me I knew that 
she knew it, too, 
and though I had never seen her before, 
I knew she would spend the rest of that day 
with me, those nine hours walking, 
searching, going into a bookstore in Rome, 
smoking a Gitane, and walking, 
walking in London, taking the train 
to Oxford from Paddington or Cambridge 
from Liverpool Street and walking 
along the river and across the bridges, 
walking, talking, until my nine hours 
were up and the black-and-white movie 
ended with the single word FIN 
in big white letters on a bare black screen.


Brought to you by Poets.org Poem-a-Day: David Lehman

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What a Facebook Phishing attack looks like (SAFE YouTube video)

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Saturday, May 29, 2010

Ya'll ain't from around here :: Where the Smart People Live

Richard Sweeney :: design, photography, craft and sculpture

Richard  Sweeney




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Friday, May 28, 2010

Senators Propose...

I wanted to write a scathing diatribe about the revocation of personal rights and freedoms.  I wanted to talk about the knee-jerk reactions of closing-the-barn-door politicians.  I wanted to rail against the addled If-you-disagree-with-this-you-must-be-a-terrorist-too mind set.  I wanted to escape the fear and paranoia perspectives of my fellow country men and women.

Instead I guess I will just keep my mouth shut and take careful notes about my neighbors, and the other members of the congregation, and doings at the Rotary Club, not to mention the Chamber of Commerce...oh and that curious fellow that runs the QuickieMart.  Can't be too careful you know. 

Citing the Times Square bombing suspect, who used a prepaid cell phone, two Senators have proposed legislation that would end anonymous use of prepaid mobile phone service. 

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A case of Big Iron-ic

Scientists devise algorithm to detect sarcasm
A computer algorithm capable of identifying sarcasm in written text has 
been developed by Israeli researchers. The novel formula could pave the 
way for more sophisticated communication between humans and computers. 

Devised by computer scientists at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, 
the algorithm has been programmed to recognise sarcasm in lengthy texts 
by analysing patterns of phrases and punctuation often used to indicate 
irony. In tests on 66,000 product reviews posted on the Amazon shopping 
website, the algorithm had an impressive 77 per cent success rate in 
picking out sarcastic comments - arguably higher than some humans. 

The researchers 'trained' the algorithm to recognise sarcasm by teaching 
it nearly 5,500 sentences from Amazon reviews that volunteers had marked 
as either sarcastic or non-sarcastic. From this list of phrases, the 
algorithm was taught to recognise patterns of words commonly used by 
writers to show that they do not mean to be taken literally. 

The algorithm was tested on tens of thousands of other Amazon reviews 
which had also been tagged for sarcasm, or otherwise, by human readers. 
It produced accurate answers in 77% of cases.

Full story: Daily Telegraph
Published: May 19, 2010

Reposted from UNU-Merit newsletter...

UNU-MERIT is a joint research and training centre of United Nations University (UNU) andMaastricht University, The Netherlands.

The joint Institute was created on 1 January 2006 following the integration of the former UNU-Institute for New Technologies (INTECH) in Maastricht , and the Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology, MERIT, at Maastricht University .


Mission
 
UNU-MERIT provides insights into the social, political and economic factors that drive technological change and innovation. The Centre's research and training programmes address a broad range of policy questions relating to the national and international governance of science, technology and innovation, with a particular focus on the creation, diffusion and access to knowledge.






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Thursday, May 27, 2010

Zappa Statue

Frank Zappa statue to go near Highlandtown library

frank zappa statueSo the Public Art Committee finally found a home forthat Frank Zappa statue: Outside the Southeast Anchor Library, a branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Highlandtown.

The bust of Zappa (who was born in Baltimore) will go up sometime next year, according to committee chair Anne Perkins.

"We think this is a great place for it -- a terrific neighborhood" Perkins said. "I think it will be the focal point for a lot of really fun festivals." 

Here's a link to the full story.

At first, I was a little surprised at the site they chose. Highlandtown might get a decent amount of foot traffic, but probably not as much as the other sites they were considering -- such as Fells Point.

And besides the Creative Alliance, Highlandtown really isn't known for its arts and entertainment..  

Then I spoke with Zappa's widow, Gail, who cleared things up for me ...

Gail said Zappa would have liked the location, because his mother, Rose Marie, was a librarian. Gail actually lobbied to have the bust placed near a city library.

"I'm thrilled," she said. "That's where he went to school, in the library. The library was a really important place for him in his teen years."

I asked her if Zappa would have even wanted a bust of himself anywhere, let alone in Baltimore, and she laughed.

"It's the ultimate bust, isn't it?," she said. "It's a beautiful, beautiful bust. I couldn't be more pleased with the outcome. It's stunning. It really represents Frank's character beautifully."

(Pictured is a Zappa statue in Lithuania, similar to the Baltimore statue. AP photo.)


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WOW! Just freakin' WOW!

. . .