9/12/11

Another notch in oil's kill file

Nairobi Pipeline Fire Claims More Than 100 Lives: "NAIROBI, Kenya, September 12, 2011 (ENS) - In one of Kenya's deadliest tragedies, more than 100 slum dwellers scooping leaked oil from Nairobi storm drains were killed today when the fuel exploded into flames. At least 160 others were seriously injured and were taken to Nairobi area hospitals.
The oil came from a leak on the bypass line between the Mombasa-Nairobi and Nairobi-Eldoret pipelines, according to the state-owned Kenya Pipeline Company, which operates the pipelines."

Disclosure - this blog is resolutely opposed to the world's addiction to oil. It advocates an end to the stranglehold of oil on us. The lethal aspects of oil are legion.

Global Online Privacy

What is messianism and why is it a problem?

BEYOND CREED - Stephen Rose : IUniverse:

While a Shakespeare can influence by drawing a picture of reality you can take or leave, a religious charismatic has the singular objective of winning your soul. As a person with Christian training and leanings, I reject this. I say what you can either prove or reject on the basis of experience. I do not seek belief in a creed. Nor did Jesus. He taught a single prayer which is in my view efficacious. I would never force it on anyone. He exemplified values I have defended with my life. They are nonviolent. They are simple. They are in the realm of tolerance, non-idolatry, helpfulness and democracy. Jesus is shown in Mark One as a non-creedal messenger of exclusive loyalty to Abba and and his way. He called that the good news or gospel. The rest is a basis for distortion and false expectations which theology has gratified from the beginning.




Global Online Privacy

The common sense Obama truth

Obama's Speech Does the Job : The New Yorker: "But, going into an election year, the President can say that he has presented a credible proposal to create jobs and give the economy a boost. Which Republican candidate can make the same claim? Perry, with his support for a balanced-budget amendment? Mitt Romney, with his fifty-nine-point plan to slash federal spending, make a bonfire of federal regulations, and impose trade sanctions on China? Herman Cain, with his “9-9-9” plan? As far as the unemployed are concerned, the answer is clear. ♦"

'via Blog this'

Global Online Privacy

Rick Perry Bush 3 Eat Your Words

Obama's Speech Does the Job : The New Yorker: " A visiting Martian looking at the chart might well conclude that but for the stimulus things would have been much worse, and that conclusion would be justified"

Read this article if you think Obama was not right on and has not been our best President in this century and perhaps in the last as well. He's just a mite modest about what he has accomplished.

Global Online Privacy

A rejoinder to those who opposed our going to Afghanistan in the first place

Alan Chin on “the 9/11 Decade”: Beyond Pushpins On A Calendar — BagNews: "Two months later, flying from JFK for Afghanistan, we could see Ground Zero still burning. It was a just war with universal outrage and support. The Uzbek navy ferried journalists across the Amu Darya River into northern Afghanistan, French paratroopers held the Mazar-i-sharif airfield, and small American teams were attached to each Northern Alliance unit. The conventional fighting was easy, and six thousand Taliban, Pakistanis and other foreigners of Al-Qaeda’s Islamist international brigade surrendered in Kunduz."

I still think it would have been better to hold our fire and take a more pinpoint approach as we ultimately did with Bin Laden. More US ground wars should have been the rule following Korea. But a combination of testosterone, military industrial and commercial interests and political laissez faire created one if the saddest eras of our national history. And we do not seem even now to have learned the lesson. If the President could understand and articulate the painful change needed he would do us all a service, win or lose. No other President has though the most likely was Carter who has been appropriately marginalized by those whose behavior manifests the criteria mentioned.



Global Online Privacy

Jane Jacobs Nemesis of Sprawl

Jane Jacobs is Remembered for One Thing - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com:

Jane Jacobs is 
Honored in the breach
Evoked
Even as
We continue with impunity
To cover the world in sprawl
Defying both nature and good sense
Not to mention Abba



Global Online Privacy

This tricked me when I returned to it (Slide Show)

Sign One Sigh Two Slide Show - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com:

I wasn't sure if my headline was a misprint for sign or why there were three images not two. But then I looked and it took me a few looks to say aha. All of this is to signal a penumbra of vagueness and to counsel gratitude when you can be relatively sure of one thing and another without defying logic. You might want to try this with more than one person.


Global Online Privacy

Pierce believed science was a communal enterprise but was often first

[1108.2429] Peirce's Truth-functiona Analysis and the Origin of Truth Tables: "We explore the technical details and historical evolution of Charles Peirce's articulation of a truth table in 1893, against the background of his investigation into the truth-functional analysis of propositions involving implication. In 1997, John Shosky discovered, on the verso of a page of the typed transcript of Bertrand Russell's 1912 lecture on "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism" truth table matrices. The matrix for negation is Russell's, alongside of which is the matrix for material implication in the hand of Ludwig Wittgenstein. It is shown that an unpublished manuscript identified as composed by Peirce in 1893 includes a truth table matrix that is equivalent to the matrix for material implication discovered by John Shosky. An unpublished manuscript by Peirce identified as having been composed in 1883-84 in connection with the composition of Peirce's "On the Algebra of Logic: A Contribution to the Philosophy of Notation" that appeared in the American Journal of Mathematics in 1885 includes an example of an indirect truth table for the conditional"

'via Blog this'

Global Online Privacy

More words of wisdom from Harvey Cox

The Grass Roots Church: "A century ago our grandfathers in the faith were released from the Stifling dungeon of Scriptural literalism by the discovery and application of the principles of historical criticism to biblical texts. The result was a dynamic new view of the nature of religious truth and a method of gaining living access to truths whose antiquated garb had prevented us from encountering them. In this generation a comparable movement has begun to liberate us from our rigid and uncritical views of the form of church life. We see not only the wording of the message but the shape of the community as flexible, unfixed, and open to constant transmutation. "

Unfortunately these were written 45 years ago when hope sprang a little more eternally than it seems to do now. But hey ... we may still possess a few forgotten resources.

Global Online Privacy

Getting car and oil free

PS to the prior post
Getting car and pool free can be done by individuals.
They simply determine to live in communities of around 10k that are car free
They stop driving and buying gas
They insist that their children be able to walk to school
They insist that zoning be integral
They insist that banks be restructured and pay interest
Least most rich least
And things will improve
Spoiled brats need not be involved
There is more on this on this and related blogs listed to your right

Global Online Privacy

Read a long time and find no answer

Has America Become Entirely Dysfunctional? | Economy | AlterNet: "If the responsible rich like Warren Buffett really do recognize how much the country has done for them - and how they should reinvest more of their money in the country - why can't they build the sort of political/media infrastructure that the greedy rich have? Or why can't middle-income progressives at least do more to support some worthy projects taking on these tasks?"

I suggest that there is an answer. The world needs to get car and oil free asap. Everything else will follow. Functionality will return. Mr. Perry gets a C- for the above.

Global Online Privacy

There should be a use for old stock exchange3s (Video)

Giant tape webs we’d love to get caught in [video] - Holy Kaw!:

This would be a pretty good date. Maybe with a total stranger. Just for the nonce. You did not hear that.

Global Online Privacy

Sure they're safe

Explosion in French nuclear plant kills 1, report says | The Digital Home - CNET News: "According to the BBC, the explosion at the plant was caused by a fire in a storage space for radioactive waste. The explosion reportedly killed one person. There are conflicting reports on the number of people injured, ranging from three to four, at this point."

That would be a Monte Python line in a fictitious send-up. Unfortunately this is real and another nail in the slow building coffin of today's approach to energy needs.

Global Online Privacy

I thought the article was pretty positive

Janette Sadik-Khan Gets What She Deserves From New York Times : TreeHugger:

But I wouldn't have known it from this headline.

That said, bicycle lanes and low green constituency does not bode well for cities and the reconstruction of a largely car-free society. That is what is needed.


Global Online Privacy

Apparently engrossing ephemera

Men’s Wear Review — NY Fashion Week - NYTimes.com: "Technically speaking, there was nothing groundbreaking in the T-shirts and utility jackets printed with big eyeballs, or a buttoned-up black polo shirt slashed with white stripes, that Daisuke Obana created for his N. Hoolywood collection. And yet, Mr. Obana’s show, in a pitch-black theater at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center on Friday night, was utterly engrossing."

From your mouth to your ears.

Global Online Privacy

Could Thorium be an answer to energy needs?

Is Thorium the Biggest Energy Breakthrough Since Fire? Possibly. - Forbes: "Last week, scores of thorium boosters gathered in the United Kingdom to launch a new advocacy organizing, the Weinberg Foundation, which plans to push the promise of thorium nuclear energy into the mainstream political discussion of clean energy and climate change. The message they’re sending is that thorium is the anti-dote to the world’s most pressing energy and environmental challenges."



Global Online Privacy

Fair point

Motherhood Uncensored: Proud to be Politically Correct: "But when I hear people complain about "having to be politically correct," roll their eyes, or make a call to "be politically incorrect!" because it somehow kills truth, it's pretty clear that they probably have never had words used to oppress them."


Global Online Privacy

I still make Girardi manager of the year

Offense makes reappearence in Yanks’ 6-5 victory « Yankees Fans Unite: "ANAHEIM — A little sunshine cleared the way for a desperately needed victory, as Mark Teixeira saw his key fly ball misplayed and the Yankees held on to post a 6-5 victory over the Angels on Sunday."



Global Online Privacy

Paul Simon Sings Sound of Silence at Memorial (Video)

Somehow it worked.




Global Online Privacy

Images as Paul Simon Sings Sound of Silence at Memorial

Paul Simon Performs “The Sound Of Silence” At Ground Zero 9/11/11 - Stereogum:

Somehow it worked.

Global Online Privacy

Why is something quintessentially boring worth headlines

Ashton Kutcher gets naked for Ellen DeGeneres - CNN.com:

Nakedness should be demythologized. It is boring and only of interest if you are in a doctor's office or actually involved in some serious loverliness. Everything else is either second-hand titillation or fodder for media discourse. But I suppose a culture which produced The Full Monte has a cannier grasp on reality than me.

Global Online Privacy

Video from Conan on The Old Days

In gaming, everything is amazing, but no one is happy:

Worth a hear. If you on't mind being called a crappy generation of spoiled idiots.

Global Online Privacy

Steve Jobs, a young twenty-something hired as a consulting engineer

Apple's co-founder Ron Wayne on its genesis, his exit and the company's future: "In the early 1970′s Ron Wayne was the chief draftsman at Atari when he met Steve Jobs, a young twenty-something hired as a consulting engineer at the company."


Global Online Privacy

Harvey Cox Nails It in His Introduction toThe Grass Roots Church

The Grass Roots Church: "Although there is "no shadow of turning" within God, his changelessness is not a platonic ideal but a fidelity within history, an unswerving loyalty to his human covenant partner amidst the ceaseless movement of men and nations. Therefore, faith in this God not only allows but requires a continuing reformation of Christian existence and church life." - Harvey Cox

Global Online Privacy

Beware the time to come if you should fail

Abba's Way:

"Beware the time to come if you should fail.
Tell me: Can you describe the end?
It means you only blink at life.
You cannot say what love is, what a star."


Global Online Privacy

1984 Fiction is always ahead of the curve

How 9/11 Completely Changed Surveillance in U.S. | Threat Level | Wired.com: "Congress passed a law that absolved AT&T of any legal liability for cooperating with the warrantless spying. The bill, signed quickly into law by President George W. Bush, also largely legalized the government’s secret domestic-wiretapping program.

Obama pledged to revisit and roll back those increased powers if he became president. But, he did not."

Does eating well really require all this work?

The Secret Ingredient (Dijon Mustard): Moules Dijonnaise | Serious Eats : Recipes:

These recipe things get me. My MO is to get food anywhere it is sold as a meal. There are a zillion places in NYC. Take some of it and put it a cast iron one person-sized frying pan with some olive oil. Mix it with a few other things from other meals plus whatever condiments and staples you like. Turn the stove to medium high. Go back to the keyboard. Hear a sizzle, Turn off the stove. Ten minutes later I am eating whatever right here as I blog away. It might have some shrimp, some naan, a prune, a carrot. Whatever. For variety, downstairs to the Subway. Budget miniscule. Motive time, convenience, better things to do. I am in favor of eliminating everything others can do better and more economically. Our duplication and built-in obsolescence economy may be good for business but it wreaks havoc on life.


Global Online Privacy

Emerging start-up savvy

Tweetage Wasteland : Start-ups, VCs and Assholes in the Age of the Personal Brand: "There are a couple of key trends you need to understand to really get what’s happened in the start-up world. First, it takes a lot less money to build a compelling product than it did during the original Internet boom. A couple of kids in their undershorts can build a site or app that can easily scale to serve millions of users. Second, since the Internet industry has matured, there are a lot more former entrepenuers who are looking to rotate some of their sizeable earnings back into other start-ups."

'via Blog this'

Global Online Privacy

I knew it (Video with fracking ad)

Obama: America does not give in to fear - US news - 9/11: Ten Years Later - msnbc.com:

I knew the damnable fracking ad would appear before I could hear Obama. So the same desecration of earth segues into memories of human desecration of our soul and life.

Global Online Privacy

9/11 or NFL?

New York Post Disturbed By Lack of 9/11 Coverage On TV: "Yes, the Post believes that most Americans would rather watch 9/11 tributes than FOOTBALL. "

Let is first say there is no comparison. And then engage in a recondite silence.

Global Online Privacy

Shakespeare was an image-maker

Shakespeare was an image maker 
Setting images in place
That's the task of every artist
Look into the human face
Take it break it make it new  
In this way we win the race

Global Online Privacy

If we are headed for a cliff this is the best description I can offer

Abba's Way: 62 On Hearing and Seeing:

"So many hear, but do not understand.
So many see, but they do not perceive.
So many are wrapped up in cloaks of pride.
They think their education sets their worth.
Such valuation is a great mistake."

This was written before I had ever heard of Peirce or triadic thought or, for that matter, of Barack Obama. It builds somewhat on Nietzsche. Click the link above to read the whole.

When all is said and done the center holds

Johnson and Roosevelt Legacies at Stake in Fiscal Fight - NYTimes.com: "The accelerating debates over taxes, spending and economic policy amount to the most fundamental challenge yet to the achievements of Johnson and President Franklin D. Roosevelt a generation earlier."

That is to say, the binary casting of this crisis is wrong. It will never be as either end wishes. It will always be in the middle. The swing is less in reality than in the mind. And what the mind does is give you the freedom to look at this as it is or fall into the mentality of extremes.

Global Online Privacy

Not to mention that they supposedly have a job to do

Which One is the Real Entitlement? - Digg:

Congress is entitlement to the nth power.

Global Online Privacy

RECCMENDATION Richard Gordon Quantum Touch

The Slow as Molasses Press