_The Onion_ publishes what is possibly the single best thing to come out of the evolution/creationism debate: an article titled Kansas Outlaws Practice Of Evolution. I suppose it is their God-given right to do so, but it seems a bit harsh on the single-celled organisms.
Monthly Archive for November, 2006
Wed
Nov
29
2006
Why can’t we compare US policy to the Third Reich? 0 cmts
“The relevance of Third Reich Germany to today’s America is not that Bush equals Hitler or that the United States government is a death machine. It’s that it provides a rather spectacular example of the insidious process by which decent people come to regard the unthinkable as not only thinkable but doable, justifiable. Of the way freethinkers and speakers become compliant and self-censoring. Of the mechanism by which moral or humanistic categories are converted into bureaucratic ones. And finally, of the willingness with which we hand control over to the state and convince ourselves that we are the masters of our destiny.”
How medical screenings cause harm 0 cmts
“Today, [...]most healthy laboring women are screened with fetal heart monitors for early brain asphyxia in fetuses, which might be relieved by cesarean section. Yet despite a five-fold increase in C-sections since the screening became routine, cerebral-palsy rates in babies remain unchanged.”
Amazon EC2 rocks the house? 0 cmts
I’ve been occasionally following Amazon’s forays into web services, and spent the last couple hours reading up on their fairly new Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service, which provides an infrastructure for anyone to inexpensively setup and run one or many server instances within the Amazon data center. EC2 is darn cool, not only for things like scientific computation sets but also for more standard tasks like web serving and such. Combined with Amazon’s existing S3 storage service for reliable storage, the possibilities are pretty amazing for building scalable web apps. There are some obviously missing components, however, such as effective load balancing and some sort of database environment not to mention the problem that when a virtual server goes away so goes all of its data. I’m sure Amazon is well aware of these problems, and I suspect that they’re working on them. Depending on the latency of S3, I suspect an enterprising hacker could create a filesystem driver for it that, used correctly, could solve a lot of the storage issues. If/when Amazon reveals a database web service, they’ll have quite a platform on their hands. I’m really impressed by how Amazon is creatively opening up their infrastructure in ways that improve their bottom line while also dramatically leveling the playing field for small players in the web space.
Wired on the secret world of Lonelygirl15 0 cmts
_Wired Mag_ runs a cover story on Lonelygirl15 that, while late to the party, is pretty interesting and informative. It talks about the genesis of the show, the promise of the medium, and why Lonelygirl hasn’t made the jump from YouTube to a network. My favorite bit of fan speculation noted in the article was the idea that the whole thing was a sophisticated viral ad campaign for Target since the entire set was purchased there.
Mon
Nov
27
2006
Utah is building out fiber to the home while Massachusetts bickers about wifi 0 cmts
The UTOPIA Community MetroNet is an alliance of fourteen Utah cities building out optical fiber communications plant and operating it as a public utility open to all. Using UTOPIA, homes and businesses can choose one (or many) of several commercial providers of data, voice, and television services without being locked into the local cable or telephone monopoly or having to install a satellite dish or other equipment. Fiber to the Home is the best possible future for internet connectivity, and the Utah effort is the largest I’ve seen to date. Meanwhile, Boston, Cambridge, and other Massachusetts cities are bickering over how to provide municipal wifi using technology that will be obsolete by the time it is deployed. Why are they so far behind?
Thu
Nov
23
2006
Torchwood’s False Advertising 0 cmts
bq. “The fascinating thing about Torchwood is that they’ve skipped the messy business of making the original show, and jumped straight to the slash fiction.” — Someone on a message board
A follow-up on my Torchwood review. I’m increasingly of the opinion, now that I’ve watched through episode 6, that the show was sold under false pretenses. Instead of being an edgy drama about an alien investigative force anchored by time traveler Jack Harkness, it is a cheap thrill show about the meandering moral journies of crappy cop Gwen Cooper.
The most recent episode, “Countrycide,” really turned me off to the show. Jack, lacking in all leadership skills, can’t control his team, most notably young upstart Gwen, who, between retching every time she sees another dead body, goes running off without full posession of the facts after an enemy that she knows nothing about. In the end the twist is that there aren’t any aliens involved at all — merely a crazy cannibal family — and, her worldview shaken, Gwen takes refuge, not in her loving boyfriend of several years, but in her jackass teammate.
After being completely unlikable throughout the entire episode, Gwen goes and cheats on her boyfriend because she feels that she can’t confide in him all of the terrible things she sees, even though there is *no evidence of this*. I mean, you say you’re “special ops,” this is clearly a “special op,” there were no aliens involved and so no need to fudge the story, so what’s the problem with telling Rhys about your crappy day? I won’t even get into the ridiculous plot, ridiculous cannibals, ridiculous interrogation scene, ridiculous behavior by Jack, ridiculous behavior by Owen…good grief. Not the show’s shining hour, I’ll tell you that.
A Free-for-All on Science and Religion 0 cmts
“Somewhere along the way, a forum this month at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., which might have been one more polite dialogue between science and religion, began to resemble the founding convention for a political party built on a single plank: in a world dangerously charged with ideology, science needs to take on an evangelical role, vying with religion as teller of the greatest story ever told.”
Interpreting the UCLA tazing incident 0 cmts
My office has been abuzz about the recent tazing of a UCLA student by campus police officers. Many people have jumped to numerous conclusions based on a difficult to interpret cameraphone video posted on YouTube. Blake Ross posts his thoughts along with a statement from an eyewitness, and I _generally_ agree with his thought process and conclusions, based on our imperfect knowledge of the incident, although I don’t believe, given the potentially dangerous situation, that the officers were out of line in initially refusing to give their badge numbers.
Fri
Nov
17
2006
Disneylandmark and a visit 0 cmts
Last year Greg Maletic defended Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom against criticism from Disneyland fans who think the Florida attraction is a corruption of Walt’s dream. Soon after, he published a more interesting and better essay about the meaining of Disneyland as a cultural landmark. In it he explores Walt’s original vision, not of “the happiest place on Earth,” but as a tribute to American ideals. He points out that a close reading of the Disneyland dedication plaque gives a lot of insight into what Walt was trying to achieve and how that vision has strayed over time:
bq. To all who come to this happy place: welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America, with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.
Think about the attractions: Main Street USA, an idealized version of small-town America; the Disneyland Railroad, a historic train ride from the dawn of man to the future; Frontierland, a celebration fo the American West; and of course Tomorrowland, a joyous look at a future of 50’s progress and limitless possibility.
I first visited Disneyland in the late 80s or early 90s, and back then a lot of the original vision was still there. Over time the creep of time and corporate planning has subtly but fundamentally altered the Disney experience, turning it into a mish-mash of competing ideas centered around “fun” more than any sense of shared values.
Like Greg, I can’t come out and say this progress is inherently bad, or inherently good. It is change, change that reflects how our culture has changed, that reflects a fundamentally different America, a different world. Disneyland has become muddled because the world is a lot more complicated, what it means to be American is more complicated, and notions of how we fit into the world are in flux. And of course many of the starring attractions of the original Disneyland experience would today be considered kitschy or starry-eyed over-the-top ridiculousness.
But despite this all Disneyland still draws me in. Shaina and I are planning a visit when we’re back in California. The place is still amazing and fascinating, even if it isn’t what its founder intended.
And, seperately, I’ve found out that I have some old frequent flyer miles that will expire soon, enough to take a trip somewhere in the continental US. I could go anywhere, some place I’ve never been before, but I’m really leaning towards the idea of going down to Florida and seeing Disneyworld again for the first time in ten years. That said, I’m not really thrilled about the idea of going alone. Anyone want to come along for an adventure?
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