Thinking about lots of things: language (reading Eco’s Search for the Perfect Language), privatization of state functions (cops and soldiers), laser (make Dr. Evil air quotes while reading, please) weapons, and the approach of spring. I’m also getting ready to do some vivarium work – rearrangement, new lights, etc. – thus, not a lot of blogging energy. Until I have something worth saying, another bookshelf shot:
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Well, I ended up needing to execute on the cell phone thing earlier than I had originally planned – my current cell started to flake out. My priorities for the new phone were, in order: good phone function (duh!), Bluetooth, decent camera capabilities, and 3G network access. I ended up with a Samsung SGH-A707 – it does what I want it to do. The camera is OK – not great for closeup work (as you can see in the bonus bookshelf blogging shot below), but ok for a quick snap. An excellent extra is that it will record video; I’ve got some footage (can you call it that when it’s a pile of bits?) of my Dendrobates tinctorius that I’m trying to edit so I can post a clip. Unfortunately, iMovie doesn’t seem to want to deal with the camera’s file format – my copy of Final Cut imports it fine, so it looks like I’ve got to get busy climbing the Final Cut learning curve.
The shot at the top of the post is the cell, taken with my junky lo-res digicam. I tried to take it using the cell’s camera, using my cat-like speed (and quantum uncertainty) – unfortunately, I ran into the same problem I experience whenever I try to look at the back of my head by spinning around really quickly. The cell picture is here as a hat tip to Señor Lex10, who posted the graphic goodness I’m using as wallpaper – thanks!
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I like maps – old, new, fanciful, technical, you name it. I was very happy to stumble across the strange maps blog this morning (thanks, Bruce); this one’s going to get added to my netvibes portal and to the blogroll.
Just for grins – I think that every so often I’ll post a picture of a random couple feet worth o’ bookshelf (mine, that is). Anyone who wants to reciprocate and post on their blog (if you don’t blog, email the pix to me and I’ll post for you) – way cool. Hopefully, this isn’t too much information…
Some loose ends and tid-bits…
Boston vs. the Mooninites. I watched Boston news last night. The Mooninite story was not mentioned. I may have missed it, but it for sure was not one of the leads and was not mentioned in the ‘and next we’ll tell you about’ teasers. I’m shocked! shocked! (internet sarcasm alert) that having been a major player in the effort to make Boston an international laughing-stock, Beantown media is now pretending nothing ever happened. Later – here’s how to use LEDs!
Iran. Check out today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day – the Alborz Mountains by moonlight. Another place I’d love to visit, but it’s probably not a realistic goal. I try to keep current events/politics off this blog with the exception of security/privacy topics, but I can’t hold back on this one. The signs have been there for a while (see Sy Hersh’s reportage) – it’s looking likely that we (the US) are getting ready for a ‘flight forward’ involving Iran.
What we are witnessing (through rips in the curtain of official secrecy) may be an example of what the Germans call the flucht nach vorne – the “flight forward.” This refers to a situation in which an individual or institution seeks a way out of a crisis by becoming ever more daring and aggressive (or, as the White House propaganda department might put it: “bold”) A familar analogy is the gambler in Vegas, who tries to get out of a hole by doubling down on each successive bet.
Classic historical examples of the flucht nach vornes include Napoleon’s attempt to break the long stalemate with Britain by invading Russia,the decision of the Deep South slaveholding states to secede from the Union after Lincoln’s election, and Milosevic’s bid to create a “greater Serbia” after Yugoslavia fell apart.
We – US citizens – now have 6 years experience to guide us. If we fail to stop the Executive Branch from unleashing military disaster and geopolitical chaos, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
My brush with show-biz. Last fall I searched Flickr with Turfan as my search term – part of the nosing round I did getting ready for my Sphinx post. I came across Kate James’ photostream and enjoyed the heck out of it. A week or so ago, I wandered through again and noticed something about one of the pictures. Click here and read the comments for the story – short version: Penn Jillette mentioned the picture on his Feb. 1 radio show, Kate’s picture is getting lots of views and hopefully her book, Women of the Gobi, is benefiting. My copy is on it’s way from Amazon – I’ll keep you apprised. Also – for those of you who haven’t guessed, my Flickr ID is Don Coyote. It should really be spelled Don Kiyote – it’s a nod to the inhabitants of George Herriman’s version of Coconino County, but I worry sometimes about being too obscure…
Shorthairs.
Sire?
Dam?
Stay tuned.
I discovered it while looking for his famous classification of animals. The number is the population of books in the Library of Babel – a universe which contains every possible 410 page book using 25 characters and with 40 lines per page, 80 characters per line. Your complete life story (including the parts that have not happened yet) is in there – the trick is finding it.
The original search – for the classification – turned up an additional connection. The title of the essay containing Borges’ list is ‘The Analytical language of John Wilkins‘. Wilkins, mathmatician, cryptographer, founder of the Royal Society, figures into Neal Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle and Wilkins did in fact try to create an a-priori language.
Two thoughts… First, I really need to find a copy of Eco’s The Search for the Perfect Language. Second – Argentina looks better and better as a place to relocate to. Big sky, Buenos Aires, tango, horse culture, grills, and they produced Borges. Yow.
Third thought (later) – Artur C. Clarke’s Nine Billion Names of God.