meme

As thousands of Germans are choosing to opt out of Google’s roving eye, though it does not seem as dystopic as some mad, fascist Orwellian world-view, there are some concomitant actions in Germany and the European Union that are taking a circumspect and long view at the virtual frontier.
Ahead of a summit on data protection and consumer rights, politicians are calling for means, no self-regulated and left to the industry, to cover one’s internet tracks, especially those footprints left unintentionally and exploited by marketers or in digital photographs that record one’s location and that has a persistence of memory on the web. Surely, such government safeguards cannot satisfy everyone, and some argue that governmental efforts would be better spent on protecting consumers from disreputable internet service providers and other underwriters of fraud, but it is an excellent example of government predicting and adapting to technology, rather than reacting to it within an insufficient legal framework. Furthermore, the crowning achievement, at least in prospective circulation, comes from a working group in Strasbourg in the form of an “internet treaty,” similar to the line in the sand drawn with international cooperation over the ownership of the Antarctic or outer space.

This proposal aims to keep the internet globally open and neutral, curbing government influence over content or allowing deals that would make the internet two-tiered, given speed and preference to paid, premium content. This seems especially important as US, Canadian and other governments seek to assert regulatory control, censor and spoon-feed back to the world public what it already has created, sometimes out of desperation to cut deals in favour of big business or to realize and retain more tax revenues from internet activities.

unschärfe

Following a novel approach to saddling a chip with bits and bytes using pulses of light instead of miniscule electric current, subscribers to Moore's Law and general aficionados of bigger, better, faster, more are anticipating that quantum computing is within the industry’s grasp, promising computers that will be able to essay complex calculations that are outside of the realm of contemporary processors, making for better models and more accurate predictions as well as improved capability to conduct internet searches.

The amount of data banished to the virtual oubliette is increasing exponentially and scientists, from meteorologists, marketing executives, to chemists and astronomers, have increasingly complex scenarios to ponder through. Brute computational force, however, is not science or creativity—rather it is having that proverbial arsenal of an infinite number of monkeys banging away on an infinite number of typewriters to produce a literary classic. It is the same sort of logical extension that has given rise to those spontaneously generated 100 kilometer long traffic jams in China that pop in and out of existence with no explanation, since the country’s recent prosperity has allowed more to own a car. Likewise, discovering a new pharmaceutical by testing every possible permutation is no real accomplishment and interactions overlooked can present real dangers, especially if researchers become too reliant on computing power to filter out their red herrings and incompatibilities. The serendipity of a new finding, even from a mistake or stumbling upon something unexpected, goes out the window. Wouldn't the internet become an ironic genie if it could deliver exactly what was requested with no errata everytime?  How should one learn about anything new?  Besides, the nature of quantum mechanics does not suggest that circuitry would be without gremlins and bugs of an esoteric and unpredictable variety.  Maybe it would be like the Infinite Improbability Drive from Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy, and produce self-fulfilling prophesies, like creating the earthquake it predicts or randomizes non-sensical results, ballerina mountain range, feathered titanium gazebo. In computing it is ever garbage in/garbage out.

fremde, etranger, stranger

France and Sarkosy are the brunt of quite a bit of honest scrutiny in the European Union, driven by coverage which may not be just as genuine. Now as accusations are exchanged that Merkel and Germany have plans to carry out similar mass-deportations of Sinti and Roma (the ethnic groups formerly known as gypsies), one parliamentarian has drawn allusions to the atrocities perpetrated during the Second World War. Immigration, minority protection, and human welfare are all heady subjects, deserving of close and objective attention. The tone, however, is being set by sensational journalists, it seems, and smacks very much of the recent brawl in America over Koran burning and the so-called Ground Zero mosque. Much of the public was so enflamed because they were led to believe that there was to be a mosque built on the rubble of the World Trade Center site. Never mind that the Ground Zero mosque was to be primarily a non-denominational community center and that there was already a mosque in mid-town Manhattan several blocks closer by. Such a local zoning issue should not have attracted the interest of the whole world and some Christian fanatics without some media false flags. France deported no more non-EU citizens from the country than in years past, and did not particularly target Roma camps, or alter policy during the dog days of summer when no one was watching, as other reporting suggests.

View from Burger King at Ground Zero

Every year, during vacation time, holiday campers take notice of squatter sites because they venture further into the woods and some may feel a little less safe because of them. Stereotypes about Roma realize and perpetuate learned traits, and the public has experience with few people of that background, save the fictional Esmeralda from the Hunch-Back of Notre Dame, Django Reinhardt, Charlie Chaplin and Boba Fett, preferring nomadic, swarthy, mysterious, fortune-tellers. By no means do I condone expulsions and that there should not be more efforts to understand what is going one, only that this may be one of those distractions that can easily fail to make one look at the underlying conditions.  If one community bucks the trappings and standards of another, the one that dictates those mores will always feel threatened and imagine resistances that are not there.

perils of penelope

My mother has found a whole slew of challenging yet relaxing puzzle and logic games for her iPad.  They are a lot of fun and demanding in sense one wants to push these expeditions through to their conclusion.  The graphics and tactile sensitivities are amazing as well.

 I think that this too would be an excellent forum, platform for reviving some of the Nintendo games of the mid- to late-eighties, those handful of zen and phrentic games, like Bobble Bobble or the Adventures of Lolo, whose teasers were I am sure a primer for the military aptitude test--ASVAB or AbFab, like in that movie the Last Starfighter where that kid was recruited for the galatic armada for beating an impossible game, or some endless map-based pursuit against a whole medieval bestiary.  These games were always second picks in the video shop after one had exhausted the latest releases but were always entertaining and thought-provoking.  I think that this could also be a resurrgence, although a beaten game is forever a beaten game and is a sphinx with no secrets, of those early personal computer adventure games, like the classic King's Quest series.  Maybe again, game engineers will create whole worlds and sagas that draw the player in and that require finesse and cleverness.

iconoclasts or have a nice day

One of the oldest registered trademarks, aside from the canting found on coats-of-arms and municipal and national regalia, is the simple red triangle of Bass Ale.  While a geometric shape does not corner any exclusivity and does not exactly evoke a refreshing beer by association, I rather like the accessible logos that enforce a name or functionality, like the Shell of Royal Dutch Shell or the diamond shape on Collins Gem publishers.  There is apparently a premium to having an iconic symbol or even sensible name anymore, considering the names of showboat medications and finance and telecommunication companies that play on false Latin and superlative words. 

Over-reliance on symbols and metonymy also has its drawbacks and can easily slide into the non-sensical.  The German government, for instance, is currently debating a proposal to augment its religiously executed hygenic checks of commercial kitchens with a smiley face based rating system.  The details have not been entirely worked out, but like a Michelin Guide, restaurant doors will display a scoring of smiley faces based on their cleanliness and rather subjectively on the quality of their cuisine.  The schedule and content of health inspections will not be changed, but finding are distilled and projected for potential guests, in smiley form.  It's this extra level and potential for obfuscation that is crazy-making.  Documentation from inspections could be made public, in their undigested form, for the perusal of the morbidly curious.  Unsafe restaurants are not allowed to stay in operation, and the smileys do not make the inspectors' visits more rigourous.  Probably no diners want to peek in the kitchens of the favourite restaurants and would rather remain blissfully ignorant and not be made to guess at what criteria distinguishes 4 smileys from 3.5 smileys.

grecian formula

Earlier this month, coinciding with the announcement by the Greek government that there will be no further austerity measures, which lead to riotous protests, to recalibrate the country's economy--I hope that Greece is right and reforms are on pace with recovery, and they are forced to sell any islands or mortgage their cultural heritage to corporate sponsorship, the Hephaisteion all covered with advertizing like a race car--Vanity Fair reporter Michael Lewis embarked on an odyssey from the business centers of Athens to the remote and autonomous, monastic state of Mount Athos to try to gain some insight into the culture that yielded the Greek financial crisis. This article is really intelligent and an interesting read, and while the monks are not precisely sibilants or oracles themselves, their financial acumen is to be respected and their squabble over a swap of formerly mediatised church lands may have brought unwelcome and glaring transparency to the entire Greek market.  Mr. Lewis was able to exercise his journalistic instincts, despite and perhaps because of, as a guest in a place couched with history and tradition.  Maybe the crucial lesson is in his introductory paragraph, when he speaks of Greeks stopped being Greek and Icelanders wanted to forego fishing to become investment bankers during the financial collapse: there is a very Greek term ἐνέργεια, that is being-at-work-staying-the-same.