Continuing incidents in this lead up to Spring have proved to be incommensurate with the conventional public systems of measurement and we are all being educated with new units of dread and hope and ways to gauge the appropriateness or irrationality of one's reactions. In addition to the millisievert, the gray, and the rad, conditions are described in terms of chest x-rays per hour or airport naked body scanner-equivalency. It is like speaking of budget short-falls and economic hobbling in terms of trillions of whatever denomination one chooses, as inflation's impossibly big numbers is a great equalizer--or telescoping figures of personal loss and devastation across whole regions.
Wednesday 23 March 2011
new metrics or libya the tattooed lady
catagories: ๐, ๐, economic policy
Tuesday 22 March 2011
unwater or solvent green
catagories: environment, holidays and observances
Sunday 20 March 2011
trojan sunset
catagories: foreign policy, revolution
Friday 18 March 2011
iod
Thursday 17 March 2011
auto-archive or bait-and-switch
here is quite a bit of twitterpation about a a certain outreach initiative among the US armed-forces and the trans-national military-industrial complex called Operation Metal Gear, that is really a novel and new form of owning up to skull-duggery.
This program is designed, ostensibly, to render formerly anonymous posts and social network activity into a form of self-incriminating libel by filling in the connections and transitions of bloggers and social-butterflies. Personnally, I became very suspicious of bookface once the US army embraced it and removed nearly all restrictions on networks for friends, though admittedly it makes it easier for many people to pretend that they are working. The operation's second, though perhaps primary, goal is to raise an army of sockpuppet (bot or spam) accounts in order to manipulate public opinion.
catagories: ๐ฅธ, networking and blogging
Wednesday 16 March 2011
duck and cover
The Cold War with bleak spectors of destruction and mutual mistrust was a very frightening backdrop for anyone, especially for those growing up and inheriting a standoff little understood or explained. Brave and dignified, no riots, looting or panic--though it would be OK to say one was afraid--the Japanese do not need to contend the added pressures of outside speculation. Help and prayers are there and are not to be begrudged with coaching and criticism.
There have been accidents and close calls all along, possibly from which nothing was learnt, but it was never broadcast in such a way that they are open to everyone's speculation and interpretation. I was reminded of the dreary, anachronistic film with Gregory Peck and Frank Sinatra "On the Beach," that is by far the most poignant and depressing apocalyptic movie made. Another contender for its futility is Nicholas Cage in "Knowing." On the Beach is set in a world whose atmosphere is poisoned by the nuclear fallout of World War III and the only habitatable zone is left is in Austrailia. The line, "Let this not all be in vain," is absolutely crushing and haunting. The reality for countless people is horrid enough without imagined and stagey eschatolgy, and it can be worked through, together, with a better outlook on the future.
catagories: ⚛️, ๐ฏ๐ต, ๐, ๐ฌ, networking and blogging