While visiting New York Buddha stopped at a hot dog vendor stall and said “Make me one with everything.”
Buddha gave the vendor a 20 dollar bill and started eating his hot dog. After a while, Buddha asked, “What about my change?”
The vendor replied: “All change comes from within”
Three of my favourite things have been elegently combined and make me happy. The Simpsons have done a satirical take on Apple culture. So what can I say: Simpsons, Apple and Satire… three of my favourite things are all collected in a perfect package.
It’s on YouTube (for now). The best part is when comic book guy re-enacts the iconic 1984 Apple commercial. Or maybe when Lisa enters the “Mapple Store” and says: It’s so sterile!
Wonderful stuff.
In 1781 the crew of the Zong, a British slave ship, killed 133 slaves and threw the bodies overboard in an attempt to claim compensation from the insurers for lost cargo. The whole thing ended up in court – but not for killing slaves since this was legal.
When the ship returned to England the owners of the ship claimed the full value of the murdered slaves from the insurers. They claimed they there was a necessity to throw the slaves over the ship because of water depletion. Well it was proven later that it was all a lie and that the captain had an opportunity for more water on December 1. By the time the Zong had arrived in Jamaica on December 22, they had 420 gallons of water to spare. (online here)
The owners demanded compensation of £30 for each slave. The judge of the case, Lord Chief Justice Lord Mansfield, stated that “no doubt that (though it shocks one very much) the case was the same as if horses had been thrown overboard”
The Solicitor General, John Lee, declared that a master could drown slaves without “a surmise of impropriety”.
What is this claim that human people have been thrown overboard? This is a case of chattels or goods. Blacks are goods and property; it is madness to accuse these well-serving honourable men of murder. They acted out of necessity and in the most appropriate manner for the cause. The late Captain Collingwood acted in the interest of his ship to protect the safety of his crew. To question the judgement of an experienced well-travelled captain held in the highest regard is one of folly, especially when talking of slaves. The case is the same as if wood had been thrown overboard. (wikipedia)
The comparisons of people to wood or horses shows the way in lawyers are indoctrinated into being able to interprete the letter of the law rather than attempt to arrive at justice and fairness.
Martin over at Aardvarchaeology has written a post on the ethics of overpopulation that has generated a flood of comments. He begins by stating that there are too many people on earth and presents three suggestions:
- It is unethical for anyone to produce more than two children. (Adoption of orphans, on the other hand, is highly commendable.)
- It is unethical to limit the availability of contraceptives, abortion, surgical sterilisation and adoption.
- It is unethical to use public money to support infertility treatments. Let those unfortunate enough to need such treatment pay their own way or adopt. And let’s put the money into subsidising contraceptives, abortion, surgical sterilisation and adoption instead.
If we ignore the fact that ethics is a notoriously vague term I agree with all of his suggestions. I would like to go a bit further to than this. Considering the position of the earth today and the nonsensical religious pro-life arguments and based on the understanding that children are not a right, I would prefer to propose the following restatement of suggestions 2:
I fail to see why the concept of religion should be used as a valid argument for limiting contraception which can prevent the spread of disease, cause personal and financial hardship in addition to increasing a world population.
But I also find it bizarre that individuals can motivate spending (and/or demanding public funding) vast amounts of money for infertility treatments while there are children in need of love and care in the world. What is their problem? Sure, “natural” may be nice but if you cannot then please focus on the needs of children not on the egoistic desire to reproduce your DNA.
I read about this photography project on Boing Boing and thought it was worth the advert on this blog. Giving alternative groups of people access to photographic technology leads to the production of exciting new material.
Los Angeles-based photographer and blogger Dave Bullock says:
The Skid Row Photography Club‘s first show, The Beauty of the Street, premiered last Thursday during the Downtown Art Walk. The participants were ecstatic to see their beautiful work on the walls and the hundreds of people who came into the gallery loved what they saw.The SPRC started as an idea I “borrowed” from the movie Born Into Brothels . I wrote a proposal to the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council to buy digital cameras which we then gave to people living in Skid Row. I gave the participants brief lessons in composition and turned them loose. For the last six months we’ve met every Tuesday at UCEPP in Skid Row.
During that time they shot over 20,000 photos between them. An amazing body of work ranging from flowers to architecture to a man defecating in the middle of the street.
Dave asks if any Boing Boing readers might want to donate digital cameras to folks living in Skid Row, so they might extend the project. “The cameras we’ve been using are about $200 each,” he explains. “We’re just a club, not a non-profit as of yet.”
More info here on how you can participate. The short version: if you would like to donate digital cameras please email Dave directly at eecue@eecue.com.
Skid Row, in case you don’t know, is a massive, permanent homeless encampment in downtown Los Angeles — the largest such community in the United States. About 8-9,000 homeless people live there. This “heat map animation” provides a compelling visualization of the site, though data hasn’t been updated in a while.
Growing up around the mediterranean meant that all men struggled with the problem of carrying cigarettes, lighter, wallet and keys in a limited selection of pockets. Some adopted the wrist bag while other ‘trendily’ stuck their cigarettes in the sleeve of their t-shirt.
Today the cigarettes are gone but the gadgets have increased and men are once again struggling with the conflict of ideas of manliness and the ability to carry all their gadgets. Enter the e-Volve Gadget Shoulder Holster:
The e-Volve Gadget Shoulder Holster is designed to “evolve” and adapt to the reality of constant state of change in personal electronics by enabling you to wear your present and future gadgets. This evolutionary capability is achieved by a simple, but functional design of this ergonomic shoulder holster.
This may be a solution but I am not so sure it’s me… It seems more like the problem is that we are so confused by the assortment of gadgets and our manliness that we will try almost anything. Also won’t you get shot reaching for you iPhone in America? Everyone there will think you are going for a gun…
In the IT newspaper Computer Sweden a Swedish IT/IP lawyer (Malin Forsman) is quoted as saying that proprietary software is of “better quality” than Free or Open Source software (my translation):
She recommends against Swedish software providers from going ‘open souce’. According to her using licensing costs is a much better method.
– You need a carrot to exert yourself properly. If the large source of income is dependent upon the quality of the code then I believe that you will try harder.
My first problem is with the journalism and the article itself. Like many other short newspaper articles it does not seem to have a point. What is the newsworthiness of this article? That an individual has an opinion? So what? We all have opinions but this does not make them newsworthy. Mind you if this had been my only complaint it would not have been worth blogging about.
My second problem is with journalistic integrity. By simply blogging the lawyer we arrive at the law firm where she works and her brief bio, where under Memberships we see that she is a member of: Board member of the IT group of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, Board Member of the Association for IT and Law, Member of the Swedish Copyright Association and Member of the International Technology Law Association. Her main legal experience outside law firms was working for Microsoft Corporation. Shouldn’t this maybe have been indicated in the article? If the journalist is presenting an opinion as news then shouldn’t some sort of critical analysis be added? I know that journalists are supposed to be objective but this article is hardly reporting the news as it is.
The next problem is with the lawyer herself. I have no doubt that she is a qualified lawyer and an expert in the IT/IP field but what is wrong with her statements? Unless of course this is simply a case of journalistic misquote she is a legal expert speaking of the quality of code. She does not attempt to define quality even if such a definition was at all possible. By her logic an Open Source project that makes it’s code proprietary immediately improves its code and a proprietary software project that releases its code under an Open Source license immediately deteriorates the quality of its code. Obviously these are ridiculous statements. But when the IT/IP legal expert says them we are supposed to nod our heads in agreement.
So who would be the right person to make such a statement? Well that person would need to have a vast experience of code not law. This imaginary person would need to have a vast experience of both open and proprietary projects and be able to define the concept of quality in a way that will enable these projects to be measurable and comparable. In addition to this the person would need to be free from suspicions of bias. I doubt whether such a super person exists.
But what may be said about quality? Here are two quotes:
Peter Drucker: (Innovation and entrepreneurship, 1985) “Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. “ISO 9000: “Degree to which a set of inherent characteristic fulfills requirements.”
Now lets complicate the issue even more:
While both these definitions are relatively common neither takes into full account the nature of software quality. The problem arises from the fact that software is a mix of product and service. The actual code is not what customers buy – they buy a function. Who cares what the software of a word processor looks like? It’s function is what the customer believes he/she has bought. If this is true then the customer has also bought an expectation of support in the case of software failure.
This was just meant as an illustration of the complexity of software quality and why neither a journalist nor a lawyer can deal with such a question in the space of a 350 word article. What they are really doing is pure advertising in the form of journalism. Advertising a personal, political and business stance on software while puffing up their own egos.
My favourite archeologist (why? don’t you have one?) is the the serious blogger Martin Rundkvist. We finally met in real life at the Wikipedia Academy in Lund. The most recent post on his blog deals with the chicken/egg dilemma.
What came first, the chicken or the egg? Easy, you say, eggs were laid by other animals aeons before the first chicken saw the light of day.
But what came first, the first chicken egg or the first chicken? This boils down to whether a chicken egg is one laid by a chicken or one out of which a chicken can hatch. Only the latter definition allows the question to remain open to discussion.
Biologically, a member of the chicken species could be defined by a list of alleles that must be present in its DNA if we’re to call it a chicken. And somewhere, sometime, the first bird that fulfilled that definition hatched. It hatched out of an egg laid by a non-chicken. As an adult, the first chicken (being lonely) probably mated with a bird that did not quite fulfil our definition of chickenhood, and so the first chicken probably laid non-chicken eggs. Out of these eggs hatched birds that almost, but not quite, fulfilled our definition of chickenhood. In subsequent generations, chicken eggs became more and more common. Later, after the geologically instantaneous speciation period, birds fulfilling the chicken species-definition became common and so chicken eggs were reliably produced generation after generation.
Naturally wikipedia has a lot more to add on this issue.
Basil Fawlty is alive and well and running a small hotel in Lund. After arriving in Lund I walked to the hotel and attempted to check in to the hotel. This is not my first time staying at a hotel and I knew that I may not be given a room as I was early but I hoped to at least be able to leave my luggage somewhere.
After waiting for some time a man appeared in the reception stared angrily at me and almost shouted out: “We are fully booked!” Somewhat taken aback I attempted to explain that I had a room booked but he interrupted me and said, in an irritated voice, that I could not have the room as it needed to be cleaned first. Eventually he cooled down enough to let me leave my bag.
Being told of when attempting to check in was a bit of a novelty but I thought it would be a one-off event. How wrong!
Attempting to check out in the morning was another interesting experience. Basil was struggling with his computer. His level of frustration was rising and I half expected him to start ranting and hitting the machine. I stood in front of the reception desk patiently and quietly, as I was not in a hurry I made no attempt to rush him. All of a sudden he jerks his head up, looks at me and snaps: I cannot help you.
Being forewarned by earlier experiences I was not to shocked. I simply explained that the bill for the room was to be sent to those who booked it, I had no extras and I just wanted to leave the key. He huffed and puffed and attempted to demand proof that I was not to pay for my room myself – this was apparently not something they usually did.
Despite not being able to prove that I should not pay for the room myself he eventually let me leave. Later this evening I am going to pick up my bag… I am kind of looking forward to this…
After MissPrism set the pace with her list Ten books you’re supposed to like but I didn’t several lists began popping up. I wrote mine here and “Reading at Naptime” linked to mine and added the suggestion that the next assignment for the overeducated blogosphere is a list of books we love that nobody else is reading.
This is an interesting challenge since it is not about being highbrow it is just a list of favorite books which few others seem to read or have heard of. Being difficult would be easy, these are books I return to on a regular basis (or in some cases certainly will return to).
Tales of Protection by Erik Fosnes Hansen. Norwegian writers are not often put in focus but there are several contemporary Norwegians writing some really good stuff. Superficially the book hinges on four unrelated stories which are seamlessly joined together and illustrates that seemingly random and unimportant events play an important part in creating meaning and movement in our lives.
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke. This work consists of a compilation of 10 letters written to a young admirer and budding poet. The letters both give a insight into the reason and method for writing as well as a growth of a postal correspondance. The letters are well written full of insightful advice and anecdotes.
Notebooks 1935-1942, Notebooks 1943-1951 & Notebooks 1951-1959 by Albert Camus. Yeah, so this is actually three books at once. The final notebooks have recently been translated and I have yet to read them. The earlier notebooks were fantastic not for Camus’ telling of the history through which he lived but rather the “notes to self” which he filled his notebooks with. Pointers on writing, ideas for future work, the need revise and revise. These are disjointed and offer wonderful advice.
The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzo. The zen of tea and teaism have effected every aspect of Japanese society. This book is not about zen but it is about the how and why of tea and the tea ceremony. It is a beatiful book.
The Complete Calvin and Hobbes by
The Pigeon by Patrick Süskind. An old man in Paris has created a very simple lonely life for himself. When a pigeon sits outside the door to his room his world is turned upside down. The world we organise is brittle and can be turned upside down when challenged by the simplest of things. A sad and tragic story of the day when the sedentary life of an old man is changed forever.
The Kappillan of Malta by Nicholas Monsarrat. This is a bit of nostaligia since I grew up on Malta. This is a story of a humble priest serving the poor in Valetta. The bombings of the WWII force the people into catacombs. The story is about six days during this siege when the priest offers inspiration to enable the people to survive the challenges they face.
Silence by Shusaku Endo. A young Jesuit is sent to Japan in 1638 to succor the local Church and investigate reports that his mentor has committed apostasy. The Christian community is suppressed and those who are not killed for their faith are ashamed for their lack of faith. In the end the young Jesuit is betrayed…
What Am I Doing Here by Bruce Chatwin. A collection of essays, profiles and travel stories from the life of Bruce Chatwin.
The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius. A wonderful mix of gossip and history as Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus writes the biographies of twelve caesars of the Roman Empire. The biographies go from Julius Caesar to Domitian and are perhaps not the most historically accurate but do make for interesting reading.
So that’s my list. The books among my favorites that don’t get enough attention generally. Can there be a better thing to do on a rainy Saturday afternoon? Mmm, I feel like reading a book…