Saturday, February 21, 2009
Galaxy Zoo
It's one thing to understand at an intellectual level that there are a lot of galaxies in the universe it's another thing to experience it first hand. I've been getting a little lesson in the sheer number of galaxies out there by helping out on the Galaxy Zoo project. Galaxy Zoo is a site that uses volunteer observers to classify various attributes of previously imaged galaxies. Once you sign up you can jump in and start classifying. The process is simple. You get shown a picture of a galazy and you answer a series of questions about it - Is it spiral or a blob? If it's a spiral, how many arms can you see? If it's a blob is the blog circular, oval or more cigar shaped? That sort of thing. Each picture only takes a few seconds to process and your off to another. It can get really mind blowing when you stop to think about what you're seeing as classify picture after picture - each galaxy is hosting millions if not billions of stars with all the accompanying potential for strange planets and the life they may hold.
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Deadly Force
I just finished reading the powerful April Witt article in the Washington Post called:
Really is the war on drugs worth it? Is this sort of collateral damage to our fellow citizens and our constitution worth it? The insanity needs to stop.
Deadly ForceThe abuse of power and the complete lack of integrity displayed by the police in this article is unforgivable and one more horrible data point in a sad history of excessive force by police.
What a SWAT team did to Cheye Calvo's family may seem extreme. But decades into America's war on drugs, it's business as usual.
(Link)
Really is the war on drugs worth it? Is this sort of collateral damage to our fellow citizens and our constitution worth it? The insanity needs to stop.
Labels: liberty
Thursday, January 22, 2009
The Art of Josh Keyes
Josh Keyes is an artist I just became aware of who combines elements of mechanical illustration and wildlife to produce some very dramatic images. Check out more of his work on his web site.
I love the incongruity of the images. They tickle the my brain like an obscure joke Q: How many surrealists does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: Giraffe. They also can be simultaneously cautionary and optimistic. The surfaces often depicit a decline of man and the rise of nature yet the depictions clearly cage the problems as a puzzle pieces that can be examined and understood and with understanding there's always hope.
I think they're brilliant. Take a look.
Josh Keyes is an artist I just became aware of who combines elements of mechanical illustration and wildlife to produce some very dramatic images. Check out more of his work on his web site.
I love the incongruity of the images. They tickle the my brain like an obscure joke Q: How many surrealists does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: Giraffe. They also can be simultaneously cautionary and optimistic. The surfaces often depicit a decline of man and the rise of nature yet the depictions clearly cage the problems as a puzzle pieces that can be examined and understood and with understanding there's always hope.
I think they're brilliant. Take a look.
Labels: art
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Presidential last names
The Globe has an interesting read about the ancestry of presidents. Never knew this before:
"Even the two presidents whose presidential names were not their original surnames fall into the same ancestral corridor. President Clinton, originally William Jefferson Blythe, and Gerald Ford, originally Leslie Lynch King, took the names of stepfathers, but the old names, like the new, came from the British Isles."President King. Now that would have been weird.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Ending Prohibition
Culture 11 has a couple of excellent articles condemning drug prohibition: War on Drugs: The Price Tag by Anita Bartholomew and War On Drugs: The Collateral Damage by Radley Balko.
There's also a pro prohibition article called Keeps Drugs Illegal! but I found the arguments contained within very weak. The best part was a quip in the comments regarding the contention that legalization wont diminish the violence associated with the black market but I'll save you the trouble of looking it up.
Don't take me wrong, I do agree with most people that many drugs are dangerous and all should be kept away from children. I also agree that drug abuse is a problem. Where I disagree is in how we approach the problem.
The current 'drug war' approach is attempting to eliminate the problem by forcefully curtailing availability and creating a disincentive via the threat of incarceration. This works to a degree but it has a major flaw. It assumes the war is winnable and it's not.
People will always be looking for an easy path to happiness and it's profitable to facilitate that connection. That will never change. The fact that we live in a relatively free society makes that connection even easier. It will be a never ending war where the only winner will be the drug dealers who don't get caught and the police forces, prison operators and lawyer who get job security for life. It's a twisted codependency of rivals.
I think it's time we break that cycle and try a new approach.
There's also a pro prohibition article called Keeps Drugs Illegal! but I found the arguments contained within very weak. The best part was a quip in the comments regarding the contention that legalization wont diminish the violence associated with the black market but I'll save you the trouble of looking it up.
"This is why I often see executives from Jack Daniels executing drive-by shootings at Jim Beam corporate headquarters. Wait... I don't see that at all."
Don't take me wrong, I do agree with most people that many drugs are dangerous and all should be kept away from children. I also agree that drug abuse is a problem. Where I disagree is in how we approach the problem.
The current 'drug war' approach is attempting to eliminate the problem by forcefully curtailing availability and creating a disincentive via the threat of incarceration. This works to a degree but it has a major flaw. It assumes the war is winnable and it's not.
People will always be looking for an easy path to happiness and it's profitable to facilitate that connection. That will never change. The fact that we live in a relatively free society makes that connection even easier. It will be a never ending war where the only winner will be the drug dealers who don't get caught and the police forces, prison operators and lawyer who get job security for life. It's a twisted codependency of rivals.
I think it's time we break that cycle and try a new approach.
Labels: prohibition
The War word
This post isn't political or at least I don't mean it to be. Given the subject matter, I'm sure it will raise some hackles and I apologize for that. I really only meant this to be about the word 'War'.
First some background. I'm a liberal product of the 60s and as such I grew up mocking the political euphemism 'Police Action' that was used to describe our involvement in Vietnam. If my recollection is correct, (forgive me, I was but a youngster), the arguments used to justify the phrase followed this simple reasoning: no war has been declared so it was not a war. As a young person that never sat well with me. We were bombing North Vietnam; we were in pitched battles with the North Vietnamese army; so not calling it a war was just silly word play by the people who wanted to continue the fight.
Time has proven that point. No one talks about the Vietnam Police Action anymore it's always referred to as the Vietnam War.
So hear I am 35 or so years later and I find myself in a semantic pickle. Everyone keeps talking about the Iraq war as if it's still going on. We certainly were in a war with Iraq but in my working definition of the word that war ended when Sadam's government collapsed and new government was established. We are still in Iraq and soldiers and civilians are still dying but is it really a war anymore? The circular irony is that I think the phrase 'police action' would be pretty darn appropriate.
First some background. I'm a liberal product of the 60s and as such I grew up mocking the political euphemism 'Police Action' that was used to describe our involvement in Vietnam. If my recollection is correct, (forgive me, I was but a youngster), the arguments used to justify the phrase followed this simple reasoning: no war has been declared so it was not a war. As a young person that never sat well with me. We were bombing North Vietnam; we were in pitched battles with the North Vietnamese army; so not calling it a war was just silly word play by the people who wanted to continue the fight.
Time has proven that point. No one talks about the Vietnam Police Action anymore it's always referred to as the Vietnam War.
So hear I am 35 or so years later and I find myself in a semantic pickle. Everyone keeps talking about the Iraq war as if it's still going on. We certainly were in a war with Iraq but in my working definition of the word that war ended when Sadam's government collapsed and new government was established. We are still in Iraq and soldiers and civilians are still dying but is it really a war anymore? The circular irony is that I think the phrase 'police action' would be pretty darn appropriate.
Labels: words
Monday, January 12, 2009
George R. R. Martin Get Off Your Ass
Sometime during the summer of 2008 I stumbled across the series of books known as 'The Song of Fire and Ice'. I was instantly smitten. There are four published books in the series and the author has promised at least another few.
The problem is Mr Martin is way overdue on the next announced volume called 'A Dance with Dragons' which, you can see from this posts accompanying image, already has cover art. The book's status was last updated on the author's web page over a year ago and various speculative publishing dates have come and gone with no word from the author. It's becoming very frustrating for the fans.
During the intervening time I've managed to entertain myself with some good reads. I'm especially fond of the series 'The Malazan Book of the Fallen' by Steven Erikson. Alas, this series is also incomplete but it is both further along in the story and the author has a better record of timely publishing.
The Malazan books are a fascinating but difficult series in many ways. At first I was turned off by a near pornographic level of violence but as I kept reading I became intrigued by the depth of the mysteries that Erikson unveils. He has created an amazing set of unique characters and places whose connections reveal an epic and ancient subtext. In addition, unlike so many of his peers who leave dangling plot lines, Erikson seems poised to wrap this twisted tale up in a tight knot. I'm really looking forward to completing it. Since I'm only 3 1/2f books into the 8 published of the 10 book series, perhaps I speak too soon, but I think not.
So there you have it George. I'm currently entertained, but this series wont last forever. Get off your tuckus and finish your damn book.
Sometime during the summer of 2008 I stumbled across the series of books known as 'The Song of Fire and Ice'. I was instantly smitten. There are four published books in the series and the author has promised at least another few.The problem is Mr Martin is way overdue on the next announced volume called 'A Dance with Dragons' which, you can see from this posts accompanying image, already has cover art. The book's status was last updated on the author's web page over a year ago and various speculative publishing dates have come and gone with no word from the author. It's becoming very frustrating for the fans.
During the intervening time I've managed to entertain myself with some good reads. I'm especially fond of the series 'The Malazan Book of the Fallen' by Steven Erikson. Alas, this series is also incomplete but it is both further along in the story and the author has a better record of timely publishing.
The Malazan books are a fascinating but difficult series in many ways. At first I was turned off by a near pornographic level of violence but as I kept reading I became intrigued by the depth of the mysteries that Erikson unveils. He has created an amazing set of unique characters and places whose connections reveal an epic and ancient subtext. In addition, unlike so many of his peers who leave dangling plot lines, Erikson seems poised to wrap this twisted tale up in a tight knot. I'm really looking forward to completing it. Since I'm only 3 1/2f books into the 8 published of the 10 book series, perhaps I speak too soon, but I think not.
So there you have it George. I'm currently entertained, but this series wont last forever. Get off your tuckus and finish your damn book.
Labels: books
Friday, January 09, 2009
