Saturday, January 7, 2012
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Today.
WOODEN HEART (sea of mist called skaidan)
We’re all born to broken people on their most honest day of living
and since that first breath... We’ll need grace that we’ve never given
I've been haunted by standard red devils and white ghosts
and it's not only when these eyes are closed
these lies are ropes that I tie down in my stomach,
but they hold this ship together tossed like leaves in this weather
and my dreams are sails that I point towards my true north,
stretched thin over my rib bones, and pray that it gets better
but it won’t won’t, at least I don’t believe it will...
so I've built a wooden heart inside this iron ship,
to sail these blood red seas and find your coasts.
don’t let these waves wash away your hopes
this war-ship is sinking, and I still believe in anchors
pulling fist fulls of rotten wood from my heart, I still believe in saviors
but I know that we are all made out of shipwrecks, every single board
washed and bound like crooked teeth on these rocky shores
so come on and let’s wash each other with tears of joy and tears of grief
and fold our lives like crashing waves and run up on this beach
come on and sew us together, tattered rags stained forever
we only have what we remember
I am the barely living son of a woman and man who barely made it
but we’re making it taped together on borrowed crutches and new starts
we all have the same holes in our hearts...
everything falls apart at the exact same time
that it all comes together perfectly for the next step
but my fear is this prison... that I keep locked below the main deck
I keep a key under my pillow, it’s quiet and it’s hidden
and my hopes are weapons that I’m still learning how to use right
but they’re heavy and I’m awkward...always running out of fight
so I’ve carved a wooden heart, put it in this sinking ship
hoping it would help me float for just a few more weeks
because I am made out of shipwrecks, every twisted beam
lost and found like you and me scattered out on the sea
so come on let’s wash each other with tears of joy and tears of grief
and fold our lives like crashing waves and run up on this beach
come on and sew us together, just some tattered rags stained forever
we only have what we remember
My throat it still tastes like house fire and salt water
I wear this tide like loose skin, rock me to sea
if we hold on tight we’ll hold each other together
and not just be some fools rushing to die in our sleep
all these machines will rust I promise, but we'll still be electric
shocking each other back to life
Your hand in mine, my fingers in your veins connected
our bones grown together inside
our hands entwined, your fingers in my veins braided
our spines grown stronger in time
because are church is made out of shipwrecks
from every hull these rocks have claimed
but we pick ourselves up, and try and grow better through the change
so come on yall and let’s wash each other with tears of joy and tears of grief
and fold our lives like crashing waves and run up on this beach
come on and sew us together, were just tattered rags stained forever
we only have what we remember
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Yarn Bombed Bear in Griffith Park
Heard a story about the lady who does this on KPCC a few days ago. Good Stuff.
Good news about open wifi
Federal judge: open WiFi doesn't make you liable for your neighbors' misdeeds
Cory Doctorow at 10:55 AM Tue
A Federal judge in Illinois has once again rebuffed a copyright troll's request for easy court orders to allow him to connect IP addresses with people. The judge said that open wireless networks and other factors make the connection between IP addresses and defendants difficult, and that making it easy to connect people and IPs would invite extortionate legal claims.
After the recent raids against people whose open wireless networks had been used by their neighbors to download child pornography, many people advised that this was evidence that leaving your wireless network open would make you potentially liable for the misdeeds of people who happened to use it.
But as this case shows, judges can be savvier than that (and they should be, too). Good law shouldn't punish people for being neighborly.
Baker then went on to cite a recent mistaken child porn raid, where an IP address was turned into a name--but the named person hadn't committed the crime. "The list of IP addresses attached to VPR's complaint suggests, in at least some instances, a similar disconnect between IP subscriber and copyright infringer... The infringer might be the subscriber, someone in the subscriber's household, a visitor with her laptop, a neighbor, or someone parked on the street at any given moment."
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Lessig on Science, copyright and the moral case for Open Access
From boing boing
Larry Lessig's talk at CERN on the way that copyright interacts with science publishing is a stirring call-to-arms to free up scientific discovery and inquiry. While artists debate the questions of exclusive rights, income, creativity and copyright, scientists operate in a different tradition. Since the Enlightenment, wide publication and review of scientific material has been the cornerstone of good scientific practice.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
James O'Keefe's Dance Video
"Republicans know how to use the Internet now"
Adrian Chen — You know how in the last few years it seems like every old person has tumbled onto the internet and, somehow, managed to learn how to forward emails of their pets to you? That basically has happened to Republicans, too. Get ready for the "social network primary."
After watching Democrats using all their cool Facebooks and Macintoshes to win elections, Republicans have finally gone down to the public library to take the free computer class. The New York Times writes that, "during last year's midterm elections, Republicans caught up with Democrats in using technology and social networks."
In fact, Republican presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty isn't so much a politician as a social media guru. For his 2012 campaign:
Mr. Pawlenty introduced an innovative twist: a social gaming layer borrowed from Farmville and Foursquare that awards badges and points to supporters who participate more fully in the campaign. As an example, supporters get 10 points for connecting their Facebook account to the campaign's Web site and 5 points for adding their Twitter account. If you post a message on your Facebook page or set up your own group, you get a badge.
Meanwhile, Obama has his big Facebook town hall meeting right now. Can we just decide the 2012 campaign based on how many "likes" each candidate's Facebook page has at the end? It would be so much easier and apparently about as accurate.
HOWTO dig a pirate cave
This 1929 Modern Mechanics HOWTO explains to young people how they can dig their own pirate's cave, complete with working fireplace. The author explains that mothers can allow their sons (yes, it was all pretty gendered back then in 1929-land) to build such a clubhouse without fear, because the design will prevent cave-ins. Articles like this fill me with sorrow and delight: sorrow because you couldn't include such a place in a work of fiction (letalone a factual article aimed at children) today; delight at the adventure that those who followed these directions back in the 20s and 30s must have had.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
The Littl' Bits
A story without an Ending
He rested his elbows on the countertop and regretted it instantly. It was sticky. Honey left over from a hasty cup of tea made by the roommate earlier.
The clock above the tiny kitchen’s window read 1:24. One twenty-four in the p.m. There wasn’t much of a justification for waking up so late any more. He’d gone to bed the night before early. Feeling tired and complacent.
“I love you and goodnight,” the roommate had said.
“Me too,” he’d said.
The roommate usually stayed up late. Talking on the phone, talking to the television, talking to the characters in whatever book she was reading.
She was gone when he got up. He looked at her side of the bed. It was perfectly made. He made sure of her absence, checking each room and all four closets in turn before pulling a stool up to the counter.
This morning was different, slightly. He knew this right away. He attempted to contemplate his day and failed. Again. Failure.
His heart beat quickly, like he’d had too much coffee, but his brain felt stagnant and refused to catch up. He loosened the necktie and unbuttoned the top button of the oxford he’d taken to donning in a semblance and mockery of professionalism.
“Christ,” he said out loud. “Christ on a cracker.”
Saying this made him smile and feel a little better. Alone or not, he liked saying silly things to ease tension. The roommate never got annoyed. This, however, annoyed her.
The weather outside was awful. It was already raining buckets. He decided it must be under 40 degrees and also that he wasn’t going to leave the house today. He might explore the garden, but that was enough.
Technically, but only technically, he was supposed to be going out to find a job today.
“Will you please look for a job tomorrow?” the roommate had asked.
“I hope so,” he’d said, a little too enthusiastically, raising the last syllable as he spoke.
Hoping so, he now reasoned, did not amount to a promise. That much was certain.
He and the roommate had argued the night before. It was the same topic of argument as usual. He hadn’t worked for three months. Exploring did not count as a gainful pursuit at this time. Nor did concocting. He was being slothful, yes similar to the slowest sloth, and not really using his brilliant creativity.
Thinking of this made him laugh. It was inappropriate, but made him feel better. Sloths, he thought, are very strange animals.
“Christ on a cracker.”
He slid open the kitchen door and stepped out onto the veranda. He regretted the fact that is was impossible to lick ones’ elbows. His were sweet at the moment and he needed sugar for his stubborn brain.
He turned and shut the door, seeing his reflection in the glass. He saw his reflection, handsome he’d been told, and decided he looked awful. He had a scraggly beard that extended haphazardly down his neck. His best shirt was stained and wrinkled. His eyes had bags from too much sleep.
“Obviously you two didn’t get the memo that sleep is good for you,” he told them.
He laughed at the joke. He knew he was starving for some sort of social contact.
“That will have to wait,” he thought.
He looked at the potted plants under the tin roofed patio. They looked unhappy despite all the water falling from the sky onto the garden just ten feet away. The tin roof tittered at their thirst, rain bouncing off its thin hull.
“Ah, yes,” he said, “you’d like some water, that can be arranged.”
It was his job to water the plants. The list on the fridge inside said so in bold letters. He clapped his hands and a notched stick fell from the sealing on a hinge. It set off a series counter-weights, levies, small canals, and old containers filled to the brim, watering the plants.
The runoff was negligible, he noted.
He’d left his job at the company for two very different reasons. He despised his boss, and, he wanted to be an inventor. An inventor of glorious inventions.
The roommate had been wary of this decision.
“How did you decide this in a day?” She had asked.
“Inventing is a noble pursuit, tantamount to the dreams of our forefathers,” he had said.
She’d told him that she wasn’t sure how it was help to pay the bills.
“I’ll invent a way to do that,” he’d responded.
“Good luck,” she’s said.
Really she was supportive, in the beginning at least. The truth was, most of his inventions to date helped him to avoid really doing chores around the house. Avoiding work, in other words. Lately she had not been so understanding. She’d taken to sliding job clippings from the paper under the bathroom door while he sat on the toilet then pretending to not know what he was talking about when he confronted her with them after his business.
“Must have been someone else, wasn’t me,” she always said.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Bill upsets amateur radio operators
Great Falls Tribune-
WASHINGTON — When a tornado or wildfire hits Montana, the firsthand reports often come from ham radio enthusiasts, who provide crucial and timely information for the National Weather Service or local emergency responders.
"They're just a group of people that we can depend on to help us out in the communications end whenever we need them," said Vince Kolar, who heads Disaster and Emergency Services for Cascade County. "Definitely out here, we need 'em. (They're) knowledgeable, available and they've got those radio communication skills that you need."
There are nearly 5,000 amateur radio volunteers in Montana, and many of them provide a backup communication system that emergency responders in the Treasure State and across the country depend on if or when cellphones, satellite phones or other radio systems don't work.
"That's how we plan to communicate between hospitals and the Red Cross in the event of an emergency," said Ryan Nicholls, director of the Office of Emergency in Springfield, Mo. "We have it written into our emergency operations plan."
But this service, currently provided for free by amateur ham radio operators, could be in jeopardy under a measure Congress is considering.
The House bill, introduced by Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., would strengthen the communications capabilities of America's first responders by reallocating certain frequencies — 758-763 MHz and 788-793 MHz — to public safety.
"Allocation of the D Block (of frequencies) to public safety will ensure that our nation's first responders have sufficient spectrum to develop a wireless broadband network," King said in a statement.
The 9/11 Commission, when investigating the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, cited the need for improved emergency communications among jurisdictions and agencies, and the issue has broad support from both parties, including from President Barack Obama.
It's a tiny clause deeper down in the legislation that has ham radio enthusiasts and emergency responders all worked up.
Under the bill, in the next 10 years the government would sell the 420-440 MHz frequencies, which is currently used by amateur radio operators, for commercial use. Selling the block of frequencies would raise money to offset the cost of setting aside the D Block of frequencies for first responders.
The 420-440 MHz band is not used only by hobbyists. It's also used by hundreds of thousands of Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) volunteers, severe-weather spotters working with the National Weather Service, weak-signal operations, thousands of repeater systems, mobile operators, amateur radio satellite communications, radio location beacons, amateur radio's nationwide system of digital and text communications, and more.
Amateur-radio enthusiasts, for the most part, spend their own money, use their own equipment, and spend hours of their time training and volunteering during emergencies. They say losing this frequency band would require costly changes to their infrastructure and equipment, and could jeopardize their ability to assist during emergencies.
"It would make it difficult in a lot of areas for our emergency communications, which are vital during any disaster, flood or heavy weather events — anything where we have to get out and help people," said Doug Dunn, the National Association for Amateur Radio's section chief for Montana. "We're usually there first. We fill a lot of slots."
On Father's Day 2010, as a tornado bore down on the eastern edge of Billings, amateur radio operators were there to spot the system, track it, relay the information to the National Weather Service so it could alert the public and help with the response after the tornado tore through the area, Dunn said.
It's a "boots-on-the-ground sort of a thing where we can describe damage and places to stay away from," he said. "It's important to us — and, I'm going to say, vital."
Kolar said ham radio operators provide another layer of assistance.
"During large wildland fires, we have them run our mobile communications van. They're used to running radio, so we have them operate the county radios and the command post, and it takes the pressure off the sheriff's office, off my office and we don't have to supply that manpower," he said. "It frees us up to do other things."
The American Radio Relay League — the national association for amateur radio — has lobbied members of Congress over the provision, which it calls "unacceptable."
"It is ... completely unnecessary to the creation of a nationwide public safety broadband network," ARRL spokesman Dan Henderson wrote in an email. "To be sure, ARRL will vigorously oppose this legislation in its present form."
The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC), which is a federation of more than a dozen public safety communications organizations, also has spoken out against the commercial sale provision in the bill.
In a letter, NPSTC Chairman Ralph Haller said the provision "needs to be amended to address the concerns of public safety and the amateur radio users."
Both groups said they support the underlying objective of the legislation.
The bill, which was introduced last month, is pending in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
ONI Releases Special Report on the Use of Western Technologies by Middle East Censors
By rebekah Heacock of ONI
The recent political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa has thrown into focus the information shaping, events-based blocking, and counter-control activities undertaken by governments throughout the region. New research by the OpenNet Initiative shows that many of these activities are supported by Western filtering tools and services.
The OpenNet Initiative is pleased to release its new special report, "West Censoring East: The Use of Western Technologies by Middle East Censors, 2010-2011" by Helmi Noman and Jillian C. York.
The report analyzes the use of American and Canadian-made tools Websense, McAfee SmartFilter, and Netsweeper for the purpose of government-level filtering in the Middle East and North Africa. The investigation found that nine countries in the region utilize Western-made tools.