1. When emoticon’s converse … my guess this isn’t the conversation most people think they’re going to be having.
2. Looking back.
3. Google maps (or Earth) meets Xenophon’s travels.
4. One in six … and most of that “one” work for the city.
5. The politics of fear.
6. An interesting take on the Mr Polanski kerfuffle. One more here and that will do it on that topic for me.
7. This story got a lot of repeats as well, and if true, then that will be yet another indictment against the performance of Mr Obama.
8. Transformation of a story, Siddhartha and Christian tradition.
9. Dissecting Mr Obama’s energy tax.
10. Healthcare.
11. A homily on costs.
12. One way of looking at the question, “Who is this Jesus fellow anyhow?”
13. It’s a much bigger problem if convicted than just arraigned.
14. Not quite a giga-pixel.
15. This reminds me I still have to watch last weeks episode of Dollhouse.

Argonne has a short paper out outlining a “green” energy solution that looks more plausible than any I’ve seen for a while. If you take “carbon” seriously (I don’t but I’m in something of a minority on that) you should read this. If you don’t, however, and do take peak oil or oil independence seriously then you should still read it.

For Green Freedom the basic idea is that you take a nuclear power plant for its supply of electricity and steam. With that you use a potassium/carbon compound CO₂ + water + hydrogen via electrolysis to combine in a process that produces methanol which is then in turn further processed to a synthetic gasoline. Basically the nuclear reaction/energy drives a reaction reclaming carbon and O₂ from the air to form that gas, which is then burned in cars re-releasing that carbon back to the atmosphere in a completely carbon neutral process. It is not of course energy/lite, but that isn’t the point here.

The paper suggests some economics, but basically a price point for gasoline right about where it is now, makes installation of new plants feasible.

Of course the anti-nuclear stance of the left is a religious position, data on Gen III and Gen IV nuclear power generation will be of no interest or use in discussions.

Well, for a time I’m going to continue evening link+ remarking in the hope that it engenders further conversation.

1. Matthew Lee Anderson has a short blurb on authenticity. Authenticity seems like one of the qualities that is noetically charged, .i.e.,  that is it changes under noetic inspection. That is to say, if you wonder whether you’re authentic or not, you aren’t. If you don’t, you might be. This makes being leading a authentic self-examined life something of a difficult prospect. You can of course lead an authentic self-examined life … so long as the aspect you are examining about your self and your outlook is not whether or not you are being authentic. Back in the day, when attending college in through the 80s and I deem the decade before as well, it was vogue to “drop out” of school for a time to find yourself. My impression that this motive was rarely, uhm, authentic. In last nights’ links+r post, I noted a Joe Carter post reflecting on those quite ordinary moments. There is some similarity here. Graduations, gaudy events, and moments filled with fire are not as authentic nor as lasting as the quite stolid ordinary times in our lives. Consider the exchange in the movie Up!, counting cars for “reds” and “blues” wouldn’t be an authentic ordinary memory to treasure if you’re doing it to be authentic.
2. Science used to be a field which, when theory disagreed with experiment, discarded the theory and not bolstered it with, well, pseudo-science or at best merely irrelevant science. Time and time again we find, in the Philippines, in WWII resistance movements faced with a enemy which utilizes torture finds that, on capture of one of their own, must immediately abandon all safe houses and locations known to that captured individual. Everyone who was in contact with the captured person facing and undergoing torture is now at a high risk for interdiction. Yet here it is argued that torture is best for producing “false memories.”
   

   The problem here is that “The problem, he says, is that stress hormones actually make it less likely that someone subject to abuse can accurately recall information, so that such abuse ends up “destroying the very memories they’re supposed to recover.””

   Uhm questions like “Where do you live?” Who are your contacts? And such aren’t “hard things” to remember. They are your mission. Your life. The center of your activity as a resistance member. Forgetting them is not likely or the problem. This is very much not like the manufactured memories of real or imagined pre-adolescent mythical abuse. These are more like, “Where do you work?” Stress might “make it less likely” that you can accurately recall information. But, I’d bet even with stress most people could get that right. [Disclaimer: Yet again, before the “you promote torture” worms come out of the woodwork. I do not promote torture. I think the honest appraisal is that can be effective, but we will choose nevertheless not to use it.]

3. Post cold war … some reflections. While I think this short article is important all I can think of right now is that improving and cementing commercial ties between nations ultimately will lead to closer ties and connections. And in that regard, what America needs most is Teremok (or more accurately ???????). When we were in Russia last year, we loved eating there … and everone knows America and the West need most is yet another fast food franchise. Blini filled with smoked salmon and sour cream (or one of dozens of other choices) washed down with kvas. Yum.

In the wake of last night’s posts, it was noted that they moved from more to less philosophical. That seems to be a trend.

Russia, America, torture, noetic

1. It is noted that Mr Obama was not so loquacious at the economic summit. Also from the same author/source, the Joe Wilson problem … he was, you now, lying.
2. Surprise! Gambling in the casino, the gendarmes is oh so surprised. How about Mr Obama? More here. And here.
3. A3 TDI gets 78mpg. Will it be sold in the US? I doubt it. After all, we have ca$h for clunkers.
4. Mr bin Laden’s bet.
5. Poland invades.
6. Brandon has his links at Siris. But y’all already knew that.
7. A right to healthcare. A right to food. Pretty soon, there’ll be a right to television.
8. I wonder how prostrations would fly?
9. First the nanny state and the nanny marketplace. Next, the nanny battlefield?
10. On 13 days.
11. Sherman and Xenophon.
12. Mr Polanski, so far I have yet any defenders of his.
13. Math and utility, harking back to Mr Wigner’s paper on the unreasonbleness of the nature between math and the world.
14. Kremlin spin.

fuel efficiency, Iran, Afghanistan, healthcare, history

Well, some time ago, I offered that in discussions with American protestants about celibacy, monasticism, and asceticism might be best approached if they first start Scripture. It is my contention that the early fathers also started with Scripture (and some of the earlier ones of course also had face to face conversations with Apostles which we lack). The point of view I’m trying to confront here is that married life “in the world” is normative and that Jesus via the gospels, Paul and the other New Testament writers, Peter, James, etc, teach present this as the highest or first calling for the Christian life. I’m going to confront this,  not by the writings of the Fathers, or by reference to the fact that not seeing asceticism as normative is a very modern (Protestant) idea but instead I’ll attempt to refer just to Scripture. So, for now … I’ll give that a shot and to start, I’ll just look at the life of Jesus and the Gospels.

Now in the Gospels, there are a number of narrative threads running through the start to the climax of Jesus’ life. One of the primary ones is a anti-temple narrative. However, there is also one supporting the ascetic life. So here are some essential narrative and/or elements to Jesus life and example that support asceticism.

1. After being Baptised by John at the Jordan what does Jesus do? He goes into the desert, into a time of solitude for 40 days … facing down the devil and temptations.
2. When the rich man who was fulfilling all the commandments asked what more he might do, the reply “sell all you have and follow me” was given.
3. In Matthew 18 and 19 Jesus repeatedly offers that those who do not become as children will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
4. When the disciples had been sent out, they failed to confront and cast out some demons. Jesus remarked, “this sort of demon can only be cast out through prayer and fasting.”
5. Mary and Martha receive Jesus. Mary sits at Jesus feet and ignores home and hospitality. Martha is put out, but Jesus replies, “Mary has chosen the good portion.”

Demons for the early church in a large part meant those forces and temptations to sin. This is something all of us face. How then are we taught to confront sin? Jesus’ first response is fasting, prayer. What did he do? Fast and pray and retreat to the desert, to solitude. When a wealthy man is asked what to do, sell all you have and follow me (where? to a life of fasting and prayer?). John himself was an Essene. A desert ascetic feeding on locusts and honey teaching a life of repentance. That this man would be the one to validate and announce Jesus ministry, does this not validate and highlight John’s lifestyle to a degree. Finally, with Mary and Martha the two sisters might be seen as representing the life of the world vs and the life of prayer. Jesus does not rebuke Martha for her choice but he also says that Mary’s choice “is the good portion.” Finally, what is like a child? Humility and not being concerned with the cares of the world … might be the answer. How might an adult do this?

For the early church (and for that matter the church as a whole until the Protestant movement came about) found asceticism to be one of the primary messages from Scripture.

asceticism, Christianity, Christian life, demon

1. Of race and anti-race and their connection to policy.
2. The NYTimes offers that a decade of no warming, which was not predicted, might pose problems for the predictions of global warming. D’ya think?
3. Celebration of a Saint. 
4. Iran and the persecution of a blogger for blogging.
5. Silencing the opposition … a theme?
6. Not unrelated.
7. How not to calculate network extends in finite sets.
8. The left’s tendency to over-extend their praise for Mr Obama, merely a fancy on the right … or not?
9. A sad truth noted, I’d offer that a better portion of that evil is done by people who fancy they are doing good but haven’t really thought it through.
10. Puns in headlines? A good idea or not?
11. Poland and the start of WWII.
12. House rules … or at least goes to the bank with full pockets.
13. NATO and the bear.
14. For when there is something in the air.
15. Again, not unrelated to the prior link.
16. On government spending in recession.
17. Christianity in Russia, perhaps not so pro forma.
18. Thoughts on smashing the icon.

global warming, race, icon, Orthodox, WWII

During the last to night time basement biking sessions I’ve watched the movie Katy?, see here and here for more. In the context of the some of the conversation that arose today over my short essay on the UN some remarks come to mind. One commenter (JA) remarked:

This distinction is really just a symptom of the deeper distinction — the right, being more nationalistic, looks at the UN solely from a what-can-we-get-out-of-it point of view, while the left, being more humanistic, believes that the same principle that says a nation’s citizens should have a say in their government also says that the nations of the world should have a say in whatever passes for global “government.”

Yet this gets it backwards. Read the rest of this entry

1. The missile move as an economy of force, i.e., just a shift to the East. And from the same author, danger lurks.
2. On Honduras. I have to say, I’ve seen nothing at all on this matter from the left. Is their silence a sign of ignorance or discomfort?
3. The internet and dissent.
4. The locals might not be stupid. But … this might highlight a problem (follow the aarrg link).
5. (some) Kids today.
6. Perhaps not unrelated … Teachers.
7. Medicare reform on the rocks? More here.
8. A plea to give Mr Obama some rope on Afghanistan.
9. Of right and wrong.
10. Well, there goes $800 billion we won’t get back and certainly will live to regret.
11. The inventor of exercise … really.
12. Parents are not potters, Ms Delsol suggested we are all gardeners.
13. Imagining war.
14. And nightlife in Kiev.
15. Feminism considered in the context of Buffy and Jennifer.

links, Honduras, economy, education, exercise, parenting

One of the defining differences between right and left today in the US is that the left is enamoured of the UN while the right thinks it mainly an execrable waste of time, money, and resources of which not the least is mention bandwidth on the global stage. For the most part, I don’t want to concentrate (with one exception at the end of this piece) on Mr Obama’s speech to the UN, which can be found here. Unlike his predecessor, Mr Bush, Mr Obama had nothing but nice and complementary things to say about the UN, which at the very least supports the statement made in the opening. One of the primary complaints that the right has about the UN is that it has a completely open membership. Dictatorships have equal voice with Democracies. Free societies with closed. Coercive with (mostly) non-coercive. For the left, somehow this is not a fault but a feature. For the right, as a feature, it is sort of like more like the “smell feature” the outhouse has over the water closet. Read the rest of this entry

1. Right or wrong … I think is a mis-phrasing, perhaps mistake or not is better, and yet I think it was in fact a mistake. Preaching to the choir, i.e., the watchers of the other networks, is has its purpose. Reaching across to the other side, also has a purpose and deciding it’s not worth the bother … is a mistake.
2. Three on the McChrystal leak of the Afghan report here, here, and here. Oops, sorry here’s a fourth. OK, OK … a fifth.
3. Embarrassment? Hmm, I wouldn’t go that far, the recession is felt world-wide and a cost-benefit analysis might find that a census doesn’t pay … and might just as well wait until after the crises passes.
4. Friends-for-cash, late modernity strikes in Japan.
5. Somebody thinks that RFC’s constitute government regulation. Hint: they weren’t.
6. Travels related.
7. A new show for the new season … and CERN.
8. Global warming predicts and increase in hurricane frequency … oops.
9. Keeping an eye on the healthcare threats, err, bills.
10. A picture essay … and I think more than several Poles will take issue with these history lessons. Oddly enough, right now on Netflix during basement cycling sessions I’m watching Wadja’s Katyn.
11. Vote for Ott.
12. Ugly duckling no longer.
13. On abortion.
14. A reply to an atheist.
15. Mobile tech and southeast Asia.
16. Putting a finger on the failure of aid.
17. It is most definitely not OK, and I think even those who do are doing so because its transgressive.

Obama, Afghanistan, media, Orthodoxy, late modernity, art, abortion,

One of the themes in Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace (of many) concerns the ability of great leaders to control the vicissitudes of fortune. In this manner, Napoleon is seen as not, as so many regarded him at the time, as a master of his fate and controller of his and many other’s destinies. But instead he was just the highest chip in the froth. That it was not his will that drove France to Empire and thereby pushing he and they willy nilly to disaster in the Russian snows (giving us Mr Minard’s completely amazing graph as well). Now Lev Tolstoy may have offered that a Higher Power determined the course of history. Alternatively in this modern era, one might instead propose that aggregate behaviour of the crowds might be the driving force.

Mr Obama is the head of our state. But he is likely less in control of events than we pretend. Now it is true that like, Mr Kerry, Mr Obama has been striving for the Presidency much of his adult life. While I find this personally distasteful ambition, I cannot project my personal animosity for the seeking for power on others. There may actually be admirable aspects to ambition even if they are a far cry from my personal makeup. Read the rest of this entry

1. Six, of course those excited about that that ignore the 512 or more cores/processors in many high end video cards.
2. A complete waste of time … surprised?
3. Bigger stadia, more … screen?
4. An offer to redefine “jury of your peers.”
5. For the econ-readers, two books reviewed by Mr Easterly. Another by Mr Bernanke examined here.
6. Fasting and the evangelical.
7. For seeing … art.
8. High school GPA is correlated with college success (as opposed to SAT/ACT test results).
9. TED.
10. ACORN and a really bad defence of the same noted. Another tidbit here too.
11. Remarking in the wake of Mr Obama’s (yet another) media blitz.
12. The title of this piece got me to me drew a wide smile.
13. The NEA scandal/admin … will that catch fire? or just smoke and smolder?
14. Draw to two opposing sides … with the fate of civilization at stake?
15. Big heads, but bigness is perceived only because their chests are so small.
16. Recalling what cruel and unusual punishments really meant.
17. Ethical monad.
18. Recalling Mr Obama’s campaign platforms. 
19. Forgetting that most of us found Plato’s regime with the philosopher kings kinda repellent.

Iran is judged today to be a up and coming mad-as-a-hatter soon-to-be nuclear regime with some short and medium range missile capabilities. Back in 2007 the Bush administration had wrangled some ABM bases in Poland with Radar in the Czech Republic which were at that time designed to knock down long range missiles, of which Iran had none, but of course Russia had (and has) plenty. Russia took umbrage to this and rightfully so, just look at a map, unless you have a much much bigger monitor than I do, you don’t see Poland or the CR on that map at all.

Mr Obama it turns out has been not well served by the conservative current events blogs … although his speeches and on this in fact do have some glaring omissions, in the light of which the conservative commentary does make more sense … but only in the light of those omissions. Here is the text from the Obama speech, although I don’t know how accurately this reflects his actual remarks or whether it has been changed to reflect better in the light of later remarks, i.e., Mr Gates this weekend). This was also released on the same day by WH to the press to accompany the speech. The disservice by the conservative press is that this is touted as a withdrawal of a program, which fails to mention that another is proposed in its place. Read the rest of this entry

1. Open source and teaching math, I haven’t looked into it yet, but it sounds like a great idea. Not unrelated, a talk on the Internet and maths by Terry Tao.
2. The missile deal, a summary … prior to the Gates interview. A conspiracy suggested. A letter from Poland here.
3. Home grown jalapeño peppers.
4. A fast lady in red (and yellow).
5. Costs and cap/trade.
6. An atheist asks an interesting question.
7. Memory eternal … a post that aches to be read (HT: the Ochlophobist).
8. I’ve seen this noted before, and usually in the context as a “mood killer”. Hmm, any experimental evidence?
9. H1N1 and Oman.
10. If you haven’t been missing the Anabasis reading at the Chicago Boyz, you’re missing out on some fine historical analysis and discussion of one of the great works.
11. Sound-tracks for electric cars.
12. Immorality, the Bible and Science-fiction.
13. Plantinga online, I guess I bought the right book.
14. Advice for blogging as a Christian, which I’d say I’m not very good at doing.
15. The US and Syria.
16. Mr Beck and the right, one view. For myself, I’ve never seen or heard him, so I’m a bystander to all the hoopla.
17. Trying to grok the President’s rational model.

About a week ago, I wrote a post continuing the development of a model of creativity and intelligence, although at this model might be seen as a tad overstated). In that post, I outlined an ansatze for the semiotic scaffold that the human noetic machinery manages, bridging the gap between mechanism (network and pathway) all the way to meaning and intent. (the rest below the fold) Read the rest of this entry